Is English being taught in the Thai schools?

[John Smith 777]

I could swear when I first came here 45 years ago, English was indeed being taught in the Thai schools
Now 45 years ago is a long time, so no doubt most of you are thinking that I must be fluent in Thai, and that therefore there is no case to answer for.
So I suppose that this subject box will now be hijacked, with all those thinking that this should be the case.
However when tourism makes up to 20% of the Thai GDP, you might think there might be an incentive to reap more, through being able to communicate with those bringing the money.

[JackGats]

Here's a slice of Thai life about the teaching of English in Thai schools:

 

 

 

The Thai sub-titles are original (not auto-generated).

 

[KhaoHom]

No, it's not and it's the fault of indifferent executive administrators, Thai teachers and especially foreign teachers.

 

I'd come to realize that 85% the EFL teachers are basically frauds. They are lazy and incompetent. They can't inspire themselves let alone a child (of another country). They are just Babbits and see their jobs as to show up and do something. Rather, the profession is to impart knowledge and skills. There's none of that.

 

They are practically allergic to work. They know nothing about the profession or developing quality, engaging content for their students

 

One day I realized that nearly every foreign teacher in the entire fancy, expensive, elite school I work with did more harm than good for the students and that the students were doing effectively nothing that would allow them to gain knowledge and skills related to the acquisition of English.

 

I noticed over five years the students were getting lazier, reticent, academically dishonest. Students with real ambition were leaving the school at m4 in frustration. In the Arts classes 30% of students could not hold a simple conversation. That's clearly on the foreign teachers

 

The teachers .. a mix of imposters and narcissists. Ten percent were gold. The rest weren't worth 35k pm. Some even skipped classes.

 

It became a charade and probably always was. I always ascribed to the notion that forget what's going on around you - you have control over your classes and students. I came to realize that it's not that simple. Learning is scaffolded.. entirely.

 

I had enough and up and quit the circus. Great pay, campus, insurance, nice kids. The other teachers I found so dripping with fraud it was revolting.

 

It was a total charade and nearly every teacher at each one of the five schools I'd worked goes to *work* each day to waste yet another day of their life and an hours of the students time. Thailand should just hire Thai teachers - results will be the same.

 

Education is an Fing mess.

 

If you are a teacher and reading this in all likelihood I'm talking about you. Remember this next time you show up to your salaried job. You're not cheating a big corporation - you're cheating children that you are paid to help

 

 

[Equatorial]

4 hours ago, KhaoHom said:

It was a total charade and nearly every teacher at each one of the five schools I'd worked goes to *work* each day to waste yet another day of their life and an hours of the students time.

 

That was not my experience. Granted, I only worked at one school, an elite high school in Bangkok. There was not a single teacher there that would fit the description in the above post. Of the total of ~25 teachers in my department, the average teacher was solid, and there were a number of truly outstanding educators. 

[SlyAnimal]

On 5/3/2025 at 9:53 PM, Equatorial said:

 

That was not my experience. Granted, I only worked at one school, an elite high school in Bangkok. There was not a single teacher there that would fit the description in the above post. Of the total of ~25 teachers in my department, the average teacher was solid, and there were a number of truly outstanding educators. 

Agreed.
Most foreign teachers I've worked with have had their hearts in the right place.
And most who have stuck with it have done a great job given their circumstances.

Most being a key word though, as some are definitely not suited for teaching in Thailand for various reasons.

But often foreign teachers are significantly less effective than they should be because they aren't managed well by the school.

e.g. A large number of teachers are employed by government high schools, where they're assigned to teach conversation to the Thai section kids.
When I previously worked in a high school like that, the students would get 1 hour per week, 1 semester a year, with a foreign teacher, so about 20 hours a year.
We also wouldn't be provided with any materials for guidance (no text books etc), no oversight and not even any air con.
There was simply no chance at all that teachers could make a meaningful difference to students.

While at the same school, I worked in a mini-English program.
We got to teach the students 2-3x per week, had text books for math / science (but unfortunately not English), and other foreign teachers would teach them other subjects too.
We made great progress with many of these students, but so many of them came into high school without knowing even basic English / math, and so what we could do was limited.

A few years ago though, I moved to work at a primary school EP which takes things a lot more seriously.
The students get 3+ hours a day with various different foreign teachers, we have great text books and everyone is much more focused.
As a result, all of the teachers are happy and focused, while the students have amazing English.

