Learn to Read Korean

       I've incidentally found a good source to learn Korean language. The lesson is in pictures (in a comic style), so it is quite easy to read and understand. There are also easy tricks for you to memorize Korean sounds, consonants and sounds. Here are some examples of the comic that teaches you how to read Korean in 15 minutes.

     

       This comic has been posted without any attribution or linking to the source. The cartoonist is Ryan Estrada and he posted it here: http://ryanestradadotcom.tumblr.com/post/20461267965.

     I’ve been wondering why a good comic like this has not been contributed and published. As you might have seen before that the pictual language books are generally teach the vocabs or the useful sentences in each languages, not the tricks to read and memorize the alphabets. When we learn other languages that we are not familiar with, we have to remember the alphabets and how to pronounce them in each word. Therefore, most people whom learn other languages usually pronounce the wrong sounds and lead to the misinterpretation. I think it is a good idea to have many basic language learning books like this one. It might good for us to learn languages and feel like playing legos with vowels and consonants. However, we have to practice what we’ve learned unless we will forget everything within a year or two.

Thai MPs?

Last week, I saw the news on TV about an anonymous MP was caught by a photographer while he is watching a porn image on his mobile phone during the parliamentary meeting. Later, one of MPs from the democrat party had admitted that he was the person on the picture. Some members of the opposite party try to push him to resign as the MP but he said that it was his friend who sent a message to him, and he just only open and try to delete it. He will not resign anyway.

(Photo from www.manager.co.th)

My point is I’m so disappointed after watching the news. I never thought this would happen in such a place like that. What happen to Thai MPs today? We vote them to work for us and  the parliament is a place where they work , isn't it?  It’s really inappropriate to do that during working hours. In this case, he’d better watch it outside or other places. A thing that he does really destroy the parliament's image. Besides, there’re also other MPs who seem not to care about meetings. Here are some example pictures from www.manager.co.th.

From the pictures above, some is sleeping . Some act chill while they are talking on the phone during meetings. Are these the people that we vote for? How can we trust them to develop our country when they act like this?

On the ground lottery

On the Ground Lottery

            My dad called me on the evening of the 1^st of April and excitedly told me that my mom just won the illegal lottery (in other word called “underground lottery”). She got quite a lot of money. First, I was thinking; oh! that’s great! I don’t have to send them money this monthJ. Later, I was wondering where did my mom get lucky those numbers from so I asked my dad, then he began to tell me about the situation of the underground lottery in my hometown. The day before the lottery day which is on the 1^st and the 16^th of every month, people will go crazy about finding lucky numbers and their hope is the trees!! They will go to the trees that are big enough and look magical enough so that the spirits can stay and then they offer the spirits some local chew gum (betel nut with some kinds of Thai herb) which the spirits like the most, I think, begin to prey and make a wish. After that, they will use powder (any powder) scatter on the trees (the tree skins).  The most important process comes, they will scratch on the tree skins (the area that they just scattered powder on) and hope that some numbers will come up, my mom and my dad were the ones in the spirits lottery worship or whatever they called.

            This happens every time on the day before the lottery day. It drives me to think about the Government policy that they are going to push back the policy of “on the ground lottery”. Many people argue that it is not a good idea because it’s going to lead people to be in dept. Some people think that the government is going to use this policy as a tool to get money from the “on the ground lottery”. On the other hand, the lottery has always been with Thai people’s life since the Ayutthaya age. In my opinion, it is a good idea to push the underground lottery to be “on the ground”; since buying lottery makes people happy, the government should make their people happy by making it legal. I am not supporting this policy because my parents are the fan of lottery but I think the government can get the profit from “on the ground lottery project” to develop the country.

 Jenjira Pukan 540132004

Thidarat 54013208

Children’s day    

Children’s day in Thailand is celebrated on the second Saturday in January. This year, it is on Saturday 14 January.

Thai people know as or call as“Wan Dek”. Children’s Day is celebrated to give children the opportunity to have fun. Many places have activities for children to enjoy in games or competitions. Children should have fun and enjoy their life on this day but there was a tragedy occurred at Chiang Mai International Airport.

A soldier was killed when his parachute failed to open during a skydiving demonstration. The accident happened in front of parents and children who had come to see the show. The soldier jump from a helicopter and his parachute failed to open. He died when his body hit the ground.

I heard this news and felt tragedy. I believe many eyes who watched the show would have never forgotten the picture when the man fell to the ground. How about children? I think they do not want to be aviator anymore. To me, shows on Children’s day should not be risky, dangerous or unsafe. What do you think?                

Udom Taepanich and His Stand-up Comedy Show

I just bought DVDs - ‘Diew Microphone’ or a stand-up comedy show by Udom Taepanich, a famous stand-up comedian in Thailand two weeks ago. I’ve already watched all 9 episodes. I think that the show is amazing and very funny. I really enjoy the show. I recommend you to watch the DVDS, especially episode 9 – using Facebook. You probably like it because it’s very true about our habits while we’re using Facebook.

