Thai 101

Project Gutenberg Thailand: Beta Testers Wanted

2011-04-02T12:34:00.003+07:00

[Update: Signup instructions and basic proofreading guidelines can now be found here. A big thank you to everyone who has shown interest in PGT.]

I'm looking for a few beta testers to help me work out kinks in a proofreading web application for Project Gutenberg Thailand.

I wrote a few months ago (see part 1 and part 2) about my long-held goal to setup a website dedicated to digitizing and disseminating public domain Thai ebooks. This new site would be called Project Gutenberg Thailand (PGT), an independent sister site to Project Gutenberg. The focus of PGT would be both books in Thai and books about Thailand whose copyrights have expired.

At the time I didn't have a web developer to help me get the ball rolling. Shortly after making those posts, my friend Ben Crowder (who has actually helped me since the earliest planning stages of the project back in 2007) stepped up to the plate and created a web application for proofreading or typing old books. The goal was to keep it simple.

Right now I need two types of beta testers:

1) Thai typists (native or advanced Thai reading/typing skill).

[EDIT: I've now uploaded PGT's first book for Thai OCR proofreading, using a newer printing of the epic poem ขุนช้างขุนแผน Khun Chang Khun Phaen. Volunteers working on Thai can now choose between a typing project or a proofreading project (or do both).]

2) English proofreaders (native or advanced English reading skill).

Due to the limits of Thai OCR, the text of older Thai books needs to be typed by hand. OCR for English is quite good, however, and needs only to be proofread and corrected against the original page image.

You do not need a large amount of free time. That's the beauty of distributed typing/proofreading. You do a page here, a page there, as time allows. So if you have some free time and are interested in volunteering some time to support this project, contact me by email (rdockum at gmail) or on Twitter (@thai101). As a beta tester I'll expect you to report bugs if you encounter them, suggest features you wish to see added, and so forth. There is no commitment, it's strictly voluntary. You know, sabai-sabai.

Thai government bans goods that "cause disunity"; will jail violators for 2 years

2010-11-19T15:20:00.010+07:00

[Update: Following this ban there was significant public and media outcry, and the Prime Minister, who had no prior knowledge of the ban, also joined in condemning it. CRES initially defied Abhisit's urgings, and claimed ex post facto that the ban only applied to items in violation of Thai LM laws, a claim which is not readily supported by the language of the actual ban.

According to media reports (e.g. Bangkok Post, Prachatai), CRES lifted this ban on Friday 11/26. CRES spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd claimed that the ban was lifted because no violations were found, despite media reports of the seizure of flip-flops bearing Abhisit's likeness.

Sansern also stated the ban could be re-imposed in the future.]

Today, Thailand's CRES* ordered a ban of subversive goods within Bangkok and adjacent provinces still under an official State of Emergency. The ban includes clothing and all consumer goods deemed objectionable.

While not targeting the "red shirt" protesters explicitly, this ban is apparently in response to rallies in the capital today to observe the six-month anniversary of the violent end to the protests-turned-riots of April and May. Clothing and other accessories sold at these rallies often express opposition to or contempt for PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and his government.

Red shirts for sale. [Photo from Flickr]

Bangkok and other provinces have been under emergency rule since April 7. This represents the longest State of Emergency in Bangkok in more than a quarter century. (Prior to this, after the Thammasat Student Massacre of 1976 the Thai military maintained a State of Emergency in Bangkok for nearly 8 years, until 1984.)

The following is a translated excerpt from the ban, which took effect immediately:

Item 1: Individuals are forbidden to have in their possession, or possess with intent to sell or otherwise distribute, products, clothing, consumer goods, or any other objects that contain printing, writing, drawing, photography, or any other method that conveys a meaning which provokes, incites, agitates, or causes disunity in the general populace, or acts or supports acts which cause a state of emergency.

Item 2: Authorities are authorized to order the seizure or confiscation of products, clothing, consumer goods, or any other objects as outlined in Item 1, and are authorized to act as necessary to maintain the security of the state or the safety of the public.

Item 3: These orders are to be made by authorities of commissioned officer level or equivalent.

Item 4: Any person violating this order is subject to up to 2 years imprisonment or a fine of up to 40,000 baht, or both. This order is enacted under Article 18 of the 2005 State of Emergency Administration Act and is effective from 19 November 2010.

[Signed]
General Prayuth Chan-ocha

You can read the full Thai text of the ban here.

* CRES is the Centre for Resolution of Emergency Situations, a military-headed organization that assists in governing the country after a formal State of Emergency is declared.

Better expat living through technology

2010-11-12T10:22:00.005+07:00

I don't discuss expat life in Thailand much on this blog, probably because there are others who discuss it more insightfully and entertainingly, like my pal Greg (of Bangkok Podcast and Greg to Differ fame).

Lately, though, I've been thinking about the subject. Even when you speak the language, as I do, and get used to (most of) the quirks of your adoptive culture, life in a foreign country can still be difficult.

I've always liked technology, but I've never been an early adopter, nor had the budget for many gadgets. I bought my first iPod in 2007, and my first smart phone, an iPhone 4, not even two months ago. I also bought a Kindle 3 around the same time.

These new additions to my growing gadget collection made me stop and consider how technology has really improved my quality of life as an expat in small but remarkable ways.

Here are a few of ways that technology improves my life in the big, foreign city:

The daily grind: I have a 30-40 minute commute in the morning, and often longer at night. The ease of the iPod for loading podcasts and audiobooks really makes that time fly. Before I owned an iPod I used to download mp3 files for podcasts and burn them to disc to play in my car stereo. I know, right?

Living outside the US also means, if the entertainment cartels have their way at least, missing out on excellent services like Pandora, Rdio, and Last.fm Radio (that last one you can get here, but it's not free like in the US). Thanks to VPNs, I can tunnel through to use these services when I really want to. I even use a VPN service on my iPhone, so I can use Pandora or Rdio on there. But it's still kind of a hassle, and the VPN connection cuts out sometimes. [Dear Thai government: I was just joking about using VPNs. Everybody knows those are illegal here and of course I would never, ever actually use one. *twitch*]

Literally two days ago, though I found another service that solves my longstanding problem of having a huge music library, but having no desire to take the time to divide it into playlists, or swap music in and out of my iPod/iPhone. The service is Audiogalaxy, and what it does is simple: it streams your music from your computer to your iOS (or Android) device. As of yesterday, I now have my full music library (100GB+) at my fingertips anywhere in Bangkok. This blows my mind. It's a game changer for me, and pretty much the definition of a killer app.

