Thai competitiveness in ASEAN will increase by 25% if language skills improve: Surin Pitsuwan

[webfact]

Thai competitiveness in ASEAN will increase by 25% if language skills improve, Surin Pitsuwan suggests

BANGKOK, 26 May 2015 (NNT) - Former ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan was confident that Thai competitiveness in ASEAN will definitely increase by 25 per cent if language skills of Thai population have improved.

Dr.Surin said in his capacity as President of the Future Innovative Thailand Institute (FIT) that lack of foreign language skill is one of the most significant problems among Thai people to compete in the AEC to be launched at the end of this year. People in other ASEAN nations were curious to study Thai language but Thais have oppositely no incentive to learn ASEAN languages. This is a serious drawback which needs an urgent solution, Surin said.

Previously, Thailand allocated one fifth of its annual budget to educational development, the highest figure among ASEAN nations. However, such a biggest investment did not bring the country higher quality of education as expected, he said.

“As far as I am concerned, Thailand needs to have effective response to the mobility of eight types of skilled labour in the upcoming changing environment in ASEAN. More effective education is a crucial part of the response as it could prepare readiness of Thai skilled labour to compete in the ASEAN labour market,” Mr.Surin said.

He also stressed that the government should invest more in education in the areas of science and technology as they put too little emphasis on the areas. Meanwhile, improvement of education quality should be done at all levels ranging from primary, secondary to higher education.


-- NNT 2015-05-26

[JOC]

IF

[deckape]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/826733-thai-university-students-score-7100-for-english-test/

[WitawatWatawit]

Anyone want to have a bet with me? In approx 2 years after the AEC is launched, Surin, or someone like him, will get up and say something to the effect that "Thailand is falling behind the others because it failed to take action on hundreds of warnings about its poor education and language skills."

If I am right, send me your amulets and I will bless them.

[Prbkk]

They should ignore calls to focus on regional languages and focus fully on English: it is the Lingua Franca of ASEAN . Every other country in the region understands that and it is very doubtful that many have much interest in learning Thai. Get real.

[Just1Voice]

will increase by 25% if they do, and decrease by 50% if they don't. I know which one I would bet on.

[boomerangutang]

What are Thai educators talking about? ....the folks who set curriculum and such? My guess is they're mostly talking about how to secure their jobs and possibly get promotions with better pay. Are they aware that enabling their students to master English language skills - gives a bigger dimension to youngsters' job possibilities?

[DavisH]

Definately agree that english should be the focus, especially for business dealing and trade. There may need to be some local languages learned for unskilled workers, but the Burmese and Cambodians already quickly pick up Thai on the job.

[LuckyLew]

If .. could .. should .. but they won't

[EnzoRippo]

Me think him speaking good.

[Always18]

They should ignore calls to focus on regional languages and focus fully on English: it is the Lingua Franca of ASEAN . Every other country in the region understands that and it is very doubtful that many have much interest in learning Thai. Get real.

Absolutely spot-on.

Thailand seems to have a mortal fear of admitting to itself that the ENGLISH language is the way forward.......................they still harbour this stupid idea that anything they do to embrace English will give those pesky foreigners the idea that Thailand has at some stage been colonised........................

[Strangebrew]

Form there spelling there skills are smelling

[clockman]

Well, what if they had been colonised! A different picture than now!

[z42]

More hair brained nonsense than you can shake a shitty stick at. Oh my days will the people pulling the strings wake up to the fact that English is and will be THE language unifying the asean countries.

Attitudes need to change first. Only then might things move in the right direction. This kind of rhetoric is sad and pathetic. Unbelievable

[Happy Grumpy]

Well, what if they had been colonised! A different picture than now!

Absolutely.

The best thing Thailand could do is offer themselves up for 100 years of Western colonization.

Would be the best thing that ever happened to the country.

[whatawonderfulday]

And this is the standard of intelligence regarding an educational necessity ? They just can not grasp that to improve language skills you have to have native English teachers. Not cheapskates from other 3rd and 4th world countries, or Thai English teachers who are even worse, but real teachers. As that costs money and limits the amount of skimming that can take place from within the education Now that is not going to happen until Thailand are an ASEAN basket case in 15 years time I anticipate

[Just1Voice]

And this is the standard of intelligence regarding an educational necessity ? They just can not grasp that to improve language skills you have to have native English teachers. Not cheapskates from other 3rd and 4th world countries, or Thai English teachers who are even worse, but real teachers. As that costs money and limits the amount of skimming that can take place from within the education Now that is not going to happen until Thailand are an ASEAN basket case in 15 years time I anticipate

15 years? You're being way too optimistic or generous with that figure.

