Thai news stories

Do you speak English Khun Noy?

By surapong, Created on: 26/07/2010, Last updated on: 07/01/2016

» Ms Noy’s gonna need some English lessons in order to pass her tests to prove that her command of the language is good enough before being granted her visa. The number of Thai women from the Northeast marrying foreigners is rising every year. Over the past few months, almost 2,000 people have shown...

• beau58 commented : [quote="prommee_NE":2l4jbff3][quote:2l4jbff3]beau58 wrote: No offence. But, you completely miss the point, and I suspect you know little about Thailand or Thai culture(s), judging from your remarks. It is a very well known fact that most people in this country, especially those upcountry have little interest in learning English. It is also a well known fact that upcountry people, especially in Isaan have little interest or belief in education, which as I stated in an earlier post is the reason why Isaan has the highest drop-out rate in the country. [/quote:2l4jbff3] I am in complete disagreement with you on this one...It is not that the children of Isaan have little interest in learning,,,but many of the teachers have little interest in teaching!...I am not surprised about the high drop-out rates because of it. When I was first introduced to the "English Teacher" in the village I have frequented over the last 12 years, I did not know he was speaking English...my wife translated for me! When relatives with their children came up to the village from South BKK in August, their children (5 & 9) spoke good English and shocked many village children with their vocabulary and pronunciation...only a select few have been taught by me in the village (8 nieces and 1 nephew)...Four of the nieces were kicked out of the school for knowing English too well! Those four nieces now get paid more than the teachers, having found work in BKK! That is not the only subject...Geography is sadly lacking and when I questioned the teachers, they told me that only Thai geography is part of the curriculum...I showed a map of the world to 12-15 year olds and none of them picked out the UK correctly..nor the USA and nor Australia....in fact they could not pick out Vietnam or Cambodia or China from the map. They were all shocked when they saw how small the UK was and how big the USA was. I taught several subjects independently of the school (I am not allowed to teach because, although I have the qualifications, I do not have a work visa)...I found that in general the children picked up new information readily and without difficulty...at first it was difficult to get them to question anything, preferring to just listen and regurgitate. However, when I made them each to be teacher of Thai to me that soon changed. They empathised with the difficulty of teaching what they knew and it was not long before they realised they were picking up English much quicker than I was picking up Thai (although my Laos improved considerably). No doubt you will consider I know nothing of Isaan and am a mere farang...However, I will counter that argument with you knowing nothing about the lack of teaching skills in many Isaan villages.[/quote:2l4jbff3] I accept a lot of what you say, as it is your experience. But, I suspect it may be the exception, rather than the rule. It’s true that I am not an expert on teaching skills in Isaan, as I was only a Farang university professor in Bangkok for 13 years and never taught up-country. I also did work for the MoE (a frustrating experience, I might add) and am aware of many issues in education throughout the country. My comments about lack of interest in education in Isaan etc. are not anecdotal, but based on research. Despite your 12 years of frequenting ONE village in Isaan, upon which you based your entire rebuttal of my comments, you are still only a visitor with very limited experience, and certainly no broad or professional experience. You’re mistaken. Isaan teachers, and indeed Thai teachers in general are interested in teaching. It’s just that they are the products of a broken and out-moded system, poorly trained and poorly paid, who simply don’t know any different way to teach than, the one-dimensional, absolutist approach of rote learning. It makes learning boring, and students anxious to leave school. Add to this the overt pressure from largely poor farmer parents who see little value in education, when they need their children to work as soon as possible to help out with family finances, and you have the large drop-out rate one sees in Isaan. This of course, then perpetuates the cliche Isaan native with no future, because of lack of sufficient educational credentials.

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