So much depends on the management of the school, and the resources they have available (Not many can afford to have so many foreign teachers).  Also one of the biggest factors is getting them started while they're young, because once they fall behind it's so difficult to catch up again.  I remember looking at the text books the Thai English teachers used at my old high school, most of the students couldn't even put a basic sentence together and yet they had text books full of walls of text, it wasn't a surprise that many of the Thai English teachers didn't seem very motivated when not teaching the /1 & /2 classes.

[KhunLA]

Silly query with silly replies.  Mind boggling at times, the hatred or just ignorance exhibited on the forum.

[Quentin Zen]

I've seen about 100 teachers with little or no experience attempt to teach.  I'm sure 90% had their heart in the right place, but almost none had proper training, and it just seems like a business.  Some only played YouTube, some showed a movie, some did nothing, some smoked at school and got fired, some were hungover, some were way too quiet, some had no clue, some just gave them papers to do without talking, some........is this teaching English?  nope.  The good ones always left.  lol  Most are there for the visa.   It's either a native or non-native speaker in the classroom, that's it.  Evaluation?  Nah.  Just show up on time, and take a good picture.   Babysitter is the best way to describe it, because if the kids aren't happy, they will complain.   Nobody complains if the teacher lets them do whatever they want.   Yeah, maybe it's different in the International schools; however, I'm sure it's not that different.   The international teachers get triggered when you tell them that maybe 1 out of 300 kids are good enough in English to study abroad.   

 

Numbers don't lie......English competency is extremely low, turnover is super high, and pay is very low.    

[KhaoHom]

On 5/13/2025 at 8:09 AM, Quentin Zen said:

Numbers don't lie......English competency is extremely low,

 

Yes, in the end all the defense of the teachers in this thread - the abysmal test scores speak volumes.

 

I'd found that the students that did excel in English there were reasons outside the school setting that allowed them to do so.

 

On 5/3/2025 at 9:53 PM, Equatorial said:

Of the total of ~25 teachers in my department, the average teacher was solid, and there were a number of truly outstanding educators. 

 

A number of... yes, that number is 10-15%.

 

The average teacher was solid - I dispute this entirely.

 

25 teachers, elite private school. That's a full roster. Outside the international schools - I would know this school as there are few truly elite schools in bkk. I'm thinking that the school perhaps not so elite. Which makes your claim even more interesting.

[Quentin Zen]

27 minutes ago, KhaoHom said:

here were reasons outside the school setting that allowed them to do so

I've never heard of an elite school in Thailand.  The numbers, again, don't like.  Worldwide rankings put them in a terrible category.

 

To this quote, this is also a partial scam.  I've heard schools pushing all this tutoring and after-school nonsense because they simply can't get it done from 8 am to 4 pm.  Too many days off, activities, etc......and I'm pretty sure the school takes some of the profit from these centers.   They all work together.  Super scam.

 

I'd say 1 out of 200 teachers in Thailand are good.  That's being generous.  Show up late, leave early, and sit at their desk. It is impossible to get fired, and they take out loans, so they are doomed.  I just talked to a farang, they are quitting at the end of the month.  Another farang left two months ago, quit.  Everyone quits, terrible teacher culture.  Kids hate it, parents hate it, and teachers don't care.   Government schools represent a massive percentage, and it's absolutely terrible.   I could link Glassdoor comments about international schools.  corruption, terrible directors, sexual harassment, zero or one-star reviews.    I also know college professors in America making over 100k with an amazing pension.   Full professor.   Probably works out to be a million-dollar USD package.   These are teachers.   Here?  Clowns accept the terrible salaries because they accept their role.  

 

Thailand holds the 107th spot worldwide and is ranked 8th in ASEAN.

 

Laos was higher.   Myanmar was right there.  N. Korea was around 109th or something.  Garbage rankings, but to lose to Laos and almost lose to N. Korea is crazy.  

[KhunLA]

At best, the students will get a functional English knowledge.  

 

My daughter use to do English competitions at schools she attended, local district & provisional competition, and won quite a few, IF, they didn't realize I was her father, when I attended.

 

Her teachers were terrible, and they had a real hard time conversing with me.  All the contestants, if not having a English speaker at home, had extra classes outside school and English tutors.

[KhaoHom]

6 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

Ive never heard of an elite school in Thailand.

