Thai Tourist Police Soon To Speak Fluent English

[h5kaf]

I also had to check the calender to make sure it wasn't 1st April.

Oh yea of little faith. This is just the beginning of a cunning plan to make Thailand the HUB of 'advanced accelerated language learning'.

[Payboy]

Thailand's tourist police have been given six months to speak fluent English

I'm sure even with all her resources QE2 won't be able to simplify the English language in 6 months. Perhaps it's time to declare Pidgin as officially Queens English.

[a99az]

The only way that will happen is if the Royal Thai Police recruit English natives into the force to replace the Thai police. But that wont happen as the courts would have an extra load on there hands with all the extra arrests.

[belg]

i hope they will use the same method in schools, universities, hotels, 7/11's, restaurants

woehahahaha

[lensta]

So given the negative cynical and smarty pants responses so far, lets look at the potential positives. It will be a good move to have police who have a minimum grasp of English. It is possible to create English communication skills in six months with willing participants and competent trainers. Thai people have capacities for growth beyond most of the commentary here. Few of you yet appear to grasp the significance of the attempt. If you tend to rely on smug superior criticism instead of embracing a forward thinking ideal you are diminishing the chances of its success. Try and be a bit more optimistic.

Actually, I don't think anybody is criticizing an attempt at having the tourist police speak English. It is the idiot comment that they have been given 6 months to be fluent in English. If the OP had stated that the tourist police had been given 6 months to improve their English Language skills, I don't think there would be any "smug superior criticism"

[Richmah]

THAIS speak FLUENT englishhhhhh.....ha ha ha

May be 5%...i believe...but those 5% mostly speak over action english.....

[MaxLee]

Hey, you,... you fast drivIIIIIIING, you no see SA-TOP SIIIIIIIIGN. pay moneYYYYYYYYYYYY,

[EastSaxCol]

Teach them American , they'll find it all far simpler to learn.

[Rhys]

55555.. this just becomes more a joke each time...555555 so they are going to learn Up against the wall _ _

[watcharacters]

Our lad, 17, passed English . I am English and he can't talk to me, done via mum.

I'm sorry but I don't think I fully understand your post. Are you saying your son passed a Thai english Exam and you, a Brit, can't talk with him?

spelling error..

Edited October 19, 2012 by watcharacters

[chutai]

Our lad, 17, passed English . I am English and he can't talk to me, done via mum.

I'm sorry but I don't think I fully understand your post. Are you saying your son passed a Thai english Exam and you, a Brit, can't talk with him?

I think that he's saying that to pass an English language exam in Thailand isn't the best of qualifications. Same can be said of even obtaining a degree from any Rajabhat that you care to mention. Sad, but true

[DrTuner]

What, are they going to hire bar girls as tourist police?

You no problem you come with me I take good care long time.

That could actually work.

[unanimosity]

Okay, understand the jibes at the unrealistic time frame to learn fluent English, which by the way, many English cannot speak or write!! But turning this on it's head, how many Farangs can speak fluent Thai, having in many cases been here a dam_n site longer than 2 years and have opted to migrate to this lovely land? Pot calling Kettle Black maark, maark, me thinks.

This is becoming a very common argument for the Thais. Why can't you speak Thai? I believe the goal is for Thailand to transition to English for the ASEAN agreement, but instead we need to learn Thai to save them the trouble.

It just isn't practical to learn a little language with twice as many letters but only 15% as many words as English, and isn't of any use anywhere in the world except one local place.

[BrooklynNY]

Amazing Thailand !!!!!

[rbrooks]

I should contact some betting agents in Las Vegas to lay some odds of this actually never happening. Amazing Thailand.

[noob7]

Are they kicking out the old ones and employing Britts?

They already have some of those, but that's the only way - replace all the Thais!

Not all of 'em! Only the males!

[blackthorn2005]

I admire the "can do" attitude here in Thailand

'Thailand's tourist police have been given six months to speak fluent English as the kingdom is widely opening its doors to foreign visitors as part of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015' Oh, OK, so it was not open to foreign visitors before? Now I understand Edited October 19, 2012 by metisdead
: Bold font removed.

[Songhua]

No doubt they will all receive an "A" for the course to prove they are fluent!

More likely they will get a medal. Tourists will be able to instantly recognise a fluent english-speaking officer by the official ribbon on his/her chest. It will be the third one in the sixth row.

[noob7]

This is really funny, , I used to teach year 5 students English here in Thailand and they couldn't even speak fluent English after 5 years +.

But that comes back on you, methinks!

Edited October 19, 2012 by noob7

[noob7]

OMG, I got it! The same solution, I tried in the 6 grade. (It doesn't work out, but was worth a try)

'Thailand's tourist police have been given six months to speak fluent English as the kingdom is widely opening its doors to foreign visitors as part of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015'

There is a misunderstanding, how understand this:

"Can you speak fluent English, now?"

"Fluent English, fluent English"

"Approved"

[phuturatica]

Hmm. Whilst I think it would be extremely handy for them to be able to speak fluent English, it certainly seems very unlikely in such a short 6 month period that they will achieve this.

Either way, whether they're fluent or not... At least they're going to make a start on actually learning the language. Even though ti should have been done YEARS ago.

