Special Report: Thailand gears up for arrival of ASEAN

[Jim walker]

Thailand will miss the boat again as usual and will just follow along after the other Asian countries never in the forefront always the rear end tagging along trying to sort some sort of mess / problems out English teachers needed urgently free issue special long term visas for them now. .

[lostinisaan]

I have often gone into banks, hospitals,True, AIS and DO HOME and politely asked in Thai " Do you have someone here who speaks English". Hospitals, AIS and True usually have one staff member who has a basic grasp and they try to be helpful but often their reaction is sometimes akin to me having asked if they can speak Swahili.

The most proficient speakers of English in Thailand are usually ladies working in bars, hotels and restaurants where there are large numbers of farang customers who usually speak English.

It's a shame but that's the way it is, too many Thais who have learned some English at school are too shy to try and converse, even in a simple conversation with a farang.

I do understand why some Thais, who could speak English a while ago can't communicate anymore. I grew up bilingual, using English and German from earliest childhood on.

Then within 12 years, I very seldom used the German language and had a problem to recall some vocabulary, which I knew in English, as well as in Thai.

I'd lost a lot of my German speaking skills, because I didn't speak the language for quite a long time. I guess same happened to many Thais who could speak English much better, when they had the chance to speak in English.

Thai English teachers usually use English only at school, once they come home they only speak Thai. At least the majority.

Funny was when speaking to my sister on the phone in German when she told me that my German would have American accent ( Again somebody blaming THE Americans!)

Then I started to make translations from English into German for a software company and got my lost german back.

Really had huge problems to use the right word in German for the English word. Then the freaking German grammar did the rest.

And i started to watch movies in German. That leads me to my conclusion about Thai people in general. The best English speaking people I've met in Ubon Rtachathani, one a doctor, the other one a lecturer at Rajabhat have learned their fantastic English by watching movies, reading news, etc...

I remember bout two years ago, when Bangkok post brought news in English, which was pretty cool. But they stopped already after only two months, or so.

Why do they only show Thai soap operas on TV, some English cartoons, action movies, educational programs would be very helpful for all Thais.

But if those cartoon characters at the MoE and Khuruspha don't even understand easy educational solutions, it's like bangking your head against a wall.

It's not that Thai people don't want to learn English. The system s-xks. If most Thai English teachers aren't capable to have an easy conversation with a foreigner, they should not teach English.

I had so many good students, who used each free minute to learn English, hundreds of free English learning programs on the WWW do help to learn the language.

Over the years,i've had quite a few grade six students with a much better English than their Thai English teacher.

But of course, where they not allowed to correct their own teacher. That's one of the biggest problems here. Other people from AEC countries do not lose face.

Thailand failed for the last 20+ years and will continue doing so with their weird ideas regarding teaching.

Edited July 20, 2014 by lostinisaan

[Travel2003]

I have often gone into banks, hospitals,True, AIS and DO HOME and politely asked in Thai " Do you have someone here who speaks English". Hospitals, AIS and True usually have one staff member who has a basic grasp and they try to be helpful but often their reaction is sometimes akin to me having asked if they can speak Swahili.

The most proficient speakers of English in Thailand are usually ladies working in bars, hotels and restaurants where there are large numbers of farang customers who usually speak English.

It's a shame but that's the way it is, too many Thais who have learned some English at school are too shy to try and converse, even in a simple conversation with a farang.

Same in Norway, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, (20 more European countries).

As soon as one is a bit outside the tourist spots, same same.

People forget if they don't practice.Why would people even consider talking a foreign language to each other?

[khitzflo]

They gears for the arrival of Asean.in 2015...and gears to train their citizen in English....but planning to catapult all foreigners who are in the kingdom..who work without work permit , as English teachers at a language school..and all schools all over Thailand.......Hope they will make some considerations, this people are of big help to make their plan succeed, above all..who will benefit the most in the end..,,,,these foreigners. who work as english teachers illegally.? or the thai citizen.....

[Alwyn]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

[Alwyn]

It's getting more like the Marx Brothers shenanigans each day

[ginjag]

I have often gone into banks, hospitals,True, AIS and DO HOME and politely asked in Thai " Do you have someone here who speaks English". Hospitals, AIS and True usually have one staff member who has a basic grasp and they try to be helpful but often their reaction is sometimes akin to me having asked if they can speak Swahili.

The most proficient speakers of English in Thailand are usually ladies working in bars, hotels and restaurants where there are large numbers of farang customers who usually speak English.

It's a shame but that's the way it is, too many Thais who have learned some English at school are too shy to try and converse, even in a simple conversation with a farang.

Some of the best speakers and help are the Dtac 1678 and press English, all these operators are perfect and the most polite personnel in Thailand.

I enjoy the large Home Pro -Home mart an assistant gets an English speaking person who says Good afternoon may I help you--when you explain the problem another on appears and says -good afternoon sir may I help you. and you finish up running away and find what you want alone---

[belg]

gearing up, on paper

words ...

actions speak louder then them ...

maybe they need more gadgets in the classroom, like ... electricity

[ratcatcher]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

"Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all."

