Thai university students score 7/100 for English test

[CaptHaddock]

I was being kind. In fact, your comment is moronic. English easy to learn? For whom? For native speakers of a closely-related language like Dutch equally with speakers of a language remote from all the Indo-European languages like Thai? Really?

But the topic is the poor performance of Thai students at learning English, which is obviously the product of the inadequate Thai education system and not the result of supposed personal character defects on which the bar room philosophers of ThaiVisa so like to insist. We know this from independent measures of the Thai education system such as the PISA results from 2013 in which Thailand ranked number 47 out of 62 countries. So, Thai students' poor performance in English is not a special case, but consistent with overall poor educational performance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_student_performance

But I know these concepts are hard to grasp for those who know too little to understand just how little they know.

I myself read, write, and speak several languages including Thai, thank you very much.

If the poor english skills of thai students really was because of overall poor educational performance how come countries like Japan have very high score in PISA yet they suck just as much in english as your average Somchai in Thailand? Is the japanese education system also "inadequate" because of this fact?

I know for a fact that if someone studies any language for 3-5 hours each day they will be quite fluent in that language after just 6 months. I have now forgot a lot as i never use it but i was semi-fluent in japanese after just 4 months and that was learning japanese in Sweden. For instance "all" of the thai women who move to Sweden get free swedish education called "SFI" (swedish for foreigners). And basicly none of the thai women who come to Sweden have university degrees with them and usually haven't been in school for decades but still they learn swedish enough to have casual conversations in swedish about things they know about.

And your last sentence... i'm fluent in swedish, finnish and english, can i have a cookie or atleast a gold star?

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

Edited May 25, 2015 by CaptHaddock

[boomerangutang]

It seems Thai nationals teaching English - often try to 'construct' the English language to students, while speaking mostly Thai in their classes.

It would be like someone teaching a class of students to tango. She would draw diagrams of the many positions and poses by the dancers. She might even play some tango music - but wouldn't put on the music and have the students pair off and dance. Thai nationals teach English like it's a series of mathematical formulas. Language is more of a dance, ....a flow.

Thailand needs to open its policy and allow native English speakers to teach in Thailand. If I were PM, I'd welcome all enthusiastic backpackers who wanted to assist in that endeavor. If any were shown to be (or had prior evidence of being) sexual predators or inept as teachers, then they'd be dropped from the program. The vast majority of backpackers willing to teach would prove to be of great assistance.

Who are the greatest teachers (of language or any other topic) for each individual growing up? Parents. How many parents are certified as teachers? Few. Yet we all learned lots from them while growing up, didn't we?

Certification programs are mostly bunk. If an individual has teaching skills (as most people do), that person won't need a paid-for curriculum to bring it out. I meet hundreds of backpackers each year, most of whom are native English speakers or otherwise fluent. I'd venture to say that any of those hundreds would be fine English teachers if they chose to be. No offense to Thais, but the farang would be head and shoulders more adept than most Thais with teaching degrees. On the other side of the coin; I speak Thai badly, but probably better than most Thai English teachers speak English. Would Thais want me teaching Thai language in a farang land?

Backpackers teaching sans curriculum or syllabus? That's what half the kids get already. And a fat lot of good it does them.

I didn't mention curriculum or syllabus. I mentioned natural teaching skills - which nearly all people have. Once they get a job teaching, they can be shown the curriculum and go from there. Unfortunately, most curriculum outlines in Thailand, re; learning English, are flawed - sometimes fatally - but that's what teachers are usually stuck with.

There are many reasons backpackers are kept from teaching by overly strict regulations. It's like taxi drivers keeping other drivers from doing taxi-like service. Thai nationality English teachers don't want competition, and they certainly don't want their ineptitude to be shown.

If I had kids, I'd much rather have then learn a language from a native speaker of that language - particularly a young, bright,farang - than have them try to navigate the convoluted crap that's dished out by standard Thai teachers who claim to know English. Thai nationals are probably fine for teaching Thai and other topics - but leave English to native English speakers. Would Malaysians or Indonesians want their kids to learn Thai from farang with a cursory handle of Thai language? Doubtful.

I've seen some of the study material and some Thai/English dictionaries, and they're packed with mistakes - particularly (but not only) the study material crafted by Thai nationals. I saw one dictionary for sale in a contemporary shop - crammed with archaic words which aren't any longer used - like guncotton and wildst. The Thai academics who put that dictionary together merely looked at old English dictionaries, and copied all the listings, not knowing which words were ridiculously archaic.