Social life: Sometimes I feel like I'm simultaneously a misanthrope and a social butterfly. Despite being married with two kids, I enjoy my alone time. But I do miss hanging out with friends from back home. Bangkok is my wife's hometown, so her high school, college, work friends -- they're mostly all still in Bangkok. It's an enviable situation that even people in the US don't really enjoy. One of the perks of a one-big-city country. Bangkok is the center of the Thai universe, and a sort of black hole that sucks everyone to it, to boot.

How does this relate to technology? One word: Twitter. Before Twitter I was much more of a solitary expat. I had friends but I didn't see or really even communicate with them that much. I've never lived in downtown Bangkok, and I've never frequented the Bangkok social scene. Never really been my style. This has started to change ever-so-slightly, though. Thanks to Twitter I've met quite a lot of great people who I don't think I would've met otherwise, and some have become my good friends. (There are still a few positions available--just fill out this form and submit an 8x10 glossy headshot if you want to apply.)

Keeping in touch: Obviously email, blogging, Facebook and all of that help me keep in touch with my family and friends from back home. But those are old hat. It's Skype that has really changed the way I communicate. Nowadays I use Skype-In to rent a local US number in my hometown, and use a little USB connector to hook my Skype up to an actual phone in my house in Bangkok. Now I have a number that anyone in the US can use to call me at home, and when I'm not there Skype forwards the call to my cell phone. It's pretty incredible, and it costs me single-digit dollars per month.

Not only Skype, though, but just having a smart phone makes it easier to keep in regular touch. A few weeks ago day my daughter was singing to herself and made up a cute song about her younger brother. I busted out my iPhone, opened the voice recorder app, and recorded it on the spot. From there, I edited out a few seconds on either side, and with another click or two I had emailed the clip to Grandma back in the US. It's not that I couldn't do any of this stuff before, but I just didn't because I'm lazy and it wasn't simple enough.

I'm also surprised by how much I dig video chat on my shiny new iPhone. My bestest friend since I was a dork-tastic 8-year-old recently got an iPhone 4, too, and while he and I would occasionally chat or call each other before, it's a totally different beast to be able to have a face-to-face conversation with him anywhere I go (that has wifi). It's been pretty great, and helps to quell the occasional uprising of mild homesickness. I hope Apple opens up the protocol to other devices. (In the meantime Tango offers cross-platform video chat, though.)

To sum up, none of this stuff I can do now is bleeding edge tech, it's just the convergence of many cool technologies that make life better, and make Bangkok seem a lot less far away from home.

Project Gutenberg Thailand: Some nitty gritty (and a sample Thai ebook)

2010-11-06T10:45:00.012+07:00

In my previous post on Project Gutenberg Thailand, I avoided getting too much into the technical details. Here are more of my thoughts on the steps of the book digitization process.

Scanning:

I have many public domain Thai books in my personal collection, including works by the authors I mentioned in my previous post, as well as numerous literary works by Rama VI, books by Prince Damrong, and so forth.

Many older books have had recent printings, and so they are neither rare nor expensive. In such cases my preferred method for scanning is deconstruct the binding of the book and scan each page using a flatbed scanner. This produces the best quality image, with no shadow or distortion.

This is not always possible, of course, if the book is old or rare, or doesn't belong to me. For such cases I use an OpticBook scanner, which is a special book scanner that allows you to scan one page at a time without destroying the book or breaking its spine. It looks like this, by the way:

In my free time I've scanned several public domain Thai books, and have many more ready and waiting to be scanned.

Photocopying books, say from the library, also works, but scanning is preferable because OCR software works best with grayscale images of 300 dpi resolution or higher. A photocopier is black and white, and ultimately you have to scan the photocopies into a computer anyway. The main benefit of photocopying is that Thai libraries offer cheap photocopy services, so you can have a pro do the heavy lifting for you, so to speak.

In addition, there are excellent resources like the Thammasat Electronic Rare Books site, which have black and white PDF files of many old books. Not all of these are actually public domain, but sites like this provide another avenue for public domain source material that can be digitized as text.

OCR software:

To date the best OCR software for Thai is ABBYY FineReader Professional, either version 9 or 10. In fact, ABBYY is the only one that's any good. I have used it extensively.

A program called ArnThai was released a few years ago by Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), but unfortunately ArnThai is rather terrible. The quality of the OCR is not very good, but also it has no batch processing of any kind, supports limited input and output filetypes, and has no mechanism for training characters at all. ABBYY FineReader, while not perfect, has sophisticated tools for all of these things.

OCR accuracy for Thai is well above 90%, but it still has problems. ABBYY has trouble with older typefaces, for instance. And even on newer books it still has some trouble accurately detecting all superscript and subscript characters, or differentiating very similar characters. This is par for the course. Since it has a training mechanism, though, a human can teach the software how to properly recognize difficult typefaces when needed, which greatly improves the quality.

Proofreading:

The basic mechanism for crowdsourced proofreading is to show the user the original page image side-by-side with the text output from the OCR software. (Or, if the text was manually typed, with that.) Here's an example taken from pgdp.net:

The user make corrections and submits the page when it is completed. The process that pgdp.net uses is sometimes overly complicated. Every page is checked about a dozen times, each time focusing on different things (basic text accuracy, formatting, etc.). They have the luxury of plentiful volunteers.

To start with, at least, Project Gutenberg Thailand will not have this luxury. The method I propose is like this:

Each page is proofread two times, once each by two different human proofreaders. They make their corrections and submit the page. Ideally, the two versions would be identical, but there will of course be some errors. To identify the errors, the two versions are then compared programmatically, to find discrepancies between them. Any place where they differ can be assumed to be an error made by one proofreader or the other. The points of discrepancy are highlighted and shown to a third person, who can quickly correct only the highlighted points, thereby fixing mistakes made by the original two proofreaders. At that point the error rate on the page will be extremely low.