Absolutely true, the trouble is we are talking about the Thais being able to communicate with other ASEAN members, not necessarily farangs.

If Thais want to communicate with Indonesians, Filipinas, Burmese or Khmers, their easiest medium would probably be English. Thai is not a useful language outside Thailand. Spanish, on the other hand is useful in many countries.

I think the poster was making the point, as I did previously, that it would be nice if just 1 out of 50 people in a business had a basic grasp of English. Just to prove that the Thai English program is not a 100% failure.

The Thai government makes it impossible for any foreigner to legally converse with a group of Thai students in English, for the purposes of improving their conversation skills, as that is considered work, and thus needs a permit.

Edited July 20, 2014 by ratcatcher

[Alwyn]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

"Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all."

Absolutely true, the trouble is we are talking about the Thais being able to communicate with other ASEAN members, not necessarily farangs.

If Thais want to communicate with Indonesians, Filipinas, Burmese or Khmers, their easiest medium would probably be English. Thai is not a useful language outside Thailand. Spanish, on the other hand is useful in many countries.

I think the poster was making the point, as I did previously, that it would be nice if just 1 out of 50 people in a business had a basic grasp of English. Just to prove that the Thai English program is not a 100% failure.

The Thai government makes it impossible for any foreigner to legally converse with a group of Thai students in English, for the purposes of improving their conversation skills, as that is considered work, and thus needs a permit.

I totally agree with you! Hacing said that, Chinese are not so brilliant at English either - worse than the Thais. But expecting store workers to be good with English might be stretching it! The same goes for hmers, Filipinas and Burmese within Thailand then it behoves those people to learn Thai! On an international stage people need a common language, I totally get that (except the poxy Russians of course). I had the good fortune to live and work in Brazil. Hardly anybody spoke English and trust me when I tell you this, Brazil is a far more advanced country than Thailand with huge Worldwide networking - especially now they've found the largest oil deposit in the World!

[ratcatcher]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

"Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all."

Absolutely true, the trouble is we are talking about the Thais being able to communicate with other ASEAN members, not necessarily farangs.

If Thais want to communicate with Indonesians, Filipinas, Burmese or Khmers, their easiest medium would probably be English. Thai is not a useful language outside Thailand. Spanish, on the other hand is useful in many countries.

I think the poster was making the point, as I did previously, that it would be nice if just 1 out of 50 people in a business had a basic grasp of English. Just to prove that the Thai English program is not a 100% failure.

The Thai government makes it impossible for any foreigner to legally converse with a group of Thai students in English, for the purposes of improving their conversation skills, as that is considered work, and thus needs a permit.

I totally agree with you! Hacing said that, Chinese are not so brilliant at English either - worse than the Thais. But expecting store workers to be good with English might be stretching it! The same goes for hmers, Filipinas and Burmese within Thailand then it behoves those people to learn Thai! On an international stage people need a common language, I totally get that (except the poxy Russians of course). I had the good fortune to live and work in Brazil. Hardly anybody spoke English and trust me when I tell you this, Brazil is a far more advanced country than Thailand with huge Worldwide networking - especially now they've found the largest oil deposit in the World!

Your Portuguese must be good?

[whgthai]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

The topic not about ME but about ASEAN and shops that would possibly make more money if at least some staff spoke English? Anyway, quite happy to learn Thai, of course. Still relatively NEW to Thailand (speak three languages fluently...), live in the North East, only ONE language school and I am NOT prepared to pay Baht 900 for ONE lesson (English lessons are so much cheaper, funny about that...). And yes, I have tried to offer free English lessons for free Thai lessons, no takers, again quite funny, don't you agree?

[Alwyn]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

Learn Thai then, you are in Thailand after all.

The topic not about ME but about ASEAN and shops that would possibly make more money if at least some staff spoke English? Anyway, quite happy to learn Thai, of course. Still relatively NEW to Thailand (speak three languages fluently...), live in the North East, only ONE language school and I am NOT prepared to pay Baht 900 for ONE lesson (English lessons are so much cheaper, funny about that...). And yes, I have tried to offer free English lessons for free Thai lessons, no takers, again quite funny, don't you agree?

I've worked in a lot of countries and my experience is that store workers generally don't speak anything other than their mother language, even Singapore where English is one of the 4 official languages I met a whole lot of people who spoke no English. For the international arena English is a given, I agree. The fact that there were no takers for your offer says all you need to know about how motivated Thais are about learning English! Like yourself I've been blessed with language skills and am fluent in 3 languages and conversational in 4 so Thai was not a challenge really. Grammar is simple but pronunciation challenging (for me anyway) but I truly believe Thais do not want farangs learning Thai as they don't want you knowing what they are saying about you. Good luck getting the language sorted!

[Lupatria]

"The Office of the Basic Education Commission has provided training for 450 English-language teachers who will teach professional English courses in this pilot project, beginning in the second term of the 2014 academic year."

Are these teachers Thai or Farang native speakers?

beginning in the second term of the 2014 academic year."

So, by 2015 every "professional" here can give you correct directions to the executive floor in English?

Edited July 20, 2014 by Lupatria

[ginjag]

All members of ASEAN (at least those that are not dictatorships) should boycott the event...

