I am going to start this post with blondelibrarian’s official “No Offense Intended” disclaimer. Additionally, I would like to say that:
I have been stunned at Mother Nature’s Wrath and recognize the intensity of the devastation. I feel terrible about what happened to those people and seeing the pictures of that area have brought tears to my eyes more than once. This post is in no way meant to belittle anything anyone affected by the tsunami is going through.
* * * * *
On the day of the tsunami, A. came into the bedroom to report the news. Usually, he (or I, depending on who read the news first) says, “It’s just the usual mess,” and we go on with our day. But that morning, he told me it was an “unusual mess” and that there had been an earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
At that time much damage was being reported on the island of “Fuck It.” When I looked at him quizzically, he said, “Well, I think that is how it is pronounced.” Sometime later, we sat down to watch the news on CNN International. (When big news happens, we watch CNN International instead of German TV, not because of the quality of the reporting, but so that A. doesn’t have to explain every other word to me while the news is happening.) We kept reading the scroll bar at the bottom and A. said, “Notice how the (CNN Int’l) anchors aren’t saying the name of that island. They are afraid they will get in trouble.” And it was true. We watched for at least 15 minutes and no one said the word “Phuket.” Finally, there was a live report and the name was pronounced like “Poo Ket” instead of “Fuck It” and suddenly we noticed the CNN International anchors were referring to Phuket with no hesitation.
What amazed and saddened me though is that even in the face of such terrible destruction, it seemed to me that the CNN news anchors were more concerned about violating the FCC’s outdated take on what is or is not profane than reporting the name of the island.
I’m sure you can say that since they didn’t know how to pronounce it the name of the island they didn’t want to confuse anyone, and I agree to a certain extent, but I also wonder how many people watching the news that day were calling the island of Phuket “Fuck It” instead of “Poo Ket.”
Garrison Steelle says:
I’m still saying Fuck It. I think someone made up the other pronunciation in order to get past the FCC censors. It’s ALWAYS been FuckIt or FookEt.
-G
5 January 2005 at 18:37
Knista says:
Hi, Thai-American here. In Thai, “ph” doesn’t equate the “f” sound so it actually is pronounced Poo-KET, although it’s funnier if it were the other way, I’ll admit that. I’m sure a lot of folks are thinking it’s “Fuck It,” a common mistake, just from reading it as we would pronounce it. Whoever was doing the English translations back in the day must’ve liked throwing the “h” letter around (as “Thailand” isn’t pronounced “THIGH-land,” either, but wouldn’t that be funny). Anyway, no offense taken, just wanted to clear it up. Hope I helped some.
8 January 2005 at 06:51