The Word Teeluk

[muythai2013]

I was reading through some online articles late last night about the Thai language. In one persons opinion teeluk is used in an almost sarcastic and degrading way from Thai women to western men. It goes on to say that a nice Thai woman would never call their Thai partner teeluk. What are people's thoughts on this?

I've heard many references here to teerak, teelak, now teeluk. My wife has never called me any of them and I've never heard her use the term with others either. Maybe it's an Isaan thing?.

Could be, my wifes from isaan however the family spent most time in BKK due to their restaurant.

never have I heard the word from them, although she does not really like mixing English and Thai into a sentence, one or the other.

[Johnniey]

Also Thai music IMO is like listening to someone scratching a blackboard. So no I probably won't have your linguistic experience of listening to rubbish. Thai soaps are utter rubbish too. Like Days of Our Lives in Thai. Give me a bullet. But if thats the way you spend your twilight years in LOS. Then good luck. As I stated I have only heard the phrase from bargirls.

Now ad hominem? OK, then.

Personally, in the last 32 years I've heard less than a dozen songs out of hundreds (?) that I liked. Calling Thai soaps "rubbish" is rather generous. If you can read well enough, and have some ability to think rationally, you will see that their respective quality (or lack thereof) is totally irrelevant. And if you CAN think with some clarity and a modicum of intelligence, you will se that the fact that Thais wrote and sing songs for other Thais that use the term would belie the idea that only bargirls use it (sarcastically) with western men.

And the predictable and truly lame old man insult? Whatever. I'm a healthy and happy 50: if these are my twilight years I'm damn glad to have them.

Thai soaps are always about cheating spouses arent they? Teeluk

Why not be honest and say you can't speak Thai and havent a clue what's going. Nothing wrong with spending all your time with bargurls.

[Johnniey]

just asked the wife her translation of the word teelak

 

darling was here answer 

 

no she is not low class and she is not or has never been a bar girl

 

she would use the word with friends, but with me only in private 

 

 

You have a Thai wife and don't know what tweak means?

[Johnniey]

Also Thai music IMO is like listening to someone scratching a blackboard. So no I probably won't have your linguistic experience of listening to rubbish. Thai soaps are utter rubbish too. Like Days of Our Lives in Thai. Give me a bullet. But if thats the way you spend your twilight years in LOS. Then good luck. As I stated I have only heard the phrase from bargirls.

Now ad hominem? OK, then.

Personally, in the last 32 years I've heard less than a dozen songs out of hundreds (?) that I liked. Calling Thai soaps "rubbish" is rather generous. If you can read well enough, and have some ability to think rationally, you will see that their respective quality (or lack thereof) is totally irrelevant. And if you CAN think with some clarity and a modicum of intelligence, you will se that the fact that Thais wrote and sing songs for other Thais that use the term would belie the idea that only bargirls use it (sarcastically) with western men.

And the predictable and truly lame old man insult? Whatever. I'm a healthy and happy 50: if these are my twilight years - given how hard I partied and how much adventure I had but still managed to get to where I am (a warm and stable but not stilfling relationship of 20 years, two amazing kids) - I'm damn glad to have them.

Did you emigrate here when you were 18?

[Johnniey]

May I ask, if you have never really been out of the US, how are you not a foreigner  And why should the fact you are not white hold any impact? Farang is simply a term that means westener  which you are, if your 1st thread is not a lie... If it was though, then anything else you type should be taken with a tiny grain of salt.

Much of what I have read in your posts literally boggles my mind.... It does read as an arm chair expert with no real knowledge.

 

My mother was Thai, my father (army) moved us to the USA shortly after I was born.

I can speak Thai, because my mother used to speak to me in Thai.

But having to learn to read and write Thai, finding the reading OK, but the writing hard, all the words spelt oddly.

 

Oh, my age in that post is wrong, typo.

 

Didn't work out with the girl, once she found out I was Thai, and didn't need to buy a house (or anything else) in her name, the usual stuff.

Got my Thai ID issued a few months back.

Are you telling us you were never 'taken in' by a floozy?

