It is easy to write English lessons based on the newspaper. It is something I do several times every week in my office. I sometimes wonder, however, exactly how they would work in an actual classroom.

This term I have been finding out. I have been trying some of my lessons out with actual Thai students before they are published here in the Bangkok Post. As you can see, that is the case with this week’s lesson.

The students involved all came from a group of Bangkok Christian College who visited the Bangkok Post. Actually, the lesson itself was only a small part of their visit.

In arranging the visit with their teachers, I found out that the students were all interested in graphic arts. I was thus able to arrange for them to see graphic arts in action at the Bangkok Post and to give them some idea of what a career in that field might be like – at least in the newspaper business.

Piboon Chamrernlert of the Electronic Publishing Department explains how the text and photos of newspaper edition of the Bangkok Post is converted for publication on the Internet.

As you can see from the students' reaction, Khun Piboon, himself a graduate of Bangkok Christian College, is an entertaining speaker.

Seeing how things work

The visit began with a short talk from Praphai Kraisornkovit, editor of real.time magazine. She explained how her staff is coping with a change to a whole new computerised production system. While this has improved efficiency in many ways, Khun Praphai said it has also reduced their flexibility, particularly in the way they handle graphics.

It has also meant that they must now work very closely with other production departments whereas in the past they did everything themselves. Thus, it is important that her graphics arts people are able to adapt both to a new system and to interact with other people.

The next speaker was Piboon of the Electronic Publishing department. He explained how each edition of the Bangkok Post is converted for publication on the Internet. He explained how, with the magic of some specialised and sophisticated computer programming, he is able to finish the job in about one hour – something which has taken hundreds of other people many hours to accomplish for the paper version.

Finally, the students heard from Sombat Raksakul, the Bangkok Post’s photo editor. He explained the qualities of a good news photo, illustrating his talk with dozens of recent photos from the news pages of the Bangkok Post. He included some of his own photos which were taken when he accompanied Thai troops to East Timor.

After that, the students broke up into three groups for separate tours of the real.time, Internet and photo sections of the newspaper. The day ended with a 45-minute session to complete the activity featured in today’s lesson.

The students seemed quite interested and impressed with their visit to the Bangkok Post. We were very pleased to have them.. We were also impressed at the organisational skills of the Bangkok Christian College teachers who accompanied them. Without their help and attention, such a visit would have been very difficult to carry off successfully in the limited time we had available.

Khun Praphai Kraisornkovit, editor of real.time, explains what goes into producing a weekly leisure and entertainment section.

Let’s suppose you were just given 2,000 baht on the condition that you have to spend it all this weekend. Any leftover money will have to be returned. And, no, you are not allowed to put it in the bank – that’s not spending.

One of the best place to find ideas for fun ways to spend your money in Bangkok is the "What’s On" section of real.time, the weekend and leisure guide in Friday’s issue of the Bangkok Post. Use this section to plan your weekend so that you will get the most enjoyment out of your 2,000 baht. Since your friends have been given the same amount, it is best to work in groups. That way you can pool (join together) your money and really have a good time.

We tried this activity with the Bangkok Christian College students who recently visited the Bangkok Post. Below are some of the ideas they came up with.

This group of five had 10,000 baht to play with. They decided to begin right away with a big dinner at the nearby Landmark Hotel. Altogether they expected to eat through almost 3,000-baht-worth of food. After that, they were off to a symphony orchestra concert featuring the works of Chopin. That cost them another 750 baht. If there was still time, they planned to drop in a free art exhibition entitled "Happiness in Colours". On Saturday, they planned to spend about 2000 baht shopping for clothes at the Emporium. This would be followed by an "all-you-can-eat" lunch buffet at Zenith Sukhumvit. That would cost 1250 baht. They then planned to save their money the rest of the day by attending a free youth symphony concert and eating a few corndogs for less than 200 baht. Sunday was to begin with a bowling session expected to cost 800 baht. They would drop another 1000 baht at Asia books before attending a bassoon recital which would cost them 100 baht apiece. They planned to end their weekend at the Chakri Dynasty with a relatively inexpensive 750 baht dinner. These three young gentlemen decided to begin their weekend on Saturday morning with a 1000-baht breakfast at the Novotel Siam Square. That would be followed by a long bowling session at the RCA. Including lunch, they expected to spend about 2000 baht on that activity. Food was clearly their top priority for priority for the weekend and they planned to spend another 2000 baht on a seafood dinner at the Siam Inter-continental’s Similan restaurant. This left them with 1,000 baht for Sunday and they decided to spend it at the Emporium for a birthday present. Like everyone else, this group decided to start the weekend’s activity with a full stomach. They said they would take in a "big" Mexican meal at the Westin’s Banyan Tree restaurant which would cost them about 2000 baht. They decided to spend another 2000 baht to attend a piano concert at the Lert Wanalai Ballroom. More culture would follow with an evening at the Maredok Moi Theatre to see a play. The tickets would cost them 600 baht. Finally, they were all interested in buying some JASPAL clothes at the Emporium and they figured to spend 3200 baht altogether. Any remaining money would go for taxi and skytrain rides. This group decided to begin their weekend by watching the film Gladiator at the Grand EGV. That, together with popcorn, would cost the five of them 1550 baht. They also decided to have a buffet lunch of European cuisine at the Ambassador Caf้. This would total 1200 baht. They would certainly need the energy since their next choice was to enter a full 40-kilometre-plus Asian marathon. The entry fees would set them back 500 baht each or 2,500 altogether. For their next activity, the group choose an easier activity, a charity bowling tournament at Brunswick RCA. The fees for a 5-person team total 4,000 baht. To end their exhausting weekend, the group chose to see a Bangkok Symphony Orchestra concert for 750 baht.

Bangkok Post photo editor Sombat Raksakul explains how composition is an essential element of a good news photo.ion Khun Praphai gives a demonstration of the computerised production system which is used in the production of real.time. Here a group of students sees of high resolution photos are scanned in the Bangkok Post's computer network. TEACHER'S NOTE Let the students begin by quickly reading through the introductory section. That will give them an idea of how valuable company visits can be in seeing how their course of studies relates to an actual career. The main activity is very similar to what many Bangkok Post readers do every week is using the real.time section to plan their weekends. This type of activity also makes a very good reading lesson in that the students are able to practice skimming and scanning in a very realistic situation. Another nice thing about this lesson is that you can use the same format again and again. Just make sure you use a current issue of real.time. Next week: Interesting suggestions on how to follow the campaign to become Bangkok’s new governor. Go back to the top