English-speaking footballer trapped in Tham Luang cave is academic polymath, says teacher

 

 

The video clip of the first encounter between British divers and the 13 missing members of a local football team trapped in Tham Luang cave for days thrilled the nation as they were found safe and alive.

 

As the conversation between the divers and the boys continued, the clip’s watchers may have been surprised when a boy was able to communicate in English and became the translator for his friends.

 

 The boy became the talk of the town as many people wondered who he is. People praised him for being fluent in English considering his age and in comparison to his friends who had to ask him to translate for them.

 

The clip was shared more than four million times across the globe as the boys’ disappearance in the cave and the multinational rescue operations became the headline news for days and continues to do so.

 

Japanese seeing the clip expressed surprise that such a young boy knew sufficient English to communicate and they compared him to Japanese boys of the same age.

 

One person not surprised was his teacher, Piyarat Yodsuwan of Mor 2/3, Ban Wiengpan School. Adul Samorn, 14, can speak four languages, said the teacher: Thai, English, Chinese and Burmese.

 

As a student of the school’s so-called “Buffer School”, Adul learnt foreign languages from native speakers. He is under the care of Hope Mae Sai Church as his Akha hilltribe family, who live in Myanmar, is very poor.

 

The school has promoted the study of foreign languages because about 80 per cent of the students who graduate from Mor 3 are planning to run a business at the border. Therefore, it is necessary for them to understand foreign languages.

 

The studies focus on enabling the students to communicate rather than on the grammar, the teacher said.

 

Piyarat said that Adul is a hardworking student with a grade average of 3.9 out of 4.

 

He also joins in many activities after classes, such as football, volleyball and biking, and shows musical talents and can play guitar, violin and piano. 

 

He was also a winner in the science competition at the provincial level and has a good sense of responsibility, as he always submits his homework when he is absent, said his teacher.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30349389

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-7-5

Good for him!  best of luck young man and hope you get full Thai citizenship if you don't yet have it.   

I am happy they are ''personalizing ''these 12 boys ,who they are ,what they like to study,some family background...I am sure many students are watching...''the lucky 13''

I like the the statement concentrate on communication not grammar.

Thai students and more especially Thai/English teachers please take note.

A clever boy from a very poor background. Talent grows in unusual places. I hope when he is safely home he can continue to learn and to be an inspiration to others. One hopes a good education institution might offer him a scholarship, to see how high he can fly.

"As a student of the school’s so-called “Buffer School”, Adul learnt foreign languages from native speakers."

"The studies focus on enabling the students to communicate rather than on the grammar, the teacher said."

"....students who graduate from Mor 3 are planning to run a business at the border. Therefore, it is necessary for them to understand foreign languages."

 

Here we have a 14 year old hill tribe boy who apparently speaks better English than 75% of the employees  of AIS or Kasikorn Bank to pick 2 large corporations, or for that matter, The Royal Thai Police Immigration and Tourist Divisions who ought to have a command of basic communicative English. After all, they were all taught English at school one time or another. Perhaps our P.M. can  check this out. 

Maybe I am a bit of a softie, but it made me cry!!

"The studies focus on enabling the students to communicate rather than on the grammar, the teacher said."

 

That's how all languages ought to be taught. Learning grammar is mostly counter-productive. You can tell when people learn by grammar because they speak really slow and with a heavy accent. 

 

Is that going to slow things down, since they are not thai. 

27 minutes ago, tumama said:

"The studies focus on enabling the students to communicate rather than on the grammar, the teacher said."

 

That's how all languages ought to be taught. Learning grammar is mostly counter-productive. You can tell when people learn by grammar because they speak really slow and with a heavy accent. 

 

And most of the time it's wrong, meaning you have to question them a couple of times to work out what they are trying to say to you.

English has it's roots in five major languages, each one with different grammar rules/roots.

It confuses native speakers a lot of the time.

Quite a few expats I know use grammar much more worserer than I.

??

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by overherebc

1 minute ago, overherebc said:

And most of the time it's wrong, meaning you have to question them a couple of times to work out what they are trying to say to you.

English has it's roots in five major languages each one with different grammar rules/roots.

It confuses native speakers a lot of the time.

Quite a few expats I know use grammar much more worserer than I.

??

But of all those expats, which nationality comes across as the worstest.

2 minutes ago, overherebc said:

And most of the time it's wrong, meaning you have to question them a couple of times to work out what they are trying to say to you.

English has it's roots in five major languages each one with different grammar rules/roots.

It confuses native speakers a lot of the time.

Quite a few expats I know use grammar much more worserer than I.

??

 

Worserer, lol. Never heard that before. Had to google it. You learn something new everyday. 

 

"People praised him for being fluent in English..."

 

Obviously, he didn't spend 4 years at Kentucky State University "earning a degree" that should have required one being fluent in English. 

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by jaltsc

3 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

But of all those expats, which nationality comes across as the worstest.

 

Once in a bar in Buenos Aires I had this German guy ask me (in a heavy German accent): "But how did you know I was from Germany?". I dunno, just a lucky guess I guess. 

 

French people can be pretty bad too. 

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by tumama

1 minute ago, jaltsc said:

People praised him for being fluent in English

Indeed, very few Thais are truly fluent in English, even fewer farangs speak fluent Thai.

Am I on the right topic? I thought we were supposed to be discussing the language abilities of one of the unfortunate young lads in the cave. It seems to be turning into a discussion of who has the worsterest grammar. To save myself from being deleted for being off topic, whilst trying to get others back on it, I add, hats off to the boy. Even more reason to get him out, as if we needed them. Four languages, with his background is impressive.