Distribution:

Once books are turned into digital text, they can be formatted into the various ebook formats for reading on computer, cell phone, or ebook reader, as well as being available on the website as text and HTML files. I believe public domain works should be distributed far and wide, of course, so I would be pleased to see any output of Project Gutenberg Thailand also posted to Thai Wikisource, as well as any other website that wished to host it.

As a test, I took the electronic text of the short book Letters from Jangwangram จดหมายจางวางหร่ำ, a 1905 epistolary novel, and created an EPUB file. I then transferred it onto my iPhone and loaded it into Stanza, a free ebook reading app. I'm happy to say it is quite readable, even though the lack of word breaks in Thai creates some odd spacing. I also loaded it onto my Kindle 3, and though readable, the default font was not ideal, and there were similar spacing issues.

You can download this EPUB on your own devices if you'd like to test it out:

จดหมายจางวางหร่ำ
โดย น.ม.ส.
Letters from Jangwangram
by N.M.S. (pen name of Prince Bidyalankarana)
jotmai-jangwangram.epub

(Note: This ebook is not in Unicode. It uses HTML entities because some ebook formats are not Unicode compatible yet. I'm still learning the particulars of the several popular ebook formats.)

Project Gutenberg Thailand: Liberating public domain Thai literature

2010-11-06T01:31:00.006+07:00

[Update: See also part 2.]

For a few years now it's been one of my goals--it's been so long I should probably say 'dreams'--to start Project Gutenberg Thailand, a repository for public domain literature in Thai and about Thailand. The founder of the original Project Gutenberg, Michael Hart, encourages such spin-off sites, and was enthusiastic when I contacted him about the idea back in 2007.

The closest thing that currently exists is Thai Wikisource, but it has little in the way of modern literature, instead having mostly selections of classical Thai verse and public domain government documents. As far as I know, there is no existing movement to identify and disseminate more recent public domain Thai works.

Owing to a number of reasons, however, not the least of which being my own lack of sufficient free time, nothing has ever gotten off the ground.

Last year, frustrated with my inability to make any headway on this project, I began compiling a list of Thai authors whose works are in the public domain. To put it simply, under Thai law a book is copyrighted until 50 years after the author's death.

With such a relatively short copyright term, the works of many well-known 20th century authors have entered the public domain. Unfortunately it too often seems to be those authors who died young. Yakob ยาขอบ, author of the immortal Conqueror of the Ten Directions ผู้ชนะสิบทิศ, died in 1956 at age 48. And two early novelists born in 1905 failed to reach middle age -- Prince Akartdamkoeng มจ.เจ้าอากาศดำเกิง penned such well-remembered tomes as The Circus of Life ละครแห่งชีวิต before killing himself at 25; while Mai Mueangdoem ไม้ เมืองเดิม, of The Old Wound แผลเก่า fame, met his fate at 37. Such authors are no less significant for modern Thai culture than the Fitzgeralds and Steinbecks of American culture, and while they can be still be found in print, it is a shame that such works aren't yet available as free ebooks.

I hear you asking, "So what needs to be done to set these works free?" (I have excellent hearing.) "And how can I help?"

Well, we need to put in place the process for taking the paper books and turning them into electronic text. The basic steps are as follows:

1. Get the book and scan each page, to create images.
2a. Use OCR [optical character recognition] software to turn the images into digital text.
OR
2b. Have humans type out the text contained in the images.
3. Have humans proofread the digital text by comparing it side-by-side with the original image.

This process is well-established for English. Project Gutenberg has a sister website, called Distributed Proofreaders (pgdp.net) that crowdsources this work for books in Latin-alphabet languages. OCR for English is extremely accurate. Until 2009, OCR for Thai was miserably poor, but nowadays it's rather good. In other words, the time is finally right to start digitizing books for Project Gutenberg Thailand.

With the original Project Gutenberg, anyone can sign up to help via the Distributed Proofreaders site. For Project Gutenberg Thailand, we must build a similar community of people willing to contribute a little bit of time here and there to help liberate public domain Thai books from their paper prisons.

So here I am, writing this blog post, hoping to drum up help to get the ball rolling.

The most immediate need is a sympathetic soul with web programming chops to help create the website for crowdsourced Thai proofreading and/or typing. I've put a fair amount of thought into the core features needed, but I lack the programming and design skills needed to make it a reality.

If you are interested in helping with this effort, come join the Google Group, let me know on Twitter at @thai101, or email me at rdockum [at] gmail [dot] com.

Bureaucracy insanity: What makes a good Thai teacher?

2010-10-27T13:10:00.006+07:00

Just when you think you've gotten used to the quirks of Thai society, you get blindsided by something so unthinkably backwards you question your grasp on reality. There's no October equivalent of April Fool's Day in Thailand, is there?

This little ditty is a form a friend asked me to fill out. She is a recent university graduate who just completed her teaching certification, and is now looking for teaching work at the primary school level. When she asked if I would provide her a recommendation, I was surprised that instead of a recommendation letter, or a phone call from the school, I am expected to fill out a form that rates this grown adult on the following traits, based on a three-point scale of 'good', 'average', or 'needs improvement':

Outer personality

Hairstyle
Face
Teeth
Weight
Attire
Jewelry/accessories
Shoes and socks

Inner personality

Self-esteem
Responsibility
Self-discipline
Patience
Control of temper

Manner

Speaking
Listening
Looking
Sitting
Standing
Walking

Now, I understand the need for a system of recommendation and evaluation. But I was blown away by how pointless and demeaning most of the items on this list are. Naturally, I gave my friend perfect marks by way of protest against such an asinine questionnaire.

Maybe if we want to fix the moribund Thai education system we should worry less about whether teachers wear socks and know how to stand properly, and focus more on, I don't know, modern pedagogical techniques? Egads.

Introducing: Henry

2010-08-18T19:53:00.000+07:00

With the advent of Twitter I have an ever-so-slightly more public profile than I did a few years ago. And in tweeting about the pregnancy and delivery of our son, my wife and I have been encouraged and touched by the outpouring of well wishes from everyone following the news.

And since I was live-tweeting the delivery, after all, I figure it's only fair to make a proper post to introduce the little guy and explain his name. Leave it to a linguist to craft a name that mixes elements from five languages.

