Vietnamese jumping at chance to learn Thai prior to start of AEC

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EDUCATION
Vietnamese jumping at chance to learn Thai prior to start of AEC
PANYAPORN SAITHONG
THE NATION



Hotel staff and workers in shopping malls see it as a way to boost income

BANGKOK: -- AN increasing number of Vietnamese are learning Thai as second language in a bid to attract tourism and business investment to the country ahead of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), when it commences in 2015.

Languages and communication skills are increasingly being seen by Asean countries as the path to improving economic competitiveness ahead of the AEC, with Vietnam realising that it could bring more investment to the country, especially in the area of tourism.

Vietnam is therefore promoting the importance of language skills in different industry sectors, expressing its wish that people should be able to speak at least two languages.

In recent years, Thai language has become particularly popular among Vietnam's hotel staff and among staff working in shopping malls.

Quang Tri province resident Houng Quac Hung, 25, said that following the government's initiative to promote language learning, many people had become interested in learning a second language, with a large number opting to learn Thai.

Schools and universities, especially those in the provinces, had launched Thai language classes and some Vietnamese students had also crossed over into Thailand to learn Thai at schools in border provinces. Houng said most people agreed that if Thai was studied as a second language, it would enable one to find a good job - perhaps as a tour guide - a position which offered a larger-than-average income.

Houng said Thai language courses in Vietnam mostly focused on conversational Thai and the main reason people wished to study it was because an increasing number of Thai businessmen were investing in Vietnam, especially in Da Nang province's furniture business.

Tourism was also another key reason because many Vietnamese liked to visit Thailand in December, as well as during Thailand's Songkran Festival in April.

Houng spent five years studying at Roi Et Rajabhat University, with his first year spent studying Thai language. The subsequent four years went on studying tourism and hotel management. Thailand, said Houng, put special emphasis on the importance of tourism management and promotion, which could then be applied in his own country.

Da Nang resident Nguyen Van Nhat, 68, said he used to teach at a vocational college in Da Nang and after retirement began working as a tour guide. Since the age of 20, he had been learning Thai and had many relatives living in Thailand. Although most Vietnamese still preferred to learn English and French, Nhat said Thai language had become more popular lately, with some universities making it a compulsory subject. Language institutions had also begun offering six-month conversational courses in Thai, he added.

Nhat said that Vietnam required its university graduates to speak at least two foreign languages in order to get a job, which gave those proficient in foreign languages a big advantage over others in the job market.

However, comparatively-speaking there was still only a small number of Vietnamese studying Thai, because the language was difficult to master and, if not used regularly, was easy to forget, Nhat said.

Thai-Vietnamese Business Association board member Woramai Punpassorn said while Vietnamese people were ready and keen to learn Thai, Thais were not enthusiastic enough about learning Vietnamese, or other Southeast Asian languages.

She advised those wishing to do business in Vietnam to learn Vietnamese, so that they could boost their chances of success following the commencement of the AEC in 2016.


-- The Nation 2013-11-25

[dru2]

Well and good - but those are Vietnamese novice monks in the picture, and I don't believe they are studying Thai!

[jaltsc]

"AN increasing number of Vietnamese are learning Thai as second language..."

It is more likely Thai will be used as a third or perhaps fourth language, if at all, since many students in Vietnam seek to learn English. Walk down the park dividing the main road in Saigon and students will stop and ask if they can practice speaking English with you. How many do you think stop tourists and ask if they can practice speaking Thai? I have my doubts that Thai would have priority over learning English and Mandarin since those would be the languages necessary for success in business and the tourism industry in today's world. Not to mention the historic use of French.

I also question the statement: "...some Vietnamese students had also crossed over into Thailand to learn Thai at schools in border provinces." since the last time I looked, Vietnam and Thailand do not share a common border and they would have to first cross Cambodia or Laos to reach the border provinces in Thailand. But, why let such trivialities get in the way of self serving bravado.

Edited November 25, 2013 by jaltsc

[PaullyW]

Once again - they seem to be missing the point that -- if there is one additional language a person will learn as a second language, it should very likely be English. But, it's more prideful to pretend otherwise.

[nong38]

Well and good - but those are Vietnamese novice monks in the picture, and I don't believe they are studying Thai!

Probably working on the next lottery numbers

[nong38]

Seriously what an odd choice from all the languages available in Asean and arent they going have English as the common language? Cant think many Thais go to Vietnam for business or holidays, it might look good for Thailand's pride but otherwise its non story which will be quickly forgotten as it wont happen in the same way that Thais learn Vietnamese.

[WhizBang]

Total BS. My ex-wife is Vietnamese, and I have visited Vietnam many times. ENGLISH is the language they ALL want to learn. Chinese would probably be second. I very much doubt that Thai is even on their radar as a useful language to learn.

[BudRight]

Total BS. My ex-wife is Vietnamese, and I have visited Vietnam many times. ENGLISH is the language they ALL want to learn. Chinese would probably be second. I very much doubt that Thai is even on their radar as a useful language to learn.