[boomerangutang]

One of my first g.f.'s was a cute chick from Lampang Thailand. She would sneak out to meet with a young Burmese guy. Guess which language they spoke together? Yup, English (albeit broken) ....but they didn't do much talking - did more touching probably.

[Local Drunk]

Twenty-five percent is probably a fair assumption. The draw back there is that it would cost Thailand annually a few trillion baht in educational reform to accomplish the task. It's really screwed up here.

[Local Drunk]

And this is the standard of intelligence regarding an educational necessity ? They just can not grasp that to improve language skills you have to have native English teachers. Not cheapskates from other 3rd and 4th world countries, or Thai English teachers who are even worse, but real teachers. As that costs money and limits the amount of skimming that can take place from within the education Now that is not going to happen until Thailand are an ASEAN basket case in 15 years time I anticipate

15 years? You're being way too optimistic or generous with that figure.

I thought maybe it was 30 years 15 years ago.

[teatree]

I think the figure is more like 26%.

[Happy Grumpy]

Thailand has problems with people abusing the Ed-Visa just to stay here.

Open them up to simple long-term visas and WP's with no degree needed.

Native speaker or high TOEIC score or whatever it is, a TEFL course, the government could even provide and profit off it, police -clearance cert, no hanging about at schools, just go in to do your lessons, a low rate of pay of perhaps 300b per hour. Simple and instant extension and WP without any BS.

The schools would be full of native speakers coming and talking/teaching with the kids.

Aimed towards every class in the country having an hour or two of a native speaker every day, especially the young kids that are still acquiring language and not learning it (up to the age of around 7), the country would develop massively over the next decade.

But hey, oh well. Thais know best.

[ldiablo]

Come on people, you and I know both that Thai be will the language official to ASEAN.

[TheAppletons]

So - in a nutshell - Thai competitiveness will not improve.

[NeverSure]

Thailand is engaged in international trade with China, Japan, The EU, Canada, Australia, the USA... And Asean.

English is the common denominator. What are they thinking?

[elgordo38]

And this is the standard of intelligence regarding an educational necessity ? They just can not grasp that to improve language skills you have to have native English teachers. Not cheapskates from other 3rd and 4th world countries, or Thai English teachers who are even worse, but real teachers. As that costs money and limits the amount of skimming that can take place from within the education Now that is not going to happen until Thailand are an ASEAN basket case in 15 years time I anticipate

I have a American friend in Lamphun teaching English on a voluntary basis. He tells me that 75% of the students sleep during class or play with their mobiles.

[FangFerang]

ASEAN chose English as their language. The article neatly skirts the whole issue and turns it into a weird parody. ASEAN nations have very little interest in learning Thai, except Laos, and those two languages are so close it's like Spanish and Portuguese.

Get over it Thailand. You cannot fix a problem until you admit to having one. Thailand has an English problem.

[boomerangutang]

Thailand has problems with people abusing the Ed-Visa just to stay here.

Open them up to simple long-term visas and WP's with no degree needed.

Native speaker or high TOEIC score or whatever it is, a TEFL course, the government could even provide and profit off it, police -clearance cert, no hanging about at schools, just go in to do your lessons, a low rate of pay of perhaps 300b per hour. Simple and instant extension and WP without any BS.

The schools would be full of native speakers coming and talking/teaching with the kids.

Aimed towards every class in the country having an hour or two of a native speaker every day, especially the young kids that are still acquiring language and not learning it (up to the age of around 7), the country would develop massively over the next decade.

But hey, oh well. Thais know best.

That's the sort of suggestion which makes a lot of sense, but it won't be considered by the powers-that-be in Thai education. They're too concerned about wrapping themselves in the Thai flag. They grew up in a rote system of learning, so they're stuck in a rote system of administering.

[Mr Somtam]

And this is the standard of intelligence regarding an educational necessity ? They just can not grasp that to improve language skills you have to have native English teachers. Not cheapskates from other 3rd and 4th world countries, or Thai English teachers who are even worse, but real teachers. As that costs money and limits the amount of skimming that can take place from within the education Now that is not going to happen until Thailand are an ASEAN basket case in 15 years time I anticipate

No, not the solution. Did you learn English (non native speaker) in school or more from TV/music/internet/books?

Just ban Thai from TV and internet/computers. No more dubbed movies, no more googling in Thai, no more bilingual keyboards. Just English. It's called immersion and works a dream in most European countries. They can teach hours of English in schools but when the kids go home and never use it, they will forget 99,9% of it... My nephew likes football, he goes to Youtube and searches for เมสซี or โรนัลโด้. Nuff said...

Edited May 27, 2015 by Mr Somtam

[Partenavia]

The longer I live here, the more 3rd world I realise it is.