OBEC pushes more language courses in Thai schools

[webfact]

OBEC pushes more language courses in Thai schools

BANGKOK, 10 December 2015 (NNT) - The Office of the Basic Education Commission of Thailand (OBEC) has expressed its support for overseas studies to enhance the public’s fluency in other languages and to prepare for a multilingual society in the future.

OBEC and the Embassy of Germany in Thailand have organized a meeting with school administrators on creating successful German language courses in Thailand.

Assistant Secretary to the Education Minister, ML Pariyada Diskul revealed that the Goethe Institute has shown support for German language courses in school curricula, in accordance with government policy. The Ministry of Education will offer courses of no less than 14 languages in schools, to support Thailand in becoming a multilingual society.


-- NNT 2015-12-10

[Inn Between]

I guess they figure English is too difficult, so they'll try some other ones instead.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Inn Between

[nikmar]

why German?

[Cuchulainn]

Multi lingual???

[masuk]

I was stopped by 3 university students this morning, and asked in very broken English if I could answer some questions about tourism.

They consulted their pre-written questions, but were unable to get the questions out. I tried to help them, even read out some of the questions for them, but it was hopeless.

Let's hope they've only just started learning English, which at university age is way too late in my opinion.

[Always18]

It's embarrassingly disingenuous of "OBEC" not to recognise that large swathes of Thailand are already multilingual, as "non-Bangkokian" Thais regularly speak Lao, Khmer and Chinese, amongst many other languages............but I guess the article isn't about that particular (majority) section of Thai society.

[JoeLing]

why German?

I was stopped by 3 university students this morning, and asked in very broken English if I could answer some questions about tourism.

They consulted their pre-written questions, but were unable to get the questions out. I tried to help them, even read out some of the questions for them, but it was hopeless.

Let's hope they've only just started learning English, which at university age is way too late in my opinion.

Although my son was born and raised in the UK and spoke perfect English when he started primary school, by the time he left college, I could only understand half of his slang.

Then he went and studied five years in Australia and now, I have no clue what he's talking about.

Best chance of communicating with him now, is in German.

Edited December 10, 2015 by JoeLing

[masuk]

Fair crack of the whip cobber. Das ist gut!

[DavisH]

They should focus on just getting english teaching correct. After 12 years the average Thai student can't string a sentence together. It's sad.

I don't see too many German educators putting up with the poor excuses for educational institutions in this country either. Or are we to expect Thai teachers to do another 6 week crash course in German and then to teach it

[BigBadGeordie]

Why a dinna kna what the <deleted> the talkin bout hinne, all a kan say is ......

It's actually a bit late in the day, said Emperor Nero.

[masuk]

Why a dinna kna what the <deleted> the talkin bout hinne, all a kan say is ......

It's actually a bit late in the day, said Emperor Nero.

och aye

[upena]

Shouldn't they be required to learn Thai first?

[JoeLing]

Shouldn't they be required to learn Thai first?

Who? The Germans?

[blazes]

"Don't mention the war.....I did, but I think I got away with it."

Or if you prefer:

"Oh, you're speaking GERMAN! I thought there was something wrong with you."

[DP25]

I was stopped by 3 university students this morning, and asked in very broken English if I could answer some questions about tourism.

They consulted their pre-written questions, but were unable to get the questions out. I tried to help them, even read out some of the questions for them, but it was hopeless.

Let's hope they've only just started learning English, which at university age is way too late in my opinion.

Anyone currently in university, will have had daily English lessons for 12 years already.

I'm sure this plan to teach German will be just as productive

[Bpuumike]

Why a dinna kna what the <deleted> the talkin bout hinne, all a kan say is ......

It's actually a bit late in the day, said Emperor Nero.

och aye

Why aye man.

[Srikcir]

Should Thais learn to speak the language of a defeated nation?

General Prayut might find that a betrayal to the Thai culture and traditions.

[sanukjim]

May be with the new rules they are running out of English speaking expats.While trolling down Khao San road the schools came up with several Chinese,Russians,and Kenyans in job limbo..So now the schools will be adding Chinese,Russian,and Swahili.

