Not sure if this has been asked before & I hadn't really even thought about it before now, I was going to post it in the general forum for a wider audience but figured it would get moved to here anyway. 

 

So why is it that in the English speaking press & in any forum or site that reports news they report the full Thai name first off but any subsequent mention of that same person they only use the 1st or forename ?

 

It doesn't matter what the person has done, be it a charitable act, won the lottery, killed someone or whatever, it seems like a very strange convention to me, I'm pretty sure that back home in the west the press would use the surname as a general rule of thumb, if it was reporting good news then they would then continue the report with the forename, if it was reporting on a criminal it would use only the surname, just seems strange to me that's all.

 

And does this convention include the spoken word ie TV news reports etc, not speaking, reading or writing Thai I thought I'd ask the experts ???? thanks.

Because this is how it's done in the Thai language. 

You have probably never heard of Mr Charnvirakul, have you?

But you can google Mr Charnvirakul and you may find that you are quite familiar with him - under his first name. 

5 hours ago, Lorry said:

Because this is how it's done in the Thai language. 

You have probably never heard of Mr Charnvirakul, have you?

But you can google Mr Charnvirakul and you may find that you are quite familiar with him - under his first name. 

Of course I know who he is, a deputy PM & the health minister, but that's not what I asked, anyway thanks for the reply, apart from the "this is how it's done in the Thai language" I was expecting something deeper maybe more profound.

 

I have 16 years history with Thailand & have been living here since 2011, I have tried to learn Thai, all to no avail unfortunately, and there was absolutely no need for your 2nd line.

Can't answer your question but yes it seems strange. Could it go back to the fact that surnames / family names are relatively recently introduced in to Thailand so previously everyone presumably would have been known by their first name.

 

To be honest I find it no stranger than the American way of addressing correspondence as Hi Brown and not Hi John or Hi Mr Brown if my name was John Brown. To me Hi Brown is incredibly rude, but not to Americans but why are they taught to do that?

Here some additional info on the subject:

https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/thai-culture/thai-culture-naming

 

3 hours ago, Roel said:

Here some additional info on the subject:

https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/thai-culture/thai-culture-naming

 

That explained it perfectly, thank you for taking the time and effort to assist me ???? ????????

12 hours ago, Lorry said:

Because this is how it's done in the Thai language. 

You have probably never heard of Mr Charnvirakul, have you?

But you can google Mr Charnvirakul and you may find that you are quite familiar with him - under his first name. 

I suggest you read the attachment provided by Roel, very enlightening.

In general in most asian languages the use of surname or forename is pretty fluid.

 

I think most of us have experienced the fact that even in the likes of English speaking Singapore you will be greeted, in my case as 'Mr Peter'