Teaching English

[EricTh]

Do most Thai schools teach American English or British English? What I mean is the official curriculum books.

 

 

[uncleP]

Is it called English or American? ???? unfortunately  it changes from school to school depending on who books are purchased from. It is further confused by the use of upcountry  teachers to set exams: these teachers have very little grasp of English language in real life!

[allane]

This seems to be a recurring concern to the British and the Americans, even if the Thai's couldn't care less.  I taught in Thai high schools for 17 years.  It is 50 - 50.  If the only problem you have is that your students know one and not the other, you are a lucky teacher indeed.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

 

[herfiehandbag]

At the level taught in school there is frankly very little difference - mainly some vocabulary (candy/sweets, shop/store) and most of the words are interchangable. Many of the textbooks I have seen and used seem to be written in Singapore and therefore favour English vocabulary and spelling. Getting the students to speak English is enough without bothering about Americanisms!

 

Except for those (rare) days when I get out of bed on the wrong side - then it is: "There is no such thing as American English, there is English and there are mistakes!"

[Scott]

I am American but spent many, many years overseas, including 25 in Thailand and 20++ of those were in education.   Since I worked with all nationalities I was used to the various differences between the various nationalities.  I actually always like to teach from a British curriculum because it gave me the opportunity to introduce students to the American way of saying certain things.  I always stuck to the curriculum -- it's a lot better for them to learn one competently.  Younger students in British learn "have you got" and in American English it was "do you have".  I would use both so they were familiar with it, but the predominant one I used was the the one in the curriculum.   There are other small differences.  

 

With younger learners, stick to the spelling of the curriculum you are using.  

 

[Ventenio]

actually most thai schools teach filipino english.  or thai english.  there are very few american teachers.  nobody cares about what they are teaching in the classroom or how they speak if they have a contract.  taught for years and nobody not one person nobody cares if i capitalize any of the aforementioned countries or how i spoke except maybe the parents were happy paying tuition if they thought it was an american.  

 

i've been told my accent is fairly neutral but again nobody seems to care at all.  don't overthink it.  you will get your answer after a week.

 

good luck.  the difference is that most foreign teachers hate each other.  that's a much bigger problem.  filipinos mad the americans get paid more and brits not happy.  they got paid a little more than me but really it didn't matter because it's only a few thousand baht and nobody teaches to make money and i was one of the better teachers and you can see how in this rambling post it will actually be way better than anything you read from a non-native speaker and Thais don't have any idea where all my mistakes are anyway.  it's sad.  

 

but the kids are great.  thankfully

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.

 

[bradiston]

On 10/28/2020 at 12:52 PM, uncleP said:

Is it called English or American? ???? unfortunately  it changes from school to school depending on who books are purchased from. It is further confused by the use of upcountry  teachers to set exams: these teachers have very little grasp of English language in real life!

Do you mean depending on from whom the books are purchased?

[kingstonkid]

44 minutes ago, bradiston said:

Do you mean depending on from whom the books are purchased?

Yes also the teacher's home country.

 

There really is no standard or curriculum.  It all depends on what boos the school buys

[NVass]

From my experience. Unless you pay big money most of the International schools employ Philippino Teachers as they will work for a lower salary. So most kids (including mine) speak American English with a Philippino accent! Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[thailand49]

NEITHER! 

[HarrySeaman]

On 10/30/2020 at 10:55 AM, Ventenio said:

actually most thai schools teach filipino english.  or thai english.  there are very few american teachers.  nobody cares about what they are teaching in the classroom or how they speak if they have a contract.  taught for years and nobody not one person nobody cares if i capitalize any of the aforementioned countries or how i spoke except maybe the parents were happy paying tuition if they thought it was an american.  

 

i've been told my accent is fairly neutral but again nobody seems to care at all.  don't overthink it.  you will get your answer after a week.

 

good luck.  the difference is that most foreign teachers hate each other.  that's a much bigger problem.  filipinos mad the americans get paid more and brits not happy.  they got paid a little more than me but really it didn't matter because it's only a few thousand baht and nobody teaches to make money and i was one of the better teachers and you can see how in this rambling post it will actually be way better than anything you read from a non-native speaker and Thais don't have any idea where all my mistakes are anyway.  it's sad.  

 

but the kids are great.  thankfully

Oh my God, you taught English.

[holymoly]

I figure - if I heard it correctly  - its called pigeon or better pidjin English; spoken by all

and understood by few. That's pretty good since a lot of teachers weren't borne in an

English speaking couintry...........

[hobobo]

More like Nigerian English, judging by the teachers' and lecturers' nationalities (at least in Issan)

[blazes]

Surely there must be a few Indians teaching the Welsh accent??

