Something I’ve Always Wanted To Know

[sanook2me]

Can I ask another question i have always wanted to know...

as Thailand petrol stations are serviced i do not know what "gasohol" is?

is it what we Brits call petrol?

[RubbaJohnny]

The whole deal was a remnant of the Rest and Recreation culture for Americas Vietadventure.

Road signs were transliterated in casethey lost the PLOT.

Oddly outside Pilok theres the centre of SE Asia junction with signs to KL ,I guess it was there for really lost causes! What is amusing how many are wrong and of course the A! route 32 wiggle which means following old Paholyothin North means differing rd numbers

[doggie888888]

Most widely spoken language in the world is Chinese, just from sheer numbers! So thank our lucky stars the second language on Thai signages is not Chinese. Perhaps romanised script is used because that is most what many travelers will recognise and find useful, regardless of what the lingua franca is in global trade or in our own countries. Even in Chinese cities, there are more and more signages appearing with romanised script. I think whether Russian, Japanese, Arab....most of these travellers will recognise romanised script although they may not be conversant in English.

[garyh]

Can I ask another question i have always wanted to know...

as Thailand petrol stations are serviced i do not know what "gasohol" is?

is it what we Brits call petrol?

It's petrol with a percentage of alcohol mixed with it.

[Pakboong]

The vast majority of Chinese kids attend private international schools.

[ozsamurai]

Can I ask another question i have always wanted to know...

as Thailand petrol stations are serviced i do not know what "gasohol" is?

is it what we Brits call petrol?

Clinically blonde are we?

google was invented for people like you.

Quite correctly the signs are not translated they are transliterated into romanized lettering, so a vast number of cultures who do not use glyphs or other character sets (latin based languages et al) can read them. The same is done in Japan and other countries where anyone else but a non native would have a problem reading the sign. On the subject, the transliteration is also so varied it makes them unreadable to an 'English' speaker Vdjakirrapong is not in any way English.

Oz

[sanook2me]

Can I ask another question i have always wanted to know...

as Thailand petrol stations are serviced i do not know what "gasohol" is?

is it what we Brits call petrol?

Clinically blonde are we?

google was invented for people like you.

Oz

nah, mate, just hungover on a Sunday morning and my brain power didn't think of googling what i thought was a basterdized Thai tub sub from gasoline....

Therfore i would have googled gasoline and I already knew the answer to this being petrol...

its actually a good question as i didn't know and now i have the answer so any question with a correct answer is a good one....

Please don't bully me anymore i cannot take it this morning...

[neverdie]

OP, I am surprised that you were 'Afraid' to ask this question.

Is there anything else bothering you??? Perhaps you should post in Dear Mr Neverdie for your answers in future.

[Birdman]

...obvious to let all non Thai readers know the name of the streets>Globalisation

I like English. It's easy to learn and to speak. Almost everywhere people learn English at school as a second language. While people in the English speaking countries are more single lingual. But slowly more and more words from different languages are integrated in other languages. So maybe in 1.000 years there will be just one language, a mixture of all.

[bonobo]

Everyone is referring to it as "English texts" but in reality it is not but rather transliterated Thai. If it were English the sign would say "Khao San Road" not "Thanon Khao San".

I don't know why the road signs also have the names in western script, I'm just happy they do .

Sophon

Sophon has it correct.  This is not English, but merely Thai with Latin letters.  You could just as easily say this is Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, etc. minus the umlats and such.

"Bangkok" is perhaps one name in which the Western name of the city is used vice the Thai when Latin letters are used.

Now, there are some examples of English itself being used.  "Exit," "Departures,"  "Arrivals," "Long-term Parking," to name a few.  But the vast majority of non-Thai script signs are merely transliterated signs using Latin letters.

[bonobo]

Can I ask another question i have always wanted to know...

as Thailand petrol stations are serviced i do not know what "gasohol" is?

is it what we Brits call petrol?

Clinically blonde are we?

google was invented for people like you.

Oz

nah, mate, just hungover on a Sunday morning and my brain power didn't think of googling what i thought was a basterdized Thai tub sub from gasoline....

Therfore i would have googled gasoline and I already knew the answer to this being petrol...

its actually a good question as i didn't know and now i have the answer so any question with a correct answer is a good one....

Please don't bully me anymore i cannot take it this morning...

It is not actually petrol.  It is a petrol/ethanol mix.

[garyh]

How can petrol be GAS when it is a liquid????????????????????????????????

