English teacher with poor pronunciation sparks online storm

[teatime101]

[Neeranam]

Even the Thai news are making a fool of this poor lady. 

 

[EricTh]

4 hours ago, Isaan Alan said:

Think about that. You want to speak Chinese so you learn from someone who doesn't speak standard Chinese? In Australian high school I learn both German and French from Australian teachers who spoke correctly. A native speaker is better but a Thai who speaks standard English is fine. This woman speaks "baby English" bordering on pidgin English.

If you have a native English speaker who can explain in Thai the meaning of an English word and answer their questions in Thai , that would be the best.

 

Unfortunately, only 2% of native English speakers are able to do that. To the Thai students, even if you speak perfect English, they are just meaningless sounds to them.

 

When I was learning French as a third language, I also had a non-native French speaker teaching but I could understand most of what he said as the medium of instruction was English and not French.

 

When I had a native French guest teacher for one or two sessions, she didn't even bothered to teach the 'r' sound when I asked how it is produced. It seems that everybody in the class assumed the French 'r' is the same as the English 'r'.

 

That native French teacher assumed that non-native speakers will never master the French 'r' anyway.

 

French and German have a lot of similarities with English as all comes under Indo-European language family. Anyway, you learnt it as an adult and medium of instruction was in English, I am sure.

 

Thai and English are completely different animals. Thai struggle with English phonology and grammar whereas Europeans struggle with tones and Thai phonology.

 

Some videos on Youtube are made for comedic effect and are not real English teachers. I don't expect non-native English teachers in Thailand to have perfect English accent. What is important is that they can explain well.

 

Furthermore, just because one non-native English teacher speak pidgin English, it's not representative of most English teachers in Thailand.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by EricTh

[FarangULong]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:20 AM, 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'm sorry, but that's hardly relevant. Either you are qualified to teach a language, or you are not.

 

I'm not a native English speaker myself, though I have rather good command of the language. Thanks to the internet and online gaming, etc, I managed to become far better than most of my classmates around age 14.

 

Anyway, all the teachers I had, had somewhat "faulty" pronunciation, i.e. the archetypical (at least back then, probably more of a stereotype nowadays) "z" instead of "th" (i.e. "ze show Ze King and I was shown in ze zeatre, last night"), and stuff like that. But at least they taught us grammar, syntax, etc correctly.

 

Before you now go and disseminate my comments for errors, I am far better at retaining an ever increasing vocubulary, than at writing grammatically perfect sentences. Plus I never actually graduated from 2ndary education, either.

 

My point being, that it (English) being their second language, is totally irrelevant. If someone is incapable of teaching the pupils the essentials of properly forming their sentences, rather than just translating their thoughts into English word by word, and pronouncing words so completely off, that they're barely or not at all comprehensible, then that is obviously a problem. Especially in an ever increasing globalized World & market.

 

From what I've seen & heard about Thai English teachers, many of them would not even pass A1, let alone B levels. Therefore they should not teach. Obviously the Thais know of this themselves, hence why you will find plenty of parodies about this. For example, I've seen a video where the students spell and pronounce words correctly, and the teacher immediately goes like "NONONO!", and proceeds to "correct" them with hilariously wrong spelling&pronunciation (no, this is not a typo). It's a pretty funny skit.

[FarangULong]

4 hours ago, EricTh said:

If you have a native English speaker who can explain in Thai the meaning of an English word and answer their questions in Thai , that would be the best.

 

Unfortunately, only 2% of native English speakers are able to do that. To the Thai students, even if you speak perfect English, they are just meaningless sounds to them.

 

When I was learning French as a third language, I also had a non-native French speaker teaching but I could understand most of what he said as the medium of instruction was English and not French.

 

When I had a native French guest teacher for one or two sessions, she didn't even bothered to teach the 'r' sound when I asked how it is produced. It seems that everybody in the class assumed the French 'r' is the same as the English 'r'.

 

That native French teacher assumed that non-native speakers will never master the French 'r' anyway.

 

French and German have a lot of similarities with English as all comes under Indo-European language family. Anyway, you learnt it as an adult and medium of instruction was in English, I am sure.

