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Thais are Number 2 in Amount of Time Spent Reading

bonobo

By bonobo
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watcharacters Gold Member

watcharacters

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I saw the below-ranked list and found it interesting that Thailand ranks #2 in the world behind India in the amount of time they spend reading.

http://rbth.ru/multimedia/infographics/2013/06/28/readers_around_the_world_27511.html

Reading what? Facebook?

.

When I once remarked to a friend about a panhandler we saw daily who was always reading, I said he may be reasonably well read. Keith said he's probably just reading the same page over and over and over.

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Wavefloater Silver Member

Wavefloater

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Outside the workplace, the only books I ever see Thais reading are those comic books that are so popular. But there are many Thais who read them quite often, so I guess that counts to boost the numbers. Unfortunately, reading those books do nothing to enlighten or educate people.

aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

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Time spent reading doesn't necessarily correlate to reading comprehension. Still, I find this difficult to believe, if not impossible. Thais are so well read, but don't know the most infamous political leader / political movement of the 20th century?

How was this information collected? How many responded to the survey in each country? How were the respondents chosen? (In undeveloped and developing countries, only the educated classes would likely be in a position to respond to an international survey. Ittipon and Warawut are too busy in the fields.)

Here is another rankings list; though it's from 2010 and doesn't rank the entire world: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading (Thailand isn't an OECD country and thus isn't being ranked, so take what you will here. Just food for thought.)

Edited by aTomsLife
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NBD Silver Member

NBD

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Maybe they just read slowly? Time spent reading does not equal reading a lot.

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dao16 Silver Member

dao16

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No mention of how they got this data. This is all bunk. I won't bother talking about the US, Canada or Europe, but just for an Asian comparison.....they have Korea at the bottom of the list, which couldn't be further from the truth. Go into a subway or a bus in Seoul at any time of the day or night and people are reading....tons of them. And not comic books. Some for study, but some just to keep up with ideas going around in the world. This whole thing is bunk.

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Jasun Gold Member

Jasun

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Doubt they're referring to Facebook, the countries with the highest internet penetration (Korea and Japan) were at the bottom of the list.

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hanno Platinum Member

hanno

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The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

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TheWalkingMan Platinum Member

TheWalkingMan

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Japan next to last? That I do not believe. I see people on the train reading books, newspapers etc all the time. There are new and used bookstores all over the place and they seem to do a good trade.

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aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

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The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

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hanno Platinum Member

hanno

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The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

Thai novelists:

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aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

Posted
Posted (edited)

The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

Thai novelists:

Edit: Double post.

Edited by aTomsLife
aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

Posted
Posted

The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

Thai novelists:

Good list. There are some young writers in there, too. Thanks!

I still don't regard Thailand as a literary society, like Vietnam.

aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

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The constant Thai bashing.

It's ThaiVisa Forums most popular activity.

Strange really.

Do you believe Thailand is a literary society? That the average Thai is well read?

Tywais Star Member

Tywais

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Looking at the chart I would venture a guess the countries less developed and with the least Internet access/infrastructure will by necessity have to choose hard/soft copy reading. And inversely with the developed countries where they can get their reading from the Internet. Just a supposition. smile.png

dao16 Silver Member

dao16

Posted
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The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

No, it isn't all Thai bashing....this study just does not reflect the truth. Take a trip to Japan, Korea, China and some other countries.......more reading goes on there than here.

It is a dumb study done by dumb people......

Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't have educated, well-read Thai friends. i am sure you do. I know some myself. But reading isn't the national pastime.

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hanno Platinum Member

hanno

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Looking at the chart I would venture a guess the countries less developed and with the least Internet access/infrastructure will by necessity have to choose hard/soft copy reading. And inversely with the developed countries where they can get their reading from the Internet. Just a supposition. smile.png

This is what I am thinking as well. In the West reading, al least of books and magazines, is on the decline.

I think you cannot judge a nation by what you see. I remember that I was in Pattaya lat year and if I judged by what I saw, I would assume that most Brits only read The Sunsmile.png

hanno Platinum Member

hanno

Posted
Posted

The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

True. If I was as miserable in Thailand as some of the posters appear to be, I would have been on a plane long ago. There seems to be much less of this here in Cambodia, which is a much less developed country in every aspect.

Berkshire Ruby Member

Berkshire

Posted
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Outside the workplace, the only books I ever see Thais reading are those comic books that are so popular. But there are many Thais who read them quite often, so I guess that counts to boost the numbers. Unfortunately, reading those books do nothing to enlighten or educate people.

I've never seen you reading a book. Do you think most Thais ever see you reading a book? So just because you've never seen Thais reading a book, that's supposed to mean...what? Zilch.

WitawatWatawit Platinum Member

WitawatWatawit

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Not in any way credible. Where's NZ on the list? Just a couple of decades ago, it was one of only 3 countries with a 100% literacy rate and the highest per capita consumption of books, newspapers and magazines in the world. Maybe it all changed when tens of thousands of Kiwis each year migrated to Australia, thereby raising the IQ of both countries.

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Zooheekock Advanced Member

Zooheekock

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Do you believe Thailand is a literary society? That the average Thai is well read?

I wonder how many of the posters on here read a real book in the last year. Not many, I suspect, though I have an equally strong suspicion that that won't be any kind of obstacle when it comes to berating Thais (or is that Thai's? Or Thais'? It's so confusing) for their (there? they're?) imagined failings.

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aTomsLife Silver Member

aTomsLife

Posted
Posted

The constant Thai bashing. My Thai acquaintances are all well read and spend lots of money at Kinokuniya or Asia Books (and not on comic books). Certainly better read than a lot of the people on TV, judging by some of the posts made.

It's simply a matter of being objective, nothing to do with bashing Thais. Your anecdotal experiences don't change the facts. Thailand isn't a literary society.

If I'm wrong, please send me a list of Thai novelists, essayists and/or biographers to read. Thanks in advance!

True. If I was as miserable in Thailand as some of the posters appear to be, I would have been on a plane long ago. There seems to be much less of this here in Cambodia, which is a much less developed country in every aspect.

People are quick to accuse others of Thai-bashing. I'm not saying it isn't common on this site, but if one is going to level the accusation, it should be backed up. Don't just resort to name-calling, the lowest form of argument.

Thailand's cuisine, when prepared by real Thai chefs, is world class in every way; the traditional dances are beautiful to watch; and many of the temples here are exquisitely designed and built. Culturally, there is much for Thais to be proud of, but their literary reputation (and general love of reading) isn't near the top of the list.

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