Without further ado:

Henry John Granville Dockum
Born on August 16, 2010 at 5:16 pm, 3.46 kg / 7 lb 10 oz.

My wife and I believe in giving a child a name that has meaning and history. But it's a tough job coming up with a suitably meaningful name for a child of Thai-Chinese-English-German-Scottish-Irish-Danish-Dutch descent. And those are just the ones I know for certain.

Henry is an English name, from the Germanic haim + ric, which means 'ruler of the home'. We chose it because we like the euphony of the name (and its accompanying nickname Hank) with the Thai name we've chosen for him: เฮง Heng.

Of course, เฮง Heng is borrowed from Chinese--it is a southern Chinese pronunciation of the character 兴, meaning 'prosperous' or 'happy' (though in Thai it has come to mean 'lucky'). We gave him this name after his maternal grandfather, whose Chinese name was กิมเฮง Kimheng -- nickname Heng -- back before the Thai government required Chinese Thai families to adopt Thai names.

Henry's first middle name, John, is given after his paternal grandfather, who passed away in 1998.

We thought long and hard about whether a second middle name was overkill, but ultimately decided we wanted to carry on a family tradition of giving the middle name Granville to firstborn Dockum sons. The name has been in my family for 200 years. Granville means 'large city', which is exactly what Henry's birthplace Bangkok is: มหานคร maha nakhon.

And of course Dockum is my family name, originating from ancestors who emigrated to America from Dokkum, Netherlands many generations ago.

More podcast appearances

2010-06-08T10:12:00.002+07:00

I've been remiss in posting to the blog again lately. The blame lies partially on the trip I took with my family in April to the US, but also on the recent political turmoil, which I got wholly caught up in following.

Recently I've been a guest on a couple of podcast episodes, though. Changkhui in English did a special episode about life during and after the riots for average, non-protesting residents like ourselves. I dragged Greg of Greg to Differ along with me in our (or at least my) video podcast debut.

And if you haven't heard of it yet, check out Greg's new show Bangkok Podcast, which he co-hosts with Tony Joh of thai-faq.com. I recorded multiple segments for future shows, in which we discuss the Thai language and how learning it can change your experience in Thailand. Those will air once per month; the first one went live today.

For iTunes users, check out the shows with these links:
Changkhui in English -- Bangkok Podcast

Good old-fashioned mp3 links:
Changkhui in English 10 -- Bangkok Podcast 4

Pibulsonggram's Cultural Mandates

2010-06-04T10:25:00.015+07:00

I was somewhat surprised to find that little has been written in English on the web about the so-called Cultural Mandates, also known as the State Decrees (รัฐนิยม ratthaniyom), issued by Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram between 1939 and 1942, during his first term as prime minister. So I figured one way to remedy this would be to start an English Wikipedia article.

These Cultural Mandates were a series of 12 edicts the government issued, utterly changing the face of the country. Though not everything stuck, I think it is hard to underestimate how much influence the mandates had on the development of modern Thailand. They were a remarkable--if questionable--feat of social engineering, though only part of the larger social engineering schemes of Chom Phon Po (จอมพล ป., or "Field Marshal P.").

Among the cultural reforms enacted by the Field Marshal:

Changing the name of the country to Thailand, and temporarily eradicating the word 'Siam', including from the royal anthem, traditional titles, and even the names of businesses and organizations.
Declaring a new Thai national anthem, still in use today.
Playing the national anthem at 8:00 am and 6:00 pm every day.
Playing the royal anthem (which used to be the national anthem) before all theatrical shows and requiring patrons to stand during it.
Establishing Thai as the national language and forcing non-Thai ethnic groups to learn it.

When you read the mandates themselves the language is often weak -- Thais "should" do X or Y. But in reality these state mandates were backed up with negative incentives or threat of force. It was during these years of nation-building that the Thai state also outlawed Chinese instruction in schools, assessed extra taxes on Chinese-owned businesses, or founded state enterprises designed to compete with and run foreign businesses into the ground.

For example, the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly was founded in 1939 when the state began seizing private tobacco factories. Just months later Mandate 5 was issued, exhorting Thais to use only Thai products and government-run services.

So while it is easy today to see only the positive benefits of many of these mandates, or forget that the mandates ever happened, the actual history is much more complex. Many of Pibulsonggram's mandates, including his simplified Thai alphabet, were scrapped as soon as he was forced to resign (the first time) in 1944.

You can find the original mandates in Thai on the Royal Gazette website by searching the term รัฐนิยม. (The website works best in IE, sadly.) They are also linked directly in the references section of the Wikipedia article.

Red shirt seeing red?

2010-03-24T22:19:00.004+07:00

So I managed to get myself into a mini dust-up on Twitter today. I saw the esteemed Richard Barrow of the Paknam Web empire retweet something from @RedPhanFa2Day, a Twitter moniker I hadn't seen before.

Clicking through to the user's Twitter page I found this mini-bio: "The official Twitter account for the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) red-shirts protest rally at Phan Fa Bridge."

Official, eh? Interesting. The account had only posted three tweets, and had about 10 followers. Seeing they were new to the game, I figured I'd help out by giving them some free publicity:

The "official"(?) 2010 UDD protest Twitter account: @RedPhanFa2Day (pretty awful choice of Twitter name, why not @redshirt2010 or sthing?)

I don't think I was being unduly skeptical. Anyone can *say* they are the official anything online. I will tell you right now that I am the official wallet inspector for the Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area, but you'd be foolish to believe me.

This response arrived shortly thereafter:

@thai101 Tks 4 ur comment. There R numerous "red" twitter accs. This name was deliberately chosen to identify with this rally.

Fair enough. I still think it's not a good handle, because it could be catchier and easier to remember. But they're entitled to choose a bad name. And I'm entitled to think it's a bad name from a PR perspective, and to say so.

The other thing I noticed was their use of txtspeak, the hyper-shortened version of English. Even though Twitter has a 140-character limit, you can usually get your point across quite well without it. And I think those who want to present a professional image and be taken seriously should avoid it. I like to use it when I'm being ironic, but that's just me.

