Why can’t Thais speak English?
Some of these students have had over 2,000 hours of English.
As I go through a typical day, one nagging question keeps popping up in the back of my head; Why can't Thai people speak English?
Well that's a dumb question, right? I can already hear some of the answers now. "They're Thai. They speak Thai. We're in Thailand. Duh" Alright let me rephrase the question then. Considering that English has been the international language of tourism and commerce for I don't know how many decades now, and there are I don't know how many thousands of English teachers all over the country, why is the general level of English so poor? Why can't even young, supposedly educated college students speak English? Why can't the Pratom (primary) teachers at my school, who are supposed to teach every subject, including English, speak English? Ok two of them can, but most can't, so we have a situation here where Thai English teachers can't speak English.
The odd thing about it is that they are required to be in my class to help control the students and presumably to learn English as well, which I am thankful for. But when the class is going smoothly and I don't really need any help, the Thai teacher often tunes out my lesson, opting instead to open up his or her laptop and squeeze in a couple games of solitare or log in to Facebook or whatever it is they do. Not only does this give students the message that it's acceptable to ignore my lesson, but aren't the Thai teachers shooting themselves in the foot when they waste a great opportunity to learn English from a native speaker along with their students???!!!
Recently the director of my school called a meeting with all the foreign teachers. The director (who doesn't speak English) was ranting and raving (in PasaThai) about how Thailand is trying to catch up to ASEAN standards of English proficiency. He instructed all the Thai teachers that they need to use and teach English vocabulary words in all the subjects. At this point I must borrow the phrase I have seen in other articles on this site and say that it would be comical if it weren't so tragic.
I'm really not trying to put down my school, the teachers, or Thai people in general. Some of the teachers at my school have been teaching for over 30 years, which means they began their careers before I was born. I realize that learning English is very difficult and takes a great deal of effort. In some ways it may be "too late" for some of the older teachers and older Thai people in general. But like I said, most high school and college students don't even speak English.
Let's look at some of the numbers for a typical 16 year old high school student. Let's say that "Ploy" is a 16-year old girl who goes to ABC Government School in XYZ city. She started English classes about 10 years ago in Pratom 1. For the past 10 years she has been going to English class twice a week with a native speaker for 50 to 60 minutes each class. She also has English class twice a week with her Thai teachers, and her math and science classes are taught by Filipino teachers with English being the language of instruction.
Doing the math on that gives you the following stats - Ploy has had about 700 hours of dedicated English conversation class with a native speaker over the past 10 years. She's had another 700 hours of English grammar taught by the Thai teacher, and another 700 hours of science and math classes taught by Filipino teachers. So over the last decade, Ploy has had a grand total of 2100 hours of classes where English has either been taught directly or at least used as the main language of instruction.
So of course Ploy can speak English, right? Maybe, maybe not. If Ploy is a good student, and she puts in the effort to learn, and she has had even halfway decent teachers, she probably can speak English. But if she doesn't see the need to learn, isn't motivated, and she has had mediocre teachers, she has probably been tuning out of English class for the past ten years the same way her Pratom homeroom teachers have been doing for the past thirty.
So how can we fix this problem? I don't have all the answers, but I think that Thai people will continue to put in a very small amount of effort as long as they don't see any real need to learn English. But as ASEAN becomes stronger and more unified, and as the world in general becomes more of a tight-knit community Thailand will soon see they are lagging far behind other countries where many if not most of the citizens actually speak their second language.
PJ
Comments
Thaigirl,
Thank you for the expression of your experience. I will definitely try to remember it while teaching English. We, and I have to count myself as one, English speakers presume that the manner of speech is normal. But, we forget that normal is a value judgement which is not absolute. I had a Latin teacher once who influenced me as much as my parents. Why? He was a funny, fun little guy. He spoke over 30 languages fluently. I took his class because after miserably trying Spanish, German and French I need at least 2 years of a foreign language to get into a reputable college or university. I thought if I could just pass I would be doing well.
What I learned in his class was there was a relevance to a dead language—Latin by hime was made alive. He taught me there was a mathematical, musical structure and logic to it. When I got that locked into my brain—the music and logic of it—learning it became easier. So much so, that as I traveled in my life, listening to other languages I saw the same lessons in my mind. It wasn’t accurate, it wasn’t pretty but, I could get my thoughts across to others. Clumsily yes, but understandably also.
