Access to Microsoft Office 'will transform Thai education'

[Thaddeus]

Like every computer in Thailand doesn't already has a bootleg copy of MS Office on it! Now because MS offers legal copies the entire Thai educational system will blossom?!?!?! Yeah, right!

I kind of took it to be a program that will work with the Thai students and teachers. Not just the normal things they have available to every one. Coming from Microsoft it will be far superior to what the students have been given to date on their cheap useless pads.

I still maintain that learning requires 2 years in learning logic and the ability to reason before teaching them how to suppress those abilities with a computer.

One other thing I do not have a bootlegged copy on my desk top or laptop. So you are wrong rite of the bat.

So, you never heard of hyperbole?

That's where the winners of the Superbowl go to next.

[Fiddlesticks]

Would at least be of more help if all the kids first had tablets or electricity to access it, despite its not having an ounce of affect upon poor teaching content.

Good point.

I have been maintaining rite from the word go that the reforming of education and the police department should be on the top of their list of things to do.

I realize that the basic work on this project was done under the PTP not the present government. This government has allowed them to go ahead with it. Now if they would put an end to the phony tab policy and look around for a sensible pad and electricity in all schools. I have made no bones about it I am against the pad's being introduced in their first two years of school and the current method of teaching those two years needs reform. Teach them to reason and use logic then give them useful machines.

So, you want to teach reasoning and logic to children in their first two years of school!!!???? How about teaching them to read, write, spell, do simple math? Then they will know when to use "right" and "rite".

[robsamui]

Why are we hassling about US vs UK English? Most of the popular software gives you a choice. I believe spellings like centre, theatre, honour, colour are a legacy of that fabulous year 1066. Vaguely...dare I say it-----FRENCH! Oh no! Sacre Bleu!

Oh - right then.

On this basis lets get rid of all the Latin words and roots that still proliferate: they go way further back.

Off the top of my head that eliminates . . .

magistrate medicine mortuary extra catapult tyranny imperial custody population aqua agriculture beast flame herb pirate school maritime obscure filial foliage female nymph liberal/liberty summit tempo

etc etc etc etc etc - AD INFINITUM! n.b. (nota bene)

Sadly, some people appear to think that just because words have ancient roots that makes them somehow invalid!

R

[robsamui]

Like every computer in Thailand doesn't already has a bootleg copy of MS Office on it! Now because MS offers legal copies the entire Thai educational system will blossom?!?!?! Yeah, right!

I kind of took it to be a program that will work with the Thai students and teachers. Not just the normal things they have available to every one. Coming from Microsoft it will be far superior to what the students have been given to date on their cheap useless pads.

I still maintain that learning requires 2 years in learning logic and the ability to reason before teaching them how to suppress those abilities with a computer.

One other thing I do not have a bootlegged copy on my desk top or laptop. So you are wrong rite of the bat.

So, you never heard of hyperbole?

That's where the winners of the Superbowl go to next.

What is the superbowl?

[AyG]

That's where the winners of the Superbowl go to next.

What is the superbowl?

Missing space. It's an owl of exceptionally high quality. Superb owl.

[DLock]

In the real world, most companies look for Microsoft Office skills when hiring people. Few job listings say "experience with crappy free software required".

...but then again, this is Thai Visa...a parallel universe where even positive news can be viewed negatively.

[AyG]

In the real world, most companies look for Microsoft Office skills when hiring people. Few job listings say "experience with crappy free software required".

...but then again, this is Thai Visa...a parallel universe where even positive news can be viewed negatively.

Lots of job listings say "experience with crappy free software required" - that's exactly what they mean when they ask for Microsoft Office skills - skills which have been acquired using pirated software.

[noitom]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

British English is soooo yesterday. American English is the language of world trade, of the internet, and all of the most popular websites are American. British English is used on some tiny fog shrouded island somewhere off the coast of Europe by a tiny number of people who the world has passed by.

Wake up! Shakespeare died already. alt=tongue.png>

alt=coffee1.gif width=32 height=24>

Nonsense.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

It's not a question of spelling - Americas have utterly butchered the language by atrocities such as:

1. Confusing the use of 'have' and 'do':- "Have you a pen?" "Yes I do got one" instead of 'Yes I have".

2. Removing pronouns of consequence such as 'if' and ' then':- " You get up late, you'll miss the bus."

3. Not being able to understand when to use 'and' or ' but':- "I wanted to go to Paris and and I wasn't able to."

4. Failing to understand proximity and the use of 'this' and 'that','here' and 'there' and 'bring' and 'take':- "Don't forget to bring your swimwear when you go on holiday.'

