English teacher with poor pronunciation sparks online storm

[fredwiggy]

2 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Hmmm... I'm sure you've received dozens of replies. 

 

I'd like to add that Thais have what I think is a problem unique to their culture. 

 

Despite a decades long stated national program to become proficient English communicators, there are statistically almost 0 successes. 

 

If you observe carefully, you may note that even the most elite Thais (Chula, Mahidol, Thammasat), who have more money than many of us and who have travelled at least as much as many of us - STILL can't communicate effectively in English. 

 

You'll notice that their English ability seems only to distinguish them superficially as having access to foreign education or money. Their usually pathetic English ability is simply a way to distinguish their socioeconomic class. 

 

They never had any intention of communicating to people who are not Thai and hence their constant Thai-ification of English. 

Before I left the states, I knew many Thais that moved there. There were at least 5 I can remember that had a very good understanding of the language and spoke very well. If you look at MONO 29, there are two on the Movie Language that speak very well also, explaining things in Thai that are said in English. The owner of the school I help at has been to the United States at least 5 times and studied there, and speaks very good English also. Some things he has to ask me about, but when I communicate with him in English  his responses are usually correct. Thousands of students have been to his school, and they bring camps there almost monthly, other schools that are there to learn more because some of the schools only have Thai English teachers.

Edited May 20, 2020 by fredwiggy

[thailand49]

The virus is exposing something that has been going on for years it is worse in the government schools worse than what you see in the video. At the government schools right now they aren't even bothering because they realized many can't even afford Internet nor have a laptop or desktop computer. My daugther inlaw brother is laying around everyday playing games that is it, it is a lost cause I try to step up one day and teach the kid some English at 10 they said this is Thailand it is basically too hard for him?  I said I've known this fat ass for 5 years how long is it going to take the teacher and school to finish teaching him the ABC?

[Chassa]

15 hours ago, EricTh said:

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

Language is communication - Sometimes I cannot understand some people whose first language is English. 

[Fex Bluse]

7 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Before I left the states, I knew many Thais that moved there. There were at least 5 I can remember that had a very good understanding of the language and spoke very well. If you look at MONO 29, there are two on the Movie Language that speak very well also, explaining things in Thai that are said in English. The owner of the school I help at has been to the United States at least 5 times and studied there, and speaks very good English also. Some things he has to ask me about, but when I communicate with him in English  his responses are usually correct. Thousands of students have been to his school, and they bring camps there almost monthly, other schools that are there to learn more because some of the schools only have Thai English teachers.

Yes, there are a statistically tiny number of Thais who are proficient. It's close to 0% of the many millions who have been studying English for the last 40 years. 

[bluesofa]

24 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:

16 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

My Daughter was greeted with " Good Evening >>> < How are you tomorrow " when she signed in this Morning

With Teachers such as these, there is no hope for the Country

I've been greeted the same way in Soi Cowboy. 

Nah, she was just being presumptive in assuming you'd be waking up with her.

[fredwiggy]

Just now, Fex Bluse said:

Yes, there are a statistically tiny number of Thais who are proficient. It's close to 0% of the many millions who have been studying English for the last 40 years. 

I don't know where you could have gotten that information because there are thousands of Thais that move to just the US alone every year, to study and live with their English speaking husbands (wives). Many work in the UN, and run schools here. To run an English school (not just teach English in a school) it requires understanding of the language, as well as proficiency in it. Thailand's proficiency in English itself is very low. 53rd out of 80 countries.

Edited May 20, 2020 by fredwiggy

[Phil McCaverty]

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Actually the owner is a well respected English  teacher himself, and known all over Thailand. His is the best school in the province. My work is totally voluntary, and I'm there because I  speak fluent English.

"and I'm there because I  speak fluent English American." How do you spell "favour"? What is a tap? What do you call the bonnet of a car? I could go on endlessly. You don't speak English, you speak "American English". Different language pal.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Phil McCaverty

[car720]

16 hours ago, darksidedog said:

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

People are indicating that she is Thai.  At first I thought Phillipina but then no.  Vietnamese was my guess.

[Fex Bluse]

3 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

I don't know where you could have gotten that information because there are thousands of Thais that move to just the US alone every year, to study and live with their English speaking husbands (wives). Many work in the UN, and run schools here. To run an English school (not just teach English in a school) it requires understanding of the language, as well as proficiency in it. Thailand's proficiency in English itself is very low.

I think the anecdotes you list... You need to think about them statistically. 