Well we won't hear from Jigger again

[SteeleJoe]

Also Thai music IMO is like listening to someone scratching a blackboard. So no I probably won't have your linguistic experience of listening to rubbish. Thai soaps are utter rubbish too. Like Days of Our Lives in Thai. Give me a bullet. But if thats the way you spend your twilight years in LOS. Then good luck. As I stated I have only heard the phrase from bargirls.

Now ad hominem? OK, then.

Personally, in the last 32 years I've heard less than a dozen songs out of hundreds (?) that I liked. Calling Thai soaps "rubbish" is rather generous. If you can read well enough, and have some ability to think rationally, you will see that their respective quality (or lack thereof) is totally irrelevant. And if you CAN think with some clarity and a modicum of intelligence, you will se that the fact that Thais wrote and sing songs for other Thais that use the term would belie the idea that only bargirls use it (sarcastically) with western men.

And the predictable and truly lame old man insult? Whatever. I'm a healthy and happy 50: if these are my twilight years - given how hard I partied and how much adventure I had but still managed to get to where I am (a warm and stable but not stilfling relationship of 20 years, two amazing kids) - I'm damn glad to have them.

Did you emigrate here when you were 18?

I came here at 19 and stayed for 18 months . I returned every year until I came back permanently in my early twenties.

Why?

[Neeranam]

Spot on Brad! You only missed out "socialise mainly with bar girls" and you've a good profile.

I share the disdain for pitiful, narrow minded folks who move to a faraway country and then spend the rest of their lives trashing the country, the people and their customs and traditions. I find them odd and unpleasant, to say the least.

But I don't agree that if someone doesn't like Thai music - or shows any other personal taste that happens not to include something of Thai origin - that makes them "rubbish".

To think that way is to me extremely narrow-minded (and illogical).

Well, we could say that rubbish is as rubbish does...

To express the idea "doesn't like" is normal and understandable. But

calling someone's music or movies "rubbish" is quite another thing.

In particular, a farang going to another country and expressing such

extreme disdain for the local culture is a rather despicable way for a

mature, civilized adult to act.

I have zero interest in football (Man Utd, Barcelona and all that), but

for me to call it rubbish would be offensive to millions of football fans.

No one forces me to watch football (thank heaven) and I doubt anyone

forces farangs to to watch Thai soap operas.

I think Scottish punk music is rubbish too. It doesnt mean I hate Scots.

What about

or

or

or

[Neeranam]

PalMan, on 16 May 2013 - 03:00, said:

smokie36, on 16 May 2013 - 02:39, said:

The correct word is "theerak".

I am not a fan.

Trust me...I know this word well......

There is no one right way to romanize Thai (transliterate its sounds into Latin characters), the "royal official" way is actually the silliest system for pronunciation purposes, their priority was Sanskrit vs Khmer vs Pali etymology.

Personally I'd never use "TH" to designate the hard aspirated T sound, but use "DT" for the softer "in between" unaspirated one (as in turtle), which means a plain T suffices and doesn't cause confusion with the English "th" sounds like thick and this.

Doing it your way is why so many ignorant teenagers get a giggle out of "Phuket", IMO should have been publicized as "Poock Et", but placenames have become a bit more standardized for better or worse.

Actually you mean 'transcription', not 'transliteration'. I also use 'dt' "dtaw dtao".

The problem arises from transliterating rather than transcribing.

I live in Khon Kaen and I have friends living here for years that still pronounce the place as khon kaen rather than 'kon gaen', as is correct. People also say 'kalasin' rather than the correct 'Galasin' all due to bad transliterating rather than good transcription, or a mixture of transliteration and transcription.

[Neeranam]

I was reading through some online articles late last night about the Thai language. In one persons opinion teeluk is used in an almost sarcastic and degrading way from Thai women to western men. It goes on to say that a nice Thai woman would never call their Thai partner teeluk. What are people's thoughts on this?

I've heard many references here to teerak, teelak, now teeluk. My wife has never called me any of them and I've never heard her use the term with others either. Maybe it's an Isaan thing?.

