English teacher with poor pronunciation sparks online storm

[fruitman]

20 hours ago, Pilotman said:

ALL qualified international ATPL pilots must have ICAO 5 level English, or the EU equivalent, no exceptions. Internally, countries make up their own rules but normally, in advanced countries, Level 4 is expected. Level 6 is a native English speaker. 

I don't care how you explain it, i just listen to the pilots when they're speaking through the intercom and can't understand a word of the Thai pilots...

One day during a flight Air Asia there was an inspector sitting next to me, she noted it as well and wrote it in her book...i saw her writing nonstop during the flight and asked what she thought of the pilots english, she agreed that it was not understandable at all and said she made a notition about it.

[Gandtee]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

27 minutes in ........ I feel plowed (proud) ....... 555.

My brain hurts! If you teach children wrong English you have sown what will stay with them for life.????

[Abmong]

Sorry this woman should not be teaching kids English. My brain hurts just listening to her.

We need more visa allowances for qualified EFL/ESL teachers and other languages, They don't have to be native English speakers (but that would be a big plus). We don't need Russians teaching poor English to Thais either. Some places hire them just because they're white over a Thai EFL teacher who can teach/speaks better English...

 

I can teach English better than her. only issue is I get stage fright...

Edited May 21, 2020 by Abmong

[Gandtee]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:20 PM, EricTh said:

 

Many people fail to understand that Thai people are learning English as a second language and NOT first language.

 

It's perfectly normal not to speak perfect English as long as people can understand them.

 

I've known many foreigners who still can't speak perfect Thai after many years of studying Thai.

 

 

 

I know a few foreigners who can't speak perfect English.????

[EricTh]

4 hours ago, GAZZPA said:

what do you mean what constitutes terrible pronunciation? 

I mean 'terrible pronunciation' is quite subjective.

 

For example, one extremely critical person may think her English is 'terrible' but another person may think her English is 'good enough'.

 

What is most important is the need to explain and answer in Thai which most native English speakers can't do.

 

Furthermore, in Thai schools, there are meetings with Thai parents who would like to know the progress of their kids, meetings with other staff etc. Who can communicate better with the parents? A Thai teacher or a farang?

 

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by EricTh

[EricTh]

41 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

I know a few foreigners who can't speak perfect English.????

 

Of course, you don't expect foreigners who speak English as a second language to speak perfect English without any accent.

 

 

[SantiSuk]

She needed a short secondment as a bar girl to brush up her English!

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Abmong said:

Sorry this woman should not be teaching kids English. My brain hurts just listening to her.

We need more visa allowances for qualified EFL/ESL teachers and other languages, They don't have to be native English speakers (but that would be a big plus). We don't need Russians teaching poor English to Thais either. Some places hire them just because they're white over a Thai EFL teacher who can teach/speaks better English...

 

I can teach English better than her. only issue is I get stage fright...

She had poor English skills, poor teaching skills, and a poor lesson plan.

Full house fail!

That must make her really plowed (proud).

[BritManToo]

27 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Of course, you don't expect foreigners who speak English as a second language to speak perfect English without any accent.

But you do expect people teaching English to have a certain level of skill.

And quite frankly, I can't be bothered to speak to Dutch, German or Italians any more, too much effort to work out what they are trying to say. Yeah, you get the odd one that's competent, but they're all mainly poop.

Edited May 21, 2020 by BritManToo

[BritManToo]

33 minutes ago, EricTh said:

........... but another person may think her English is 'good enough'.

That person would be an idiot!

 

Slightly off topic, Australian music teacher wrote a song about online teaching.

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by BritManToo

[teatime101]

3 hours ago, ChipButty said:

in one article there was mistakes

Gosh!

[Jester69]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:35 PM, trainman34014 said:

Auditioned by who; someone who can do no better than her no doubt ?  When it comes to English they need proper Native speaking Teachers as their own Thai Teachers are near useless !

As an English teacher here in Thailand, I have observed many various abilities of Thai teachers trying to teach speaking and listening. It is not good and there are many areas of improvement that should be made. However, when you have a military junta that fails to reduce the "In house Corruption" then education will always suffer ......... and not just with English either! And if you saw the in house school corruption by School Directors, then you can understand the bigger problem.

[Artisi]

22 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

Amen! The whole idea is to be able to communicate, anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. I wonder how many of the people complaining can speak a language other than English? I also wonder how good their English is, or isn't, as the case may be? Stones, glass houses, and all that stuff... ????

Self delete, double post. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Artisi

[mommysboy]

I would not wish to confuse poor English with dialectical variation.  What astounds me is that some Thais cast a sharp, critical glance when you correct a basic, obvious error, and I think this is because some common errors have become so deeply embedded to the extent that they are ubiquitous.  'Schoon', for example, isn't so much a pronunciation error, but the way it should be said.

[teatime101]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I can't be bothered to speak to Dutch, German or Italians any more, too much effort to work out what they are trying to say.

So everyone's better off, then.

