Speaking English: Thailand vs Philippines

[pinkpanther99]

After reading this article yesterday about Thailand lagging behind in its English levels, it seems that these kind of stories are in the news every couple of weeks or so.

It got me thinking. What does Thailand do so differently or so much worse than say the Philippines when it comes to teaching, learning and speaking English? There are plenty of good Filipino English speakers teaching English in Thailand why doesn't Thailand follow the Philippines lead?

I've never been to the Philippines but I would be interested to hear from anyone who has taught English over there and in Thailand and share their experiences of how the two countries differ in their approach to studying and speaking English.

Is it that the Philippines set more budget aside for this part of education? Do they hire better/more qualified foreign teachers? Does the Philippines pay better wages? Is the education system more professional and less corrupt than in Thailand? I'm just thinking out loud (so to speak) but there must be some reason for it?

I don't want this to turn into a Thai bashing session but would rather hope to have an interesting debate.

[Issangeorge]

I don't know, but is English not a second official language in the Philippines?

Sent from my i-mobile IQ X using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[thailiketoo]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

Edited December 17, 2013 by thailiketoo

[mmh8]

no contest

[thailiketoo]

Doesn't the Thai education department consider Filipinos native English speakers?

[mmh8]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

ok ok pedant anonymous member here,

but Philipines was colonised that is why they are catholic , or some branch of Christian and all speak bludy good English

[kikoman]

Well the United States won the Philippine's from the Spanish as a result of the Spanish American War in 1898, after the Philippine- American War 1899-1902 the Americans defeated the revolt of the people of the Philippines and made English the primary language of, the government, education and business, The US controlled the Philippines from 1898 to 1946.

So to answer your question, Why the people of the Philippines have more English speakers and teachers then Thailand, was a result of 48 years of English language was forced on the people of the Philippines as it official language!

Cheers

Edited December 17, 2013 by kikoman

[Briggsy]

3 big reasons.

1. The Philippines became an American colony in 1898. It became independent after WWII but the links have remained very strong to this day.

2. There are a myriad of languages spoken in the Philippines. Although Tagalog is the official language, having a neutral language such as English as the lingua franca is very helpful.

3. English is actually used in daily life in the Philippines, in government, when dealing with others who don't speak the same native tongue, etc.

Contrast with Thailand

1. Never been colonised by an English-speaking country.

2. Almost monolingual nowadays. The lingua franca, Thai, is no longer strongly identified with the central region. This policy has been pushed hard since the 1950's. Excluding Malays in the Deep South and hill tribes who are marginalised any way, that only leaves us with Khmer speaking regions and for obvious reasons, they do not want to be identified as Khmer, so Thai is the lingua franca.

3. English is not used in daily life. The average Thai experiences a range of emotions when hearing, speaking or having to use English. Not one of those emotions is "this is a normal way to communicate." Embarrassment, awkwardness, a comic feeling are common. If they have some basic ability, the feelings may change to pride or even hubris. A cultural leap has not yet been made.

[Hardened Spanker]

I've just come back from a trip to Bali,Indonesia and guess what?Everyone speaks perfect English there as well,at least as good as the Philippines if not better without the silly accent!
The truth is it's just not cool or "Gangsta" in Thailand to speak English and that suits the governments just fine,keep 'em stupid,uneducated and therefore much easier to manipulate!

[thailiketoo]

I've just come back from a trip to Bali,Indonesia and guess what?Everyone speaks perfect English there as well,at least as good as the Philippines if not better without the silly accent!

The truth is it's just not cool or "Gangsta" in Thailand to speak English and that suits the governments just fine,keep 'em stupid,uneducated and therefore much easier to manipulate!

What has not speaking English to do with being stupid and uneducated? Silly accent? Oh God we need a thread on that. We could have a poll what is the most difficult accent to understand as opposed to the silliest accent.

[epicstuff]

other than all the reasons stated so far from this stupid question.. I just wanted to add out of my frustration just an hour or so ago at lunch. the bloody Thais sometimes are just so scared to face a foreigner they dont try comunicate at all. I had a waitress walk away from me 3 or 4 times everytime I was about to open my mouth to order and I was going to speak Thai. which I can do moderately well, certainly when ordering my lunch, only to have a note pad thrust at me 10 minute later. I only wanted Paad Thai <deleted> .