Your trying to say what ?? same rhetoric most topics, your agenda is not the norm now.

[rickirs]

NCPO order on July 18, 2014 banned criticism of NCPO, plus stories on scholars, former government officials, former employees of the courts, judicial offices, and independent organizations. The order prohibits criticism of NCPO operations, staff and "related" people. It covers print, broadcast, electronic, and online media. Organizations would face immediate bans and legal action if they disseminate prohibited content.

I wonder how constructive this will be viewed by the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community? The ASEAN meeting is not until 2015. Maybe NCPO will have its house of cards firmly in place by then that it can relax its restrictions on freedom of information.

[Balance]

I've been reading this sort of crap about ''Gearing up for Asean'' now for years. It's always about 6,8,10 or 20 point strategies being put in place and what is going to be done in the second half of this year, next year or sometime never. They've missed the boat in many ways already and the effects of that will be long term. Nothing new here......NEXT !

Yes, I am afraid it is a day late and a dollar short. But, if Thailand wants a influential role in the Asean community, a start has to be made and there is not more wiggle room. It is time to fish or cut bait.

[BillyBobThai]

There will be some Thai tears shed before this is over with.

[Friendly Stranger]

ASEAN is of no benefit to the majority of Thai people. Big business and Big family will love it.

Majority yes but for tourism (hotels and the like) they will be unmatched against the other English speakers in the region that will come. I heard this is more for skilled workers but they'll be many utilizing this.

If anything, i'd think it would put a squeeze on professional farangs. Jmo.

[focus27]

I have often gone into banks, hospitals,True, AIS and DO HOME and politely asked in Thai " Do you have someone here who speaks English". Hospitals, AIS and True usually have one staff member who has a basic grasp and they try to be helpful but often their reaction is sometimes akin to me having asked if they can speak Swahili.

The most proficient speakers of English in Thailand are usually ladies working in bars, hotels and restaurants where there are large numbers of farang customers who usually speak English.

It's a shame but that's the way it is, too many Thais who have learned some English at school are too shy to try and converse, even in a simple conversation with a farang.

I do understand why some Thais, who could speak English a while ago can't communicate anymore. I grew up bilingual, using English and German from earliest childhood on.

Then within 12 years, I very seldom used the German language and had a problem to recall some vocabulary, which I knew in English, as well as in Thai.

I'd lost a lot of my German speaking skills, because I didn't speak the language for quite a long time. I guess same happened to many Thais who could speak English much better, when they had the chance to speak in English.

Thai English teachers usually use English only at school, once they come home they only speak Thai. At least the majority.

Funny was when speaking to my sister on the phone in German when she told me that my German would have American accent ( Again somebody blaming THE Americans!)

Then I started to make translations from English into German for a software company and got my lost german back.

Really had huge problems to use the right word in German for the English word. Then the freaking German grammar did the rest.

And i started to watch movies in German. That leads me to my conclusion about Thai people in general. The best English speaking people I've met in Ubon Rtachathani, one a doctor, the other one a lecturer at Rajabhat have learned their fantastic English by watching movies, reading news, etc...

I remember bout two years ago, when Bangkok post brought news in English, which was pretty cool. But they stopped already after only two months, or so.

Why do they only show Thai soap operas on TV, some English cartoons, action movies, educational programs would be very helpful for all Thais.

But if those cartoon characters at the MoE and Khuruspha don't even understand easy educational solutions, it's like bangking your head against a wall.

It's not that Thai people don't want to learn English. The system s-xks. If most Thai English teachers aren't capable to have an easy conversation with a foreigner, they should not teach English.

I had so many good students, who used each free minute to learn English, hundreds of free English learning programs on the WWW do help to learn the language.

Over the years,i've had quite a few grade six students with a much better English than their Thai English teacher.

But of course, where they not allowed to correct their own teacher. That's one of the biggest problems here. Other people from AEC countries do not lose face.

Thailand failed for the last 20+ years and will continue doing so with their weird ideas regarding teaching.

Exactly! I told all my students that learning English only in lesson time is not enough. I used to even give them English video programmes or films, with English subtitles, in whatever genre they claimed to like. They used to look at me like I was giving them hemlock.

I stopped caring. My Thai daughter speaks better English at the age of 6 than 99.99% of Thais which will give her the freedom to go where she pleases in the future. I know, it helps having an English father but she taught herself a lot of language by watching videos over and over again until she understood them.

I recently went to Phnom Penh for the first time and was shocked at how good the general level of English was compared to Bangkok. I suspect Thais really have no idea what's going to hit them within ASEAN. Now, I just make sure my family are prepared to go beyond thainess.

[nong38]

With so many foreigners living in Thailand, maybe an idea to offer free work permits to teach English to so many who need at least some basic knowledge? I am constantly amazed that even at bit supermarket (i.e. Tesco Lotus EXTRA), nobody speaks ANY English...

You are spot on here, they should bury the old ways here and appeal for help from the English speaking foreigners living here I sure that there are a lot who would be willing to help out.

[slipperylobster]

now the killer leaders are just too far up their own backsides they will be run right over

Careful....we are under Martial Law, Remember?