Tech Connect

In this section of JSEALT we include links to sites that COTSEAL members have found to be useful in their work.  We encourage you, our readers and members, to notify the editor of sites you would recommend for inclusion. You can email your Tech Connect suggestions and recommendations to Section Editor Dr. Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong at yuphapha@hawaii.edu or to jsealt@charter.net.

Images

The University of Hawaii's Southeast Asian Picture Archive has a large collection of about 6,000 images from Southeast Asia (including Brunei). Most of these are digitized from old color slides or prints. Each image has the information on the date taken and a short description of the location. Users can browse through thumbnail pictures (120 per page) or search by typing in words. The archive is located at: http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/outreach/picarchive.html

Language-Specific Sites

In this issue, we will focus on sites on resources and materials for Thai instruction.

Northern Illinois's SEAsite is a comprehensive multimedia, interactive web site on Thai Language and Culture Learning resources for a wide audience from the casual visitor to the serious novice language learner, with content covering literature and the arts with links to radio and TV news. Of note are the “Manii Readers,” on-line interactive reading and listening lessons based on Prathom I Reader published by the Thai Ministry of Education. They can be found at http://www.seasite.niu.edu/thai

The Thai Language IT Resource site of the Thai Language Program at the University of Hawaii-Manoa provides links with annotations to sites providing Information Technology specifically relevant to Thai language such as Thai fonts, on-line Thai-English and multilingual dictionaries, translation program, text-to-speech program, and Thai corpus and corpus tools. http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/tech.htm

The Thai Language Program University of Hawaii-Manoa also developed “Learning Thai from Songs,” which is designed for beginning readers of Thai who already know all of the Thai alphabet and writing system, and know some basic Thai. Seven songs are presented. Each song is also accompanied by culture notes, grammar notes and an explanation. The users have a chance to sing along or read along with the accompanying sung vocals and karaoke-style animation. http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/thaisongs/

Dr. Prawet Jantharat, COTSEAL past-president, has set up SiamWest Services as an unincorporated business franchise to provide language classes, translation, textbooks and cross-cultural and language related training. The Thai language materials available from the site include introductory Thai, Reading Thai ads and Reading Thai news. This site also provides information on The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)® and on Language Proficiency Guidelines. http://www.siamwestdc.com/

If you have used a language-specific site that you would recommend to other Southeast Asian language instructors, please mail your recommendation to the section editor at yuphapha@hawaii.edu

Tech Tools for Teachers

In this issue, we will focus on the audio-visual freeware tools and plug-ins that are useful for teachers in preparing AV materials.

VLC is a cross-platform (i.e., it can be used with many types of operating systems) media player and streaming server, produced by the VideoLAN project. VLC is free software, released under General Public License (GNU). VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, and Ogg Vorbis), as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast on a high-bandwidth network. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

PaceMaker is a free plug-in module for a WinAmp player (also a free audio and video player for PCs) that controls the speed, tempo, and pitch of the sound as it is playing. It can speed up or slow down the sound tempo without affecting the pitch. It can also change the pitch without affecting the tempo, and it can change the playback speed.

Pace Maker can be downloaded from: http://www.surina.net/pacemaker/

WinAmp can be downloaded from: http://www.winamp.com/

YouTube is a popular free video-sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Viewers can rate and post comments about the clips. The main YouTube website is: http://www.youtube.com

Users can search the site by typing in keywords. This is a site where teachers can find ready-made video clips by both amateurs and professionals to suit their needs. For example, the following are two video clips found on YouTube that can be good supplementary materials on Thai food and Thai folk music.

-A Thai recipe, Basil Fried Rice: a professionally produced clip posted by the company that produces the Thai Food Tonight show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl4NvSA3hRI

-Thai Isan Folk Music (with Jars): an interesting clip from an amateur. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M30keu_TZRc

Southeast Asian Publications

This section includes links to online publications from and about Southeast Asia, particularly those relevant to the study of Southeast Asian languages and cultures.

Siksācakr (‘The Wheel of Knowledge’) is the first peer-reviewed international academic bulletin focusing on Khmer Studies in Khmer, English and French. It is one of the publications of the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS)

Siksācakr is aimed primarily at providing Cambodian scholars with an indispensable link to international scholarship on Khmer and Southeast Asian topics. Its purpose is to inform the Cambodian and international academic community of new trends in Khmer studies, projects, and programs taking place in Cambodia and overseas involving the Center and its consortium.

While Siksācakr is not a fully on-line journal, the table of contents of the current issue is viewable on-line, and the articles from past issues (No.1-5, 2001-2003) are downloadable from: http://www.khmerstudies.org/publications/siksacakr/siksacakr.htm

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