[dao16]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

ok ok pedant anonymous member here,

but Philipines was colonised that is why they are catholic , or some branch of Christian and all speak bludy good English

Yeah, it was a Spanish colony before. Then the US took it over. I have met some people from there who speak Spanish (along with English and Tagalog). They have a saying about it...don't remember. Ask a Filipino and they will probably know it. Several have told it to me and laughed.

[nakhonsawan]

Not long ago, my daughter, who is in the final year before university. She came home, and explained, that now she had a good English teacher .. because that person could also speak the language ... English ...

I guess the problem in Thailand ... No one speaks English, but know a lot of grammar ..

We had a parents meeting not long ago. On this metting I took the liberty to ask, why all this grammar, and no spoken english language ..

The former teacher said that the importance of grammar, that was greater than to speak the language English.

I took the liberty to ask her, how she had learned herThai language .. Did she Learned gramma first, before she learned the speakeing language ..

There was silence from all the parents who attended the meeting ...

[Mudcrab]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

wrong

[Mudcrab]

Could be the quality of the English teachers?...As the saying goes - those that can - do. Those that can't - teach

[KED]

It is not just The Philippines that is more proficient at speaking English. I was in SIem Reap last week and the Camobdians speak much better Enlgish than Thailand. I know there are many more NGO's and foreign volunteers in Cambodia per capita than in Thailand and believe that the lack of enough native speakers in Thailand along with the poor education system keep Thailand lacking in so many ways.

[bender92]

The Filipinos love karaoke, which is mostly English songs.

[Costas2008]

Issangeorge, on 17 Dec 2013 - 10:39, said:

I don't know, but is English not a second official language in the Philippines? Sent from my i-mobile IQ X using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Which is the second official language in Thailand? Lao???

[robertson468]

I've just come back from a trip to Bali,Indonesia and guess what?Everyone speaks perfect English there as well,at least as good as the Philippines if not better without the silly accent!

The truth is it's just not cool or "Gangsta" in Thailand to speak English and that suits the governments just fine,keep 'em stupid,uneducated and therefore much easier to manipulate!

Sorry, you are so wrong about it not being "cool" to speak English in Thailand. All you need to do is frequent the places that the "landed gentry" and "money come lately" groups hang out and you will find them speaking English to each other in the restaurants etc to show their "status". Sadly, it has not perculated that far down the the social ladder.

[aar78]

Suprisingly Philippines is not even included in the EF English Proficiency index (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index). Probably because they are considered native speakers. This index is only for non-native english speaking country. Thailand ranked 55.

[12DrinkMore]

I was in the Philippines a few years ago.

I had difficulty keeping up with the kids in the resort playing Scrabble. Lot of fun, but I had to concentrate.

[Greenhill]

Being predominantly Catholic, The Philippines has a greater affinity to the West generally and particularly the US!! There are many cultural and religious differences between Thai's (predominantly Buddhists) and Western/Anglo Saxon cultures!! In shopping malls in PI you will hear English/American music, whereas in Thailand, you will hear Thai music! The Philippines are much more open to Western culture than Thailand! Filipinos are proud to speak English and the Thai's scared to speak English!! The Filipino's think it makes them more worldly and the Thai's thinks that it will diminish their 'Thainess' - as if that is something to be proud of??!! I could go on but.......

[tingtongteesood]

In a great many cases in Thailand, English class is 1 or 2 hours per week in classes with 50 screaming kids who couldn't care less, also often with Thai assistants who couldn't care less about doing their jobs. This is a very large part of the problem.

[prolm2810]

"

"Thailand vs Philippines?"

I asked my self the same many time, also asked Thai people, why is Thai people so bad in English, even those with university education? There's many answers, but school systems and the facts that most of other countries speaks native and English, but in Thailand they speak Thai-Thai and English-Thai, not Thai-English (if you understand:)

I had the pleasure to work in both Thailand and the Philippines last six years. In Thailand very few farangs speak Thai-Thai, some are good in English-Thai (bom bom, teerak, Sa bai dee mai, Sawasdee ............. and so on:) I smile every time I ask a shop assistant if they have something in stock: "do you have battery for this ....." and she/he look at me and don't know what I mean. Asking again, do you have ..... So then I say: You don't have this? Still no answer. Then I turn it around and say: "no have ....?", then she/he smile and say: NO HAVE Kind of cute:)

In the Philippines I love to work and stay mostly because there they speak/read/write English better than UK and US people - If you don't believe, read this and you also find much more stuff confirming this: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph--world-s-best-country-in-business-english.html

Girls and beaches - Same same, but different

leif

[Benmart]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

wrong

Please elaborate. It may help me understand your one word response.

