Learning the Thai language- internet resources

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frankieboy37
udonmap.com
Posts: 36
Joined: September 24, 2013, 12:30 pm

Learning the Thai language- internet resources

Post by frankieboy37 » October 31, 2019, 5:41 pm

For anybody who has taken the study of the Thai language into the intermediate or beyond stages it is soon apparent that there is not an abundance of material available that provides both audio and parallel text references.

There is no doubt that https://www.aakanee.com is outstanding in this regard and also there is the excellent web site http://selfstudythai.com/ where archived Voice of America (VOA) news items have been presented in a very useful way for us students. These are two of the very best sources on the internet and although you can find other bits and pieces scattered in a variety of places not too much else. Therefore, I was recently delighted to stumble across NHK Japan radio broadcasts in Thai (and actually a whole bunch of other languages that might interest you also, as a kind of cross reference, if your background extends beyond two languages). I have no idea how long they have been doing this but every day, all in one location, there is an approximate 14-minute podcast covering about 8 to 10 current news items with full supporting transcripts. The speed of reporting is a little slower than other news broadcasts too, which I currently find helpful. You might not be interested in some or all of the Japanese news items but there is sufficient material to keep you busy with the international news items alone.

I know VOA provides a similar service but my main objection is that you have to surf around to find the items that have audio to go with the text, not to mention one of my own pet-hates that the text is not presented with a “standard“ Thai font, which can be changed of course, but with NHK no need to take that extra step. I have found some material on SBS Australia also but the text and audio together presentations seem to be scarcer than VOA. BBC news unfortunately provides text only. It could be that I have overlooked something with regards to VOA and SBS and they have some page somewhere that is as useful as the NHK output. I would be only too delighted to have to stand corrected.

The real bonus would be if anybody has come across a source of transcript/subtitles with audio/video provided by any Thai news provider. If anybody knows of such, historical or contemporary, then I would love to hear about it.



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