What's in a name?

So no pictures in this post.  Don't despair just yet--the next one will be full of elephant pictures!  I just need some time to sort through all of them.  In the meantime I will tell you a bit about the culture of nicknames here in Thailand.  At birth every Thai is given a full name, which is used on formal occasions and for official documents.  However, they are also given a shortened nickname.  This nickname is often an English word, and can reflect the interests of the parents or resemble the full Thai name.  For example, if the full name has to do with bringing wealth to the family, the nickname might be Bank.  Other examples are Golf, Bird, Pear, and Fiat (all people I have met).  Fiat was one of our Thai OEG leaders in Bangkok.  His full name is about wealth, so his first nickname was Bank.  However, when he was a baby he fell asleep really well in Fiat cars, so his parents changed his name to Fiat when he was a year old.  These nicknames are used by everyone (family, friends, etc.)  All in all it seems to be a pretty interesting system.  I guess I would just hope to get a name that reflected me.

Another interesting tidbit is that Thai schoolchildren NEVER tell their friends/classmates the names of their parents.  We learned this when doing practice lesson plans, and one group had the idea of teaching  relationships using a family tree.  Fiat told us that we would run into problems there because the students would not be willing to tell the class the names of their parents/grandparents.  Apparently if young Thais learn their friends' parents' names, they will mercilessly tease them by calling them by that name.  I can't say I really understand it, but it is quite widespread.  So we were also warned not to tell our students our parents' names, lest we want to be called "Linda Linda Linda!!!!!" all the time.  Seems like an odd practice, but hey, whatever.

So that is the update for today.  I took a 10 hour bus ride to Nan and am getting settled into my room now, but I will tell you more about that later.  Right now I need to go out and get some hangers and soap...super exciting!