So maybe I was being snarky, but I was trying to give a genuine tip when I then replied:

@RedPhanFa2Day Also, it will increase your credibility if you don't tweet like you're in 6th grade.

Now, I'm rather certain that the next reply was from a totally different person, given the level of English. Or maybe I just drove them into a fit of uneditable rage. But I was genuinely surprised by it nonetheless (though it took me 11 hours to notice it, since they didn't tag my username properly):

@ thai101 Dont undastand offical? Then we know who the 6th grader is. We're tweeting 4 ppl who English is a 2nd language ot just rude expats

So apparently they're also tweeting for people who use English as a second language (not just rude expats), which somehow justifies their use of nonstandard English. Although somehow I think that if this really is their target audience, using words that people can't look up in the dictionary isn't the brightest idea.

To date there has been just one subsequent tweet from that account, which appears in normal English, apparently written by the original tweeter, not the one with diarrhea of the thumbs who lashed out at me.

All in all, if this really *is* an official Twitter account of the UDD rally (and I maintain that my question is perfectly valid -- official according to who? Weera? Thaksin? Lin Ping?), whoever has been put in charge of updating it is not very savvy with this whole social media thing.

But then again I'm just a rude expat.

Farang: A Nature Mockumentary

2010-03-20T01:14:00.007+07:00

Thanks to Gnarly Kitty, I discovered the hilarious videos of Bon, a Thai with a knack for clever satire.

Bon is known for her blog and video series, Learn Thai the Bon's Way. But this month she started a new website, JaideeTV/ใจดีทีวี, on which she spoofs modern Thai culture. In particular, the video that caught my attention is a nature mockumentary about that strange creature, the farang.

In addition to poking fun at foreigners in Thailand, it mocks Thais who try to mimic farangs, and the whole thing is a parody of the well-known Thai educational TV series กระจกหกด้าน. If you've ever seen the series, you know the parody is spot on.

Because I think this video is so great, I created English subtitles for it. The translation attempts to capture the sense of humor of the original, rather than closely translate the Thai.

Be sure to check out Bon's site JaideeTV, too. Enjoy!

Bureaucracy Insanity: Chair Envy

2010-03-10T09:58:00.005+07:00

Here's an amusing item making the rounds. It is a letter that hails from Sri Prachan District, Suphanburi Province, a few hours northwest of Bangkok.

An unfortunate employee of the local revenue office there who suffers from back pain was told she cannot use her own chair at work, because it makes her look like the boss. Click on the image to enlarge and read the Thai for yourself, but I've provided an English translation below.

Translation:

14 January 2010

Re: Request for clarification regarding bringing a personal chair to a government office

To: Sri Prachan Revenue Office

I, Mrs. Rasmi Thaisitthipong, a revenue expert for the Revenue Department, moved to the Sri Prachan Revenue Office on 21 November 2007, and brought a personal chair for use in the performance of my duties. The office chairs are uncomfortable to sit in, making be unable to perform my duties to the fullest, since I suffer from chronic back pain. Thus, I bring a personal chair, and have brought the chair with me to every office I have worked in.

I have never had a supervisor inform me that I cannot bring a personal chair to work, until 3:34 p.m. today, when I received a phone call from the District Revenue Chief's office, informing me that Asst. Chamrat wants me to take my personal chair home, because it is not appropriate for my position. I was told to take a personal day tomorrow and to take the chair home.

I acknowledge that I received the telephone call. However, I will not take the chair home, and request to continue to use it while performing my duties, until I receive a formal written order to take the chair home, in which case I will strictly obey the order.

I also request to review the Sri Prachan Revenue Office regulations to determine which regulation forbids bringing personal chairs for use in the performance of official duties.

Respectfully submitted,

Mrs. Rasmi Thaisitthipong

Revenue Expert

The handwritten reply to her note, which apparently took four days to compose:

Khun Rasmi,

- That chair isn't appropriate for you, because it looks equivalent to the Sri Prachan District Revenue Chief. Tax payers or others who come to the office are confused as to who is the office chief.

- Use the office chair.

- As for your back pain, you should take care of your health by seeing a doctor.

Sirilak

18 January 2010

A doctor! Now why didn't poor Rasmi think of that? I think this is a hilariously perverse example of bureaucracy in action. And the fact that its making its way around the Thai websphere means that it's not just me who finds this kind of thinking a few tarang wa short of a rai. Never mind that a doctor's advice would be to use an ergonomic chair to minimize stress on your back.

If you're curious about who the characters are in this little tragicomedy of bureaucratic numbskullery, then look no further than the Revenue Department website: Suphanburi Revenue Department Administrators. The relevant players are in the left column.

Thai 101 Learner's Series Rides Again

2010-03-04T00:51:00.003+07:00

It's been a while since Women Learning Thai finished re-serializing my Thai 101 Learner's Series, which first ran as a biweekly column in the Phuket Gazette during 2008.

The ever-patient Catherine of WLT managed to coax another installment from me, which went live last week. Have a look.

[Thai 101 Learner's Series: A Trusted Native Speaker is Essential]

Japanese Blogosphere Reacts to Doraemon's Death

2010-02-11T19:35:00.003+07:00

Last week I wrote about a full Buddhist funeral held for a Doraemon doll in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Japanese bloggers, amused at the news of the beloved robotic cat's apparent death, are responding the way they know best: with lots of Doraemon ASCII art.

Check out some of the link love. Being able to read Japanese is helpful (but Google Translate also allows you to get the gist): Digimaga.net, Vistanamidame, Karapaia, tokyo.txt-nifty.com, Gakuburu, uiam.at.webry.info, Terrafor.

Nice to be noticed. If only we didn't have to lose poor Doraemon to make this possible.

If you just can't get enough of the Doraemon funeral, see also Channel 3's rather extensive coverage of the bizarre event on YouTube:

Alas, poor Doraemon! I knew him, Nobita.

2010-02-06T10:30:00.003+07:00

Bizarre news from Thailand: this week a lady in Ayutthaya province held a funeral for her Doraemon doll.

