Do Thais really have to learn English in school?

[thaibeachlovers]

I rarely meet a Thai that speaks English ( I don't live in a tourist area ), so either they don't have to learn it in school, or their teachers are rubbish.

I had heard that it was supposed to be taught in school.

[Crazy chef 1]

same as history,mathematics,physics,chemistry and certainly geography....

[allane]

Theoretically, yes, for those who are presently in school. But in some communities there are no teachers who can speak or read English. And that is the situation today. For Thai adults, the older they are, the less exposure to English they likely had during their school days.

Another factor is educational attainment more broadly. Today, Thai students are staying in school longer. But 30 or 40 years ago,many never got beyond elementary school, if indeed they completed that.

[DMC1]

I rarely meet a Thai that speaks English ( I don't live in a tourist area ), so either they don't have to learn it in school, or their teachers are rubbish.

I had heard that it was supposed to be taught in school.

I did French & German at school but I can't remember much of it now. It also requires confidence & constant practice, you have to understand that, even with great teachers. Don't be too harsh on them.

I've been speaking Thai for 20 years & reading Thai for over 10 years but I wouldn't consider myself anything better than intermediate.

[Lite Beer]

My Wife's niece aged 15 does English at school.

Seems to just consist of copying words and sentences from a book.

I try to talk to her and she never understands a thing.

[AYJAYDEE]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

[Stan42]

Only if you want to succeed in life.

[Crazy chef 1]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

who studies french???

[gerry123]

my daughter was learning English at school and she was asking me about nouns/ proverbs/ pronouns etc

i did make me wonder if the teaching method was somewhat back to front

there was a home work project she brought home sort of easy multi choice paper which i did help with but the paper came back as incorrect choices made

now i know what i advised was 100 pc correct so the teacher in this case was wrong i gave up after that

besides her teaching has come about from listening to my wife and myself in general conversation OK she is fortunate to have an English speaking environment at home

[Crazy chef 1]

Only if you want to succeed in life.

aren't we a bit arrogant???

[AYJAYDEE]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

who studies french???

students who choose french as their second language option of course

[AYJAYDEE]

my daughter was learning English at school and she was asking me about nouns/ proverbs/ pronouns etc

i did make me wonder if the teaching method was somewhat back to front

there was a home work project she brought home sort of easy multi choice paper which i did help with but the paper came back as incorrect choices made

now i know what i advised was 100 pc correct so the teacher in this case was wrong i gave up after that

besides her teaching has come about from listening to my wife and myself in general conversation OK she is fortunate to have an English speaking environment at home

was the use of proverbs in place of adverbs one of the 100% correct answers you gave her?

[Crazy chef 1]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

who studies french???

students who choose french as their second language option of course

who is choosing french as their second language option of course...(sarcasm)

[gerry123]

my daughter was learning English at school and she was asking me about nouns/ proverbs/ pronouns etc

i did make me wonder if the teaching method was somewhat back to front

there was a home work project she brought home sort of easy multi choice paper which i did help with but the paper came back as incorrect choices made

now i know what i advised was 100 pc correct so the teacher in this case was wrong i gave up after that

besides her teaching has come about from listening to my wife and myself in general conversation OK she is fortunate to have an English speaking environment at home

was the use of proverbs in place of adverbs one of the 100% correct answers you gave her?

in this particular case that did not apply as the questions required single word answers

Edited June 28, 2015 by gerry123

[AYJAYDEE]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

who studies french???

students who choose french as their second language option of course

who is choosing french as their second language option of course...(sarcasm)

so are you looking for their full names? student #'s? addresses? what do you plan to do with this information?

[jacky54]

The only Thai I know who speak English well, apart from the mrs is an 8 year old at a private School in Chiang Rai. Even kids at private Schools in Bkk don't seem to get further than hello, how are you what is your name, I'm fine thank how are you. But they can read much better, there is far too much emphasis on useless grammar that puts them off and is both boring and not necessary.

[AYJAYDEE]

The only Thai I know who speak English well, apart from the mrs is an 8 year old at a private School in Chiang Rai. Even kids at private Schools in Bkk don't seem to get further than hello, how are you what is your name, I'm fine thank how are you. But they can read much better, there is far too much emphasis on useless grammar that puts them off and is both boring and not necessary.

no different than the way second languages were taught when I was a kid

[weegee]

Do They have to learn anything in school?

[Crazy chef 1]

Do They have to learn anything in school?

see my reply above...

[Robert24]

I rarely meet a Thai that speaks English ( I don't live in a tourist area ), so either they don't have to learn it in school, or their teachers are rubbish.

I had heard that it was supposed to be taught in school.

That's true. But I rarely come across foreigners that speak Thai neither despite living here. (I'm not better to be honest)

[lostinisaan]

Thais have to learn English starting at Prathomsuksa one, which is grade one. Six years at primary, then six years at secondary school.

