Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency: survey

[guig]

The focus on English needs to change to a student centered approach instead of the old teacher centered model. Kids enjoy discussion and giving opinions and that can't happen when your in a class of 50. I did an interesting lesson the other day in my tutor school asking the students "What makes a good school". Opinions were discussed but the common threads were they wanted smaller classes with teachers that care about the students........one example given by a young lad in how bad his school was, told the story of an english class teacher who was rambling on and nobody could understand. So he put his hand up and said, " sorry teacher I don't understand could you explain that again". The teacher shouted at him and said " why don't you listen and then you will understand". So the system is weak from the ground up with poor teaching practices with only a glimpse from some excellent educators in small pockets around Thailand. The hope I have is for the students I teach, to try and give a few hundred kids a chance in the future to get good jobs and support their families.

[johnlandy]

This confirms my long held understanding and opinion of Thais inability to communicate, speak, read and write passable English.

There are 58 countries in Asia and Thailand is 57th in terms of English proficiency.

There are a number of reasons for this, one being,that Thais have been led to believe from the time they leave the womb that they are "the master race" so why would they need to

be able to communicate in anything other than Thai.

I have discussed this (English proficiency) with mature age Thais who have been raised by non Thai parents and they state that Thais in general are disinterested in learning, lazy, know pretty

well zero about the world outside of Thailand (not very interested either in Thailand for that matter outside their own amphur)

Education in the realm is abysmal, good grades are available to be bought (female students have an advantage as they can 'put out' for the teacher) Thai children are not educated by their parents

in pursuit of excellence, passion for knowledge, a commitment to attaining it. Take excellence in sport, Thailand won it's first Olympic gold medal in 1996 (a wait of 100 years) they have won a total of 7

when athletes from many countries have won more individually.

I applaud those Thais who have been successful however it is very poor level of achievement when you think of it.

And do I have any basis for my comments? I think that I do, I have 2 teenagers, 1 a stepchild and the other the child of 'her indoors'. Like all people they are individuals, they were not made with a 'cookie cutter'

but neither have a driving passion to learn, or acquire knowledge.

[jmw]

Sadly even though Thais have set up an elaborated system of setting up English Programs, hiring so many foreign teachers over such a long period of time, the work ethic practiced in schools prevents any real learning from taking place. Except among the few most motivated, learning is not taken seriously. It's all just a show

School days are cancelled too easily, meaningless activities are invented as excuses to cancel classes, and little heed is paid to the damage caused by these disruptions.

No wonder kids don't take it seriously when admin is so quick to take them out of class

[Businessman]

I had an issue with double billing with AIS. Long story short. .. I went through 3 "English speaking" service reps who could only tell me I had outstanding amount. But when is acknowledged and asked which service that amount was against 2 hung up. The third kept answering "yes, yes. You have outstanding balance 510thb" I finally asked her to stop trying and had my admin assistant call to get a clear explanation of the charges.

This is an an example of a a major Thai corporation's official offering of English customer support. The standard is so low that any deviation from the script threw them into a tizzy.

[wolf5370]

What a poor indictment for Kazakhstan, even Thailand beat them!

[Suradit69]

Again? Enough already.

Probably Thailand was weighed down after those implementing the survey read some threads on Thai Visa. Especially those discussing things like "boarder" runs, living in a "quite" neighborhood, "your" wrong and I'm "write", and I "now" what "their" talking about.

I wonder where New Jersey, Crawford, Texas and Liverpool rank.

"They misunderestimated me." (George Bush, Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000)

Edited November 7, 2013 by Suradit69

[wolf5370]

Schoolclasses are too full... sometimes one teacher with fourty kids. Most of the education is merely reproducing. Improving the teacher's education would do much good. Facilitate it and challenge the teachers to improve themselves. The taxanomy of Bloom f.i. will not mean anything to the average teacher in Thailand.

The heaps and heaps of English courses often are done by unskilled staff.

40 kids is a blessing here - many classes have upwards of 60. Back when I was teaching here I had classes of 65+. Not only that, in the college I taught at, they merged other classes for English (other subject classes I taught were much smaller!) - with poor timetabling.

I had one class at 3pm with 65+ kids, the subject was business English (although most could not speak any English - i.e. course way above their heads), it was made of two separate classes (hotel management students and engineering students) it was a 1.5 hour lesson. The engineers had to walk over from another building with no gap to do so - so were usually 30-45 minutes late, interrupting the class. At 3pm all they wanted to do was sleep and go home early. No chance of anyone learning diddly-squat in such an environment. Even attempts at games and "fun" lessons didn't work - these work less with 19 year olds than school kids anyway, but after being at school from 8am and constant interruptions during the class (and no aircon) - no chance.

[Toscano]

My niece by marriage has just graduated with a BA degree in English Language ; yet when I speak to her slowly and clearly , she hardly understands a word I say and has difficulty relpying . Her mother is a High School English teacher and speaks fairly good English . I think the way English is taught at

school or university is wrong . Grammar and verbs are not a language , students must to learn to speak , to communicate in a language , even if at first

what they say is grammatically incorrect .

