Thailand Ranked 106th in English Proficiency Out of 116 Countries

[black tabby12345]

On 2/15/2025 at 8:03 AM, Celsius said:

Bargirls keeping Thailand from being ranked 116

 

Quite an Irony.

By supposedly the often lowest educated demography in this kingdom...

[black tabby12345]

On 2/15/2025 at 8:01 AM, nikmar said:

Unfortunately, one day, he made the mistake of correcting a Thai English teacher's bad English in front of a class.

 

He was sacked the next day.

 

Humiliating an adult in public.

Regarded One Biggest Taboo of this kingdom.

As Thais often take it very personally...

 

 

[black tabby12345]

On 2/15/2025 at 5:58 AM, klauskunkel said:

Yes. And just see what kind of alphabet they are using...

 

Looks like Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines didn't have written language of their own.  So they started to use alphabet to make up for that(as the phonetic alphabet through their historic path of colonization by the west).

[black tabby12345]

On 2/15/2025 at 5:49 AM, 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

 

Money motive.

It is often the most effective factor to motivate/encourage Anyone to try hard(harder).

 

Just like waiters/waitresses  in USA, work hard for better tip...

[lapamita]

13 hours ago, MartinBangkok said:

The most successful and most developed cities/areas in Asia: Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. All three colonized by the British. 

 

Good luck not today , if not they look like :Manchaster ,London or Bradfort

 

All Bargirls are better english than any.... Give the Bargirls a Pension they build is up Pattaya ... since the Moneyelite invest in Pattaya it goes down the drain

[jerrytr]

On 2/15/2025 at 4:55 AM, 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.

I met a friends English teacher who couldn't speak a lick of English. We had to communicate in Google translate. Hmmm maybe higher English teachers. I took a 2 week Thai class and the teacher kept asking how to spell and say the English words. Even a bigger problem is they they speak good English. I installed an English app on my GF phone and she's doing VERY well. But you aren't even allowed to donate your time teaching in any manner.

Sad for such a nice people. It would certainly also help with business. 

[Chongalulu]

On 2/15/2025 at 2:36 PM, Kinok Farang said:

On 2/15/2025 at 9:03 AM, 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

I know from that response that you certainly couldn't understand the question..? Reading and comprehension difficulties?

[MartinBangkok]

15 hours ago, black tabby12345 said:

It is strongly linked to Thai history; has never been colonized by the west(namely British Empire).

While all other ASEAN nations had been subject to foreign rule in the past...

Thailand was de facto obeying first France, then Britain, then Japan and then the US. Google it, ChatGPT it or YouTube it.

[dinsdale]

On 2/15/2025 at 11:52 PM, DavisH said:

O-net scores have shown a decline over the last decade. Average scores on 4-choice multiple choice tests average 25-35%. So the average student is basically guessing all the answers. Obviously there are a handful of excellent schools here, but the vast majority of the remainder skew the results. 

My school pulls all M3 and P6 out of all classes to train for O-net exams for the entirety of January. This is for one reason and one reason only. Advertising how good the school is. Look at our O-net results. Absolutely nothing to do with education. It's IMHO criminal.

[dinsdale]

17 hours ago, black tabby12345 said:

It is strongly linked to Thai history; has never been colonized by the west(namely British Empire).

While all other ASEAN nations had been subject to foreign rule in the past...

Thailand wasn't colonized because the English and the French wanted a buffer zone between them and didn't want to go to war against each other in this region. Either of them could have easily conquered Siam.

[dinsdale]

On 2/15/2025 at 4:55 AM, 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.

Thai is a very difficult language to learn. Thai is tonal whereas English isn't. It's more about exposure to English. Very little of that here. One of the reasons the girls, boys and kathoeys in the tourist traps have better English.

[black tabby12345]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

Thailand wasn't colonized because the English and the French wanted a buffer zone between them and didn't want to go to war against each other in this region. Either of them could have easily conquered Siam.

 

Whatever behind its history, Thailand was the only SEA nation that kept independence through the age of imperialism.

And the Buffer Zone thing was not the only factor.

