Can You Lose Yorself In A Thai Book?

[garro]

I try and read Thai everyday. I slowly work my way through books - the emphasis is on work. I find with reading Thai that it is never really for pleasure, and I never feel myself getting caught up in the story. I'm too busy focused on translation. What about other people? Can you now read for pleasure and find yourself lost in the story? Do you enjoy reading Thai as much as you do English?

[tgeezer]

I try and read Thai everyday. I slowly work my way through books - the emphasis is on work. I find with reading Thai that it is never really for pleasure, and I never feel myself getting caught up in the story. I'm too busy focused on translation. What about other people? Can you now read for pleasure and find yourself lost in the story? Do you enjoy reading Thai as much as you do English?

Definitely, but not in the sense that you mean. I can't imagine reading a foreign language for the pleasure a story might give. I wont live that long.

[siamesekitty]

Err.. not sure if you wanted to limit the discussion only to farangs but here goes

I actually enjoy reading English more than Thai. There are many reasons for this; one being that I actually learned to read and write English before Thai, so maybe it's easier for me. Another is that Thai doesn't have a lot of word breaks and paragraph breaks, so it's harder on the eyes.

I also think the availability of reading material is a factor. I grew up reading a lot of great books in English ("A Little Princess", "Chronicles of Narnia", "The Great Brain", etc.) and didn't find such kinds of books in Thai. So there aren't many Thai books I've found myself engrossed in.

I shy away from translated books (English -> Thai) because I can often do the back-translation and it distracts (and annoys) me. There are, however, some Thai novels that I like. One that I couldn't put down was "ปุลากง", a story about a young mia noi's child who grows up to become a quiet but good-hearted policeman (or soldier, not sure), working towards fostering peace and cultural understanding in the south.

เอ๊ะ .. พอเขียนประโยคสุดท้ายนี้ก็นึกขึ้นมาได้ว่า แฟนเราตอนนี้ก็ทำงานทางด้านนี้นี่หว่า (ยกเว้นเรื่องเป็นลูกเมียน้อยนะ) แปลกดีแฮะี...

Edited February 22, 2008 by siamesekitty

[tgeezer]

Err.. not sure if you wanted to limit the discussion only to farangs but here goes

I actually enjoy reading English more than Thai. There are many reasons for this; one being that I actually learned to read and write English before Thai, so maybe it's easier for me. Another is that Thai doesn't have a lot of word breaks and paragraph breaks, so it's harder on the eyes.

I also think the availability of reading material is a factor. I grew up reading a lot of great books in English ("A Little Princess", "Chronicles of Narnia", "The Great Brain", etc.) and didn't find such kinds of books in Thai. So there aren't many Thai books I've found myself engrossed in.

I shy away from translated books (English -> Thai) because I can often do the back-translation and it distracts (and annoys) me. There are, however, some Thai novels that I like. One that I couldn't put down was "ปุลากง", a story about a young mia noi's child who grows up to become a quiet but good-hearted policeman (or soldier, not sure), working towards fostering peace and cultural understanding in the south.

เอ๊ะ .. พอเขียนประโยคสุดท้ายนี้ก็นึกขึ้นมาได้ว่า แฟนเราตอนนี้ก็ทำงานทางด้านนี้นี่หว่า (ยกเว้นเรื่องเป็นลูกเมียน้อยนะ) แปลกดีแฮะี...

Don't worry he is probably not reading this or maybe there is something you don't know.!

!

[kriswillems]

I can read English books for the pleasure of the story (English is not my native language) even though there are some words I don't understand.

Now I am reading a Thai book and it's too hard for me to fully enjoy the story.

I selected this book because:

- the chapters are rather small

- the book doesn't have too many pages

The book I am reading is: ความสุขของกะทิ

I need to use my dictionary a lot. I'll be asking questions later on this forum about words and sentences I don't understand.

[kriswillems]

This is the way I am reading Thai books:

- I make a copy of every pages on scale 1.8/1

- This way I get a big letter book (or how do you call it in English?)

- This allows me to write my translations and comments between the lines.

This made me think. Does Thailand have big letter books for people with bad eyesight?

Can you find these book in most libraries?

[kokesaat]

I can read English books for the pleasure of the story (English is not my native language) even though there are some words I don't understand.

Now I am reading a Thai book and it's too hard for me to fully enjoy the story.

I selected this book because:

- the chapters are rather small

- the book doesn't have too many pages

The book I am reading is: ความสุขของกะทิ

I need to use my dictionary a lot. I'll be asking questions later on this forum about words and sentences I don't understand.

I gave ความสุขของกะทิ a stab, but found it slightly out of my league. But I hope to be able to tackle the book after a few more months of studying Thai. The English version is available in Thailand.....though, I'm not sure if it helps or hurts to have the English version. I'd be interested in the views of others on this particular subject (the pros/cons of having a readily available English translation to whatever you're trying to read).

As for reading for enjoyment, I get my enjoyment out of reading Thai the same way as many people get enjoyment from doing crossword puzzles. It's more of a game/challenge, but I take great pleasure in being able to read simple things like the instruction label on a tube of medicine or pack of noodles.

[Rikker]

The book I am reading is: ความสุขของกะทิ

I need to use my dictionary a lot. I'll be asking questions later on this forum about words and sentences I don't understand.

I'd say that's a good book to read for an intermediate learner. The chapters are extremely short, and it's written from the perspective of a child so it avoids complex subjects. The book is likable enough.

- I make a copy of every pages on scale 1.8/1

- This way I get a big letter book (or how do you call it in English?)

- This allows me to write my translations and comments between the lines.

That's a good strategy. I never made enlarged photocopies, but I used to underline and write all over Thai books I read. (The word in English is 'large print book', by the way.)

