Not strictly a Thai language question but the Thais (and us) use 55555 to denote laughter on web forums because it sounds like laughter. What does a string of '2's mean?

Not strictly a Thai language question but the Thais (and us) use 55555 to denote laughter on web forums because it sounds like laughter. What does a string of '2's mean?

Nothing..

Maybe just an emulation of the 5's?

"(and us)"

Curious, you stated that in English people use 55555 to also meaning laughter?

I thought that is used only by Thais.

Not strictly a Thai language question but the Thais (and us) use 55555 to denote laughter on web forums because it sounds like laughter. What does a string of '2's mean?

Nothing..

Maybe just an emulation of the 5's?

"(and us)"

Curious, you stated that in English people use 55555 to also meaning laughter?

I thought that is used only by Thais.

I meant English speakers who post on Thai boards and realise what 555 means, not English people in general.

I want to make a wild guess: Perhaps those who use this convention, and I have never seen it, are making a joke of two homonyms: โธ่ "Alas!" or "Da!m!" and " โท the Pali number for "two". They put the numeral "2" to say "da!m". Is this possible?

I googled 2s a bit and apart from a fair bit of nonsense, it seems 22222 refers to the subject of the English language, and reading in particular.

Why I don't know, but several hits discuss วิชา 22222 (the 22222 subject) referring to English reading, such as this one: http://www.stou.ac.th/Schools/Sla/webboard...ion.asp?GID=213 .

Might it have to do with the 't' sound in English which stands out for Thai speakers, and for which the string '22222' would be a good pronunciation drill?

Far-fetched, I know. It's quite possible I am wrong.

I wonder if it's something to do with a national curriculum or something like that and it's just stuck because it's a memorable number??

Looking at this google result http://www.ksp.or.th/upload/292/8647-20070422.doc

ก. หมวดวิชาศึกษาทั่วไป 2 ชุดวิชา

10111 ภาษาอังกฤษเพื่อการสื่อสาร

10171 การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ

ข. หมวดวิชาบังคับ 2 ชุดวิชา

22222 การอ่านภาษาอังกฤษ

22322 การเขียนภาษาอังกฤษ

I meant English speakers who post on Thai boards and realise what 555 means, not English people in general.

English people in general would understand 555 to be a brand of cigarettes.

Speaking of playing with the phonics of 5s, I recently came across a Thai joker who answers his phone with หนึ่งโล (instead of ฮัลโล...)

Everyone in the room thought that was pretty clever. Me too.