22 hours ago, Denim said:

Many many years ago you could count the native English teachers in Thailand without getting to three figures.

 

Then some bright spark had the idea that by employing thousands more native teachers the length and breadth of the country English language skills would improve.

 

30 odd years later this theory has been demonstrated to be an abject failure and the country's English language skills still lag behind its neighbors.

 

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

 

Compare this to Cambodia. I met a young 10 year old girl on the  Phnom Penh riverside walk selling trinkets to tourists. Not only did she speak excellent English she also had a good handle on several other languages.

 

She was by no means unique.

 

 

 

 

You can't change the Thais so let them be. They will always be bad at languages, bad at driving and good at crop burning.

But if they are comfortable with that then so be it. They have their virtues to balance out these things otherwise we wouldn't come here.

        The girl only speaks english in the video , no proof of other languages . She does have excellent geography knowledge of one other country , but no evidence of anything  beyond that . 

23 hours ago, spiekerjozef said:

Lots of people from different countries speak multiple languages (or at least are trying to). Only the people from native English speaking countries have no interest in speaking another language or get upset when somebody can't speak their language??

       1.  What has that got to do with teaching English to Thai students ? 2. There are good ,

obvious reasons why your statement above is correct .

14 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Where does it say it was a Thai who complained?

   It doesn't . So it must have been another(s) farang , because Thai's never complain about about noise .

7 hours ago, MikeyScars said:

和歌山県で新たに４人が新型コロナ感染　１人は有田病院に行かず

Wakayama, another 4 confirmed cases.

9 people in Wakayama alone, exlcuding Tokyo.

Wow, forget about it Thailand!

        Wakayama , just down the road from Osaka . Would like to know why there's a cluster  in that area. Many people commute to Osaka from there everyday .  

4 minutes ago, SteveK said:

The Queen.

        Nah , I think Trump or Sturgeon should be the ones to emulate .

5 hours ago, pixelaoffy said:

I've taught English for 15 years in 3 countries in Asia and I have a regional UK accent that's not particularly strong.  It's actually about correct pronunciation not accent . In the US there are some folk with accents which 

have a problem with pronouncing correctly 

     Who decides what is correct pronunciation and what isn't ?

6 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

You assume wrong on two out of three.

   Only 2 assumptions there .

12 minutes ago, WalkingOrders said:

I could be wrong, but it seems like every native English teacher I meet in Thailand is teaching 5 and 6 year olds. I understand how the young ones can soak up language fast, but at the higher grade levels they seem to be really lacking. Just learning vocabulary, and nothing else, and taught by non native speakers.  I am not a teacher, but assist my step daughter with her coursework. She is 17. Her teacher is from the Philippines, and what she is learning is not what a foreign language class is like at same grade level in the USA. The materials are also filled with errors. Would love to hear comment from any teachers out there. Any of you teaching higher grade levels?

 

          Schools in some areas of Thailand have more difficulty than others , to attract quality native English speaking teachers  ( not simply native speakers , with little grammar knowledge and little teaching experience ) . They often end up with qualified Philippinos who , despite being qualified , have  poor written and spoken English  , with a lot of grammatical mistakes . 

On 2/15/2020 at 7:22 PM, Kelsall said:

From what English teachers here have told me, schools prefer American teachers over other nationalities.   True?  I can't see them getting many Americans to fly this far to teach for what is considered low pay in the US. 

          Not true . I assume from you not seeing many Americans teachers coming  to Thailand for low pay , you are American yourself , and therefore most of your advice from teachers in Thailand comes from American teachers .

On 2/15/2020 at 9:29 AM, 4MyEgo said:

63 year old pensioner, WOW, last check, you had to be 67 + to get the pension in the land of Oz. Maybe he is on a disability pension ?

 

I can tell you one thing, if these clowns think they are funny by claiming this guy to be a hiding kangaroo because of his nationality, it just goes to show how pathetic and child like minds they have, real "racists" trying to justify the taxpayer dollars spent for their BMW ride.

     Current Aussie

Old age Pension age is 66

   A 10 year ban from cricket seems appropriate , but 17 years in prison seems a bit long .

