What hope do Thai school kids have?

[Phronesis]

I was at Surin beach yesterday and a young thai school girl asked me if I could help her with her gan ban (homework).

She had a printed sheet of A4 paper that lad a list of photographs. Next to each of these photographs her Thai teacher had written the English word...and the homework was for the girl to write the same word in Thai to acknowledge that she understood the English word.

Here are just some of spelling for the English words as written by the Thai teacher:

picture of rice: liice

picture of furniture: foamatutur

picture of ice cream cone: eschrim

picture of a bunch of flowers: buk of foors

There was not one single English word on the entire page that the teacher had spelt correctly.

Too be honest, what hope do Thai school kids have to learn English?

[Gsxrnz]

I had some examples like that from my wife's university. Not quite as bad, but nonetheless it was a page of bad spelling, incorrect word usage and atrocious grammar. I went through it and corrected it all by hand and the missus went apesh*t.

The reason as explained to me when she came down from the ceiling was that if she goes and shows the corrections to her teacher, big loss of face all round.

So she then has to call a friend to scan and email a virgin copy of the homework so she could complete it.

The irony was that the questions (related to marketing) were so badly phrased and spelt that I as a native English speaker had considerable difficulty in understanding the questions and had to really think what the teacher was asking as I completed the corrections.

Until the Thai education system realises that there will be zero progress in improving the level of English unless they either use native English speakers or Thais that are fluent (by English standards), there is little hope for improvement.

And that's how sh*t happens.

[Morakot]

picture of ice cream cone: eschrim

Would that not be called "I-tim"?

Better pay attention to linguistic conventions when crafting the story.

[Mooner]

I think French Fried is still pretty common on menus today.

It completely baffles me when someone feels they cannot correct another person over some archaic custom/belief. It kind of goes against everything you learn as a human being.

Cant tell P Lek he shouldnt return to firework that hasnt gone off. He might lose face!....... literally!

[HeijoshinCool]

Face rears its ugly face again.

Face stops kids here from learning in many ways.

Face stops them asking teachers questions--the face of the student and the face of the teacher.

Face stops teachers from admitting they made a mistake, and correcting it for the student's benefit.

Face stops teachers from holding back students who don't work, who don't care, who demand attention through bad behavior, and these students hold back those who want to learn.

There are exceptions, but they're rare.

I know two Thai "English teachers" who speak reasonable English. But I sure wouldn't want to learn Thai from a westerner at the same level of competence. I know many other Thai English teachers who literally can't speak more than a handful of nouns and verbs, and cannot form a single complete sentence. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in their class.

[seajae]

Scrabble has taken off at my daughters school, she gets me to play it with her of a night but I cannot correct her or she gets terribly upset. She has a list of english words her teacher has given to the class, trouble is I have never heard of most of them. There are lots of 2 & 3 letter words that are simply made up or the spelling is that wrong I cannot recognize them, still trying to work out if id is supposed to be is or it, then you have ai, er, iz, az etc and thats before you even try to read any sentences they write. The teachers are simply hopeless and the kids will never learn with them but what do you do, they just will not admit the problem, face is everything to some people.

[GirlDrinkDrunk]

hmmm, thats why i pay more for a school with qualified thai and foreign teachers and am letting my kid go to the US to study for 4 years while her step dad completes his degree. She has ben living with m for the last 6, and i will miss her to death, but i see it as an opportunity too good to deny her.

that 4 years should buy me time to come up with the cash for the next 4.

[giggles]

i know a isaan teacher of english who is spot on red hot at her tuition and taught my kids ,but as she is fat and ordinary she was passed over for promotion by the guvnor for a sexy hotty young thing whos english skills are dire .but she does private work and does ok .

[jackr]

Is this a government school? Whatever, there really is no excuse today, you'd think the teacher would at least check on the internet to make sure her words are correct, or does the potential for loss of face also occur in private when one is wrong? 'foamatutur', 'eschrim'? fuc*****ell! Just write down what I hear in my head, nice one.

For those with kids, get em to read English books as much as poss.

[CanInBKK]

Too be honest, what hope do Thai school kids have to learn English?