 

1 Elite by Thai standards

2 Drs, Engineers, Scientists, Attys come from somewhere

3 Outside the inters there are about 10-12 elite-ish secondaries in bkk the best of which are public

 

7 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

To this quote, this is also a partial scam.  I've heard schools pushing all this tutoring and after-school nonsense because they simply can't get it done from 8 am to 4 pm. 

 

1 I'm not here to do anything but lay down the truth as my decade in teaching has perceived it.

 

2 I don't disagree although many Ss enjoy ECs. If teachers can't get it done in class there's little hope outside. I'm discussing Thai tutoring, private ECs, English spoken in home, Students guiding family trips abroad, Summer's abroad, etc

 

12 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

d say 1 out of 200 teachers in Thailand are good.  That's being generous.  Show up late, leave early, and sit at their desk. It is impossible to get fired, and they take out loans, so they are doomed. 

 

1 1 in 200 is harsh, but at the 35-45k level I probably wouldn't disagree.

 

2 Foreign teachers cannot take out loans but imagine many are running from home country debt and especially student loans.

 

3 I don't comment on Thai teachers. I wouldn't disagree.

 

4 Agreed. I once worked with a teacher that would set a half full water bottle on his desk, school laptop open and a fake backpack aside his desk. He would then disappear for hours on end. This was at an elite school as well. 

 

I have worked with a number of teachers perhaps a dozen that I have never seen do any work in the office. None.

 

I know of a horrible teacher who is kept on out of pure convenience and laziness. He's been teaching well over 10 years and never bothered to get himself licensed up. His work permit is through a language school (yes, illegal) what she does work for on the side.

 

I have dozens of similar stories.

 

20 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

Clowns accept the terrible salaries because they accept their role.  

 

It's understandable that individuals will start their jobs with distinct lack of professional knowledge - I certainly did. It's the challenge of that individual to train themselves up as quickly as possible.  This means long, hard hours for 4 years before you even master the basics. It doesn't help when there a few if any quality individuals and teachers around you. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of resources on the internet. The type of individuals hired will never put in the required effort. Instead, they shirk, stumble and skate thru lessons killing time. At some point the *teacher* sees the writing on the wall and stops doing much of anything as either the system will push them out by a lack of license or they will leave on their own accord. t this point everything stops.

 

34 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

Laos was higher.   Myanmar was right there.  N. Korea was around 109th or something.  Garbage rankings, but to lose to Laos and almost lose to N. Korea is crazy.  

 

This is insane and foreign teachers are a huge part of this.

[novacova]

The problem with Thai teachers teaching English is teaching pronouncing consonants especially at the end of a word. Schools with non native English speakers trying to teach English is pretty goofy as well, a friend of mine went to a business college in cm where a French was attempting to teach English, helping with her language studies was obvious that she was being taught horrific English grammar by this so-called English teacher.

[KhaoHom]

14 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

At best, the students will get a functional English knowledge.  

 

My daughter use to do English competitions at schools she attended, local district & provisional competition, and won quite a few, IF, they didn't realize I was her father, when I attended.

 

Her teachers were terrible, and they had a real hard time conversing with me.  All the contestants, if not having a English speaker at home, had extra classes outside school and English tutors.

 

Exactly this. Not additional at school tutoring, but something outside the traditional Educational framework.

 

I've heard of this problem for years - prejudice against luk krung in competitions upcountry. Fortunately I've worked in schools that I've never seen this could become an issue. The reputation of the school was about excellence and no matter how it fault they are in many aspects of Education they would not be so petty as to discriminate like this. I think this is also true of Bangkok in general. I cannot see a mixed kid losing a competition because they are in fact mixed. Not in Bangkok.

 

For the Thai teachers you comment on. They are pretty bad at the best schools in Bangkok so I could only imagine the horror show that goes on up country.

 

Thai teachers are not paid at all well paid and are required to put in an enormous amount of hours. This is not a defense but at some point in time I'm sure it all just breaks down.

 

I have long since thought that Thai teacher should only be allowed to teach 20 years and their pension should be based upon that.

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, KhaoHom said:

 

Exactly this. Not additional at school tutoring, but something outside the traditional Educational framework.

 

I've heard of this problem for years - prejudice against luk krung in competitions upcountry. Fortunately I've worked in schools that I've never seen this could become an issue. The reputation of the school was about excellence and no matter how it fault they are in many aspects of Education they would not be so petty as to discriminate like this. I think this is also true of Bangkok in general. I cannot see a mixed kid losing a competition because they are in fact mixed. Not in Bangkok.