Udom Taepanich started his career as a stand-up comedian sixteen years ago. He’s the first person who begins a stand-up comedy show in Thailand. I’m just only 11 years old at that time, and I never heard about a stand-up comedy show before. So when I heard that he is going to perform a stand-up comedy show, I just think that the show might not be successful, because a stand-up comedy show is quite new in Thailand. However, being as a stand-up comedian for 16 years and tickets always sold out every time the shows occurred, can prove that he is a talented comedian, and now successful in his career.

Some people may wonder what stories he talks about in his shows. I can say that things he talks in his shows are just simple things in our daily life such as BTS, security guard, cockroaches in the house, police, Facebook, and student life. All of these stories are very funny and interesting when we are told by Udom. My favorite part is a student story. He talks about his life when he was a student in Surin province. He also mentions about songs and games that children at that time like to play. I’m very into this story because it reminds me of my childhood. I used to sing all songs he mentioned. When he starts singing, I can sing it all correctly.

The key that makes him a successful comedian is probably patience and observation. I remember that he got negative comments about his first show that it is not going to work, but he’s still not give up. Besides, we sometimes never noticed little things in our life but Udom can see it; he makes us agree with his statement that it is true, and it used to happen to us. After his show, new words or slang also occurred. It was used widely in social network, and among teenager such as เซาะกราวน์ (sor-ground), ลำปางหนาวมาก (Lampang- nao- mak), อาร์ตตัวแม่ (art-tua-mae). The new slang can prove that he is very famous, and he also influent some people to use his words, including me. I sometime use his word ‘อาร์ตตัวแม่’ with friends.

I watched the DVDs many hours, and I never get bored to watch his shows.  I haven’t laughed so hard for such a long time after the second semester exams. His shows can make me laugh again. If you would like to watch all episodes, I can lend you the DVDs.

  

Here is the example from his show – using Facebook.  When he talks about taking photos of food and posting it on Facebook before eating, I just can’t stop laughing. It remind me of some students in our class and my friends. 

Fuel Price Crisis

     The fuel price in Thailand has been announced the next rise in two days, 16 March 2012, after it has been raised gradually in the past two and a half months. The world oil price has almost nothing to do with this continual rise but the recent Thai government's discontinuance on exempting the money collection for the oil fund does. 

     In August 2011, the government first stepped onto its power and announced the exemption of money collected to the country's oil fund bringing down the fuel price about 6-7 baht a liter. After few months of implementation, the government ceased the plan and the oil price has started to increase. The rise of the fuel price does not only affect people who are using all kind of vehicles and the transportations, but also affect Thai people's lives in much wider range. 

     I understand the government's aim that was to lessen the living expense and to enhance the living condition of all Thai people in one way by launching such a plan. But the fact that the exemption has cause the fund many billions a month and the plan could not last forever has put people in even higher living expense. The fuel price today is almost 40 baht per liter and there has been no sign of stability. 
     I do not think that the government has done thing right as it has also provided the first car campaign that seems to encourage people to buy more cars despite the rise of the fuel price that is quite unbearable.

Tablet PCs Policy for Thai Students

            Thai Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has finally selected SCOPE, a tablet producer from China, as the winning bidder for the government's tablet PCs for school students

           Four Chinese tablet manufacturers have submitted bids for the project. There are Huawei, TCL, Haier and SCOPE as recommended by the Chinese government.

             The tablet’s specifications under Scope company matches the government’s requirement – a seven-inch touch screen, 16-gigabyte memory, and dual-core CPU., operate under the Android 3.2  Honeycomb system and the tablets’ cost are around 2,400 baht per unit.

            Tablet PCs for schoolchildren is one of the popular policies that Pheu Thai Party promised with the voters during the election campaign last year. One Tablet per Child policy leads to the widespread debates over suitable educational content and control of inappropriate content and misuse of the devices. (For more information http://english.sina.com/business/2012/0305/445888.html)

            I strongly disagree with this policy because I think Thai government did not do the research well before making it real. Comparing to Singapore that they already use the tablet PCs in many schools, Thailand is far away from the word “ready.”

             First of all, Thai first grade students are lack of responsibilities – they cannot take care of high technology appliances. The small children will not use them for study.

            Secondly, teachers have to take more responsibilities in order to control the students’ use of tablets and the theft problem.

             Tertiary, will the tablets work efficiently? Due to the distribution of tablets for primary school students from over 600,000 units to 900,000 in the next three months, will the Scope company produce them in time? Moreover, what if the tablets breakdown, will the government take responsibilities for the expenses? If not, the parents have to pay for all the cost.

             Finally, I do not think this policy will help in Thai small students’ learning. Instead of paying such a lot of money on these tablets, the government should spend that money to support the whole country's education.