 

Thai and English are completely different animals. Thai struggle with English phonology and grammar whereas Europeans struggle with tones and Thai phonology.

 

Some videos on Youtube are made for comedic effect and are not real English teachers. I don't expect non-native English teachers in Thailand to have perfect English accent. What is important is that they can explain well.

 

Furthermore, just because one non-native English teacher speak pidgin English, it's not representative of most English teachers in Thailand.

 

 

 <deleted>. Do you know how people for example learn French in the Foreign Legion? Through being only spoken to in French. Sure, at first it's meaningless sounds, but once you make an effort (and if you don't, well let's just say you're either a masochist or you'll desert soon enough) you'll learn pretty fast. If a Caporal or Sergent (yes, that's the spelling in French) overhears you speak anything other than French, you'll get a punch in the gut or solar plexus, along with a stern "Parlez francais, kurwa! Pas de mafia ici!" (mafia is a slang term for the various language groups, who tend to stick a bit more together even later on).

 

Sure, that's the extreme example, but it shows how you CAN and WILL learn through a) effort and b) IMMERSION. Immersion is always key to learning a language. Of course it takes interest in learning also...

 

One of the ways employed to learn, for example, is that you have to learn to recite the code of honour and through (marching) songs etc. At first it's just phonetics that you learn to recite/sing by heart, but you can look up the lyrics and thus know what you're saying/singing. The same could be done with the pupils. Let them listen to Western/English language music, and then their homework is to get a translation for the lyrics or something like that. Watch movies in English with them, with Thai subtitles.

 

After a while, they will pick up the phrases. While it's probably a lot easier for a native German speaker, like me, to learn English through gaming, movies (I don't watch any Hollywood and otherwise anglo-made movies with dubbing anymore, and haven't in roughly 2 decades, as too much humour etc is lost in translation), etc. as the languages are more closely related, but the concept applies to pretty much any language, one has an interest in. And they will enjoy it, while learning at the same time.

Edited May 25, 2020 by FarangULong
typos etc

[chrissables]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:04 PM, Metropolitian said:

Absolutely agree and I understood why they do as I have noticed that they used to say SA with S ( ส ) when there is no vowel behind it. For example sawasdee, in written it's S-W-A-D-EE ( สวัสดี ).

 

สวัสดี sa-wat-dee

sawasdee is not a Thai word, it's a wrongly transliterated word

 

My friends name is Stuart, his wife knighted him.....Sir (Sa) Stuart is his his name now 55555 

[EricTh]

8 hours ago, FarangULong said:

 

I'm not a native English speaker myself, though I have rather good command of the language. Thanks to the internet and online gaming, etc, I managed to become far better than most of my classmates around age 14.

 

 

You failed to recognize several facts that I have stated before.

 

1. English and German are both Germanic languages so the grammar, phonology are similar with a lot of cognates. It's like Thai learning Lao language or any other similar languages in the same language family, it's not as difficult to learn and speak Lao for Thai people than it is to learn English.

 

2. If you live in Germany, there are many opportunities to use English when you travel to other countries in Europe. In Thailand, there is not much use of English in Thailand and nearby surrounding countries like China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Vietnam who also can't speak English as well as other Europeans.

 

3. In summary, people of European ancestry in America, Australia, Europe (non-native English speaker) can speak better English due to more exposure to American movies, more opportunities to speak the language and similarities in the European languages and English.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by EricTh

[allencraig]

On 5/19/2020 at 5:09 PM, colinneil said:

Last evening, my wife brought home some of the written work that she has to get the teachers to take to students homes for them to do.

I nearly wet myself, the grammar was pathetic..... Johhny went to the shop for a dozen of eggs, that was  on 1 of the papers.

You nearly wet your pants because of one unnecessary preposition? Wow, tough crowd.

