If you have to answer this question, what will be your answer?
(KPL) Many people feel unsatisfied on hearing their friends using more and more Thai words because it is considered an offence to their own language and culture. But there is of course a positive aspect for society. Knowing foreign languages is advantageous for communication, information and co-operation with the world outside.
Mrs Rattana Chantao, a Lao language teacher at Khon Kaen University, Thailand, said “Speaking many languages is an advantage. Thai will be able to talk to Lao people in Thai language and communicate with them. Thai people will be pleased to have known their language has been expanding to Laos and discovered that Lao people know good aspects of Thailand through its language.”
Regarding language usefulness, no one wins and no one looses, said Mr Bualy. “Specifically for ourselves, we gain more advantages as we can get access to scientific information through Thai language. While we have not yet translated some foreign scientific terms into Lao, we have to use Thais instead and then we will use Thais as examples for developing ours. Blocking is normally considered not good. We have to accept first and develop it later.”
The Head of the Thai and Oriental Languages Department, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mahasarakham University, Thailand, Mr. Rachan Nilawanapha, said, “What Thailand will gain is that its culture will expand, and Lao people will be more likely to enter Thailand, for example when Thai singers have concerts in provinces bordering Laos. Besides, knowing each other’s language will help resolving disputes of wars or history.” “Don’t like reading?”:
In the past, things were different, especially in the time of King Souliyavongsa, when the country was at its peak of civilisation knowledge and stories were inscribed in palm leaf. The Kingdom of Lane Xang (Laos currently) was a leading nation of civilisation in Southeast Asia. Past foreign invasions into the kingdom have torn the national unity into pieces and lesson exchange declined. People’s understanding of scientific matters wasn’t deep enough.
Mr Bualy said: “When Laos lost it sovereignty, our language was gradually engulfed by the victor’s invading language for official use, so we could not develop our language enough. The use of Lao language was limited to daily spoken communication of some Lao people. At a certain period of time some old Lao words which were neglected or discarded have been forgotten and out of use, that even the present generation think that they are not of Lao origin.” Nowadays Lao people classify words as Thai although they have no baseline. If they still have no any baseline, they will be familiar with those words and believe that they belong to their culture at last, said Mr Rachan. Although the problem of Lao language can make Lao people worried about it, from analyzing points of views of Thai experts, it is not to late to deal with it. Some say Laos has stronger social roots than Thailand and it is not yet threatened by culture of many countries like Thailand. Laos is threatened by a few countries, and so it can identify and solve the problems easily. What has challenged Isane (The Northeast of Thailand) is suggested as an example to Laos. Isane people have seen a sudden change in their culture during the past decades when they are not prepared for the catastrophe and their native language is replaced by Thai day by day.
“In comparison, I feel concerned over Thai society rather than Laos’, said Pairat Pongpanit, Assistant News Editor, the Matichon Newspaper. “We have chosen many wrong ways concerning language, culture, and many unpleasant things, which have affected our society. If we had dealt with the problem early, we would have been able to reduce the negative impacts. It seems difficult to do many campaigns when all things have already occurred.”
“It is difficult to make our own identity, so I would like to ask concerned authorities of Laos to set long-term plan on language, and pay attention to all languages, not only to the national one, but also to the minority languages. The Lao authorities should set a plan to promote Lao language studying in foreign countries, in order to make them know the language and culture of Laos.” I hope that Lao people see unpleasant example of Thailand as the lesson for successful dealing with the change of culture and language and that they will be able to protect their wonderful culture, Mr Pairat added.
The story is produced under the “Imaging Our Mekong” media fellowship programme (www.newsmekong.org), run by IPS Asia-Pacific and Probe Media Foundation Inc with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.
HAHAHA....Lao can always communicate with Thai. The problem is Thai never bother to learn to speak Lao.
Learning to speak Thai is not the problem but the use of Thai vocabulary in everyday situation and normal conversation is take root. Example is those girls from Hi5 show and more if you look around. Most Lao in Laos, USA, and probably other countries does the same thing. But I've seen mostly young kids speaking this way. Adults still speak Lao to each other.
ya...there are many good things from Thailand that Laos need to learn from such as technology, education, fashion, etc... however, Laos should learn what problems thailand face last century and be ready to avoid or solve the problem.
For me, when people ask me how many language I can speak. My anwser always 3: Lao, Thai and English. Though Thai people they don't want to add Lao language to their assest, that's o.K for them. We are more international than Thai
If lao people speak more thai, then Lao will become a part of Thailand without knowing that. For me even a kind of funny and strange to see one (lao) talks in thai with another (lao). Have a look if an english man speaks french to another english man....never.
is strange to me. i love my pa sa lao. i am in school in thai the only time i speak thai that in classe no more no less. just in classe. but see alot of young lao poeple in laos or other country use alot thai word. like the word ja. is not lao word. every time i see they speak ja i will ask them are you khon thai? they say no. n ask why/ i say if not why u use word ja. so i all way say to them i not like lao poeple use thai word.
That would never happen. Now, only the low educated Lao people would speak Thai to each other, although I seldom see such a case in Laos.
Most Lao people are really conservative about Lao language. Some even speak English to Thai people to avoid speaking Thai language when they are in Thailand.
no way...there will NOT be the end of Laos! this issue is not new, Laos was influenced by Thai language/culture since the past 200 yrs, until now Lao people still speak Lao. When teachers stop teaching students in Lao, now that's going to be the end. History will somehow repeats itself, sooner or later Laos will have a big influence over its neighbors, and returns to its former glories as great as the reign of Chao Souliyavongsa the Great.
What we need is more well educated people to help build Laos. Theres no such thing as a wealthy nation that has low educated population.
I THINK THE ISSUE IS HERE USING THAI WORDS/LANGUAGE IN EVERYDAY CONVERSATION WHEN SPEAKING LAO AMONG LAO FRIENDS. (This could be a problem because you will forget your own language.)
THIS IS NOT ABOUT ONE ABILITY TO SPEAK OTHER LANGUAGE SUCH AS THAI, ENGLISH, FRENCH OR JAPANESE.
