Monday, April 17, 2006
A tale of two magazine racks
When in Southeast Asia last year, I visited bookstores in each country. The magazine racks were particularly interesting.
In Bangkok, most of the magazines were foreign with their mastheads in English. I took this to mean they were direct imports and bought a couple, only to discover the contents were in Thai with only titles in English. Judging from the visuals, most articles were translated and a few locally produced. There were lots of foreign publications, all of them similarly handled. It appeared there was a thriving industry in translating magazines, with local content production slowly picking up.
In Kuala Lumpur, the magazines were all direct imports in English. There was no local production except a few independent publications that were clearly not up to international standards.
I thought this was rather telling of how the dominance of a language plays itself out. Let me explain.
The Thai language is closer to Chinese than to the Indo-European languages we are familiar with. In Thai, the tone with which a word is pronounced decides its meaning (see tonal languages). In Indo-European languages, intonation changes the type of sentence, usually between statement and question. For example, in English, a rising tone indicates a question, like in “You will come?”, while most Indian languages use a falling tone, like in “You will come-a?” or more likely “You will come, no?” The Thais have as much difficulty comprehending this as we have getting how the very meaning of a word can change with its tone. It is not possible to accurately transliterate Thai into the Roman alphabet because the Roman alphabet does not record tone.
Little wonder then, the Thais have so much difficulty speaking English, even in a tourist friendly place like Bangkok. English is no threat to the Thai language. It’s a curiosity that the foreigners use, and the foreigners have a lot of money, so one might as well indulge in it. Bangkok celebrates being hip with English. Signboards everywhere use it. Magazine titles and captions are all in English. The government encourages further use of the language. The local population couldn’t be more bothered. English is too inconvenient to ever be their primary language.
In Kuala Lumpur, everyone speaks English, with perfectly intelligible accents. It’s their first language (though to be fair, I did meet people who spoke Malay first and English second). The Malay language uses the Roman alphabet, so it’s all the more easier to learn English. The government goes out of its way to defend Malay from English. Signboards everywhere are only in Malay.
In Bangkok, my hostess Ton complained that Thai youth have no global outlook. They’re happy to limit their world to Thailand. In Kuala Lumpur, that was clearly not the case. If the magazine rack suggested anything, it is that Malaysians are so comfortable at being world citizens that their local media—and with that, their cultural traditions—are having a hard time holding up against imports.
In Bangkok, most of the magazines were foreign with their mastheads in English. I took this to mean they were direct imports and bought a couple, only to discover the contents were in Thai with only titles in English. Judging from the visuals, most articles were translated and a few locally produced. There were lots of foreign publications, all of them similarly handled. It appeared there was a thriving industry in translating magazines, with local content production slowly picking up.
In Kuala Lumpur, the magazines were all direct imports in English. There was no local production except a few independent publications that were clearly not up to international standards.
I thought this was rather telling of how the dominance of a language plays itself out. Let me explain.
The Thai language is closer to Chinese than to the Indo-European languages we are familiar with. In Thai, the tone with which a word is pronounced decides its meaning (see tonal languages). In Indo-European languages, intonation changes the type of sentence, usually between statement and question. For example, in English, a rising tone indicates a question, like in “You will come?”, while most Indian languages use a falling tone, like in “You will come-a?” or more likely “You will come, no?” The Thais have as much difficulty comprehending this as we have getting how the very meaning of a word can change with its tone. It is not possible to accurately transliterate Thai into the Roman alphabet because the Roman alphabet does not record tone.
Little wonder then, the Thais have so much difficulty speaking English, even in a tourist friendly place like Bangkok. English is no threat to the Thai language. It’s a curiosity that the foreigners use, and the foreigners have a lot of money, so one might as well indulge in it. Bangkok celebrates being hip with English. Signboards everywhere use it. Magazine titles and captions are all in English. The government encourages further use of the language. The local population couldn’t be more bothered. English is too inconvenient to ever be their primary language.
In Kuala Lumpur, everyone speaks English, with perfectly intelligible accents. It’s their first language (though to be fair, I did meet people who spoke Malay first and English second). The Malay language uses the Roman alphabet, so it’s all the more easier to learn English. The government goes out of its way to defend Malay from English. Signboards everywhere are only in Malay.
In Bangkok, my hostess Ton complained that Thai youth have no global outlook. They’re happy to limit their world to Thailand. In Kuala Lumpur, that was clearly not the case. If the magazine rack suggested anything, it is that Malaysians are so comfortable at being world citizens that their local media—and with that, their cultural traditions—are having a hard time holding up against imports.
thaths — Apr 17, 2006 7:33:12 PM — # ↩
I see interesting parallels between Thailand and Japan in that both were Asian countries that managed not to end up as colonies (if you ignore WWII and its aftermath). Both felt the need to modernize along Western lines in late 19th and early 20th century and brought in advisors from different western countries to help them go forward.
shortindiangirl — Apr 18, 2006 8:38:12 AM — # ↩
thaths — Apr 18, 2006 6:50:52 PM — # ↩
shortindiangirl — Apr 18, 2006 8:37:27 AM — # ↩
Malaysia has always been more multi cultural than Thailand. It's influx of Indian, Philippino, Muslim and non Muslim has caused a melting pot of sorts and globalism / multi culturalism may be a norm of the social fabric.
Thailand, with it's tonal language may be less acclamatized to a globalized world, connected primarily through the internet, and therefore, written language in Roman script.
thaths — Apr 18, 2006 6:55:15 PM — # ↩
shortindiangirl — Apr 18, 2006 7:54:29 PM — # ↩
thaths — Apr 19, 2006 1:32:42 AM — # ↩
Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 18, 2006 10:45:09 PM — # ↩