Why Do Native English Speakers Feel Threatened By Non Native Speakers

[robblok]

I find all Nationalities to be quite annoying, including my own..

The latest annoyance is the Russians talking Russian to 7/11 staff and expect them to understand..

..English is the international language, period..//

Thai should be spoken in Thailand period, you cant expect low paid low schooled Thais to understand English//

- It was meant for the response you gave to ivdkeyes and not all that have low paid jobs are that bad, some actually try.

But if I were to respond to the matter at hand... If a foreign couple decides to stay here, how likely is it that they can become citizens, getting a bank account and so on?

If the chances are slim, how likely is it that they can or will learn Thai?

This was in response to an expat, they should be able to speak Thai or try to. If you plan on staying here longer for sure you have to learn the language its normal. Seems many English speakers fail to gasp that, if you are residing in a country try to learn a bit of its language. Depends of course on the time you will stay here. Id say if over a year or 2 years learn the language.

And I am the first to admit my Thai is far from perfect but at least i tried and am still trying to. Its just normal and common cutesy if you live in a foreign country.

Tourists are a whole other thing they should just speak English, but even so you can't expect everyone to speak it well especially here.

I would agree with you but that´s up to everyone to decide. It wouldn´t be if the Thais actually made it easier for foreigners to actually become citizens and thereby be integrating, because then you could make it mandatory. Yet it's not, so telling others what they should do is simply wrong.

I learn Thai but not because I honor the country, but because by doing it, I honor my family and relatives here.

Many of the Thais cannot speak English because of a less than adequate educational system here but that doesn´t mean they don´t want to, they just didn´t have the chance.

When we ask newly becomed citizens in our country to learn our language, it´s because they can benefit the same welfare system, the same jobs and other things like the natives do.

In Thailand it doesn´t work that way, not because the Thais say so, but because those in power say so. It´s not for the benefit of the country, it´s for them not lose their influential over the people, because what can be better than foreigners with cash coming in here to settle. Surely when they buy a house, a car or build up companies which will provide jobs for the locals are something that benefit the Thai society.

I will learn as much I think I have to learn so it will benefit myself and my family. Once the country, or those in power, accept me as one of their own, then I will make learning Thai... a real goal as this is expected of me if I´m to become one of them.

Sure i would like it too if it was easier to get real permanent settlement here, it would of course promote learning of the language as it would pay off more.

So I think we do agree here mainly maybe not on everything.

Problem here is and as someone who knows about languages is that all TV is in Thai there should be a lot more English with Thai subtitles. Then they would learn a lot more English its how it was done in the Netherlands and why the Netherlands were better at English then the Germans because they kept everything in German or did voice overs.

[maxme]

@Robblok

I agree with you there... I´ve been trying to convince some of the Thai kids I know to actually see American movies with English soundtrack as this will help their language skills "grow", but to no avail. It's not because they don´t care and don´t want to learn, it´s because they don´t want to look stupid that they do not understand 90% of what is being said in the movie.

So they go to the theatre that has Thai soundtrack, but if I ask them about some lines from the movie, they don´t/can't quote it. What they give is more like an inadequate interpretation as the ones that translated didn't understand the context fully or couldn´t translate it according to Thai. Some of the lines even seem made up.

As you mentioned, this is not something typical for Thailand and I have experienced this in many other countries but it shows that the government has no real intention of improving the language skills of the common Thai. Now if you dubb cartoons and kid-movies, I can buy that, as you cannot expect a child to have fullfledged English skills.