[Isaan Alan]

On 5/26/2020 at 5:10 AM, FarangULong said:

 <deleted>. Do you know how people for example learn French in the Foreign Legion? Through being only spoken to in French. Sure, at first it's meaningless sounds, but once you make an effort (and if you don't, well let's just say you're either a masochist or you'll desert soon enough) you'll learn pretty fast. If a Caporal or Sergent (yes, that's the spelling in French) overhears you speak anything other than French, you'll get a punch in the gut or solar plexus, along with a stern "Parlez francais, kurwa! Pas de mafia ici!" (mafia is a slang term for the various language groups, who tend to stick a bit more together even later on).

 

Sure, that's the extreme example, but it shows how you CAN and WILL learn through a) effort and b) IMMERSION. Immersion is always key to learning a language. Of course it takes interest in learning also...

 

One of the ways employed to learn, for example, is that you have to learn to recite the code of honour and through (marching) songs etc. At first it's just phonetics that you learn to recite/sing by heart, but you can look up the lyrics and thus know what you're saying/singing. The same could be done with the pupils. Let them listen to Western/English language music, and then their homework is to get a translation for the lyrics or something like that. Watch movies in English with them, with Thai subtitles.

 

After a while, they will pick up the phrases. While it's probably a lot easier for a native German speaker, like me, to learn English through gaming, movies (I don't watch any Hollywood and otherwise anglo-made movies with dubbing anymore, and haven't in roughly 2 decades, as too much humour etc is lost in translation), etc. as the languages are more closely related, but the concept applies to pretty much any language, one has an interest in. And they will enjoy it, while learning at the same time.

I like your story of the French Foreign Legion

 

I have seen a TED video of 2 American guys that learnt 5 (maybe 6) languages in a year by immersion including Chinese and Korean. How did they do it? A little preparation before and then NO English allowed. They had videos of day 1 and day 30 and they could have a decent conversation at day 30. Reverting to your native language, including Thai in this case, is a crutch. I have a Thai wife who I have taught as a pupil (I teach English in China) and now she speaks good conversational English with Thai characteristics (such as putting the adjective after the noun - makes more sense actually). She is my Pygmalion project! Meanwhile my Thai is pathetic. Why? Because I use English as a crutch. If I had to eat, travel, shop with only Thai I would have conversational Thai by now.

[GinBoy2]

51 minutes ago, Isaan Alan said:

I like your story of the French Foreign Legion

 

I have seen a TED video of 2 American guys that learnt 5 (maybe 6) languages in a year by immersion including Chinese and Korean. How did they do it? A little preparation before and then NO English allowed. They had videos of day 1 and day 30 and they could have a decent conversation at day 30. Reverting to your native language, including Thai in this case, is a crutch. I have a Thai wife who I have taught as a pupil (I teach English in China) and now she speaks good conversational English with Thai characteristics (such as putting the adjective after the noun - makes more sense actually). She is my Pygmalion project! Meanwhile my Thai is pathetic. Why? Because I use English as a crutch. If I had to eat, travel, shop with only Thai I would have conversational Thai by now.

I've often wondered if being bilingual from birth helps with picking up languages in later life.

 

I grew up speaking English and Spanish, and I think your brain gets wired to switch without even thinking. I could have conversations with my parents where it could be a rather bizarre mix of both languages as I think back on it 50 odd years later.

 

In later life I seemed to be to quite easily pick up new languages, Mandarin, Thai and Lao, and rather poor Japanese.

 

With both my ex wife and my Thai wife, when our kids were learning to speak we had the principle that I spoke to my American kids only in Spanish, and my wife to them only in English. With my Thai kid, Mom only spoke in Thai and Lao, me only English & Mandarin.

 

The result is that their baby brains seemed to get wired like mine, and they can all switch between languages without even thinking about it

[Europeanguy]

I am a little weary to enter this discussion. Opinions sometimes are high and expectations low. But I will try.

 

I am Belgian and my mother tongue is French. I have been educated in both French and Flemish. Also educated by the Beatles - She loves you yeah yeah yeah and that sort of things. I immigrated to the UK where I worked for 35 years. I am actually more comfortable with English now and my family tells me that my French is completely Anglicised, still fluent but translating English idioms literally to their amusement (not understand them either). My Flemish has gone downhill, if I try, English words come out.