[IAMHERE]

why German?

Because Thai's love languages with a lot of 'R's in the words.

[lostinisaan]

"Don't mention the war.....I did, but I think I got away with it."

Or if you prefer:

"Oh, you're speaking GERMAN! I thought there was something wrong with you."

What a questionable and useless last sentence. Ohh, now I got it, it was meant to be a joke. 555555555555555555555555555555555

I taught some Thai students German in my free time on campus, because they were interested in learning another language at a primary, but also some students at a high school. I did that on a voluntary basis, not asking for money because I wanted to help them.

There are many students in Thailand who are really very good in English and if they decide to learn an additional language and then become an exchange student in Germany, I do not see any wrongdoing.

And if such a student will find a way to study at a good German university ( there are some really good ones, all subjects being taught in English) and comes back with a BA in any subject, it means a lot more than any Master degrees from Thailand.

These students know what they're doing and why they're doing it. Please think about their job opportunities if they are fluent in Thai, English and German? Not only German cars are sold in Thailand and being fluent in German can't be that bad, don't you think?

You might not believe how many German goods you sometimes buy at Big-C, or at Tesco. Knorr, TGM, beer, sausages, chocolate and a lot of other German companies are doing good business with Thailand.

We had an American exchange student at a well known high school who self-studied German for about six years before she flew to Thailand as an exchange student and finally became my student in grade 12.

She was brilliant in German grammar and I really enjoyed the time teaching her. The joke was that I was actually her English teacher, but she'd already finished high school and wanted to use her time in Thailand to learn proper Thai.

I could have decent conversations about various political systems with her, but we could also make some good jokes about the educational system in Thailand, speaking in "Hochdeutsch"..Making fun of the Thai head teacher was one of our favorite speeches, nobody else could understand us.

Please tell me what's wrong with Thais who'd like to learn a third, or even a fourth language?

In my opinion, this is the best article I've ever read in my life in Thailand, coming from OBEC. Auf Wienerschnitzel.

[bangon04]

"The Office of the Basic Education Commission of Thailand (OBEC) has expressed its support for overseas studies to enhance the public’s fluency in other languages and to prepare for a multilingual society in the future."

so have we given up on the preparation for the AEC harmonisation in 20 days from now??? Or is this OBEC starting its preparation early? Define "in the future"??

[Scott]

If they want to communicate with people from Germany, won't they have to learn Arabic?

[FangFerang]

I think it's a good idea made with the best of road-to-hell good intentions.

[Scott]

Many of the books that teach a foreign language, as well as the teachers, teach the language in English. We teach or have taught several languages, including Chinese and Japanese. The teachers are native speakers, and the medium of instruction is English and the books are English based.

If they think they are having trouble finding Thai teachers who can teach in English, it will be much more challenging to find a wide array of teachers who can teach other languages using Thai as the medium of instruction.

There are a number of Thais who speak Chinese, but beyond that, we've always had to look for those who could teach in English.

[lostinisaan]

If they want to communicate with people from Germany, won't they have to learn Arabic?

Scott, I deeply appreciate your black humor.

[JoeLing]

If they want to communicate with people from Germany, won't they have to learn Arabic?

.

Naaa, they would need to learn Russian

(The same applies if you want to communicate here on KPG)

Edited December 12, 2015 by JoeLing

[lostinisaan]

However, I'd be more than happy to teach both languages at a school. Sounds interesting and students who are fluent in Thai, English and German will have great job opportunities. Please look at Big-C, Tesco and Macro and you'll see plenty of German products.

It doesn't seem to make any sense to members here when Thai students study the German language. Please Google it.

It's not true that all Thai students can't speak English as many posters here seem to believe. I've taught German in my free time at two schools to students who wanted to learn the language by using English and Thai as the languages of instruction. I know two students who speak a much better German than their Thai-German teacher does.

But anything that's only related to German seems to be "not liked" on this forum, also called ignorance. Thanks for reading.