Uncurious Thais

[Gadfly]

I have intentionally stayed away from the â??How dumb are Thaisâ? thread for various reasons (maybe I am â??PCâ? and donâ??t recognize it), but I do think there is somewhat related subject worth discussing and it is mentioned in todayâ??s Bangkok Post, which raises an issue that has always piqued my curiosity.

 

This (Thailand) is not a reading culture. In todayâ??s (Friday) Bangkok Post, page 9, there is an article entitled â??Getting Children to Read Good Books, where the author cites statistics showing that â??Thais on average read only six lines a dayâ?¦â? (I cannot find the link.) The article is written by a Thai author, Khun Ploenpote. Take a look at your average Thai newspaper, and even you canâ??t read Thai, you will notice the front page consists mostly of sensationalistic and often gory pictures. If you can read - even only the headlines - you will discover that the vast majority of the articles are about movie star gossip or grisly murder. Compare this to the International Herald Tribune. Or peak over the shoulder of a Thai reading something on the BTS or MRT and, more than often, you will find a comic book in his or her hand.

 

I wonder if what some here refer to as â??dumbnessâ? is really something else â?? a lack of worldliness or knowledge about the world at large. Or perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that Thais are often â??uncuriousâ? about the world around them. (The same thing is said of GWB). Anyone who lives here, and those who teach English here in particular, knows that the level of competency in English here is relatively low, and I wonder if this creates a self-reinforcing cycle of incuriosity?

 

The market for Thai language reading materials is relatively low, which limits the variety of materials available in the Thai market, which, in turns, makes that market less interesting to potential readers. Efforts to translate materials from English to Thai are often counterproductive. There was an article in the Far Eastern Economic Review years ago about an effort to improve the quality of Thai engineers which involved a very large project to translate large numbers of English language engineering textbooks to Thai. It was an expensive project, and because of the tremendous expense involved, Thai universities in the late 1990s where still using engineering textbooks that were translated in the late 1970s. I am no engineer, but I suspect engineering has changed a bit in the past 20 years.

 

That has certainly occurred in economics and finance, and I know that in those areas, I see and read (from policy makers) ideas that were discredited about 20 years ago in most of the world (there are exceptions on the fringes, and we have seen that here). Contrast that with English:

 

Riding the crest of globalization and technology, English dominates the world as no language ever has, and some linguists are now saying it may never be dethroned as the king of languages.

English Language

 

Even if you read English well, if you are Thai and you live in Thailand, Thai is your first and most comfortable language and your colleagues do not, it must be hard to stay current. You're colleagues are generally not current in their field, and this is a culture that values conformity.

 

If you are a foreign iconoclast who stubbornly sticks to outmoded ideas, you might find Thailand a particularly receptive client. There was an article recently elsewhere about how many, but not all of senior Thai academics, were educated abroad in the 1960s and 1970s, and how many of the ideas and views that were in vogue then, are now pretty much discredited. This means that even in the academic world here, things may also be a bit out of date. Makes me wonder...

 

In a society where the level of education is generally low, this may explain why Thais (they certainly arenâ??t dumb) appear so uncurious. And this why some of the foreign misconceptions about Thais and Thailand.

 

Just a few thoughts while I try to stay dry and out of the Song Kran madness.

[Flashermac]

The Thai educational system, especially in the lower grades, doesn't exactly encourage reading or in fact teach much about the world. Since the required schooling is only 9 years -- and even that is ignored in rural areas -- young Thais have never really acquired a reading habit.

 

 

 

 

[cavanami]

The electricity went off for about two hours this morning. I picked up a book and started to read. The teerak just sat and stared at the wall.

I suggested that she read something...got the "deer in the head lights look" and she continued to stare at the wall.

 

Zero interest to read...maybe it makes them think too mutt???

[sanddawg1]

My experience with Thais is limited to BGs; but during a couple of LT sessions I did notice the only thing they read was gossip and glamour magazines.

 

S1

 

[junglesoup]

I think generally Thais dont read that much. But I m sure non bar girls read abit more. I bought my girlfriend Brief History of Time by hawkin, translated into Thai. The Thai girl in thew shop at the Carrfour at Onnut looked impressed that I could read this in Thai. I made her none the wiser. But anyway my girlfriend seemed very thankful for it, and she did read most of it.

Also if you go to the stock exchange of thailand resource centre on anyday you will see many young thais with their heads buried in books. And they have alot of books in their.

But generally alot of Thais dont read. BTW Gadfly,very good observations and abit more reasoned than the person who wrote "how dumb are Thais?"

 

[thalenoi]

Indeed, I see very few thais reading when waiting at airports or bus stations. I always have a book with me to read.

 

At a very young age I frequented the childrens libray in my home town, way before I was 12 years old. Is it because thai reading is difficult???

 

BTW, I encourage the gf to read since I read a lot myself. We rarely watch TV.

 

Oh, and on this board I find more stupid farangs than I have ever met stupid thais although I am the OP of "how dumb are thais".

 

I feel an urgent need to start "how dumb are Thai360 members?"

[Julian2]

I know a lot of Australians for whom the only books in the house are full of phone numbers.

Like most of them.

[cavanami]

...and they read the phone books in Oz? Strong people!

[Flashermac]

Nah, they think it's The DaVinci Code and are trying to figure it out.

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

But I m sure non bar girls read abit more. I bought my girlfriend Brief History of Time by hawkin, translated into Thai.

 

By a coincidence I finished that book a couple of days ago (Swedish translation). I'm curious if your gf understood most of it. I have a B.Sc. in CS and Numerical Analysis which includes a year of math and I had problems understanding parts of it. Even tough the book contains only one simple formula and is written for lay people there are still many concepts that are difficult to apprehend.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

 

P.S. I'm not suggesting that your gf is stupid.