The saying goes that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. In that case, I hate to think what separates the Siam of old and the Great Britain of the same era. Modern Thailand and the United Kingdom of the 21st century now have many ties. Maybe the most obvious is cuisine. In both countries the other’s cuisine can be seen in a rash of Thai restaurants and Pubs respectively.
There are now more and more English people settling in Thailand which has inevitably led to thousands of new relationship. These relationships between two very diverse cultures have created passions as diverse as the cultures. Inevitably one of the first problems these relationships have created, whether that association be business, friendship or more intimate, is communication. In times gone by, a language was created by a similar relationship between this region and the new traders to the mystic East. That was called pidgin. The new language between Thai and English speaker is often referred to as Thinglish.
Essentially Thinglish is English with all unnecessary words removed, and maybe the odd Thai expression thrown in. So I am going to the Happy Bar down the street becomes “I Happy” or “I bar.” Missing are “go to the”. English purists will hate it, but why not? Language is essentially communication. The beauty and full use of a language can only come after comprehension and appreciation of the structure of that idiom.
So this site is about the mixtures of Thai and the European culture as they come together - to argue, to educate, to love, to hate and inevitably to multiply!
Articles will be posted on the site and readers can comment and thus debate this interesting divide. Please keep your comments polite and ‘on topic’. If you would like to submit an article, please send it to us first. We are looking for people with something interesting to say.