AEC, English as business language

[gerrythepoet]

It is interesting to note that 7 careers are being promoted to work and travel within the AEC.

However when it was put to a certain Minister he proudly stated yes but they must speak Thai.

The achilles heel in Thailand is nationalism and saving face so what chance does Thailand have

in encouraging the youth of today to get their degrees, be ambitious in their career and utilise English?

I believe that the EC as well as the AEC are doomed to failure if nationalism cannot be curtailed.

The old guard still rises its ugly head

[richard10365]

7 careers = 300+ jobs and the AEC belongs to 10 nations not 1. English is the language of all of ASEAN and not only the AEC. Thailand is at a disadvantage because of the low English abilities but the AEC does not depend on Thailand being good at English to succeed.

[otherstuff1957]

I do a lot of proofreading and some writing for a Thai company that is expanding into Vietnam, Indonesia and especially Burma. All of their international work has to be done in English. In fact, the CEO recently decreed that all company emails should be written in English instead of Thai! I don't know how that will pan out, but I do know that I'm getting so much work from them that I could almost quit my teaching job!