Could be, my wifes from isaan however the family spent most time in BKK due to their restaurant.

never have I heard the word from them, although she does not really like mixing English and Thai into a sentence, one or the other.

OP - What is a "nice Thai woman"? Thai women DO use 'teerak' to their husbands. You won't hear them though. Why not ask some instead of here. It seems that many try to learn about Thai culture on Thai Visa these days instead of mixing with Thai people. Get out there and MIX with them, they don't bite. Also, just because your Thai wife says something doesn't mean it's a fact. Even in this thread I see information given by a wife that is wrong.

[Briandajew]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

[PalMan]

PalMan, on 16 May 2013 - 03:00, said:

smokie36, on 16 May 2013 - 02:39, said:

The correct word is "theerak".

I am not a fan.

Trust me...I know this word well......

There is no one right way to romanize Thai (transliterate its sounds into Latin characters), the "royal official" way is actually the silliest system for pronunciation purposes, their priority was Sanskrit vs Khmer vs Pali etymology.

Personally I'd never use "TH" to designate the hard aspirated T sound, but use "DT" for the softer "in between" unaspirated one (as in turtle), which means a plain T suffices and doesn't cause confusion with the English "th" sounds like thick and this.

Doing it your way is why so many ignorant teenagers get a giggle out of "Phuket", IMO should have been publicized as "Poock Et", but placenames have become a bit more standardized for better or worse.

Actually you mean 'transcription', not 'transliteration'. I also use 'dt' "dtaw dtao".

The problem arises from transliterating rather than transcribing.

I live in Khon Kaen and I have friends living here for years that still pronounce the place as khon kaen rather than 'kon gaen', as is correct. People also say 'kalasin' rather than the correct 'Galasin' all due to bad transliterating rather than good transcription, or a mixture of transliteration and transcription.

-

Yes, good distinction, although for people with little exposure to linguistics they'd confuse the meaning of transcription with the usual one. I don't think the intention of the royal standard was at all to help with pronunciation.

Personally I use "GK" for that sound since it's between the English G and a hard K - in fact English does have that unaspirated K sound when the K follows an S as in "skip". Since there is no G sound in Thai, you could just use a bare G, certainly better than K I agree.

The KH to show the aspiration doesn't bother me since it doesn't interfere with English, unlike the TH and PH.

All this really goes to show when learning Thai you're better off learning the native script right off the bat rather than messing around with the dozens of different transcription systems.

[Docno]

Just finished a trip to Koh Samet with a Thai couple (he's an architect and she's a former lawyer). She called him 'teerak' the whole time. So you guys who associate this with bar girl talk need to get out of your soi some time...

[Chao Lao Beach]

Gik

[Scully]

I use Tii rak jaa with my wife often and she always tells me that it is "good word,"

In Thailand people tend to keep there personal love lives private, they may well say Tee Rak in their own company. You have also softened the word with Jaa not just a female saying as males can say Jaa too but not heard too often.

Your wife is right it is a good word but lots of guys sitting in bars take a girl home and are called tee rak and this is why the topic has been raised.

Tee rak is an affectionate word usually shared between closed doors, not walking down the road with a girl clutching onto your arm at 2am looking for his hotel shouting come on tee rak.

[Thai at Heart]

I couldn't imagine calling my wife "darling" in every sentence, so why should "teerak" be any different.

I have an acquaintance who works in the hotel business who addresses the waiters and waitress as "teerak". It's not horrendous, but it isn't respectful either.

In company my wife calls me "Khun TAH".

Formal and correct.

[Johnniey]

Just heard a lady farang call her Thai boyfriend tee cake. Think she meant tee rak.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Just heard a lady farang call her Thai boyfriend tee cake. Think she meant tee rak.

Or she wanted to eat him.

[Forethat]

Also Thai music IMO is like listening to someone scratching a blackboard. So no I probably won't have your linguistic experience of listening to rubbish. Thai soaps are utter rubbish too. Like Days of Our Lives in Thai. Give me a bullet. But if thats the way you spend your twilight years in LOS. Then good luck. As I stated I have only heard the phrase from bargirls.

