Doctor ป.

I share your feeling.

It is frustrating, when we know what it is all about but we are unable to come up with the right words to say.

In AUS, basil sounds like บ๊าส เซิล (strong BAS and very soft mumble 'il')

Dr คนถางทาง,

I watched primary students performed at a school fair.

Many 8-9 years old came to speak on the stage in front of 200+ parents and hundreds more students.

Some made speeches about the issue they were interested in (town parks, road rubbish, environment, ...).

some recited poems they wrote themselves.

They all used a language (English) "confidently" and expressed their thoughts without fear or censorship.

I came away understanding the aim of learning a language. It is all about learning to use a tool (of trade):

to help them tell other people what they are/do/want and to listen to others doing the same.

What is culture? In a simple way, culture is an expression of knowledge, view of life, and language in adaptation to prevailing environment. When environment changes, culture also changes (language included). To maintain a language, we have to develop an adaptation strategy that promotes use of a language to express the changing culture. Thai (language) is falling behind in expressing technologies (for the mass). More new "Thai" words need to be created, methods for making up new words, and media to promote new words, ...

It is am exciting time for ครูภาษาไทย to move Thai language into the 21st century too. Living and speaking Thai (as in "perfect" history) do not appeal to the current generations of Thais. ;-)

Anyone have problems logging in to Gotoknow? I did. I tried 4 times and I thought I had enough to day ;-)