Pidgin Thai - How do they react?

[sabang]

Heck, most of us that can even string a sentence together in Thai or Lao speak the equivalent fluency level of a 3-4 year old kid. It's no wonder they take the piss out of us a bit- I mean didn't we when we were young with immigrants and their accents?

As far as the 'niceties' go, I'm not even gonna bother with that until I get a bit more conversant. Don't see the point in referring to myself in the first person as a 'Gentleman', when I speak the lingo like an infant.

It's one thing to speak some basic Thai, quite another to be conversant in it.

[peterpan]

Heck, most of us that can even string a sentence together in Thai or Lao speak the equivalent fluency level of a 3-4 year old kid. It's no wonder they take the piss out of us a bit- I mean didn't we when we were young with immigrants and their accents?

As far as the 'niceties' go, I'm not even gonna bother with that until I get a bit more conversant. Don't see the point in referring to myself in the first person as a 'Gentleman', when I speak the lingo like an infant.

It's one thing to speak some basic Thai, quite another to be conversant in it.

Its even worse when you have to listen to your two children aged 6 & 8 chatting away in Fluent Thai when I know I have been here twice as long as the eldest one and still a relative novice.
Its a constant reminder of what a dumb cvnt I am.

[somtamslap]

Deffo no such thing as pidgin Thai..the sentence structure is so fucking basic you can either say what you wanna or not..albeit more than likely in incorrect tones...

But, tones don't mean shit if you've in the right context...1 billion percent..end of..boom..

[English Noodles]

do you think they were laughing just because I said chan?

Probably laughing at you trying to make a joke, and that you use the pronoun 'chan'. I'm very sure they were not laughing in a nasty way though, you probably brightened up a boring shift.

so should I use pom when they're using chan?

Yup.

[Peter Jordan]

I must say I usually hear chan from women, and certainly dichan, but I have heard men use it. I tend to use pom, which is overly polite in many situations, but erring on the side of politeness/formality seems safer.

How about the use of one's name? As in, "Krai ja pbai seu nam kang ti ran seven?" asked my mother-in-law. "Peter ja pbai seu, krup," answered her son-in-law (me) dutifully.


More loose than pom is pe and nong, right? As in, "Toong sai nam kang yu nai, krup? Pe mai hen."

I'll use pe fairly often, but don't use nong as much. That's probably because my wife's nickname is nong. Of course, to use these properly you have to know the ages of the conversational participants. (Though it's pretty safe to assume that almost all readers of TeakDoor are older than your average 7/11 clerk.)

If I'm going for the belly laugh, I'll go full Lao and throw a goo into a conversation. Definitely seen as low class, so only use with people you really know. And I don't use it in a full conversation, just throw it out to be funny and drop back into more formal pe/nong or some such.

[Peter Jordan]

I like the irony of D'Dog calling out the accidental use of "where" instead of "were" in a discussion of proper language use.

Particularly like the double irony of D'Dog calling it out after using "your" when he/she mean "you're" twice earlier in the thread.

[English Noodles]

I must say I usually hear chan from women, and certainly dichan, but I have heard men use it.

You have obviously never heard any Thai music in your life then, for the use of chan, not dee-chan obviously.

[mc2]

That's probably because my wife's nickname is nong.

Never heard an actual persons nickname to be "nong", except when they are affectionately referring to their private parts.

[English Noodles]

Plenty of girls in Thailand called Nong.

[Peter Jordan]

Noodles, You're right, one hears chan in songs all the time. One also hears teur, meaning you. Never heard anyone use that in real life.

I think songs fall into the same category as movies and soap operas, pretty stilted.

[Peter Jordan]

MC2, Nong is pretty common, though probably less so among the younger generation (mostly because of all the ridiculous butchered English words used as nicknames now).

Speeches to groups often start out Pe, nong, Older siblings, younger siblings. For a good long time I could never understand why in large groups folks would single my wife out and direct their speeches at her. Ah, silly farang.

[mc2]

MC2, Nong is pretty common, though probably less so among the younger generation (mostly because of all the ridiculous butchered English words used as nicknames now).

Fair enough, im sure ill run into a nong sooner or later.

Most of the names I have heard are shortened versions of their legal name, the name of a fruit, vegetable or small animal, or, as you mentioned, a ridiculous butchered English word.

[Marmite the Dog]

One also hears teur, meaning you.

I always thought of that as meaning 'her'.

Anyway, in Isaan, we don't say pom or chan, but use our name, as a retard would in the west.

[English Noodles]

One also hears teur, meaning you. Never heard anyone use that in real life.

Well, 'theuh' is often used as 'you' when addressing young children or by females to close friends. It is also used by men as 'you' to their girlfriend or wife and by females to their boyfriend or husband. It is also a word for 'she'.

[mc2]

Speeches to groups often start out Pe, nong, Older siblings, younger siblings. For a good long time I could never understand why in large groups folks would single my wife out and direct their speeches at her. Ah, silly farang.

do older people refer to her as "nong nong" and do younger people call her "pee nong" ?

[English Noodles]

It's always nice to listen to someone referring to an older person called 'Nat'.

[mc2]

555
i know what that sounds like. (dont you mean "Nats")

[garye]

I remember an attempted conversation many years ago with a group of people from MaeJo University and others.The Maejo people were studying agriculture and animal husbandry and somehow the topic came to cows...and then bulls ...and then buffaloes.I was trying my Thai best to put together understandable combinations of words...
So the conversation(translated to English) is Me: "You know..Thai buffalo and Canadian buffalo are not the same.We don't have that many buffalo in Canada any more...but the ones we have are much much larger than the Thai buffalo"

Thais: "ha...ha...ha...ha."( but not in a mean way)

My tone and pronunciation for the word buffalo was,to say the least,quite off.
Insert the word"penis,dick knob,schlong etc" in the sentence above where you see the word buffalo and you will get the idea

Buffalo=Kwai
Penis=Kuay
Banana Kluay

Instead of buffalo..I was saying....cock.
It was a good laugh all around and
I never forgot how pronunciation and tones can make a big difference

[Mandrake]

I was in 7 just now buying some ice in preparation for another forum piss up session. I like the crushed ice from the machine. Couldn't find the bags so I asked the bloke in my politest Thai where they were ("kuhn kup, tung samrap sai nam keng tee nai kup").

He cracked a smile and looked like he was holding in a laugh, and pointed to the container right next to the machine, "tee nee!".

If you want to call the attention of another do not call them khun. If he/she is younger you call them "nong (sister/brother)." Kup? Where did you get that from? Do you mean Khrap? As the "R" (raw rua) has to be rolled and typically is not it is best to be omitted so what anybody with average hearing would hear day to day is "khap."

I also was told that chan is female and phom is male. IF spoken by a male it is usually to a loved one. So use it if you like but I think I will stick with what I was told by a Thai teacher.

[FarangRed]

originally it was Di Chan but now it seems they dont use it

[9999]

^ Di Chan is posh speak I'm told.

[FarangRed]

My wife is posh I'll ask her

[9999]

Smeg should know.

[English Noodles]

^ Di Chan is posh speak I'm told.

It has nothing to do with being posh, it's a case of speaking correctly or not. Chan is simply more informal.

[FarangRed]

I found in the early days learning Thai many words normal Thais do not use and also now I find many substitute the Thai word for an English word