Now ad hominem? OK, then.

Personally, in the last 32 years I've heard less than a dozen songs out of hundreds (?) that I liked. Calling Thai soaps "rubbish" is rather generous. If you can read well enough, and have some ability to think rationally, you will see that their respective quality (or lack thereof) is totally irrelevant. And if you CAN think with some clarity and a modicum of intelligence, you will se that the fact that Thais wrote and sing songs for other Thais that use the term would belie the idea that only bargirls use it (sarcastically) with western men.

And the predictable and truly lame old man insult? Whatever. I'm a healthy and happy 50: if these are my twilight years I'm damn glad to have them.

Thai soaps are always about cheating spouses arent they? Teeluk

Ney, from what I've heard they're all produced using a considerable amount of variables; A loving rich and powerful father, a couple of daughters, a violent brother and a hansum young man from a not so powerful family. The key to Thai soap success is their ability to tweak these variables and create a unique story - they're all completely different and not att all alike The primary objective with the a Thai soap opera is to intertwine the social disasters and love stories with a couple of ghosts.

[Tchooptip]

Bangkok and the provinces that border Bangkok do not have a shortage of natives who can't pronounce Rs to save their lives.

R/L

It's nor regional, it indicates social class.

Plenty of the lower classes around BK.

It appears that you have failed to comprehend my previous posts.

There are also plenty of those who are not from the lower socio-economic backgrounds who eschew Rs for Ls.

Of course ! No doubt about it

[Tchooptip]

Another vote for accurate pronunciation of R vs L having nothing to do with class, but better-educated central Thais will have received formal training in getting this right, it is important to a very small percentage of academic pedants as an arbitrary linguistic signifier, similar to artificial BS like "someone with whom I'd have nothing to do".

As for the word teerak itself, because it is one of the first Thai words a normal monger-tourist will encounter in the bars, it is often used somewhat sarcastically (or perhaps even consciously avoided) by Thais in relation to foreigners that are aware of that fact.

However within a Thai-only context it is frequently used as a sincere and meaningful equivalent of (most literally) "my beloved" or (depending on your "home" culture/slang - honey, darling, sweetheart/sweetie, baby/babe, sugar doll etc. - all of which of course can be used in the same sarcastic way in our own language depending on the context, perhaps signifying "I'm buttering you up because I want something from you but of course you know that I do actually love you even if I'm laying it on thick at the moment".

I disagree, in Bangkok at least the ability to properly pronounce the 'r' sound is a definite class marker. You know, the same as not calling someone farang to their face or in their immediate vicinity. Someone saying 'falang' when I'm around, means they are with 96.3% certainty lower class people.

I love the .3

[Tchooptip]

It sounds absolutely ridiculous when you hear a farang say this to a Thai.

If you are one of these then cut it out. Trust me you sound like an utter fool

For maybe one year my wife called me by my name George which by the way sounds a bit like djeor ,then in private she started to call me "my therak" never therak only "my therak" I called her by her name Pan (for Panthira) since a few month sometimes I called her therak too, of course only in private, she told me she love it. So the utter fool ?

[collectskulls]

i call the wife wan jai she seems to like it and the gik is called teerak and she seems to like that

[EyesWideOpen]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

Haha I have always liked that play on words... Walk past a bar beer, and the girls are shouting out dark ling ! to the farangs passing by, to amuse themselves. The tourists smile , hearing the word darling... I will put a stern look on my face, and ask them in Thai why they are calling me a monkey's butt. They get a scared look on their faces, start apologizing profusely, and only stop when I burst out laughing...

[Johnniey]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

Haha I have always liked that play on words... Walk past a bar beer, and the girls are shouting out dark ling ! to the farangs passing by, to amuse themselves. The tourists smile , hearing the word darling... I will put a stern look on my face, and ask them in Thai why they are calling me a monkey's butt. They get a scared look on their faces, start apologizing profusely, and only stop when I burst out laughing...

hI

And in your native country you don't mind prostitutes calling you a monkeys ass ?

