Thai Language Recorded Book Project participated in by TUFS Students is broadcast by a Thai Broadcasting Station

April 25, 2022

On April 9, 2022, Thai PBS News, a public broadcasting station in Thailand, featured the “Thai Language Recorded Book Project” in which 11 Japanese students majoring in Thai and one Thai graduate student participated.

This project came out of an AY2020 online exchange class in which Thai language major students introduced Japanese culture to Thai blind writers.

The news video is available on YouTube.　[Summary of the news video (link in the page)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2coIj_4SwY

A recorded book is a book that is read aloud for the visually impaired so that they can listen to it and read it by ear. In Thailand, the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled, which is under the jurisdiction of the Thailand Association of the Blind, has a large collection of audio books that are available for loan to libraries for the visually impaired throughout Thailand or online.

This project is a part of the active learning program of the course “Thai Language Composition 4” (instructor: Prof. Sunitha Wittayapanyanon). This was a joint class with “Story Telling,” a course offered by the School of Communication Arts of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).

The book recorded by the students this time was mɔɔŋ yîipùn mumklàp hây rák kwàa dǝǝm published in Thai by Professor Sunisar. This project to record books about Japan written in Thai was highly regarded as a cultural cooperation project and was made possible with support from the Bangkok office of the Japan Foundation.

On Thursday, November 11, 2021, during a joint online class between TUFS and UTCC, an overview was presented explaining the purpose of the project as well as production methods and points to note, followed by practice readings. After the class, students from TUFS and UTCC paired up and practiced together utilizing online tools. The recordings were checked by three instructors from both schools (TUFS: Specially Appointed Professor Sunisa, UTCC: Professors Oradon and Aneesha) and four Thai students who are blind or visually impaired, and feedback was given in class on Thursday, November 25 of the same year. After this, pairs of TUFS students and UTCC students again conducted their own recording work using online tools, and the recorded data from each pair was collected and compiled into a recorded book. The recordings were donated to the Thailand Association of the Blind.