[GaryAdriaenssens]

16 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess she is old and/or important and nobody ever dared to tell her that her English is not perfect.

I also hear all the time compliments about my Thai language skills...

Yes, you're right, someone who has high connections; a relative or some important Hot Shot with a striped uniform.... Nothing will ever change in Thailand regarding this subject. Really sad.

[Fex Bluse]

6 minutes ago, car720 said:

People are indicating that she is Thai.  At first I thought Phillipina but then no.  Vietnamese was my guess.

It's fairly obvious she is Thai from the specific errors in grammar and pronunciation she makes. Anyone familiar enough with language in the region would pick this up immediately. 

 

Vietnamese or Tagalog speakers of English make entirely different mistakes 

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Fex Bluse

[kratiam]

Slightly off-topic but....

 

1.  I'm starting a campaign to end the confusion shared by many people (mainly Americans) as follows:      "I could of......"  instead of  "I could have......."

 

2. Thailand, Sweden & Holland all have languages not found outside their own borders.  The two nationalities that speak the best English as a second language are Sweden & Holland and they do very well internationally.  Thailand, on the other hand.......

 

 

[lamyai3]

13 hours ago, Retarded said:

You can tell whether someone is African or not no matter what language they speak by the distinct way making sound.

Tell it to Rick Astley...

[fredwiggy]

Just now, Phil McCaverty said:

and I'm there because I  speak fluent English American. How do you spell "favour"? What is a tap? What do yo call the bonnet of a car? I could go on endlessly. You don't speak English, you speak "American English". Different language pal.

I speak English, period. I spell it favor, a tap is something that controls the flow of liquid, or a listening device on a phone, a bonnet is the hood of a car. Different countries have different words for the same items.  . You say bonnet because you use the British term for the item. You can say I don't speak proper English and I can say the same about you. What does it matter?

[somchaiq]

16 hours ago, EricTh said:

Do you have the video? We would like to judge ourselves.

Distance Learning Television (DLTV) is the website for online teaching. The above Video can be found there too. DLTV6 under English, but the website is only in Thai Language.

https://www.dltv.ac.th/

[fredwiggy]

Just now, Fex Bluse said:

I think the anecdotes you list... You need to think about them statistically. 

This doesn't mean proper English so.............The official stats put the English speaking percentage of the Thai population at around 27% or just over a quarter. Expats who actually live there put this figure a little lower in their own personal experience – the figure of around 10-15% of the population comes out quite often

[Phil McCaverty]

2 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

You say bonnet because you use the British term for the item. You can say I don't speak proper English and I can say the same about you. What does it matter?

Try looking it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive for the English language. Its "bonnet" and "favour".

[ChipButty]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Geography !!  Behave yourself, this is Thailand, only country in the World that matters.

My wife school director, asked me is Turkey next to England.

She has absolutely no idea about World geography.

I was going to say similar do they teach geography in Thai schools? had one years ago thought Great Britain was a different country to England I didn't even bother to try and explain that one, I agreed with her

Thailand being the center of the Universe and in a couple of years the whole world will be speaking Thai

[Fex Bluse]

7 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

This doesn't mean proper English so.............The official stats put the English speaking percentage of the Thai population at around 27% or just over a quarter. Expats who actually live there put this figure a little lower in their own personal experience – the figure of around 10-15% of the population comes out quite often

I suppose its also a matter of what we consider is necessary to count them. 

 

I was a partner in a multinational consulting firm in Bangkok (one of those strategy ones). My Thai staff salaries ranged from THB 100,000/month kids who just graduated from Chula undergrad to 35 year old Thais in senior management who earned 300,000/month and much more. 

 

I'd say 60% of these people couldn't carry a normal conversion in English. And in fact on call regional and global calls with other offices, the common practice was to nominate an English speaker from the group to translate for the call. 

 

That's one of my anecdotes 

Edited May 20, 2020 by Fex Bluse

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

This doesn't mean proper English so.............The official stats put the English speaking percentage of the Thai population at around 27% or just over a quarter. Expats who actually live there put this figure a little lower in their own personal experience – the figure of around 10-15% of the population comes out quite often

I'd say about 4% and half of them would be hookers with no formal education.

Most expats only associate with Thais that are in business making money from them.

Outside the resort areas, hardly any Thais speak any English.

Edited May 20, 2020 by BritManToo

[fredwiggy]

Just now, Phil McCaverty said:

Try looking it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive for the English language. Its "bonnet" and "favour".