[Presnock]

My dau, now 17 went to a reputable bi-lingual school (2-year waiting list to get into the school and pregnant mothers would enroll their child on the waiting list when they got pregnant with another child).  At first the school was fairly good but then began losing above 6th grade and expanding kindergarten as they could make more money that way.  In doing this, they cut loose many of the more experienced foreign teachers.  In grade 4 my dau brought home an English assignment of 15 sentences in which they were to identify the possessive pronouns.  I checked my daughter's work as she was having difficulty - 9 of he sentences had zero possessive pronouns.  I marked in red ink and a note for the teacher to contact me for further info.  She didn't and never corrected the students on that work so I went to chat with her.  She claimed only the school director could change any of the assignments and the Thai teachers were not allowed to use the farang teachers to correct any shortcomings.  I talked with the school director and after 20 minutes or so of her speaking of her credentials, she told me that she would not change any of the English assignments as she was more than qualified to do them.  The following year we relocated to a school with qualified English teachers for all the subjects other than foreign languages  and my daughter's English is as good as any of her peers if not better.  One school also informed the parents who had been complaining of the English being taught, were told that if necessary, the director would fire the farang teachers and hire filipino teachers for all the English-language classes.  My experience here about English language teaching is that foe the most part the Thai students will learn to read English but will suffer greatly in speaking.  Most that can afford it hire extra English classes on weekends etc.  

 

[Patanawet]

32 minutes ago, hobobo said:

More like Nigerian English, judging by the teachers' and lecturers' nationalities (at least in Issan)

I thought that Nigerian English is officially Pidgin English.

[onebir]

On 10/30/2020 at 5:31 AM, Scott said:

Younger students in British learn "have you got" and in American English it was "do you have". 

Not the reverse? (My impression is British English uses "got" less...)

[Neeranam]

8 minutes ago, Presnock said:

She didn't and never corrected the students on that work so I went to chat with her. 

I guess you haven't assimilated and learned about 'greng jai'. 

[Neeranam]

5 minutes ago, onebir said:

Not the reverse? (My impression is British English uses "got" less...)

My 17 year old used "I could care less" a few months ago. This one I corrected as it doesn't make sense to me. 

[blazes]

1 minute ago, onebir said:

Not the reverse? (My impression is British English uses "got" less...)

 

An American will go into Starbucks and say "can I have a latte" (it's not a question).  A Brit will say "latte, please" (or an idiot word like "grande").

Many decades ago there was a snobbish attempt by Brits to eliminate "got" since it was somehow "infra dig" (or plebbish).

[paddyfield7]

It doesn't matter, the outcome is the same: no can, no have, no want.....

[onebir]

8 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

My 17 year old used "I could care less" a few months ago. This one I corrected as it doesn't make sense to me. 

I think it works as a rhetorical question: "[And |Like ] I could care less?"

[onebir]

9 minutes ago, blazes said:

Many decades ago there was a snobbish attempt by Brits to eliminate "got" since it was somehow "infra dig" (or plebbish).

Yeah, even "cool" sounded a bit weird in British English if you go back far enough. Now we're cool with it ????

[featography]

Neither! Most of them teach Thaiglish

[kiteman9]

Ask me if I give a sh yit or is it take a sh yit? Hawaiians speak pidgin English no matta The Hawaiian tour bus driver was asked on his tour how to pronounce Hawaii is it Hawaii or Havaii and he answered that you can pronounce it either way. As the tourist were departing the tour the Hawaiian tour bus driver was thanking them all for coming with him, one of the tourist said you are VELCOME 555

[khunPer]

On 10/28/2020 at 4:34 AM, EricTh said:

Do most Thai schools teach American English or British English? What I mean is the official curriculum books.

"Most Thai schools" probably teach Philippine English, whilst private schools might teach proper English, depending of curriculum and origination of teachers. Many, if not most, international schools, and some bi-lingual schools/English Program schools, teach Cambridge curriculum/books – primary English language, science and math – but teachers might originate from other areas.

[The Theory]

On 10/28/2020 at 10:34 AM, EricTh said:

Do most Thai schools teach American English or British English?

the question is do they know the difference ? ???????????????????? 

[Gillyflower]

6 hours ago, blazes said:

 

An American will go into Starbucks and say "can I have a latte" (it's not a question).  A Brit will say "latte, please" (or an idiot word like "grande").

Many decades ago there was a snobbish attempt by Brits to eliminate "got" since it was somehow "infra dig" (or plebbish).

Actually to be really correct, it's May I have a latte.