[bonobo]

How can petrol be GAS when it is a liquid????????????????????????????????

The full word is "gasoline," shortened by general usage to "gas."  "Gasohol" is a created name to help in the marketing and sales of ethanol-gasoline mixes.

[garyh]

How can petrol be GAS when it is a liquid????????????????????????????????

The full word is "gasoline," shortened by general usage to "gas."  "Gasohol" is a created name to help in the marketing and sales of ethanol-gasoline mixes.

I know what gasohol is, if read my post previously you would see that I had already answered that question prior to your answer.

Just amusing how the americans can call a liquid a gas.

[MarkBKK]

The vast majority of Chinese kids attend private international schools.

Really? That's quite surprising.

[rabcbroon]

I am ever so glad that the second language in Thailand is English,and NOT French or German

France is the most foreign country -as an English speaker - that i have ever worked in. It is almost impossible to get by if you don't speak French. The French are quite ignorant to the fact that English is the favoured world language and very few speak English - or take showers regularly!

[catmac]

France is the most foreign country -as an English speaker - that i have ever worked in. It is almost impossible to get by if you don't speak French. The French are quite ignorant to the fact that English is the favoured world language and very few speak English - or take showers regularly!

So true!

The french are, perhaps, the most insular of peoples - so amusing to see them in Vietnam trying to order food in French (after all, VN was a French colony once!), only to find that the waiters only speak English (as a foreign language that is)!

[7by7]

Actually many French can and do speak English, except when talking to a Brit!

[cpofc]

even the Thais recognise English as the world's international language.

Plus something you may have ovelooked is the computer age. Where was it's birth? Is Bill Gates French?

Not too many years ago the Government of france had to muster all the country's intelligencia together in one place to convert and write the new computer age words into their dictionary in French. its a fact look it up.

When you had one english speaking empire the size of Britains, get replaced by another english speaking superpower, what hope have you got.

No aplogies. I am fortunate, English Speaking, Australian.

and that's the way things are.

[rabcbroon]

Actually many French can and do speak English, except when talking to a Brit!

Hving worked and lived in France i can tell you that you are very wrong

[ballzafire]

atleastwithenglishspacesbetweenwordsareusedssoitisaloteasiertoreadthanthailaoand

afewotherseasianlanguages

[tutsiwarrior]

in Nicaragua they ain't got no road signs or even road names...you direct people to a destination in Managua by using the lake as a point of reference. Back in the 80s the americans reckoned it was a plot to bamboozle them during an invasion...

[neverdie]

atleastwithenglishspacesbetweenwordsareusedssoitisaloteasiertoreadthanthailaoand

afewotherseasianlanguages

Sorry, you have a spelling mistake in there, you used one too many 's' between the words 'used' and 'so'.

[ballzafire]

andanotherproblemwithmanyseasianlanguagesisthatduetothefactthatallthewordsarejum

bledtogetherwithoutspacesitwouldbeverydifficulttodesignaspellcheckerforsuchlangua

ges

[zzaa09]

This happens all over the world.....

Nonsense. It's not that common nor accepted.

[neverdie]

in Nicaragua they ain't got no road signs or even road names...you direct people to a destination in Managua by using the lake as a point of reference. Back in the 80s the americans reckoned it was a plot to bamboozle them during an invasion...

they don't need any help to get confused.

watch this and see what i mean

[zzaa09]

.... is required in the main city areas, but why in Thailand is English text so widely used including the rural areas?

Huh? Rural areas...?? Where?

[zzaa09]

Imagine the threads on TV whinging about road signs if they where only in Thai!

....then they'd have a language to learn, wouldn't they?

[MrHammer]

I am ever so glad that the second language in Thailand is English,and NOT French or German

France is the most foreign country -as an English speaker - that i have ever worked in. It is almost impossible to get by if you don't speak French. The French are quite ignorant to the fact that English is the favoured world language and very few speak English - or take showers regularly!

It's very funny how the French are always the laughing stock. It's never the Germans or Italians, always the French.

Unless you live in upper middle class areas in Thailand it's also difficult to get by without speaking any Thai, if you want to do more than ordering beer.

[garyh]

Try asking Thai people for directions, a little while ago went to buy some stuff from an ad on TV classifieds, the woman would not give the address, best she could do was how to get there from the local markets. My wife's family is amazed how I can find my way around with the GPS in my phone, they think I will get lost if go without a guide and not find my way back.