I've been trying to learn Thai for a long time now. But I'm still having a lot of trouble reading Thai and working out what it means. To keep track of the types of problems I encounter, I'm trying to translate some short texts and record my attempts here. Maybe someone will find this site and find it useful to have some Thai texts with English translations next to them.

Please don't count on the translations being accurate... some features of them are a little better than Google Translate, but not much! I found it depressing when I switched from Firefox to Chrome while browsing some Thai news sites and realised how much Google's translation feature helps me scan them for information.

Each page has the original Thai text as well as my English translation. In the older texts where I have typed the Thai rather than cutting and pasting it, there are sure to be plenty of mistakes. Paragraphs of Thai are aligned horizontally with their translations. Underlined words in green in the Thai text – for example "กัมพูชานั้นอยู่ในระหว่างศึกสงคราม" – are words where I found a dictionary useful. Hover over the word with a mouse, or tap on it on a touchscreen, and you can see a definition for the word. If no source is included (as in the example above), the definition comes from the SEAlang Library Thai Dictionary, based on work by Mary Haas. If the definition comes from another source, the source is included at the end of the definition. I write [LINE] as shorthand for the LINE Dictionary, e.g. ตราบใด.

English text underlined in green indicates explanatory notes, for example "When General de Gaulle died". Thai or English text underlined in orange indicates that I am unsure about the translation, e.g. "He has great faith in people," or I have no idea about the translation. I often have trouble working out who is doing things and who is having something done to them.

The idea to try translating M.R. Kukrit Pramoj's newspaper articles comes from Catherine Wentworth's interview with Joe Cummings. Many of these articles have been compiled in cremation volumes which are available online in the Thammasat University-Wat Bowonniwet Vihara Cremation Collection. Thank you to the people who compiled and scanned the cremation volumes.

Please email me if

• you have any suggestions for other interesting texts to translate (who is the modern equivalent of Kukrit Pramoj?),
• you are patient enough to point out some of my many typing and translation errors, or
• anything here violates copyright.

Thank you!

Jim