Both are right. This is an excerpt from an Englishman who moved to the United States...................

My first focus would be spelling. In certain respects American English spelling is more consistent with the way that we say words. The classics would be color versus colour, center versus centre, words ending with “iz” versus “is” constructions, etc.

British English is much older than American English and these differences are mainly the fault of the French who invaded England in 1066. At the time the English were not impressed but the French did bring a little extra in the way of culture and cooking and a lot in the way of enriching the English language. The estimated number of new words added to English by the French is about 10,000. With these new words came the French spelling, the “re”, “ou”, “is”, etc. constructs.

English came to North America via the first British settlements that eventually, via George Washington, became the United States. During the 1700’s English was still an open language and even the British did not have formal standards for spelling. In the 1750’s Samuel Johnson established what was adopted as a standard British English dictionary and about 60 years later Noah Webster established what was adopted as the standard American English dictionary. As America was keen to distance itself from Britain and Webster wanted to rationalise certain forms of spelling, the Americans adopted what some Brits refer to as “wrong spelling”.

Both sides could claim the same.

Both languages have spelling standards so in this respect they are both consistent.

Pronunciation is not so obvious when it comes to consistency.
Here are a couple of examples:

Americans will pronounce the “ato” sound in tomato and potato the same way. Brits don’t

Brits will pronounce the “ine” sound in machine and iodine the same way. Americans don’t.

These are two simple examples but they both highlight pronunciation differences that are not consistent with spelling. However, all Americans/Brits will pronounce words within their flavour of English in a similar way. There will be regional differences but even with the regional accent, the sound produced will be understandable.

Vocabulary

Now we get into the fun area.

In the main, British English and American English are very similar, even with differences in spelling. In today’s world, American spelling is probably winning thanks to Microsoft’s spell checker.

There are vocabulary differences and some can cause embarrassing situations if you only know one flavour. Knickers, suspenders and fanny come to mind. In the US, men wear suspenders, in the UK women wear suspenders. There’s a whole world of fun in some of these differences. Brits can knock their friends up in the morning but this could be considered inappropriate in the USA. I’ll leave you to research knickers and fanny.

There are also more mundane differences as well like: lift (UK) vs. elevator (USA) / lorry (UK) vs. truck (USA) / solicitor (UK) vs. lawyer (USA) / petrol (UK) vs. gas or gasoline (USA) / trainers (UK) vs. sneakers (USA) / drawing pin (UK) vs. thumb tack (USA) and quite a few others.

Despite the fact that there are different meanings for the same word and that there are some genuine differences in vocabulary, again both languages are consistent within their own rules...................................

George Bernard Shaw probably got it right when he quipped:

“The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.”

So which one is best? From a partisan viewpoint the answer is a foregone conclusion. Brits will say that Americans don’t speak proper English and vice versa. There’s nothing worse than national pride when it comes to language.

Forgetting the fact that there are people in both countries who sometimes cannot understand what their fellow countrymen from other regions are saying, are there any pointers to indicate that one flavour is better than the other?.............I'm not near prejudiced, in fact the UK is on my bucket list as I'm 1/2 Irish and like the customs food and people I've met from there, and want to see it for myself.

Edited May 20, 2020 by fredwiggy

[Keesters]

16 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

 

But they aren't teaching others Thai language.

There are many who do. You'll find them on Facebook and YouTube.

 

[ChipButty]

That always make me laugh when you call somewhere and it says press 2 for English and the answer sawat de ka

[Phil McCaverty]

1 minute ago, ChipButty said:

I was going to say similar do they teach geography in Thai schools? had one years ago thought Great Britain was a different country to England I didn't even bother to try and explain that one, I agreed with her

Thailand being the center of the Universe and in a couple of years the whole world will be speaking Thai

Many Thais confuse Australia with Austria. We once had new neighbours, a farang and his Thai wife.

 

I went round to introduce myself and reported back to the wife. "He's Australian" I reported. My wife replied, "What language do they speak in Australia?"

[wensiensheng]

17 hours ago, watso63 said:

Well without a video with audio what's the point of this "news" as we are unable to judge for ourselves. 

It’s not really “news” either. From my personal experience, Thai nationals who are English teachers often struggle to speak English properly. 

