Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency: survey

[Gsxrnz]

English is only the international language of diplomacy, banking, computing, medicine, business, science, technology, research, why should Thai be bothered learning it? Everyone knows Thai more important, lakorn always in Thai and so are the menu's.

What you say is true. English is the international language for all of those things and I don't dispute the need for Thailand to improve its ranking in the English language stakes. But in reality one has to ask what practical use English will be to the average Thai, given that it is an agrarian based economy with the vast majority of the population never coming into contact with English speaking people, nor having to conduct any sort of business in English, nor in fact getting a education that would ever let them progress to any where near these levels.

Sure, in the tourist areas it's different and I'm sure if the study were only conducted in these areas then Thailand would no doubt come out higher on the scale.

How many of the children currently in school or university right now will become diplomats, bankers, business leaders, scientists, researchers, or rocket engineers? Doubtful if it would even be 1%.

Maybe Thailand isn't sufficiently mature enough yet to throw real resource and effort at improving English. In the medium term the reward versus effort would not warrant the investment. From a business perspective, it would be money down the drain.

[banagan]

I just moved here from China, was there for over 3 years... quite surprised at how little they speak English here, I thought there'd be more English speakers than in China... there's not.

They don't even show English movies in KSK anymore, they just dub everything in Thai... tragic... tried to buy some dvd's in my local 7/11... English movies, again, all dubbed in Thai...

[socksy01]

Well, well. No shit Sherlock - half of them, including Tuk-Tuk drivers, and taxi drivers can't even read a map printed in Thai let alone knowing the International language of the world

[marell]

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

And they've managed this in spite of having incapable teachers

[Nepsydaz]

Wouldn't the world be better if People (Native English Speakers) coming to a foreign land tries to learn their native language to communicate rather than expecting that the natives learn English and then ridicule them if they cannot speak english correctly.

It is a FOREIGN language... They are not supposed to know it at the first place. If they are trying to learn don't ridicule them. Think about how well can you speak their language.

I would love to see the statistics on how many different languages can a "Native English Speaker" would know compared to the Non-Native English Speaker in average.

Yes learning English is an advantage but doesn't mean that it is "Embarrassing" if you cannot speak english. It is already so easy for the native english speakers to travel around the world and communicate and yet in some countries, if they have to learn a slight bit of new words of a new language, they complain their @$$ out and ridicule them.

Is that the attitude all over the English Speaking countries or just the ThaiVisa Members? People are relating ones Inability to speak English as ignorance. Well that thought itself is Ignorance at its Best.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Nepsydaz

[mrwallettt]

I don't understand this at all. I thought there were more English teachers in Thailand than in the U.S.

[MaxYakov]

I was at a bank recently and only 1 person there spoke a bit of English. The manager? None. This bank is located right in the middle of one of the largest populations of foreigners here in Thailand. Terrible.

Yes that's one of my pet hates, Bank staff even in tourist areas all with degrees and quite a few in their 20's who cannot understand basic banking requests in English. Ok we should learn Thai who live here, but it's laughable when you go outside of such a Bank and all the tuk tuk drivers, vendors and waitresses with basic education can do what the Bank staff, with all the degrees and superior attitude cannot.

Yes, this has been my experience with the Bangkok Bank branch staff as well - even one in Sukhumvit.

However, my experience with a Bangkok, high-end, dental clinic chain was not the same. Most of the staff spoke very good English and, in fact, the firm was subsidizing and mandating that they become proficient in English. They know who their client base was and understand what contributes to the bottom line. This is also somewhat true for Bumrungrad International Hospital.

[lostmebike]

All the while Thailand is the centre of the universe, Thais will never learn a second language.

[Nepsydaz]

Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency

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

Before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XJonMclsEw

After:

Chalk and cheese, one is stumbling and the other appears very articulate with a strong British accent.

So are you saying people in Thailand should vote by listening to their "ENGLISH" ACCENTS?

And before you bring it up - i am not supporting any political parties. Just pointing out that your comments regarding the "British Accent" and "Thai Accent" has nothing to do with leadership in Thailand.

[upena]

Last year Thailand Thailand ranked above Libya as the bottom two countries. This year, Libya has surpassed Thailand. Malaysia and Singapore are 11th and 12th worldwide and the top 2 in ASEAN. Look out Thailand, 2015 is coming soon.

