PM urges Thais to improve English skills

[daveAustin]

This can't be right; a Thai admitting another language being superior. [emoji39]

Nice thought but most natives are just not interested in anything outside their sphere.

But yes, have to train the teachers up first and drop the face thing with not consulting with English speakers on a multitude of things, such as road signage. It would also make a massive difference if there were an English speaking TV channel. Let's face it, Thai TV is the absolute pits and dumbs down an already dumbed down populace.

Ultimately the Thai language should be phased out as it's inefficient and open to too much interpretation, not to mention all the cranky dialects. It holds kids back.

[Just1Voice]

This, from a man who can't put together 3 coherent English sentences himself.

[casualbiker]

I and my thai husband were recently prosecuted for teaching 3 and 4 year olds English after school in my home. If I continue to teach I face 1 year in prison and my husband 6 months.

These are the alleged laws we must follow.

can teach only 7 students per day.

Can teach 7 students per time.

Can teach 7 students per term.

Can teach 7 students per instructor per room.

Nobody can decide which of the above is correct.

If i go over 7, I must get a licence to be nonformal school.

You cannot live on the premises of a non formal school, so we would need to leave our home.

The building office (prosecute my husband ) says, if you teach 1 child per week you must change the category of your building from place of living to education building. To do that we need 2 toilets for girl,2 toilet for boy, and 1 toilet if we live in building, so 5 toilets. We need floor to ceiling height of 3 meters.

All standard house in Thailand is 2.50 meter.

Apparently, even house that teaches in any way, shape or form is illegal as their house is too short. Anybody can be prosecuted at any time and face 6 months in prison. This includes thai people, Chinese, and English tutors.

The ministry of education is the biggest obstacle to thai learning English.

I saw an english school called "Wallstreet English" in the central Westgatemall and when i peeked inside i saw about 50 people listening to a teacher.

So you must have been told different rules i guess. Or maybe that school wasn't really teaching when i looked.

Is Westgatemall a residential abode. NO, no it's a retail shopping centre. Is Wallstreet English a husband and wife outfit.. NO, it's a licenced establishment. Do you actually understand the English that you read? No, it would seem that you don't.

[gandalf12]

Bravo Mr. Prayut

There is much miss-communication between Thai and farang and missed a lot business.

It is a pity you are already far behind Cambodia, Vietnam

Get people from the Philippines, because they had at school all their lessons in English, can read, write and speak...and are cheap... so you can get many teachers.from a good quality.

Many Thai can only speak, but not write or read English.

And the fw that do speak English are only a very small number

[Robbie Dye]

I agree peterrabbit but they would lose face. Many of us oldies would give some time for free if asked nicely!

[gandalf12]

They need NES to teach. There are things in the English language, like in the Thai language, that only a native speaker will understand. Training Thai's to teach English is very much a non-starter. Thailand has to hire proper NES teachers if they genuinely want the country to be on a level footing with the rest of the world

[futsukayoi]

By the way the travel industry looks he should have included Russian and Chinese also.

Especially Chinese with all the so called deals he's doing with them. Unless the Billion dollar submarines comes with user intructions in Thai!

No need for instructions. There is nowhere deep enough to use them anyway.

[futsukayoi]

They need NES to teach. There are things in the English language, like in the Thai language, that only a native speaker will understand. Training Thai's to teach English is very much a non-starter. Thailand has to hire proper NES teachers if they genuinely want the country to be on a level footing with the rest of the world

See this argued a lot and I disagree especially up to quite advanced levels. What is essential is strong teaching skills. As well as growing speaking some form of English NES teachers would be much better if they can demonstrate they have a strong capability in a second language so that they will understand what is involved in learning a foreign language rather than just acquiring it over tens of thousands of hours of immersion growing up. They would also be better if they have a reasonable knowledge of Thai so that they can understand the differences from that language which students will need to come to grips with. Also farangs beginning to learn Thai or foreigners starting to learn pretty much any language almost always elect to have a teacher who can explain concepts in their own language and use bilingual learning materials. Very few NES teachers in Thailand can do this. Someone who has learned English as a second language is also more likely to understand and be able to explain odd features and exceptions in the language as they will have struggled to learn them. NES will never have given them much thought and probably will only be able to say "we say this we don't say that".

[DM07]

........

[nong38]

There are a few things to think about when teaching any language, reading, writing, speaking and understanding it. There are a lot of people who speak English and understand it to a small level, but they are unlikely to be able to read and write it, how important is that they need to read and write it? Not as important as speaking and understanding it so here is where we start.

Start to teach speaking English and understanding what is being said.

This where we could really help and if we were to perhaps we could get a Thai Health card in exchange for our services.

Could be a win win situation but I wonder if it would ever get past that position.

[ratcatcher]

This can't be right; a Thai admitting another language being superior. [emoji39]

Nice thought but most natives are just not interested in anything outside their sphere.

