Our readers speak out

Postbag is the Bangkok Post’s forum for readers. With few exceptions, it appears every day and readers are free to express their opinions on almost every subject imaginable. As you can see from the example below, they are not shy about doing so. Here, one of our readers takes aim at two of Chalerm Yubamrung’s controversial sons:

I thought that the Yubamrung bullies had been forced to resign in disgrace from the police department. If this is true, why does your newspaper continue to use their old police-rank titles when referring to them? It’s not as if they retired after lengthy years of service. A more appropriate honorific should be found for them, such as "khwai".

Don Smith

Kanjana Spindler — Assistant editor, editorial pages

Before we look at some more Postbag examples, let’s get some background from the person who selects the letters which appear in the column. She is Kanjana Spindler, the Bangkok Post’s assistant editorial pages editor, who, incidentally, writes a hard-hitting commentary of her own each Wednesday.

You might be surprised to learn that nowadays the Bangkok Post receives very few traditional letters to the editor. According to Ms Spindler, almost every "letter" that appears in Postbag actually arrived through e-mail. Even faxes are uncommon, nowadays, she says.

The educational services staff spent about an hour with Ms Spindler and here are some of the highlights from that interview.

ES What are the most common topics that people write about? And what topics do you like to see in letters?
KS  The most common and interesting topics are politics, current events, the environment and matters of social concern. We look for letters that will generate other responses. Right now, there’s a lot of interest in the Wat Phra Dhammakaya — that’s controversial.

ES  What is the reason for the tradition among English-language papers of printing letters to the editor?
KS Respect — respect for readers and giving them a forum to say what they want to say. It’s a readers’ forum — not for the paper’s staff. We don’t accept letters from Bangkok Post employees.

ES  Do you do any rewriting — for example, if the English is not so good?
KS Yes, if the writer has something to say, it’s certainly worth our while to spend some time on that if necessary.

Almost all Postbag letters express an opinion – the writer’s opinions. Thus, they are often short persuasive essays. If you read thePostbag section for several days, you will quickly notice that writers use many different techniques to make their points.

Often they tell you directly what they think. Sometimes, however, they make their points indirectly. This is especially true when they are frustrated or when they feel something is very wrong or unfair. In such situations, letter writers often use satire or add sarcastic comments to the criticisms they make.

This means you have to be careful when you read a letter in Postbag. A letter which appears to be praising something may actually be saying the opposite. For example if a reader talks about Bangkok’s "wonderful transportation system" you should immediately be suspicious since you know the present system is far from wonderful.

Sometimes writers invent unusual techniques to catch the interest and to persuade others of the correctness of their ideas. You will see an interesting example of this in one of the example letters featured in this column.

Good writers are also careful in the choice of words. Look for interesting examples of vocabulary use in the letters you read. Notice that the language is often much more forceful and much more emotional than what you would find in news stories, for example.

Consider each of the follow as you read Postbag letters, especially the ones I have included for you to read in this lesson.

• What is the writer’s purpose? Is the writer making a complaint, for example, or praising something? Perhaps the writer is making a suggestion or giving a warning. Then again the writer may simply be making an observation without offering an opinion at all.
• Consider carefully how the writer makes his or her points. Are they direct, i.e., does it mean exactly what it says? Or does the writer really mean something else, using satire or sarcasm, for example? Perhaps there is a mixture with some direct comments and some sarcastic comments.
• Does the writer use an unusual technique to make his or her points. If so, what is that technique?
• Find one or more examples of a sentence that means the opposite of what it says. Find one or more examples of sarcasm?
• If the letter is criticising something, what is it criticising? This is easy to answer if the letter is straightforward, but not so easy if the letter is satirical or sarcastic.
• Find some examples of the forceful or emotional vocabulary I mentioned above.
• Finally, was the writer able to convince you that he or she was correct? Why or why not?

The same goes for revealing the victim’s name in a rape case. Papers always give the victim’s nickname, elaborate address details and the parents’ names (in cases where the victim is a minor).

If either the police or the press cares about witnesses or rape victims, they should take better care of them.