[Benmart]

Mr Panther sir one reason may be, go to google and type, "List of countries where English is an official language." Thailand is not on there, I don't think. Philippines is on there I think, Check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

If you really didn't now the Philippines was a US colony and had thousands of Americans stationed at naval bases in the country for years after that.

The Philippines fought on our side during WWII and the Thais on the other side.

ok ok pedant anonymous member here,

but Philipines was colonised that is why they are catholic , or some branch of Christian and all speak bludy good English

Yeah, it was a Spanish colony before. Then the US took it over. I have met some people from there who speak Spanish (along with English and Tagalog). They have a saying about it...don't remember. Ask a Filipino and they will probably know it. Several have told it to me and laughed.

During one visit to Luzon, a Filipino friend said, "The Spanish gave us religion (Roman Catholicism), The Americans gave us English and Civil Service and the Japanese gave us Kamikaze drivers". I thought it was funny and he continued the conversation is fluent English, complete with the latest jokes and comedy.

[flossie35]

There are 171 languages in the Philippines. People need a lingua franca. It used to be Spanish, now it's English. Thailand already has its own lingua franca. It's called Thai. India, and several African countries, also use a lingua franca for similar reasons to the Philippines; it may be English but could be French or Portuguese, for example, or a pidgin.

[duanebigsby]

It's impossible to compare the Philippines and Thailand in terms of English.

U.S. occupation for years, English as an official language, the de facto daily language being English, and the language of the school system being English makes them fluent. The kids in the Philippines are taught every subject in English other than the other languages.

Thai English teachers are a product of the Thai education system which needs an overhaul. They are (generally) very good grammatically but not conversationally.

2 hours weekly contact with Native English Speaker in a class of over fifty kids is not conducive to learning conversational English.

The low passing threshold and the "no kid fails" aspect is detrimental as well. Thai shyness and not realizing the importance of English as a second language also contributes.

I think if contact time were increased, more immersion programs, and a better stress on English importance, with drastically reduced class sizes were implemented, progress could be made.

[wilgoster]

Tell me the differences in languages - Thai and English - don't make acquisition more difficult, both ways. Not saying it's the only reason, but it's a major impediment. Pinoy dialects use most of the alphabet that English uses and pronunciation is closely consistent. Many English, and before that, Spanish and Portuguese words were adapted into all dialects. The Pinoy learner of English doesn't have to put on a much different mind set to learn... and no tonal factors. The Thai child learning thai pays attention to a much different set of cues that the Pinoy child whose cues are much closer to the cues of the child learning english. Only 8 sounds end syllables. Multiple consonants produce same sounds, tones notwithstanding. Stress is tone related. Words, not stress provide emphasis. I'm convinced that minds are organized differently by language and from language to language. Who but a Linguist and Anthropologist would know how much these differences affect second language acquisition but motivation alone could not account for all the variance. And whoever uses the "stupid" or "lazy" brush to paint Thais is culturally blind.

[Shancloudy]

Simply because in Philippines all books are written in English and the teachers let the students to do a research which is they are required to go to the different library to gather information for a research. At a young age the teachers let the students to speak in front of the class to teach the lesson "we called it reporting style of teaching". In the first day of class the teachers will group the student into 5 each group has a leader to command their classmate and the teacher will assign the topic to each group example group 1 will discuss the chapter number 1 and each student in a group will discuss the topic while the other students will listen and ask the question to the group so during the class they have brainstorming and after that the teacher will evaluate the students that's usually the daily routine in the classroom so the students have time to speak english everyday and can use their mind through brain storming and the teachers are just sitting and listening to the students and give them score. Every students wanted to be top 1 in class so everybody are encourage to study.

Most thai students are lazy to think they don't want to use their mind.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Shancloudy