The story has been widely reported in the Thai language press, and even picked up by the National News Bureau:

ความคืบหน้ากรณีนางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ จัดงานศพให้กับตุ๊กตา โดเรมอน ที่มีชื่อว่า จิเหว่ย นาคทอง ที่วัดมหาโลก จังหวัดพระนครศรีอยุธยานั้น ... นางนิภา รุ่งเรืองบูรณะกุล ครูประจำชั้นอนุบาล 1 เปิดเผยว่า นางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ นำตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน ที่ชื่อจิเหว่ย มาฝากเรียนที่โรงเรียนวัดสว่างอารมณ์จริง โดยแต่ละวันจะมีรถจักรยานยนต์รับจ้างมารับ – ส่ง เหมือนเด็กนักเรียนทั่วไปและเท่าที่ตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อน จิเหว่ย มาอยู่ที่ชั้นอนุบาลแห่งนี้ ทำให้เด็กนักเรียนมีความสุขและสนุกสนานกับการเล่นตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนจนบางครั้ง ยังนึกว่าตุ๊กตาโดเรม่อนมีชีวิตเหมือนคนทั่วไป

Translation:

"Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen held a funeral service for a Doraemon doll, named Jiwoei Nakthong, at Wat Mahalok in Ayutthaya province. ... Mrs. Nipha Rungrueangburanakul, a grade 1 preschool teacher, revealed that Mrs. Phlapphlueng Namcharoen had actually enrolled the doll at Wat Sawang Arom School, and that each day a taxi motorcycle would drop off and pick up the doll like a regular student. She also stated that having Jiwoei in her class had made the students so happy, and they had so much fun playing with the Doraemon doll, that she began to consider the Doraemon doll to be alive like a regular person."

The fact that an "eccentric" lady enrolled her doll in preschool and the school principal and teachers actually played along is bizarre enough, but hardly national news. What has captivated collective attention of the country (for 15 minutes, at least) is the untimely demise of said doll.

That's right, the doll died.

According to various reports including this Matichon article, the doll visited her in a dream to say it had died, and asked that she hold a human-style funeral in its honor.

Now, in America at least we're no strangers to the concept of a graveside funeral for a family pet, but a full-blown funeral with casket and viewing would be odd for even a pet. In Thailand, a human-style funeral involves monks chanting for the welfare of one's eternal soul, followed by cremation. As mentioned above, the doll's funeral was held at Wat Maha Lok (วัดมหาโลก) in Ayutthaya.

Just as in the west, a Thai funeral is a paid affair, so the temple's incentive for accepting this rather odd request seems clear. As a result, the temple and the monks have been the target of criticism from the Thai public for compromising their religious integrity.

In this Pantip.com thread, users discuss whether it was wrong for the monks to agree to participate in a funeral for an inanimate object. Responses range from an adamant "yes" to a firm "no" to "I don't know, because for all I know this story is fabricated."

But most important of all -- more pictures!

[Pictures from here, here and here.]

Podcast: Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of 2009

2010-01-28T09:57:00.004+07:00

I got together with Passakorn (Hong) and Wise Kwai again this week for another episode of Changkhui in English. Last time we talked about Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of the decade. This time we looked at the year 2009 in film. You can read Wise Kwai's original top 10 of 2009 post on his Thai Film Journal.

Other topics we touched on include the new film rating system enacted last year, censorship, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, and more. All in all the episode is 90 minutes. We did tend to ramble on a bit, but so be it.

You can get the episode from the Changkhui in English page, or download using the direct mp3 link. (See also Wise Kwai's writeup about this episode.)

Children's Day on Twitter

2010-01-08T19:00:00.004+07:00

Children's Day (วันเด็ก) is celebrated on the second Saturday of January each year in Thailand. In observance of Children's Day 2010, lots of Thai twitter users have changed their avatars to childhood photos.

Prominent figures like newspaperman Suthichai Yoon (@suthichai) and hip hop artist Joey Boy (@joeybangkokboy) have even joined in the fun. I smell a new tradition.

Here's a sampling of Bangkok tweeple in bygone days. One of them is me. See if you can guess who. :P

Changkhui in English: Wisekwai's Top 10 Thai Films of the 2000s

2010-01-06T12:18:00.002+07:00

The other week when I was a guest on Changkhui, I mentioned afterwards to Passakorn that he should invite Wise Kwai onto the English-language version of his program to talk about his top Thai film picks of the dearly departed decade. If you're interested in Thai film, you probably already know Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

Anyhow, we met up this past Sunday evening for 2010's first episode of Changkhui in English.

Thai music sampler: A Cappella 7

2010-01-02T18:19:00.003+07:00

The other day for no particular reason, a thought popped into my head: whatever happened to the Thai singing group A Cappella 7 (อะ แค็บเปล่า เซเว่น)?

Now, a cappella music has never really caught on in Thailand. Western-style Thai music, known as "string" music, far too often gives us overproduced pop stars who can't really even carry a tune very well. Sound familiar? Happens back home too, of course. But I'm regularly and genuinely amazed at how terrible the singers are on Thai singing talent shows like Academy Fantasia or The Star. And yet many go on to become big stars. Welcome to commercial pop music.

Perhaps it was simply the novelty of it, but when their debut album came out, I immediately liked A Cappella 7. Despite the name, there are only five singers in the group (shades of Ben Folds Five, which was actually a trio). They've had three studio albums, but nothing since a song on a film soundtrack in 2006, that I can find evidence of.

Though only about half of their songs are actually sung a cappella, their best work is, or has only sparse instrumentation. Humor also plays a big part in their music -- singing about cooking omelets, expensive girlfriends, and even *gasp* farting. But I think overall it works. It's a welcome change from the done-to-death themes of 99% of pop music.

Here are my personal favorites from each album:

อะ-แค็บ-เป-ล่า-เซ-เว่น / A Cappella 7 (2002)

ตุ่ม "Tub"

Intention and action are very different things.

ไข่เจียว "Omelet"

Because sometimes you get hungry.

บิ๊ก แดดดี้ / Big Daddy (2003)

รอยตีนกา "Crow's Feet"

Reminding us that there are things worse than showing signs of aging.

ตด "Fart"

A deliciously sophomoric song about who did or didn't do it.

มากกว่านี้ "More"

Cheesy but catchy -- all about pining for a better world.

