I was out on the prowl recently when I noticed that a fiesty young bargirl kept calling me “honey”, with a glint in her eye.
Upon interrogation (ie. purchasing of liquid truth serum a.k.a. lady-drinks), she revealed that “hu-nee” is a Thai phrase for turning your back on someone, or something along those lines. I’m sure someone can provide a more accurate translation, but it was clearly not a term of endearment.
There are a few of these soundalike words and phrases that come up every now and then - the alternative pronounciations of “darling” are undoubtably the girls’ favourites:
“Na-ling” is effectively Thai for “monkey-face” (na = face, ling = monkey), and the more subtle “dahk-ling” is a Thai/Issan polyglot which effectively means “monkey-arse” (dahk = “arse” in Issan).
The girls seem terribly disappointed when I spot these veiled insults in the guise of compliments, but I’m sure I’m missing countless more.
The other side of the coin is that it’s a trivial matter to accidentally utter some obscenely offensive Thai or Issan phrases simply by speaking in English - beginning a sentence with the words “I hear he…”, within earshot of Thais, can get you into an awful lot of trouble…
Next you’ll be telling me “lubyoulongtime” means “may your visa self-combust in your pocket you foul-smelling Son of Satan”.
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