[Jawnie]

The simple fact is: If you learn English, you can go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive. If you don't learn English and only speak, read Thai, you aren't going anywhere.

[cbluck58]

English is only the international language of diplomacy, banking, computing, medicine, business, science, technology, research, why should Thai be bothered learning it? Everyone knows Thai more important, lakorn always in Thai and so are the menu's.

Also Air traffic control, Marine traffic control, port operations , Radio Communication and together with a few others an official language of the United Nations.

[lostmebike]

The simple fact is: If you learn English, you can go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive. If you don't learn English and only speak, read Thai, you aren't going anywhere.

Read and comprehend Thailand cos never a truer word will be said.

[chrissables]

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

Do you mean "taxonomy"? Just googled it!

[chooka]

Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency

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

Before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XJonMclsEw

After:

Chalk and cheese, one is stumbling and the other appears very articulate with a strong British accent.

So are you saying people in Thailand should vote by listening to their "ENGLISH" ACCENTS?

And before you bring it up - i am not supporting any political parties. Just pointing out that your comments regarding the "British Accent" and "Thai Accent" has nothing to do with leadership in Thailand.

ah no. I never even mentioned politics. My comment on the examples given was on the two very different levels of English. My comment had absolutely nothing to do with politics in anyway.

[Nepsydaz]

The simple fact is: If you learn English, you can go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive. If you don't learn English and only speak, read Thai, you aren't going anywhere.

Yes.. Very True.

But the people complaining about it are foreigners coming into Thailand. Thais are very happy to be in Thailand and are least bothered to "go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive" Some who does go have good English.

So ... What was your point again?

Edited November 7, 2013 by Nepsydaz

[hanno]

Been to Cambodia three times recently. On average, their English is much better than Thai's. And to boot, they all seem to be attending classes after work. In general they are studying English, French, Thai and World History. All while working, all on their own Nickle.

I hear this all the time. I live here and just do not agree. Sure, in SR where everybody lives of the tourist Dollar English is widely spoken. Travel 5 minutes into any direction and nobody speaks English.

[sangsom69]

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.

22) Not to post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles).

I know it's off-topic, and I don't mean to be facetious, metis, but isn't this a little ironic when you've just taken a full story from The Nation verbatim and posted it on Thai Visa, as regularly occurs? Or are there profit sharing agreements in place allowing this lack of fair use attribution?

[sprq]

IMO this report is quite accurate.

Having worked throughout the region with University Educated people the English language skills of the Thai's are generally the weakest - This is in comparison to Vietnamese, Malaysians, Indonesian, Bangladeshi's... Labourers in these countries have very little English capacity, much the same as Thailand.

But at University level the difference is noticeable and to a significant detrimental effect to the quality of work and understanding of job specifics, much of the training for which is in English text.

It's a real shame, as the Thai's I work with put in plenty of effort and do their best to apply themselves, but comprehension hinders their operations and as a consequence take away numerous misunderstandings or give up on task due to confusion.

But your own English is pretty shaky. Get back to me for the specifics (about 10 mistakes), but the grade for the above would be B.

[janpharma]

Having noticed this several years ago, I decided to try to do something when I retired. I took a TEFL course and graduated with 89%. When I applied for a part time teaching job, the 'head-masters' were most enthousiast but "they had no budget"...although one of them just bought his 3rd car...a brand new Toyota Fortuner. So they offered me an alms. But, besides of that they assured me that I could accompany the "teaching corps" during many "sanuk sanan" trips all over T'land...This was not what I had in mind.

[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.

22) Not to post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles).

I know it's off-topic, and I don't mean to be facetious, metis, but isn't this a little ironic when you've just taken a full story from The Nation verbatim and posted it on Thai Visa, as regularly occurs? Or are there profit sharing agreements in place allowing this lack of fair use attribution?

It would be better to post your query in the Forum support desk as any explanation here would be off topic.

[sprq]

I was at a bank recently and only 1 person there spoke a bit of English. The manager? None. This bank is located right in the middle of one of the largest populations of foreigners here in Thailand. Terrible.

Yes that's one of my pet hates, Bank staff even in tourist areas all with degrees and quite a few in their 20's who cannot understand basic banking requests in English. Ok we should learn Thai who live here, but it's laughable when you go outside of such a Bank and all the tuk tuk drivers, vendors and waitresses with basic education can do what the Bank staff, with all the degrees and superior attitude cannot.

