goo กู

[dashi]

I'm always learning little bits of Thai. One day i suspect i'll be able to speak and understand everything... Maybe another lifetime. 

  Anyone know about this interesting, derogatory pronoun : goo กู ? As in Goo rak neu. I'm not hiso and don't hang out with them, and it's self deprecating so i don't see how anyone could take offense at me referring to myself as a lowlife. I've had some interesting reactions from bargirls on the few occasions i've used it.

  Anyone understand the nuances of using this 1st person pronoun?

[romill]

Gaw Guy + sarah u = Goo meaning I or me (impolite). The missus new exactly what I was saying when I said your phrase. The best she could translate it to was "Go and get stuffed". She mentioned be careful who you say the phrase too as you might have big ploblem after.

[Siam Sam]

Learning to speak Thai from bar girls is the worst way to learn Thai. The vast majority of them are uneducated and speak poor Thai which is characterised by lots of slang words and phrases that someone with a good command of the language would rarely use. If you learn to speak Thai from bar girls it will be obvious where you have learnt to speak it and you'll be treated with more disdain by educated Thai people. If you're determined to use derogatory pronouns use "mung" instead of "khun" for "you" and let us know how you get on with that.

[dashi]

Learning to speak Thai from bar girls is the worst way to learn Thai. The vast majority of them are uneducated and speak poor Thai which is characterised by lots of slang words and phrases that someone with a good command of the language would rarely use. If you learn to speak Thai from bar girls it will be obvious where you have learnt to speak it and you'll be treated with more disdain by educated Thai people. If you're determined to use derogatory pronouns use "mung" instead of "khun" for "you" and let us know how you get on with that.

Thanks for your opinion. Your prejudice puts you well on the way to full acceptance into Thai society. Bravo! Get back to me on your efforts to rank highly in the Thai hierarchy.

 I'm a drunk irish lowlife and i hang out with bargirls and the rest of that vast uneducated majority. So, why would i not want to learn from them?

 If you read the question i presented, you will notice that i made no reference to the pronoun meung or intention to use it.

You may be interested to know that self deprecation has social utility, thus my interest in using goo

[kopite]

I've seen a few Thai girls use use กู when posting stuff on Facebook. My dictionary says it's a 1st person pronoun which is 'old' and not used much now. Have to say I wasn't aware of it being impolite.

 

I figured it's some slang version as I never see the girls on Facebook starting with ฉัน. How rude 5555.

[dashi]

I've seen a few Thai girls use use กู when posting stuff on Facebook. My dictionary says it's a 1st person pronoun which is 'old' and not used much now. Have to say I wasn't aware of it being impolite.

 

I figured it's some slang version as I never see the girls on Facebook starting with ฉัน. How rude 5555.

 Yes. This is why it's interesting. I find definitions that make it a 1st person pronoun (I): impolite, arrogant, self-demeaning or archaic where it's dated back to a period of Burmese or Khmer occupation. I see it used alot in written form, but don't think i ever heard it. As it's slang i'm sure no one thinks about the origin. But i can't quite figure out what it means or how someone uses it, or if it's just a written thing. It's just curiosity, i'll ask a couple Thais what it means when i get back there next week.

  trying to decipher off-the-cuff social media posts is fun and frustrating. Friends tell me there are a lot of misunderstandings... I believe it.  

[kopite]

I'd be interested to hear your findings. I try to learn written Thai, but it's at snails pace for me as I have 101 other things going on in my life. But I do enjoy trying to decipher what the girls say on Facebook without typing it into my dictionary to translate.

 

A lot of them talk slang/improper. Makes it harder for me ha.

[Siam Sam]

Thanks for your opinion. Your prejudice puts you well on the way to full acceptance into Thai society. Bravo! Get back to me on your efforts to rank highly in the Thai hierarchy.

 I'm a drunk irish lowlife and i hang out with bargirls and the rest of that vast uneducated majority. So, why would i not want to learn from them?

