Maybe Thai's should read more novels...

[spidermike007]

I tend to find the Thai people I have met who are avid readers are usually a lot more intelligent than the ones who aren't. Same for people anywhere I feel really...

Well, reading opens the mind, expands the brain, exposes the reader to a whole new universe, stimulates creativity, and generally makes the reader a better person, and a more rounded individual. So, of course the Thais who are open minded and thoughtful enough to want to read, would appear to be more intelligent than their more sluggish counterparts. The lack of desire to read here is a plague. It is one of the greatest challenges this country faces, and one of the reasons for the dramatic lack of curiosity on the part of many of the people. It is up to society, and the educators to instill in the the youth, a fascination with both the world, and reading as a way to discover the world around them. That just does not seem to be happening.

[blabth]

I think it is a problem with the school system have a look in the book ask for some translation and than u see that the content is boring. Now after everybody has Internet even the comics are out as they can see the Korean soap operates at any time of the day.

My Wife ( Thai) want to through away books when I finished reading them. which I can't do. For me a book is something special. I never did hear about a famous Thai poet at least which I know, therefore I never read any Thai poetry may be is boring?

[Thaddeus]

I never did hear about a famous Thai poet at least which I know, therefore I never read any Thai poetry may be is boring?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khun_Chang_Khun_Phaen

[Prbkk]

Only a myopic culture would insist on inventing their own script rather than using the Arabic alphabet like most of the human race.

Japan and China are an exception, their written language is ancient, passa Thai is a pretty new one!

The Thai culture bashing makes me want to correct you:

I think you mean Roman alphabet. The Arabic alphabet looks like Arabic. We do use Arabic numbers, though

Most of the world certainly does not use the Roman (or Arabic) alphabet.

Japanese is a new language. Thai is based on Sanskrit which is old.

To all intents and purposes , Thai is a 'dead' language. Fewer than 100 million speakers, zero interest in anyone outside Thailand learning it as a foreign language, no cultural or literary significance, not a language of science. Keeping Thai as the only language of instruction is a hindrance to Thailand's development: it should be abandoned in favour of English. Thai should be the first language children learn at home but the language of instruction at school and university should be English ( much the same way Singapore and Indonesia function already). In 2 generations Thailand would become a fully developed country but still able to maintain its 'thainess'.