from article Published: March 10, 2010 -- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/opinion/11kristof.html

-- you may not agree with the excerpt but Nick Kristof has won a Pulitzer Prize (for Reporting from Tienanmin Sq.) and most likely you haven't:

Here’s a one-word language test to measure whether someone really knows a foreign country and culture:

What’s the word for doorknob?

People who have studied a language in a classroom rarely know the answer. But those who have been embedded in a country know. America would be a wiser country if we had more people who knew how to translate “doorknob.” I would bet that those people who know how to say doorknob in Farsi almost invariably oppose a military strike on Iran.

Edited May 21, 201016 yr by jazzbo

LOL...i mistakenly took doorknob to sound like Doork nob!!!-i figured it out now (how incredibly stupid of me)

ลูกบิดประตู is the thai word for Door Knob (pronounced Look-bid-pra-tuu)

ประตู is the word for door (Pra-tuu)

บิด is to turn or twist (bid)

ลูกบิด is something that turns/twist (look bid)

Edited May 21, 201016 yr by 321niti123