Language Policy and Thailand's Sustainable Development

Janpha Thadphoothon

Despite Thailand's greater roles in the regional and global levels, its language policy seems to be lagging behind other neighbors such as Myanmar and Laos. More and more countries have redirected their language policies, embracing ethnic languages / mother tongues, in line with the United Nations' call for the use of mother tongues in education and society.

Any language policy to be adopted by Thailand should embrace the notion of diversity. I would like to offer my suggestion to the Thai policy makers that it's high time we really have to devise our own language policy.

What languages should we use in Thailand? 

- Love our mother tongues

- Fluent in Thai - our national language

- Competent in the global languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, etc), 

- Embrace the languages of neighboring countries

รักภาษาถิ่น เก่งภาษาไทย ได้ภาษาสากล ฝึกฝนภาษาอาเซียน

Pros and Cons of TPP

A split in Asean?

Many critics have voiced their grave concerns that Asean is going to somewhat 'split' due mainly to growing pressures from super powers,  namely China and the US. Is this a bit overreacting?

(Photo: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/02/15/united-states-goes-acourting-asean/)

It's a big worry to have to face this prospect if it were true,  as ASEAN has just marked its formal opening of the community. So, what's happening?

Will Asean crack under pressure?

Four members have joined the TPP,  namely Singapore,  Vietnam,    Brunei,  and Malaysia.  The Philippines as we know is  a close ally of the US.

The fact is obvious that there are Asean members worrying about the growing assertiveness of China in the South China Sea.

The other members such as Thailand,  Myanmar,  Indonesia,  Laos,  and Cambodia are considering the options.

Here we have witnessed a small crack.

The Split in Asean would make Asean weak and open opportunities for bigger powers to take full advantages of this split. It's a pity to see the direction  of Asean heading toward this disintegration, at least in its strategic directions,  only a few weeks after its official inauguration. But this is not new.

In order to prevent this undesirable situation it is necessary for Asean members to stay united as a single entity And be more confident in its position.

Some critics point out that the split is the result of this and that. But it is something Asean members need to do something about it.

ASEAN should adhere to its charter in both spirit and letters.

Modality in Myanmar

Modality

Epistemic Modals

Epistemic modals are used to indicate the possibility or necessity of some piece of knowledge.


Modality in Burmese:  'Ya' or must

POTENTIAL MODALITY (DEONTIC)
1. Deontic Modality 'Ya dae' means must / have to
Ex.     ကျွန်တော့် ကျောင်းသွားရမလား?// Janor Chaung Twa ya ma la ?
(Do I have to go to school?)
Twa ya mae  --- (You) Have to go
Ma twa ya bu --- (You) Don't have to go
Ya - mean 'must or have to'

2. Deontic Modality -- Tin dee means 'should'

သွားသင့်တယ် should go
Ming see go twa tin dee. You should go to the market.

May
အန္တရာယ် ဖြစ်နိုင်
Antarai pyid nai dee maybe dangerous


Asking Permission

Janor Deenei Pwei Twa lo ya tha la? Today can I go to the temple fair?

janor See matwa yathay boo.
I have not been to the market yet.

Janor deenei see twa yata la?
Do I have to go to the market today?

Twa lo ya dae. Yes you may.
Twa lo ma ya boo. No, you may not.

Abilitative Modality

Can

ကျွန်မမြန်မာစကားပြောဆိုနိုင်ပါတယ်။ Jama Myanmar saka pyor soe nai dae.
I (female)  can speak Myanmar.

Ning Myanmar saka Pyor lo ya la ---- Can you speak Myanmar?

Answer Nay Nay Pyor Tud dae. I can speak little Myanmar.

Myanmar Grammar 1

Word formation at the phrasal level

The basic structure of adjective + nouns like English and Chinese

Example :

Volcano = Mee Taung
Mee မီး is fire. Taung ေတာင္ is mountain

ျမန္မာအက or Myanmar Aka
Myanmar Dance
The combination of two words :
Myanmar + Aka (dance )

Compounding two or more words

South China Sea =Tong Tayok Pinlay

Tong means south;  Tayok means China;  Pinlay means the sea

In the Myanmar language, a verb normally ends with the particle Dee such as 

Leijin dee (to practice)

Pyei dee (to run)

saa dee (to eat)

Pyor dee (to speak)

jai dee (to like)

Chid dee (to love)

For adjectives, the ending particle 'thor' is common such as:

good = kou thor

bad = soe thor

Education for Sustainable Development and the Well-being of Thai Communities

“Education for Sustainable Development and the Well-being of Thai Communities”

 By Paitoon Sinlarat

No one can use magic, create miracles, or use power to create a happy and strong community. Happiness and wellbeing must be created by and within a particular community by its members. Hence, community participation, in education or any other development endeavors, is crucial and indispensable.

In the realm of education, we must manage it using our roots, our indigenous wisdom. This is what is known as ‘grassroots education’, which should be the principle underpinning any provision and administration of education for the well-being of the community. In the Thai context, first and foremost, it is prudent to base our educational development on our very own roots. This should be done before bringing in new ideas, and those new ideas must be well integrated with the existing ones. This educational model requires active participation of the community members as pivotal elements, followed by the support or participation from external elements. True education for the well-being of the community does not mean having the outsider or external elements as the center or organizer and assign or allocate peripheral roles to the community.

The above message is an excerpt from “Grassroots Education: Community-Centered Educational Model – From Theory to Practice” edited by Pinsuda Siritrungsree, Published by DPU Press (2014).

The Role of Teachers in the Future: Preparing Students as Self-taught Learners

A note to Thai teachers from Prof Dr. Paitoon Sinlarat

"The Role of Teachers in the Future: Preparing Students as Self-taught Learners "

As the society is changing, so, too, are the teachers’ roles and responsibilities.

In an agrarian society in the past, teachers functioned as leaders, and they were highly respected by members of the society. Whatever they said, students and society believed and followed them. In this respect, the teaching profession, to some extent, was influential and authoritative.

Nowadays, however, most teachers, as society is changing rapidly, find it very challenging to perform the same function as in the past. The students no longer take the words of their teachers seriously. They no longer pin their hope and future on the teachers as they cannot teach them what they must do or what will happen to them. In fact, no one knows what will be lying ahead in the future, and teachers, too, do not know the future. They cannot tell their students what the future will be like; hence, they are less keen to tell the students what and how they should do.

Under this uncertain situation, the best the teachers should be doing is helping their students to be able to teach themselves.

The Significance of US-Asean Meeting in February 2016

Headline from Bangkok Post dated 10 February 2016

นักวิเคราะห์ชี้ สหรัฐฯ ขอจับเข่าคุยกับอาเซียนเนื่องจากอิทธิพลของจีนในภูมิภาคเริ่มมีมากขึ้น ก่อนหมดสมัยของโอบามา To ink cooperation pact หมายถึง ลงนามเซ็นสัญญาความร่วมมือ TPP กระมัง (ซึ่งส่อเค้าว่าจะมีปัญหา และปัจจุบันะมีเพียง 4 ชาติในอาเซ๊ยนที่ลงนามไปแล้ว)

ตามข่าวท่านนายกฯ ของไทยและคณะ จะเดินทางไป California ในนามอาเซียนเพื่อพบปะเจรจากับประธานาธิบดีโอบามาด้วย

ไทยยังมีจุดยืนที่มั่นคงในเรื่องนี้คือ การขอศึกษารายละเอียดดูก่อน เข้าใจว่าขอดูท่าทีชาติอาเซ๊ยนอื่น ๆ ก่อน เช่น เมียนมา อินโดนีเซีย