 

For the Thai teachers you comment on. They are pretty bad at the best schools in Bangkok so I could only imagine the horror show that goes on up country.

 

Thai teachers are not paid at all well paid and are required to put in an enormous amount of hours. This is not a defense but at some point in time I'm sure it all just breaks down.

 

I have long since thought that Thai teacher should only be allowed to teach 20 years and their pension should be based upon that.

She studied in Muang Udon Thani, and the farang judge in the first competition she attended, warned me not to attend her competition, as considered having an advantage.  Seemed quite silly since many were tutored by native English speaking foreigners or teachers.  Though the latter might not be much of an advantage 🙄

[KhaoHom]

5 minutes ago, novacova said:

The problem with Thai teachers teaching English is teaching pronouncing consonants especially at the end of a word. Schools with non native English speakers trying to teach English is pretty goofy as well, a friend of mine went to a business college in cm where a French was attempting to teach English, helping with her language studies was obvious that she was being taught horrific English grammar by this so-called English teacher.

 

This would be an issue lol. Also the major issue that I have with Filipinos with Visayan accents in the classroom.

 

Non-native English speakers may have a wealth of knowledge and skills to impart to our students - especially in the area of grammar.

 

The area of writing, critical thinking is completely lost. Few if any can write let alone teach it.

 

Yet, pronunciation is not one of them and should in fact be avoided completely. I would also include many British, some Aussies and E coast Americans with thick accents in this cohort as well.

[save the frogs]

On 5/3/2025 at 5:55 AM, KhaoHom said:

No, it's not and it's the fault of indifferent executive administrators, Thai teachers and especially foreign teachers.

 

I'd come to realize that 85% the EFL teachers are basically frauds. They are lazy and incompetent. They can't inspire themselves let alone a child (of another country). They are just Babbits and see their jobs as to show up and do something. Rather, the profession is to impart knowledge and skills. There's none of that.

 

They are practically allergic to work. They know nothing about the profession or developing quality, engaging content for their students

 

One day I realized that nearly every foreign teacher in the entire fancy, expensive, elite school I work with did more harm than good for the students and that the students were doing effectively nothing that would allow them to gain knowledge and skills related to the acquisition of English.

 

I noticed over five years the students were getting lazier, reticent, academically dishonest. Students with real ambition were leaving the school at m4 in frustration. In the Arts classes 30% of students could not hold a simple conversation. That's clearly on the foreign teachers

 

The teachers .. a mix of imposters and narcissists. Ten percent were gold. The rest weren't worth 35k pm. Some even skipped classes.

 

It became a charade and probably always was. I always ascribed to the notion that forget what's going on around you - you have control over your classes and students. I came to realize that it's not that simple. Learning is scaffolded.. entirely.

 

I had enough and up and quit the circus. Great pay, campus, insurance, nice kids. The other teachers I found so dripping with fraud it was revolting.

 

It was a total charade and nearly every teacher at each one of the five schools I'd worked goes to *work* each day to waste yet another day of their life and an hours of the students time. Thailand should just hire Thai teachers - results will be the same.

 

Education is an Fing mess.

 

If you are a teacher and reading this in all likelihood I'm talking about you. Remember this next time you show up to your salaried job. You're not cheating a big corporation - you're cheating children that you are paid to help

 

 

 

Some of your points may be valid, to varying degrees, but ..

 

The entire school system has problems. For one thing, maybe the students have way too many classes and are being pushed too hard. And maybe they know they will pass even though they don't put in the effort, etc ... 

 

There are a lot of problems in the school system and I am not sure you can put all the blame on incompetent English teachers. 

 

 

[fredwiggy]

I have a friend here that runs a very good English school in Sisaket province. His students normally do pretty well if they take his classes along with what's  taught in their primary school, which isn't much. Those that have English speaking parents, especially those who are native English speakers, do the best, as they are also learning at home. The best time to learn another language is ages 5-7, but the schools aren't doing well enough for the students to learn.

 

My daughter's school here in the village does very little. My daughter of course speaks English better than any of the teachers at her school, and the only thing she's actually learning there that will have an impact on her future is math, as whatever she learns will be put on the back burner once we move to the US. They hand her papers where she has to fill in the blanks on sentences, and she does pretty well because she's again, also learning at home. Her friends she goes to school with know almost no English, even though they've been in class 3 years.