But yes, have to train the teachers up first and drop the face thing with not consulting with English speakers on a multitude of things, such as road signage. It would also make a massive difference if there were an English speaking TV channel. Let's face it, Thai TV is the absolute pits and dumbs down an already dumbed down populace.

Ultimately the Thai language should be phased out as it's inefficient and open to too much interpretation, not to mention all the cranky dialects. It holds kids back.

"This can't be right; a Thai admitting another language being superior."

No, he said English was the most important and universal language. not the same.

"Nice thought but most natives are just not interested in anything outside their sphere."

Quite so, and that would also apply to residents of most countries when it comes to a second or third language.

"But yes, have to train the teachers up first and drop the face thing with not consulting with English speakers on a multitude of things, such as road signage. It would also make a massive difference if there were an English speaking TV channel. Let's face it, Thai TV is the absolute pits and dumbs down an already dumbed down populace."

Agreed, but most Thais seem to like it just that way. Dubbing over an English soundtrack and adding sub titles is indeed overkill.

"Ultimately the Thai language should be phased out as it's inefficient and open to too much interpretation, not to mention all the cranky dialects. It holds kids back."

Of course, the English language with all its idiosyncrasies re spelling and pronunciation is a lot less cranky.? No wonder they struggle. ""

"Why can't the English learn how to speak" Higgins, MFL.

Bough, cough, dough, ought, tough.................just for starters. Bicester, Gloucester, Worcester etc etc.

Many Thais can read and write and understand some basic English. They struggle to speak for a number of reasons but mainly because they fear being embarrassed when they mispronounce a word. They rarely have the opportunity to speak English with native speakers and foreigners who use English. This is the very reason many ladies who work in bars and the entertainment industry as a whole, can speak better English than most bank, store and office employees because they are constantly meeting and talking with English speakers.

As some other posters have mentioned, the Thais make it technically illegal for a foreigner to try and assist Thai people to practice English,, be they children or a group of adults. A farang sitting under a shady tree in his Thai village with 5 neighborhood kids trying to have a friendly conversation in order for them to learn and practice their English is ILLEGAL.

It is done every day and good luck to those who can help the kids, but one faces potential arrest as they deem it to be work, whether remuneration is paid or not. It also depends who you know in the area, but still........

Sadly, regardless of what PM Prayuth says about learning English, nothing will change for the better until the Thai authorities have their attitudes adjusted.

[DrTuner]

I think his message is sinking in. My wife went for a hairdo and came back with a set of photos from the hairdresser, she desperately wanted to learn English and gave the photos to her so she could introduce her to a English speaking farang. That's the right idea, best way to learn a language.

[lostinisaan]

I always tell my students to watch English language news and read online. So, Mr. PM, unblock dailymail.co.uk and let them read it.

Do you remember the Bangkok News in English every morning a few years ago?

At the right time, before "normal" people go to work.

But that suddenly stopped after only two months, or so. Not enough people interested in watching it?

Bangkok Post offers some good English learning stuff online. Does the PM know that? Does he know how to Google how unpopular he is?

I doubt it.

Almost all countries have TV channels with English news and movies.

But the sweet boy loves to see his own "sweet" face on TV ( and sometimes on TVF) quite often. Did he even realize that ASEAN has already started?

I've never seen a PM with such a low self esteem, I'm sure he's afraid of his own shadow.

PM, I wish we foreigners would be allowed to vote for aeem..

Edited July 10, 2016 by lostinisaan

[silent]

But that would require proper english teachers...not the 35k backpacker type.

lol. It would also require many of those that aren't the 35k backpack type to be little more dependable and reputable for helping Thais improve their English.language skills, but we all know the same as him that we'll see the second coming of Christ in Thailand first.

[jamhar]

Some of us expats could use this advice

[Berty100]

He could lead by example and start to learn English himself

[Thaddeus]

He has to start with the education system then and get teachers who can read write and speak English to a good level so that it can be taught properly which it is not now.

Just basic skills and how to communicate is simply all that is required and I am sure that the expats here could play a roll if asked, dont worry about losing face do you want to get a better grasp of English or not?

I know more than a handful of teachers who can read English perfectly well, give them anything written in English and they will happily read it out to you.

Haven't got the faintest idea what any of it means though.

[ikke]

Have a look, or should i say , listen to this.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAisJIV4fiw

[ikke]

I always tell my students to watch English language news and read online. So, Mr. PM, unblock dailymail.co.uk and let them read it.

Do you remember the Bangkok News in English every morning a few years ago?

At the right time, before "normal" people go to work.

But that suddenly stopped after only two months, or so. Not enough people interested in watching it?

Bangkok Post offers some good English learning stuff online. Does the PM know that? Does he know how to Google how unpopular he is?

I doubt it.

Almost all countries have TV channels with English news and movies.

