Thai Children Lag Among Asian Readers

[Unkomoncents]

What would Thais read? They have no literary culture to speak of. I was once told that the Thai government considers a literate person to be one who can read and write his/her own name.

"New lifestyles in which people spend their time playing games or surfing the Internet will probably affect their reading time. They are likely to spend a shorter time on reading," Worapan said.

Singapore and Vietnam also have the internet, but it doesn't seem to stop them from reading?! This is typical lame-brained Thai thinking (coupled with the oh-so-common unwillingness to look deeper into Thai-ness and take some responsibility for Thai problems). As other posters have pointed out in the Thai language: there is a culture of decadence, laziness and self-indulgence (mai sanook) in the Kingdom that is at the heart of the failure of the education system. Add to this a fairly rigid class system, and you have perfect storm of intellectual vapidness brewing. All one needs to do is observe Thai politicians speaking and then compare those politicians to their counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The ignorance and lack of communicative ability is indicative of chronic nepotism and cronyism that are the driving forces in Thai society (the lack of competitive advantage for many Thais definitely leans to relatively scam-happy populace all the way down to the grassroots). Merit-based promotion policies in the Thai civil service are just obviously non-existent. Skill and basic competence are not prerequisites for positions of power and authority in the Kingdom. All of these things act like a cancer to Thailand's intellectual advancement. They will need to create protections (that potentially violate ASEAN agreements) against the denizens of better educated, more aggressive neighboring countries.

[DocN]

If they read comics, that is at least something! At least it keeps some brain cells active!

I started reading when I was six, never stopped although it got less.

Partly, I blame "technology" and "progress".

In an ever more hectic world, that showers you with "information" practically everywhere (do I need to say it? Reading on a skytrain? not glaring without any expression into the ever- present TV- screens?), I guess the brain has to just "doze off" at some point and try to work through all the information it got un-voluntarily, instead of feeding more into it.

I am 45 now and when I was a kid, there were no Playstations, no Facebook, no 345 Tv- channels. My imagination could still run wild on Cowboys and Indians, on adventure stories with dinosaurs...

I wouldn't want to be a child nowadays, even less in Thailand.

Should I have a child one day, I will encourage it to read, because I know the joy it can bring.

But if you have parents and teachers (IF ...) that had no fun reading and an underdeveloped mind and no imagination and a brain flooded with unneccessary bullsh@t every second of the day...how will you know, what reading can do for you?

As long as children nowadays do not understand that reading can take you to far away places...even other planets and through space and time, because NO ONE tells them and helps them along...this is what you get!

...plus I agree on many of the other points made already!

[Gillespie]

Don't forget that Bangkok will be World Book Capital 2013. Someone's got a sick sense of humour.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/bangkok_designated_world_book_capital_2013/

[vijer]

I always ask my students when was the last time they read a novel? So far none have ever read a novel. All have read comic novels. All have read text books. None read for pleasure. Well I guess reading a comic novel might be pleasurable, about as pleasurable as watching Thai Soap Operas,

[culicine]

I, a foreigner, yesterday, had to explain to an ICU nurse, at a major hospital, who Borommaratchachonnani was. Typical. A future shock will be when citizens from the ASEAN community start flocking to Thailand and discover that this is a country that is not English spoken literate. Schools, teachers, paranoia, xenophobia and the system of hierarchies in Thailand are the culprits for the lack of language skills (or reading even in Thai) and continue with their archaic ways of making students into drones. Remove foreign investment and Thailand will become a country even more backwards. If flood preparedness is notorious for its absence during this and past administrations, we will have to wait, as usual, for yet another disaster to start relieving some of the ills that keep this country in the doldrums of its own failings. Symptomatic is Patani, which will become another torn war area before sensible solutions are pondered, let alone enacted.

That's astounding. As you might know, many nurses are educated at BCN's across the country, and you know what the "B" stands for......

[zyphodb]

Mai pen rai...... nang seu paeng!!

I got your other two posts but dunno what nang seu paeng means?

[culicine]

Mai pen rai...... nang seu paeng!!

I got your other two posts but dunno what nang seu paeng means?

Books are expensive

[barefoot1988]

its not as bad as you guys make it or perhaps im just circled around by local geeks. its the younger generation i guess, the same thing goes to everywhere.

i knew afew avid readers and casual novel readers who keep critizing a recent lakorn based on a novel played by nadech and yaya. they are bltching and comparing about a movie based on erotic novel now. most have international kindle, as the local models have restriction on some juicy book according to them

Edited October 3, 2012 by barefoot1988

[seminomadic]

I wonder if the complexity of the Thai script discourages learning to read.

I've proposed this to more than one of my closer Thai colleagues. The prevailing response is that yes it is harder than Western script but doesn't work as an excuse for being lazy to read since Thai people have been used to reading without spaces between words for so long already. I'm generalizing your 'complexity' here into maybe something other than what you intended. If you do intend strictly the complexity of rules/tones, then that is also a nonissue according to my sources.

