Thai centre CD-Rom is a sell-out success
By Sean Daly A CD-Rom developed at the ANU to teach Thai language proved so popular the first two 500-copy editions sold out within months. The CD-Rom Learning Thai Script uses an interactive computer program to help learners link script forms with sounds and study example words - it even includes games for self-testing.
The first edition, or "burning", was released in February and sold out in 10 weeks, a third edition is now on sale. It was developed by the National Thai Studies Centre (NTSC) and the Multimedia Interactive Learning Laboratory (MILL) and marketed through Allen & Unwin publishers. Dr Tony Diller from the NTSC said the response to the CD-Rom had surprised its developers. "One big buyer was a distributor in Thailand who planned to supply it to those involved in export and tourism," he said. The profits from the project, believed to be several thousand dollars, would be ploughed back in to developing a second CD-Rom and other online products, Dr Diller said. Given adequate funding, the Faculty of Asian Studies would like to develop similar CD-Roms in Japanese, Korean and Hindi, he said. There was also a possibility of a Japanese version of the Thai product. The cooperation of the MILL meant the project was completed at a fraction of the price of similar products produced by other Australian institutions, Dr Diller said. The centre has also had success with other products distributed by Bibliotech. It sold more than 1,000 copies of its Beginning Thai book and audio tape set over the past two years, as well as Thai computer fonts (to enable people to type in Thai) and intermediate Thai Life and Language videos. The centre's Thailand Information Papers feature popular works such as RSPAS Professor Peter Warr's Thailand's Economic Miracle?.