The final "product" isn't always good, to be polite.

[CharlieH]

MOVED to Education

[EmptyHead]

Mostly, they just do reading and writing.

Some non-Thai teachers will try to make lessons more communicative, though you will have to give it a few years before you will notice any nationwide progress.

[gerryBScot]

Yup the Thai National Curriculum says at p.252:

The foreign language constituting basic learning content that is prescribed for the entire basic education core curriculum is English, while for other foreign languages, e.g., French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Pali and languages of neighbouring countries, it is left to the discretion of educational institutions to prepare courses and provide learning management as appropriate.

The whole shebang can be downloaded here: http://act.ac.th/document/1741.pdf.

It's a beautiful world!

[DP25]

Every high school graduate studies English for 12 years. At the end of that 12 years the vast majority can not even answer basic questions or form a simple sentence. They don't know basic verbs or question words, they can't count, they can't tell the time. Most get almost nothing out of that 12 years.

The majority of Thai teachers in government schools do not speak English and are teaching the students total rubbish. Their lessons are speaking in Thai for an hour or having them copy gibberish from a book. The students never actually speak or use the language, because their teachers can not speak or use the language they are teaching.

The lucky ones have a foreign teacher an hour or two a week, but the schools are so overcrowded individual students get little chance to interact with them.

[Pormax]

The answer to the OP's question is yes. Children have to learn English in schools.

Why? Now it is very important if you want to get on really well in business, especially as English is the official languague of the Asean community.

Is it a waste of time? Yes. As they are taught by so called English teachers who cannot themselves speak or read good English or taught by teachers who have no idea how to actually teach.

The other problem one has is that Thai pupils/students, in general, are basically lazy and therefore if they don't want to learn they will not.

I have a 17 year old daughter's neice living with us and after 2 years of teaching her English for at least an hour a day, she still cannot speak English.

She understands most of what I say and can read reasonably well but cannot spell or write other than basic words.

This is not helped by the English teacher in school who gave her homework to do and yet 3 weeks later has still not given the marked paper back.

Today she had to read a passage in book and then answer 4 questions for homework. Though her reading is not too bad there was no way that she could understand what was written

and therefore without my help, answer the questions. No other member of her class has family who can speak English, however one thing is guaranteed.

They will all get a pass mark for English come the end of the year.

The problem though is not just the English subject but all of the education. My neice has about 6 months of school to go before she leaves school and supposedly go on to university.

One would think she would have a lot of homework to do. That is not the case. In the last 2 weeks she has had no more than 5 hours homework and 3 hours of that was copying from a book.

Some of the rest was finding something on the web and then printing. When I asked her if she had read what she has printed out her answer was 'No, because the teacher not ask questions I just give to the teacher''

It doesn't help though when the school is more interested in telling the children on a Friday (without giving parents prior notice or giving the pupils a letter to bring home to say they have to attend school) to go to school

all day on the Saturday because they have to cut all the grass, do weeding, clean the classrooms etc. Do schools not employ janitors/cleaners etc?

All pupils have to attend because they are told that this will go towards their pass mark!!!

Time would be better off with lectures about the law and road safety and why they should wear a helmut when riding motorbikes. There is a sign at the main entrance to the school saying 100% helmuts must be worn

yet no more than 20%, and I am being generous, of the 100's of those who ride their motorbikes to school (most of them under the legal age) do so.

Must stop my rant here as I could go on and on about the schools.

[tartempion]

in the west students study french, spanish, german etc and I've never found them to be able to speak it after graduation. just another pathetic thai bash I suppose.

who studies french???

I had Dutch, French, English and German in high school, still read books in each and every language, the writers language.

[tartempion]

My 4 year young comes home from school singing the alphabet, the song ends with "and now you can talk English with me"

When I phoned her teacher last week to tell her my daughter would not come to school because she had a cold her teacher had no clue what I was telling her.

I guess only my daughter knows the meaning of "and now you can talk English with me....."

[ramrod45]

It seems they are taught reading/writing, but no speaking. I have often communicated with girls who can read/write English to a degree, but they cannot speak because speaking English does not seem to be taught, or at least emphasized. I have only met a few people that speak decent English, and they either lived in an English speaking country for a few years, or are more self taught (I do applaud their motivation). At times they are shy to try and speak, but my former teacher has a little sister about 7 that speaks pretty good English, but she is around farangs a lot and also her sister teaches her. Overall, I would say the academic efforts to teach English need help.

[poa]

The teachers are very poor in English. Was visiting a school where my wife's two daughters studied before. The kids in grade 4 had 3 h English in a row without any brake. They started with English in grade 2. The kid could no English at all and the young teacher was impossible to understand.