 

He should probably be the first to attempt an egress.  He sounds a smart cookie, who will learn fast, probably wouldn't panic, can communicate well with the UK experts (assuming they lead out the first one), and he sound like he'd be able to reassure any of the other kids who may be less inclined to give it a go.

27 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Am I on the right topic? I thought we were supposed to be discussing the language abilities of one of the unfortunate young lads in the cave. It seems to be turning into a discussion of who has the worsterest grammar. To save myself from being deleted for being off topic, whilst trying to get others back on it, I add, hats off to the boy. Even more reason to get him out, as if we needed them. Four languages, with his background is impressive.

 

True what you say.

Let's get the kids out at the best and safest time.

There is a fair way to go yet. This is the time for cool heads, not for public grandstanding.

34 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Am I on the right topic? I thought we were supposed to be discussing the language abilities of one of the unfortunate young lads in the cave. It seems to be turning into a discussion of who has the worsterest grammar. To save myself from being deleted for being off topic, whilst trying to get others back on it, I add, hats off to the boy. Even more reason to get him out, as if we needed them. Four languages, with his background is impressive.

 

Yes,by crikey..

 

Just hammer away at it and most people will understand..unless they're on TV of course..nobody get's it right!Not..Jutes,Angles,Saxons,Normans,Georgians,Victorians or internet weirdos

 

Wasn't it great when the Thai boy responded to the British diver?Wasn't it just..goddam*...great??

 

*"Goddams" was what the French called the English in the 15th  century-for very obvious reasons.

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by Odysseus123

I didn't realise untill today that I wasn't a polymath, I had to google it. ??

1 hour ago, tumama said:

"The studies focus on enabling the students to communicate rather than on the grammar, the teacher said."

 

That's how all languages ought to be taught. Learning grammar is mostly counter-productive. You can tell when people learn by grammar because they speak really slow and with a heavy accent. 

 

 

Point taken, on the other hand there are many excellent progressive , course books nowadays, often with cartoon drawings to get the attention of younger kids or other drawings foradults, and the drawings often set the stage for a language needs scenario.

 

All of this is used to teach the functions of English in a structured and progressive system (real meaningful situational conversations and discussions, giving of instructions, asking and answering questions etc.) which have grammar points built into the structure of the words and phrases being taught and hopefully immediately verbalised and verbally practiced many times to lock it all into place.

 

I have three Thai grandchildren, they all speak perfect Thai and perfect English, they were all lucky to have excellent properly trained western 

English teachers plus I carefully followed what they were learning (word, phrases etc.,) at school (from their course books) and I made further reinforcement phrases, sentences etc., at home and luckily their Thai father, my son, also speaks excellent English and he quickly picked up my verbal reinforcement at home and copied it. Plus they had the bonus of being immersed in English at home every day, listening to their father and me always conversing in English and trying hard to never speak in broken English.

 

None of the well trained well experienced western English teachers actually gave grammar lessons.

 

But my oldest granddaughter had, for 2 years, both a western English teacher and a Thai teacher for English grammar. The Thai teacher continuously made errors in trying to put the grammar into use in spoken phrases and sentences. The kids knew that but of course never said anything.

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by scorecard

8 minutes ago, vogie said:

I didn't realise untill today that I wasn't a polymath, I had to google it. ??

Me too. I thought it was someone who had learned his multiplication tables "parrot fashion".

2 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

Me too. I thought it was someone who had learned his multiplication tables "parrot fashion".

I thought it was a parrot with basic numeracy skills.

19 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Point taken, on the other hand there's are many excellent course books which teach the function of English (real meaningful conversation and discussion, giving instructions etc.) which have grammar points built into the structure of the words and phrases being taught and hopefully immediately verbalised and verbally practices many times to lock it all into place.

 

Agreed. Hence the use of the word mostly. Spanish is hard to learn without knowing some basic verb conjugations. 

Not to worry, there's still a few Brits there who will make sure the months in the cave are spent learning proper grammar. The only problem is how to get them in there without ruining their three piece tweed suits.

36 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Yes,by crikey..

 

Just hammer away at it and most people will understand..unless they're on TV of course..nobody get's it right!Not..Jutes,Angles,Saxons,Normans,Georgians,Victorians or internet weirdos

 

Wasn't it great when the Thai boy responded to the British diver?Wasn't it just..goddam*...great??

 

*"Goddams" was what the French called the English in the 15th  century-for very obvious reasons.

If you're referring to the Reformation, that would have been the 16th century. 

14 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Not to worry, there's still a few Brits there who will make sure the months in the cave are spent learning proper grammar. The only problem is how to get them in there without ruining their three piece tweed suits.

Tweeds - in the tropics? I hardly think so ... Oh.

18 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

Tweeds - in the tropics? I hardly think so ... Oh.

Yes, it might be rubbish, but by Jingo it's British rubbish.

??

Well, I'd say the answer as to why this kid apparently has excellent language/English proficiency skills is pretty apparent -- he's not actually a Thai teenager, but rather, from a hill tribe family living in Myanmar (his particular tribe having their historical roots in China). 

 

All the actual Thai teenagers in the cave were probably saying (in Thai)... "Huh????" 

 

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

1 hour ago, lamyai3 said:

I thought it was a parrot with basic numeracy skills.

POLLYMATH..................