Local Thais have no interest in learning English

[PeteC]

A lot of food for thought there.

- Because it's a tourist town do most of the Thais know English already due to their employment and involvement with foreigners?

- Do they think their level of English is adequate and they feel no need to learn more?

- They don't see it as an opportunity to improve themselves and their lives like the Hilltribe people do?

- Is it just apathy?

[bapak]

Since we commenced Sirada - The Learneing Centre in June 2010.....
Number of enrolments: Total: 1004 / Thai 342 Foreigners 662

Very disappointed in the number of Thai enrolments... Thais to study English was our main goal when we established the school. In contrast, we recently visited a number of schools in the Chiang Mai area where the students were from the various Hill Tribes. The teachers basically have to lock the classroom doors as the classrooms are jammed tight with students wanting to learn English..In addition, the library had a queue.

Local Thais appear to have no knowledge or desire to know the impact 2016 AEC may haveon their lives. I often cite to them that if Centara advertise a front Desk position and a Thai. Malaysian or Singaporean apply for the position... Guess who is going to get the job.

With respect, would not like to see this develop into an "anti Thai" debate.

[centermid7]

You have cited one place of which you know where there is an interest in learning English but there are many many thousands/hundreds of thousands more places where it will be more like the "local" as noted in your headline.

I would suggest to you that "local" is everywhere.

To be sure, sorry you are seeing results that are less that when you hoped.

[Somchai Turdsak]

I often hear that ASEAN (2016 AEC) is going to increase the need for and usefulness of English speakers in Thailand.
Why is that? Is English going to become the default language?

[caller]

Its an interesting point about what will happen post 2016. I haven't seen it in Hua Hin or Bkk, but the hotel I have used in Korat - the Sima Thani - has (or had) many Filipino staff, who all speak English.

My wifes sister went to Uni in Korat with a view to working in the Hotel industry and was learning English as part of her course, but not English as you or I know it.

I thought the large hotels in Hua Hin provided their own English training, as the level graduates arrived with wasn't acceptable?

[STEVE G]

Times are changing, my Thai step-son is now learning to speak Chinese at school in Khorat.

[Bamboo Grove]

SteveG wrote:

my Thai step-son is now learning to speak Chinese at school in Khorat.

That's interesting, Steve. How does he find it, is it easier or more difficult than English, writing of couse is but speaking? Is the teacher a Thai or Chinese?

[alleykat]

Because it's a tourist town do most of the Thais know English already due to their employment and involvement with foreigners?

No, most of the Thais here do not know English already, although there would be more than say somewhere like Nakhon Phanom.

- Do they think their level of English is adequate and they feel no need to learn more?

Maybe, although not sure is this is the reason in this case, but I've seen it around Thailand, a lot get to a level where they can be understood on a basic level even though their grammar is wrong etc, quick example "no have", but then they don't want to progress any further than that.

- They don't see it as an opportunity to improve themselves and their lives like the Hilltribe people do?

Well, it might have been free for the Hilltribe people? And it would have been interesting to see if the same amount of people stuck it out for more than a month.

A lot of Thais that could afford lessons would rather 'improve themselves' by getting a new car, phone, gold, or by being seen at MV/MK.

- Is it just apathy?

Partly.


Many enrol for English classes with good intentions, but then give up when they realise it's not easy and they have to make an effort themselves.I get the impression that some think they are going to learn just by enrolling and that an English computer chip will be implanted into their brain.

I remember a few years ago meeting a couple of rich Thai's were booked to travel to England for a holiday, so they decided to to learn English 2-3 weeks before their departure!

[Dr Mike]

From what I understand, English will be the master language of AEC. That is not surprising as S'pore and Malaysia are the most enthusiastic about it. ALL regulations will be written in English first and all the 'debate' is being held in English. Friends involved in this in S'pore tell me that Thai is not opposing this, but responding in the usual passive-aggresive way by doing nothing to implement this and even sending reps to committee meetings who speak NO english and are not accompanied by translators..

[Takiap]

I often hear that ASEAN (2016 AEC) is going to increase the need for and usefulness of English speakers in Thailand.
Why is that? Is English going to become the default language?

Obviously not, but the plain truth of the matter is that English is a universal language. I come from the old South Africa where English was generally considered to be a "second" language, but had I opted to disregard learning the language, I would have had a very different life considering most of my life has been spent working abroad. My view was always that there really is not much need for me to learn Afrikaans since it can't be used beyond SA's borders.

I'm not saying Thais should dump their language, but having a good grasp of English can make a vast difference to their lives. My own wife is living proof of this. She has continually studied and advanced her level of English, and today she is in a good job, and earning more than me most of the time.

When 2016 arrives, I think we'll see a lot of Thais losing out on opportunities because of their poor English, just as Bapak has pointed out.