[djjamie]

Going by a previous PM of Thailand's English skills Kentucky State University must be even lower than 7 then!

[lostoday]

Going by a previous PM of Thailand's English skills Kentucky State University must be even lower than 7 then!

Do you get extra points from the big baiter in the sky for turning every thread in to an anti Thaksin thread?

[AyG]

Going by a previous PM of Thailand's English skills Kentucky State University must be even lower than 7 then!

Do you get extra points from the big baiter in the sky for turning every thread in to an anti Thaksin thread?

Get your facts right. It was Yinglack Shinawatra, not Thaksin that studied at KSU.

[lostoday]

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

[AyG]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

Ignoring the internal inconsistency of "almost half of young Americans speak more than one language" and "about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language", do you really place any weight on a telephone poll where people are asked whether or not they can speak another language? Being able to say "hasta la vista", "¡Hola!" and "aqua" does not mean one can speak the language in any meaningful sense.

[lostoday]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

Ignoring the internal inconsistency of "almost half of young Americans speak more than one language" and "about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language", do you really place any weight on a telephone poll where people are asked whether or not they can speak another language? Being able to say "hasta la vista", "¡Hola!" and "aqua" does not mean one can speak the language in any meaningful sense.

Who knows more about polling you or Gallop? For more than 70 years, Gallup has built its reputation on delivering relevant, timely, and visionary research on what humans around the world think and feel. Using impeccable data, ... advisers assist leaders in identifying and monitoring critical economic and behavioral indicators that are vital to their strategic plans.

[Gulfsailor]

The reason people in countries like The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are good at languages is because they don't dub foreign tv programs but subtitle them. Because these countries have a small population there is not much budget for local lingual content in regards to popular tv shows and movies. So most stuff is English / German /French.

[2alex4alex]

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

[lostoday]

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

Some would say it was Canadian. Some would say it was eubonics. Switzerland is close to Germany, and France and Italy and the Swiss speak German, French and Italian. Since some Americans speak Canadian on the Northern border areas the Americans in the South mostly speak Spanish. However those in Louisiana speak Old French. Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries all of those are spoken in America.

Chicago has more Polish speakers than many cities in Poland. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

Spanish now is spoken by almost a million people in Chicago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-28/news/ct-met-census-language-diversity-20100428_1_census-bureau-foreign-language-speakers-chicago

The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia.

Edited May 26, 2015 by lostoday

[CaptHaddock]

American universities have more or less abdicated teaching foreign languages. They still offer courses and majors, of course, but they no longer generally require that all liberal arts students take at least two years of a foreign langugage. Two years is woefully inadequate and does not get the student near a fluent or even functional level. When I was an undergraduate at a brand-name university in the 60's they still had that requirement, but later simply dropped it as did most other universities. At the time PhD students commonly had to demonstrate reading ability in two foreign languages. That was generally dropped afterwards, also.

So, I doubt very much that Americans as a group have improved the teaching of foreign languages over the past 50 years. Quite the opposite. During this same period by contrast, the Dutch have raised their requirement that all students study English to 12 years before university. Of course, there remain substantial numbers of American immigrants whose household language is not English, but these are hardly a testament to any success in language education in American schools. Other than the children of immigrants the Americans who self-report that they speak a second language are mostly giving themselves the benefit of the doubt.

Like the Japanese, but for different reasons, the US education system doesn't know how to teach foreign languages either.

[Thaddeus]

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

Some would say it was Canadian. Some would say it was eubonics. Switzerland is close to Germany, and France and Italy and the Swiss speak German, French and Italian. Since some Americans speak Canadian on the Northern border areas the Americans in the South mostly speak Spanish. However those in Louisiana speak Old French. Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries all of those are spoken in America.

Chicago has more Polish speakers than many cities in Poland. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

Spanish now is spoken by almost a million people in Chicago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-28/news/ct-met-census-language-diversity-20100428_1_census-bureau-foreign-language-speakers-chicago

The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia.

Would you like to do that again, taking in to account the differences in populations sizes.

It'll still probably be higher, but then how else would the people of Chicago be able to communicate with the maid.

