Thai Faux Paus

At lunch the other day, as I was eating my delicious HAT lunch of chicken and chilies with rice and sauce, Sua motioned to the lunch I had brought from CCS asking me, nonverbally, if he could have some. I thought I would utilize my newly learned Thai words and said, “Ow dai” or “can have” (or so I thought). He seemed to understand what I said and I turned to Usana and asked if that was what I would say if I wanted to say, “Yes, you can have some/it.” She began talking in Thai to the others and then explained to me that while “ow” does work, it also has a meaning that is not very polite, translating roughly into “have sex” and that what I should say is “gin dai” or “can eat.” So instead of telling Sua that he could have my lunch, I basically told him he could have me. Good to know for future reference. I will not be saying “ow” again!