[dtaai-maai]

I often hear that ASEAN (2016 AEC) is going to increase the need for and usefulness of English speakers in Thailand.
Why is that? Is English going to become the default language?

Yes, English is already the lingua franca for ASEAN. Not surprising, really, when you consider that Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma (and probably one or two others I've left out) all have decent English to different degrees.

Times are changing, my Thai step-son is now learning to speak Chinese at school in Khorat.

Yes they are, but only in that more students are learning other Asian languages - they are not going to stop learning English. Our university, and probably most other 'decent' Thai unis, has Korean, Chinese and Japanese teachers (not many of them).
Having said that, their level of English is mostly pretty dreadful after learning it for 10 years+ in school, so I doubt that a few years at uni is going to have them discussing philosophy with Chinese intellectuals.

With respect, would not like to see this develop into an "anti Thai" debate.

I couldn't agree more, but this is one area where it is impossible to be particularly "pro-Thai". Lip service (ironically) is all that is given to the need to learn foreign languages. I

- Is it just apathy?

Partly.

Many enrol for English classes with good intentions, but then give up when they realise it's not easy and they have to make an effort themselves.I get the impression that some think they are going to learn just by enrolling and that an English computer chip will be implanted into their brain.

I remember a few years ago meeting a couple of rich Thai's were booked to travel to England for a holiday, so they decided to to learn English 2-3 weeks before their departure!

I think both of these comments have some truth in them.
There might also be a cultural reluctance to be seen to depend on other languages.

To me, it doesn't matter if Thais working in the market or average Thai restaurants, hotels, etc. speak Tinglish. But it should matter greatly to international businesses, top hotels, government services, etc.
I don't think it's fair to label these people (or the entire nation) as 'lazy' as often happens; the problem lies in that the vast majority are still being taught English at school by teachers who can't speak it properly themselves.

As with most of the things we perceive as 'wrong' here, there needs to be the political will to change the education system and the money provided to do it.

Which is why there will only be cosmetic changes.

[centermid7]

I would still make a small wager that Thailand is going to somehow get out of participating in the ASEAN 2016 thing.

Withdraw, delay, refuse. Some pretext will be found.

Cheers

[johnnyk]

Because it's a tourist town do most of the Thais know English already due to their employment and involvement with foreigners?

No, most of the Thais here do not know English already, although there would be more than say somewhere like Nakhon Phanom.

- Do they think their level of English is adequate and they feel no need to learn more?

Maybe, although not sure is this is the reason in this case, but I've seen it around Thailand, a lot get to a level where they can be understood on a basic level even though their grammar is wrong etc, quick example "no have", but then they don't want to progress any further than that.

- They don't see it as an opportunity to improve themselves and their lives like the Hilltribe people do?

Well, it might have been free for the Hilltribe people? And it would have been interesting to see if the same amount of people stuck it out for more than a month.

A lot of Thais that could afford lessons would rather 'improve themselves' by getting a new car, phone, gold, or by being seen at MV/MK.

- Is it just apathy?

Partly.


Many enrol for English classes with good intentions, but then give up when they realise it's not easy and they have to make an effort themselves.I get the impression that some think they are going to learn just by enrolling and that an English computer chip will be implanted into their brain.

I remember a few years ago meeting a couple of rich Thai's were booked to travel to England for a holiday, so they decided to to learn English 2-3 weeks before their departure!

Good point. Thai education doesn't instil effort and good work habits. Memory chip in the brain says it all except it doesn't work that way. Somchai may be able to get a "job" with help from papa's friends but learning English to a competent level requires effort and Thai schools neither encourage nor value effort.

[bapak]

The English classes at the Hill Tribe schools referred to have been going for over a year. The original teachers were several retired Australian teachers (who still monitor) who subsequently trained a number of the original teachers to teach English.

An aside, talking about untrained English teachers in government schools, we have a 12 years old girl in class here for over 2 years. One day she came to class with an obvious hard slap on her face. When we inquired, the teacher had smacked her for having the audacity of challenging something in the lesson (the grammar question she asked was correct).

[alleykat]

The title of this thread should be;
"MANY local Thais have no interest in learning English" or,
"A LOT OF local Thais have no interest in learning English" or,
"Local Thais don't want to PAY to learn English".

I know however that many don't mind paying when it's cheap. Case in point, I know a Thai guy living here who spent 40 years in the USA who runs English classes Mon-Fri. He only charges 1000 baht for a month (at least 20 lessons). Many show up to learn at the start of the month, but near the end of the month they stop coming to class, never to be seen again. And many of the ones who stay longer than that don't appear to have learned anything at all.

To learn a language properly you need to practice it on a daily basis in addition to classes.