This made me think. Does Thailand have big letter books for people with bad eyesight?

Can you find these book in most libraries?

There are no large print books as far as I've seen, at least not generally available. Has anyone else ever seen them? I'm surprised the popular นิยาย magazines like my mother-in-law is always reading don't have larger print than they do, since middle-aged and elderly women seem to be the core audience.

(Since you mentioned libraries, even if there were large print books, public libraries are still relatively rare in Thailand, and most people have probably never used one. Most libraries are associated with a particular university or school, and not always open to the general public.)

[tgeezer]

I can read English books for the pleasure of the story (English is not my native language) even though there are some words I don't understand.

Now I am reading a Thai book and it's too hard for me to fully enjoy the story.

I selected this book because:

- the chapters are rather small

- the book doesn't have too many pages

The book I am reading is: ความสุขของกะทิ

I need to use my dictionary a lot. I'll be asking questions later on this forum about words and sentences I don't understand.

I gave ความสุขของกะทิ a stab, but found it slightly out of my league. But I hope to be able to tackle the book after a few more months of studying Thai. The English version is available in Thailand.....though, I'm not sure if it helps or hurts to have the English version. I'd be interested in the views of others on this particular subject (the pros/cons of having a readily available English translation to whatever you're trying to read).

As for reading for enjoyment, I get my enjoyment out of reading Thai the same way as many people get enjoyment from doing crossword puzzles. It's more of a game/challenge, but I take great pleasure in being able to read simple things like the instruction label on a tube of medicine or pack of noodles.

I dont think the English is useful you could find that you are only reading the English. A Thai English dictionary can help, but a Thai dictionary lets you compare the definitions and should be the only English vesion you need. I was told the way to read is to guess the meaning, and you need a bit of structure which fortunately is the same as English, once you can identify the components correctly it is easier. You can read and not use the dictionary as a first resort, puzzle over the meanings identify what sort of word it is and move on when you see the word again and again in different context it should become clearer, if it doesn't crop up again it wasn't worth knowing and what you would have missed wont matter plus you wont have wasted too much time with the dictionary. The good thing about books is that you usually know where to find the word again if you need it, if you flit around reading different things you often can't do that. It is important to start at the most basic level where the structure is manageable. I am with you on this puzzle aspect it beats Suduko hands-down.

[meadish_sweetball]

I enjoy English contemporary novels almost to the same degree as I do Swedish. It took many years of study, and a few years of constant effort to get there.

The rather tedious method I used and which I felt paid off the most, was to underline and look up every single word, phrase and sentence I found difficult to comprehend, and even learn these phrase lists by heart.

The spontaneous reading pleasure is lost when applying this method, so it might be a good idea to use books one has already read before (in translation, for example).

For myself it was Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler, Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich and probably a few others I've forgot about already, underwent this treatment.

I did start to do the same thing with Thai (newspaper articles and novels) and am convinced it would work just as well but take longer.

[bkkmick]

I'm jealous of you guys. The best I can do at the moment is get about 75% through the subtitles at the bottom of the UBC screen before they disappear and scanning through my wife's copy of Cosmo trying to match the name in Thai to the (Hollywood) actor (and looking at the pictures, obviously).

[kriswillems]

I use the same method as you. Meadish. I look up every word and sentence that I can't understand until I completely get it.

But English and Thai are somehow different, so the results of using this method also seem different.

Reading Thai doesn't help me to speak Thai much better, it just helps me to read faster and know more words.

Reading English helps me to speak English better.

Written Thai is very different from spoken Thai.

[Rikker]

I used to use the same method as Meadish and Kris, but I don't anymore (although I do keep a pocket-sized notebook for the occasional gem). It's not that I would no longer benefit from that approach--I know I would. But what I've found is that (1) my ability to discern or deduce the meaning from context has greatly improved, and (2) my ability to mentally retain the new word has also improved, meaning that the next time I run across it, say, in conversation, I can more easily recall the contexts I've seen or heard it in before, allowing me to either ask a question to clarify the meaning with someone (which is difficult to do when reading), or otherwise use the new context to refine my understanding of the word.

So while I know my lack of diligence is hurting me, right now this is the trade-off I make with myself.

And ultimately, this makes it a whole lot easier for me to "get lost" in reading, even though I still can't read with anywhere near the same degree of pleasure as English. I'm a pretty slow reader in both languages, I think. But I do get enjoyment out of it, and like Meadish said, reading things you've already read in another language is helpful, making it all the easier to understand the meaning from the context. My wife is nursing our two-month old (time flies!), and so lately I've been reading her the novel Jurassic Park in Thai. I tend to lose steam in long books like this, and after a month we're only about 80 pages in (I don't read to her from it every day), but it's still a lot of fun. I find I enjoy the thrill of comprehension as much as the thrill of the story itself.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Rikker

[Shuddee]

I thought this would be the most appropriate thread to post, as I'm a bit new around here and all. I have bought a book in English (I'm a native English speaker and can't read a lick of Thai). The book is called Fascinating Folktales of Thailand. I haven't read any stories in it yet, but it does have the Thai equivalent of each story and the story translated into English. They are the folktales that I guess Thais learn as young children. Actually, I take that back...I did read one story in the book already. It was recommended to me by a Thai teen I had volunteered at one time to teach.

I am also reading A Buddhist Way of Mental Training by Ven. Phra Dhammavisuddhikavi. He's Thai and talks quite a bit in the book (so far that I have read) about walking meditation and the art of mindful breathing to reduce stress and anxiety. It also promises to help you get along better with others. Interesting so far...especially in the nighttime when I'm ready to go to sleep. Relaxing reading to help me ease my mind from the day.