 

My friend hires all  kinds of people from a few different countries, especially Cameroon the US and England. They have strong accents, which isn't easy for a student to learn along with the English itself. He had me helping out in camps because I'm a native English speaker, and he just wanted me to talk to the students so they know how to pronounce words. The camps themselves get students involved, but they're only a day or two and the students go home to parents that speak no English so their learning stops as soon as they leave his school. One student he had, who had an English speaking father,is 17 and cannot speak much English at all, which means his father isn't helping at home, and his primary school is doing nothing. These kids go home after school and they speak nothing but Thai to their friends and family, which doesn't help as consistency is the only way.

[KhaoHom]

2 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

 

Some of your points may be valid, to varying degrees, but ..

 

The entire school system has problems. For one thing, maybe the students have way too many classes and are being pushed too hard. And maybe they know they will pass even though they don't put in the effort, etc ... 

 

There are a lot of problems in the school system and I am not sure you can put all the blame on incompetent English teachers. 

 

 

 

I agree Thai schools have many issues that hold students back. Nevertheless, my tenure was in schools with few or none of the typical nonsense associated with standard bog Thai schools. All were well funded, private and or elite schools.

 

In all, a fundamental fail was administration did not want to deal with hiring/firing...the hard and mandatory work of assembling a proper team. Moreover, they did not want to put any change agents in administration/ hiring. In many instances the people charged with intake process were lazy, bad and even horrible teachers as well often hiring acquaintances of bad teachers or randos off of Facebook.

 

My critique is valid. A decade of teaching here. Five secondary schools and approximately nearly NES 100 teachers. Additional Filipino, Thai, not in that mix.

[KhaoHom]

3 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

I have a friend here that runs a very good English school in Sisaket province. His students normally do pretty well if they take his classes along with what's  taught in their primary school, which isn't much. Those that have English speaking parents, especially those who are native English speakers, do the best, as they are also learning at home. The best time to learn another language is ages 5-7, but the schools aren't doing well enough for the students to learn.

 

My daughter's school here in the village does very little. My daughter of course speaks English better than any on the teachers at her school, and the only thing she's actually learning there that will have an impact on her future is math, as whatever she learns will be put on the back burner once we move to the US. They hand her papers where she has to fill in the blanks on sentences, and she does pretty well because she's again, also learning at home. Her friends she goes to school with know almost no English, even though they've been in class 3 years.

 

My friend hires all  kinds of people from a few different countries, especially Cameroon the US and England. They have strong accents, which isn't easy for a student to learn along with the English itself. He had me helping out in camps because I'm a native English speaker, and he just wanted me to talk to the students so they know how to pronounce words. The camps themselves get students involved, but they're only a day or two and the students go home to parents that speak no English so their learning stops as soon as they leave his school. One student he had, who had an English speaking father, cannot speak much English at all, which means his father isn't helping at home, and his primary school is doing nothing. These kids go home after school and they speak nothing but Thai to their friends and family, which doesn't help as consistency is the only way.

 

Thanks for that and good luck to your daughter.

 

Getting a decent education upcountry is challenging at best.

 

Most of those students do not need nor will ever use English. It's a waste of time. There should be an IP track at upcountry schools M1+. The rest can go about their lives

 

The future is math, science and technical integration of the two. English.

[KhunLA]

In our house, English was the only language allowed.   My daughter got here Thai in school and her Isan at grandparents, and village.

 

Her TV and media watching was English DVDs, movies, and heavy on Disney productions the first 5-10 yrs.   She was good, and would ask 'what's that word mean' when watching movies, so applied herself in school & home.   Makes a huge difference, no matter how good or bad the system is.

 

As lazy as she was, good grades by end of the year 

 

Mentioned before, and she had her choice of Unis when applying, to my surprised 🙄

[KhaoHom]

I do wish to also say that the annual EF English denouncement is imo suspect.

 

Corporation seeks to sell English courses

 

 

In most countries the best Ss are pushed to sit for exams such as PISA, but in Thailand it's just any old student they can corral. I had worked at two schools in which I prepped students for PISA and in both cases the administration dropped it. The students and their parents objected to them having to take yet another exam over their holiday and that was that.

 

I have taught and had in my classroom hundreds of students that were extremely proficient in English. I have actually had dozens of students that were more in control of the English language than many of the teachers that I worked with and that is not hyperbole.

