Thailand’s English proficiency is getting worse: study

[Nip]

Even the article headline in particular "getting worse" is an example of poor English. Same as:  somebody is awfully good or terribly good or he's a right bugger. My Pacific favourite is 'very unique' It's either unique or it's not! I guess I am going to regret this post?

[stanleycoin]

Quote

Are you talking about Bradford or Barnsley ? 



38 minutes ago, Chang_paarp said:

Where?

It was a joke about the uk, 

 

[melvinmelvin]

2 minutes ago, Nip said:

Even the article headline in particular "getting worse" is an example of poor English. Same as:  somebody is awfully good or terribly good or he's a right bugger. My Pacific favourite is 'very unique' It's either unique or it's not! I guess I am going to regret this post?

never mind, have a wee nip, I will,  almost 5 pm now

 

[Torrens54]

4 hours ago, thequietman said:

I was promised a 5% salary increase year on year. This year reduced to 4% due to a new accountant. We are talking a very small amount in the overall scheme of things but to say it was massively demotivating is an understatement.

 

There is however, money for jaunts, nonsense posters that are grammatically incorrect and any other crap that is for show.

Motivating the NES is low on their list of priorities as the white devil needs to be undermined at all times. 

 

It is truly hilarious watching their little faces every year, as they look confused as to why another foreigner has quit ..... and so on and on it goes, with nothing being learned.

Try running an English Language Newspaper where none of the alleged Journalists speak much and can write even less English. The owners employed a couple of enthusiastic, would-be Translators.

 

No, I didn’t stay long. 

[amse]

My Thai foster daughter is the extreme exception who I started teaching English to when she was 3 years old & now she's 17, ranked as the top English student among 150 students in M3 at the Kajonkiet International school in Kathu, Phuket! I met her when I was a English teacher at Kajonkiet in 2002. She has a promising future indeed! In the final 1st term English test this year, she got 48 out of 48 correct, 100%, A+!!!!!!!!!

[CeeGee]

Senior English teacher (female) living a few doors down on a regular basis wears to school tee shirts, one which says in big letters SHUT THE <deleted> UP (the word is spelt out in full) and the other one I WANT C*CK again spelt out in full.I have never spoken to her so I am not aware of her English skills but judging by her choice of slogans I could have a guess.

auto deleted has removed the word although i used symbols but the work starts with an F and ends with a K 

Edited November 3, 2018 by CeeGee
auto delete edited post

[Andrew108]

I wonder what the U.K's French language proficiency is.

[My Thai Life]

The EF data is completely unreliable and by their own admission skewed.

 

Nevertheless the EF "results" are used by TVF every year as clickbait.

 

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

They talk to middle class farang though

They generally do not, in my experince.

[SheungWan]

Isaan bar girls' ability to learn some passable English far exceeds Brit capability to learn Thai.

[melvinmelvin]

2 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Isaan bar girls' ability to learn some passable English far exceeds Brit capability to learn Thai.

guess you are right, and guess you could say its all about satang

 

bargirl; increase satang inflow with better English

Brit; decrease satang outflow with some grasp of Thai

 

 

[meechai]

To be fair my Thai has gotten worse  these last two  years  as well. ????????

[thongplay]

4 hours ago, poanoi said:

bs, just the 3 past year when i was away they learned a lot of english,

before i had to converse in thai, there was no way around that,

but now almost everyone speak passable english

I agree with poanoi and I'm English retired in Thailand.

 

Every week I'm surprised by the number of Thais I meet who at least can speak some English.

 

I struggle to learn the Thai language but what I've found is that you have to use it in everyday situations every day in order to remember and improve.

 

The problem is as I see it that the Thai English language students (outside of tourist areas) don't have sufficient daily contact with English speakers.

 

Weak English language skills will persist until there are enough English speakers to practice with.

 

And of course where are the English language lessons and English language programmes on the TV to help the Thai students?

 

Same goes for TV programmes for farangs to learn Thai. None that I know of.

