7 hours ago, Kiwiken said:

A lot has to do with the quality of English taught. At a couple of schools I visited I was surprised at the poor level of English language teaching

We have first hand experience with our kid going to a so called good school. They teach them big words together with simple three-letter words. They force the kids to memorize sentences in books rather than learn to read properly. Example: first grade book “Grace’s favorite color is blue”. Kids don’t know how to read /pronounce the word “is” yet. I spoke to a Thai parent and he said we just teach the kids to memorize sentences without breaking sentences into words. The teachers notes have spelling mistakes too. It’s all a show. “Look we teach advance English even to first graders”. Superficiality is their culture I’m afraid. 

English should be taught in schools in Thailand like it is in most Western first world countries.  it would provide better opportunities for advancement.

6 hours ago, khaowong1 said:

But Vietnam, Singapore and the Phillipines seem to handle it rather well. 

 

in Vietnam students will seek me out in the park to practice English.  why not in Thailand?

6 hours ago, ozz1 said:

What makes me laugh is most bar girls speak English because it's in their interest to get money out of men but the rest of the population don't really give a dam  and most of the english teachers don't even speak english so it won't improve

this i don't understand.  i was shopping for some very expensive cameras and watches and most of the staff could not speak English. 

7 hours ago, ExpatInCM said:

So many English speaking people find it very difficult to learn Thai, so it is not really surprising that so many Thai people find it difficult to learn English.  

 

I've been watching this annual reports come out for about 15 years now, and Thailand's ranking has not moved very much overy this time period.

 My Thai/British son (17) is fluent in both languages but says he prefers English as it's an easier language, this is reflected in his school marks which are only sufficient for Thai but top marks for English, This isn't surprising as his English teacher has given over the English lessons to my son to teach, I feel sorry for his students as my son has no patience.

2 minutes ago, malibukid said:

this i don't understand.  i was shopping for some very expensive cameras and watches and most of the staff could not speak English. 

 

 

The only surprise is that you were surprised by that.

Sank you barry mush. 

4 hours ago, geisha said:

Thailand isn’t doing well on the international stage. Communication and technology are being held back by a lack of English.  Education in schools and at home is a mess.  

that and so many other things like their silly "loss of face" attitude.  

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

How useful is English in Thailand? 

 

Not at all, if you want a subsistence-based economy, no foreign trade, or foreign relations, and no foreign tourist arrivals... 😆

 

5 hours ago, craighj said:

The unfortunate facts of life are that education, the normal public schools, system here in Thailand is extremely poor.  English in many, many cases is taught by non English speaks who can't actually hold a conversation in English themselves!  It is better than it was 20 years ago, but not a lot better!

 

Not all of government schools are poor, the few top tier senior ones will not even enrol kids unless they can pass an interview in English. Why there are not more like this I don't know, the local one uses English text books, even world history. Sarasas can be good for learning Englsih, but why do the girls do better at it than boys?

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

How useful is English in Thailand? 

Very. How would Europeans only speaking their native language get on  communicating in say french, Spanish or German Vs English? Sinking in yet ..?

This is a surprise to anyone? Really?

33 minutes ago, malibukid said:

in Vietnam students will seek me out in the park to practice English.  why not in Thailand?

Same for me in Myanmar.  Sadly, their interest in learning English is so that they can get out of 'dodge' asap!!

7 hours ago, Zaphod Priest said:

Yingluck Shinawatra has a master's degree in public administration from Kentucky State University.

 

Did you ever hear her speaking english? It is shameful for her supposed level of education and was ridiculed here on the then 'thaivisa' while she was PM. Get your ducks in a row before you try to validate a point with a moron like yingluk.

1 hour ago, malibukid said:

in Vietnam students will seek me out in the park to practice English.  why not in Thailand?

I was in Ho Chi Minh at New Year and two kids on a local bus just started talking to me in good English and it was a joy, as back here on Thailand all you get from them is a stare or farang farang 😴

7 hours ago, kwilco said:

You need to see how it's done in other countries.  I used to have to guage language levels and quite frankly I don't think most people know how to do it. Also langauge acquisition isn't necessarily carried out at school level, it is often after school age.

I also note that almost all Thai kids know the western alphabet which many other countries don't.

Yes but do they know the phonetic sound of the letters of the alphabet ?

Just knowing the names of the letters is useless when it comes to tackling an English word ...

...take CAT for example !

 

From my travels (and having lived in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong ) , most ex British colonies /territories have residual spoken English skills (in the case of the Philippines it was/is the long time American influence. )

 

I believe that if a (foreign) language is not used regularly it gets lost.

How many of us still remember our school boy French or Italian or Spanish ???

 

 

Where English is required, such as aviation, medicine, hospitality international business etc , it is usually quite proficient.

 

My Thai wife only learnt to speak English fairly well because, when she was young, she worked here in  the British Embassy for 10 years. 

