Studying In Bangkok

[Rhys]

Dude... the sages of the Thaivisa.. have all spoken.. the choice is now yours.. you are looking for an adventure in Education.. you will find it in your Thai/English Bachelor's level classes..YOU are looking at BKK, well education you shall find but not the academic kind.. ..If you are serious. Look up country.. CMU Chieng Mai University, Payap.. But the quality is about the same. Your Thai instructors speaking English.. will challenge you.. You can try down south.. Waililuk University.. they have an Asian student program on bachelor's level. And the student life is contained on campus.. you can sneak over the mountains to Phuket... Depending on divine factors.. a BA from a Thai University compared to the UK, USA, or European unversities.. NO Brainer here BUD..

Finish your BA at home.. then have fun with an oversea's volunteer Program VSO, JOCV, or PC...HERE you will work and live the the Thais, learn the culture and language...far better than in an intensive language class ( they don't work)..for you will learn more than the words..

I have been a guest lecturer at KKU in the Northeast years ago... The summer program of students from the US.. was a mix of terrible; to cannot adapt; to oh my gad...; where the Fx83k... and why the Fs.ck is student not in class.

To the sadly.. poor guy was played royally...and had to be evac out because he slept with an official's main squeeze..A policeman.. More seasoning my friend..more seasoning..

IF you are looking for academic education stay home.. but if the world education and chasing tail is what your are after.. then.. it is a no brainer..

SO tell me.. are your parents going to shell out the bucks for this "adventure"

HAve you thought about how your are going to justify all this.. Don't even think about student loans..

Your education should be fun, and heck if you learn something good, better if your degree prepares you for a job..

DUDE.. Go for it.. and don't look back..yet.. prepare to ACCEPT..what comes your way.. See you down the trail..

Cheers MATE

[Tarragona]

In one of the worst classes I took at Bangkok U (and out of 18 classes, only 5 were decent), I couldn't even understand the teacher's English at times and he occasionally couldn't understand mine--I'm a native English speaker with a clear accent!

I know both ABAC and BU quite well and would agree with most of what you say about them. The comment here though sticks out and seems worthy of comment. Apparently the fact that the teacher couldn't always understand you reflects badly on him but the fact that you couldn't always understnad him doesn't. You are a native speaker after all!

This is something that any westerner, especially a native speaker, needs to consider. The internationalization of English is making the concept of the native speaker less valid. That's not to say anything is acceptable but if you come to study in Asia you have to realize that you might not have a 'clear accent'; you might have to get used to other accents - just as you would if you were living in Scotland or Australia. Be patient not superior. Pronunciation will have much greater variation amongst educated speakers (first language or not) than grammar for example.

Anyway, I think that Bangkok U's international program suffers from the level of English of a lot of Thai students who are accepted. Their English isn't good enough and so the course content becomes watered down to compensate. If I was Thai and had to choose between BU's international or Thai programs, I would go for the Thai version as the course content would be more demanding.

I don't believe the story about ABAC students failing and paying 50,000 baht for a BU degree. ABAC failures do move to BU, maybe transfer the credits they have, and then probably find that their English ability is above average at BU. Some of them, of course, also start to work harder. It wouldn't be in BU's interests to give them a degree for 50,000 baht when they can get fees out of them for another 2 or 3 years.

Taking this another step though, there are Thai students who fail/drop out of Bangkok University and then go on to do well at universities like Thai Chamber of Commerce, Dhurakhit Bandit, Sri Pathum etc.

Careful thought is needed. You should go around have a look, sit in on classes in the subjects you are thinking of taking and try and talk to foreigners enrolled in those programs.

Edited February 1, 2005 by Tarragona

[sriracha john]

simply look at thailand's PM, thaksin.  he did his Phd in the states but speaks very very crap english.

Do you think Thaksin can afford the $100????

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[charles]

I've not studied at ABAC but once took a tour around the campus.

The campus is absolutely beautiful, marble floors, flashy staircases, reception rooms in which you could hold a state banquet. It certainly teaches you something about Thai values and culture.

However, while this may impress some Thais from noveau riche families, foreign academics visiting tend to wonder: how can you spend so much on the buildings, decorations etc. instead of on the education - especially the tutors, surely the most important aspect of any genuine education.