[metisdead]

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed. It is generally accepted, but not written into law, that quoting the first two or three sentences of an article and giving a link to the source is considered “fair use” and not a violation of copyright.

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[Always18]

Why should Thais learn to speak English when they believe the rest of the world should speak Thai?

Deal with the deep-seated racism, xenophobia and this hilarious belief that Thais are somehow a "superior race" and then you'll have half a chance of them WANTING to learn English...................

BTW - Bar ladies are excluded from this generalisation!

[BwindiBoy]

India and Germany being so low makes me question the integrity of this survey.

On a day to day basis it is a lot easier to communicate my way around Thailand than most other non English speaking countries I have visited, including several European countries, e.g. Spain, Italy, Czech Republic.

However, in terms of business dealings I can appreciate that Thailand may well come out low, although my dealings with Japanese, Korean, French and Bulgarian clients, as well as any in South American countries, has been a lot more painful than dealing with any Thai companies.

[Andre0720]

Bar girls excluded of course....

[Suradit69]

Schoolclasses are too full... sometimes one teacher with fourty kids. Most of the education is merely reproducing. Improving the teacher's education would do much good. Facilitate it and challenge the teachers to improve themselves. The taxanomy of Bloom f.i. will not mean anything to the average teacher in Thailand.

The heaps and heaps of English courses often are done by unskilled staff.

"Schoolclasses are too full... sometimes one teacher with fourty kids."

Some even have fivety.

"The taxanomy of Bloom ...will not mean anything to the average teacher in Thailand"

Probably Bloom never heard of a "taxanomy" either.

I love it win people jump in to criticize the language skills of Thais and shoot themselves in the foot while doing so.

[Tanlic]

I wonder where the Govan lads from Glasgow would figure after a Saturday night on the booze.

While there are many many individuals who have an excellent command of the English language, It doesn't surprise me Thailand, overall, has a poor record.

My ex-girlfriend used to bring home papers used by her English teacher in class for me to correct on a regular basis.

It went on for months and some of the English was like a foreign language to me let alone the students she was teaching.

Footnote: My ex-girlfriend was an exceptionally clever girl and won some national college competition for speaking English in public. She used to drive me crazy asking me to explain ever second word that came out of my mouth.......hence she is now my ex.

[jackr]

Blame non-colonialism, xenophobia, idleness, we don't need it, etc, just don't blame Thais.

Those that do speak it typically make less sense than speaking their native tongue to a non-Thai-speaking native English speaker in any case. What was that when our esteemed 'Prime Minister' met BO?:... 'How Are You' coming out as 'Who Are You'!

[bigbamboo]

Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency

And PM Yingluck's interview with CNN proved it beyond a shadow of doubt.

Yingluck shouldn't be chided too much for her lack of proficiency in English. It isn't her first language and she came up through the Thai education system where students often study the subject for many years and still cannot put a coherent sentence together.

At the same time it is disappointing to see that someone who is apparently viewed as the role model for smart women in Thailand has clearly let the language skills normally required to obtain a masters degree in America slip so badly.

[Ianatlarge]

The Thai people are no dumber or smarter than anyone else, but, I regret to say, Thai culture has a number of aspects that discourage good education, and, the other side of the coin, education here is not good. So, no immediate change.

[recycler]

The difficulty for Thais learning foreign languages starts with the inefficiency of the Thai language. Thais grow up with a vague and inefficient concept of communication that makes the step to learn a much more efficient language as English very difficult. It's very common and totally accepted that people don't fully understand each other here.

I have seen so many examples of Thai language vagueness in both spoken and written form it's staggering. Even Thai legal experts agree that it's very difficult if not impossible to describe something 100% clear in Thai language. No wonder many contracts even between Thai companies are in English, but I'm sure many involved in the deal don't understand the English contract either.

[catweazle]

IMO, some of the best english language speakers are bar girls......

Don't know any so I can't argue with you on that one.

Liar, liar, pants on fire! Looks like your wife knows your nickname and is checking up on your posts, eh?

[dominique355]

What makes things worse for Thailand is that nobody outside Thailand speaks (reads and writes) its language. If you compare that to those countries below Thailand in ranking, in Panama they speak Spanish, another world language, in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria they speak Arab and in Kazakhstan they speak Russian. So these countries can at least communicate with their neighbors.

Thailand cannot, except perhaps a little bit with Laos, but that will not help a lot.

[nonoi55]

What??? No mention of the Philippines in the survey?

[captspectre]

55 and on the way to 60. The DECLINE over the past 20 years is staggering.

Not surprising with koreans, low educated thai,s and indians teaching English! it is the Thai's themselves who are to blame! there are many retired Expats from the U.S.A and England in thailand who would volunteer to teach english but the Gov't will not allow it!

[uptheos]

IMO, some of the best english language speakers are bar girls......

Don't know any so I can't argue with you on that one.

Liar, liar, pants on fire! Looks like your wife knows your nickname and is checking up on your posts, eh?

Only because they say the phrases you want to hear.

[cup-O-coffee]

Looking at the flip side - the Thai mind - I wonder if this is a priority with all Thais in general (excluding the rare exceptions). I do not think it is.

