The issue with English language skills in Thailand

First a disclaimer: I am aware of the fact that my English skills are not A+. That's why I am not calling myself an English writer. It is also not my mother tongue, so native speakers, please be nice.

Since we are in Thailand, I am wondering why the English language skills here are so low. In the regions economic hub you would expect more people speaking English, and in a famous tourist destination like Bangkok even more. But my personal experience is that very few people I met are able to have a long conversation in English. I also witnessed that many people I know actually know grammar way better than me, and may even have a larger vocabulary. Yet, they just don't speak well or enough.

As a houseman I go shopping a lot for groceries, food, whatever we need. Sometimes it seems the sellers in the small stall at the local market make way more efforts to communicate in English with me than the wannabe-models and guys at Siam Paragon. Yesterday at Central Embassy they had to call the manager on duty to explain me the promotion model in English.

There is some evidence that the English problem isn't new. In 1986, Chualalongkorn University conducted a study about the English skills of students:

1. Matayom Suksa Three students were rather weak in the skills of using English in both the sound modality and the graphic modality, needing improvement, especially in the skills of reading and writing.            2. Matayom Suksa Six students had a medium level of English skills in the sound modality needing improvement, while their skills in the graphic modality were rather weak needing improvement, especially in the writing skill.            3. University students had a medium-level of skills in both the sound and the graphic modalities needing improvement, especially in the integrative skills of reading-writing and the writing skills, which were very weak.            4. Concerning language components, it was discovered that Matayom Suksa Three and Six students had a low level of ability which needed improvement while university students exhibited a medium level of ability.            5. Concerning test score distribution, it was discovered that the scores of Matayom Suksa Three students were most widely spread having 6 levels of dispersion, followed by those of Matayom Suksa Six students with 5 levels and university students with 4 levels.            6. Concerning the skewness of score distribution, it was revealed that while the test scores from the English skill tests and the language component tests of Matayom Suksa Three and Matayom Suksa Six students were generally below the mean scores, those of university students were above.            7. Secondary school students from small and medium sized schools exhibited statistically significantly lower levels of skills in both the sound and the graphic modalities than students from large and extra-large sized schools (p < .01).  It was also discovered that the English skills of first, second and third year university students were significantly different with second-year students having significantly higher scores than first-year students (p < .05).

So there was a warning already that a problem might occur. But it is part of the Thai tradition to ignore signs like that. So teachers went on with what they did all the years before: Speaking something they thought is correct English (or American) and focus on Grammar.


In 2012 Bangkok Post reported:

Thai students' English-language skills rank below those of youngsters in at least three other member countries of Asean, according to a recent survey by Education First (EF), an international language school
Thailand ranked 42nd out of 44 countries surveyed for adult English proficiency -- below Vietnam (39), and Indonesia (34), with Malaysia the top Asean country at No 9.
The Office of the Education Council (ONEC), which revealed the results of the survey, said the level of English proficiency of Thai youth is  below par and cannot compete with other countries. 

In 2013, a conference in Chang Rai concluded that English skills are far from what they should be:

On 15th March, at Ban Mae Jan School in Chiang Rai, the Quality Learning Foundation with Rom Chatra Foundation and Ban Mae Jan School, arranged a conference to discuss preparations for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). One of the most important factors, it was said, was that Thailand has to vastly improve where English language capabilities are concerned.

And finally, in 2014 The Nation stated that English needs to be improved:

The average TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score in Thailand last year was among the three lowest for Asean countries, Enconcept E-Academy executive Apitha Wonlopsiri said yesterday.

He said the country's average score was 76 points (it was 74 points last year), but was still among the bottom three, which included Cambodia (69) and Laos (68).
Singapore topped the list with 98 points followed by Malaysia and Philippines (89), Indonesia (82), Myanmar (79) and Vietnam (78).
Apitha called on Thai students to urgently improve their English language skills.  

I made a little experiment: I contacted randomly around 80 Thai people on Beetalk and ask if they can speak English. About 80 percent answered to a initial "Hi" with a "Hi". When I asked if they speak English, 60 percent said straight away No, and the remaining answered "A little bit". None was able to have a conversation in English. Their profession was from market seller to hair dresser, accountant, administration officer to microbiology student (the latter scored best, by the way, but still far from fluent). Age group was between 20 and 40. It also seems that older people have better skills than younger, at least when it comes to speaking.

So, the question is "Why"?
Why Are Thailand’s English-Language Skills The Lowest in South East Asia? as Tastythailand is asking.  While he says that Laos has surpassed Thailand (what I strongly reject, Laos is far behind Thailand), some arguments are very reasonable:

• Thailand’s Education is a Rote System – In Thai schools, students are taught to copy what the teacher writes on the board and memorize it. ...
• Critical Thinking Skills Are Not Taught – In Thailand, critical thinking skills are not taught. Students are rarely expected to think for themselves, so don’t question anything the teacher teaches....
• Thai Education Concentrates on Grammar – Throughout most of the years Thai students learn English, classes are normally concentrated on learning English grammar....
• Thai Teachers Are Poorly Trained – As much as most Thai teachers work hard to teach their students, few have the skills to teach English correctly....