And this is the crux of the matter. ABAC pays low wages to its "faculty" and as you would expect gets low quality in return. No top Western professors here, but plenty from India, Phillipines and of course Thailand. Are the tutors native standard in English, I asked. The answer (off the record) was "well, er...Thai English standard". Not suprisingly, they get quite a few complaints about the standard of English of the tutors there...

Edited February 1, 2005 by charles

[OxfordWill]

The internationalization of English is making the concept of the native speaker less valid.  That's not to say anything is acceptable but if you come to study in Asia you have to realize that you might not have a 'clear accent'; you might have to get used to other accents - just as you would if you were living in Scotland or Australia. Be patient not superior. Pronunciation will have much greater variation amongst educated speakers (first language or not) than grammar for example.

You implicit that the more that the english language is used, the less important it is to have people who know how to use it well (or 'better' than those who have come to adopt it). With this logic, you will eventually end up killing the English language off, as it will become a pseudo-language full of regional interpretations of grammar and spelling. The more a language is internationalised, the more valuable its native speakers become.

I'd like to correct the poster who said that 10 000 pounds was required for university fees in the UK. The figure is nearer 7000.

[ProfessorFart]

In the UK thanks to Student Loans those from the all backgrounds (much to Boris' horror) can now afford to attend university.

I chose to work for 3 years before going to university (during which time I also did my A levels) and occasionally work part time whilst taking my degree, more because I was based in London and had to pay a load more in rent and also wanted a comfortable first year, than any real threat of financial hardship.

Had I been elsewhere in the UK I probably wouldn't have had to work at all.

[pjallittle]

I'm afraid that I have to agree with Professor F. Though I can certainly understand that there may be the unusually bright or otherwise fortunate graduate of the ABAC Master's program, my wife and I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon and evening with a graduating class of Assumption students and continued to receive their student newspaoer.

The plain and simple truth is that these students, while not lacking enthusiasm and as pleasant as could be, were less than substandard in terms of the English aspects of their education. All of them, without exception, lacked the skills which would get them past the scrutiny of most higher end companies in the USA.

This says nothing of their competency in their own language but it does speak to the quality of education, supposedly in English, at ABAC. Nor should my comments suggest that I have any opinion on the relative intelligence of the students or faculty, simply that the University is not up to par compared to others we have seen in other non English speaking countries. It is not a judgment of the students, they have to deal with what they get, don't they?

[Abandon]

Well I did my degree in Thailand, and I'm English (skinny, pasty, bad teeth and all). Glad to know you all say it ain't worth the paper its written on.

I don't think it really matters where you go, your earning power and success in life depend more on you than on how good your teachers english was 10 years ago when you studied. Yes, the standard of education was crap, but if you want to learn you will, if you want to bum off, you will. And such good or bad character will carry on to working life too.

It depends on you, not the university.

And I speak from exerience in saying that you do not need good thai to study in Thai medium. My Thai was absolute crap at the start, and at the end of my degree. Just look at the foreigners who have crap English who have degrees from English medium universities. Your language skills are not that important, so long as you are willing to put in extra time battling though Thai texts. Even then - I just got the gist of what each class was about and then went and studied it for myself with English books. All the Thai teachers were impressed with this (he he) as I was bringing fresh material to the class and the thai students did not read a single word that they weren't forced to (and not too many of those either).

And in Thai universites -

They are very chuffing cheap

Many more FIT girls

good weather (compared to ol' Blighty)

ridiculously easy - its pretty hard to fail

good cultural experience

you get easy visas for as long as you are in the university

And a degree from somewhere like Thailand is pretty impressive in its own way - everyone asks what it was like, how I got on with the language etc... No one ever asked my (English) mate about his degree from Hull university. (ha ha HUll ?!?!)

My advise, forget the intellectual snobbery of the posters in this forum, and go for it.

- Extra note - pretty much all universities in Thailand will allow you to write assignments (even though they are taught in Thai) and take exams in English - so you do not need to have good writing skills.

Edited February 14, 2005 by pandit35

[Toolz]

Interesting. It sounds like ABAC is an idea to pursue. Does anyone have any ideas about RIT (Rajamangala Institute of Technology). Any ideas about approaching this as a non-fluent English speaker (with no Thai)? I'm looking into possibilities in both India and Thailand. Pandit35: what you did sounds really impressive.