Thai Prime Minister Speaking In English (Vid)

[siam cbr]

Awful, awful public speaker.

Looks terrified.

Which is kinda cute.

Bless 'er.

[siam cbr]

Am I the PM of Thailand?

Do you think high-level English skills are an important requirement of that job?

Of course.

[chiang mai]

Why is her English sooo bad?

Is your Thai any better?

Am I the PM of Thailand?

Is David Cameron or President Obama fluent in Mandarin, doubtful, the PM of Thailand is! So why the need for a Thai PM to be 100% fluent in the worlds third most used language, just because it's the one you speak, hmmm, I don't think so!

[waza]

She did an interview with ABC (Australia). It was well rehearsed but if her answers were transcribed, it would have been hard to figure out what she was on about and the key indicator of prior preparation was that the answers often had no relation to the question.

She has the obligatory MBA from an American uni of course.

After 15 years of living here, I have come to the conclusion that Thais are just crap at languages, possibly even worse than my own country, the UK. Cultural reasons include being surrounded poor countries whose language they have no intention of learning, differences in approaching language i.e. importance of formality and relative position in Thai vs importance of time aspect in English, poor teaching in Thailand and a political importance placed on monolingualism.

I once heard a discrition of the Thai psyche I liked, "Thais are as cunning as foxes and have the strategy of a goldfish". That is they plan only for the day and rarely have a plan for their longterm future, and learning english well, is a longterm proccess. I see this is so true for even my TGF, she is engaged in strategic planning at a multinational company but has no strategies or plans for her future. I tell her to save her money for retirement but she justs spends it and gives it away to her kids.

[waza]

Why is her English sooo bad?

Is your Thai any better?

Am I the PM of Thailand?

Is David Cameron or President Obama fluent in Mandarin, doubtful, the PM of Thailand is! So why the need for a Thai PM to be 100% fluent in the worlds third most used language, just because it's the one you speak, hmmm, I don't think so!

English is a West Germanic language spoken originally in England, and is now the most widely used language in the world.^[4] It is spoken as a first language by a majority of the inhabitants of several nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations. It is the third most common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.^[5] It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as in many world organisations.

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a “world language”, the lingua franca of the modern era,^[19] and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural property of “native English speakers”, but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow.^[19] It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial^[63] and maritime^[64] communications. English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee.

English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union, by 89% of schoolchildren, ahead of French at 32%, while the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 68% in favour of English ahead of 25% for French.^[65] Among some non-English-speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the adult population claims to be able to converse in English – in particular: 85% in Sweden, 83% in Denmark, 79% in the Netherlands, 66% in Luxembourg and over 50% in Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.^[66]

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences^[19] with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union, by 89% of schoolchildren, ahead of French at 32%, while the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 68% in favour of English ahead of 25% for French.^[65] Among some non-English-speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the adult population claims to be able to converse in English – in particular: 85% in Sweden, 83% in Denmark, 79% in the Netherlands, 66% in Luxembourg and over 50% in Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.^[66]

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences^[19] with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

[chiang mai]

Wiki on the otherhand rates English as the third most spoken languange by the number of speakers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

and so does listverse:

http://listverse.com/2008/06/26/top-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/

and so does ...

http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/10languages.htm

[kerryk]

She did an interview with ABC (Australia). It was well rehearsed but if her answers were transcribed, it would have been hard to figure out what she was on about and the key indicator of prior preparation was that the answers often had no relation to the question.

She has the obligatory MBA from an American uni of course.

After 15 years of living here, I have come to the conclusion that Thais are just crap at languages, possibly even worse than my own country, the UK. Cultural reasons include being surrounded poor countries whose language they have no intention of learning, differences in approaching language i.e. importance of formality and relative position in Thai vs importance of time aspect in English, poor teaching in Thailand and a political importance placed on monolingualism.

I once heard a discrition of the Thai psyche I liked, "Thais are as cunning as foxes and have the strategy of a goldfish". That is they plan only for the day and rarely have a plan for their longterm future, and learning english well, is a longterm proccess. I see this is so true for even my TGF, she is engaged in strategic planning at a multinational company but has no strategies or plans for her future. I tell her to save her money for retirement but she justs spends it and gives it away to her kids.

Burmese they tell me speak better English than Thai people. But looking at Burma or Laos or Cambodia or Vietnam I would say the best strategic planning was done by Thailand. So if one looks at Thailand's close neighbors it comes out far ahead on the planning level.

[lovetotravel]

It's a bit understanding her English is poor. But the content. Unreal. She doesn't answer questions just dances around them.

Her priority is the people? You've got to be kidding me. Her priority is getting her 900+ million Baht back.