 

Significances behind their independence:

 

Rapid modernization (1851-68 during the reign of King Rama4th and 5th).

Renewal of their legal system, introduction of compulsory education(utilizing temples), railway, and telegraph, administrative reform, abolishment of slavery etc.

 

Skillful diplomacy including Territorial compromise(giving up nearly 40% of its area to France; Thai-French Treaty in 1840.  Vast area of Lao used to be Thailand before that).

 

Relatively strong military(in SEA standard).

 

Western advisors to set the course of their diplomatic policies.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=thailand's+strategy+to+stay+independent+during+the+age+of+imperialism&sca_esv=eb707a05b5531bd8&sxsrf=AHTn8zrgHb2o6FjqJ_Y4SdOwfUloKeMZyw

[black tabby12345]

3 hours ago, MartinBangkok said:

Thailand was de facto obeying first France, then Britain, then Japan and then the US. Google it, ChatGPT it or YouTube it.

 

Thailand ceded 40% of its land to France(large part of Lao used to be Thai territory before 1840.

Political compromise is one thing.

Being colonized is another.

[Selatan]

In Thailand, the language used when dealing with the government is Thai. In business, the language used is also Thai. So it is no wonder that the Thais are poor in English - they simply do not have the need to use it on a daily basis, unless they are in the tourism business.

 

Here in Malaysia, the language used when dealing with the government is Malay and English. In business, the language used is Malay, Chinese and English. That's why the typical Chinese Malaysian can read and write Malay, English and Chinese. Most Thai Chinese and Indonesian Chinese can not speak Chinese. 

[kwilco]

On 2/16/2025 at 6:06 PM, outsider said:

Come to Thailand, learn a few Thai words. What's wrong? May get you a nice discount, even a free ride, at your favourite 'watering hole'. Pun not intended. For the record, EF Education First is not a leading name in English language education.

As of 2017, EF had approximately 52,000 employees in 116 countries

[kwilco]

A few years back I was offered a job with EF – I turned it down because I felt they weren’t so much as an education company as a cult.

EF spends a lot of time publicising its English Proficiency Index (EPI), which ranks countries based on English language ability. However, experts and analysts question the validity of EF’s rankings, as they are based solely on test results from self-selected participants rather than comprehensive national assessments. As I said before critics argue that EF’s rankings may be influenced by marketing strategies rather than objective linguistic data.

 

Although EF Education First is a leader in global language education, but there are controversies hanging like a cloud over this company which suggest there is a need for greater oversight and transparency.

There are serious issues related to teacher hiring, student safety, and host family selection indicate systemic challenges that the company must address to maintain trust and credibility in the educational sector.

 

Until EF implements stricter safeguards and more transparent policies, scepticism about its operations and rankings is likely to persist.

Also the media need to be careful about uncritically publishing their rankings as their compilation seems pretty dubious

 

[newnative]

   Always near the very bottom--and sinking every year rather than rising.   I'm always reminded of the cave rescue of the student soccer players.  Of all the players, only one, a non-Thai, could speak English and communicate with the rescuers.   That world-wide bad publicity should have been completely embarrassing to the Thai government and a loud wake-up call to mount a crash program to shake things up and improve.  But, instead, years later nothing has improved and Thailand's ranking continues its plunge to the bottom in the rankings.   

[BananaBandit]

On 2/14/2025 at 9:38 PM, simon43 said:

As for Thai and Lao being mutually understandable, it's not. I speak/read both languages.  While they are in the same language family, most Lao people can understand Thai because they often watch Thai TV (because Lao TV is simply terrible!).  But many Thai people cannot understand if a Lao person speaks with them in Lao.

 

My Issan ex-wife speaks Thai and her family language of Issan.  But the latter is not a written language.  Issan people will resort to writing Issan words using Thai characters.  So I have the crazy situation that I can read Lao, but my Issan ex cannot!

 

What's a question that staff ask at non-tourist-area Lao hotels/guesthouses that most native Isan speakers would likely not understand, at least not on first mention?

 

( hint:  The Isan speakers would almost certainly understand the individual words comprising the question, but they would likely not have encountered the question itself, unless they have sufficient experience in Laos. )