In general, it's fair to say that Thailand is not a literary culture. Apart from books on Buddhism, very few books are written originally in Thai. They are usually translations from other languages.
Book stores and libraries not as big or as popular compared to Japan, Korea or France, although it seems to be improving in Bangkok.
Part of this I believe is that learning (as opposed to having qualifications) is not highly valued by the culture here, and this in my view is the most crucial aspect the country needs to change if it wants progress. But I digress.
I believe the crux of the problem is the Thai writing system.
This is not a post complaining about the difficulties of the Thai alphabet. In fact, if one applies themself, it is not as hard as it first seems. However there are a few things they could do to make it easier for Thais and foreigners alike to read Thai. This would encourage literacy and enjoyment in literature.
The first is a spelling reform.
Many educated words derive from Sanskrit or Pali and contain either rare or otherwise redundant consonants.
For example: "International business" is spelled ธุรกิจนานาชาติ It is pronounced something like dthur-a-git nanachaat, although the spelling would tell us it ends "nanachaadti" but we just learn you don't pronounce that part. It could be spelled ทุรกิดนานาชาด with no change in pronunciation.
The consonants ส ศ and ษ are the exact same consonant and follow the same tone rules, except the latter are only used for certain words. You just have to know which.
By eliminating redundant consonants, the total number of consonants could be reduced by about a third.
Every vowel has a short and long version, often looking very different from each other. For example: ๅ and ะ (aa and a). It may be too revolutionary, but there is already a marker to indicate a short vowel for certain vowels: เอ็ๅ the symbol above "เอๅ". If it was used for all vowels, the number of symbols for vowels could be decreased by almost one half.
Lastly, there are tone markers, but they respond differently depending on which tone group the first consonant of the syllable belongs too. These tone markers could be reused to respond to all consonants the same, and tone groups could be removed entirely, changing the tone reading rules from 13 to 5. This last change would force Thais to relearn some readings so it would encounter resistance. But it would not be a big change and it would be easy to adapt to.
The second, is punctuation and spacing. At a glance, which do you think is easier to read?
To get a feel for what Thai is like to read for a Thai person, I'll continue the post with no punctuation or capitals.
whileitispossibletoreadthaiinthiswayasitisinenglishitisntveryfuninfacteveninthaiitthereisnoindicationoftheendofasentencesoaphrasecanoftenbejustamassiveblockoftextandasistatedearlieritispossibletoreadbyidentifyingwordsandcognitivelyseperatingthemfromtherestofthegroupittakesmoreefforttodosoitisalsopossibletoknowfromcontextwhereasentenceendsandanewonebeginsbutagainitrequiressignificantlymoreeffort
Congratulations if you got through that. Yes it is possible to read and as some Thais I have heard argue that if you get used to it it is no problem. But it requires a lot more mental effort. With spaces between words, commas between thought groups, and punctuation marking sentences and other structural elements we can use our visual processing to aid us. It reduces the cognitive load in reading, and makes it less of a mental workout, and more enjoyable. Hence, encouraging enjoyment in literature.
Even the Japanese and Chinese incorporate some punctuation in modern day literature for this reason. Spelling reforms are possible. Italy and Germany both conducted spelling reforms in schools. The result? An increase in literacy. In fact, the average 15 year old Italian has been quoted as a consistently better speller than their English or French counterpart. Some studies have shown less occurrence of dyslexia in countries with simpler spelling systems, such as Italian as well.
Literacy is perhaps the most important thing a person can learn, as it forms the gateway to almost all forms of explicit learning. So by some simple reforms, the language can be made much more accessible to foreigners and Thais alike, leading to an easier integration for migrants into Thai society, and for Thais into international society.
