The majority, in fact most, Thai nationals that I know speak English with a high level of fluency cant write so well . The lovely Mrs Nik speaks excellent English but if she sends me a text then I might as well be reading something from google translate. Somtimes incomprehensible.Shes not an isolated case. My boss and numerous Thai friends aswell.

Im just curious if anyone has noticed the same or has any theories why.

Its not a critisism by the way. My Thai writing skills have been surpassed by my 7 year old. Cheers in advance.

my experience in Thailand is the complete opposite

I think your writing skills leave a lot to be desired.

Does your 7 year old surpass your English writing skills too?

Fair play. My writing goes a bit erratic when i have the caffiene jitters. Still curious though.

If you think about it, most people speak a lot more than they have to write and therefore are usually more proficient at speaking than writing, especially in a foreign language.

I can speak basic Thai but cant read or write it (as an example).

My Thai engineering staff write very good technical English.

Several of them can't manage conversation

Look at the Thai met site,a low off florida,stay in hut for health,driftings of cloud may affect the raining,thing's could happen,it is a joke?

my experience in Thailand is the complete opposite

Ditto

the wife here in oz writes nicely at work, as do the ladies from japan and korea, but their spoken english sometimes borders on comical

in thailand i showed a poorly drawn plan for a project, to a senior tech and his junior, they fixed it, did the job

cant speak english, but some know their trade

My wife, a university graduate, could read and write in English very well when we met.

At the time her speaking skills were very poor.

Much of the problem stemmed from being taught to speak English by Thai English teachers who really did not speak or understand spoken English well at all.

( this is still a big problem with Thai English teachers in Thailand )

Often, to this day, when I correct my wife's grammar, sentence structure or pronunciation, ( she has asked me to correct her when ever I can ) her first response is, " but that is how my teacher taught me to say it".

now she adds.."They were wrong about that too,I guess."

When we first met, if we had something important to discuss, we would write our conversation down, and we understood each other perfectly.

Now, after living in the U.S. for six years and speaking almost exclusively English there, she does pretty well when speaking English.

My better half writes english better than she speaks. I think she lacks confidence when speaking english. We normally speak thai but chat in english.

English is not an easy language to learn.

My experience is the ones I know can read and write but not speak well. Ditto being taught by Thai teachers. I have a lady friend in S. Isaan who actually is the village school English teacher.

We converse regularly via email with no problem, but I can barely talk to her and sometimes we resort to writing notes to get a thought across. I don't speak Thai, obviously.

thanks for the replies. i just wish my missis would lay off Line and Facebook Messenger and call me if she wants something!!

The majority, in fact most, Thai nationals that I know speak English with a high level of fluency

Where did you find the portal to Opposite Land?

To those of you with Thai friends who write English well, please invite them to post to the forums as we have few Thais and even less good grammar.

To those of you with Thai friends who write English well, please invite them to post to the forums as we have few Thais and even less good grammar.

That could scar them for life.

Yup.

Wife's speech is pretty good. Readin and a ritin not so mutt.

Don't get me started on math skills.

The majority, in fact most, Thai nationals that I know speak English with a high level of fluency

Where did you find the portal to Opposite Land?

in my soi, the dogs are really friendly and quiet at night time

I gather the Thai Nationals you know are not actually in Thailand?

She uses predictive text I guess.

Wish i had never introduced the wife to predictive text. She never checks before sending . Now get some weird messages, fun trying to work out sometimes

My Thai colleagues are a mixed bunch some good at speaking but awful with written and visa versa.

My gay colleague god bless him spends ages typing an email in English but its awful and as he asks me to correct him i do, cue the hissy fit, his oral is very good though

My wife writes English quite well. Took time and effort.