r/funny • u/sunshine-me • 1d ago

Thai ad writers are genius.

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17.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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223

u/userdeath 1d ago

Can someone explain the confusion between bok choy and "kwang toon"

318

u/Jagjamin 1d ago

A variant of bok choy in Thailand is called phak kwangtung hongte. Kwangtung is the Thai word for Guangdong. They have Guangdong bok choy and Hong Kong bok choy (phak kwangtung Hong Kong), Hong Kong bok choy is a bigger variant / cultivar.

401

u/BemaJinn 1d ago

I think I just had a stroke.

131

u/Ok-Background-502 1d ago

kwangtung is Thai for bokchoy from Guangdong, like how china is English for porcelain from China.

42

u/BigBubsYuty240 1d ago

Im so high but i think i get it now after reading it a few times. Kwangtung is how they say guangdong but is also the word for bokchoy from guangdong? Or just the latter part

27

u/z1lard 1d ago

<drunk guy meme>

YES

2

u/RireBaton 1d ago

Wait, so is Guangdong English for what they actually call it in Guangdong? Are we or the Thai closer to the actual?

2

u/drawkbox 1d ago

Everybody wang chung tonight

1

u/dogsledonice 1d ago

So, like Peking duck (without saying duck), Peking was the English way of saying Beijing.

55

u/WorkO0 1d ago

Whatever floats your boat.

5

u/arb00z 1d ago

Don't stroke your Kwangtung off-season

7

u/zenGull 1d ago

I laughed so fucking hard omg. Lol

7

u/Takenabe 1d ago

You also just ratiod someone that ratiod another person. I don't think I've ever seen a ratio with an exponent.

3

u/ndstumme 1d ago

Tf is ratiod?

1

u/Takenabe 1d ago

It's when a comment has a higher upvote/like/whatever count than the thing it's replying to.

2

u/fallenKlNG 1d ago

probably because you ate out of season veggies

1

u/madsci 1d ago

Also Guangdong -> Cantão (Portuguese) -> Canton (English)

That's where we get "Cantonese".

1

u/VLHACS 1d ago

That was a pretty good explanation haha

But basically kwangtoon is Southern mainland China bokchoy

54

u/Retax7 1d ago

This is the most and least informative reddit answer ever. I know the information is perfectly explained, yet my brain refuses to process it, no matter how many times I try reading it.

Also, is kwang tong also a wordplay with something sexual? Asking because of the cucumber and the guy with the pants down that has to grow it up.

23

u/yurilnw123 1d ago

0 relation to something sexual.

source: am Thai

1

u/Lankygiraffe25 1d ago

Ah interesting! Thanks internet stranger!

1

u/diekthx- 1d ago

Is Guangdong bok choi also called Shanghai bok choi?

1

u/Cicer 1d ago

It’s been so long since I’ve had guangdong. 

-31

u/PedroLG 1d ago edited 1d ago

cultivar? What is cultivar in this context? As for me you are adding a random Portuguese word in a English comment about Thai vegetables

Edit: reddit is so interesting. I just noted how strage a word sounds to me and asked what it means and for some reason I get -30 downvotes. I wonder what is my sin.

26

u/Apophthegmata 1d ago edited 2h ago

A cultivar is a plant that's been selectively bred differently enough for the distinction to be useful, often by focusing on different parts of the plant.

Basically a sub-species. It's a cultivar because its difference comes from a history of cultivation.

They run the spectrum where cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi are all the same plant, to the minor differences between a granny smith apple and a red delicious apple.

3

u/SnooTangerines8043 1d ago

I just learnt the word cultivar and its meaning from a video about plants for dudes and im seeing it everywhere now.

8

u/Jagjamin 1d ago

I just learned about Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and now I see it everywhere.

2

u/Wind-and-Waystones 1d ago

I just learned about that recently. I can tell you everything about it

-4

u/Mc_Shine 1d ago

kohlrabi

Oh great, now you're adding random German words into your explanation of random Portuguese words in an English comment about Thai vegetables.

11

u/Jagjamin 1d ago

Cultivated Variety. Easy way to think of it, every named type of apple is a different cultivar.
Intentionally bred for traits, and the usually cloned after that.

1

u/PedroLG 1d ago

Interesting how it is a portmanteau word that is equal to the Portuguese word for "to grow", yet they are unrelated (well cultivate was the same root, so not totally unrelated). Learned a new word today. Thanks

1

u/BenevolentCheese 1d ago

The root word "colere" (to tend to) is thousands of years old, likely prehistoric.

1

u/PedroLG 1d ago

Fascinating how we also have "colher" (to pick/harvest) that in my mind sounds similar to "colere" but the latin root to that one is "colligere" so it is different.

1

u/BenevolentCheese 1d ago

Not different at all, you're just not tracing the root back far enough. A lot of our words for the most basic things can be traced back to prehistory, this set is included.

1

u/PedroLG 1d ago

Google tells me it comes from: com-"together" + legere "to gather/choose"). So it is not from a root of "tend to". Hence my assumption

6

u/No-Collection532 1d ago

A specific plant variety. Guangdong bok choy is one cultivar. Hong Kong bok choy is a different cultivar.

99

u/AussieDave63 1d ago

Kwang Toon is the Thai name for what most of the world calls Bok Choy 

20

u/userdeath 1d ago

Why was the market lady confused then

52

u/veselin465 1d ago

She quickly figured it out, though. Wouldn't call it confused. It's like when someone asks you in a foreign language (which you know) for something and your brain takes 1 second to realize that it has to translate the question

1

u/erdemcal 1d ago

also bok means shit in some languages

1

u/BenevolentCheese 1d ago

Which languages?

1

u/intheblackbirdpie 1d ago

some

Ok, abi

41

u/theacp127 1d ago

Bok Choy is the Cantonese term and kwang toong is the Thai word. The joke is that the main doesn't know much about farming or plants so is using a more "urban" word for the plant.

14

u/dogsledonice 1d ago

Also great: The seller looking down and scrolling the translator from "Bok Choy" to the Thai translation

4

u/CookieScholar 1d ago

Thank you for actually explaining the connotations, as opposed to everyone else here saying "they're two different words for bok choy." THANK YOU WE UNDERSTOOD THAT MUCH. But it was clear her usage was somehow meaningful.

1

u/Shared_Songs 1d ago

Language

1

u/idontlikethisapps 1d ago

think about it as westerners calling tea "Chai Tea" or bread "NaaN Bread" literally saying tea tea or bread bread twice lol, its just the way locals call it there.