 

Languages are so beautiful and carry so much culture. Amazing.

 

There are 3 points I would like to make.

 

First, the need to learn another language is a deciding factor. My ex-wife was Spanish so we often went on holidays in Spain. On the beach, Spanish children played hide and seek. My children were desperate to play too (4, 6 and 7 years old at the time). It took them, no lies, 30 minutes to learn how to count up to 30 in Spanish to be able to play.

 

Second, to join the previous poster about switching and parenting, there is one thing I will never forgive myself. Living in the UK, I insisted on talking to my eldest in French only. It is hard work because all is English: TV, friends etc. I carried on the good work with the next children too. But parent's fatigue comes in, much easier to keep to English. Results? The oldest one fluent in French and Spanish as well as English of course. She works as a business translator now. The second one, understand French and Spanish with some speech. The third one, very little of either French or Spanish. I regret I did let my guard down on that one.

 

Third is age. I live in Thailand now but at 63, I just cannot learn Thai, my memory has passed it and I cannot even go and pass the Thai letters being one after the other without any way to even spot or learn a word.

 

So, let's be in wonder of what languages are and not critical of whoever gives them a go. My Thai wife just cannot say "film", she says "flim" no matter how much I try to help her pronounce it properly. And you know what, I am in awe that she speaks English no matter how and ashamed of my inexistence of Thai.

 

[Gandtee]

44 minutes ago, Europeanguy said:

I am a little weary to enter this discussion. Opinions sometimes are high and expectations low. But I will try.

 

I am Belgian and my mother tongue is French. I have been educated in both French and Flemish. Also educated by the Beatles - She loves you yeah yeah yeah and that sort of things. I immigrated to the UK where I worked for 35 years. I am actually more comfortable with English now and my family tells me that my French is completely Anglicised, still fluent but translating English idioms literally to their amusement (not understand them either). My Flemish has gone downhill, if I try, English words come out.

 

Languages are so beautiful and carry so much culture. Amazing.

 

There are 3 points I would like to make.

 

First, the need to learn another language is a deciding factor. My ex-wife was Spanish so we often went on holidays in Spain. On the beach, Spanish children played hide and seek. My children were desperate to play too (4, 6 and 7 years old at the time). It took them, no lies, 30 minutes to learn how to count up to 30 in Spanish to be able to play.

 

Second, to join the previous poster about switching and parenting, there is one thing I will never forgive myself. Living in the UK, I insisted on talking to my eldest in French only. It is hard work because all is English: TV, friends etc. I carried on the good work with the next children too. But parent's fatigue comes in, much easier to keep to English. Results? The oldest one fluent in French and Spanish as well as English of course. She works as a business translator now. The second one, understand French and Spanish with some speech. The third one, very little of either French or Spanish. I regret I did let my guard down on that one.

 

Third is age. I live in Thailand now but at 63, I just cannot learn Thai, my memory has passed it and I cannot even go and pass the Thai letters being one after the other without any way to even spot or learn a word.

 

So, let's be in wonder of what languages are and not critical of whoever gives them a go. My Thai wife just cannot say "film", she says "flim" no matter how much I try to help her pronounce it properly. And you know what, I am in awe that she speaks English no matter how and ashamed of my inexistence of Thai.

 

My son married a Swiss girl and moved to Switzerland. She wrote the Swiss names on household articles, fridge, cooker etc. He has been speaking Swiss German for years.

I married my Thai wife and moved here over 30 years ago. She spoke English before we married and regretfully, for me, we conversed in English. Much to my shame and only one regret, my Thai is minimal. We raised our foster son from a baby. At nineteen he is fluent in English and Thai. My wife spoke Thai to him and translated any English he didn't understand. And that was the secret I think. I'm now spending some time teaching my eleven year old nephew, English. He shoots off and asks my wife "what does ... mean?" Of course he is older than my son was at the learning stage and has the problem- probrum, with his ls and th's, which my son had not been exposed to. We are getting there.  "Every little bit helps" as the boy said while peeing in the sea.

