ติงต๊อง Ting Tong

[technocracy]

Well in Lao - Ting Tong . .. they understand it from Thai but in all my time here I've never heard a Lao person say it.

Pii Baa is the normal you are crazy phrase here.

But when we were in the UK my wife did find the Little Britain sketch absolutely hysterical . . . probably as she is Lao.

[mangkorn]

Are these words (phrases) that would appear in a dictionary? I have a couple of dictionaries, one Se-Ed that I use a lot and contains many impolite and profane words, and I don't see ??????? or ???????? in there. ??? is there, but not ????, nor ????. ?? and ??? are there, but not ??? (unless it is supposed to be ????). In general, I try to avoid impolite Thai phrases, but they are good to know so that you know what people might be saying about you. Some Thais think they can make derogatory comments about farang right in front of them, so it is nice to recognize the words that you never learn in classes or books.

One very good resource for phrases and usage is: www.thai-language.com

You type in a word, and you can find many dozens of different usages.

And the more you look, the more you find. Excellent site. (disclosure: I do not have any monetary interest in it, other than money I've donated to support it, because it has been and is an important teaching tool for me.)

As for ???????? - that's a pretty juvenile term, really.

[PeaceBlondie]

One of my favorite, naughty students was a 13 year old girl whose nickname was "Ting Tong." When I pronounced it with the vowel tones for 'crazy,' she corrected me and said it was like the ringing of a bell. Was that just wishful thinking on her part? Her behavior was pretty crazy.

So, what are the words for 'stupid, mentally retarded'?

[mangkorn]

One of my favorite, naughty students was a 13 year old girl whose nickname was "Ting Tong." When I pronounced it with the vowel tones for 'crazy,' she corrected me and said it was like the ringing of a bell. Was that just wishful thinking on her part? Her behavior was pretty crazy.

So, what are the words for 'stupid, mentally retarded'?

ปัà¸à¸à¸²à¸­à¹ˆà¸­à¸™ (bpan-yaa-awn) - mentally retarded;

ปัà¸à¸à¸²à¸™à¸´à¹ˆà¸¡ (bpan-yaa-nim) - stupid, imbecile, dimwit, feeble-brained, etc.

โง่ (ngoh) - stupid, foolish

โง่เหมือนควาย (ngoh meuan kwai) - stupid as a buffalo

[glenbat]

baba bobo is much better!

you ba ba bobo!

[noungning]

Well in Lao - Ting Tong . .. they understand it from Thai but in all my time here I've never heard a Lao person say it.

Pii Baa is the normal you are crazy phrase here.

But when we were in the UK my wife did find the Little Britain sketch absolutely hysterical . . . probably as she is Lao.

i'm lao and i don't use it either unless i talk to my thai bf lol

yes, we tend to say pii bah haha...literal translation is ghost crazy or crazy ghost.

[PearlHoneyMilkTea]

according to one of my thai friends it is playful and cute

and she also said the ppl who think it's rude are, and i quote, "IDIOT PEOPLE"

[sparkinsonic]

according to one of my thai friends it is playful and cute

and she also said the ppl who think it's rude are, and i quote, "IDIOT PEOPLE"

Yep I agree....means crazy,my thai wife calls me it a lot lol(but in a loveable"naruk" way)

[eek]

Well..not so long ago I called myself ting tong. I have no idea if it was inapproapriate.

I was getting a foot massage from a girl that i have been going to for some time. Shes lovely and we try to communicate best we can. I told her about trying to learn to ride a scooter and having a amall accident . I called myself ting tong. She looked a bit wide-eyed but then giggled.

I remember thinking..ok..was that something i should NOT have said...?

I hoped this thread would help me work that out, but there are so many conflicting view points.

I wonder if my using ting tong in that situation was ok? And ..is it ok to call oneself ting tong, or not?

Any thoughts?

[vancouvertutor]

from urban dictionary at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ting-tong

. ting-tong

It's a word to characterize someone who has such a silly or goofy manner or someone being retarded...

A : How's last night? did you..?

B : Well, I was totally crash and burn, but i was about to...

A : Dude, you're such a "ting-tong" pathetic loser....

A friend refered to herself jokingly as a 'Ting tong girl'. What. if anything does this mean?

[mangkorn]

from urban dictionary at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ting-tong

. ting-tong

It's a word to characterize someone who has such a silly or goofy manner or someone being retarded...

A : How's last night? did you..?

B : Well, I was totally crash and burn, but i was about to...

A : Dude, you're such a "ting-tong" pathetic loser....

Gee, is that a conversation between two Thai people?

Dude??

[Suszzy]

baba bobo is much better!

that's what i thought too!!

[WujouMao]

oh great. and all this time i was using ting tong is a stupid funny way for a laugh to my thai female friend. a smile can mean lots of things which i recently found out

i have to be very thankful she hasnt told me to rack off if i have begun to jarr her off.