เม้าท์ ทู เม้าท์ / mouth2mouth (2005)

เรียนไม่เก่ง "Not Good in School"

Teaching us that love doesn't require book smarts.

Changkhui Thai podcast

2009-12-31T14:31:00.002+07:00

Every once in a while someone will ask me, or one of the webboards I frequent, for recommendations for books, movies, or podcasts to help practice their Thai. And so I've been known to recommend ช่างคุย (changkhui.com), the only true podcast I know of in the Thai language. (Hopefully that will change.)

A few months ago, after making just such a recommendation on the ThaiVisa forum, Changkhui webmaster and podcaster-in-chief Passakorn Hongsyok noticed all the referrals coming from the ThaiVisa, and followed the links back to my posting. From there he invited me to be a guest on his show. It took a few months to find a free evening, but last Sunday I finally went to his condo and recorded an episode. It went online today as ช่างคุย #153 (or try the direct mp3 link, 30MB). I was still getting over a cold, and drank ridiculous amounts of water throughout the episode to try to soothe my throat, so please think charitable thoughts when you listen. :)

I really enjoyed talking with Passakorn, and I really enjoy Changkhui in general. Actually, it's a "podcast station" with at least a dozen different podcasts on many topics. See for yourself. Passakorn even does an English language podcast, though he has trouble finding guests. After we recorded a Thai language episode he and I started an English one, but my voice couldn't take anymore and we had to stop. We'll try again soon.

Podcasting is a hobby for Passakorn, and an expensive one no doubt given all the bandwidth he must use. Please consider making a PayPal donation to Changkhui or buying one of the nice polo shirts on offer to offset the site's expenses (links are on the webpage).

There are sundry ways to consume Changkhui:

iTunes - RSS - FeedBurner

Logos from Google Thailand

2009-11-02T17:57:00.000+07:00

Google is known for the custom logos it places on its homepage on holidays and other occasions. And with the worldwide spread of Google, their many country sites display logos specific to the local culture.

Google Thailand (google.co.th) is currently showing a logo celebrating Loy Krathong (ลอยกระทง):

Some earlier Google Thailand logos:

Songkran 2008

Songkran 2009

National Artist Day 2009

Old Thai Movie DVD Roundup, Part 3: The Legend Collection from Five Star Productions

2009-10-21T19:12:00.000+07:00

More than a year after I first read about it on Wise Kwai's blog, Five Star Productions has finally begun releasing the promised films from its vault. At the end of August it was announced that Five Star had signed a deal with media distribution company BKP to release more than 100 titles from its film vault on DVD.

The set has been dubbed The Legend Collection, or in Thai ตำนานหนังกลางใจ. This will be a re-release on DVD for some titles, but it will be the first DVD treatment for the vast majority of these films. Some 70 specific titles have been announced, and will be released in "volumes" of seven titles each. Fourteen titles, comprising the first two volumes of The Legend Collection, were released in September. The retail price is set at 199, but they are easily found for 139 baht. Unfortunately, none will have English subtitles.

This weekend I bought Vol. 1 No. 1, อนึ่งคิดถึงพอสังเขป, directed by Bhandit Rittakol. The quality of the transfer appears very good, as far as these things go. I'll write more about that soon.

For now, some more highlights from this impressive collection:

* 12 films by director Piak Poster -- almost every film he made between 1978 and 1996. (Two of his first films, โทน / Tone (1970) and ชู้ / Adulterer (1972) were released on DVD in 2007 by Triple X films.)

* 8 films from the Charuchinda entertainment dynasty -- 4 directed by Sakka Charuchinda (สักกะ จารุจินดา), and 4 directed by his son, Narong Charuchinda (ณรงค์ จารุจินดา).

* 7 films by director Euthana Mukdasanit, more than half of his directorial efforts. (His 1997 film จักรยานสีแดง / Red Bike Story was released by GMM this year as part of its Memory Collection.

* 6 films by Bhandit Rittakol. (A limited edition box set of all 6 films in Bhandit's original Boonchu series was also released last year.)

* 3 of the most well-known films of National Artist Vichit Kounavudhi: Mountain People, Son of the Northeast, and Her Name is Boonrawd.

Many of the films are adapted from well-known Thai books:

* นำพุ้ / The Story of Nam Phu (1984) and เขาชื่อกานต์ His Name is Kan (1988) are both based on books by Suwanni Sukhontha (สุวรรณี สุคนธา).

* คนทรงเจ้า / The Medium (1989) is based on the 1988 book of the same name by S.E.A. Write Award-winning author Wimon Sainimnuam (วิมล ไทรนิ่มนวล)

* ผีเสื้อและดอกไม้ / Butterfly and Flowers (1985), based on the 1978 book of the same name by Makut Oraruedi (under the pen name นิพพานฯ).

* ครูไหวใจร้าย / Mean Ms. Wai (1989), from the 1966 book by Phakawadi Uttamot (ผกาวดี อุตตโมทย์).

* ปริศนา / Enigma (1982), from the novel by HRH Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit (under her pen name ว.ณ ประมวลมารค).

* ข้างหลังภาพ / Behind the Painting (1985), from the 1936 novel by Siburapha (ศรีบูรพา).

* ไผ่แดง / Red Bamboo (1979), from the book by Kukrit Pramoj (คึกฤทธิ์ ปราโมช), a former Prime Minister and founder of Siam Rath newspaper.

* ลูกอีสาน / Son of the Northeast (1982), from the S.E.A. Write Award-winning novel by Kampoon Boonthavee (คำพูน บุญทวี).

* ผู้หญิงคนนั้นชื่อบุญรอด / Her Name is Boorawd (1985), from the pen of the prolific Botan (โบตั๋น).

[Update: Here is the spreadsheet I made of the 70 titles announced so far. Each DVD includes a booklet listing the titles from the first 10 volumes. Since the Thai film industry does so many remakes, sometimes it's ambiguous exactly which version of the film they will be releasing.]

One week until Book Expo Thailand 2009

2009-10-08T19:03:00.000+07:00

Where has the time gone? Thailand's semiannual book fair is upon us again. As regular readers will recall, the October incarnation is known as Book Expo Thailand (งานมหกรรมหนังสือ).

