A very special King
His Majesty the King King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is the world's longest reigning monarch. This year marks the sixtieth year of his accession to the throne, so it is a very auspicious year indeed. Fittingly, the Bangkok Post has been marking the year with a series of special features.
For good readers
If you are a good reader of English and you are interested in learning more about this very special King, you can go directly to the Bangkok Post website to find all the features that have been published thus far. You will find them here.
For learners
For those of you who would like some help reading the features, I have thus far developed lessons for several of them complete with sound files. One covers the full feature. The others cover parts of the features, but since the features are very long, you will get plenty of reading and listening practice nevertheless.
Saviour of Nature lesson (full)
Royal Barge procession (June 7)
Essay for Diamond Jubilee (June 9)
His Majesty's Childhood Upbringing (June 12)
For classroom use
For classroom use, I have put the lessons in a pdf format for easy printing. I have designed these lessons with a Thai class in mind, a class where students might not be all that proficient in English. The lessons are divided up into parts, each including an introduction, a text and vocabulary help. You might begin by doing the introduction with the whole class and then dividing them up with each group reading (and hopefully listening to) a different part. You can download the sound files from the lessons in html (web format) above. Then you can regroup the class with each new group having members that have read different parts of the story - the standard "information gap" activity that I recommend so often. That way they can share what they have learned.
In the lesson, you can print up or photocopy a limited number of copies and cut them apart, so that each group gets a single part. You can download the pdf copies by clicking below.
News stories
In addition, there have been and will be news stories related to His Majesty the King and his family. You will find lessons based on these stories below:
A remembrance of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana (January 3, 2008)
Birthday celebration for the King's 80th birthday (December 6, 2007)
His Majesty's birthday eve speech (December 5, 2007)
Trooping of the colours ceremony (December 3, 2007)
Colours to honour the King (November 15, 2007)
His Majesty visits his hospitalised elder sister (November 14, 2007)
The King leaves the hospital (November 8, 2007)
The King is ready to leave the hospital (November 7, 2007)
Royal Barge ceremony 3 (November 6, 2007)
Royal Barge ceremony 2 (November 6, 2007)
Royal Barge ceremony 1 (November 5, 2007)
Update on His Majesty's condition (October 30, 2007)
His Majesty's condition improves (October 16, 2007)
His Majesty is hospitalised (October 15, 2007)
The King inaugurates the Giant Swing (September 13, 2007)
His Majesty wins food award (July 19, 2007)
79th Birthday celebrations (December 6, 2006)
Royal Guard ceremony (December 5, 2006)
The King instructs the new cabinet (October 10, 2006)
The King's recovery (July 24, 2006 - July 27, 2006)
Successful surgery (July 21, 2006)
The nation prays (July 19, 2006)
Surgery for His Majesty (July 17, 2006)
Grand Duke Henri pays tribute (June 15, 2006)
Royal banquet speech (June 14, 2006)
Royal barge procession news (June 13, 2006)
Royal Reception (June 12, 2006)
UN honours King (May 27, 2006)
The King wants a democratic solution (April 26, 2006)
The King to be honoured by the UN (April 19, 2006)
Stories for children
These stories on His Majesty the King have been specially written for younger readers so that they can learn to speak about the King in English.