 If you read the question i presented, you will notice that i made no reference to the pronoun meung or intention to use it.

You may be interested to know that self deprecation has social utility, thus my interest in using goo

The question you presented was:

 

Anyone understand the nuances of using this 1st person pronoun?

 

I then gave you an answer which was that this derogatory pronoun is not a good one to use as it is slang. I appreciate that you made no reference to the pronoun "mung" but I thought I would give you another even worse example of a derogatory pronoun that a farang shouldn't use in Thailand, thinking that perhaps you might use it and then experience a bad reaction which would be a lesson learnt for you not to use these words. If you are only ever conversing with bar girls then using "goo" and other similar words is appropriate but I don't understand why you would want to learn a bastardised version of Thai which would indicate to everyone who you come across in Thailand where you have learnt your Thai and make yourself look bad at the same time. Now I'm under no illusions about my position in Thai culture. I married a girl from a poor family of Isaan rice farmers and I'm someone that uses the services of prostitutes in Thailand, which if you didn't already know is going to shatter the illusion for you because that means I'm pretty low down in the social scale. But the truth is I don't give a fuck and I'm happy with my life. I have no interest in climbing the society ladder as I'm comfortable where I am. One of the things I love about Thailand is that the people are, generally speaking, very humble, pleasant people that aren't obsessed with social class like people in the UK seem to be more and more. I'm sick of the materialistic, "keeping up with the Joneses" society that we have in the UK. Having said that, and this is the point that I'm trying to get to - when I am in Thailand I have no wish to advertise the fact I have sex with bar girls wherever I go. For example, If I go into a shop to buy something or a posh restaurant to eat I have no wish to use Thai that would indicate where I had learnt it and put myself at a potential disadvantage with people because sex tourists are unlikely to be treated with respect in Thailand. The bottom line here is - if you want to learn Thai, don't learn it from bar girls! Just my opinion! 

 

I'd be interested to hear your findings. I try to learn written Thai, but it's at snails pace for me as I have 101 other things going on in my life. But I do enjoy trying to decipher what the girls say on Facebook without typing it into my dictionary to translate.

 

A lot of them talk slang/improper. Makes it harder for me ha.

 

Nearly all bar girls speak slang as nearly all of them are uneducated. In all the time I've been going to Thailand I have come across very few girls working in the sex industry that are university educated or are working as a bar girl to pay for a university education. 

[malorf]

To the western mind, an impolite first person pronoun makes no sense at all, and couldn't possibly offend anyone.

But hey, we don't use the Thai language to interact with western minds. 

The word is definitely impolite and will make people confused and/or angry if you use it in the right situation.

[jayfx11]

On 12/12/2018 at 12:24 PM, dashi said:

I'm always learning little bits of Thai. One day i suspect i'll be able to speak and understand everything... Maybe another lifetime. 

  Anyone know about this interesting, derogatory pronoun : goo กู ? As in Goo rak neu. I'm not hiso and don't hang out with them, and it's self deprecating so i don't see how anyone could take offense at me referring to myself as a lowlife. I've had some interesting reactions from bargirls on the few occasions i've used it.

  Anyone understand the nuances of using this 1st person pronoun?

 

On 1/15/2020 at 10:17 AM, malorf said:

To the western mind, an impolite first person pronoun makes no sense at all, and couldn't possibly offend anyone.

But hey, we don't use the Thai language to interact with western minds. 

The word is definitely impolite and will make people confused and/or angry if you use it in the right situation.

I don't mean this in a disrespectful or patronising way at all - I saw how you took offence to another BM that adviced learning a language from prostitutes might not be the most practical - however, I would suggest that if you genuinely way to learn Thai, you'd be much better off starting with the basics and working your way from there. I highly recommend learning the alphabet too. It's hugely beneficial if you're really going to learn Thai, as Thai words written in the various ways using Roman letters is just not at all accurate.

Once you've grasped a very good level of Thai, then stray learning the slang. Especially before using words that might be offensive and you don't even know what they mean or how they should be used.