5 hours ago, outsidetrader said:

On the bright side ,there are so many more International Schools cropping up at a rapid pace and the young guns are slowly but surely getting there .

No hope fror the Dinosaurs so .

Most of the Teachers are native English .

 

Uhm I disagree.

 

The students at many of the so-called "international schools" are regarded as "paying customers."  Students cannot fail and most get "A". It looks good on the school record.

 

I am tutoring a couple of students from a fairly well known international school. They speak very poor English and know only a few basic words, yet they "write" an 18 page report on a British monarch and a 15 page report on "how to extract your own DNA" and get A's.

 

How? Copy and paste + chat GPT, grammarly and so on.

 

Simarlily, I taught graduate students at a university, but was removed by the head of department, after I upset two girls who were plagiarizing. They were "our paying customers."

3 hours ago, Grusa said:

I am surprised that no one has stated the blindingly obvious, that the last thing the powers-that-be want is a well-educated, English speaking, thinking population. If they had one, they would very quickly cease to be the powers-that be.

 

The education system is set up exactly as it is wanted to be, and very effective at what it does.

 

That is exactly what the head of the English department in my university told me 20 years ago.

1 hour ago, Chongalulu said:

Very. How would Europeans only speaking their native language get on  communicating in say french, Spanish or German Vs English? Sinking in yet ..?

Google Translate.

 

I've noticed more and more recently its use by car mechanics, computer and mobile phone people, aircon repair guys....even in pharmacies etc.

 

EVERYONE (Thai) has a smart phone, either in their hand , or nearby.

 

Yes, maybe some elderly Westerners or Asia folk are not so equipped or up to speed.

First of all..STOP A dubbing foreign movies They never get used to listen to english 

I speak thai well.. anyway its so silly to watch a movie and the foreign actors speak thai.

3 hours ago, KireB said:

Maybe 10% of the population can afford international schools.

A lot of young people who have been attending international schools speak a very high level of English with accents that are indistinguishable from native speakers.

Government school students not so much sadly.

5 hours ago, Chongalulu said:

That would be you.. Now ask yourself how many countries is English useful in and how many is Thai..? DOH! 

How do you know i don't sepeak Thai?

4 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

wow, you really do have issues....by the way, your comment is incorrect, and irrelevant. 

To you maybe.

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

As for English proficiency the quality of teaching and quality of teachers has dropped so much that the English standard is now a joke.

 

Is this an opinion or are you basing this on fact. 

It would be better for Europeans to learn Thai. They are flying to us in Thailand, not we to them 🤷‍♂️

Same old chestnut that comes around once or twice a year and get the same old teacher bashing nonsense from some posters. Very little is ever raised about endemic corruption in the system, crowded classrooms, classrooms with little to no technology in them and let's not forget school activities. Really the list of failings is long and teacher quality is certainly part of it but it's just that. Part of the problem and of course generalising about teacher quality is an obvious nonsense. There are very good teachers and there are not so good teachers.

Generally, there 3 main problems after you get past the brainwashing nonsense of high school and the lack of anything meaningful in elementary school, and they are:

1. General cultural apathy towards the subject with classes that often are like 60 or more (rack em and stack em to save money)... so, managing them is an issue along with teachers not being able to "teach" in those sized classes, it's a lecture. Once you get over 25, then it's not really teaching anymore... but that's what you are paying for at expensive schools, the small classes (plus a few other things).

2. Getting students to participate, practice, do pair and group work, or actually to try. It's the attitude of "Let's just blend in with the herd rather that get singled out" or better to be mediocre and pass instead of inquisitive/ask questions and put you head up. There is a classroom culture of not asking questions... not good.

3. Students, young people, and just people in general (all over the world) are distracted by their electronic devices... scrolling through TikTok shorts or playing FIFA Soccer is much more interesting than listening to some old person talking about the zero conditional or present perfect continuous etc. The more advanced and immersive these devices and apps get, the more distracted people become, especially the young.

No student fails. There's an incentive to do nothing right there. Some students will not attend school other than final exams and they are passed.

7 hours ago, phetphet said:

Reducing school hours isn't the answer, it's what is taught in those hours. Improve the quality of teaching and cut the brainwashing. Stop teaching on a shoestring budget.

More exposure to English via media in schools would help. Especially in rural school where the children won't come across English speakers so much.

 

i wonder how many hours are devoted to English lessons each week in Thai government schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not many, and mostly with Thai English teachers who can barely string a spoken sentence together...

31 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Same old chestnut that comes around once or twice a year and get the same old teacher bashing nonsense from some posters. Very little is ever raised about endemic corruption in the system, crowded classrooms, classrooms with little to no technology in them and let's not forget school activities. Really the list of failings is long and teacher quality is certainly part of it but it's just that. Part of the problem and of course generalising about teacher quality is an obvious nonsense. There are very good teachers and there are not so good teachers.

Some people are just lazy.