 

I've had many students sat verbal 650+, 700 even. A few 700+

[Quentin Zen]

Too bad we can't name and shame.  I can list at least FIVE schools that had 10 or more foreign teachers quit in one year.  

 

Great for the kids

 

Great for the parents

 

Great for the schools.

 

People think all these backpackers are going to study hard, perfect their craft, do the best to help the school!!!!  Ha.  They drink, party, get lazy, warned, not care, get paid, and after a few months just not show up.  

[KhaoHom]

4 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

In our house, English was the only language allowed.   My daughter got here Thai in school and her Isan at grandparents, and village.

 

Her TV and media watching was English DVDs, movies, and heavy on Disney productions the first 5-10 yrs.   She was good, and would ask 'what's that word mean' when watching movies, so applied herself in school & home.   Makes a huge difference, no matter how good or bad the system is.

 

As lazy as she was, good grades by end of the year 

 

Mentioned before, and she had her choice of Unis when applying, to my surprised 🙄

 

In a mixed language household this is both typical and beneficial. Academic and high level vocab aside - Language best learned in these every day situations. The ability to understand and use collocations is invaluable.

 

Assuming grades and academics support:

 

Two thirds of the cream of Thai students will get into the university of their choice - although perhaps not the faculty. That same two thirds will get into one of top three unis of their choice in the faculty of their choosing.

[Quentin Zen]

Worked with a Filipino who demanded her kids NOT say "Hi" and only "Hello," as it was more polite.  

 

I would go into their class and see endless grammar mistakes.   They seemed to hate the farang because they were "real teachers" and should get the same salary.  This in-fighting is a thing, trust me.  In the office, they never spoke English.  Shows on their laptop, never in English.  I'm not a fan of this.  Usually, they would abide by every single rule.  Rarely quit.  However, my students would say they don't understand them that well.  

 

Welcome to Thailand.  

 

 

[KhaoHom]

1 minute ago, Quentin Zen said:

Too bad we can't name and shame.  I can list at least FIVE schools that had 10 or more foreign teachers quit in one year.  

 

Great for the kids

 

Great for the parents

 

Great for the schools.

 

People think all these backpackers are going to study hard, perfect their craft, do the best to help the school!!!!  Ha.  They drink, party, get lazy, warned, not care, get paid, and after a few months just not show up.  

 

My experience was the opposite. They wouldn't budge. Stuck like turds in a bog. It's as if the students were held hostage.

 

It wouldn't do any good to name and shame. They are all sorely lacking

 

You call them backpackers. I've never worked with a person that itinerant. What is seen was the incompetent, lazy millennial and genxr just faking it. I think many millennial get their lessons, PowerPoints and ideas from acquaintances. They don't bother to rework it, analyze the shortcomings of it they just review it and come class time slap it up on the screen and run through it with the students. They don't even bother to review the lesson as to what worked and what might need improvement after the week is finished. The lesson is shelved be taken out later the following year and the same bloody thing. A bank of these disastrous lessons are created and that comprises the arsenal of these deadly teachers lessons.

 

As I said before I have witnessed a number of teachers that I have worked with that I have never seen them do any work in the office. Given their temperament and work ethic I know they're doing nothing at home as well. Therefore nothing is being done.

 

*Apologies, speech to text

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, KhaoHom said:

 

In a mixed language household this is both typical and beneficial. Academic and high level vocab aside - Language best learned in these every day situations. The ability to understand and use collocations is invaluable.

 

Assuming grades and academics support:

 

Two thirds of the cream of Thai students will get into the university of their choice - although perhaps not the faculty. That same two thirds will get into one of top three unis of their choice in the faculty of their choosing.

Daughter was accepted at a few of the top 5-7 Unis, depending what website stat was on.   Chose one of the top ones for business courses.  She went with Thammasat 👍

 

... "Several Thai universities stand out as excellent choices for business education. Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University" ...

[KhaoHom]

3 minutes ago, Quentin Zen said:

Worked with a Filipino who demanded her kids NOT say "Hi" and only "Hello," as it was more polite.  

 

I would go into their class and see endless grammar mistakes.   They seemed to hate the farang because they were "real teachers" and should get the same salary.  This in-fighting is a thing, trust me.  In the office, they never spoke English.  Shows on their laptop, never in English.  I'm not a fan of this.  Usually, they would abide by every single rule.  Rarely quit.  However, my students would say they don't understand them that well.  

 

Welcome to Thailand.  

 

 

 

Yes, I have also witnessed some very serious issues with Filipino teachers as well.

