How widely is English spoken in business

[stament]

In large companies in Bkk is English spoken at all? Obviously in places like the UN I would expect English to be prevalent but what about in other head office organizations such as Bangkok Bank, Coca Cola, True, Standard Chartered for example.

 

Curious as in a lot of international companies in my experience English is the most common language still.

 

 

[NCC1701A]

Sorry I am sure someone will be along in a minute to answer your question.

 

Seriously, for the public, my health insurance company speaks English. Many hospitals in BKK, large auto dealerships have English speaking sales people. They speak English at Kawasaki in Hua Hin and Chiang Mai, some branches of Bangkok Bank.    

 

depending if international companies, management internally I think they must speak some Japanese, English or Chinese,   If only Thai then I think not.    

Edited July 31, 2019 by NCC1701A

[stament]

4 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

Sorry I am sure someone will be along in a minute to answer your question.

 

Seriously, for the public, my health insurance company speaks English. Many hospitals in BKK, large auto dealerships have English speaking sales people. They speak English at Kawasaki in Hua Hin and Chiang Mai, some branches of Bangkok Bank.    

 

depending if international companies, management internally I think they must speak some Japanese, English or Chinese,   If only Thai then I think not.    

Perhaps I should have said predominantly English usage 

[Naam]

5 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Many hospitals in BKK

the problem is that their nurses' command of English is exponentially better than those of their doctors. 

[marcusarelus]

I go to a hospital where I was examined and treated by a very pretty Thai doctor.  I know she speaks excellent but she used a translator when talking to me.  My own doctor at the same hospital speaks excellent English like a native (vacations in Europe and the UK and my wife speaks English, Thai and 3 other languages at work.  Yesterday a 3bb Engineer came to the house and I was able to give him driving instructions in English.  Spoke very good English - said his problem was the customers who don't speak Thai or English.   

[Rhys]

..many Thai University actually do offer courses in Business English and approach all four skills. Some students actually do apply themselves and others are on their cell phones... during class lecture.

 

[jackdd]

In general it's as easy as this:

Education does not matter much, if foreigners make up a good portion of people who they have to interact with(*) every day they are usually able to speak english to at least some degree. If they hardly have any contact with foreigners they usually can't speak much english. Many bar girls speak way better english than the doctors.

 

*Only if they are forced to interact with them, if a shop has one person who speaks proper english, and every foreigner is always directed to this person, the others never practice their english.

 

So ask yourself, do people in the office, about which you are talking, have to interact with foreigners?

Yes: They can speak at least some english

No: Usually they won't be able to, but maybe the one or other person is.

Edited August 1, 2019 by jackdd

[asiaexpat]

I have taught business english in Bangkok for individuals and universities and it is my experience that most companies with international customers require a certain level of english competence. However, from experience, the normal language for daily employee communications remains Thai. I have family members that have held high level positions with Multi-national companies and they normally use Thai at work unless they are speaking with non-Thai persons.

[Naam]

7 hours ago, jackdd said:

Education does not matter much, if foreigners make up a good portion of people who they have to interact with(*) every day they are usually able to speak english to at least some degree. If they hardly have any contact with foreigners they usually can't speak much english. Many bar girls speak way better english than the doctors.

the problem is neither grammar nor wordpower but pronunciation. but why nurses and administrative staff in hospitals fare far better remains still a mystery (for me).

[legend49]

On 8/1/2019 at 1:35 AM, NCC1701A said:

Sorry I am sure someone will be along in a minute to answer your question.

 

Seriously, for the public, my health insurance company speaks English. Many hospitals in BKK, large auto dealerships have English speaking sales people. They speak English at Kawasaki in Hua Hin and Chiang Mai, some branches of Bangkok Bank.    

 

depending if international companies, management internally I think they must speak some Japanese, English or Chinese,   If only Thai then I think not.    

Speaking English can be bearable for some Thais. But their understanding is; lol not very often.

[geronimo]

English is usually the language of choice with middle management and up, and it depends on whether or not they have non-Thai staff.

[geronimo]

20 hours ago, Naam said:

the problem is neither grammar nor wordpower but pronunciation. but why nurses and administrative staff in hospitals fare far better remains still a mystery (for me).

Perhaps they have farang partners .....

[elgenon]

15 minutes ago, geronimo said:

Perhaps they have farang partners .....

Perhaps they have more and more varied interactions with the public.

[1FinickyOne]

not sure what your purpose for asking but you are as likely to have misunderstandings due to culture as language. 

[Muhendis]

All my business and educational institute acquaintances speak excellent English. Doctors have to learn English as part of their training but initially my local doctor was shy about using it. Many people who interface with English speakers are fine but reluctant to practice their little used skill for fear of making mastikes. The local villagers on the other hand...………………...

Edited August 2, 2019 by Muhendis
added sentence

[stament]

6 minutes ago, kenk24 said:

not sure what your purpose for asking but you are as likely to have misunderstandings due to culture as language. 

Asking because there are some potential jobs, sorry perhaps should have stated that from the start.

[DJ54]

Oh thought fora moment you were irritated because nurse didn’t talk to you in English

[Golden Triangle]

Slightly off topic I know, but, My Mrs speaks pretty good English now after nearly 9 years together, she does however have a noticable London accent and has also learnt some choice phrases and sayings from me ????

 

Back on topic, I know sod all about business and what languages they speak ????

 

[shy coconut]

2 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

Slightly off topic I know, but, My Mrs speaks pretty good English now after nearly 9 years together, she does however have a noticable London accent and has also learnt some choice phrases and sayings from me ????

 

Back on topic, I know sod all about business and what languages they speak ????

 

My wife speaks English with a German influence, bemoaning the fact that the 

pound is kaput!!

 

 

[pennine]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 1:35 AM, NCC1701A said:

Sorry I am sure someone will be along in a minute to answer your question.

 

Seriously, for the public, my health insurance company speaks English. Many hospitals in BKK, large auto dealerships have English speaking sales people. They speak English at Kawasaki in Hua Hin and Chiang Mai, some branches of Bangkok Bank.    

 

depending if international companies, management internally I think they must speak some Japanese, English or Chinese,   If only Thai then I think not.    

You are fortunate. At Chevrolet in Nathon, Samui, no one speaks English.

[Issannative]

Tinglish you all need to become fluent in Tinglish it will soon become the business language of the world over English according to some dictator

Sent from my LDN-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[AgMech Cowboy]

On 8/1/2019 at 7:09 AM, Naam said:

the problem is that their nurses' command of English is exponentially better than those of their doctors. 

Odd.. I go mostly to Bumrungrad and Ramkamheng hospitals. Doctors all speak english, nurses? Rarely.

[AgMech Cowboy]

I worked at 2 of the large petroleum companies in Bangkok. At Unocal, English was spoken by all the engineers and most procurement people. The accountants and other staff was maybe 60%, but all knew a little.  At PTTEP, most all engineers and field supervisors spoke English, but the other percentage of speakers and usage was maybe 25%.

[Pilotman]

In my working life, I worked for a number of years in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  In those companies that I worked in, I hardly heard any other language spoken but English.  All the written material was in English, as were all meetings, memos,  and external and internal communications. The only exception to that was in Taiwan, where formal communication with government agencies was in Chinese.   I guess that may have changed a bit now in Hong Kong, but I bet that the business and financial sectors still operate mainly in English.  Thailand is behind the rest of Asia in this regard.