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In very-general terms, this kind of problem fits into the category called internationalization, an atypically-long word that is often typed simply as "i18n" (there are 20 letters in the word). A related topic is localization, typed as "l10n", with only rare thought of the biggest cats.
As well, Unicode and UTF-8 are related topics.
There are standards for representing dates, in particular those defined by the ISO.
Using the Gregorian calendar (common in Europe and countries with European influence), two typical ways of representing dates would be
Dec. 18, 2011 and
18 Dec. 2011. The first is popular in the USA, while the second is common elsewhere.
Another pair of forms is
12/18/11 and
18/12/11; the first is primarily US practice, and the second is for the rest of those who use the Gregorian calendar.
It's a good idea to show the three elements of a typical date in hierarchical order; US practice does not follow that.
The concise format "20111218" unfortunately can be ambiguous for days of the month that are 11 or less; I don't think "20111812" would be part of the ISO standard. (I hope not!)
In industry, date codes are sometimes in the format "yyww" where y's are the less-significant days of the year, and w's are the week of the year (iirc 53 max., at times); there are standards for defining weeks to avoid ambiguity.
Best of luck solving your problem!
I think the Thai alphabet is beautiful.
Best regards,
[nb]
amateur internationalist
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