Thai teachers pose as foreigners to teach English

[ozyjon]

Fake !

[SOTIRIOS]

...there you have it.....

...and in their minds...something great....

...stick it to the foreigners while you are at it......

...60 million....better than anyone else in the world.....

[technologybytes]

The teacher is in Had Yai, so perhaps he has another good reason to pretend to be Singaporean, or indeed any nationality except Thai.

Edited February 9, 2016 by technologybytes

[torpedo1970]

smokes and mirrors......

There is a LOT more to this story than anybody wants you to know!

after all TIT

[stickylies]

lame

yeah pretty lame. Children are smart and if teachers play this Bonnie and Clyde Roll they only encourage kids to lie!

(this type of) lying is endemic here. it's part of the culture. white lies. steamed lies. sticky lies. fried lies.

[jesimps]

Beware of Fake Foreigners with poor grammar to boot!

Why you say like that? Can, lah! Don't talk cock, lah! We teach those Kayu boys good, lah!

All those lahs he must have been a scouser. They sbould have rumbled him.

[F4UCorsair]

Beware of Fake Foreigners with poor grammar to boot!

Beware GENUINE foreign English teachers whose grasp of the language is tenuous at best. There are plenty posting on TV. They're the ones who don't know the difference between 'there', they're' and 'their', 'compare to' instead of 'compare with', any myriad other gross misuses of the language.

[Usual Suspect]

Lots of posts mocking this practice/method of using Asian teachers...but if this is a direct action due to the powers-that-be refusing to use native

English speakers, or any TEFL teacher from the 'West', then the kids have no option but to embrace it.

[ThomasHOL]

This is the quote that got me;

“It is better to use a Thai teacher who has studied English directly than a European teacher who might carry the wrong accent,”

Well i do understand what they are saying because if you travel in Europe and speak to people in English you can easily hear that their accent is different. I can usually hear weather a person is German, French, Danish, Swedish or Norwegian as we all have a different way to speek english. Our accent is mostly a part of the language we speak every day.

I do however agree that a Thai speeking english with a danish accent will deliver a much more understandable result then them speeking with a thai accent. Due to my work i have have had regular contact with Taiwanese people for the past two decades and most people i speek with actually have a very good understanding of english. this is natural as almost everyone i meet have a university degree, but sometimes they can still be very hard to understand because their pronunciation is quite far from how native english or american people would pronounce it so it is hard for me to understand.

Simileair to that the former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen has a large english vocabulary but he sounds like someone who has just graduated from a Danish Primary school not someone who spend many years speeking english. But ok at least most European accents are quite easy to understand.

[Khun Paul]

Any teacher who lies is not a teacher AT ALL. First rule with students never lie, BUT then if you are a Thai you do not understand LIE. .

[bazza40]

Seeing him from a distance, young children call out their Singaporean teacher’s name before sprinting toward him, excited to practice speaking English.

because thats what students do, right. practice their Englit skills.

If the guy can get his students excited about the subject, I'd say he's doing a really good job, irrespective of his nationality.

[swissbie]

I'm not sure how well researched this story from Khaosod is, as it begins with "teachers from the southern province of Hat Yei" as there is no province called Hat Yei in Thailand but Hat Yei is the biggest city of Songkhla province.

[smotherb]

Beware of Fake Foreigners with poor grammar to boot!

Yeah, when you can get real foreigners with poor grammar--just take a look around you.

[ratcatcher]

I have a friend with dual Thai/US citizenship (27 years in US) he is employed as a NES but without the hazel of visa and WP.

Just a comment to all people who say that only NES can't teach English; why the hell did I who is Swedish end up translating English to English between a British and an American tourist!? If you boast that you are a NES then you should be able to understand English no mater if it's American, Australian, British or Singaporean English and not just your own dialect!

"....you should be able to understand English no mater matter if it's American, Australian, British or Singaporean English and not just your own dialect! "

Beg to differ here. There are longstanding jokes about the way spoken English is delivered by the English and natives of the old British colonies etc.

Some Americans from, say, the deep south are hard to understand in much the same way many NES have trouble understanding people with what some call regional dialects (regiolects). Social class also plays a part whether the Queen of England or a Cockney housewife. E.G. some Englishmen from County Durham would possibly need a translator like you if they landed in parts of rural Cornwall.

As an English born Canadian, I sometimes have trouble understanding a strong Australian, South African or Cornish accent. Indian people who speak English often have a particularly interesting style of speaking.

[leeneeds]

It was only last week that we were told 10,000 retired Thai teachers would be brought back to teach and remove the farang teachers,

so now the old adage of 1 step forward and 2 back has turned into 3 steps back and 3 steps back ,

smoke and mirrors on so many levels

[gamini]

This is the quote that got me;

“It is better to use a Thai teacher who has studied English directly than a European teacher who might carry the wrong accent,”

There are plenty of European teachers with pretty awful accents including many from the UK with their northern "dialects".

[dao16]

Well, if these teachers can speak English well enough to pass to the kids, it isn't that bad of a strategy. I know a few Thais who speak well enough to pull it off, but none of them are English teachers.

[chudless]

No doubt do a better job than the sad falang scraping a meagre existence just to be able to get laid....falang teachers are an oxymoron

[BSJ]

I had to laugh at that! Does this happen in any other country?

[RIJoe]

Did the Make a Wit company leave out the word, 'Half-?'

[cmiuc]

This logic is just wrong...

Thai's who teach English, want to speak Thai...when they do, the students do. So its not about what they he is saying. He is just ashamed to be with his Thai counter parts who would scold him for speaking English in the classroom...

the only reason Thai students don't like to speak English is because they are not exposed to using it, so they have no reason to speak it, even if forced to take English classes. its is no different than learning science... you have your book learning, then you have the labs which put it all into practice. they don't even do that. and the special English programs have field trips for these selected students... but do they go to places where English is spoken as it was meant for it to be?