Thai people are going to have a hard time communicating with them then.

[upena]

Thais are still struggling to learn Thai

[bangon04]

Thais are still struggling to learn Thai

"Thai-Vietnamese Business Association board member Woramai Punpassorn said while Vietnamese people were ready and keen to learn Thai, Thais were not enthusiastic enough about learning Vietnamese, or other Southeast Asian languages.

She advised those wishing to do business in Vietnam to learn Vietnamese, so that they could boost their chances of success following the commencement of the AEC in 2016."

Naaaah. Protectionism and nationalist pride have served Thais well over the years. Much better to do nothing. Even learning English would be a sign of weakness. It will all pass over eventually, then Thais can continue as they always have...

[noitom]

Vietnamese "jumping" to learn Thai. What a preposterous notion.

[willyumiii]

And the Thais still try their hardest not to learn English!

All of that money earmarked for teaching English to prepare for 2015 where did it go?

Mai pen rai !

Thailand is in for a very rude awakening in 2015 when all of those SE Asian countries can just walk in to the country and take Thai jobs.

If these people speak English and Thai, the Thais will not be able to compete for jobs in their own country let alone any other SE Asian country

Corruption will continue to be the most lucrative profession for the Thais.

Maybe the only one!

[GreenSnapper]

Vietnamese "jumping" to learn Thai. What a preposterous notion.

Vietnamese are highly capable and intelligent people. There are certainly some who realized that having business with Thailand, it is worth to communicate in Thai, as almost noone in Thailand can speak English or even wants to learn anything.

[bigbamboo]

Considering English will be the universal language of the AEC and is also the world's lingua franca then it makes more sense to study that as your second language than a language which is only spoken in one country in the world.

Of course in terms of local needs then it may be more pertinent to learn a neighbour's language but if I were a parent in Vietnam I'd want my children to learn English instead.

[cheshiremusicman]

Considering English will be the universal language of the AEC and is also the world's lingua franca then it makes more sense to study that as your second language than a language which is only spoken in one country in the world.

Of course in terms of local needs then it may be more pertinent to learn a neighbour's language but if I were a parent in Vietnam I'd want my children to learn English instead.

Damned right; who the hell in their right mind would want to learn Thai as opposed to English? Typical BS to boost the Thai Face!

[phantomfiddler]

Considering English will be the universal language of the AEC and is also the world's lingua franca then it makes more sense to study that as your second language than a language which is only spoken in one country in the world.

Of course in terms of local needs then it may be more pertinent to learn a neighbour's language but if I were a parent in Vietnam I'd want my children to learn English instead.

Damned right; who the hell in their right mind would want to learn Thai as opposed to English? Typical BS to boost the Thai Face!

Who said "thai as opposed to english" ? I,d say that the vietamese are industrious and smart enough to want to learn both

[tfc]

Thais are still struggling to learn Thai

Naaaah. Protectionism and nationalist pride have served Thais well over the years. Much better to do nothing. Even learning English would be a sign of weakness. It will all pass over eventually, then Thais can continue as they always have...

Admitting weakness is something that Vietnamese as a generalized whole don't seem to have a problem with. When I was there in 1999 I made friends with many who would talk about how they needed to work hard to catch up with the rest of the world economically. No problem acknowledging where they were weak and working hard on solutions. The speed at which they have accelerated since then is amazing. Their work and study ethic is strong.

While I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising Vietnamese choose to study Thai as a way to do business with Thailand, English is clearly going to be the first choice. Thai would be a micro-niche choice.

[Lakegeneve]

If you go out to the suburbs it is not uncommon to come across Vietnamese working in Thai restaurants, car park attendants etc. It has been the trend in the last couple of years due to increasing labour shortages in some sectors in Thailand and high inflation in Vietnam. Some families in some of the poorer mid north mountain provinces are sending their youth through Laos and over to thailand to work. I can think of 10 large restaurants from Bang Bua Thong way to Prachacheun to Kaset Namawin way which all have a number of Vietnamese staff. The might be working for much less than the minimum wage but it is a good salary for most. I suspect that their conditions are better than those migrant Vietnamese workers who end up other places/sectors and more easily exploited.

Of course Sakhon Nakhon has a strong connection with Vietnam and seems to be the gateway area where people enter the country. This trend will only continue especially when the pool of Burmese workers starts to decrease as Burma booms in the coming years.

I'd suggest that this migrant worker trend will see way many more Vietnamese learning conversational Thai than via the business and educational avenues suggested in the article.

[biggles45]

"Thailand is in for a very rude awakening in 2015 when all of those SE Asian countries can just walk in to the country and take Thai jobs."

The Thai Government is well ahead of you on this. They have already announced some time ago that post 2015, jobs for other ASEAN members will be limited to a number of professional categories, about 8 as I recall. They already anticipated hundreds of filipinos flooding the country I think.