 Lived in a small / medium sized town in the North East with wife and son for 7 years ( son was 8 mths to 7 years in that period ) . Lived on 45,000 per month . The two big differences between your costs and mine are the international school and house rent . My son goes to a regular school and is in a 'special' class that costs 10,000 Baht a year and is limited to 30 kids . I don't think he'll be stupid as a consequence . I've made sure he's fluent in English . The 2 floor , 3 bedroom , 2 bathroom house costs 5,000 incl all utilities . Thai style bathroom downstairs , Farang style upstairs . It is a little bit older than average , but nothing like the old family one in the village . We also paid off a car at 3,500 per mnth .

  The timing varies from school to school and year to year , and nothing is official until it actually happens .

38 minutes ago, 3 minus 2 said:

the striker situ's difficult...  can u imagine.'yeah we want to sign you  of coarse .. answer  ' great'  so what happens when kane returns?   HONEST  answer  'you'll be on the bench...   3 months later big signing loses his international spot  .....

no striker worth his salt will come to spurs  atm knowing that he'll be on the bench in the the foreseeable  ... the only way is to a 'man city' and pay them so much money they cant say no...and as you must know that ain't our way.. tbh

I'm a little disappointed that mori hasnt given parrot some more time   tho He has had his bac to the wall in terms of turning things around and getting results   maybe not the time to blood youngsters?

an alternative might be a 'quality' slighty ott journeyman?  we had one in llorente.. I always thought poch messed up with him  he was horribly rusty when he last took over from harry . at his age 'rust' sets in v vquickly he needed playin time... even if it was 25 mins every other game   poch didnt do it and really showed when he came bac

 

but hey 5 th and within spitting distance of 4 th   and when hari returns... no doubts with the attacking force we have .. we'll be a real threat...  tbh I'm more concerned with our stuttering CDefence  Sanchez just keeps messing up and as much as toby tries he cant cover for him... he needs a reliable  partner... as for verity... same goes.. he Constantly  gets caught out of position  and until recently toby has been able to cover for him.. Toby's lost a yard and cant do it to the degree he has done ..imo hence him being on the bench.. perhaps Sanchez can eradicate the stupidity in his game    but it's been a constant since he joined us ... but we live in hope..

 

 

 

       Re the Striker . Harry has , and probably will continue to , get injured regularly , so any new striker would expect to have a reasonable amount of full games up front by himself . He'd have been guaranteed at least 2 months of starts if he had signed in January . If the new striker was good enough , Mori might have started with 2 up front when Harry came back .  Another obvious alternative would have been to get someone who can play attacking midfielder  and no 9 . Giroud ?? I think Sanchez's good points ( pace , scrambling tackles ) outweigh his bad ones and should be kept as bench cover for Vert and Toby . Aurrier's mistakes are of more concern to me . We need a defensive , holding midfielder in the same mold as Dier but faster and better. 

On 2/2/2020 at 10:18 AM, ubonjoe said:

Just further proof that it was bogus denial of entry.

I do get a little tired of people saying people are not tourists as well. Nothing wrong IMO with people staying here on tourist visas as long as they are not working here or involved in some other nefarious activity. They bring money into the country and probably helpt to keep many Thais employed.

I think some people staying here on long stay visas and extensions are a little jealous of people being able to stay here without getting those visas and extensions.

      You hit the nail on the head there Joe . I'd like to add that if consulates and embassies grant you a visa , take your money , but you can still be denied at Swampy or or DM , I don't see how they can be charged with issuing visas in the first place .

3 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

I was away in Khon Kaen with thousands of other Thai people this weekend playing Scrabble at Central (The NE Championships). Quite a few wore masks as is their right but no one seemed very worried. Everyone enjoyed a great time - especially me though the young Thais proved to know more English words than I did and despite a good start I got my Blighty bottom whipped. The people of Khon Kaen were very kind. I rode up from Bangkok in six hours on Friday and back in time for Spurs vs Man City after the tournament. The weekend that had its ups and downs but ended on a massive high note!

 

Thanks for all the comments, especially the positive ones.