When I consider their propensity for lying, cheating, stealing, laziness, choosing the route of least resistance, avoiding all responsibility and accountability, their love/hate relationship with life and its sanctity, and everything else... and then I contrast that to the methods and means with which they extort, blackmail, betray, reneg, accuse and bleed foreigners of every last ounce of money they can, then... well, I am remiss if I do not see the advantage of not bothering with English.

Learning the English language or not learning the English language will have no effect on the amount of money they intake from foreign presence here. In my view, that is what they solely exist for; to accumulate as much wealth as they can before they die.

This statistic is about as ludicrous as reporting that the Remora fish does not speak shark. Why should it? It gets what it wants.

[caughtintheact]

Don't believe every study you see. The study is done by a company which promotes English training overseas, so they have an agenda and a product to sell. Thus their numbers do not have as much credibility as if the study had been done by an unbiased source.

I also question their numbers. Infoplease says there are 190 countries in the world. Wikipedia lists 88 English speaking states, 60 sovereign states and 28 non-sovereign states , leaving 102 non-English speaking countries, not the 60 cited in the study.

Some years ago the Bangkok Post showed that in most of the ASEAN countries the ethnic Chinese controlled most of the wealth (over 80% in Thailand), so, while English is very important the weakness in Thailand may not be that significant. China is a huge expanding country, so why not learn Chinese?

Starting in about 2016 Thailand can bring in all the English speakers that are willing to come here and that the companies in the country can afford to pay, so globalization works two ways. There are many companies that do not require a high level of English.

It would be better if the Thai had more fluent English speakers, but, as much of the English training is done by Thai teachers who use Thai to teach English (especially in elementary schools) and for the most part in environments where practice with a native speaker is not possible or impractical, getting a high level of fluency will take a long time, especially up country. Then again, shouldn't the measure be how many companies require how many good English speakers and what is the shortfall? Then try to train people with skills or potential to work in those companies?

[chooka]

Schoolclasses are too full... sometimes one teacher with fourty kids. Most of the education is merely reproducing. Improving the teacher's education would do much good. Facilitate it and challenge the teachers to improve themselves. The taxanomy of Bloom f.i. will not mean anything to the average teacher in Thailand.

The heaps and heaps of English courses often are done by unskilled staff.

40 kids is a blessing here - many classes have upwards of 60. Back when I was teaching here I had classes of 65+. Not only that, in the college I taught at, they merged other classes for English (other subject classes I taught were much smaller!) - with poor timetabling.

I had one class at 3pm with 65+ kids, the subject was business English (although most could not speak any English - i.e. course way above their heads), it was made of two separate classes (hotel management students and engineering students) it was a 1.5 hour lesson. The engineers had to walk over from another building with no gap to do so - so were usually 30-45 minutes late, interrupting the class. At 3pm all they wanted to do was sleep and go home early. No chance of anyone learning diddly-squat in such an environment. Even attempts at games and "fun" lessons didn't work - these work less with 19 year olds than school kids anyway, but after being at school from 8am and constant interruptions during the class (and no aircon) - no chance.

My sons class has 22 students and two fulltime teachers a Farang and a Thai, the classes (maths science English etc) are taught in both English and Thai. Morning sessions in English afternoon in Thai, alternated times each day. The Thai kids have a good understanding of the English Language and can read, write and speak very well.

[SDM0712]

I noticed in our local Robinsons in Jung Ceylon Phuket a sign above some of the clothes that said " Buy 3 get 2, ask at the information couter "

When I said to the staff that if I bought 3 I would quite like at least 3 she was very confused.

SDM

[advancebooking]

I do a lot of traveling in Indonesia. Its interesting that an uneducated farmer that left school at 16 yrs old can speak better English that a uni educated thai. In Indonesia if your a foreigner seeking a teacher job you need an actual teaching uni degree. In thailand its any degree. Maybe the quality of teachers in thailand is dodgy- most philipinno ladies...

[catweazle]

I think every Thailand expat with children knows the problem - you either cough up 250.000 to 600.000 THB per year to send your child to a school that provides international standards and certification or pay little or nothing and put up with one of the local schools where the so-called "English" teachers" have a level of english language skills comparable to that of a Furby...

Instead of pumping billions of Bahts into building more luxurious temples in which monks molest children and collect luxurious cars and fill their private bank accounts, Thai people should adjust their mindset to better making some "Tam Boon" for the future of their children, thus helping to build more and better schools and with the Thai government starting to educate (and check up on) their teachers and get international help to do just that.

But stop! An educated Thai or "Luuk Krueng" child might bee to clever to fall for the illusion that handing an envelope full of money to a "holy" monk will change their life to the better... Or they might be too educated so they start to ask silly questions about their government and other "elevated" persons who are not to be named... starSo we have a kind of catch 22 situation here, no?

Things here in regards to education will never change and if - just for the worse. Sad, but true.

Thailand, hub of submissiveness...

[sdanielmcev]

I wonder what the proficiency of Thai speaking is for the British and Australians is. It's close zero here in the States. It is nonsense to think Thais or any other country should learn another language when they are doing business in their own country. Give me a break!