[Chao Lao Beach]

I have helped students at both Payap U.and Chiang Mai U. with some studies. I have been amazed by the large number of students that will copy something directly from a source without citing it. Additionally I have found that cheating in exams is rampant. Teachers do nothing about it. Students will even text answers to each other in the classroom during tests. As with what has been said here , I did ask a few Thai teachers (university level) concerning these matters. The answers were it doesn't matter , they would still have to pass them. That is the truth about "some" of the problems with the Thai educational system. Additionally I have had extreme difficulty in having a conversation with three separate Thai English teachers , they were unable to understand the content of my sentences while discussing some of these matters. It took several attempts at and the use of several different words to have a small polite exchange , even though they were the English teachers......for what it is worth ( But as a side note I have found that the Burmese students have a far greater comprehension of English)

Remember how the system wakes up when placed into the international limelight? Aviation, fishing, immigrants/refugees...

Should the World be told, Thai Education runs on a 'no-fail' policy...

No one would believe you

[lostoday]

American universities have more or less abdicated teaching foreign languages. They still offer courses and majors, of course, but they no longer generally require that all liberal arts students take at least two years of a foreign langugage. Two years is woefully inadequate and does not get the student near a fluent or even functional level. When I was an undergraduate at a brand-name university in the 60's they still had that requirement, but later simply dropped it as did most other universities. At the time PhD students commonly had to demonstrate reading ability in two foreign languages. That was generally dropped afterwards, also.

So, I doubt very much that Americans as a group have improved the teaching of foreign languages over the past 50 years. Quite the opposite. During this same period by contrast, the Dutch have raised their requirement that all students study English to 12 years before university. Of course, there remain substantial numbers of American immigrants whose household language is not English, but these are hardly a testament to any success in language education in American schools. Other than the children of immigrants the Americans who self-report that they speak a second language are mostly giving themselves the benefit of the doubt.

Like the Japanese, but for different reasons, the US education system doesn't know how to teach foreign languages either.

http://new.dliflc.edu/

Teach language very good.

[lostoday]

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

Some would say it was Canadian. Some would say it was eubonics. Switzerland is close to Germany, and France and Italy and the Swiss speak German, French and Italian. Since some Americans speak Canadian on the Northern border areas the Americans in the South mostly speak Spanish. However those in Louisiana speak Old French. Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries all of those are spoken in America.

Chicago has more Polish speakers than many cities in Poland. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

Spanish now is spoken by almost a million people in Chicago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-28/news/ct-met-census-language-diversity-20100428_1_census-bureau-foreign-language-speakers-chicago

The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia.

Would you like to do that again, taking in to account the differences in populations sizes.

It'll still probably be higher, but then how else would the people of Chicago be able to communicate with the maid.

Should go you to Chicago. See for yourself. Not only language but food and culture. Many cities in America very multicultural and speak many languages. You people from little countries don't really understand how big is big.

[zeichen]

"The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia. "

You do realize that those in question are immigrants. The average American that was born and raised 2nd or 3rd+ generation are not bilingual.

[lostoday]

"The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia. "

You do realize that those in question are immigrants. The average American that was born and raised 2nd or 3rd+ generation are not bilingual.

What I do realize is you folks have never been to an American/Italian home. Or a Polish/American home. Or a Native American Indian tepee. The Mafia in America still speaks Sicilian. And if 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican people don't still speak Spanish how are they going to communicate with the other gang members in jail?

I know hundreds of 2nd generation Spanish, Italian, Polish, Navajo, Gaelic speakers. How you gonna talk to grandpa and grandma you paskudnik you.......

Edited May 27, 2015 by lostoday

[Thai at Heart]

Ha,

After years teaching in some prestigious international and bi - lingual schools ...some observations. Many Thai children end up not speaking or writing English particularly well and, importantly fail to truly master their own written language because there was insufficient time available to master the complexities of Thai script / word construction. I also recall a colleague failing a child (who was so lazy he wouldn't work in an iron lung) being instructed to change his marks to the MINIMUM 80% pass rate.

Any english instruction I have seen by Thai teachers concentrate on grammatical constructions rather than functional literacy. Consequently I had one child tell me ..'Oh ...you use past perfect'... but the same child could hardly read text with any degree of comprehension, he was merely 'barking at print' as we say.

Hence my question about why should anyone write the phonetic sound of a word to learn the sound? That is an oral skill not written.

Hence they can spell but not speak.

[Thai at Heart]

tell all the students to put google translate on their iPhone

you can type in an English word and it will speak the word in American English ( not sure if it has British etc)

it will also translate so input : house and translates to Ban , with accent over the "a"

one other problem is using past - present - future tense......

and how do they get to "my mother me"

English is a hard language to learn , I am glad my parents grew up this side of the border !

