Khuap With Childrens' Ages

[guru]

My Thai language book puts the cut off at 10 before changng to pee but I am listening to Thai TV at this very moment and the presenter has just introduced this girl as being sip sam khuap.

To confuse me more some friends have described their child as being sam pee.

Were they just assuming I would't know Khuap or is khuap and pee interchangable for children and not a fixed thing?

So as my book doesn't seem to be correct I would like to ask the gents and ladies of this forum.

[meadish_sweetball]

I was given a cut-off point at 12 by my teacher for whatever it's worth.

Just speculation, but maybe the presenter was joking a little, or perceived/wanted to present the girl as immature.

In the case of your friends I believe they probably did not want to confuse you.

[rgs2001uk]

I was given a cut-off point at 12 by my teacher for whatever it's worth.

Just speculation, but maybe the presenter was joking a little, or perceived/wanted to present the girl as immature.

In the case of your friends I believe they probably did not want to confuse you.

i was taught the same as meadish up to and including 12 i was told to use khuap, after that pee.

as far as i know they are not interchangeable, i may be wrong.

[withnail]

I too was told 12. It seems to fit fairly well with the transition from primary school to high school. What was the context on the TV? I'd imagine that if you were talking directly to a child you might not want to patronise them however in other circumstance it might be appropriate. If a news report for example mentioned an incident involving a child.

I once had a young child guess my age as being twenty something khuap, presumably a child's mistake owing to him hearing this more than pee.

[Rikker]

Are Thais actually taught a specific age? I've never associated it with any specific year, but just let it nebulously correspond in my mind with children.

It can also be used to humorous effect by adults to imply that they are still kids at heart. อายุ 75 ขวบ--"75 years young".

[stateman]

Are Thais actually taught a specific age? I've never associated it with any specific year ..

I suspect that there are 2 versions here.

1. Officially it probably has a cutoff at 12 as several posters mentioned.

2. A more lax usage is when the speaker judges the kid to be a kid, so one uses the term "kuab". Otherwise, if one wants to heap a little honor to a younger person for being more grown up, one can use "pee". As long as the communication gets the point across, I don't think a listener really minds a slight blur.

Although it is common to use "kuab" for kids, I believe it may not be necessarily "wrong" to use "pee" for people of all ages. For example, if I draft a form for use by patients at a hospital, I'd use "pee". When a 9 year old fill 9 as his age, or 9 "pee", no one is going to claim the word "pee" is improper.