For me one of the most interesting parts of studying a new language is, that you suddenly discover small things, that you thought are the same all around the world, but then you realize, its not. Or you find a word, that strikes you as odd. Maybe because of some simularities (or the total opposite) with your mother tongue. Maybe because the word makes no sense to you and thats why its easier for you to remember it, or you always mix it up for the same reason. For example in Thai the word for pork is หมู (muu). And the fact, that there is one animal, that is called like another one sounds, was enough for me to remember the word immediatley. But I still wonder, if a native speaker even makes that "connection". On the other hand: even after a few years of reading books, watching movies and talking in English, I sometime struggle with those two little words "where" and "who". Because in German "where" is "wo" and "who" is "wer". Well, maybe its just me and my brain ;)

At the moment I am learning Thai and one of the latest leassons I read, was the one about telling the time. There are already some possibilities in Germany to tell the time (24 hour system and differences between some parts of East- and West Germany) or English (pm/am), but in the end, they have a lot in common and are not very hard to grasp, if you are already familiar with either one of them. But the Thai-System is a completly new one to me and thats why I wanted to share it with you. Maybe your country also has a different method of telling the time I never heard or even thought about. If so, I would like to know :D

But lets start with the Thai-System. They have an official 24 system. One that is used at airports, train stations, governmental buildings and so on. Its basically like the 24 hour system some other countries use. The one used in everyday life though is a totally different story (and probably also has local odds). First of all, it is split into seven parts (please correct me, if I am wrong) and they all have there own word for "hour" (luckily the word for "minute" stays the same all the time).

1 - 5 am (ตี 1 - ตี 5)

6 - 11 am (6 โมงเช้า - 11 โมงเช้า)

Noon

1 - 4 pm (บ่าย 1 โมง - บ่าย 4 โมง)

5 - 6 pm (5 โมงเย็น - 6 โมงเย็น)

7 - 11 pm (1 ทุ่ม - 5ทุ่ม)

Midnight

At some parts of the day you put the number between the word(s) for "hour", sometimes up front, sometimes after. Confusing right? ;) But kind of makes sense, if you look at the Thai writing system, where vowels are sometimes written above, below, in between up front or after the consonant. But always pronounced after . For me "the best part of the day" is the one between 7 and 11 pm (19 - 23), where there seems to be a kind of a reset. Instead of "7 pm" it suddenly is "1 ทุ่ม" and 8 pm turns into "2 ทุ่ม" and so on).

I wonder how long it will take for me to grasp this system, but writing this down helped already :D