Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Board The Blue Jasmine
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 27/01/2026
» Jim Thompson continues to go "beyond silk' by joining forces with The Blue Jasmine, a restored historic train travelling from Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong station to four provinces, with stops at ancient sites.
Fascinating Fonts
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 29/07/2022
» The Thai alphabet has an aesthetic appeal that has inspired many creative and artistic works. Since today is National Thai Language Day and to honour Thailand's mother tongue, here are a few noteworthy Thai-font-inspired works and the creative minds behind them.
The Sacredness Of Thai Degrees
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 21/01/2022
» A Facebook post by a doctor went viral last week and sparked a much-needed and perhaps overdue debate regarding the graduation ceremony at Thai universities. She claimed her employer friends wouldn't consider hiring graduates who didn't attend the ceremony to accept their diplomas from a member of the Thai royal family for fear of them being troublemakers. Being conferred your diploma by a member of the Thai royal family is a relatively new norm that started in the reign of King Rama VII. I would like to offer my personal experience regarding the tradition and my two satangs on the topic.
WOTY: Guru's Style
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 04/12/2020
» We have less than a month before 2020 comes to an end (this year has flown so fast). And one of the year-end traditions by famous dictionaries is to announce Word(s) of the Year, the most important and prevailing words or expressions of a specific year's zeitgeist. Called "Wort des Jahres", this German tradition began in 1971.
Thailand: The Land of...
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 06/11/2020
» I'm sure, I'm not the only one who has been rethinking Thailand's nickname The Land Of Smiles. According to Win Lyovarin, two-time S.E.A. Write winner and 2013 National Artist for Literature, Britisher David Lander, creative director at an ad agency, should be credited for coming up with the phrase. Lander came up with the slogan in a pitch for the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Fun fact: The Land Of Smiles is also the title of a German operetta, which premiered in 1929.
There is such thing as a stupid question
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 18/09/2020
» They say there is no such thing as a stupid question. Idiomatically speaking, this adage may be true but, for Thai textbooks, there may be some, in a literal sense.
#BehindTheHashtags
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 06/03/2020
» Many student protests that were partly set off by the dissolution of Future Forward Party over the past two weeks has also ushered in new hashtags into the lexicon of Thai social media. At the time of writing, it has been reported that there are 28 hashtags associated with campus protests. Some are humourous while others carry strong political stances and sharp gibes. Whether you agree with these students who've chosen to make their voices heard, it's better to get used to their protest hashtags as more student flashmobs are on their way (but many speculate that the designation of Covid-19 as a dangerous communicable disease may be used as a tool to suppress them). Not to mention, an online campaign calling for people to wear black on Fridays as a symbol to oppose dictatorship began last Friday.
Thailand's Miseducation
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 06/09/2019
» The conventional notion is that you can rely on textbooks as your source of basic knowledge on a subject matter that you're interested in, but that it isn't always the case in Thailand. You see, some Thai books or educational materials don't seem to care much about being factually correct and, sometimes, politically correct, too. Here are some recent examples for your miseducation.
Election Made Easy
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 22/03/2019
» The general election is this Sunday, baby! Aren't you stoked to be able to exercise your right to vote again after a five-year absence (or eight, if you take into consideration that the 2014 general election was deemed invalid by the Constitutional Court). Anywhoo, it can be overwhelming to digest all the information, campaign videos, memes, pictures of hot candidates and fake news that have flooded your Facebook newsfeed lately. Perhaps, it's best to judge our candidates based on their parties' policies and proposals, and Bangkok Poll on Sunday revealed that 97% of respondents in their latest survey will vote on Mar 24 and more than half said party policies will be the first factor when deciding which candidates to vote for.
Let's Judge Candidates by Their Posters
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 15/02/2019
» They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I say, “Let’s judge candidates in the upcoming elections by their posters”. Their posters are their opportunity to make first impressions with the public and you can’t avoid them on our already hard-to-navigate sidewalks, anyway. Here are some of the most memorable posters in the upcoming election that I spotted on the street and online.