it just means that they are very close friends, like family ...

personally I like it a lot, although confusing if you're new here, but I also have 1 sister and 2 brothers here, it works, meaning that I feel warm inside to be so close that they call me brother or sister and of course I also caqll them brother or sister, because I feel about them like that, actually I feel closer to my Thai sister then my real sisters

Edited May 13, 200719 yr by LinkPopularity

Well, people don't need to be related by blood to be "family," especially here, but also true in a lot of other places in the world. Because of closer bonds between those who aren't related by blood but also often like 'the Sopranos' with more difficult to pronounce last names.

Is this a village thing?

I mean...to us in the west it is important to know who is "family" and who is not.

It seems to me in Thai it is all about who there are feeling close to on any particular day.

My wife has like 25 grandmothers.

Ahhh. That's why they need money when grandma dies once a year.

The titles such as pee, norng, noo, loong, ah, jek, goo, gong, amah, bpoo, yai etc. all can be reference to certain family mambers (some listed before are of Chinese origin).

However when refering to or addressing someone who is not a family member, the same titles can be used, more specifically to indicate an age difference & age recognition between the people having the conversation.

Cheers,

Soundman.