Lost in translation

For Thais speaking English, the goal should be to achieve excellent communicative competence and ability to understand and be understood, rather than perfection. The word “computer”, for example, should be taught correctly, with the accent on the second syllable, and the final “er” clearly enunciated. Should “radar” be transcribed as lay-dah? I am not convinced. More constructive use of bureaucratic time and energy should be devoted, instead, to agree upon a standardised grapheme-to-phoneme model to create some semblance of uniformity for signs, names and places. Currently, many forms of Romanisation are in use without any recognised standard based on orthographic form (transliteration), pronunciation (transcription) or both.

Consistent spelling should adhere to basic phonics patterns for short and long vowels. For example, why is Suvarnabhumi Airport officially transliterated according to its Sanskrit roots rather than the far less confusing Suwunapoom?

 Making signs more readable and accessible will lead to smoother integration into Thai society for foreigners and into international society for Thais.

Charles Frederickson

Bangkok