It gave me the idea that as long as Thai television producers are lifting music from other people’s movies to add dramatic effect to their otherwise boring scenes, why not spice up other programmes (especially the news) using the same tactic?

Here are my suggestions:

• Government news: I think the theme from Lost In Space would fit nicely.
• Police reports: Death Wish didn’t have a very memorable theme, so maybe the music from Jaws could be incorporated, climaxing with a shot of the latest extra-judicially judged dead guy.
• Anything on Chavalit: Psycho, without a doubt.
• News of the Hill Tribes: Gone With The Wind?

Again, I'm sure the proper agents will clear everything with Hollywood. No one would want to lose face by a little thing called copyright violation, now would they?

Your cartoonist, Nop, has done it again. It is so obvious that he/she has a personal agenda with Gen Chavalit, the opposition leader.

He/she attacked Gen Chavalit on three consecutive days last week. The cartoon on June 25 was disgusting, disgraceful and showed absolutely no class (showing Gen Chavalit bouncing between the feet of Khun Chuan and Khun Banharn).

Last week I went to a private hospital inside my mummy for a check-up. The doctor said I should be born on that day. I was then taken upstairs and the doctor put my mummy on an intravenous drip to try and push me to be born.

I later found out that while my Daddy took a break to have lunch, the doctor decided that I was to be cut out of my mummy’s stomach without delay. I knew at this time that both my parents were against a caesarean section and wanted me to be born naturally, but the doctor said I must be born now. The doctor said it was in my best interest to be born this way, but when I got out I found that nearly all the other babies at this private hospital were born the same way. This is why I am complaining.

I demand to know why babies like me have lost control over the time and way we are born? Other babies in the world have a choice over when they can be born. I believe it is my divine right to be born when I want.

Why is it that in Thailand babies are losing the choice to be born as nature intended? My Daddy has told me he had to pay around 13,000 baht more to the private hospital for this operation and the extra care needed for my mum. Is this the reason why my mummy was given the chop? Am I just a quick, easy profit for the doctors and hospital?

James Bornswift

If any of your readers have travelled up Chaeng Wattana Road in the last few months, I am sure they have been as frustrated as I have by the latest example of police bumbling.

From the intersection opposite Big C heading towards Pak Kret, it is impossible to do a U-turn for almost 10km.

We used to have at least two or three places to make a turn until recently, but the Pak Kret police have obviously decided it is too much trouble for them to help drivers at these places. They have instead erected barriers making it impossible to U-turn.

On occasion, they allow drivers to turn at the entrance to Muang Thong Thani, but not often. Instead, we are forced to drive miles out of our way to get back to where we want to go.

We don't go out driving so that we can sit fuming in long lines of traffic waiting to move. Most of us have definite destinations in mind and we pay good tax money to employ the police to help us get there quickly and safely.

Whoever made the decision to block the U-turns is cheating us. Enough is enough. Open the roads so that the traffic can move.

Look at the letters in today’s Bangkok Post and read at least one of them following the techniques suggested above.

If you and your students want a change from the stories you find in textbooks – or even the stories in the Bangkok Post, for that matter – our letters to the editor section, known as Postbag, is a good place to look for material. There you will find opinions and observations from ordinary people on everyday subjects that your students can easily identify with. This lesson gives your students a taste of what they will find.

It also gives them some important suggestions on how to read the letters they see. Unlike much of the reading they have done before, letters to the editor often express strong opinions and they don’t always mean what they appear to mean. Satire and sarcasm are common and students often completely miss the point the writer is trying to make.

For this reason, I have suggested in this lesson that your students spend some time considering the writer’s purpose in writing a letter to the editor of the Bangkok Post. They should particularly look to see if the points are made directly, in a straightforward manner, or if they are more indirect – perhaps meaning exactly the opposite of what the writer says.

Since many letters are really short persuasive essays it is also important that your students learn to evaluate the evidence the writer uses to support his or her position. Sometimes there is very little evidence indeed and the argument is largely an emotional one.

Next week: More from Postbag – what foreigners think of Thailand

•This lesson was prepared by Acharn Terry Fredrickson, BA Stanford, MA (TESL) University of Minnesota, Manager of the Educational Services Department at the Bangkok Post and general editor of this programme.