Desperately in need of over 4,000 tour guides, Govt lowers education criteria to 4th grade

[frimu]

The smartest thing would be to allow tour guide couples:

A foreigner tour guide together with a Thai tour guide. There would still be a Thai person having a job, the tourists would actually understand, what the tour guide tells them and the tour guide foreigners could also make some money. Everone would be happy.

But it will never happen: I'm pretty sure about that.

[alant]

All the 4000 would be self taught ??

Have they considered to perhaps lowering the requirements for foreigners ? Ie native speakers ?

The amazing thing would be tourists would actually understand what has been told to them.

I once saw a Thai , Russian speaking guide. Only he knew what he was talking about, Russian group had no clue at all

Yes you state the obvious, this protectionism seems out of control. I can understand when there are qualified people needing jobs and those jobs are being taken by non nationals but if you have a shortage then basically you need to widen the net.

To lower the education requirement (what is 4th grade anyway?) is a nonsense and simply tells the world tourists are not worth the investment.

[FireMedic]

Perhaps they would have more success if they opened the position to the deaf and mute?

Yes!!! Might as well be blind too!

[FireMedic]

Thainess Promotion: Instead of getting qualified tour guides (either paying better to higher educated or God forbid a native speaker) to lead tourists around, we will now lower the education level to the 4th grade to get more quality tour guides for "High End Tourists".

[ankordj]

CAME ON!!! anyone of you really live in thailand, hehehe, the easy way, where you can find 4000 tour guides that can speak any language and like move for money????? the goverment will take them form Pattaya and Puket, and no problem they will make a lot of money tour guide at day, lady bar at night.

[jamhar]

2 ways to increase interest in being a tourguide

lower requirement to increase the pool of potential candidates

or raise the pay to increase the interest from existing potential candidates....

Quantity over quality wins in this case

Its true that you dont need your best and the brightest to be a tour guide.

But they should have specific requirements

language skills

social skills

reading skills

first aid trainging

ect.

but i dont see a requirement for general education.

EXCEPT

That this would AGAIN re-enforce the general perception that education is secondary in Thailand..........

[joepattaya1961]

What M4 students aren't fluent in Russian?

M4? Isn't that Grade 9?

Grade 4 is IMHO Prathom 4........or is the Thai information wrongly translated?

[Salapoo]

Perhaps they would have more success if they opened the position to the deaf and mute?

Or perhaps Russians, Koreans and Chinese.

[harrry]

On reflection I can see merit to the total removal of Eductation requirements from Tourist guides. Their testing should only be in relation to the job needs.

30 years ago many thai children left school at P4 and have subsequently aquired knowledge which enables them to perform at a much higher level.

A guide should be tested in regard to Ethics, Legal Requirements, Knowledge of an area of interest and the ability to convey that. In addition extra language abilities should be shown in the form of competancy certificates..

Edited August 6, 2013 by harrry

[Zpete]

Perhaps they would have more success if they opened the position to the deaf and mute?

That discriminates against the blind.

[Psych01]

What M4 students aren't fluent in Russian?

M4? Isn't that Grade 9?

Grade 4 is IMHO Prathom 4........or is the Thai information wrongly translated?

Yes, you are correct in your thoughts. I used to teach English to year 5 (grade 5) P5, average age 10.

[sprq]

The best tour guides are usually native speakers who have been living in the area for a number of years. This goes for anywhere - I'd rather have an American or an Englishman who's been living in France for 5 years showing me around Paris than a Frenchman who was born there but can't speak any English. Same thing goes for Thailand - would much rather have an expat showing me around than a Thai who can barely communicate.

It all depends whether you speak the local language. In France, if you speak French well, a French guide who knows the area well is best. For Thailand, if you don't speak Thai well, then the best thing is a Thai who knows the area well and speaks good English. The problem is that such people are rare. Where an expat in Thailand can really shine is in knowing real history as opposed to the fairy-tale history that most Thais regurgiatate.

[Pib]

Tourist love babies...just lower the requirement to kinder garden level...or maybe even newborns. Plus it will instill strong work ethics as a child and earn the family extra income.

[upena]

Another plan to screw people out of making 15,000 baht per month.

[belg]

euh...4th grader aka 10 years old education ....

what a crapper and make it more impossible for foreign workers (russian, chinese, whatever) to have a work permit ...

hub of 10 year old (iq & eq) being your tourguide

[samjaidee]

What M4 students aren't fluent in Russian?

M4? Isn't that Grade 9?

Grade 4 is IMHO Prathom 4........or is the Thai information wrongly translated?

Yes, you are correct in your thoughts. I used to teach English to year 5 (grade 5) P5, average age 10.

I've been teaching Grade 4 at a Korean School in Vietnam for the last six years and nearly all of my students have their eleventh birthday in Grade 4.

That's a western 11th birthday, not an Asian one. They were all a year old when they were born, Confusing sometimes.

[Psych01]

What M4 students aren't fluent in Russian?

M4? Isn't that Grade 9?

Grade 4 is IMHO Prathom 4........or is the Thai information wrongly translated?

Yes, you are correct in your thoughts. I used to teach English to year 5 (grade 5) P5, average age 10.

