Thais Read Less, Watch More Tv

[george]

Thais read less, watch more TV

BANGKOK: -- Thai people spent less time reading books, but used more time watching television, according to the National Statistical Office.

66.3 per cent of people over six years old spent their time reading last year, or 2.8 per cent lower than that of 2005.

33.7 per cent were people who decided not to read, and 54.3 per cent of those chose to watch television instead.

The top four reasons for the non-readers were they did not have time to read, lacked interest, hated reading, or were illiterate.

With this behaviours, Thai people may have less imagination, the National Statistical Office secretary-general Thananuch Threethipyabut pointed out.

As for the readers, they spent about 51 minutes reading per day in 2005 and 39 minutes last year.

71 per cent of readers read newspapers.

Youths spent about 46 minutes reading a day in 2008.

Mrs Thananuch urged the public and private sectors to promote reading by selling books at cheaper prices and renovating libraries to draw in more people.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)'s ICT Centre may help improving libraries in the country, she said.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-03-31

[Jingthing]

Cheaper books won't help. Perhaps paying people to read in group rallies with colored shirts might do it.

[johna]

66.3 per cent of people over six years old spent their time reading last year, or 2.8 per cent lower than that of 2005.

I have never seen any thing like this number of people reading in my neighborhood, newspaper's magazine's yes, books never!!

[bonobo]

More and better tv means fewer people reading.  I would imagine that the US reading rate has plummeted as most homes get hundreds of televisions stations with networks dedicated to even obscure topics.

I would say that more Thais read than Americans.  I have no figures for that.  It is merely my gut feeling from my casual observations. But let UBC actually approach the offereings shown in other countries, well, expect the Thai reading level to drop even further.

[MisterMan]

More and better tv means fewer people reading. I would imagine that the US reading rate has plummeted as most homes get hundreds of televisions stations with networks dedicated to even obscure topics.

I would say that more Thais read than Americans. I have no figures for that. It is merely my gut feeling from my casual observations. But let UBC actually approach the offereings shown in other countries, well, expect the Thai reading level to drop even further.

Yes that is why there is a Thai Equivalent of Barnes and Nobles in every major area of Bangkok.

I think in Thailand they call magazines "books". Perhaps comic books also are considered books. This would certainly explain the 66.3%!

Edited March 31, 2009 by MisterMan

[wasabi]

More and better tv means fewer people reading.  I would imagine that the US reading rate has plummeted as most homes get hundreds of televisions stations with networks dedicated to even obscure topics.

I would say that more Thais read than Americans.  I have no figures for that.  It is merely my gut feeling from my casual observations. But let UBC actually approach the offereings shown in other countries, well, expect the Thai reading level to drop even further.

You may have seen things I have not but I have rarely seen a Thai in a cafe reading a book or have talked about a good book with any Thai person. I think the 66% figure interested in reading above is way to high. It has to be about 20% of Thai's or less enjoy reading. For some reason since I have been here I have become less interested in reading as well. I'm not totally sure why because I had plans to read all these books. It might be reading doesn't feel like it's part of the culture here. However I have been quite busy studying Thai as well.

I also think the internet cafe's are a big problem amongst the young. I have seen many groups of 8-13 year olds sitting around playing 1st person shooters all day instead of doing something productive like getting an education. I really fear for Thailand's future with the current dearth of intellectual curiosity amongst it's young.

[Jingthing]

I would say that more Thais read than Americans. I have no figures for that. It is merely my gut feeling from my casual observations.

Your gut is full of gut stuff on that one. The quality of what most Americans read isn't very high, but there is no comparison.

Among the findings, twenty-seven percent of adults read no books in the past year, and the median number of books read was four (excluding the non-readers, the median number of books read was seven).

http://imparo.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/few...-reading-books/

Edited March 31, 2009 by Jingthing

[TPI]

Thais read less, watch more TV

BANGKOK: -- Thai people spent less time reading books, but used more time watching television, according to the National Statistical Office.

66.3 per cent of people over six years old spent their time reading last year, or 2.8 per cent lower than that of 2005.

33.7 per cent were people who decided not to read, and 54.3 per cent of those chose to watch television instead.

The top four reasons for the non-readers were they did not have time to read, lacked interest, hated reading, or were illiterate.

With this behaviours, Thai people may have less imagination, the National Statistical Office secretary-general Thananuch Threethipyabut pointed out.