So, Thaigirl, you keep trying. Know you will make mistakes. But, you will learn, develop the music and logic of it with practice. Also, if I may be so bold, remember please—we English speakers will destroy the logic of the Thai language, too. We will make mistakes, too.
By James Hutchins, Nakon Ratchasima on 2013-05-13
Hi everyone,
Apologies that we all Thais including me ignore importance of learning English.
We have been stuck in the TEACHING environment that try to put GUILT into students. I remembered having bad experience speak wrong english word in english class and the TEACHER herself try to make me feel funny in front of other pulpils.
It takes me three decades to learn myself that WE ALL CAN MAKE MISTAKE and LEARN from it. As long as Thais do worry about their face more than the experience of making mistake. We will never ever learn. ANYTHING : )
By ThaiGirl, Ubon,Thailand on 2013-05-13
For the same reason that most native-English speaking Americans can’t speak Spanish. It’s a combination of nationalism + laziness + pride.
I’m an American from the Los Angeles area and I know all about this phenomenon. The “white” people in America refuse to learn Spanish despite the fact that almost ONE THIRD of US citizens speak Spanish now.
Recently, Obama half-heartedly urged Americans to “learn Spanish”.
Yeah…good luck Obama. Most Americans can’t spell English words let alone learn another language.
By Kevin, Phuket on 2013-04-21
Everyone makes some valid points. I am a retired American aerospace quality engineer who faced the xenophobic attitude towards other functions in projects (e.g., system engineering, reliability, configuration management, project management, etal). Breaking down those phobias (attitudes) are not easy. Can I offer an observation? If not, then read no further. If I can, then continue.
I developed a course in two aerospace companies where I recognized that even though we spoke a common language we put different meanings, some dramatically different, to the words spoken. It is those meanings that caused project conflict at times. Understanding them made myself and those I trained fluid in movement between the functions of the project. They could interpret what wasbeing said so others could grasp the intent of the wording. Thus, smooting the way to successful projects and programs.
Now, a further question is, how can this be leveraged as a lesson for us—the teachers of English to thai students. If I may, as a good quality engineer one must first assess where the level is of the students being taught. Then, as that good quality engineer do a gap analysis—now what that means to a teacher is recognizing the gaps between what the subject is and the knowledge is. Deming, a long time guru in Quality, ( and I paraphrase here) once postulated that to know the problem is to understand how to resolve it. Now, he was a statistician but the principle he taught applies.
In teaching English I ran into the same problems mentioned here by others. I did my assessment and found that the students while not proficient in English were in math. Math has a logic to it. What I mean by that is there are many ways to solve a math problem. Use the examples of math to show the students they can say what they want many ways also. The English language is difficult enough to grasp but if we show where it is concurrent in logic with math it can become a leverage learning tool.
The last school I worked at in Phimai, I used this to interest the students. And I worked alone with students 99% of the time. Now, I am not a linguist by any means but using math logic I was able to reach the students who were even ‘slightly’ interested.
Oh, and I made a game of the math and language combination later leveraging that in teaching American culture and some Native American indian phrases. On a scale of 0-4 grading, over 80% of my students scored at 2.5 or better in English (combination of comprehension, speaking, reading and writing).
If people want to discuss this feel free to contact me at my skype ID: JamesLHutchins or in email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
If you live in or near Korat, my wife and I might meet with you at the Korat Mall Starbucks on a Saturday sometime by arrangement.
I have to admit it is not easy but, as the son of teachers myself and a U.S. Marine, I learned decades ago—life and living are not easy but an adventure if you accept it.
I await anyone interested.
James L. “Hutch” Hutchins
By James "Hutch" Hutchins, Nakon Ratchasima on 2013-03-31
Alicia, if you’re in Australia, you should have come in contact with some Malaysian/Singaporeans. Don’t you envy then at all for having the chance to learn so many languages since a young age?
In Europe as well, people do know more than one languages. Actually one person I met in a language class knows 8, and she’s learning the 9th one.
I regret growing up a country where there is such idiotic xenophobic tendency, and I regret not knowing enough about the world when I was young, not knowing how important and useful a 3rd language can be. I only started learning a 3rd language when I was 25. Now I’m learning my 5th and 6th (simultanously). To me it is very enjoyable to have a new world open up as I learn a new language.
By Paul, Hamburg on 2013-02-22