[Europeanguy]

1 hour ago, Gandtee said:

My son married a Swiss girl and moved to Switzerland. She wrote the Swiss names on household articles, fridge, cooker etc. He has been speaking Swiss German for years.

I married my Thai wife and moved here over 30 years ago. She spoke English before we married and regretfully, for me, we conversed in English. Much to my shame and only one regret, my Thai is minimal. We raised our foster son from a baby. At nineteen he is fluent in English and Thai. My wife spoke Thai to him and translated any English he didn't understand. And that was the secret I think. I'm now spending some time teaching my eleven year old nephew, English. He shoots off and asks my wife "what does ... mean?" Of course he is older than my son was at the learning stage and has the problem- probrum, with his ls and th's, which my son had not been exposed to. We are getting there.  "Every little bit helps" as the boy said while peeing in the sea.

 

Nice story. Thank you. We are all special carrying different life stories with all of them worth it.

 

Can your Thai wife say "film"? Or have I found the only one who can't? ???? We still enjoy watching a "flim" together.

 

I wonder why she can't, her English is pretty good. I don't know if it is not hearing the right sound or repeating it with her tongue and mouth that is the problem. But she definitely cannot say it. We have sorted that problem by saying "movies" so everybody is happy ???? . Which movie to watch remains a bone of contention though ahaha ???? . But it is a different subject for this thread... 

 

I spare you all with the discussions on the audio language and subtitles to be used ???? 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Europeanguy
Forgot something

[GinBoy2]

1 hour ago, Europeanguy said:

 

Nice story. Thank you. We are all special carrying different life stories with all of them worth it.

 

Can your Thai wife say "film"? Or have I found the only one who can't? ???? We still enjoy watching a "flim" together.

 

I wonder why she can't, her English is pretty good. I don't know if it is not hearing the right sound or repeating it with her tongue and mouth that is the problem. But she definitely cannot say it. We have sorted that problem by saying "movies" so everybody is happy ???? . Which movie to watch remains a bone of contention though ahaha ???? . But it is a different subject for this thread... 

 

I spare you all with the discussions on the audio language and subtitles to be used ???? 

 

Funny you should mention that.

 

My wife went to live with her Uncle in Chicago in her early teens, so ended up with a typical Midwestern  American accent.

 

But she has often told me when she first got 'off the boat' certain words where hard, simply because she had never made the sounds before, and you need to learn how get the mouth and tongue around them.

 

Film, Problem and anything involving 'th' or a 'v' seemed to be the biggies

[FarangULong]

11 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

II think your brain gets wired to switch without even thinking. I could have conversations with my parents where it could be a rather bizarre mix of both languages as I think back on it 50 odd years later.

I can't speak for others, but when conversing in English and French I no longer think in my native tongue. Spanish I still struggle with (I only started teaching myself -through babbel - a few months ago). I sometimes find that I even dream in English and, albeit to a far lesser degree, in French. It's a bit strange at first, but one gets used to it.

 

It's also no real problem to switch from one language to the either, when in a multi lingual setting (such as around foreign exchange students, of which are a lot in the town I go out in a lot).

 

As I previously stated, it's far easier to learn when a) you CARE to learn (which is the job of the teachers, to make it more interesting for the pupils) and b) through being somewhat forced to also (ie doing the class in English only)

 

If one can combine the two, it will become a lot easier over time, in my opinion.

 

As for the other guy (too lazy to scroll): I did state that it's easier to learn English, when you're German. I did specifically state that. However I also previously tried my hand at Hindi (I actually wanted to learn Urdu, but it's close enough), and while it was a bit of a pain in the ass, it is very doable. Ultimately I quit due to a number of factors. Let's just leave it at losing interest + no longer having any "need" to learn it.

 

And while it might not be "necessary" for Thais to learn English at this very moment, it might eventually be. As I said, the markets and economies, and the World as a whole, are ever increasing in terms of globalization. I firmly believe, that the Chinese bubble will eventually burst (I don't want to write a whole essay on the subject, so if anyone wants to know why I think this, I suggest you look into their currency manipulation - keeping the Yuan low artificially, in order to keep their labour cheap and their exports competitive - and go from there, it has other reasons also), therefore even markets that might trade more with China right now, will eventually turn towards the West also. Or maybe even to India, Brazil, etc.

