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Is a 6-Hour Clock Weird?
By Larry Westfall
Like most kids, I learned how to tell time from my parents and from watching the educational children shows on television. I learned that there were basically two time periods consisting of 12 hours each and learned how to read the clock and give the "half past" and the "quarter to" the hour. All was well and good until I joined the US Army and had to learn a new system - the 24-hour clock. This was fairly simple and all I had to do was add 12 hours to the time once it got past noon. So, now one o'clock became 1300 hours (thirteen hundred hours}. My Army job was in communications and we had another way to tell time - Zulu time. This was the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) zone and all military time was based on that one time zone. There had to be one, standard location for all military to use since we were a global force, even back in the 70's. Then, I retired to Thailand, and I had to learn how to tell time all over again The Thai people use a 6-hour clock and break the day into 4 time periods. If you only know the numbers in the Thai language and not the little words that go along with them, you can really get messed up trying to figure out what time it is. For example, in the Thai language "song" means two. So, if someone wanted to meet you at 2:00 PM, it would be "bai song" but if he wanted to meet you at 8:00 PM it would "song toom" and 2:00 AM is "dtee song" - so if all you know is the number "song" you will have a difficult time guessing which time to meet. Fortunately, there is a back-up if you are confused with the 6-hour clock. Thai government offices, airports, and bus and train stations use the 24 hour clock. So, if you can count to 24 in Thai, you are set. All you have to do is add "nah li gah" after the number. Two in the morning would then be "song nah lik gah" and 2:00 PM would "sip see nah li gah" - "sip see" being 14. Confused yet? I was for a while, and finally sussed out the 6-hour clock and it is not that difficult once you get used to it. I just hope I remember how to tell time the next time I visit America.
Larry Westfall is a retired expat living out his golden years in Khon Kaen, Thailand. He enjoys riding his mountain bike for daily exercise and looking for treasure with his metal detector .
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I'd like a look at the 6-hour clock. I was fascinated by a computerized "Prayer Clock" for muslims .. developed by Dr. Ahmed Bahat, an electrical engineer from Egypt. According to "New Scientist," the clocks are able to tell when and in which direction Muslims should pray, no matter where they are. After the owner enters his latitude and longitude - or the proper code for any of 200 selected cities - and the local time and date into the clockâs computer, the clock will buzz at the designated times for prayer. The clock also has a compass that can be set to point toward Mecca. Yikes, what next!
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Laraine - no actual 6-hour clock - the Thai people just break up the day into four 6-hour periods.
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This intel was contributed by larry
larry
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May, 2012
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