The other thing is, Thai teachers have too much power, not even directors can force them to do as they are suppose to do... and until this power is reduced or removed to be a "teacher only", then the whole educational system sucks and eventually will blow up with high numbers in illiteracy.

[ThomasHOL]

I have a friend with dual Thai/US citizenship (27 years in US) he is employed as a NES but without the hazel of visa and WP.

Just a comment to all people who say that only NES can't teach English; why the hell did I who is Swedish end up translating English to English between a British and an American tourist!? If you boast that you are a NES then you should be able to understand English no mater if it's American, Australian, British or Singaporean English and not just your own dialect!

"....you should be able to understand English no mater matter if it's American, Australian, British or Singaporean English and not just your own dialect! "

Beg to differ here. There are longstanding jokes about the way spoken English is delivered by the English and natives of the old British colonies etc.

Some Americans from, say, the deep south are hard to understand in much the same way many NES have trouble understanding people with what some call regional dialects (regiolects). Social class also plays a part whether the Queen of England or a Cockney housewife. E.G. some Englishmen from County Durham would possibly need a translator like you if they landed in parts of rural Cornwall.

As an English born Canadian, I sometimes have trouble understanding a strong Australian, South African or Cornish accent. Indian people who speak English often have a particularly interesting style of speaking.

I agree with you there are many dialects in English and some og them can be hard to understand. I'm Danish and even in a very small country we have many dialects some of them i hardly understand, end they only live 3 hours drive from me. I have also noticed that when i hear immigrants on swedish or german it seems like they speak that language better than immigrants in Denmark speak Danish. But i have come to the conclusion that since my understanding of those languages is not as good as Danish i dont catch all the small imperfections that the native speaker catch naturally. Therefor it sounds more perfect than it is is.

[thesetat2013]

Beware of Fake Foreigners with poor grammar to boot!

Beware GENUINE foreign English teachers whose grasp of the language is tenuous at best. There are plenty posting on TV. They're the ones who don't know the difference between 'there', they're' and 'their', 'compare to' instead of 'compare with', any myriad other gross misuses of the language.

Yeah and beware of the pot calling the kettle black. Your comment has its share of mistakes

[Petchou]

"Theres nothing illegal about the practice, and all three teachers and a representative of the company described what they do as a valuable teaching technique that forces students to speak because they believe their teachers are foreigners who cannot understand Thai."

Actually it is illegal it is called fraud. If the article is correct though and the parents know and the government isn't subsidizing NES, then it is just silly.

As for making the students speak in English, that can be done also just by ignoring students when they speak Thai.

Most farangs pretend being rich while living in meager wages or pensions, pretend what they are really not frequently. In this case they are just trying to force kids to speak in English instead of Thai. You pretend to be too much smart but you are not.

[thesetat2013]

It begs to wonder if this fake teacher gets the same support a foreigner does from the school. Or if he has the same disciplinary problems a foreign teacher has in class and in motivation getting his students to do homework.

It also begs to wonder how it is that the students have no clue is really Thai.

[flyingdoc]

Just pathetic !

[MockingJay]

"Wellcome satudeeens! Me is you new teachaaa for passaaa anglittt, sapeeek englittt!"

[Shadychris]

wow, thais trying to pretend to not be thais so they can teach english. Still will not make them able to speak and understand english though, if they are learning english in Thailand them they are still geting it wrong. If they are serious about learning english they need to attend a uni overseas where english is the first language, I have seen and heard thai teachers that are supposedly english teachers, what a joke, they have no idea. All this does is dumb down the students even more, they need real english teachers that have real experience with english not these pretend ones but then what else can we expect here.

The above example of your own English language skills, complete with misspellings, lack of capitalisation, lack of punctuation along with generally poor grammatical structure, does not put you in a position to be critical of English teachers of any ability.

[Mencken]

Singaporeans teaching englishhahahahahahaha..now Ive heard it all.

Why not? They are native speakers as well. English is a national language of Singapore. Singaporeans speak English as Thailand could not even dream of.

I wonder if the old crone Thai teachers talk smack about them and complain about every petty bit of nonsense OR...just completely ignore them.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Mencken

[laislica]

Pretending to not understand their Thai and forcing them to speak English?!

Well...I have heard worse ideas on teaching!

I agree with you.

When I left the UK to live full time in Spain (now half time he he), I attended free Spanish lessons for foreigners.

The teachers only spoke Spanish, even if they could speak English, German French etc. We really were a mixed bunch.

This forced the more able students to help the others, thus giving them confidence and a good feeling that they were progressing.

It sure worked for me but it was very hard if the whole class were absolute beginners!

My experience is that it is necessary to read and write the new language as well as learn lots of words and grammar.

When learning Thai I concentrated on learning many everyday words, which kinda worked but....

Now I'm learning to read and write Thai I realise that I often heard the words incorrectly.

Words that seemed to end in a "T" sound should be more properly pronounced as a "D" sound.....

It seems that children learn their native language by listening for up to a couple of years.

Then they try a few words and in less than a year, they are almost fluent.

They are taught by hearing words along with actions.

Like, "come here" + hand waving etc, followed by the reward of praise.

No one critises them if they make mistakes and they are encouraged to keep trying regardless.

From what I have heard about the Thai method of English teaching, it is boring and students are ridiculed for making mistakes.

They are conditioned not to try if they can avoid it to avoid ridicule.

It should be made fun and humour in the lessons is (IMO) one of the important keys to unlocking the learning door.