Thread: thais and books.

Can anyone suggest why thais don't read books? I know those horrible little comic books are popular but Detective Conan et al hardly strikes me as being great literature.
Has anyone seen a library in Thialand? (I know of only one library and thats a floating gimmicky thing sponsored by HM). Is there such a thing as a famous Thai writer. I know my school celebrated some poet a couple of months ago but thats the extent of my contact with it. For those guys who have travelled a bit more than me is this lack of reading an asian phenomonen or is it only the thais who seem to have no interest in reading? Is it because their alphabet is just too ugly to look at for any length of time. Or does the Thai society in general lack the concentration span to be able to digest anything without pictures or more than two hundred words long. What do you think?

I think you're making more assumptions than you can handle.

Yes, there are a plethora of famous thai writers.

Some Thais do read voraciusly, just not generally in public, but rather at home. I'm acquainted with a number of them.

There may be a few more libraries around than you've noticed.

Yes, Asians generally don't read alot of novels in public or on public transportation.

Not everyone considers Thai script to be ugly, but quite the opposite.


ทำตัวตามสบาย

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature_in_Thailand

http://sunsite.au.ac.th/thailand/Tha...iterature.html

^ คุณนำความรัก และความสุขมาสู่ชีวิตผม

Originally Posted by jimbo

I think you're making more assumptions than you can handle.

Not assumptions Jimbo, just queries. Some of which you have helped to answer. thanks.

no worries.

Now I reckon theirs a combination of factors here. Books are expensive yes but English books are usually far to complicated and have many words that over use formal language. Thais are not taught to read at Pratom level and many libraries here are used as show pieces and locked most of the time. My students read everyday and love reading because I've written 80 books in the present simple at a level where they can enjoy them. Reading is a culture created by school. Its ignored here because it means buying books and spending money on students learning rather than financing the principal new Mercedes of buying new computers thatr look good for parents but eventually get syphoned off to senior management offices. Its really sad really because reading if taught is a skill where motivated kids can leanr independently, it can open up their world and when they can read, they can access computers better. My whole curriculum is based on the skills first and foemost of reading. I have 12 kids in P1 who can read. Suprise suprise their speaking is also the best and 4 of them are beginning to write. I've met countless students here who can't read for meaning and if they can't read for meaning they have no hope of understanding their textbooks. Hence they learn virtually nothing. Sad

^ try again

However, Jimbo reading your link on Thai literature it would lead me to believe thai litterature is relativley scarce. One poet, one old writer and a couple of kings isn't what I would term a plethora of work. I'm not trying to have a pop at the thais i'd just like to understand why a bit more

I know that there is a wealth of tabloid style newspapers, and pop culture magazines. I'm more intrested in the apparent lack of people reading "proper" books.