[Tod Daniels]

I also concur with many posters here that the phrase in question is NOT in the least suitable for casual conversation with people you are not really familiar with. With friends, lovers, relatives, etc it carries a much softer almost joking connotation. I guess according to one poster’s significant other that makes me fall into the "IDIOT PEOPLE" category. Evidently a well thought out and clearly enunciated position from an obviously well educated thai.

You cannot go wrong learning overly polite or higher register thai versus 'street/bar' thai given the rigid 'caste/class' structure pounded into the diminutive inhabitants heads since birth (read brainwashing). Two thais who meet for the first time will almost certainly speak more polite higher register thai to each other until the socio-economic-educational hierarchal ladder is established. One would be well served to learn there are many levels of thai speech. In speaking with people you do not know being too formal is no crime; where being to informal can be seen in a very detrimental light. Hence the thai term; สำเนียงส่อภาษา กิริยาส่อสกุล loosely translated as ‘manners makes the man’, more literally translated as ‘pronunciation shows your language, actions show your lineage’.

I wholeheartedly agree with the poster who said thai-language dot com is an excellent language site for learning. IF you want to learn more slang, make sure you go to the control panel feature, scroll down and check the enable gay & racy content boxes. There is a noticeable increase in differing meanings afforded with this option.

Remember foreigners have the luxury of slipping in and out of 'thai societal' norms. It is far easier to make a 'fox-paw' in speaking or in actions and have it laughed off because we are foreigners.

As far as the OP’s question about ติงต๊อง which thai-language has spelled ติ๊งต๊อง but thai2english has the other way; I get far more mileage out of มะเหงกแน่ะ! Especially when used with the miming motion of rapping the back of your knuckles against something or someone. I have found this works better for me when friends say things which could be construed as crazy as opposed to just calling them crazy outright. Again this is for close friends who know you already, NOT for the general population at large.

Edited May 19, 2008 by tod-daniels

[Sani]

Ting Tong !! It meanin crazy. some time your are confused, and forgot some things ,can say I am Ting -Tong

[riga]

Tod, is this sentence สำเนียงส่อภาษา กิริยาส่อสกุล correctly spelled? I can't find the meaning of ส่อ; could it be ส่อง with the meaning of "enlighten" in this sentence?

Edited May 19, 2008 by riga

[Tod Daniels]

I sure hope it's spelled correctly as I have a t-shirt that says it too!

I got the sentence from this link at thai-language dot com;

http://www.thai-language.com/id/210042

ส่อ is listed on that site as "to show; to indicate; to demonstrate" although further research makes me think it is a shortening of a longer word ส่อแสดง which I found here on thai2english;

http://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/22526.html

As far as thai-language goes; I like the idioms as they are for the most part understood by almost every level of society and can often be added into conversation as a 'lightener' seeing as they are sayings thais have heard since they were small, although granted some are more obscure than others.

[guava]

iv just asked the wife and god what i nasty look she gave me me thinks im in trouble A gain

Are you sure you didn't accidentally say dok thong? Apparently calling your precious love a "golden flower" is not quite the compliment one might think.... It can add "spice" to a love making session though.

I'm not yet convinced ting tong is anything other than Thinglish for ding dong - a mildly amusing but very mild insult used jokingly rather than in anger.

[hanibal7]

bargirl talk???

only real thais dont use the word.

i thought bargirls were thai.you learn something every day

i am so ting tong

[DavidHouston]

This comes from the new Royal Institute Dictionary of New Words published in 2007:

ติงต๊อง ก. ไม่เต็มเต็ง เช่น หมอนี่สงสัยจะติงต๊อง ชอบพูดคนเดียวบ่อย ๆ

“Verb [attributive verb] not all there (to be abnormal; to be insane) for example, ‘I suspect that this doctor is not quite all there; he often talks to himself.’ "

[mangkorn]

Are you suggesting the RID knows more about Thai than "bar-bia" farangs do?

Edited May 19, 2008 by mangkorn

[siamesekitty]

lol... tsk tsk my dear dragon... แอบเหน็บแนมอีกแล้วนะ

regarding the use of the word,

while I agree that ติงต๊อง (i personally prefer ติ๊งต๊อง myself) should not be used in formal situations or with someone you are not close with, it's not really a rude word. it's just something that probably wouldn't/shouldn't come up in normal conversation unless you were teasing a friend about something or referring to someone else in a slightly derisive way. I do agree with how someone pointed out that for some reason farangs seem to be infatuated with the word and seem to take great pleasure in using it often.

P.S. would like to point out that "หมอนี่" in the RID dictionary example is not actually a doctor, it's a way of saying "this guy" (this dude, this bloke, etc.)

Edited May 19, 2008 by siamesekitty

[DavidHouston]

From the RID: เหน็บแนม ว. อาการที่พูดเสียดสีแคะไค้กระทบกระเทียบเปรียบเปรย.