I would say that english is very easy to learn. I would go as far as to say that any language (even truely hard languages such as finnish and hungarian) in the world is easy to learn if you get to speak, read, write and listen it each day. But then again when are you good in a language? When you can order food at the restaurant or have an academic discussion about the current political situation in say... ****land?

A particularly vacuous comment even by the standards of ThaiVisa.

If you can't learn a language then you are either lazy, "challenged" or uninterested in learning the language. Don't know which of those three you place in but from your "vacuous" reply i assume first or third as obviously second is not an option as you know "fancy" words such as "vacuous".

With that said, what's up with your hate?

I was being kind. In fact, your comment is moronic. English easy to learn? For whom? For native speakers of a closely-related language like Dutch equally with speakers of a language remote from all the Indo-European languages like Thai? Really?

But the topic is the poor performance of Thai students at learning English, which is obviously the product of the inadequate Thai education system and not the result of supposed personal character defects on which the bar room philosophers of ThaiVisa so like to insist. We know this from independent measures of the Thai education system such as the PISA results from 2013 in which Thailand ranked number 47 out of 62 countries. So, Thai students' poor performance in English is not a special case, but consistent with overall poor educational performance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_student_performance

But I know these concepts are hard to grasp for those who know too little to understand just how little they know.

I myself read, write, and speak several languages including Thai, thank you very much.

Actually English is recognised as one of the languages that is easy to learn to speak badly and still be understood.

Just ask any bar girl or rickshaw driver the world over.

[ggold]

Was the student in an English class or was it just a random student ?

anyone have a link to the " English Delivery by Chris program "

there seems more to this story that is not posted.....

Come to your own conclusions about this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjDbj0gmrg

Gave up watching after a few minutes. Not really the way to teach English. IMO

[Thai at Heart]

I think mentioning bilingualism in a household environment where immigrants speak a second language is rather different to Thailand issues of trying to educate a second language academically.

If all Thai kids were transported to the states to live with their families they would all largely become bilingual rapidly.

Why can't thailand achieve this?

[lostoday]

I think mentioning bilingualism in a household environment where immigrants speak a second language is rather different to Thailand issues of trying to educate a second language academically.

If all Thai kids were transported to the states to live with their families they would all largely become bilingual rapidly.

Why can't thailand achieve this?

I know a lot of Thai people and I don't know one who doesn't speak at least three languages. English may or may not be one of them but at least Lao and a local dialect and maybe Khmer or another depending on location.

[The manic]

There is a Thai parody of an English class...hahaha

100% accurate except the teacher would have also put the tone marks on each word.

And if she was from the Phillipines she would have pointed to her dress and said, "frock."

British people say frock. What's wrong with that? You can frock off!

[billphillips]

The local version of an English teacher sound very much like a robotic, voice simulator. Try the subject of maths ... Result ..... Not much. Ask a world history question ... Again ... Not much of a response. The education system here is failing miserably, but don't expect anyone who is a local person to agree with that statement.

Why learn English? Because Thai is a minority language. Educational books printed in Thai are limited. Try searching for something using the Internet in Thai .. Then try again in English. You may then understand the importance of Thai people being able to understand and write English.

Edited May 27, 2015 by billphillips

[lostoday]

There is a Thai parody of an English class...hahaha

100% accurate except the teacher would have also put the tone marks on each word.

And if she was from the Phillipines she would have pointed to her dress and said, "frock."

British people say frock. What's wrong with that? You can frock off!

A reliable source tells me two of the people in this clip now teach English in Thailand (not including the dog).

[2alex4alex]

The data tell the story with the Japanese. High PISA scores and the second lowest TOEFL scores in Asia mean they don't know how to teach languages. The fact that English is linguistically remote from Japanese is a factor, but the other Asian languages are similarly remote. So, that doesn't explain the performance gap. Why they should fail so conspicuously in the one area is a question for those who know more of the defects of their language teaching system.

What you believe you know for a fact is nonsense. Those uneducated Thai women are not fluent in Swedish after six months of a basic language skills class from the government. They will have reached a functional level at best, i.e. can perform some basic transactions like buying groceries. They will not be able to read and negotiate an apartment rental lease. You weren't "semi-fluent" in Japanese if you didn't know the 1800 basic kanji, which you didn't know after four months. "Semi-fluent' means you just impressed yourself.

So, my guess is you're a Swede who probably had eight to twelve years of English classes before university. You underestimate the difficulty of learning English because you have forgotten how much work it took. That's like the average (monolingual) American whose attitude is, "What so hard about English?"