 

I know politics and religion are contentious topics, but language has to be up there. Example: immigrants (or anybody, really) not speaking *the national language* in public elicits foam spittling rage (and worse) from some natives.

 

Having studied English lit and linguistics and working as a teacher, I should be more fussy, but I'm not. My wife (from southern Thailand) says things like 'flavourite' and I think it's cute and delightful. The fact is every language and dialect uses different parts of the mouth to shape vowels and consonants. Romance (European) languages are very similar in this respect, whereas many Asian languages have fundamentally different sounds, which are very hard to produce, and identify. Thai people don't really use 's' 'n' or 'f' (or consonants generally) as end sounds. As a poster earlier said, a word like 'fine' becomes 'fie'. Look at number words like 7 (djet- 'dj' can sound a bit like a 'z') and 8 (baat or bairt). How many farang will reproduce these sounds without many attempts to improve? If you call a Thai woman 'soo-ay' make sure get the intonation right.

 

Yes, I struggle to understand many farang words Thai people use, but I also struggle with Thai. What's the chance I'll memorise Thai words for 'tin snips', 'filter' or 'spirit level'? I just show them pictures.

 

Language is about communicating a lot more than just the surface meaning, and it's certainly not about showing off one's education or nationalist tendencies.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by teatime101

[teatime101]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

That must make her really plowed (proud).

I asked for 'flied lice' from a Chinese waiter when I was 18. I still cringe at the memory. Not you, though. You're still living the glory days.

[teatime101]

32 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

'Schoon',

I hear 'sakoon', but yeah. I've tried to draw attention to that extra vowel (I gave up on the 'l'), in the hope it will one day disappear, but she just doesn't hear it - she's not aware of the problem at all.

[chainarong]

The sad part, this is the standard since Thailand thought of English in their curriculum, one of the youngsters used to come home in the eighties saying Dat for That and nothing has changed and neither has Thailand.  

[Gandtee]

43 minutes ago, chainarong said:

The sad part, this is the standard since Thailand thought of English in their curriculum, one of the youngsters used to come home in the eighties saying Dat for That and nothing has changed and neither has Thailand.  

My adopted 19 year old son who my wife and I have raised since he was a baby is fluent in Thai and English which he speaks in what I suppose is called BBC English. I'm struggling with my 11 year old nephew, trying to get the th, tongue between the teeth, and r sound, Also trying to get him to drop the 'ed' as in dropp-ed. We are getting there though. I get the feeling he has been taught to say this by his school teacher. And that is the problem. If pupils are given wrong instructions from the beginning it is hard to break. 

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, mommysboy said:

I would not wish to confuse poor English with dialectical variation.  What astounds me is that some Thais cast a sharp, critical glance when you correct a basic, obvious error, and I think this is because some common errors have become so deeply embedded to the extent that they are ubiquitous.  'Schoon', for example, isn't so much a pronunciation error, but the way it should be said.

How is schoon correct, just because this pronounce Thai "L" at the end of a Thai word as "N",   school in English is school - not schoon. 

[jayboy]

2 minutes ago, Artisi said:

What astounds me is that some Thais cast a sharp, critical glance when you correct a basic, obvious error

This phenomenon is not limited to teaching the English language.Constructive criticism is about as welcome as a hedgehog in a condom factory.That's why many farang managers dread the day each year they have to conduct staff appraisal reviews with their Thai colleagues.Most cop out (moi aussi) and write anodyne blather even when dealing with a numbskull.

[MartinL]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

That must make her really plowed (proud).

I hope it wasn't you wot plowed (sic) 'er, BM2!!

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, MartinL said:

I hope it wasn't you wot plowed (sic) 'er, BM2!!

This is the only Thai teacher I want.

[connda]

 

 

[connda]

36 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

This is the only Thai teacher I want.

As a man from a US 'red state', I must admit, I'm hot for teacher!

[bbi1]

On 5/19/2020 at 7:05 PM, IvorBiggun2 said:

I saw the program and my kids were in bits laughing. It was truly bad English. Was she auditioned before being put on the TV?

I saw some of it too. She was absolutely craphouse. If that is the quality of English teachers here then it's proof that the schools in this country are a total joke and a waste of time even sending your kids to. Better keep them at home.

[lee b]

Sorry I couldnt watch the full video, it was to painful to finish it. 

[johng]

4 hours ago, connda said:

 

 

She can't say the Quay word because as she pronounces it it would sound like the male sexual organ ????

[johng]

4 hours ago, bbi1 said:

I saw some of it too. She was absolutely craphouse. If that is the quality of English teachers here then it's proof that the schools in this country are a total joke and a waste of time even sending your kids to. Better keep them at home.

Today I found the 15 DLTV (Distance Learning TV) channels and watched a bit of  DLTV 13  which seems to be aimed at adult education (no not that type of adult education) about cooking schools teaching tourist Thai dishes including "Poo"  from the "Pee and Poo" cookery school  no joke ...she was quite good at explaining my wife said so ...  catchphrase "SpeakUp"  encouraging Thais not to be embarrassed about speaking English.

[Alex2554]