OBEC - Guardian of Educational Standards in Thailand

[AyG]

OBEC (Office of the Basic Education Commission of Thailand) took out a full page ad, in English, in a well known newspaper today, setting out its educational policies for 2015. Pity they didn't have the time or budget to get it proofread by someone who actually is familiar with the language.

Problems start with what appears to be the mission statement:

"Developing children and youths, particularly in the area of basic education, to meet international standards, consistent with Thailand's context for development of Thai students to reach maximum potential with strong knowledge and skills, is a vital basis for learning experiences at higher level and improvement of living standards going forward."

I struggle to parse that.

And just another few gems from the advertisement:

"Primary students in grade 1-3 have good virtue"

"Primary students in grade 4-6 yearn to known"

"Lower secondary students have problem-solving skills and live sufficiently"

"Students who have special abilities ... music and the arts which are promoted for excellence"

"Teachers have capability to teach subjects that his/her schools need either by himself/herself or via technology"

"Teachers have good English communication skills plus IT skills as a teaching tools" (ROFL)

"Principals who must be helped are urgently developed"

"Organisations as well as boards involved with teachers' preparation and recruitment are aware and facilitate the recruits to have appropriate qualification and abilities..."

"Educational service area offices give rewards to schools with higher achieving or less dropouts or less students at risk"

"Various Educational boards conduct and monitor concretely with friendliness"

I despair.

[culicine]

Out of all of the professionals of all government departments here, the weakest speakers of english seem to be in the MoE. Seriously, I can converse with most of my wives colleagues in the health department, but the MoE actually had to send representatives to have a conference with the foreign teachers at my school. I don't expect much from the MoE. Never have, never will.

[kaorop]

There is no way they would lose face by employing a native speaker to proof read that,

that would imply they are not competent in English.

Most Thais would not be able to read any of that and those that could would probably not pick many of those mistakes

so its only a loss of face in front of resonably well educated English speaking farang,

which as we know does not count.

You could always send a copy with the corrections,

i'm sure they would recieve it with grace and humility.

It is, of course amusing for 'us'.

[AyG]

Most Thais would not be able to read any of that and those that could would probably not pick many of those mistakes

so its only a loss of face in front of resonably well educated English speaking farang,

which as we know does not count.

To be honest, I don't really understand the purpose of the advertisement.

The newspaper concerned is in English, and its readers are (AFAIK) foreigners and well educated Thais. Both groups will spot at least some of the dozens of mistakes. If the point of the article is to impress either of those groups, then it's a miserable failure. And if the point is to inform, why do they care about the opinions of foreigners? And wouldn't they do better with a grammatically correct article in Thai for the locals?

[mrjohndub]

Link?

Please?

[AyG]

Link?

Please?

Sorry, this was (as far as I can tell) only in the paper copy of "The Newspaper That Dare Not Speak Its Name", page 7.

[Issangeorge]

It looks like it was written in Thai and then someone translated it to English. I remember years ago my head teacher translated something from Thai to English and then she asked me to translate it to readable English, these people obviously missed that step