กำ

[bhoydy]

I keep seeing the word กำ in the chat rooms and i'm unsure what it means. There are dictionary definitions but i think it's a new age slang word. It always seems to appear by itself, like not part of a sentence. Any ideas?

[thomo]

The 9th noun given in google translate says:

Linear measure equal to eight inches

perhaps some sort of slang about being of a large penis size.

[Chaam local]

Problably short for เวณกรรม

[rakloke]

The correct way to spell this word is กรรม. Young men or boys in chat rooms often use this spelling as if it is chic to spell it wrong. These two spellings have the same pronunciation. Like in some English chatroom by young generation, the word "cool" is replaced by "kewl".

[keo]

My teenage students, who are into all things Korean and Lady Gaga, told me it is slang, and it means "wow" or sort of an exclamation. Like "Holy shit!"

If I ask them to give an answer to a question, they'll say it. If they get the question wrong, they'll say it again, and laugh.

[bhoydy]

I don't think it's confined only to the male population. So what's the best defintion of this.....i'm thinking 'fate'. Any thoughts?

[bhoydy]

My teenage students, who are into all things Korean and Lady Gaga, told me it is slang, and it means "wow" or sort of an exclamation. Like "Holy shit!"

If I ask them to give an answer to a question, they'll say it. If they get the question wrong, they'll say it again, and laugh.

Ok, that's another slant. It sounds appropriate as well. I asked someone today in a chatroom what it meant and she said เปล่าค่ะ, so that wasn't so helpful.

[SoftWater]

Bhoydy, if you can give me an example context I'll ask my niece.

(16-yr old Thai teenager who stays up till 3am in the chat rooms - highly qualified to answer this one!)

[wasabi]

Chat rooms are the worst place to learn how to spell Thai but a good place to pick up slang.

[SoftWater]

^ Agreed, but learning slang is not the only (or main) benefit. Because you are doing so much contextual guessing, you really start to pick up a lot about how the language is constructed - what words and phrases are commonly collocated together in speech and thought. This is a great way to progress through the reading levels from letter recognition (beginner) word recognition (intermed') to the advanced level of recognising whole phrases and clauses without decoding.

I used to use CRs and Facebook (the comment threads are really useful as they're not real time and you can figure things out) a lot, and when I get the time I intend to start doing so again - a really great learning activity.

Edited September 5, 2010 by SoftWater

[bhoydy]

Bhoydy, if you can give me an example context I'll ask my niece.

(16-yr old Thai teenager who stays up till 3am in the chat rooms - highly qualified to answer this one!)

Thanks Softwater. I asked someone today online about it, this lady has good English and she said that it means karma but it is also a slang word which is used as a simile. Her own English translation is f*** this or f*** that. Unfortunately it's difficult to see the context because it always comes as just that one word กำ but now that i have a meaning for it i'll be able to see the context better i think.

It is true that chat rooms are probably not the best way to learn Thai. However, if you know the language already it is very useful. There is a lot of work involved in introducing yourself to people which means you are repeating the same things over and over again, but this is not only good for your typing speed but also your spelling. When you find people who want to chat longer than the initial greetings you can have some interesting conversations. I hadn't been in the chat rooms for a few months until reccently and i was impressed by how much my spelling has improved. Before i used to look a lot of words up before typing them but now i find myself looking them up afterwords and see that i'm right most of the time.

If you discipline yourself to keep your own spelling right then it doesn't matter that everyone else is using slang. It can be a bit difficult understanding what's going on at first. I usually go into southern Thai chatrooms where there's a lot of the southern dialect being used but you'll find that there are people from Bangkok or the north in the rooms having the same problems as yourself. All in all a good learning tool, if used along with other methods.

[Rikker]

In this context กรรม, or เวร, or เวรกรรม, and their various slang misspellings, are exclamations uttered when something bad happens. Similar to "crap" "sh*" "f* me" "just my luck" etc. It's just that in the Buddhist context it's linked to the concept of karma.

For Thai students getting asked by the teacher to read aloud or otherwise participate can be seen as a gross misfortune.

[bhoydy]

Thanks Rikker, that makes sense now.