Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

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Big Boy
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Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Big Boy »

Maybe I live in a bubble, but I've always been generally impressed at Thai's ability to communicate with me in my language. OK, they're not perfect, but they are good enough to prevent me really making an effort to learn Thai.

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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by centermid7 »

If your "bubble" is Hua Hin, Phuket, Pattaya, Sukhumvit Road (BKK), or Chiang Mai then you really are in a bubble as far as English proficiency in terms of the abilities of the Thai people as one will find lots of English being spoken in those areas and there is not a lot of need for a farang to learn the Thai language.

Go outside of those areas and there is very little ability to speak English. This is no surprise of course as there is very little need for it.
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by hhfarang »

That's because you live in Hua Hin Big Boy. Tourist centers like Hua Hin, Phuket, Pattaya, Samui and Bangkok (tourists and foreign businesses) have many to most Thais speaking some English. When I visit family up in Issan, the only person that I have ever encountered that speaks English is my wife. Several of her relatives and friends in/near the village are college graduates (from Universities in Bangkok) who still cannot communicate at all in English.

Edit: Centermid beat me to it while I was typing with pretty much the same response
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by buksida »

Tourist towns are essentially 'bubbles', about as far flung from real Thailand as you can get.

As far as language goes, I enjoy going to places in Thailand where they don't even speak Thai!
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Big Boy »

No, I do travel a fair bit, and go to parts of Isaan the white man has rarely seen (a white lie - that was the case in the beginning, but 5 Farang live there nowadays :D ) - they always manage to communicate with me.

Even in the wildest parts of Thailand however, I do find it's the younger generation (taught at school I guess) - very few of the village elders can speak English.
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by hhfarang »

Actually, in my wife's village, most of the older people don't even speak Thai... :shock: They speak Lao. In fairness it is one of the most remote places in Thailand. They didn't have running water, electricity, or any kind of phone service when we got married. I think they were the last place in Thailand to get cellular service (just a couple of years ago) and they never had land lines.
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Big Boy »

LOL - you could be describing my wife's village. The only difference is cellular services have only been there about 12 months, but there was a single land line, where you could phone, and arrange a time when to phone back - they would collect whoever you wanted..
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by usual suspect »

If the young Thais only had the option of using Facebook in English then they'd be a little more eager to learn!
My wife's daughter is staying with us now while she attends a local college..& she will NOT speak English with me..even though it's ME she turns to when her homework bogs her down.
BUT the eldest son is almost the opposite..he has quite a good command of the language..but he's a dark horse..although he does not converse much..he sometimes comes out with answers that knock me back a little..5-5.
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by buksida »

englishskills.jpg
In 2015, English is widely accepted as the primary international language, and it is increasingly defined as a basic skill required of every student in every education system.

But not in every country : Thailand ranks 62 out of 70 countries in a global ranking of English skills by EF Education First.

The fith edition of the report also shows a worrying trend for Thailand : the country showed very little improvement and desperately sticks to the bottom of the charts.

http://www.ef.co.th/epi/regions/asia/thailand/
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Nereus »

This should fix it:

Ministry aims to cut foreign English tutors

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... ish-tutors

The Education Ministry plans to recruit its first batch of 500 Thai teachers who teach English in state-run schools nationwide to undergo a "train-the-trainer" programme in a bid to reduce the cost of........>>>>>>


He said the ministry recently conducted a survey of the capability of Thai English-language teachers across the country and found more than 43,000 Thai English language teachers in public schools, but only six of them have been found to have the ability to achieve native-like fluency in English. :thumb:
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by PeteC »

^^ It's things like this that makes my blood boil. Here's yet another nationalistic snob who will take the country further down the toilet. The 500 are not fluent in English based upon the Nereus post, yet he's going to make them fluent and turn them into English teachers in 6 weeks. :banghead:

Let's look at it in a different way. Take 500 native English speakers who can speak some Thai, and turn them into Thai language teachers in 6 weeks. I think that highlights the absurdity of the plan and this character who thought it up. Bloody dinosaur. :roll: Pete :cheers:
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by barrys »

What amazes me even more is that this is being done in cooperation with the "British Council's English specialists" and the British Embassy.
You'd think these professionals would inform the Ministry of Education that a 6-week course will hardly make a dent in the problem.
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Name Taken »

prcscct wrote:^^ It's things like this that makes my blood boil. Here's yet another nationalistic snob who will take the country further down the toilet. The 500 are not fluent in English based upon the Nereus post, yet he's going to make them fluent and turn them into English teachers in 6 weeks. :banghead:

Let's look at it in a different way. Take 500 native English speakers who can speak some Thai, and turn them into Thai language teachers in 6 weeks. I think that highlights the absurdity of the plan and this character who thought it up. Bloody dinosaur. :roll: Pete :cheers:
:agree:
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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Vital Spark »

barrys wrote:What amazes me even more is that this is being done in cooperation with the "British Council's English specialists" and the British Embassy.
You'd think these professionals would inform the Ministry of Education that a 6-week course will hardly make a dent in the problem.
Not when they're going to make a boatload of money running the courses. :wink:

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Re: Thailand near bottom for English proficiency

Post by Dannie Boy »

Vital Spark wrote:
barrys wrote:What amazes me even more is that this is being done in cooperation with the "British Council's English specialists" and the British Embassy.
You'd think these professionals would inform the Ministry of Education that a 6-week course will hardly make a dent in the problem.
Not when they're going to make a boatload of money running the courses. :wink:

VS
Exactly, get their foot in the door and then when the six weeks are up and the teachers are nowhere near to being fluent, they can offer further training.
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