Which Daily Paper To Choose To Practice Reading

[siam2007]

Hi,

even my Thai reading skills are still on a somewhat low level, I want to start practising by trying to read daily papers.

which one would you recommend ? politically rather neutral (at least no "REDSHIRT" - Propaganda) and please, NO smashed bodies of Murderings or accident-victims.....

or any other suggestions ?

[meadish_sweetball]

Matichon, especially the weekend edition, is the best for proper Thai.

If you want to dive straight into the newspaper slang then go for Thai Rath or Daily News, but be prepared to not understanding anything of the headlines, and also to find articles where the sentence constructions do not always make sense even after having decoded the slang.

You will need an educated native Thai speaker to help you. If you are not yet at a level where you can follow an explanation given in basic spoken Thai, I would advise to hold off on the newspapers for a while until you do, and instead try something like Thai Basic Reader, to get a solid foundation in how Thai should be written. Journalists are generally not the best role models.

[painai2]

I read the Daily News. I think current events are covered about the best. Plus, only 10 baht (cheaper than the Bangkok Post).

[Tod Daniels]

While I could be delusional , I'd like to think I can hold my own reading most things thai, especially things I have an interest in. Overall I’ve found the most of the popular thai newspapers a tough slog to read with any comprehension .

The print media has the proclivity for using TONZ of abbreviations; some so obscure, even thais who read the paper don’t have a clue to the meaning either .

The government is stuffed to overflowing with the Ministry of this, Ministry of that, and the Ministry of the other. Nearly everyone in any official capacity or in a government department has a mile-long thai name to boot!! It can be a tough row to hoe to discern what is actually going on .

About the only person who’s routinely referred to as a single easily understood, (yet in my opinion a mocking derisive name) is the current Prime Minister; อภิสิทธิ์ เวชชาชีวะ. He’s almost always referred to as มาร์ค (Mark) in the thai papers.

Conversely; I’ve found that ANY thai ‘scandal sheet’ which talks about the thai superstars; ดารา are quite easy to read. They’re often insightful in their use of idiomatic expressions when touching on subjects usually not talked about openly in the news. Plus, at least to me; they seem to be ‘written down’ or at least written in a more understandable version of thai like; ภาษาพูด or ภาษาพื้นๆ.

I’ve also found thai magazines quite enjoyable to read as well, even english magazines which have a thai language edition.

While I do routinely buy both the ไทยรัฐ (Thai Rath) and the เดลินิวส์ (Daily News),(mostly because they’re sold everywhere and are cheap as chips to buy ); alas my comprehension of them is woefully inadequate .

Good Luck.

[kpmsprtd]

Read what you're interested in. It doesn't matter if it's true crime stories or motorcycle magazines. Make it as enjoyable as possible. You'll read more that way.

[Tod Daniels]

FWIW: you’re gonna be hard pressed to find ANY thai newspaper which doesn’t show MANY policemen standing around, ALL pointing at the (obviously) dead body (even if the brains scattered on the ground are blurred out).

That’s just thai news. ..

My advice; suck it up & deal with it, don't look at the pictures if they distress you, read the articles. ..

[katana]

The other thing with crime stories in the Thai press is that at the start you invariably get a long list of all the names of the police along with their various ranks 'who rushed to the scene' on being alerted to the incident. Sometimes it can take up several lines of print. Police lieutenant colonel Chawilit Prasopsinlapa...police major general Atcharat Mentanont etc

I guess the police alert the press to the story, and afterwards get to see their names in print.

[RickBradford]

I'm interested in international sport, so I buy the Daily News and head straight for the back section -- you get good practice at transliterating foreign names, some good slang and it's generally much easier than the news pages for the reasons stated by other posters. Matichon Weekend is good, and I've just begun ม่านเหล็กททมิฬ (Gorky Park) which I've previously read in English and expect to finish the Thai version in 2025 or thereabouts.

[nicholasday]

I quite like Sarakhadi Magazine. Tend to be able to read it without too much trouble and find it quite interesting. Is just a monthly but I never end up reading the whole thing. When in bookshops it tend to pick up factural stuff (the language is easier to read than literature). There are a number of things with short little chapters about a variety of things. I find that better as then my concentration doesn't waver. Although I always end up buying far more books than I ever actually get round to reading.