 

However these countries also use English for their foreign trade and import export businesses in the private sector. While that might be irrelevant to the 7/11 store clerk in (insert Thai village name here) in (insert most rural Thai province here), it's certainly not so irrelevant to people in bigger cities, tourist areas, etc.

 

Besides it's always good to know at least one more language, other than your own. Who knows what you might want to do 20 years from now, or even later...

[Gandtee]

3 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Funny you should mention that.

 

My wife went to live with her Uncle in Chicago in her early teens, so ended up with a typical Midwestern  American accent.

 

But she has often told me when she first got 'off the boat' certain words where hard, simply because she had never made the sounds before, and you need to learn how get the mouth and tongue around them.

 

Film, Problem and anything involving 'th' or a 'v' seemed to be the biggies

I used to get my wife to say "The blue umbrella with the blue butterflies.'  I suppose it's a case of not knowing your r's from your l-bow????

[GinBoy2]

20 minutes ago, FarangULong said:

I can't speak for others, but when conversing in English and French I no longer think in my native tongue. Spanish I still struggle with (I only started teaching myself -through babbel - a few months ago). I sometimes find that I even dream in English and, albeit to a far lesser degree, in French. It's a bit strange at first, but one gets used to it.

 

 

That's an interesting one. 

 

I don't 'think' in any of my secondary languages, but even though I don't speak Spanish every day, I'll still have thoughts in my head in Spanish & English

[GinBoy2]

14 hours ago, Europeanguy said:

I am a little weary to enter this discussion. Opinions sometimes are high and expectations low. But I will try.

 

I am Belgian and my mother tongue is French. I have been educated in both French and Flemish. Also educated by the Beatles - She loves you yeah yeah yeah and that sort of things. I immigrated to the UK where I worked for 35 years. I am actually more comfortable with English now and my family tells me that my French is completely Anglicised, still fluent but translating English idioms literally to their amusement (not understand them either). My Flemish has gone downhill, if I try, English words come out.

 

Languages are so beautiful and carry so much culture. Amazing.

 

There are 3 points I would like to make.

 

First, the need to learn another language is a deciding factor. My ex-wife was Spanish so we often went on holidays in Spain. On the beach, Spanish children played hide and seek. My children were desperate to play too (4, 6 and 7 years old at the time). It took them, no lies, 30 minutes to learn how to count up to 30 in Spanish to be able to play.

 

Second, to join the previous poster about switching and parenting, there is one thing I will never forgive myself. Living in the UK, I insisted on talking to my eldest in French only. It is hard work because all is English: TV, friends etc. I carried on the good work with the next children too. But parent's fatigue comes in, much easier to keep to English. Results? The oldest one fluent in French and Spanish as well as English of course. She works as a business translator now. The second one, understand French and Spanish with some speech. The third one, very little of either French or Spanish. I regret I did let my guard down on that one.

 

Third is age. I live in Thailand now but at 63, I just cannot learn Thai, my memory has passed it and I cannot even go and pass the Thai letters being one after the other without any way to even spot or learn a word.

 

So, let's be in wonder of what languages are and not critical of whoever gives them a go. My Thai wife just cannot say "film", she says "flim" no matter how much I try to help her pronounce it properly. And you know what, I am in awe that she speaks English no matter how and ashamed of my inexistence of Thai.

 

I agree it could be tough keeping up the one parent one language thing in the UK, where French isn't heard.

 

My kids grew up in California, so even though I was speaking to them in Spanish at home, go anywhere, to the mall, shopping downtown they would hear Spanish from others not just me.

 

I also foolishly watched Spanish language TV at home, which I'm sure contributed to my eldest daughter's addiction to telenovelas (the latin equivalent of Thai lakorns, just with much much bigger breasts!)

[FarangULong]

40 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

bigger breasts!)

And the fap-tastic Latina booties ^^

[Europeanguy]

12 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

That's an interesting one. 

