You can read the Bangkok Post
The public section
You can learn to read the Bangkok
Post. All it takes is some time on your part. You’ll need
about 15 or 20 minutes several days a week with this website. Then,
when you feel confident enough, you’ll need an equal amount
of time with the newspaper itself. Depending on your language level at
the beginning, it may take a year or two to get really good, but you
definitely can do it. And if you can read the Bangkok Post, you can
read just about any
English-language newspaper in the world. That means your English will
be
very good indeed.One thing you will notice very quickly is that the stories in newspaper are very consistent and systematic, especially the news stories. The content and style is very similar everyday and the big stories often continue for many days. You will find that as you follow a particular story, it quickly gets easier to read. You will see much of the same vocabulary each day, making it easy to learn and difficult to forget.
Each weekday in this section of the website, we select several stories from the current issue of the Bangkok Post that we think will be useful for you to read. Some are chosen because they are important or informative, others because they entertaining, and still others because they are good examples of newspaper writing.
Over time, we cover just about all types of stories found in the newspaper, including news, sports, opinion, features, advice – even horoscopes. And, of course, each day our Words in the News and Words in the Business News sections give you an in-depth lesson on a word recently used in the Bangkok Post. Many of our visitors begin their day with these sections of the site.
When there is a major event like the World Cup or a Thai general election, we cover it in depth. In fact, we often give it a special section of its own on the website. We also have a special section for teachers, giving them suggestions on how to teach the day’s new material.
The subscribers section
It is in the
subscribers’ section, however, that you can really make
progress in a hurry. Instead of one word a day, for example, you have
the choice of hundreds of words, all them taken from real news stories.
You can also quickly develop your reading skills with particular topics
that interest you – elections, for example, or the
environment or science. And if you are a sports fan, we have one of the
best sections on football that you will find anywhere in the world. If you just want some old-fashioned reading practice, you find plenty of that as well. You’ll find short easy stories and some that a bit more challenging. Do you want to test your reading comprehension? You can do that to. And if you just want to relax and have fun, you’ll find a complete guide to the Bangkok Post comics and horoscopes.
On of the more interesting and useful part of the subscribers section is our 10-lesson on-line introductory course. All you do is register, choose a user name and password and you’re ready to begin.
If you are a teacher, you will definitely want to take a close look at the “teacher’s corner” section. There you will find lessons that are ready to use right away and you will also find model lessons that you can adapt by using new, more timely material from the newspaper.
For a tour of the subscribers section, click here.
A note on the mp3 sound files
Newspaper sentences can be
long and they may appear at first to be quite complicated. You can
easily misread and misunderstand them if you don’t understand
how they fit together. Listening can help you. You can hear very
clearly which parts are stressed and which parts are not.
You’ll find the pauses to be important also. One common problem with listening materials for learners of English is that the language has been artificially simplified and the pace is far slower than normal English. That is not the case here. The material is authentic – the same as I as a native speaker read – and the speed is the same as you would hear on a radio broadcast. It may take some time for you to get used to, but it will be well worth the effort. Of course, you also have the text to help you and that makes things much easier.