Royal Society launches Asean language app
IF YOU are struggling with the language of an Asean country, help is at hand in the form of an app created by the Office of the Royal Society.
“We have compiled useful words for everyday life in this app,” the office’s secretary-general, Kanokwalee Chuchaiya, said yesterday at the launch of the app.
Developed last year, the app is both IOS and Android-compatible, and covers all 10 Asean languages plus English. The app deal with more than 1,500 words in each language.
Apart from getting translations, users can also browse through the app’s database and pick up everyday words in 62 categories. To make things easier, the app even includes images.
“Each word is pronounced by a native speaker,” Kanokwalee said, adding the app would be very useful for students and people needing help with the basics of the languages. She said her office had begun working on the cultures and languages of the 10 Asean nations in 2013 in a move to prepare Thais for the Asean Community.
Apart from the app, the Office of the Royal Society has also produced radio shows such as “Enjoy Asean Languages” and published books on Asean languages and cultures.
Kanokwalee said her office would also publish 3,000 copies of an Asean vocabulary book for distribution to schools that have Asean languages in their curriculum as well as to relevant government agencies.
“When users point a smart |pen at a picture on the book, they will see how the word describing the picture is pronounced,” she said.