5. The past tenses of many words seem too hard to remember, so we have :- instead of spit/spat there's only spit - the same with fit/fitted - but then there's not dive/dived it's dive/dove etc

6. Hundreds of lunatic distortions such as " burglarise" instead of "burgle", "societal" instead of "social', "normalcy" instead of "normality" and so on . . .

BUT THEN you can add the complete confusion of different vocabulary for the same items as proper English, (muffler/exhaust, nappy/diaper, braces/suspenders etc etc etc). And add to that meter/metre, center/centre, honor/honour, color/colour etc etc etc.

Every European nation which is taught English as a 2nd language, in school and further education, uses the correct grammar and vocabulary of British English, and mostly they master the language better than the British people do. America is just one country and that nation might do well to remember it is only one amongst over 200 others.

How the poor Thais will ever get to grips with all this is anybody's guess. I imagine this is the reason that emerging and 3rd-world nations favour American English/vocabulary so much - it comes as default on their MS Word spellcheckers and that means they don't need to use one ounce of brain to be . . "able to write".

R

As a linguist and as a "true" teacher, who has studied your language and its spelling system, one cannot but laugh when people insists that Thais and others spell words correctly. What? English words are misspelled in the dictionary all of the time; they do not conform to the 80 or so spelling rules that they should follow. The English spelling system is an utter failure. It has twice as many spelling rules as other languages. It has 201 different ways to spell 42 or so phonemes. A study out of 7000 common words found that about 1/3 presented reading difficulties and about 1/2, spelling difficulties. (1) Samuel Johnson had a chance to clean it up and he failed. Carnegie and Shaw tried to clean it up and capitalism killed that idea. For all of those who are stuck with expecting people to master this failure of a system, this chaos, please learn that about 50% of words in the English are probably misspelled in the dictionary (probably more). So, those spelling nazis are actually anarchists, trying to maintain this language in a state of utter chaos. Now, if the spelling system were to be regularized (to follow all of those spelling rules loyally, at a minimum), then teachers (true or wannabes) could help Thais and others to learn other grammatical aspects more and more often, then pronunciation would be so much more easier to learn. Then, and only then,Thais and others could speak and write in English more accurately. The world might be a better world if everyone had to use Thai, but that's another discussion for another day! At this time, though, English-speakers can be happy to continue to be the masters (as they were in so many other ways in the past), dictating rules that are erratic and illogical, a system that is inefficient and elitist. But, rejoice, no one will ever do anything about this. The only change that some of you will endorse is the one that OTHERS must make. (2)

As far as this article is concerned, there is Ubuntu as a FREE alternative open source operating system for everyone to use and most people will never need to use the more "polished" features that some more specialised programs, created by Microsoft or others, have. You will have less of a chance to get viruses too. Try it. Progress is essential!

1) http://englishspellingproblems.blogspot.co.uk/

2) More info here.

[wow64]

I totally agree getting M/S office will totally fix the education system.

Hopefully they get Excel not just word.

Do you think this will fix the issue of a 3 year old student telling the teacher how to pronounce words and letters correctly?

[waoscar]

I just hope they reach thius simple rule;

Words go in msword

Numbers go in msexcel

Most recentley educated Ausies i encounter seem to use this rule;

Science/engineering people - make everything fitt in excel

The rest use msword including those clumsey word tables.

The Ausie education system aint succeeding to well.

(How many people could not understand my communication due to spellin errors)

[JimShortz]

F F S give it a rest - this is good no matter how you look at it, better than spending billions on useless tablets - now move on

Err, no.... It depends how you look at it. Isn't this just Microsoft using it's power to maintain dominance by giving its software away at the grass roots level. Businesses are then forced to buy it...

[smedly]

yes better to just keep setting an example to the youth of Thailand to pirate software, the Education system should be setting an example

[Don Aleman]

Bah, and double bah. You can supply a monkey with a typewriter, or computer but like " leading someone to water, etc.,", THEY gotta wanna and, I don't see any great interest by Thai students in actually learning anything. Most that I've met, plus the two I live with, (12 and 18 ), are perfectly happy with being "just like Mom and Pop " - maids and 7 - 11 clerks. Ambition here is virtually non existent.