I have experienced the above and certainly didn't smile.

It's understandable how tourists act like morons, but I've lived here for 24 years and don't take to insults well.

[EyesWideOpen]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

Haha I have always liked that play on words... Walk past a bar beer, and the girls are shouting out dark ling ! to the farangs passing by, to amuse themselves. The tourists smile , hearing the word darling... I will put a stern look on my face, and ask them in Thai why they are calling me a monkey's butt. They get a scared look on their faces, start apologizing profusely, and only stop when I burst out laughing...

hI

And in your native country you don't mind prostitutes calling you a monkeys ass ?

I have experienced the above and certainly didn't smile.

It's understandable how tourists act like morons, but I've lived here for 24 years and don't take to insults well.

In my country, prostitutes are on crack and walking the streets in the bad parts of town. So to answer your question, I do not have a lot of communication with them.... And no, after 14 years here I do not take insults either, as many Thais have found out. Regarding the girls shouting dark ling in a random way to amuse themselves, I just responded in the same joking way.

If a person became enraged over a minor joke like that, then I think there are other issues that person would need to address.....

[Johnniey]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

Haha I have always liked that play on words... Walk past a bar beer, and the girls are shouting out dark ling ! to the farangs passing by, to amuse themselves. The tourists smile , hearing the word darling... I will put a stern look on my face, and ask them in Thai why they are calling me a monkey's butt. They get a scared look on their faces, start apologizing profusely, and only stop when I burst out laughing...

hI

And in your native country you don't mind prostitutes calling you a monkeys ass ?

I have experienced the above and certainly didn't smile.

It's understandable how tourists act like morons, but I've lived here for 24 years and don't take to insults well.

In my country, prostitutes are on crack and walking the streets in the bad parts of town. So to answer your question, I do not have a lot of communication with them.... And no, after 14 years here I do not take insults either, as many Thais have found out. Regarding the girls shouting dark ling in a random way to amuse themselves, I just responded in the same joking way.

If a person became enraged over a minor joke like that, then I think there are other issues that person would need to address.....

So you think Thai prostitutes are high class compared to your own country?

[rene123]

if she is calling you tee rak after the first 20 minutes it just means she cant remember your name

Thanks for the laugh, candypants.

This is the first time I've read this topic and it seems to have degenerated into the old discussion of what farang means. I think villagefarang said it best. The same word can have many different meanings depending on who says it and how it is said.

[IrishIvan]

Never heard Teeluk in 10 years, I have heard Teerak, but mostly I think they take the piss when they use the English equivalent "Darling" usually emphasizing the LING at the end! "Oh, dar LING!" (Ling being Monkey)

and 'Dark' being 'bum'

Haha I have always liked that play on words... Walk past a bar beer, and the girls are shouting out dark ling ! to the farangs passing by, to amuse themselves. The tourists smile , hearing the word darling... I will put a stern look on my face, and ask them in Thai why they are calling me a monkey's butt. They get a scared look on their faces, start apologizing profusely, and only stop when I burst out laughing...

hI

And in your native country you don't mind prostitutes calling you a monkeys ass ?

I have experienced the above and certainly didn't smile.

It's understandable how tourists act like morons, but I've lived here for 24 years and don't take to insults well.

In my country, prostitutes are on crack and walking the streets in the bad parts of town. So to answer your question, I do not have a lot of communication with them.... And no, after 14 years here I do not take insults either, as many Thais have found out. Regarding the girls shouting dark ling in a random way to amuse themselves, I just responded in the same joking way.

If a person became enraged over a minor joke like that, then I think there are other issues that person would need to address.....

So you think Thai prostitutes are high class compared to your own country?

Western prostitutes are great to have a laugh with, try buying an off duty one a drink and let her open up with the stories, I remember one in the US, she had me in stitches for hours. She was a great drinking buddy

[Shotime]

Teebaht?

Like any other word, it can mean many things. We (a girl I've known for a long time) were taking motor-bikes in Bangkok, and her driver recognized us. She said he called us teeluk. I took it to mean, by the smile on her face, that it meant my farang ATM.