Comments on: 8 Fascinating Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Thailand

By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:59:05 +0000

possibly my favorite comment response ever.

By: ryan libre

ryan libre — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:39:02 +0000

Hello Jake, thank you for comment.

I have heard this from 1 or 2 academics before, but Tai (for ethnic group) is ไต and for freedom is ไท. Thai as in Thailand is spelled ไทย. ( the last letter ย is basically silent.

they sound very similar to non Thai ears, but actually ไต the ethnic group is closer a “D” sound. If they really named it after the Tai ethnic group i can’t imagine why they would spell and pronounce it differently than that groups name…

But really what im doing here is not academic, if you ask common Thai people nearly everyone will tell you it means free. so that is what i want people to know.

Thanks again for you comment

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By: ryan libre

ryan libre — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:59:46 +0000

Thanks for writing Martin, if the western calender, or any calender started from the birth date of the Lone Ranger i would have surely mentioned him as well.

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By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:57:46 +0000

“It is Year 2552

Buddha statue by Ryan Libre
Thai people start counting from when the Buddha was born, who came along before Jesus.”

Why do you have to mention this, who cares if he came before Jesus, why not say he came along before the Lone Ranger as well? Anyone who can do simple math can figure out who came first.

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By: J

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:52:17 +0000

Hmmm

The Clock Starts Over Every 6 Hours

You know the 12 hour clock, you’ve heard of the 24 hour clock, but you didn’t know that most of Thailand runs on a 6 hour clock that resets 4 times a day.

I’m Thai and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes we start our 7 pm by referring to it as “nung toom” – 1st hour of evening, and that goes til 12pm. and 1 am is Tee Nung, morning 1…but its not like we reset our clocks 4 times a day as you imply??

There’s a lot more to thailand than these 8 weird (and possibly false) facts

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By: J

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:50:38 +0000

Hmmm

The Clock Starts Over Every 6 Hours

You know the 12 hour clock, you’ve heard of the 24 hour clock, but you didn’t know that most of Thailand runs on a 6 hour clock that resets 4 times a day.

This should be titled 8 things i might have just made up about Thailand.

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By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:58:30 +0000

The country’s official name was Siam (Thai: สยาม; IPA: [saˈjaːm], RTGS: Sayam origin unknown) until 23 June 1939,[3], when it was changed to Thailand; it was renamed Siam between 1945 and 11 May 1949, after which the name Thailand was once again adopted. The word Thai (ไทย) is not, as commonly believed to be, derived from the word Tai (ไท) meaning “free” in the Thai language; it is, however, the name of an ethnic group from the central plains (the Thai people).[citation needed] A famous Thai scholar argued that Tai (ไท) simply means “people” or “human being” since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word “Tai” was used instead of the usual Thai word “khon” (คน) for people [4]. With that in mind the locals seemed to have also accepted the alternative meaning and will verbally state that it means “Land of the free”. This might be due to language barriers and the avoidance of long difficult explanations.

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By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:40:33 +0000

It’s taken me about seven months to get a handle on the time keeping–not that it’s necessary (I still usually just say mohng/o’clock).

Another bit of Chinese culture seen in Thailand is the food. Surely, many dishes have been tweaked over the years but you can trace back quite a few meals to China’s kitchens.

One of my favorite little quirks about Thailand is the spelling. Once you start to get a handle on the language, it becomes obvious why it can be so difficult. Businesses will even have signs made with errors and restaurant menus–those are great (one time, I was in the mood for some sea food so I ordered the “crap stick”).

As for HM the king, it took a bit of getting used to since I came from a country where the nation’s leader was so openly disaproved of (USA–G.W.B.). It’s great to see a country so united under one person like that. However, I can’t say the same for the position of Prime Minister. I know the king is quite old now and am curious as to the country’s reaction to his death. It will no doubt be a devastating blow to the heart of the country.

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By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:16:13 +0000

“…a large majority of Thailand’s businessmen and politicians are the ancestors of these early Chinese workers”

Surely you mean ‘descendants’?

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By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:32:39 +0000

What a fascinating article. I didn’t know any of the points that you mentioned above except for vegetarianism. I always assumed that since it is a Buddhist culture that many people were vegetarians. I just didn’t know that it was a Chinese import. Great post!

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