[uptheos]

Hey, this is serious stuff here, why you poke fun. They have a secret plan to ramp up quickly. Every tourist cop will be assigned his own bar girl partner to translate.

And they will arrive at the scene saying, "hello hansum man - you go with me to police station?"

Edited October 19, 2012 by uptheos

[nong38]

If Thais were really clever they would speak English. They do have access to BBC, but, prefer to watch pantomime (630pm-8pm) and wholesale murders ( 830pm-1030pm ) Even the French have realized they are cleverer than they thought and can actually speak English!

Edited October 19, 2012 by metisdead
: Bold font removed.

[nong38]

and pigs have been seen flying over Phuket

But do they speak English?

[navara]

Ehhh... what if we strech the period a bit? 60 years mai.

[sabye]

There are some Tourist Police in the deep south that do speak English but many also speak Malay. Many of us who are Volunteer Tourist Police do come and help out when called. It is very difficult for many of them to learn as they don't have much chance to speak English after years of learning it in school. My son goes to the best school in Hat Yai and even though I am a native speaker his English is far less than perfect. On the other hand my nephew who had taken English for years would never speak to me as he was scared of saying words incorrectly. A few months ago I gave him a job in my restaurant during his school break and it made a huge difference in his confidence. He now speaks fairly good English with me and he has taken up a whole new interest in learning English. Maybe instead of trashing these guys the rest of you could take the time to speak with many of these tourist police and encourage them to try to speak more English. Please remind them that there are many accents of English depending on what country the people who are speaking it come from. After all how many people can understand a Cockney and they come from England. Possibly suggesting to the officers that maybe trying to work a couple of hours a night in a tourist area selling food or being a waiter will make a big difference in their confidence to speak English.

[nong38]

Gentleman may we never lose our sense of humour and always see the funny side of life, not for one moment do I see this as Thai bashing, we can take a bashing from time to time and if its a corker have a laugh at our own expense!

[Shiver]

I think 'fluent' is not an achievable goal, even with the best will in the world. I live in Issan (UT city) and have been here full time for about 6 years. My Thai is useful only to Thais that know me and my version of their language, the kind of 'accommodate' me. I have a couple of westerner friends with several languages under their belt, and I see the same pattern in all. As an example I am native English, and in my old life I travelled the country (UK) quite a lot as an engineer, so my accent isn't really easy to place unless you lived within a few miles of where I came from, in which case I would quickly revert to that version of English. Right now I speak very slowly, and mix my Thai, English and Tinglish together along with a lot of body language and peripheral observations to 'kind of' get a message across. I pay particular attention to tone. I'm told my Thai is very good, but it's only good if I stick within my comfort zone (directions, food, please, thankyou etc) - outside of that I'm a lost person.

Above I said some western friend could speak Thai. They would say they have good Thai, meaning they have a large vocabulary, but I look at them interacting and I listen to their 'tone deafness' and think their language is terrible. If you're native English you could go to Germany/Spain/Italy etc and have a passable communication method in 3 months, in 6 months you might be nearly fluent if you've fully immersed yourself. Same the other way around, most of the younger generations of northern Europeans can speak passable English, I can even look at those languages and get the 'gist' of what is being said because there are commonalities.

My next door neighbour is Vietnamese. It took him 1 year to learn enough Thai that I now look to him to translate something verbal that I don't understand a Thai saying. So that says to me that our formative years, whether we learn a western or asian language, will likely dictate whether we'll ever be able to learn. Some things get baked it early on, and there seem to be different learning styles for different people.

I remember my sister telling me some years back that my parents thought I was dumb (as in cannot speak), even though doctors could find no reasons. I was also told that I would write ambidextrous, and I right with my right hand, kick with my left foot, use left for a rifle, and either hand for a racket, so that's all a bit messed up. My mother was left handed, and I've noticed many Thais are left handed too.

Bottom line is I think once that wiring has been hard coded in your first half a dozen years, that will determine the future you.

Add in a few accents, a tonal system, about 10-20 times more words in a dictionary, and 6 months to me looks like a very bleak challenge and I'll bet heavily against it.

Being a computer person I can do predicate logic if I apply myself to it. I also have some right brain capabilities. What I would suggest to them if they were serious is to start with understand why Ruk Rak Luk and Lak cannot all mean the same to a westerner, that some words do finish in 'L' (eg. My name is Paul, my Thai version is usually Por or Porn. They can say PorLao (enough) so I say repeat that would the ou/ao bit on the end. "Por". Before starting to learn the subtlties of the English language and all its oddities, we at least need an alphabet we can rely on.

When I finally dedicate myself to learning Thai, it will be a written and tonal approach, not listen learn repeat. I suggest the Thai leaders of this project consider those kind of issues in reverse before making bold statements like '6 months'

[/RANT]

[comserve]

Are they kicking out the old ones and employing Britts?

They do say "fluent English". How many Brits speak their mother tongue fluently

and don't say "All of them gov!".

Not many of the Brits who are here teaching English can speak proper poker chip English.

They speak more "football crowd English"!

[noob7]

Ehhh... what if we strech the period a bit? 60 years mai.

Na, this guy's getting a pension around their 60's!

Means, they would be a minimum of 20 years out of the business, before they would have to be able, to speak "fluent English"!