 

I don't 'think' in any of my secondary languages, but even though I don't speak Spanish every day, I'll still have thoughts in my head in Spanish & English

Yes, very interesting. A friend of mine asked me if I thought in French or English. A deep and interesting question that I was unable to answer. Like what is in your brain has no language. It goes back to the language you dream in, is there any?

 

Counting is another good one. In my head, I sometimes count in French, sometimes in English. It looks like my French mother tongue takes over when speed is the essence and English when meaning and quantities are the essence. Explain that!

[GinBoy2]

43 minutes ago, Europeanguy said:

Yes, very interesting. A friend of mine asked me if I thought in French or English. A deep and interesting question that I was unable to answer. Like what is in your brain has no language. It goes back to the language you dream in, is there any?

 

Counting is another good one. In my head, I sometimes count in French, sometimes in English. It looks like my French mother tongue takes over when speed is the essence and English when meaning and quantities are the essence. Explain that!

I think that might be when you learn a second language in life, that your mother tongue can take over in your brain.

 

When you grow up bilingual I'd be hard pushed to say which language in my head I'd use first.

 

Like I said before, I can switch between my two native languages in a way I can't quite explain, it just happens.

 

I can't do it in my learned languages in anyway near the same way.

 

Now after this thread started I was talking to my son. He says he does the same as me in my native English & Spanish, in all his baby languages, English, Lao, Thai and Mandarin.

My only regret is that I didn't teach him Spanish as well, although his Mandarin has defiantly proven useful in his career 

Edited May 28, 2020 by GinBoy2

[Europeanguy]

I have regret too but as Daniel Guichard sang "when you are young, you do not have a heart big enough to take it all in"

[visacrack]

Artisi
20/5/2020 10.49

 

how about translating your comment into something understandable.

And, the post is about the poor level of language being used by teachers to teach English, absolutely nothing to do with what you appear to be trying to say.   

************************

Si tacuisses... You're the kind of guy that I call anglo-autistic fool. Blame your non-language and without-standards substandard edusys. 

 

[Inetta]

It seems to me that it is because of such teachers that students have serious learning problems

[GinBoy2]

41 minutes ago, Inetta said:

It seems to me that it is because of such teachers that students have serious learning problems

Well we go around and around on this topic.

 

Until they actually employ real native English speakers as teachers, we'll all be turned to dust long before things change

[cyril sneer]

1 hour ago, Inetta said:

It seems to me that it is because of such teachers that students have serious learning problems

I think that's the point of the thread

[Golden Triangle]

You wanna hear my Mrs, in full Cockney  accent say " unf******believable " I have taught her well, if I could be assed, and I  should be  to be honest, I should offer my services to a local school.

 

By the way, her grasp of cursing in a London accent isn't limited to the above ????????

 

I used to teach adults in a former life to learn new skills, it was enjoyable but hard work, imparting new skills to mid 50's to mid 60's students who hadn't been to a place of learning in 35+ years was stressful for them, and due to the nature of the course it was pass or fail, not fun at times.

 

[Inetta]

I agree. I just had a similar situation when a teacher, due to his low qualification, demanded very difficult tasks from me. That's why, at that moment, I decided that I didn't want to do these tasks and that's why I found the service https://papersowl.com/nursing-paper-writing-service, which helped me with writing nursing paper. It was a wonderful help that just saved me.
That's why I don't want such teachers for anyone, but in the end, there are some problems.

[248900_1469958220]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:17 PM, darksidedog said:

I suggest that she is indicative of the average teachers ability, and completely explains the poor English capability of students here.   

Trust me...this is NORMAL!!! I have worked with countless Thai English teachers and the standard of English is....well..THIS! Is it improving? Maybe a little with some of the new bloods. Most Thai kids have this to deal with OR a bunch of  Filipinos  who, should really only, at best be teaching very young kids basic vocabulary. Oh well, at least she's trying. 

[spidermike007]

I would not consider it bullying, if indeed her English was as poor as they are saying it is. She has no business teaching English. Get some skills woman!