One common mistake you should stop making now is to add “คุณ [khun]” in front of your own name. Yes, we, Thai people, do use our own name to refer to ourselves. But we only use the term “คุณ [khun]” in front of someone else’s name, to express respect for that person. We never add “คุณ [khun]” in front of our own names, ever.

A: คุณบีครับ
[khun B kráp]
A: B

B: ครับ คุณเอมีอะไรอยากถามบีเหรอครับ
[kráp? khun A mii arai yàak tǎam B rǎw kráp]
B: Yes? What do you want to ask me?

In the short dialogue above, A refers to B as “khun B” while B refers to himself as just “B” and A as “khun A”.


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