Farangs tend to think of people living in Myanmar as Burmese and thus mostly illegal immigrants here who can't speak Thai.  But there are 5 million Tai speaking people living in the Shan state just north of Thailand in Myanmar.

 

Without knowing the history, one would think of the Shan state as just a part of Thailand that was separated for one reason or another, but that's not the case. The Tai people in the Shan state came from China, as did the Thai people, but much later than the Thais, and they didn't pass through Laos or Thailand, they came south from China with the Mongols (Kublai Khan), entered central Burma, and then were tasked with conquering Northeast Burma for the Mongols.

 

So, even though they originated in the same areas of China as the Thai people, they have no common history, after the Thai departure from China.

 

Despite that, Thailand conquered the Shan state during WWII, because they could (Britain held colonial oversight over Burma before WWII, but Japan mostly dislodged them during the war). The end of WWII forced Thailand to return the Shan state, and as far as I know, there is no longer any interest in Thailand in reunification.

 

There is a civil war in Myanmar now, and some rebels express interest in a free Tai state. 

 

Any insights you may have in the Shan state would be appreciated.

32 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Farangs tend to think of people living in Myanmar as Burmese and thus mostly illegal immigrants here who can't speak Thai.  But there are 5 million Tai speaking people living in the Shan state just north of Thailand in Myanmar.

...

When I was a teacher in Naypyitaw I used to travel regularly to Shan State.  Now I can read/write/speak Thai language pretty well (I studied for an MA at Chula etc).  I heard that Shan language was similar to Thai and so I was keen to converse with Shan people.

 

Well, I can say that apart from numbers, I could not understand a single word of Shan!  My Shan friends couldn't understand a single word of Thai....

According to Wikipedia, the majority in Mae Hong Son province are now Shan speakers, refugees from the Shan state.

 

The Shan language diverged from Thai maybe 1,000 years ago, maybe more, about the time that Polish diverged from Russia. So, the grammer is probably similar, and there are many words in common, but a lot of differences.

 

Having suffered through Spanish/Portuguese and Russian/Ukrainian, I can relate.

 

When going to Brazil, the first day or two, I can't understand anything, even though I am fluent in Spanish. A couple of days more, and I can get by in the local language.

9 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

When going to Brazil, the first day or two, I can't understand anything, even though I am fluent in Spanish. A couple of days more, and I can get by in the local language.

Probably because Brazil speaks Portuguese and whilst it's similar to Spanish, there are a lot of differences.

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

Probably because Brazil speaks Portuguese and whilst it's similar to Spanish, there are a lot of differences.

Correct.

 

Just like there are differences between the Shan and Thai languages, but after a few days, a Thai speaker should be able to understand some Shan.