Sanook! leads Thai language conservation project

Press Room

Sanook! leads Thai language conservation project

Bangkok — 10 July 2007 — Sanook.com is collaborating with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Royal Institute of Thailand and the NetDay Foundation to launch “Conserve Thai language with Sanook! Search Knowledge.” This language conservation project is part of a campaign to designate 2007 as the year of Thai language in honour of His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday, and it aims to promote the correct use of Thai, as well as national pride, through Sanook! Search Knowledge.

“The three agencies and the NetDay Foundation by the Information Technology Press Club (ITPC) will be using Sanook! Search Knowledge, a search engine specifically designed to encourage the general public, and particularly young people, to realise the importance of the correct use of the Thai language,” said Mr Torboon Puangmaha, CEO of Sanook.com.

As the country’s most popular website, Sanook.com has tools to help this project to achieve its goal of promoting the correct use of the Thai language.

There are three elements to Sanook! Search Knowledge (http://search.sanook.com/knowledge.) The first, an online library providing daily news and information from dictionaries, encyclopedias, science and technology and the Internet. The second, Sanook!pedia is an online encyclopedia, which is similar to wikipedia in that it was written collaboratively by volunteers and the majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. The third element, Sanook! Answer allows users to ask, answer and comment on questions posed by other users.

The Royal Institute will provide academic information for five activities to encourage people in the correct use of the Thai language. Activity one: Sanook! Conserve Thai Language is a one-word-a-day vocabulary list with meanings, usage and pronunciation displayed on the homepage of Sanook.com. Activity two: listening skill game gives practice in listening to spoken sentences and correcting the ungrammatical ones.

Activity three: spoken skill training is for users to practice their speaking skills by attending speaking contests. Activity four: reading skill practice is where users can take part in competitions for reading poems, essays and published articles; and Activity five: essay writing contest will be held on special occasions with topics such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and National Thai Language Day.

These activities will be held throughout 2007 and the winners of each activity will receive honour plaques and scholarships with a total value of 300,000 baht. The scholarships will be given to students at three levels, primary, secondary and higher education, and members of the public will also have the opportunity to win awards.

“As a consulting agency for this project, the Ministry of Education is persuading schools and universities across the country to take part,” said Mrs. Mandhana Sangkhakrishna, Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

“The ministry recently joined with the NetDay foundation to donate computers to a number of schools, and Sanook.com’s team will install Sanook! Knowledge and show them how to use it. We hoped that students will learn more about how to use the Internet for educational purposes, and eventually we plan to install this search engine on computers at schools throughout the country.”

The Royal Institute’s Secretary-General, Mrs. Chintana Bhandhufalck, explained that the institute joined Sanook in the project because the website has a wide range of target groups, especially students, who are one of the institute’s main target groups.

“For Thai Language Day on July 29, the institute will launch an online version of the 1999 edition of its Thai dictionary with more than 40,000 entries on www.sanook.com to encourage people’s enthusiasm for the Thai language and their wish to use it correctly,” said Mrs Chintana.

“Nowadays, there are many changes in the way people use Thai. New words are invented and become popular with teenagers and other groups, then later became more widely known and accepted. As an agency concerned with this issue, we have defined the word ‘proper use’ as ‘the use of the right word at the right time and at the right place’. It is important for us to use the right words with the right people.”

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Vira Rojpojchanarat said that as the agency that was responsible for the conservation of Thai culture, and that language was a basic component of culture.

“The Ministry initiated the campaign to designate 2007 as the year of Thai language in honour of His Majesty the King’s eightieth birthday on 5th Dec 2007,” he said. “It supports “Conserve Thai language with Sanook! Search knowledge because it is a good project with a wide range of target groups, especially youngsters, and it is sure to encourage them to use the Thai language correctly.”

The Ministry will sponsor the project by presenting rewards and scholarships worth 300,000 baht for the winners. The activities will run through 2007.

CEO of Sanook.com Torboon Puangmaha, added his hope that the collaboration would be useful not only as an encouragement to the correct use of the Thai language, but also as an example of Internet use for educational purposes. It showed that online business had a valuable role to play in creating a knowledge-based society for the good of the community.

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