Opinion: 3 solutions to Thailand’s English teacher shortage

[248900_1469958220]

I particularly like the lesbian ones, with pink hair and a nose ring...the ones that scream about how oppressed they are in Western society.......yeah, they are really nice.

[gimo]

23 hours ago, spiekerjozef said:

Lots of people from different countries speak multiple languages (or at least are trying to). Only the people from native English speaking countries have no interest in speaking another language or get upset when somebody can't speak their language??

       1.  What has that got to do with teaching English to Thai students ? 2. There are good ,

obvious reasons why your statement above is correct .

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, 248900_1469958220 said:

My small head still thinks like a 22 year old.

My small head also thinks like a 22 year old, and demands entry to another 22 year old.

 

Back on topic, we all know the answer to Thailands English teacher shortage will involve Filipinos, Indians and a few Africans because they're the cheapest to hire.

Edited February 20, 2020 by BritManToo

[gimo]

22 hours ago, Denim said:

Many many years ago you could count the native English teachers in Thailand without getting to three figures.

 

Then some bright spark had the idea that by employing thousands more native teachers the length and breadth of the country English language skills would improve.

 

30 odd years later this theory has been demonstrated to be an abject failure and the country's English language skills still lag behind its neighbors.

 

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

 

Compare this to Cambodia. I met a young 10 year old girl on the  Phnom Penh riverside walk selling trinkets to tourists. Not only did she speak excellent English she also had a good handle on several other languages.

 

She was by no means unique.

 

 

 

 

You can't change the Thais so let them be. They will always be bad at languages, bad at driving and good at crop burning.

But if they are comfortable with that then so be it. They have their virtues to balance out these things otherwise we wouldn't come here.

        The girl only speaks english in the video , no proof of other languages . She does have excellent geography knowledge of one other country , but no evidence of anything  beyond that . 

[varun]

It's not rocket science:

 

1) Pay better salaries for truly qualified candidates - pay peanuts and you get monkeys

2) Offer a streamlined visa/work permit process, assuming that the basic qualifications and teaching requirements are met

 

The solution to hire non-native speakers is an idealistic one.

To overcome prejudice will require years, if not decades.

 

However, all this requires coordination, critical thinking, reform and planning that Somchai is unfortunately, incapable of, so - never in a million years!

[Krataiboy]

With the inexorable rise of the Red giant just up the Silk Road, Thailand might be better advised to teach its future generations Chinese.

 

The days of Western dominance are clearly numbered, along with the lovely language of Shakespeare, Keats and Shelley which became the world's lingua franca.

 

Sadly, since mother tongues flourish and fall with empires, English could eventually become just as "dead" as has Latin.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Krataiboy

[Enzian]

What's the age cut-off for language teachers in Thai higher education? I'm 80 now. I have a PhD in English literature from the University of California at Berkeley with specialization in the English Renaissance and Shakespeare. I sometimes think about teaching a little here for the stimulation. But 40K baht? 

[chainarong]

There's no such thing as fluency in non native speakers, they don't have the back ground knowledge of the language, to do the job properly you need people with English literature degree , hardly think many will come to Thailand, not on the wages they pay, what Thailand has to understand and I don't wish to sound as if I'm talking down, to be affluent you need to pay affluent wages, to be third world keep going on the track you've so far taken.

Edited February 20, 2020 by chainarong

[tlandtday]

Cut out the middlemen agencies is a good start and will increase wages and get better teachers.

[wotsdermatter]

On 2/19/2020 at 1:28 AM, spiekerjozef said:

Only the people from native English speaking countries have no interest in speaking another language or get upset when somebody can't speak their language??

First, can you please explain why you make a sentence then place two questions marks at the end when the sentence does not form a question?  Second, can you confirm your observation by providing valid and reliable documentation regarding your statement about native English speakers?  Just curious.  Third, as a native English speaker, from England, and having visited some 40+ countries and lived in seven, I speak 5 languages and a fair bit of Thai with a smattering of Mandarin thrown in.

'nuf sed.

On 2/19/2020 at 1:35 AM, samsensam said:

some speaking more than one second language...

Please note that if you speak your mother language then the next one is the second language.  The next after that is the third, then the fourth, and so on.

'nuf sed.