As for the readers, they spent about 51 minutes reading per day in 2005 and 39 minutes last year.

71 per cent of readers read newspapers.

Youths spent about 46 minutes reading a day in 2008.

Mrs Thananuch urged the public and private sectors to promote reading by selling books at cheaper prices and renovating libraries to draw in more people.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)'s ICT Centre may help improving libraries in the country, she said.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-03-31

It must have included students that read only "manga", not a bad way to introduce young people to reading...didn't we all start by reading comics and then move to Playboy etc...?

[fullservice]

No surprise. This seems to be another step in the wrong direction for Thailand. Watching TV breeds stupidity.

[Jingthing]

Reading anything serious is deviant behavior in Thailand. Luckily, I enjoy being a deviant.

[Sunderland]

No surprise. This seems to be another step in the wrong direction for Thailand. Watching TV breeds stupidity.

It is certainly popular in the USA ...

[samgrowth]

Thais Read Less, Watch More Tv

Thai Red Less, Watch More ASsTV.

[noahvail]

Thais read less, watch more TV

With this behaviours, Thai people may have less imagination, the National Statistical Office secretary-general Thananuch Threethipyabut pointed out.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-03-31

Oh, I don't know about that. That's a pretty imaginative way to write that sentence.

[BigSnake]

Have to concur with the National Stats on this one because I this is the case in my house and most if not all the homes in the Village, just a 2km walk(mid-pace) around the neighborhood around 8pm most are watching a soap on channel 7 or channel 5 as is my wife and daughter. Some of the kids read a comic book once in awhile when they are bored to kill time, a Newspaper, yeah right in their dreams.

[Rtwo]

I think that there's a bit of confusion here between actual reading and looking at cartoons.

[edwardmoulton]

Do you need stats? Did you ever see a Thai reading anything and if so anything other than a comic book? Let me know, I'll hire him/her! I won't stand by the phone for a candidate!!! haha

[TonySoprano]

lol at 60% of people spending their time reading and not watching tv. more like 6%

[henryalleman]

I agree with previous comments that most Thai people don't read novels. Just walk in to any book store. The most popular publications are about the Royal family, books written by monks or politicians or some general, Manga's, or books how to get rich or how to improve your career and be successful in life, besides the typical love stories for teenage girls.

Its very hard to find translated novels. My wife and I are reading fans. Numerous times I asked for a novel of world famous writers, because I like my wife read them. But its always a disappointment to find out those books are simply not available in Thai language. The staff is always very helpful to make a search in their database, but almost always without any result.

Besides the latest Harry Potter, The Da Vinci code, the 3 musketeers or Don Quichotte there is not choice much choice left.

And at last don't forget Internet, in Pre-internet time I did read about 2 books a week, now MAYBE 1 book a year.

And because its seems that Internet connections and TV is worthless in Thailand I took about 10 cases of books with me.

[balo]

Whats so surprising about this?

It's the same all over the world , Internet and TV dominating most of our time.

Books are history . I do all my reading online.

[samgrowth]

Whats so surprising about this?

It's the same all over the world , Internet and TV dominating most of our time.

Books are history . I do all my reading online.

I agree.

Technology change, so must we. I find nothing wrong with that.

When monkey start coming down from trees, some monkies complain that monkies now live more in houses than trees (which is more environment friendly).

[slapout]

Its too bad the people who proposed the survey and the ones wasting their time putting numbers together did not read any past surveys on individuals time watching the idiot box. This has been concluded many times since the introduction of tv. Reckon the same could have been said for radio when it was in its hay day.

[MisterMan]

Do you need stats? Did you ever see a Thai reading anything and if so anything other than a comic book? Let me know, I'll hire him/her! I won't stand by the phone for a candidate!!! haha

I know of 4 and one was because I bought the books.

Edited April 1, 2009 by MisterMan

[samgrowth]

Its too bad the people who proposed the survey and the ones wasting their time putting numbers together did not read any past surveys on individuals time watching the idiot box. This has been concluded many times since the introduction of tv. Reckon the same could have been said for radio when it was in its hay day.

And watch will they say about internet in the future?

[astral]

66.3 per cent of people over six years old spent their time reading last year,

From personal experience I find that figure very hard to believe.

Simple observation shows that very few Thai homes have any books to read.

I remember interviewing a Thai university graduate about 20 years ago.

On his CV he had listed reading as a hobby.

When I asked what he read, the answer was "Comics".