Tour guide who can’t speak Thai arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport

[Ctkong]

19 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Can't imagine many of any of his " clients " can gibber Thai either so what's the problem or are the authorities insisting on the ability to speak the lingo as some sort of insidious plan to inflict it on the wider world .. 

To qualify for a tour guide license, you have to be of Thai nationality, attend a certain number of hours conducted in Thai language given by the TAT in a hotel conference hall, about Thailand history and places of interests. So if you cannot speak thai, how in the world are you able to qualify for one? 

[KhunFred]

14 hours ago, Thunder26 said:

I'm just wondering. Isn't it a human basic right to be allowed to have a job? Thai government is unspeakably racist towards foreigners. I hope there will be some changes in their attitudes in the future.

It SHOULD be.......but isn't. Every citizen should be guaranteed a job. Yep....I'm a 'socialist" if you want to use such outdated and inaccurate terms.

[tlandtday]

gee do you think he could possible be Chinese???? there are a lot more of em quietly operating as thais...

[Ctkong]

3 hours ago, Katia said:

But if he had a legal license, then someone must have issued it to him, which means at one point he was deemed eligible?  If being able to speak Thai is a prerequisite for getting one of these licenses, is that not tested at time of application?  Are they going to also arrest the person who granted the license, if it wasn't supposed to be given to him?

I think the Thai tour guide license is not legal ( maybe fake?) because you got to be able to speak thai to attend their TAT classes conducted to educate the guides on Thailand historical aspects. I heard that you can buy them under the table for a specific amount though. Maybe this guide went through this process to get that license or borrow if from his tour guide friend to greet the arriving tourists from China. There are now a number of undercover TAT personnel eyeing the illegal tour guides at the airport because the Chinese tour agencies are employing these instead of the actual local Thai tour guides. The illegal tour guides are mainly mainland Chinese living in Thailand ( these cannot speak thai well) or Myanmar yunnan Chinese staying in Thailand who moonlight as guides as required. 

[Ctkong]

2 hours ago, Maitdjai said:

What did the Thai "Guide" do? 

Waiting on the bus? Eating? Sleeping?

The Thai guide smoothen out( read brown envelopes)  the kinks with the local population or police or mafia during the tour while the foreign tour guide smoothen out the kinks among the tourists. This practice is well known among tour agencies all over. Each guide is well acquainted with their own country’s culture. 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Ctkong

[Mavideol]

... but at least he should speak the language of the country where's operating...logic applies

[fruitman]

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

Since there is a huge number of Chinese tourists, I don't see anything wrong with hiring Chinese tour guides if  he knows the tourist sites history well.

 

In the Palace of Versailles (Paris) the Thai tourguide was yelling through a megaphone to his group, it was so loud that i even couldn't hear the english speaking guide which i was following.

 

The Thai also all wear a yellow cap and followed the yellow flag all the time which was annoying for the other tourists because they didn't care for them while moving around as a group.

 

 

[Bangkok Barry]

15 hours ago, Thunder26 said:

I'm just wondering. Isn't it a human basic right to be allowed to have a job? Thai government is unspeakably racist towards foreigners. I hope there will be some changes in their attitudes in the future.

Not any job, no.

[Seth1a2a]

On 2/27/2019 at 9:47 AM, EricTh said:

Khmer is NOT 1%. Click below. 

http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2017/07/main-ethnicities-in-thailand.html

 

 

Not 1% for Mon-Khmer.......... It's higher not lower for all Khmer ethnic groups combined because there's more than  just that one Mon-Khmer ethnicity mentioned in your link on the blogspot page

Wiki puts the total at 6% when "all" Khmer ethnicity data is combined......Khmer ,Mon-Khmer etc.......

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Thailand

" Khmer and Mon-Khmer make up approximately 6 percent "

 

 

Edited February 28, 2019 by Seth1a2a

[Tradewind777]

Looks like a Chinaman. That being the case he will speak good Thai once they start negotiating the bribe.

[EricTh]

10 hours ago, Seth1a2a said:

Not 1% for Mon-Khmer.......... It's higher not lower for all Khmer ethnic groups combined because there's more than  just that one Mon-Khmer ethnicity mentioned in your link on the blogspot page

Wiki puts the total at 6% when "all" Khmer ethnicity data is combined......Khmer ,Mon-Khmer etc.......

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Thailand

" Khmer and Mon-Khmer make up approximately 6 percent "

 

 

This is very close to the 7% figure in that blog. So what's the prob here?

 

Khmer and Mon are the two main subgroup, which other Mon-Khmer group in Thailand that are significant?

 

Chinese isn't a single group either, there are  many subgroups.

 

Not everything in wiki is correct, bcos it can be edited by anybody.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by EricTh

[EricTh]

2 hours ago, Tradewind777 said:

Looks like a Chinaman. That being the case he will speak good Thai once they start negotiating the bribe.

 

The Chinese embassy has a large influence on Thai govt, he'll most probably be released soon so as not to jeopardize Chinese tourists figures

[Katia]

On 2/27/2019 at 12:18 AM, Mavideol said:

... but at least he should speak the language of the country where's operating...logic applies

I would imagine it would be more important to speak the language of the people he's leading on tours?