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bkkz
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It gets worse, when you use "ee" followed by an animal word, especially a lizard "hia" 
Other examples:
ee-baah
ee-ngo
ee-naa khwai
ee-dok
Never use them at all, if you want to test it out, just ask their meanings as an innocent question.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:23 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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chateaujade
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Hence the insult carried by calling us "mahn farang" (potato, French Fries, even potato Chips).
Farang = French is OK, but put mahn in front and make it potato, and the Thai now connotes inanimate, vegetable, or subhuman (slave) qualities. It's a PUN. The Thais love puns, and in this case it's at our expense.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 9:24 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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MrJoe
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or you can use it with some one's name; "ee Joe!" (if they are not joking, thems is fightin' words!)
"ai" is less severe ; "ai Joe!"
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:26 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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chateaujade
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That last one, BK, is ee dawk, meaning 'flower (girl)'
But the terminally bad form is ee dawk tong "gold flower girl" which refers to a low class whore, a slut. From a period when such girls had to wear gold flower badges.
ee is a Lao pronoun.
Higher class than Ee is Mae (as in Mae Chee (Buddhist nuns)
Normal class (higher than Mae and WAY higher than Ee) is Khun or Nang (Mrs or Nang sao (Miss)
Higher than these, if you are addressing a high official is Than (Lord). If spoken to by such a worthy the answer is Khrup Tahn (Yes, Lord) not just Khrup. To greet such a person, Sawasdee Khrup Tahn.
To address a lower ranking official as Tahn is flattery (bahk wan, sweet mouth)which may or may not be called for, depending on what you are up to.
Don't get started on the court language unless you are going to work at Chitrada, which is not likely is it? Anyway you'd be saying Somdech (which is pronounced somdet) a lot, this is actually a Khmer word, as a lot of the court language comes from the Angkor empire. Somdech means Your Highness.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 9:37 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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bkkz
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Quote: from chateaujade on 9:37 am on Oct. 2, 2002
That last one, BK, is ee dawk, meaning 'flower (girl)'
But the terminally bad form is ee dawk tong "gold flower girl" which refers to a low class whore, a slut. From a period when such girls had to wear gold flower badges.
Interesting how adding "gold" to "ee dawk" makes it lower class.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 9:43 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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chateaujade
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Ee is feminine, Ai is masculine. To call a man Ee is to call him not only of the (Lao) slave class but a c*** into the bargain.
Whereas between intimates (even friends) and relatives Ai is quite acceptable and normal. And of course addressing inferiors, such as servants, animals and children it is just fine. We call our five dogs Ai followed by their names.
It's the inappropriate use that is insulting if deliberate, or just a faux pas if done by a farang who is presumed to be ignorant in Thai.
(Bar girls hate it when the customer speaks Thai, because they can't say bad things about him behind his back. Isan girls however can lapse into Lao, which far fewer of us know. My wife for example was the only non-Isan girl in her bar (she's central Thai) and couldn't understand a damned thing the others were saying much of the time.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:46 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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chateaujade
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BK, it was a badge for brothel girls in former times, a gold flower. So to call someone a gold flower girl = a cheap whore. A public c***. A sperm dump. Etc.
Adding gold to a six pointed star got 6 million people killed didn't it? Same principle, a badge of dishonor. From the point of view of those who mandated it, I mean, certainly NOT from mine.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:49 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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Ballsburstin
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Couldn't resist jumping in, what with all talk of failed relationships, divorce, mayhem, etc. Ha!
Well, here's my saga (another stat for the bean counters). I was in a 10 year relationship with a Korean woman here in the States. It went up for 5 years, and went down for 5 years  I don't think it was necessarily because she was Korean that it failed. In fact, I got along famously with her family, and she with mine. But that didn't make us any less miserable in the end. So even in my own country, cross-cultural relationships fail, and not necessarily for cultural reasons.
Naturally, I went to LOS for a breather, where I met my current Thai girlfriend. Ironically, I had promised myself that I wasn't looking for a new GF, just lots of fun in the sun, ST's, and the usual cultural stuff. So you just never know.
In regard to CJ's assertion about not taking your TG out of Thailand, here's an amusing story from my recent stay with her: When we visited Vientiane, her family stayed with us for the day, then headed south for the farm (Udon Thani area), and we stayed overnight in the usual accomodations. She seemed to be getting progressively gloomier though, not that bright smile I usually enjoyed. This, even though she felt comfortable speaking with the locals (she said it just felt like Udon Thani). So why the gloominess?
Well, as we crossed the border back into Thailand, we met back up with her Uncle (a taxi driver, who was our driver on this trip) and her "nungsao", and headed south to BKK. It seemed that the farther south we got the happier she became. So I asked her what the deal was. She said, "when I smile, people not smile back, maybe only half smile back." So you can imagine, if this was her reaction to the "not smile back" mode of the Laotions, can you imagine the culture shock here in the good, ol', anti-sexual, anti-social, anti-sanuuk U.S. of A?
Yet another reason to retire in LOS. (BTW, really enjoyed all the Thai etymology, etc. in this thread. Inspires me to really get on the ball with my learning the languauge.)
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:48 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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chateaujade
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By all means learn to read/write first!! It's not very hard, it will help you enormously with getting around (you can parse out street signs, maps etc.) and is resolves are the conflicting inconsistent transliteration problems. Amazon.com will have the books, and all you need is paper, pencils, patience and good eyesight!!
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 11:31 pm on Oct. 1, 2002
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