3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

French and Spanish are also useful.

Thai, not so much.

Expats find it useful.

I don't trust this ranking, I have been educated in France and lived there over 30 years, and frankly the english verbal proficiency  isn't so much better than that of the Thais. A lot could be said about India's ranking too. IMHO the survey gives too much importance to writing.

Got in a taxi in Singapore , driver took off , where you want to go,

Dhoby Gaunt I said , don't know he said , so I am trying to pronounce

different ways , he still did not understand it,  so I said just let me out

here at that MRT station , Ok he said , I said which MRT is that 

Dhoby Gaunt he said .......which sounded to me exactly like what I

said to him. 

 

regards worgeordie

 

3 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Where was England?????

Minority language for England now?

 

As for Thailand it depends where the stats were taken from. If rural areas they don't really need it. If tourist and/or university regions then proficiency should be decent.

Plus the standard of English teaching in the state schools is pitiful.

Watching videos of people retiring in South East Asia they always mentioned how Thai's can barely speak English and this is major factor when considering retirement.

 

Don't they get something like 10 years of English in school? Either the education or the students must be defective.

Just now, NorthernRyland said:

Watching videos of people retiring in South East Asia they always mentioned how Thai's can barely speak English and this is major factor when considering retirement.

 

Don't they get something like 10 years of English in school? Either the education or the students must be defective.

 

 

Both.

 

 

..and that is the truth.

A post in Spanish has been removed

3 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

It didn't even make the list. ????

Neither did England!????????

I blame Khurusapa

 

They have no idea what they're doing

 

Scum

4 hours ago, bob smith said:

will never change. thais are far too lazy to even attempt learning another language other than their own.

sounds like the Brits 

1 hour ago, Taboo2 said:

Let's see if they will do a better job than the Romans (England) or Carthage (America).

Maybe I am being obtuse but can you please explain what Carthage has/had to do with America?

The vocabulary of English includes about 1 million words vs Thai with about 2,900 words.

www.merriam-webster.com & www.languagetrainers.com

 

To obtain a fluent level a vocabulary of about 3,000 words is required. 1to1progress.com

 

Most American adult test-takers range from 20,000-35,000 words (about the same for native British). At age 8 know 10,000 words, age 4 know 5,000 words.

2013/05/29 www.economist.com & word counter.io

 

2 hours ago, PJ71 said:

Rubbish, they can't even do joined up writing and they use upper case all over the place.

 

Borderline retards.

Stating that the folks in  biggest, native, English speaking country in the world are  ''Borderline retards." is totally ridiculous and absurd! You need to get out more?

Anything with "You" in it seems very understood in Thailand. Hey you, I love you, and f*** you...... 

Who is teaching them English. 

 

57 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Why do you feel the need to talk with them?

How old are you? Do you have an ID card? ???? 

4 hours ago, bob smith said:

will never change. thais are far too lazy to even attempt learning another language other than their own.

How many languages do you speak?

4 hours ago, Will B Good said:

There is/are? no end of kids.......12 to 15......careering around on motorbikes (modified exhausts obvs) all day long where we live......never in school.

 

I asked the wife what happens when they don't turn up at school......she shrugs and says nothing happens.

My friend’s 7-year old son is getting straight A’s in napping and pretending to be asleep.  He is also doing pretty good in snacking. But he does not know how to count to 100, has no idea what plus and minus are, and cannot write his name in Thai.  But since he is rated second highest in his class of 26 other farmer children, by his teacher.   My comments are dismissed.  

4 hours ago, bob smith said:

will never change. thais are far too lazy to even attempt learning another language other than their own.

That's wrong and a horrible thing to say.

Often wondered why British people retiring in Thailand can't speak Thai. Was here three years and thought that it was time to learn. Bought a book called The Fundamentals of Thai Language. It led me to get jobs for Thai companies and i have no interest in retiring now.

Native language speakers have a distinct advantage.

Everyone in my current company speaks English but is happy to know i understand when they speak Thai. 

 

15 minutes ago, Bim Smith said:

Anything with "You" in it seems very understood in Thailand. Hey you, I love you, and f*** you...... 

Who is teaching them English. 

 

Must be the Brits?????

4 hours ago, bob smith said:

will never change. thais are far too lazy to even attempt learning another language other than their own.

I don't think it is laziness I think, in part it is because the education system is screwed up.  Not just here but in other countries. as well.

 

You can not expect people o learn a language if they only use it for 50 minutes a day at most.

 

One of the problems I have is tutoring kids to do the homework and then forget it.  This do-and-dump is also prevalent in the U.S> and North America.

 

If you look at the high-end schools or schools that have an English-only curriculum the kids come out of it great.  

It is like those that teach in schools.  

 

The ability is there it is just a matter of showing them the need for it.

 

 

2 hours ago, PJ71 said:

Rubbish, they can't even do joined up writing and they use upper case all over the place.

 

Borderline retards.

Maybe your mixing with the wrong type, you need to be more selective?????

21 minutes ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

Stating that the folks in  biggest, native, English speaking country in the world are  ''Borderline retards." is totally ridiculous and absurd! You need to get out more?

But true - lol.

Trouble is language learning is difficult.

If you give someone an IELTS Test and they achieve 4.0, it will probably take a year of real study to achieve 5.0.

3 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

Maybe your mixing with the wrong type, you need to be more selective?????

You're - there you go, are you American? - lol

 

You're welcome.

4 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Probably very low, but unless you live in Thailand its immaterial?

English is the most widely spoken language in the world and certainly if you are Thai and want to get a job, or live outside of Thailand, speaking English would be a necessity?

it's not only about job... it's about reading any scientific document, international news, culture products from books to movies. I'm not a native speaker but english is really important in my life

everyone should stop making excuses for thailands pathetic english proficiency levels. be it education system, cultural or whatever, they are for whatever reason well behind the rest of the world when it comes to speaking english and it is their fault. nobody else's.

3 minutes ago, bob smith said:

everyone should stop making excuses for thailands pathetic english proficiency levels. be it education system, cultural or whatever, they are for whatever reason well behind the rest of the world when it comes to speaking english and it is their fault. nobody else's.

Nothing at all to do with the fact that Thais use a different written script? How many British (or Americans and Australians) speak any foreign language at all?

Just now, ozimoron said:

Nothing at all to do with the fact that Thais use a different written script? How many British (or Americans and Australians) speak any foreign language at all?

We speak ENGLISH and ENGLISH is the language of the world, like it or not. Should we 'brits' start learning Swahili just for the hell of it? Your argument breaks down when conversing with fellow native English speakers because we already speak the most important language on the planet fluently. Every other language is secondary to ENGLISH.

 

Learn it or lose out.

1 minute ago, bob smith said:

We speak ENGLISH and ENGLISH is the language of the world, like it or not. Should we 'brits' start learning Swahili just for the hell of it? Your argument breaks down when conversing with fellow native English speakers because we already speak the most important language on the planet fluently. Every other language is secondary to ENGLISH.

 

Learn it or lose out.

Maybe I should take lessons in tugging the forelock?