Learning Korean - Please Give Me Coke

Listen to the pronunciation of coke....this is funny.
MilkmanDansays...

This week I taught my first classes with a new set of Thai HS Seniors (the semesters start at a different time here). I always start out by getting a roster with the students' full names in Thai and having them write their nicknames in English, then taking roll call to make sure I am pronouncing the names correctly. There is no set way to write Thai sounds in English, so there is a lot of variation in how to spell things.

Anyway, one boy on the list wrote his nickname as "Kok". I correctly assumed that he wanted that to be pronounced "Coke", but then explained to him that if he goes with the other spelling an average westerner will probably call him "cock" which is rather unfortunate...

In 5 years of being here I've seen a lot of semi-unusual or unfortunate names and nicknames.

Odd: Dollar, Bible, Bird (hordes of those), Blue, Oil, Dump, Bomb, Gun, Nuke, etc.
Unfortunate: Fook, Fluck ("fluke"), Gook ("guck"), Poo, Poopae, Dodo, Porn (loads of this one also), Titee (girls name)

The worst and/or funniest one I've seen was a girl who converted her full Thai name into an English spelling of "Titteeporn Suksonmanee". Considering Thailand's ... reputation, that one is particularly unfortunate, although the actual pronunciation of the surname is more like suke-sawn-MA-knee.

On the flipside many western names translate phonetically into rather unfortunate things in Thai, or are commonly mispronounced into something bad in English. For example, Jim means "pussy" in Thai, Chris will usually be pronounced by Thais as "Clit", etc. etc.

Send this Article to a Friend



Separate multiple emails with a comma (,); limit 5 recipients






Your email has been sent successfully!

Manage this Video in Your Playlists




notify when someone comments
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
  
Learn More