type theThing = { thing1: string, thing2: string };

and the actual object: const thing:Thing = { thing: 'hello', thing2:'more hello' };

"Thing" is not an object, I can't do Thing.new() etc. If I use a class in typescript it behaves just like you would expect C# / Java to.

This allows some really fun stuff with unions where I could do something like

const operateOnThings = (thing: Thing | Thing1 | Thing2) => { //do something based on what kind of thing it is }

Or I can build other types off of it like : type newThing = Pick<Thing, 'thing1'> & { newerThing: number};

Which is something I would have to do a lot of work with interfaces with in order to implement in C#. (I haven't done C# in a few years but I do love the hell out of it).