By Nanticha Ocharoenchai |
<p> It’s a known fact that <em>mai pen rai </em>is one of the most-used responses in the Thai language. The three syllables roughly translate to “it’s okay” or “don’t worry” — but what does this simple phrase actually mean?</p>
<p>After asking not only foreigners, but also native Thais, what their definition of<em>mai pen rai</em> is, I received a surprising variety of responses.<br /><br />Just some of the many interpretations were as follows: “Yeah, I know what it means — ‘whatever,’ right?”; “It’s like never mind,”; “Oh — don’t worry,” and so on.</p>
By Imron Sahoh and Hatsan Todong |
<div>Experts have expressed fear at decreased use of the Malay language in the three southernmost province, so-called Patani, at a public forum held by Deep South Watch earlier this month.</div>
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<div>Manawawi Mama, a lecturer in the Malay language, Yala Rajaphat University, expressed concern that these days when young people speak, they have a habit of mixing Thai and Malay in their speech.
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By John Draper |
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b175826b-0535-a2cb-7b15-df104d5abc15">Back in 2003, Thailand ratified the 1966 UN </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Convention_on_the_Elimination_of_All_Forms_of_Racial_Discrimination">International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination</a> (CERD), though it does not recognize the competence of the relevant Committee under Article 14 of the Convention regarding an individual complaints mechanism.</p>
By The Isaan Record |
<p><em>The Khon Kaen Municipality, Khon Kaen University and the Isan Culture Maitenance and Revitalization Program are collaborating to create programs to teach the Isaan heritage script, Tai Noi.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://isaanrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ToiNoiScript.jpg"><img alt="ToiNoiScript" height="401" src="http://isaanrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ToiNoiScript.jpg" width="600" /></a></p>
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By John Draper |
<div><em>Without an official language policy, Thailand’s many ethnolinguistic minorities cannot experience equality.</em></div>
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<div>This past Saturday marked International Mother Language Day, and while it is not particularly celebrated in Thailand, there were a couple of academic seminars in Chiang Mai and at Mahidol University in Bangkok.
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