It's even true in bank branches which specifically target foreigners as customers, such as Bangkok Bank Emporium branch. Amazing Thailand.

[lostmebike]

The simple fact is: If you learn English, you can go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive. If you don't learn English and only speak, read Thai, you aren't going anywhere.

Yes.. Very True.

But the people complaining about it are foreigners coming into Thailand. Thais are very happy to be in Thailand and are least bothered to "go anywhere in the world, get a job, and survive" Some who does go have good English.

So ... What was your point again?

'Some who does go have good English. '

What's all this about then?

[sprq]

Been to Cambodia three times recently. On average, their English is much better than Thai's. And to boot, they all seem to be attending classes after work. In general they are studying English, French, Thai and World History. All while working, all on their own Nickle.

I hear this all the time. I live here and just do not agree. Sure, in SR where everybody lives of the tourist Dollar English is widely spoken. Travel 5 minutes into any direction and nobody speaks English.

Well, surely that's how it should be? Five minutes out of Siem Reap and you're in the sticks where everybody is a farmer who has no need for English.

[pablodiablo]

the kids are brainwashed at an early age and all though there school days, they are tought that thailand is the center of the universe and there is not much of interest outside thailand show a thai child a map of the world and ask him to show you thailand and see what happens!!!!

[Jawnie]

Wouldn't the world be better if People (Native English Speakers) coming to a foreign land tries to learn their native language to communicate rather than expecting that the natives learn English and then ridicule them if they cannot speak english correctly.

It is a FOREIGN language... They are not supposed to know it at the first place. If they are trying to learn don't ridicule them. Think about how well can you speak their language.

I would love to see the statistics on how many different languages can a "Native English Speaker" would know compared to the Non-Native English Speaker in average.

Yes learning English is an advantage but doesn't mean that it is "Embarrassing" if you cannot speak english. It is already so easy for the native english speakers to travel around the world and communicate and yet in some countries, if they have to learn a slight bit of new words of a new language, they complain their @$$ out and ridicule them.

Is that the attitude all over the English Speaking countries or just the ThaiVisa Members? People are relating ones Inability to speak English as ignorance. Well that thought itself is Ignorance at its Best.

I agree. I taught English in Bangkok for two years. The differences between the two languages are enormous, especially with pronunciation, but really everything: phrasal verbs, compound nouns, the past tense of verbs is especially difficult because since verb change form in English but not in Thai. These together make it very difficult. Often, I think people get caught up in the strong accent of Thais and interpret it as poor English. I've met numerous professional Thais who've studied English for years, but don't speak well because they don't get the opportunity. OTOH, if you 'listen past' the accent and missing articles and verb forms, they are quite understandable.

It is not ATROCIOUS that the PM speaks broken English, it's hard for all of them.

It works both ways, I found. English speakers learning Thai are difficult for Thais to understand. Why, because of the pronunciation, compound noun usage, phrasal verbs, etc. It's difficult for both sides.

[noikrit]

I wonder how many of these critics of Thais and there inability to speak English here in Thailand can speak any Thai themselves !! Get over it !! This is thailand , It's their country !! Now ... Back to the bar CHOKDEE KRUP !

[kruangfaifar]

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

You should try reading the report before making statements as wrong as that. EF has only been tracking data since 2007. Thailand actually shows the 10th best improvement in English ability not a decline as you mention. It is pretty staggering that you got it so wrong. The report also comments that South Korean students spend an average of 20,000 hours each between kindergarden and university learning English yet their proficiency is trending down.Data below is from the report

Turkey +11.86

Kazakhstan +11.73

Hungary +9.61

Indonesia +8.66

Vietnam +7.95

Poland +7.63

India +7.03

Russia +5.29

Peru +5.25

Thailand +5.03

United Arab Emirates +4.84

Spain +4.50

Colombia +4.30

Austria +4.08

Singapore* +0.27

South Korea -0.73

Hong Kong -0.90

Japan -0.96

[lostmebike]

I wonder how many of these critics of Thais and there inability to speak English here in Thailand can speak any Thai themselves !! Get over it !! This is thailand , It's their country !! Now ... Back to the bar CHOKDEE KRUP !

That's right, life is spent in a bar

[Always18]

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

And they've managed this in spite of having incapable teachers

Steady on old chap - perhaps "mostly incapable" would have been a better choice of phrase....................!