I totally agree with everything above and want to add some more explanations. I myself learned English in school, but 30 years ago there was no need to speak English in Germany ever. Reading yes, but speaking? No. Even movies were dubbed in German. So only when I started travelling - my now wife forced me, and I am still thankful for this - I began to speak English on our journey through Asia. So I understand the problems of young Thai people who can simply get away with it. There is no real need, unless you have to communicate in English at your work. You have movies, books, music in Thai, your friends speak Thai, and in a country with 80 million people and a still healthy economy and a huge domestic market, only a few need to talk to foreign investors and bosses.

And then there is this strange relationship with foreigners in general. While everyone likes to drive a car and uses and iPhone (both not really invented by Thais), there is still some discrimination and resentment against foreigners.

Thailand is at risk to be stuck in the middle income trap. That means the economy will plateau, and the country won't make it to an higher level. One reason is that people are just doing fine. They have a job, a car, mobile phones, a condo and the kids can go to a international school. Why should the new middle class work harder?

Since new curriculums will focus more on Thainess, Thai culture and history, I doubt English skills are about to improve significantly. And again, it is not so much how you scored in a test. If you keep silent in a business negotiation with a partner from one of the AEC countries next year. nobody cares about Thai people being shy. They will just move on to the company from Cambodia or Myanmar, where staff dares to speak.

The Solution? Radical reform in Education. More English movies, music and documentaries in TV (and less Korean). Selling English as the ASEAN language might help as well. But this takes a long time and maybe comes too late already. Or I am too pessimistic?

Romance in the modern times

Saw this young couple sitting at Terminal 21. He was playing playstation while she was checking Facebook. Could imagine a more romantic setup for a date, but maybe this is how they do it these days?

Get your dinner from the market

When it comes to food, I always wonder how local stalls can sell it that cheap. I can't cook a dish for 30 baht, no way. But since it is so convenient, I go quite often to the local market here and buy stuff. Below some pictures. The market is an afternoon/evening market, located at Soi Wat Dan Samrong/Corner Soi 62. For some reasons stalls change a lot, so you will never get the same stuff on the next day. Since it is quite local , people don't speak English (but some do), and most can at least tell you the price and what kind of meat the dish contains. You can buy cooked dishes as well as meat, vegetables and fruits.

So many stalls offer traditional Thai dishes. Just try it out.

If you prefer to cook at home, get the ingredients here.

 The market is small and not much crowded, but I met the most friendly sellers here.

The fish cakes cost just 20 Baht - and they are sooooo delicious.

Japanese food is cheap as well - 5 Baht per ball.

Something about Bangkok you can't really share on Facebook

Every morning a ride my motobike about 7 kilometers through streets and sois in the suburbs of Bangkok, and in the evening I ride the same way back home (mainly Soi Lasalle and Soi Bearing). I captured once this ride with a gopro cam  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLvQJypnS3I) and while it gives you some impression about the area I live in (and the traffic there too), one, and maybe the most important thing is missing: the smell of hundreds of small street food shops, the odor from the early rain, from the overflowing sewage system, the gas powered tuk tuk (are they using any parfume there?), or from a decade old diesel truck.

You won't get that on a taxi or your air conditioned car. And it is something you can only try to describe, but technology has yet not make it possibe to share a scent. The pleasant smell of a simmering curry, the for some not so pleasent flavor of a durian stall. The spices vaporizing in the smoke of a BBQ grill. The fragrance of fresh roses and flower bouquets sold just next to the street. The stinking garbage truck I am stuck behind, and the parfume of the young girl on the mototaxi right in front to me, mixing to an unforgetable conglomerate of what makes this City of Angles so special.

(Of course there are downsides, like a BTS ride in the evening rush hour in the hot season or the attempt to walk through the fragrance department in a shopping mall without breathing)

Research actually shows that we remember a scent or smell quite good, even from our childhood. We can actually "recall" a scent in our brain. Remember the book "The parfume"?

- You can smell as fresh as a daisy every month and your scent cells are renewed every 28 days, so every four weeks you get a new “nose”.

-  Smell is the most sensitive of the senses. People can remember smells with 65% accuracy after a year, while visual recall is about 50% after three months.Research has shown that smell is the sense most linked to our emotional recollection. So, when linked to a product, that can reap dividends. 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/20-fascinating-facts-sense-smell-1977351#ixzz34U8KDYfx 

Maybe this is what makes Bangkok so unforgettable?

Some people even want to develop devices to create and share a scent: http://mashable.com/2013/05/13/chatperf-scented-phone/

But that still cannot catch what your nose gets from a stall selling my favorite Palo, the five spices mix with tofu, eggs and pork belly: cinnamon, anise, even the sugar seems to vaporize and crawl slowly through the street in a layer of fine smelling molecules, like an invisible yet detectable promotion banner.  I actually smelled it for a while until I figured out what dish it is that is smelling so significant and tasty. (Another discovery was the shop that cooks lotus stems - not so pleasant)

The only way to actually catch it is called "say thung". You buy some street food for take away and when you are back home and warm it up in the microwave for 20 seconds, it still smells like the hut with the middle age woman you bought it from.