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Absolute nonsense

Very insightful. Thank you

[RichardColeman]

Yes, yes, but the beloved PM will point out they are still the number one Thai speaking nation, and Thai will apparantly overtake English one day according to someone in office 

[Eligius]

45 minutes ago, Kiwiken said:

Staying in a hotel here I rewrote their rules and regulations into more legible English. I showed it to the manger and she thanked me. But it was never redone as they considered it unimportant. And they wonder why English speakers do wrong things in their establishments.

This so chimes with my own experience. A few years ago I was living in a condo in BKK and saw that the notices that the administration put up in English were full of errors. I took the time and trouble to correct all the mistakes for them - but do you know what? The very next day the admin staff had put the same old faulty notices up on the wall again. There is not even the desire to learn and improve.

 

Thais have the lowest level of intellectual curiosity about the world and the lowest preparedness to make a real effort to learn and improve themselves that I have encountered anywhere on this earth. They are lovely people, generally - but hard-working and intellectually curious scholars most of them are NOT!

[FritsSikkink]

13 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

They generally do not, in my experince.

That doesn't make it a truth. I do understand it if they don't want to mix with people who can't be bothered to learn the local language.

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

 

 

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Absolute nonsense

 

1 hour ago, robsamui said:

There are 18 people in the company I work for - five farangs and 13 Thais. The shortest time anyone has been with the company is four years. Six of the Thai staff have been with us more than 15 years. And yet every Christmas party, the Thais all separate out and sit in a group together, away from us farangs. I can only imagine this is instinctive and thus happens everywhere to a greater or lesser degree.

 

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Doesn't happen in my company. Do the Thais separate or the farangs? How many farangs speak Thai?

@FritsSikkink

My last company, a large multinational western company, has over 2000 people in the Bangkok office. Not sure how many expats, but, if I had to guess, maybe 10% are expats, mostly from SEA countries. 

 

I was in senior management, and MANY of the Westerners, Japanese, Malaysians, and even Singaporeans had the same complaints about Thais being withdrawn. 

 

If your experience at a small company is different, congratulations to you. But, your anecdote seems to be the minority. 

[mal2018]

Standards in Phuket are very bad too and it is allegedly an International tourist destination. Ask for anything in most 7/11s and you will be shown the cigarettes ????

[Fex Bluse]

3 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

That doesn't make it a truth. I do understand it if they don't want to mix with people who can't be bothered to learn the local language.

Who the heck wants to devote thousands of hours to learning Thai when 

 

1. The Thais mostly seem to only tolerate but not embrace westerners 

 

2. The Thai government structures immigration polices such that none of us knows when we might be asked to leave (and it's happened to several of my former colleagues) 

 

Why learn Thai?

[zzaa09]

5 hours ago, darksidedog said:

To be honest, I didn't think it was possible for it to get worse. Of all the places I have been, Thailand is the worst for ability to speak English even remotely well. Many years ago I tried to set up an office here and closed it after a year due to inability to recruit even a single individual who had the proficiency I was after, and I was offering 50K a month basic. Until such time as those doing the teaching can actually speak the language, given that most Thai English teachers simply cannot, it is difficult to see the situation improving either.

The real crux and a vicious cycle that seems to be spiraling. 

The basic English training system is of an embarrassing standard, passing this on to supposed English educators who then pass on to the masses - in which time, these same educators cycle back into system of training......and so on and so forth. 

Almost feeding on itself perpetuating an ever increasing incompetence. 

[freebyrd]

Cambodia 21 place below Thailand - rubbish! I've lived in both countries and here in Cambodia English proficiency is far higher than in Thailand.

 

In Thailand I had to learn the language to do my job, 12 years in Cambodia and I speak only rudimentary Khmer. I am the only foreigner in a Cambodian company and 21 of my 25 staff speak English. Even some Tuk Tuk drivers speak English here. In my 13 years in TL I never encountered one that could speak any English.

