The Culture Ministry has become concerned that the growing popularity of Thai-English hybrid slang among Thai teens, especially those chatting on the Internet via MSN, blogs or email, will soon destroy Thai culture, especially the Thai language, according to Phatarawadee Phataramawik of The Nation. An example of this is “ab-beaw,” an adjective that is a combination of the English "abnormal," and the Thai "bong-baew," meaning cute. Ab-beaw literally means abnormal/cute. In response to the Culture Ministry's outcry, the ministries of education and culture co-hosted the national symposium "How to solve the crisis on Thai language" on Thursday. The symposium was an attempt to push the proper use of the Thai language as an urgent national policy. According to the symposium, many teenagers imitate TV hosts and stars as well as singers who commonly mix Thai and English together. Phatarawadee said that a campaign to preserve the Thai language should not only focus on ensuring that Thai is spoken, read and written correctly; it also should focus on a deep study of the Thai language in different contexts, including youth culture, Web culture as well as in subcultures.
The Nation