From Lexitron:

เหน็บแนม [V] be sarcastic; mock at; carp at; satirize

เสียดสี – be sarcastic, satirical (Domnern Sathienpong)

แคะไค้ [V] nag; scold; find fault; criticize

กระทบกระเทียบ [V] satirize; ridicule; be sarcastic; be ironic; mock

เปรียบเปรย [V] insinuate; imply; allude to; hint

And, I guess there is at least one more: ประชดประชัน [V] be sarcastic; speak sarcastically; ridicule; ridicule with sarcasm; use insulting language; use sarcasm

Thank you, Kitty and Mangkorn, for those excellent additions to my vocabulary list. In your usage and experience, are the above words true synonyms or does each carry a slightly different meaning.

BTW, Kitty, if the word "หมอ" means, among other things, a "guy, is the equivalent word for a female "หล่อน"? I notice that the Dictionary of New Words uses these words often in its examples.

Thanks again.

Edited May 19, 2008 by DavidHouston

[mangkorn]

lol... tsk tsk my dear dragon... แอบเหน็บแนมอีกแล้วนะ

แม้แต่ไม่ค่อยแอบเท่าไร...

[mangkorn]

....while I agree that ติงต๊อง (i personally prefer ติ๊งต๊อง myself) should not be used in formal situations or with someone you are not close with, it's not really a rude word. it's just something that probably wouldn't/shouldn't come up in normal conversation ....

That is an interesting point, which probably deserves a long discussion and perhaps even one of those "sticky" threads. There are countless words/expressions (and in every language) which are not necessarily "rude/obscene" etc., but which are not to be used in many circumstances - depending on the situation, and the audience.

I wonder if it might be worth trying to define distinctions between "rude/obscene" words, and words that are inappropriate for certain occasions?

Maybe not. Just a thought....

Carry on.

[riga]

I sure hope it's spelled correctly as I have a t-shirt that says it too!

I got the sentence from this link at thai-language dot com;

http://www.thai-language.com/id/210042

ส่อ is listed on that site as "to show; to indicate; to demonstrate" although further research makes me think it is a shortening of a longer word ส่อแสดง which I found here on thai2english;

http://www.thai2english.com/dictionary/22526.html

As far as thai-language goes; I like the idioms as they are for the most part understood by almost every level of society and can often be added into conversation as a 'lightener' seeing as they are sayings thais have heard since they were small, although granted some are more obscure than others.

Thanks Tod, my mistake. I couldn't find ส่อ on www.thai2english.com and I didn't check other sites.

A nice sentence though

[5tash]

Here's the results from RID;

ส่อ ก. แสดงให้รู้เป็นนัย ๆ (ส่วนมากใช้ไปในทางที่ไม่ดี) เช่น สำเนียงส่อภาษา กิริยาส่อสกุล ส่อเจตนาทุจริต ส่อพิรุธ; (โบ) ฟ้อง.

With the examples it gives I would say T.D. has got it 100% right.

I think ส่อแสดง is 2 seperate words combined. Often in Thai, 2 words meaning more or less the same thing are combined to give a more 'poetic' feel.

[yoot]

BTW, Kitty, if the word "หมอ" means, among other things, a "guy, is the equivalent word for a female "หล่อน"? I notice that the Dictionary of New Words uses these words often in its examples.

I'm not Kitty. May I answer this question?

"หล่อน" normally is used in written form to refer to female which is equivalent word for a male "เขา" in written form which you can see they are used in novels.

But in spoken language, "หล่อน" can be used as a second person pronoun means 'you' or third person pronoun 'her'. But it seems many Thai people prefer to use the word 'ชี(she)to refer to 'her' in nowadays.

For examples;

ดูชีสิ แต่งตัวน่าเกลียดชะมัด

ชีมั่นมากเลยนะเนี่ย - มั่น is shorten from มั่นใจในตัวเอง( self-confident)

"หมอ" in this case means 'guy' as Kitty mentioned. For the equivalent word for a female, I think it should be 'นัง' . นัง is the same word as นาง, but when it's used as a third person pronoun, it's often pronounced shortly. Both "หมอ" and 'นัง' are not really rude. They are the same as many words, such as ติงต๊อง, which you should be aware when you can use these words and with whom.

[superalmond]

i agree with khun bannork ka, 'cause we used it (Ting Tong) for slightly crazy but cute....it's not rude ka, but Dop so lop so lai (it should be tob-sa lob-sa lai) normally we don't use "TOB" to anyone because it means smash someone...slightly rude ka.

[turgid]

Ting Tong !! It meanin crazy. some time your are confused, and forgot some things ,can say I am Ting -Tong

I was having a massage at the airport and there was a lot of female groaning and moaning from the next cubicle. There was some Thai chit chat between the two girls and a lot of laughter. When i asked my girl what was funny she said (about her friend) "She have ting tong (or ding dong or something similar" ) . I took it to mean something sexual like "she came ". I asked someone else (bar girl) who looked embarrased and couldnt explain it in english but said it was"sex word".

So i'm wondering if there is another slang meaning here that makes this offensive in polite society as crazy isnt that offensive even to poilte Thais.

This site was the only reference i could find to the phrase.