[Anon999]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

Apache Open Office provides the choice of English UK or English USA spell checker. It is also FREE and Oracle are a major player in s/w and for a long time. Compatibility with MS Office, YES, upgrades FREE.

[Anon999]

Bah, and double bah. You can supply a monkey with a typewriter, or computer but like " leading someone to water, etc.,", THEY gotta wanna and, I don't see any great interest by Thai students in actually learning anything. Most that I've met, plus the two I live with, (12 and 18 ), are perfectly happy with being "just like Mom and Pop " - maids and 7 - 11 clerks. Ambition here is virtually non existent.

You get them in every country including your own. However, my experience is that the majority of Thai students, I am aware of, want to learn. I think we move in different circles.

[Taunusianer]

The tablet thing is dead, long live MS Office........ OK, what's next? What ever comes, it will be always good for some nice pictures in the press

[AyG]

Apache Open Office provides the choice of English UK or English USA spell checker. It is also FREE and Oracle are a major player in s/w and for a long time. Compatibility with MS Office, YES, upgrades FREE.

Oracle is no longer involved in the development of OpenOffice. (And during the time they did manage its development they managed to alienate virtually all the programmers, who quite the project to start LibreOffice.) The project is in much better hands under the Apache foundation. As a company, Oracle pretty much as bad as Microsoft in its acquiring products from outside then stifling development.

Compatibility with MS Office is not 100%. (And Microsoft tries to keep it that way by not publishing file format specifications.) I often encounter formatting problems reading then saving .docx documents.

That said there's really no reason that I can think of for anyone to pay for Microsoft Office when LibreOffice and OpenOffice are such excellent products.

[englishoak]

Apache Open Office provides the choice of English UK or English USA spell checker. It is also FREE and Oracle are a major player in s/w and for a long time. Compatibility with MS Office, YES, upgrades FREE.

Oracle is no longer involved in the development of OpenOffice. (And during the time they did manage its development they managed to alienate virtually all the programmers, who quite the project to start LibreOffice.) The project is in much better hands under the Apache foundation. As a company, Oracle pretty much as bad as Microsoft in its acquiring products from outside then stifling development.

Compatibility with MS Office is not 100%. (And Microsoft tries to keep it that way by not publishing file format specifications.) I often encounter formatting problems reading then saving .docx documents.

That said there's really no reason that I can think of for anyone to pay for Microsoft Office when LibreOffice and OpenOffice are such excellent products.

Absolutely agree, I cant stand the last couple of latest windows. Im waiting for the day someone finally comes out with a great open source OS to match open office quality. Theres a couple of contender options but a way off just yet... but its going to happen. Maybe this one,http://www.reactos.org/ i wish them the best of luck in liberating the world from microsoft.

Love open source projects, its the way of the future and away from monopolies

Edited June 1, 2014 by englishoak

[kriswillems]

Giving microsoft office away for free to students is a bad evolution.

The legal use of open source software in third world countries is in the long term a blessing for these countries.

Because I believe that in the long term people will not pay anymore for basic software (operating systems, text editors, spreadsheets, ...)

If people in third world countries would be forced, starting from now, to use free legal software (linux, openoffice, ...) they would get an early technological advantage over the rich countries and it wouldn't cost then any Baht.

[Crushdepth]

Don't think so.

[chrisinth]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Quote

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

Actually you just have to work out how to configure it.

To have it in English (Any) will be a wonder to see........................

[Local Drunk]

Someone please tell me when to stop laughing...

[mikemac]

Now we will have even more of the world speaking 'American' English, when word constantly tells them they are making spelling errors when they are not.

British English is soooo yesterday. American English is the language of world trade, of the internet, and all of the most popular websites are American. British English is used on some tiny fog shrouded island somewhere off the coast of Europe by a tiny number of people who the world has passed by.

Wake up! Shakespeare died already.

Don't forget Canada. We too spell words correctly. The americans get some of them wrong.

My friend once told me that Canadians are just snap frozen Yanks with an identity problem but I don't believe him.

[mikemac]

Bah, and double bah. You can supply a monkey with a typewriter, or computer but like " leading someone to water, etc.,", THEY gotta wanna and, I don't see any great interest by Thai students in actually learning anything. Most that I've met, plus the two I live with, (12 and 18 ), are perfectly happy with being "just like Mom and Pop " - maids and 7 - 11 clerks. Ambition here is virtually non existent.

^ This is not a crass and idiotic post, but it will do til we find one.