On a side node: the olfactory experience in Vientiane/Laos for example is totally different. It is mainly burning trash with a dominant note of melting plastic and a little bit of charcoal grilled meat. Saigons sewage smell is like Old Spice: it blows everything away even the most beautiful parfume.And Phnom Penh, as much as I love it, is - from the nose speaking - a huge garbage dump.

More happiness (and calories): new Siam Square One shopping mall

So we have another shopping mall in Bangkok, where no other shopping malls where before: At Siam. It is called Siam Square One, has an open concept (means no air condition), and contains mainly restaurants. Its easy access from the BTS level (thats the 3rd floor then), and divided in Summer, Winter and Rainy sections (whatever that means). Right now there are very few shops open on this level, what is booming is the food upstairs (propably because of massive promotion).

The center attracts hundreds of students from the nearby university, I guess they are here out of curiosity and food promotions.

Entrance from Siam Square

The architectural design is interesting but also a bit confusing. The open concept is reflected in some open spaces with trees and natural light, but that is kind of absorbed by the dominating color black. Still a lot of construction going on. 

Looks like shopping malls are the thing to do in Bangkok, taking Gateway and Mercuryville aside, if you want to do retail business. Maybe the future more happy people will spend even more money as they do already: at least they will spend it there for food and not more useless investments that will even increase the debts.

Interesting is that entrance from the BTS station is quite spacious, and so is it from Siam square. But street level entrance from Rama I is a small dark hole. Thing is that no food is at level 1 and 2 so people entering from the BTS won't even see it, and customers from Siam square are lead to Level 3 through a wide open space. I wonder if the small shops downstairs can survive for long. 

Plus, they returned to a confusing concept of escalators up and down, forcing you to walk around to find you way. On the positive side, the open concept gives space for sitting and relaxing, so it might be a place where people meet and rest, chat and sit - something that remembers the old Siam Square.

Just bring mosquito repellent, the place is infested.... 

Some pictures below

Looks a bit cold and dark, more like a prison

Trees

More trees

Starbucks gives away some free drinks

Promotion at a restaurant drives students nuts

This one looks actually quite nice

Opening soon

Entrance

Easy to make, cheap and refreshing Thai drink

Although soft drinks are incredible cheap in Thailand, they are also not really healthy and I avoid them wherever I can (although I do have a thing for Pepsi Max, I have to admit). But is actually even cheaper to make your own refreshing soft drink. My favourites are butterfly pea (Cha Am) tea and Pandan leaf (Bai Tuei) tea.

You can buy both at many OTOP sections in supermarkets or at local markets. Pandan is also easy to grow in your garden, and butterfly pea makes a nice colourful hedge on your fence. For me it is more convenient to buy the dried leaves.


For a litre of tea you need about 3-4 table spoons of leaves. Just pour hot water over it (you can use a tea strainer) and let it infuse for 5-8 minutes. You can also mix the leaves to have a even better tasting tea. Use some sugar or sweetener, add lime juice (it will change the color of the butterfly tea to red) and cool it.

The perfect drink for the climate in Asia.

You speak Lao, you not foreigner

Yesterday at IKEA: a crowded shopping mall, and we are afraid of not getting a taxi home. A taxi van then stopped, we told the driver that we want to go to Samrong Nuea and he refused to take us. "No, No" he said. I took a picture of his car, just to remember the number for an optonal complaint later (depending on my level of anger and frustration divided by the time we have to wait for a taxi that takes us). It took not more than five minutes and the taxi van came back. The driver opened the door and shouted at us we should go in the taxi. I asked again if he will takes us to Samrong and switch on the meter, and he said yes. So we jumped in.

After a few meters he started asking me in Thai if I took a photo. Of course not, I answered in local honesty, why should I? "You take photo", he repeated, swearing about foreigners always doing this. I was a bit scared if we are now trapped in a taxi with an angry driver - heard stories about a not so nice outcome. But it seemed that he received some complaints before and learned his lesson and was just blowing off some steam. Then he asked about directions, and I explained him to use Banga Trad and then turn to Srinakarin road. He replied that there is a traffic jam, and I accidently asked "Yu say?" in Lao instead of "Yu ti nai" in Thai. (Where?)

He suddenly changed his mood, turned around and asked why I speak Lao. I explained that we lived there for three years and that I picked up a bit. Turned out he is - as most of his collegues - from Isan, and forgotten was all picture taking. We had some fun talking Lao and finally he said "You speak Lao, you not foreigner" in English, and when we arrived at our home, we were best friends already.

There is a reason why I always insisted at my Thai language school that I want to speak average Thai peoples language, not something that just exists in books and some very official meetings. And I am thankful for having learned enough Lao to be able to speak with many people who work in the so important service sector in Thailand.