Ah c'mon! You start a thread about learning English then use "Too" when you should have used "To"? Of course, I'm just kidding, my point really is that I have doubts that the grossly misspelt words were the teacher's work - it's just hard for me to believe the quality of English is that bad when referring to educators when my experience (albeit in Bangkok) is that Thais have a reasonable understanding of English but we're not exposed to a lot of it since they are shy about speaking.

[tartempion]

Seems my 2-and-half years young girl knows more English than your average Thai-English teacher

[billd766]

Seems my 2-and-half years young girl knows more English than your average Thai-English teacher

My 9 year old son certainly does.

[tingtong]

Seems my 2-and-half years young girl knows more English than your average Thai-English teacher

My 9 year old son certainly does.

in case of government schools ( and often others too) this is the sad case.

if by 3rd grade the kids can read thai that is achievement enough already!

my son in grade 5 now, they started learn to read 2-3 letter words...something he knew in kindergarten...the last 8 yrs it mostly seems that they re-learn or repeat those that were thought to him in kindergarten 1. classes ( changed to countryside school after grade 2, when we moved).

in a classroom, where kids pass the grade without actual knowledge, and where the teacher is behind the kid both speaking and reading skill, there is little hope.

[HeijoshinCool]

i know a isaan teacher of english who is spot on red hot at her tuition and taught my kids ,but as she is fat and ordinary she was passed over for promotion by the guvnor for a sexy hotty young thing whos english skills are dire .but she does private work and does ok .

The "sexy hotty young thing" probably does private work as well ....

[Blackandwhite]

This is not a surprise - I had a conversation with a guy from Denmark regards his half Thai kids and his feeling of the Thai free education system being free and not a problem as he felt the young children learn to speak Thai and use the alphabet from a young age - this part is true it goes down hill from there as the teachers as it is made clear all to often have now idea in the slightest on the spelling of the English words ( I will add nor do I and I am English )

It is all about the pronunciation issues they have - as here in the Uk reading and then writing is learnt by phonics as in the pronunciation with the ideabeing that as the children learn to say and pronounce letters then words they then learn the word shape and spelling come easy

[krisb]

Out in the sticks I've chatted with 1 English teacher. I think it was like he wanted to find out how good he was. Pretty average actually, I could barely understand his broken English. Op your kids lucky they have you to teach them quality English.

[bbko]

My 6 y/o son goes to a moderately priced school and they do ok in the teaching dept, but I still buy educational books and teach at home. As far as the teaching English goes we have to remember not all the kids in class have a native English speaking person at home, If you expect an average Thai teacher to be proficient in English spelling and pronunciation that's like expecting a farang teacher to be proficient in Thai spelling.

[Blackandwhite]

The OP asks a relevant question that also applies to any child at school in Thailand the country is known for poor schooling be it private or state.

[benalibina]

Education reflects culture and vice versa.

[a99az]

I have moved my family to the UK so that my two girls can get a real education, one worth having.

[Bkungbank]

Thailand should learned from Japan where Kindergarten school should have 1-2 hours sleep during break just imagine start at 8 a.m to 4 p.m plus travel time, during that growing age children need more time to sleep so the brain get smarter.

[Jasun]

Scary reading this. But I wouldn't expect quality English language education from a non-English speaking school. If the OP was referring to a kid paying international or bilingual school fees, it'd be a major worry.

[Wanida]

Did you ask the girl what school she goes to? I was curious.

[benalibina]

Thailand should learned from Japan where Kindergarten school should have 1-2 hours sleep during break just imagine start at 8 a.m to 4 p.m plus travel time, during that growing age children need more time to sleep so the brain get smarter.

From personal experience with my kids, they have afternoon naps.

[gerryBScot]

As a teacher and a parent nothing surprising in the OP's post. I feel for the parents and I suspect that in time my kids will go to the UK for their edumacation. However my big sister who is a big shot in edumacation in Scotland advises that the scene there and in the rest of the UK is not so good either. In addition to the usual concerns about loss of face I think an equally serious problem in Thailand is an ability to distinguish quality from quantity: lots of classes of mindless boredom, copying one's textbook into one's exercise book for 45 minutes, for example, equates on the basis of quantity to quality. Little attention is paid to how children learn. I am amazed by the emphasis on rote learning. It has been an eye opener working in the system. I feel for the kids - they really want to learn but the system lets them down. It's truly a sad state of affairs.