Newspapers Any Good For A Newbie?

[Guest endure]

What kind of reading material would y'all recommend for a total newbie who's just bought 'Teach yourself Thai'? I'll be in the LoS for my Hols next week YAY! and I want to buy some reading material to take back home Boo! Are newspapers and magazines any good or are they too slangy?

BTW Meadish I see what you mean about RP in 'Teach Yourself Thai'. I'd never use a 'u' where they do in their Romanisation - 'a' sounds more appropriate to me.

[BambinA]

if i were u, i'd start with TH news paper in english lang. version before, for know the rough details.. after that i will start with so-called tabloid as

http://www.thairath.com/

http://www.dailynews.co.th/

http://www.komchadluek.com/

well maybe its good for browse links ..no need to buy real paper yet...

[jdinasia]

if i were u,  i'd  start with TH news paper in  english lang.  version before, for  know  the  rough details..  after that i will start with so-called tabloid as

http://www.thairath.com/

http://www.dailynews.co.th/

http://www.komchadluek.com/

well maybe  its good for  browse links ..no need  to buy real paper yet...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just bought the book? If you can read and understand I'll be amazed! Plus it is worth note that the written language is different than the spoken language. There's a cute book in Thai and English about the King's dog ThongDaeng ... might be worth getting.

[meadish_sweetball]

endure, I would shun the newspapers for another year at least, as the more common ones are *extremely* slangy and often have spelling mistakes. The book about Thong Daeng is a good suggestion, as are the simplest of children's books used for reading training. These will have large print text, use standard fonts and relatively simple sentence structures that are easier to analyze and understand.

However, if you still want to give it a go with newspapers, or for anybody else who is interested, here are some pointers based on my own experience:

Bambina's advice that you should find a piece of news in Bangkok Post and the Nation in English first and read it through is right on the money. Then you already have the picture clear in your head and will be able to concentrate on how the same thing is reported in Thai.

I would avoid the newspapers BambinA recommend though (no offense na khrap, N' BambinA, just my personal preference), for the reason that they tend to use more slang, more abbreviations and a sloppier language than some others.

The ones I would recommend for clearer writing and also for more in-depth and interesting articles are

Matichon (especially 'Matichon sut sappadaa', a weekly in-depth news magazine). The online version is here: www.matichon.co.th

Phuujatkaan (Manager) www.manager.co.th

The way you might benefit from these, is to copy the article you are interested in, into Mike's eminent site www.thai2english.com, which will then separate the words with spaces in betwen for you. That way it will be easier to read. You can look up each individual word in that site as well, and gain a deeper understanding.

This is what I do. However, if you still are not very familiar with Thai grammar and sentence structure, you might want to try something more simple first, as it is quite difficult to understand how the sentences are stringed together before you grasp the deep structure and know the most common sentence linkers and adverbials.

You can also buy the physical versions of the newspapers, underline the words you do not understand and look them up in a dictionary, online or physical. Then write glossaries for your texts. That way you will improve your vocabulary and writing skills instead of just your reading skills, as with the computer.

Hope that helps.

/Meadish

[Guest endure]

if i were u,  i'd  start with TH news paper in   english lang.  version before, for  know  the  rough details..  after that i will start with so-called tabloid as

http://www.thairath.com/

http://www.dailynews.co.th/

http://www.komchadluek.com/

well maybe  its good for  browse links ..no need  to buy real paper yet...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just bought the book? If you can read and understand I'll be amazed! Plus it is worth note that the written language is different than the spoken language. There's a cute book in Thai and English about the King's dog ThongDaeng ... might be worth getting.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd be amazed too

I just want a big pile of words and sentences to work on. Thanks for the suggestion. Is it widely available?

[Guest endure]

Thanks for all the info, folks. My friends in the UK get Matichon weekly so I can blag some copies off them. Are there any other books/mags that have both Englisg and Thai in the same book?

[meadish_sweetball]

Children's books often have both Thai and English... but most of the time the Thai version is translated from the English and thus different to Thai writing produced from scratch (different choice of words etc.). If you are aware of this it might still be interesting.

[Guest endure]

Thnaks for all the info and suggestions folks...

[sabaijai]

Thanks for all the info, folks. My friends in the UK get Matichon weekly so I can blag some copies off them. Are there any other books/mags that have both Englisg and Thai in the same book?

Matichon Weekly is an excellent place to practice your Thai, as it's more heavily illustrated than Matichon daily and is generally the cream of the crop in writing quality. I rarely miss an issue.

[Stephen Cleary]

One of the very helpful regulars here, has recommended reading through a story in the English language tabloids before even attempting to translate it from a Thai daily...as source material.

I agree.

However, you will find that many of the main headlined stories in the Thai dailies don't even get mentioned in say.....The Bkk Post or The Nation. Why?

Most of the main headlined news in the Thai tabloids is very local indeed and deals very much with 'movie star' goings-on, a raping, a drug-bust, a murder or a suicide etc... The local Thai language dailies enjoy delving into the subtlest of details such as the Pol. Cpt who received the original cop-call, to the ins and outs of the deceased relatives and their addresses etc...

The Thai abbreviations alone, are already going to take a lot of in-depth knowledge into the govt structure etc.., trans directly from Thai>Eng is not enough.

Then you have the say... stories regarding the everyday strikes against the forces operating in the south, or write-ups on the latest political intrigue. Here, yet again, the Thai language tabloids go into far more detail than the English versions. So, even if you have read the equivalent story in Eng. the Thai version could be found to be too much of an uphill battle to contend trans with.

Personally, i recommend Thai cartoon books as learning material to those who have attained a decent sound knowledge of workable, spoken Thai. Not only do they assist in the building of vocab skills but also offer an insight into the Thai sense of humour etc.. One is also able to improve their skill of reading Thai characters in handwritten form.

Til this day, i still love the goings-on of 'Noo-Hin' or 'Noo-Hin Inter' the Isarn maid in Bangkok and the characters of 'Maha-Sanook' - a sister publication.

Edited January 5, 2006 by stevesuphan