Book Expo Thailand 2009 will run from Thursday, October 15 through Sunday, October 25, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. As usual, this massive book fair will be held at Queen Sirikit Convention Centre. I recommend traveling by subway -- the Convention Centre has its own stop. The book fair is always packed every single day, so parking is a nightmare.

If you've never been, I absolutely recommend it. There's really something for everyone. In a past year at the book fair I met Win Lyovarin, a Thai author I enjoy, and last time I even ran into the enviably prolific and all-around smart Sarinee Achavanuntakul of Fringer.org.

Further details on Book Expo Thailand here (in Thai).

The dates for the 38th National Book Fair have also been announced as March 26 - April 6, 2010.

[See also: The state of the Thai publishing industry.]

Nigerian scam in Thailand

2009-10-03T17:22:00.000+07:00

Advance-fee fraud is also commonly called a "Nigerian scam", because the African country is home to large numbers of people employing this scam technique.

People get hooked by their own greed, when some kind stranger emails them out of the blue to ask them to serve as the next of kin for some heirless millionaire, or lets them know they've won some valuable prize. Most of these never make it to my inbox, thanks to email spam filters.

This one didn't make it to my inbox either, but I spotted it in my spam directory while looking for spam false positives. It's absolutely 100% classic Nigerian scam, but the story is based on Thai soil this time:

From The Desk Of Barrister Kane Chan,
Kane Chan & Associate Chambers
37 Sathorn Tai Road, Bangkok Thailand.
Tel: [redacted]
Email: [redacted]

PRIVATE AND HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL.

Dear Friend,

Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you I believe you are a highly respected personality considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events.

Well, I am Barrister Kane Chan, a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr.Steve Anderson, who used to work with SIAMRAK Company Limited in Bangkok Thailand. On the 21st of April 2004, My late client and his wife with their three children were involved in a car accident along Sukhumvit Express Road. Unfortunately, they all lost their lives in the event of the accident. Since then I have made several inquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence, I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client in a Finance Company.Particularly, the Finance House where the deceased deposited the US$35 Million (Thirty Five Million United States Dollars only).

Consequently, this Finance House issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to claim the US$35 Million (Thirty Five Million United States Dollars only) in their custody within the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 5 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased to claim the fund as the Next of Kin to him so that the fund will be transferred to your account by the Finance House.

Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 55% will be for me, 45% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim we will make with the Finance House.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Once you are interested to work with me,your urgent response is needed please kindly get back to me as soon possible for more info as we cannot afford delays and also send me your full name and your direct telephone number for easy communication.

You are needed as a next of kin to inherit your brother left fund.

Best regards .

Barrister Kane Chan (Esq).
BARRISTER AT LAW (ESQ)

The email address was from a Hong Kong Yahoo account (ending in @yahoo.com.hk), but the phone number provided had a Thai country code, and the right number of digits to be a real cell phone number. I've removed the number because (a) if it's a real scammer's number, I don't want somebody to come along and read this and end up getting scammed because they're gullible, and (b) if it's just a randomly chosen number, I don't want poor Joe to get gullible morons pestering him either.

Anyway, this is the first time I've seen Thailand used a the purported source of funds in a Nigerian scam. There's no reason to assume the scammers are actually Thai, but you never know. One of the variations of the Nigerian scam is to lure the mark to one's own country, at which point the scammer holds his mark for ransom.

I Googled around and found variations on this email reported on scam watchdog sites, using at least four different barrister names and email addresses. Sadly, these scams will continue to work so long as there are still people who live at intersection of greedy and gullible in the Venn diagram of humanity.

Marcel Barang: new blog, new translations

2009-09-19T20:29:00.001+07:00

If you are interested in Thai literature, especially translations of it, then it's a necessity to know the name of Marcel Barang. He is the world's foremost translator of Thai fiction into English and French. Not only is he prolific, but so few do what he does, making his work all the more valuable.

Today I was delighted to learn that he now keeps a blog, alternately writing in French and English, called the written wor(l)d en deux langues. It's managed to escape my attention since he began it in July, but I'm glad it didn't take me until next year to find it.

What is Marcel blogging about?

Most notably, he's ~~completed~~ working on a new English translation of สี่แผ่นดิน (See Phaendin) by คึกฤทธิ์ ปราโมช (Kukrit Pramoj), a former Prime Minister of Thailand. It was translated previously in 1981 under the title Four Reigns by "Tulachandra", the pen name of จันทร์แจ่ม บุนนาค (Janjaem Bunnag), who passed away in 2007, better known for her translations of Western literature into Thai.

In his must-read anthology "The Twenty Best Novels of Thailand" (1994), Marcel wrote somewhat critically of that translation:

[Tulachandra] did a creditable job of condensing the masterpiece, but spoiled it by taking upon herself the role of cultural tour guide, peppering her text with mentions such as “At that time, we Thais thought that...” that are not in the original and leaving behind more than one hundred Thai words and phrases for foreign readers to memorize, I presume – from countless repetitions of the basic mai pen rai (‘never mind’) and sanuk (‘funny’) to convoluted formulas in court language.

At Marcel's primary website, thaifiction.com, you can read a lengthy excerpt from See Phaendin that he did for the same anthology, as well as many other of his translated books and stories in their entirety.

Marcel also notes in the anthology that he submitted this excerpt to Kukrit Pramoj (who passed away in 1995), but received the following reply from Kukrit's personal secretary [English translation by Marcel]:

"Judging from the sample you sent us, we think your translation is much inferior to the standard of the novel, which will destroy the quality of language and depth of Thai culture of a time when the diversity of Western cultures was not as numerous as it is today. Therefore, MR Kukrit Pramoj, the author, does not allow you to translate and publish See Phaendin."

This time around, let's hope he has the family on his side.

There are many other posts not to be missed on Marcel's blog:

"Lost in translation" -- in which Marcel reveals that his translation of Chart Korbjitti's หมาเน่าลอยน้ำ will soon be published, and that he has also translated a compilation of Chart's best short stories.

Or "The novel that doesn't exist", recounting the accidental rediscovery of a novel that neither Google nor the National Library could find.

A four part series "On literary translation from the Thai" (one, two, three, four).

And last but not least, we can expect a new-and-improved version of thaifiction.com within the month.