I've been teaching Grade 4 at a Korean School in Vietnam for the last six years and nearly all of my students have their eleventh birthday in Grade 4.

That's a western 11th birthday, not an Asian one. They were all a year old when they were born, Confusing sometimes.

I am fully aware of the way the Asian thing works with age, thank you. But, as you will see the key word was average. I taught for 2 years at P5, some were turning 11, and some had nearly a school year before their 11th birthday.

Even so, my point is that @joepattaya1961 is correct in his assumption. Primary education and not Secondary.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Psych01

[SOTIRIOS]

...the problem is...............they mean ONLY Thais........

[edwinchester]

A few months ago a couple of my wifes friends signed up at school to do a tour guide course. From memory it was run over a few weeks. They managed to convince my wife to do the course too mainly on the grounds that there were several nice day trips out to tourist attractions and a final 3 day trip away including a hop over into Burma. It was a cheap way to have a holiday in effect.

Now at the end of the course there was the obligatory exam which included sections in both Thai and English. Nobody failed, not even those who could neither speak nor read and write English. The English section was multiple choice and simply retaken if failed time and time again until passed. Wifey said that some students took the test six times before they 'passed'.

Hopefully these desperately needed tour guides won't be going to the same school or they'll be near useless.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[islandguy]

Line of least resistance, let's not get people up to a decent standard we lower the standard to meet what's available.

When uni " graduates " holding degrees in English can't string a sentence together where are the other foreign language speakers going to appear from ?

If the tour guide candidates who speak these languages, which seems to be the group (probably pretty small group) the full article was talking about, learned it on some hospitality industry job talking to tourists, they will probably communicate more effectively than most uni graduates.

[CIHUAHUA]

And you have to have a college degree to teach English in Thailand ?

[fstarbkk]

The best tour guides are usually native speakers who have been living in the area for a number of years. This goes for anywhere - I'd rather have an American or an Englishman who's been living in France for 5 years showing me around Paris than a Frenchman who was born there but can't speak any English. Same thing goes for Thailand - would much rather have an expat showing me around than a Thai who can barely communicate.

It all depends whether you speak the local language. In France, if you speak French well, a French guide who knows the area well is best. For Thailand, if you don't speak Thai well, then the best thing is a Thai who knows the area well and speaks good English. The problem is that such people are rare. Where an expat in Thailand can really shine is in knowing real history as opposed to the fairy-tale history that most Thais regurgiatate.

Apart from the usual paranoid/ protectionist/ nationalist/ xenophobic motives, I suspect that they don't want outsiders to be tour guides for exactly that reason:

To control the message and make sure that tourists hear only the official, sanitized and disneyfied version of Thai history and current events.

[klauskunkel]

Desperately in need of over 4,000 tour guides, Govt lowers education criteria to 4th grade

Yep, the government is really desperate, we all know how Thai adults, the ones who are the equivalent of 4th graders, react to any adverse situation: they shoot you and run away. What a realistic way to promote Thainess.

Edited August 6, 2013 by klauskunkel

[deecee10]

Thais have backed themselves into a corner with their policy of not employing foreign nationals and not allowing foreigner run businesses in the tourist industry.

Tourism is international, it's global and what amounts to Thai xenophobia in employment is counter productive.

Dropping the education level required to 4th grade when even uni graduates have poor language language skills will be completely pointless.

Tour companies want a decent quality of guide and this is not going to happen witth this sort of policy.

[timewilltell]

My 10 year old is Grade 4 - but then he can speak English, the rest of the class ........ I am not sure people want primary school rated tour guides. University students here have difficulty learning a foreign language so what hope primary school educated Adults?

[Bluespunk]

You mean this story is serious? I thought it was just another coconuts satire piece

[smotherb]

^^ Yup......fortunes to be made. The hotels need to know that they're guests are safe and in good hands, I know a guide just now who's basic rate is 1,500 baht per day plus expenses and she's booked four or five days a week even in low season.

She now owns four properties outright which is producing her even more money ( obviously ) and at the age of 37 she is already set for life.

ps. She tells the story of a family that gave her a 40,000 baht tip as she was with them night and day for two weeks. She couldn't believe it. That was a fluke but she expects to receive thousands in tips every week plus she gets taken to all the high flying spots, oh and that's never mind the backhanders she gets.

Stupid story, I went to Tiger Kingdom with my ex, she was driving, my Dad was with me. When she pulled up at the parking booth she was handed a slip of paper, and told to take it to the cashiers desk. She innocently went over and handed the paper in, and was asked how many people she brought and what package we had bought. The cashier then handed her 200 baht.

She came over to me and gave me the 200 baht, amazed at the sight of a Thai female handing me money..............I mean amazed............

I asked what was going on, to be told that it was a commission for taking us to the Tiger Kingdom. She declared it wasn't her money and gave it back to me, I still can't get over it.

you really need to consider improving the quality of Thai women you know--not all are money-grubbing leeches

[alfalfa19]

What's the big deal? They will still have a higher education than police and politicians.

[BlackJack]

this is why i love Thailand

[Time Traveller]

If they lower the standard any further maybe some politicians will be eligible for a new career in tourism.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Time Traveller