About Thailand
Jul 18, 2009
The Kingdom of Thailand or simply Thailand is a country located in Southeast Asia.
Thailand is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with King Rama 1X serving as head of state and a prime minister as head of government.
The country is divided into 76 administrative changwats (provinces), which are further divided into districts and sub-districts. The population is mainly Thai with minority groups including Chinese, Akha, Lisu, Karen, Hmong, ‘mountain people’ in the north and Muslims in the south.
Thai culture
Religion
The majority of the Thai population are Buddhists with minorities of Muslims (in the Southern Thailand), Christians and Hindu’s.
Language
The national language is Thai but most of the people in Bangkok and in other major cities can speak English. Thai universities offer a wide range of English programs for international students.
Currency
Thai Baht is the Thai currency €1,- = 47 Thb. This can fluctuate day by day.
Cuisine
Rice is the main dish that always pairs with flavoured, exotic shared side dishes such as: curries, salads, stir fried vegetables, grilled poultry and seafood. A replacement for rice meals is the variety of (soup) noodles that are served with the 4 standard ingredients: fish sauce, chilli vinegar, sugar and dried chilli. You can add these 4 ingredients into your own noodle bowl and adjust it to your own favourite taste.
The Thai cuisine varies from district to district; the South of Thailand is characterized by its fresh seafood, spicy curries and the various kinds of shrimp chillipaste. In the Northern part of Thailand they use a lot of meat dishes mixed with Thai herbs. As in North eastern part of Thailand also well known as the Isarn area, is well known for its sticky rice with side dishes such as the famous papaya salad Somtam, grilled chicken and its mixed salads.
Thai food has a wide variety of different dishes and every dish has a different taste but there are two ingredients that cannot lack in the Thai cuisines these are chilli peppers and fish sauce. However you can always request to serve your food not spicy.
Gestures and formalities
Instead of the handshake Thai people do the waai this means put your hands towards eachother and place them near your chest meanwhile make a light bow. The waai can be used for greetings, thank you and for an apology. Also make sure when you are invited to someone’s house to take of your shoes and bring a small gift with you.
Developments in education
The following developments affect education:
· Education is compulsory up to and including the first stage of secondary education. This means: five years of primary and three years of secondary education.
· Increasing demand for higher education is being met by a sharp increase in the number of private universities.
· A quality assurance and accreditation system has been set up for educational institutions. See also: Education system, under Quality assurance.
· The former Rajabhat institutes have been upgraded to universities.
For further information, please also see the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
www.minbuza.nl/nl/reizenlanden/landen,thailand.html.