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

Some would say it was Canadian. Some would say it was eubonics. Switzerland is close to Germany, and France and Italy and the Swiss speak German, French and Italian. Since some Americans speak Canadian on the Northern border areas the Americans in the South mostly speak Spanish. However those in Louisiana speak Old French. Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries all of those are spoken in America.

Chicago has more Polish speakers than many cities in Poland. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

Spanish now is spoken by almost a million people in Chicago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-28/news/ct-met-census-language-diversity-20100428_1_census-bureau-foreign-language-speakers-chicago

The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia.

Sure I can be wrong. But I guess the most of bilingual people in US come from families of migrants who remember their native language and have to learn English. And what about "Canadian language"???This language doesn't exist. And " Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries"-???

[2alex4alex]

"The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia. "

You do realize that those in question are immigrants. The average American that was born and raised 2nd or 3rd+ generation are not bilingual.

What I do realize is you folks have never been to an American/Italian home. Or a Polish/American home. Or a Native American Indian tepee. The Mafia in America still speaks Sicilian. And if 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican people don't still speak Spanish how are they going to communicate with the other gang members in jail?

I know hundreds of 2nd generation Spanish, Italian, Polish, Navajo, Gaelic speakers. How you gonna talk to grandpa and grandma you paskudnik you.......

"paskudnik "- wrong using Russian swearing language.Old style..Did you learn it from your grandma? And it's not ..er...honest to call somebody like this especially when person doesn't understand offensive meaning of this word..

[lostoday]

• Younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far more likely than other age groups to be bilingual, with 43% able to speak a second language, compared to 25% of those aged 30 to 49, 22% of those 50 to 64, and only 15% of Americans 65 and older.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1825/about-one-four-americans-can-hold-conversation-second-language.aspx

• I guess you need to talk to some more Americans. Your experience is too limited.

I wouldn't say you were a moron for not knowing that almost half of young Americans speak more than one language - just not informed.

And their second language...let me guess...Spanish! Am I right?

Some would say it was Canadian. Some would say it was eubonics. Switzerland is close to Germany, and France and Italy and the Swiss speak German, French and Italian. Since some Americans speak Canadian on the Northern border areas the Americans in the South mostly speak Spanish. However those in Louisiana speak Old French. Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries all of those are spoken in America.

Chicago has more Polish speakers than many cities in Poland. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

Spanish now is spoken by almost a million people in Chicago.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-28/news/ct-met-census-language-diversity-20100428_1_census-bureau-foreign-language-speakers-chicago

The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia.

Sure I can be wrong. But I guess the most of bilingual people in US come from families of migrants who remember their native language and have to learn English. And what about "Canadian language"???This language doesn't exist. And " Since America was at one time or another under 6 different countries"-???

6 flags - French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Russia, Portugal and more but you are probably not ready for so much knowledge at one time. There are a number of languages spoken in Canada. I used Canadian because I didn't want to list them all.

Every 2nd generation Spanish speaking or Italian speaking or Siciliano or Polish person that I know speaks the mother tongue.

Seems like most fellows posting on this thread have no idea of the linguistic abilities of Thais (all at least bilingual and many trilingual) and Americans, 60 million or more bilingual and many trilingual.

Edited May 27, 2015 by lostoday

[lostoday]

"The number of Americans who speak a second language at home is greater than the population of Great Britain or Australia. In other words more Americans are more fluent in more languages than in GB or Australia. "

You do realize that those in question are immigrants. The average American that was born and raised 2nd or 3rd+ generation are not bilingual.

What I do realize is you folks have never been to an American/Italian home. Or a Polish/American home. Or a Native American Indian tepee. The Mafia in America still speaks Sicilian. And if 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican people don't still speak Spanish how are they going to communicate with the other gang members in jail?

I know hundreds of 2nd generation Spanish, Italian, Polish, Navajo, Gaelic speakers. How you gonna talk to grandpa and grandma you paskudnik you.......

"paskudnik "- wrong using Russian swearing language.Old style..Did you learn it from your grandma? And it's not ..er...honest to call somebody like this especially when person doesn't understand offensive meaning of this word..

Yiddish word for nasty fellow. Millions of Americans speak and understand different degrees of Yiddish as millions of Thais speak Lao and (Kam Mu'ang), Tai Lue and Khün languages. 73 living languages are used in Thailand.

Edited May 27, 2015 by lostoday