Sept. 26, 2010

Bangkok Podcast 20: Thai Language Series 5

Bangkok Podcast 20: Thai Language Series 5

Joined once again by Bangkok Podcasts's Thai language guru Rikker, we get into the very unique way that Thais tell time. For instance, in Thai the day is divided into four sections: morning, afternoon, evening, and then after midnight. At the change...

Joined once again by Bangkok Podcasts's Thai language guru Rikker, we get into the very unique way that Thais tell time. For instance, in Thai the day is divided into four sections: morning, afternoon, evening, and then after midnight. At the change to each section, the time is 'reset', so for instance, 8pm wouldn't be 8pm, but rather 2 o'clock, or 2 hours after 6pm. It's a system that has confused many a foreigner who is told to meet someone at a time that makes no sense - "Meet me for dinner at 2 o'clock!"

Rikker breaks these zones down for us, and explains a bit of the linguistic gymnastics that go along with assiging names to the times of day.

Tony also tells us how is mobile phone bills have (hopefully) been sorted out after the phone company somehow calculated that he was spending 8 hours a day, every day, online with his phone.

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