<div dir="ltr"><h1 itemprop="headline">Realising the spirit of the new Thai National Language Policy</h1>
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<div class="">Dr Peerasit Kamnuansilpa,<br>
Dr. Gerald W Fry <span>January 13, 2014 1:00 am</span> </div>
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<h2 itemprop="description">In line with the spirit
of the draft Thai National Language Policy, the Isan Culture Maintenance
and Revitalisation Programme (ICMRP) has attempted to preserve and
support regional Thai culture.</h2>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The
draft policy may ring a bell with many of you, as a recent article by
Professor Gerald Fry, which discusses the policy, was referred to in one
of my earlier columns. </span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Let
me reiterate again that while the draft Thai National Language Policy
would make the Thai language Thailand's official language, Mahidol
University has found that there are about 70 indigenous languages spoken
in Thailand. Four of these are recognised regional languages, namely
Central Thai (Thai Klang), Southern Thai (Pak Tai), Northern Thai (Kam
Meuang), and Northeastern Thai (Isan, technically 'Thai Lao').</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">This
article looks at the innovative ICMRP project and how it has attempted
to preserve and support regional Thai culture. The ICMRP is a four-year
project (2012-2016) involving a consortium of five partners, namely Ban
Phai, Chum Phae, Khon Kaen and Meuang Phon municipalities, together with
the College of Local Administration (COLA) at Khon Kaen University
(KKU).</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Also
involved are staff from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
the Department of Culture, and the Faculty of Fine Arts at KKU; senior
local experts at Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (Khon Kaen
campus); and the Ministry of Culture's Department of Culture Promotion,
which has licensed a special 16,000-word Thai-Isan dictionary for
publication. There are also strong academic links with Mahidol
University's Research Institute for Languages and Culture of Asia.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Of
note, all the municipalities in the ICMRP are quasi-autonomous under
the 1999 Decentralisation Act, and thus this is an important example of
the way that decentralised municipalities are successfully and
creatively working together.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The
ICMRP began in 2012 and is designed to develop effective ways of
preserving local Isan culture by incorporating it in municipal education
departments, urban life, and the formal education system. Each
municipality works on a focus area in the first two years and then
shares its experiences and an implementation plan in the last two years.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The
ICMRP sees language as an integral part of culture, and therefore it
supports a programme of municipal change which promotes Thai national,
local (Isan in this case), and international culture, with four major
components.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Firstly,
it supports locally designed and made school uniforms, developed by Ban
Phai Municipality because of its relationship with the famous Isan silk
village of Chonnabot. Ban Phai is responsible for producing
locally-designed and manufactured Isan-style uniforms for municipal
officials, teachers, and students. This stimulus of the domestic economy
provides cash jobs for those in villages, particularly the elderly,
contributing to less migration to the cities. It also preserves and
promotes local Thai wisdom and the dying art of weaving local Isan silk.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Secondly,
ICMRP Chum Phae supports multilingual Thai-Isan-English signs that are
both attractive and pay respect to Thai as the national language,
principally by making sure Thai language is in a higher position on the
sign or is in a larger font. The alphabet used is Tai Noi, which was
developed in the reign of the Sukhothai-period by King Lithai and was
widely used throughout the greater<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Mekong+" class="" target="_blank"> Mekong </a>subregion
at one time; it was one of many pre-cursor scripts to modern Thai and
is still occasionally used in Isan, especially in temples and on
palm-leaf manuscripts. Tai Noi has similarities to the Lao script, and,
thus, its promotion will facilitate language learning valuable in the<a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/?keyword=+Asean+" class="" target="_blank"> Asean </a>Economic Community (AEC) era.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Thirdly,
the programme supports an Isan curriculum, developed by Khon Kaen
Municipality, which won an award from the King Prajadhipok Institute for
its good management practices, particularly in the area of building
good ethnic identity relations. Khon Kaen Municipality has also strongly
promoted a local cultural hero, Sinsai, together with Thai heroes, in
its curriculum and throughout the city, as an alternative to
international cultural heroes. It has now introduced the Tai Noi
alphabet and has started teaching Isan language as a subject, as a pilot
project, in the formal curriculum.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Finally,
ICMRP Meuang Phon has developed a multimedia database of Isan cultural
performances such as lullabies, styles of traditional Isan fighting
dance, shadow plays, and the regional speciality, "moh lam". These
performances are being recorded and also introduced into the Khon Kaen
Municipality curriculum. This helps preserve and promote local Thai
cultural performances and encourages cultural tourism within the
Northeast region.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The
ICMRP welcomes a future where the formal Thai educational system
supports teaching local Thai languages together with standard Thai,
where doctors and nurses are trained to communicate with their patients
in local languages to ensure better patient care, and where
municipalities and districts use a local language together with Thai in
order to communicate more effectively and sensitively with their
citizens.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">This
future could be one where primary school Thai students may choose the
language in which they take tests (though in schools with good resources
they should be able to take tests in Thai at secondary level) and so
have the opportunity to perform better academically and realise their
intellectual potential, as well as to ensure higher self-respect and
esteem. These traits in turn also lead to lower truancy, lower drop-out
rates, and better emotional intelligence. Thailand needs smarter and
happier students and citizens, and supporting the draft Thai National
Language Policy is one creative and inspiring way to achieve this.</span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The ICMRP can be found at <a href="http://www.icmrpthailand.org">www.icmrpthailand.org</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/icmrpthailand">www.facebook.com/icmrpthailand</a>.</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Dr
Peerasit Kamnuansilpa is associate professor and former dean and
founder of the College of Local Administration at Khon Kaen University. </span></span><br><br>
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><a href="mailto:peerasit07@gmail.com">peerasit07@gmail.com</a></span><br><br>
<span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Dr.
Gerald W Fry, Distinguished International Professor, the Department of
Organizational Leadership and Development, College of Education and
Human Development, </span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">University of Minnesota.</span><br clear="all"><br>-- <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Realising-the-spirit-of-the-new-Thai-National-Lang-30224089.html">http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Realising-the-spirit-of-the-new-Thai-National-Lang-30224089.html</a><br>
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