But the sweet boy loves to see his own "sweet" face on TV ( and sometimes on TVF) quite often. Did he even realize that ASEAN has already started?

I've never seen a PM with such a low self esteem, I'm sure he's afraid of his own shadow.

PM, I wish we foreigners would be allowed to vote for aeem..

I read daily the Daily mail, whats the problem ?

[Estrada]

If you want the Thais to learn English then it starts in the education system.

You have to employ teachers who are native English speakers ie (English/Irish/American/Australians/NZ etc) to teach the kids English.

NOT Thais, Filipinos, Indians etc. as they will only teach them 'Tinglish' and not English. The kids would benefit so much by just listening to and talking to native English speakers.

Yes we need native English Speakers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixFQUpLnr3E

[Benmart]

I volunteer in a bordering country that actually embraces, native born, English speaking volunteers. Thailand is lightyears behind as a result of a smug, isolationist and xenophobic past/present.

[tonray]

He has to start with the education system then and get teachers who can read write and speak English to a good level so that it can be taught properly which it is not now.

Just basic skills and how to communicate is simply all that is required and I am sure that the expats here could play a roll if asked, dont worry about losing face do you want to get a better grasp of English or not?

Most exapats are more than willing to take a roll...in the hay that is.

[Brer Fox]

So to improve English learning the schools are switching to Filipino teachers because they are cheaper and the hierarchy in the schools get a kick-back back from the employment agencies.

So students then get to learn that bastardised form of English the Americans use. You know that particular English dialect where, for example, "s" can become "z" when used in words like bastardised. My spell-checker has been bastardized as well.

[Destiny1990]

Implement much more english tv channels.

Tv language english course for free etc etc.

English music video channel etc etc so much can be done.

Walt disney english kids cartoon.

English daily soap tv with thai subtitles...

[Luckysilk]

Stop the cheap imported Filipino/Filipinas from teaching, I have great difficulty understanding them and can't spot a Thai easily if they've been taught by one.

Only native speakers and allow some of us to volunteer our time.

[gandalf12]

They need NES to teach. There are things in the English language, like in the Thai language, that only a native speaker will understand. Training Thai's to teach English is very much a non-starter. Thailand has to hire proper NES teachers if they genuinely want the country to be on a level footing with the rest of the world

See this argued a lot and I disagree especially up to quite advanced levels. What is essential is strong teaching skills. As well as growing speaking some form of English NES teachers would be much better if they can demonstrate they have a strong capability in a second language so that they will understand what is involved in learning a foreign language rather than just acquiring it over tens of thousands of hours of immersion growing up. They would also be better if they have a reasonable knowledge of Thai so that they can understand the differences from that language which students will need to come to grips with. Also farangs beginning to learn Thai or foreigners starting to learn pretty much any language almost always elect to have a teacher who can explain concepts in their own language and use bilingual learning materials. Very few NES teachers in Thailand can do this. Someone who has learned English as a second language is also more likely to understand and be able to explain odd features and exceptions in the language as they will have struggled to learn them. NES will never have given them much thought and probably will only be able to say "we say this we don't say that".

Quite agree with you. It is one of the reasons, among many others, that I learned Thai. Having said that I have spoken to Thai teachers who teach English and they have asked me to explain to them the differences in the use of words. I don't mind helping anyone but the teachers, and I agree they should have a basic understanding of Thai at the very east, need to have a very comprehensive understanding of English. Unfortunately most Thai teachers of English, and I am sure there are some who do, do not ave that grasp.

[Happy Grumpy]

By the way the travel industry looks he should have included Russian and Chinese also.

Especially Chinese with all the so called deals he's doing with them. Unless the Billion dollar submarines comes with user intructions in Thai!

Under way since around 2008. The Chinese government has sent 10,000 teachers here and pays half their Thai salary every month.

[casualbiker]

Stop the cheap imported Filipino/Filipinas from teaching, I have great difficulty understanding them and can't spot a Thai easily if they've been taught by one.

Only native speakers and allow some of us to volunteer our time.

I disagree I have met some very good Filipino teachers BUT many working in Thai schools are not the best English speaking Filipinos, they tend to stay at home and have relatively lucrative careers in the numerous international call centres. Filipinos need to realise that we non Thai teachers should work TOGETHER. Unfortunately that is rarely the case!

[Dap]

Surely there has to be somebody in a higher position than this man, this is like sesame street, pushing messages with puppets.

THAT could actually work ie. Sesame Street & Puppets

[FredNL]

Having a discussion about learning English last Thursday in a bar in Pattaya. My opinion is having all Thai TV stations broadcasting the original English spoken movies and series with Thai subtitles. Thai lady answer: "No need because American actors speak Thai".

The fact that they don't use Thai subtitles is that there are too many Thai that can't read the subtitles. And that is not because they don't wear their glasses or contacts.