[lizardtongue]

Most Thai women like to read 'Kussam Kussom' (not sure of spelling) however given the choice most kids would rather 'play' a game on phone or PC!

Reading is one thing but understanding what you have read is totally different I wonder if that has been taken into account in the survey?

[Bagwan]

I read an article by some guru who stated that the characters used in the Chinese languages were deliberately made difficult so that only the educated clerks who worked in the administration of the country could read. i.e. mushroom management. I understand that Rama V is considered 'the father of the Thai language' and if so, maybe he followed that train of thought.

Does anybody else see the irony here of debating the lack of reading skills in Thailand and yet the majority of posts are littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors? Just as Thais cannot be bothered to make an effort to improve their knowledge, neither can many who post here. A case of pots and kettles maybe?

[DrTuner]

Does anybody else see the irony here of debating the lack of reading skills in Thailand and yet the majority of posts are littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors? Just as Thais cannot be bothered to make an effort to improve their knowledge, neither can many who post here. A case of pots and kettles maybe?

Thread is about reading, not writing. I don't know how others read, but I for one do not go over every dot searching for grammatical errors, I try to decipher the message. That can be done without referring to grammar nazi's bibles.

Although on the other hand I can imagine the mayhem if someone writes a Thai word wrong. Loss of face, shootings, perhaps a civil war or some such. Maybe it's better they don't read.

[PoodMaiDai]

Books? Who reads books when you can spend all day at the gaming cafe playing games?

Books are for stupid foreigners.

[allan michaud]

Not true... there are plenty of books on how to pick your lottery numbers!

[DrTuner]

Not true... there are plenty of books on how to pick your lottery numbers!

Oh yes, correct, my wife reads one of those while spending quality time with the great white porcelain god. I've tried to read it but the script is way, way too small and the print quality is poor. I'm starting to have a creeping suspicion it's there as a backup in case the tissue runs out.

[meatballs]

Aren't those countries also Confucianist places where everybody goes crazy studying for exams?

I don't think any country should emulate that sort of system.

[chainarong]

I am surprised by this, one only has to see the difference in education between Singapore or Hong Kong to That's excellent high standards,how many air conditioners can be found in most schools, let alone books, so that students would like to come to school in the hot months.

Those with the power don't want an educated populous. They want the underclass to remain stupid and manipulated.

Yeah, I've been saying this for years, there's a hidden agenda from the top end of town, that's for sure, keep the bastards dumb.

[Skywalker69]

Don't forget that Bangkok will be World Book Capital 2013. Someone's got a sick sense of humour.

http://www.unesco.or...k_capital_2013/

I tought it was a joke, but it wasn´t.

[sangfroid]

Most Thai women like to read 'Kussam Kussom' (not sure of spelling) however given the choice most kids would rather 'play' a game on phone or PC!

Reading is one thing but understanding what you have read is totally different I wonder if that has been taken into account in the survey?

คู่ส้ราง คู่สม

Khu Sang Khu Som

www.koosangkoosom.com

[RubbaJohnny]

Perhaps it suits some to maintain ignorance and blind obedience

From JJ market I see more books in Chinese Japanese or Eurpean languages.

In wealthy countries there is a concern that twatter iPods etc will dumb down

this may only enhance illiteracy here

Probably all black Cambodian magic due to wrongly timed rain,better polish my amulet.

[kurnell]

My Thai missus is a very well paid senior manager in an international firm. She does not read for leisure at all. At work she has to read and write proposals in Thai and English, but that is the extent of her reading. Her mathematics is also appalling. When we are out shopping and there is a sale she has to ask me eg. how much 10% of 1,500 is. She struggles with my 6 year old's maths homework. She knows nothing of history, basic geography, the arts....I could go on.

I did a quiz at our office xmas party a few years ago consisting of questions that my 11 year old niece would answer in a heartbeat and my staff scored, on average 20%. Surprisingly, our uneducated messenger (so I thought) got one of the highest scores.

I am not the brightest spark, and during my youth I was probably considered a dill, but I have to say, and I am not trying to be intentionally cruel, but after 20 years in Thailand I am a mental giant or a Stephen Hawking compared to almost every Thai I have ever met.

[gk10002000]

After my first trip to Thailand in 2004, I gave the general population decent marks for their level of literacy. The reading and basic math counting was pretty good. I was a little dissappointed by the general lack of world geography or even the apparent lack of interest in things beyond the simple every day life. Now the USA has high statistics, but the average high school graduate in the USA I thought does not do very well. After 13 trips to Thailand, I still think their general literacy rate is pretty good. But I fell even more that they do not study or learn or seem to have much interest in learning beyond what is minimally required. Maybe too much "Sanook" or lack of it when applied to learning and reading and studying. I am an engineer with a few degrees and I don't expect the average person to enjoy time in a library or trying to learn new and hard things. I just seem to see the Thai system and culture give up too easily. Or they don't have enough steady home support to enable them to have some free time to relax and read?

Of course the new generation spends their time wiggling their fingers constantly on a Super Mario Brothers or endless chat and texting.