 

Convey because of their white skin thing gets quite old when you see all these problems crop up.

 

I have had my schedule rearranged into something much more difficult because parents complained so vociferously about the Filipino teachers. I will say that they were categorically bad and were dumped at the term. Two schools

 

Like so many teachers they're perfectly fine at the pratom level...to be fair many of the young women are excellent at this level.

 

They really have no place in any serious School although given how poorly the NES perform I think they very well might be preferable simply because they have a work ethic, put together a lesson, etc. all things being equal at least you're not paying that high salary for nothing.

 

I recall being taught by Filipino teachers at St Roberts bullshi+ academy for my license.  In Filipino gave us this gem... When calling the roll have a little chat with each student ask them this or that... - this is nothing more than time wasting. In a costume of 30 students a mere 1 minute with each student is the better part of the class. 

 

Rather, a teacher should know precisely who is in class and who is not in class by quick observation. If we'll call is actually needed then this should be able to be completed in just a few minutes. A teacher should know most of not all their students names and faces.

[EVENKEEL]

33 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

I have a friend here that runs a very good English school in Sisaket province. His students normally do pretty well if they take his classes along with what's  taught in their primary school, which isn't much. Those that have English speaking parents, especially those who are native English speakers, do the best, as they are also learning at home. The best time to learn another language is ages 5-7, but the schools aren't doing well enough for the students to learn.

 

My daughter's school here in the village does very little. My daughter of course speaks English better than any of the teachers at her school, and the only thing she's actually learning there that will have an impact on her future is math, as whatever she learns will be put on the back burner once we move to the US. They hand her papers where she has to fill in the blanks on sentences, and she does pretty well because she's again, also learning at home. Her friends she goes to school with know almost no English, even though they've been in class 3 years.

 

My friend hires all  kinds of people from a few different countries, especially Cameroon the US and England. They have strong accents, which isn't easy for a student to learn along with the English itself. He had me helping out in camps because I'm a native English speaker, and he just wanted me to talk to the students so they know how to pronounce words. The camps themselves get students involved, but they're only a day or two and the students go home to parents that speak no English so their learning stops as soon as they leave his school. One student he had, who had an English speaking father,is 17 and cannot speak much English at all, which means his father isn't helping at home, and his primary school is doing nothing. These kids go home after school and they speak nothing but Thai to their friends and family, which doesn't help as consistency is the only way.

Subjecting your kid to a gov school is on you. There's EP schools which are not crazy expensive where math and science is taught in English and Thai. Also health is now in English also. My only concern is wasting time with social and history as it's mainly about doing art projects. Here in M 4 they decide which route to take regarding the hard classes.

[KhaoHom]

6 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Daughter was accepted at a few of the top 5-7 Unis, depending what website stat was on.   Chose one of the top ones for business courses.  She went with Thammasat 👍

 

... "Several Thai universities stand out as excellent choices for business education. Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University" ...

 

Congrats. Chula BBA is considered tops. I must have sent hundreds of students to Chula and another few hundred to Thammsat. After some years Chula fell out of my favor. I'd always appreciated Thammsats politics ... Students that I taught and schools worked wete decidedly focused on Chula.

 

She will do well with a business degree from the university as well as the solid English skills that she already prossess.

 

You done good pa'

[KhaoHom]

7 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Subjecting your kid to a gov school is on you. There's EP schools which are not crazy expensive where math and science is taught in English and Thai. Also health is now in English also. My only concern is wasting time with social and history as it's mainly about doing art projects. Here in M 4 they decide which route to take regarding the hard classes.

 

I disagree. Some of the best schools and most competitive schools in the nation are in fact public schools.

 

Mor plai is standard for students to sort themselves out into various tracks. The basics of which are math/ science versus arts. They may also be shifted into classes by ability ( /1, /2 ...)

 

A huge issue that I had with many teachers was them incorporating art into their lessons. Thai students and all students love little art projects and they will waste unless amounts of time with it. Drawing a pretty picture or assembling some sort of project... How does one evaluate the English skills involved in that? Usually it has nothing to do with English.

 

Most likely Health is now being taught in English not to expand use of English, but because there are just so few teachers available to teach subjects in Thailand.

 

I believe that one of the reasons that there are so many foreign English teachers is that they simply do not have enough teachers with ANY English ability to teach the subject.

 

To your point I see a number of jobs and vacancies advertised for health and art teachers in English