[Keesters]

8 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

I was going to say similar do they teach geography in Thai schools? had one years ago thought Great Britain was a different country to England I didn't even bother to try and explain that one, I agreed with her

Thailand being the center of the Universe and in a couple of years the whole world will be speaking Thai

I've been experienced "do you have chickens in your country?", "Thailand makes all 747s here because Thai Inter has them", "if it's duvay, then it should be blankay, they both keep you warm in bed" 

[lamyai3]

17 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

22 minutes ago, car720 said:

People are indicating that she is Thai.  At first I thought Phillipina but then no.  Vietnamese was my guess.

It's fairly obvious she is Thai from the specific errors in grammar and pronunciation she makes. Anyone familiar enough with language in the region would pick this up immediately.

Even if they didn't, all doubts should be removed around the 1.18 mark when it all gets too much and she reverts back to explaining in Thai for a while. 

[KKr]

Watched this great sample of ingli gla ( English class )

unfortunately, the level of English Language graduates being turned out at some Universities is atrocious. No particles, verbs in the wrong place, plurals consistently wrongly applied, no concept of anything other than present tense, only occasionally attempts to use simple past tense.

 

Having said that, also met some people that spoke fluent with hardly any accent. 
 

Edited May 20, 2020 by KKr

[Queenslander]

16 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

My Daughter was greeted with " Good Evening >>> < How are you tomorrow " when she signed in this Morning

With Teachers such as these, there is no hope for the Country

At least she didn't start with 'love you long time'...

[Rookiescot]

26 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Both are right. This is an excerpt from an Englishman who moved to the United States...................

My first focus would be spelling. In certain respects American English spelling is more consistent with the way that we say words. The classics would be color versus colour, center versus centre, words ending with “iz” versus “is” constructions, etc.

British English is much older than American English and these differences are mainly the fault of the French who invaded England in 1066. At the time the English were not impressed but the French did bring a little extra in the way of culture and cooking and a lot in the way of enriching the English language. The estimated number of new words added to English by the French is about 10,000. With these new words came the French spelling, the “re”, “ou”, “is”, etc. constructs.

English came to North America via the first British settlements that eventually, via George Washington, became the United States. During the 1700’s English was still an open language and even the British did not have formal standards for spelling. In the 1750’s Samuel Johnson established what was adopted as a standard British English dictionary and about 60 years later Noah Webster established what was adopted as the standard American English dictionary. As America was keen to distance itself from Britain and Webster wanted to rationalise certain forms of spelling, the Americans adopted what some Brits refer to as “wrong spelling”.

Both sides could claim the same.

Both languages have spelling standards so in this respect they are both consistent.

Pronunciation is not so obvious when it comes to consistency.
Here are a couple of examples:

Americans will pronounce the “ato” sound in tomato and potato the same way. Brits don’t

Brits will pronounce the “ine” sound in machine and iodine the same way. Americans don’t.

These are two simple examples but they both highlight pronunciation differences that are not consistent with spelling. However, all Americans/Brits will pronounce words within their flavour of English in a similar way. There will be regional differences but even with the regional accent, the sound produced will be understandable.

Vocabulary

Now we get into the fun area.

In the main, British English and American English are very similar, even with differences in spelling. In today’s world, American spelling is probably winning thanks to Microsoft’s spell checker.

There are vocabulary differences and some can cause embarrassing situations if you only know one flavour. Knickers, suspenders and fanny come to mind. In the US, men wear suspenders, in the UK women wear suspenders. There’s a whole world of fun in some of these differences. Brits can knock their friends up in the morning but this could be considered inappropriate in the USA. I’ll leave you to research knickers and fanny.

There are also more mundane differences as well like: lift (UK) vs. elevator (USA) / lorry (UK) vs. truck (USA) / solicitor (UK) vs. lawyer (USA) / petrol (UK) vs. gas or gasoline (USA) / trainers (UK) vs. sneakers (USA) / drawing pin (UK) vs. thumb tack (USA) and quite a few others.

Despite the fact that there are different meanings for the same word and that there are some genuine differences in vocabulary, again both languages are consistent within their own rules...................................

George Bernard Shaw probably got it right when he quipped:

“The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.”

So which one is best? From a partisan viewpoint the answer is a foregone conclusion. Brits will say that Americans don’t speak proper English and vice versa. There’s nothing worse than national pride when it comes to language.

Forgetting the fact that there are people in both countries who sometimes cannot understand what their fellow countrymen from other regions are saying, are there any pointers to indicate that one flavour is better than the other?.............I'm not near prejudiced, in fact the UK is on my bucket list as I'm 1/2 Irish and like the customs food and people I've met from there, and want to see it for myself.

You are not teaching English if you are using the American version of spelling and pronunciation.

You are teaching American English.