What year were you born? Three possible answers

Ask เกิดปีอะไร and you might get three kinds of answer. A Thai document year: Thailand counts years in the Buddhist Era, พ.ศ., which is 543 years ahead, so someone born in 1990 says 2533. A Western year, for foreigners' sake. Or an animal: the twelve-year cycle has its own Thai names, such as ปีชวด (rat), ปีมะเมีย (horse) and ปีจอ (dog), and people use them to work out each other's age without asking directly, and to talk about character and luck. Your ID card, driving licence and contracts here will show พ.ศ. dates, so subtracting 543 is a skill worth having.