[FritsSikkink]

19 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

 

 

 

@FritsSikkink

My last company, a large multinational western company, has over 2000 people in the Bangkok office. Not sure how many expats, but, if I had to guess, maybe 10% are expats, mostly from SEA countries. 

 

I was in senior management, and MANY of the Westerners, Japanese, Malaysians, and even Singaporeans had the same complaints about Thais being withdrawn. 

 

If your experience at a small company is different, congratulations to you. But, your anecdote seems to be the minority. 

Where do you get this idea about a small company, I work for a multinational. 

[FritsSikkink]

22 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Who the heck wants to devote thousands of hours to learning Thai when 

 

1. The Thais mostly seem to only tolerate but not embrace westerners 

 

2. The Thai government structures immigration polices such that none of us knows when we might be asked to leave (and it's happened to several of my former colleagues) 

 

Why learn Thai?

Ever thought about, they don't want to mix with people who refuse to adept to the country they live in.

Thousands of hours? Not a quick learner then.

Edited November 3, 2018 by FritsSikkink

[Krataiboy]

My leuk krung daughter's fee-paying junior school is kindly offering free extra lessons at weekends to students who have one term to go befor moving on to secondary education.

 

She went for her first six-hour session today, to brush up on four "core" subjects: science, maths, Thai and English, which (having a native Engish speaker for a father) she speaks, reads and writes well.

 

Afterwards, out of curiosity, I asked whether her Thai classmates could also speak English, the second language they were all supposed to have been learning for the last five years.

 

"Not really - apart from few words, like 'thank you' and 'hello'," replied my daughter, also told me she has been chosenrepresent her school in a Thai language crossword competition buy barred from taking part in English contests because of her mixed parentage.

 

Kind of says it all.

 

 

 

 

[CALSinCM]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Very sad when bar girls are more proficient in English than local English teachers. Maybe Thai English teachers should spend more time in bars to improve their English!

A prerequisite for entering a masters degree English program at a Thai university should be that all qualified applicants need to have taken a two year sabbatical between ending their undergrad studies and starting their masters at which time they must show they they were employed as a bar girl, masseuse, or a disco dancer employed at an establishment that catered strictly toward English speaking foreigners.  Showing that the had two or three farang boyfriends supporting them at the same time would earn them additional credit. 

[Artisi]

Actually I think that the English proficiency in the young and upto the university students may well have increased over the past 15 years, however - the other S. E Asian countries as well as others have improved immensely in comparison to Thailand which in effect pushes them further down the list. 

[CALSinCM]

4 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

Why not just learn Thai? It's worth it just to see that face of dread and fear on the sales assistant's face break into smiling relief when she realises that you can speak Thai. Isn't it a bit frustrating to have to have your wife do all the talking, while you just stand there like a helpless child?

I speak Thai, but unfortunately most of the Myanmar employees working at convenience stores, restaurants, and gas stations can't understand my Thai, although they immediately pick up on my English and were good to go. Heck, they have a hard time understanding my Thai wife who ends up speaking English to them too.  Obviously Myanmar is rated in the wrong column. 

[miamiman123]

Take a good look at the teachers the EP schools hire. Most are in their last year prior to graduating from a school in Canada or? And a lot of games not work in the classroom w a 30000 baht salary. 

No wonder. I’ve seen it for many years here ...

its gotta be fun! Yeah right! 

[Fex Bluse]

24 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Ever thought about, they don't want to mix with people who refuse to adept to the country they live in.

Thousands of hours? Not a quick learner then.

Have you ever thought about why Westerners in many other countries learn the local languages in higher percentages?

 

Japan has plenty of 'Gaijin' farang who speak Japanese. Taiwan and China, same. Korea, same but to smaller degree. 

 

Thais don't show any welcome or interest in westerners beyond superficiality. So, there is NO INCENTIVE to waste time learning a tiny, insignificant tribal language with no use outside this tiny country.