>When I was in Thailand I noticed what appeared to be at least 2 different alphabets: newspapers, street signs, billboards would often display totally diferent-looking characters. What's all that about?

Probably just stylized fonts. The Thai alphabet has something like 44 consonants and 22 vowels and half a dozen tonal markers and I've seen some pretty creative renditions of most of the letters.

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>One thing I did learn about the Thais is that if you don't smile when you address them they think you might be displeased with them. It taught me a lot about our western po-faced delivery and to smile at strangers, such as shop-keepers, bar-keeps, someone I ask direction of in the street, etc.

Thais smile all the time. Means nothing. Most frustrating thing in the world is to try to argue - Western style - with a Thai. they just won't play. But they have raised passive aggressive to an art form almost unknown in the West and communication can be just as blunt - just done differently. Smile - and show the sole of your foot - or approach a table of seated people while standing upright and you'll get the message across faster than shouting across the pub or spitting in somebody's beer would in English.




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>>In Thai the written language (alphabet based on Sanskrit ) has tonal markers - just part of the spelling. Sometimes the spelling is just completely different ( different 'M' used - based on origin of word ) Not sure in Chinese - just different characters I guess.
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>>Of course sometimes the tonal differences are part of dialect and the written language may only reflect one version of the language. ( definitely the case in Lao. In Cambodian a missionary for Wycliffe Bible Society actually had to develop a written language for "high" Cambodian so he could translate the Bible into that very distinct flavor of the language. - pretty sure he was the only person that ever read it that way but ... )
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>>>>It is just so conceptually different to have the pitch/tone of a word determine its meaning. The word 'ma' in Thai can mean mother, dog, horse, or come depending on the tone. Thai has only 5 tones. Lao has 7 or 9. I think Mandarin has 5 and Cantonese 9. I've never been able to hear the distinction of more than 7 and then only in controlled drills. You can get it from context, usually, but when speaking it is unlikely you'll get it right except by accident <g> unless you've spoken it from childhood.
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>>>>We are so used to changing the pitch of a word to inflect meaning to the sentence that it is a hard habit to break.
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>>>How do they understand the written word (a book or newspaper), by context?
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>>>>It also explains why vocal music in Chinese is really awful to Western ears. <g>
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>>>That it does.