 

But some of the comments really confirm my point about hysteria. 

 

Unreservedly, on all matters in this week's column, I rest my case. 

 

Stay tuned for edition #202 next week. 

 

Rooster

Just watched the above mentioned match on catch up . We were lucky , but it was our turn to get some . 

          Can't believe we didn't get a striker in TFW .Also a defensive , holding midfielder , instead of 2 attacking midfielders . We already have lots of good AMFs .... Son , Ali , Lo Celso , Lamela , Moura and Sessegnon ( yes , Sessegnon , he's been played out of position so far ) . Lucky last night , but it was our turn for some . Hope Bergwijn continues that form , but not holding my breath .

46 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Won't overtake them it will just add to them. Will you be happy that it's someone elses child that may die from the virus or if it was one of yours just accept it as being a part of living in Asia as in oh well he might have been killed by a speeding pick up anyway.

My point was that , people should be more concerned about the other potential dangers that exist in our daily lives than the corona v . Of course I am upset every time I read of someone's child being killed for what ever reason . I wish more action would be taken to address the road accident problem around the world . Thailand is obviously lagging behind in that department .

    Good point about putting the risks in perspective . My son has a five minute walk to school everyday . Should I worry more about him getting malaria from a mosquito at school , having an encounter with a moron an a bike while crossing the road , or catching corona . Could corona virus possibly overtake the road toll in Thailand ? Could it overtake the cases of malaria in Thailand ? I think not .

  Many people report having SEEN Chinese in tourist areas . How do you know they're Chinese , just by 'seeing' . I need to hear Mandarin or Cantonese spoken ,  before identifying them as Chinese .

Rooster , which football team are you a fan of ? 

         What about about  who have come to Thailand on and off for over 30 years ( some 45 years ) , for periods of 2 weeks to 4 or 5 months , and that give their opinions in bars , on TV etc ? Do you consider them to be Youtwitfaces ? I was in that category until spending 6 years in Thailand , so I'm out of the YTW group . 

          I find the opinions of these long term regular visitors ( LTRVs ) interesting . They often notice changes that I miss , and some of them become significant over time . 

2 hours ago, Ventenio said:

Iphone 11 max plus if you want her to love you

If under 20,000 baht, love turns into "strong like"

and if under 10,000 baht, expect to be hated for life

 

Kids are super expensive.  30,000,000 baht for their lifetime if you really provide for them (school, everything.)

 

Money is nothing when compared to the smile you kid gets when you give him an iPhone 11 max plus.

 

lol

 

hand him/her two cups with a string.  

  Best thing you can give your kids is your time .

1 hour ago, LukKrueng said:

That goes few years back, but I refused giving my kids a phone while in primary school even though most of their friends had phones. We always sent them to / picked them up from school and if they had to call us there were public phones at school or sometimes they's borrow a friend's phone.

At matayom they got a bit more freedom - we still sent them to school, but allowed them to go out of school with friends so at that point they got the simplest 500 THB phone so they can call us and we could call them when needed. After graduating from high school they got their first good quality Samsung smartphones. 

But talking to friends with young kids now, they say that most if not every class have line or facebook groups for the kids and many times the teachers also use this medium to send information and not being able to join these groups will leave the kids disconnected and isolated so it's a tough call. I wouldn't do anything due to peer pressure and always told my kids not to give in to such pressure, so I'd say you have to consider the actual necessity of having a phone. If it's just "because everybody have them" I'd say no. If it's a practical tool then yes, but probably no need to go for the top of the line - just the phone that will answer to their actual needs.

 

BTW - it worked well for us. None of my kids are glued to their phones 24/7. They use it as a tool and not live their life through it. When they are working / studying / socializing with friends they put the phone away.

  Good ,  interesting advice . I think I'll take it and not give him a phone in Pratum , even  if he gets peer pressure to get one , then monitor the necessity to have one in Matyom ( if the teachers use them in class for study ). Something that annoys me very much is that a lot of the teachers in Pratum , including farangs look at their phones in class , in front of the kids , for what is obviously private stuff eg photos , jokes etc .