Friends,

A college student wrote this sentence in a letter:

อาจารย์ท่านบอกว่าสาเหตุที่พวกเราติด I วิชาฟิสิกส์ เพราะอาจารย์ต้องการช่วยเพื่อนในห้องของหนูที่ได้เกรดต่ำ เพราะกลัวว่าจะถูกรีไทน์

Can someone help me understand the word "รีไทน์"?

I have seen the word "เออรี่ รีไทม์", meaning "early retire" in connection with Thai civil servants; but, note the different final consonant".

There is this from an Internet chat room: "อยากทราบว่าโดนรีไทน์ออกมาสามารถกลับไปศึกษาใหม่ได้ป่ะค่ะ"

Could the phrase "โดนรีไทน์" mean "to be failed in one's classes and be put back a year?"

Finally, what is the English word from which the phrase derives? Thank you.

I'd say it's likely to be from "retire" -- but probably more of a sports metaphor. To "retire" a player (or his number) = permanently out of commission. So in this context it probably means failed or held back, just like you've deduced. Or kicked out of school entirely.

Until a native can shed some light on the definite meaning, though, that's just a guess.

From what should be a reliable source (Bangkok Uni help desk), an explanation that suggests that a รีไทรด์ (clearly 'retired') student is one who has lost his or her status as a student:

(Under the topic: เกรดเฉลี่ยสะสมเท่าไร จึงจะรีไทรด์ What level of GPA will lead to being รีไทรด์)

นักศึกษาหลักสูตร 4 ปีภาคปกติ ที่เข้าเรียนภาคเรียนที่ 1 ถ้าได้คะแนนเฉลี่ยสะสมต่ำกว่า 1.50 การพ้นสภาพนักศึกษาจะกระทำเมื่อสิ้นภาคฤดูร้อน

A student in the first semester of a 4 year course (regular attendance mode) who achieves a GPA of less than 1.50 will cease to hold student status at the end of the summer session.

Much more here: http://faq.bu.ac.th/faq.php?num=4&f_id...74&q_id=264

Right, nice work. So it means getting kicked out of school.

Right, nice work. So it means getting kicked out of school.

Interesting that the student actually wrote "รีไทน์". I wounder if this was a typing error or a Southernism built off the usage of a Thai metaphor which came from an English word. One would think that there is a real Thai word for this situation.

Maybe the English term is "involuntary separation", or "de-matriculation", or, as in at least one government context, "de-selection". Is there a specific academic "frequently used term" in English?

Thank you both for your research and explanations.

In my particular dialect, at least, "kicked out" is the best equivalent I can think of. It's used informally, it's metaphorical, it's commonly understood.

เกรดเฉลี่ยสะสมเท่าไร จึงจะรีไทรด์

What cumulative GPA will get me kicked out?

In English that would probably be phrased more like "What cumulative GPA must be maintained to avoid getting kicked out?"

Notice the use of the formal (and hyper-passivized) equivalent in the answer, though:

...การพ้นสภาพนักศึกษาจะกระทำเมื่อสิ้นภาคฤดูร้อน

"Removal from student status will be carried out at the end of the summer term."

Translation: we will kick you out of school.

As for the spelling รีไทน์, I think it must be considered a spelling mistake. A common one -- more common than "correct" variants (like รีไทรด์ or รีไทด์), but I can't see any logic in spelling it that way.

The basic reason that I believe it must be a spelling mistake is simple: silent letters are hard to remember, regardless of the language. If you don't pronounce it, it's easy to forget what it's supposed to be.

Unless you know the source word for a given loan, whether English or Sanskrit or another language, then chance for misspelling is very high. And most Thais will not know the correct spelling of the word in the source language. Just a statistical reality.

If a historically incorrect spelling becomes conventional, it's no longer incorrect. That's how spellings change. So while it's likely, based on Google hits, that the spelling รีไทน์ will become even more widespread, it would never be accepted in that form by the language gatekeeping elite. Because they would know what the source word is and would insist it be spelled to reflect that. Which spelling will be around in 10 years, or whether the word will even continue to be in use in this sense, remains to be seen.