Not entirely accurate, some overgeneralizations, but not a useless overview. Some points of correction/clarification: English is not the most widely spoken language besides Thai, if by "Thai" one means the official version of the language as it is taught in schools; variations of the Laotian language--in Thailand referred to as 'eesan' or 'lao'--by far make up the largest second language of the country. For historical/nationalistic reasons, this is downplayed (Thai schools actually teach children that the 'eesan' language is a "dialect" of Thai, something akin to asserting that French is a dialect of Italian. This has its roots in the nationalistic effotrts around the turn of the last century--early 1900s--to present to would-be colonial powers that 'Thailand' was/is a unified and indivisible political entity)...On aother more trivial note, the Thai words for 'rice' and 'food' are not synonyms. There are two dissimilar words, 'kow' for rice and 'ahaan' for food. However, it is common practice to refer to food that is typically eaten with rice (such as curries, stir-fried dishes, etc.) 'gap kow' (literally, "with rice"--as in, the food to be eaten with rice), and the common way to invite someone to join you in a shared meal is 'ma gin kow' ('come eat rice'). ALso, on a somewhat trivial note, this article is a bit out of date (I'm writing my comment in late 2009), in that, for instance, the "teachers training colleges" referenced in the article have been renamed/restructured for a decade or more--first as 'sataban rajabhat' (Royal Institutes or Rajabhat Institutes), more recently as free-standing universities (most campuses using Rajabhat in their names, such as Rajabhat University-Phuket). It is an overgeneralization. on another note, to suggest that Thai people "do not shake hands" but rather "wai" in greeting. While it is certainly commonplace for people to "wai" each other, it is also not unusual to see people shaking hands, especially old friends reuniting, with a handshake and pats on the back (among men; among women friends shaking hands is more of a silly, playful gesture)...and so on. All that said, I acknowledge the intention of the one who posted this article to present an overview of information, and like I said, it is not useless.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Sr-Z/Thai-Americans.html#ixzz3twBZTmK1