Plan to make English 2nd language vetoed

[admin]

The Education Ministry has scrapped a plan to make English the country's second language, saying it could lead to misunderstandings that Thailand had been colonised in the past.

The ministry will make English the main foreign language instead of the second official language, Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said yesterday.

A subcommittee on education standards development under the committee on education reform proposed in July that English be made the country's second official language. The panel hoped this would spur students to achieve proficiency in English and help place the nation on the road map to the Asean Community in 2015.

Mr Chinnaworn said the ministry had carefully considered the proposal and found it might lead to misunderstandings among people and agencies responsible for implementing the policy. Other countries that have declared English a second official language were normally viewed as former colonies, he said. Thai is the only official language of Thailand.

The minister maintained that the ministry would make a serious effort to improve English teaching and learning in schools even though the second language proposal had been scrapped.

The ministry would outline its key policies for education improvement on Friday, with the attempt to make English the main foreign language on the agenda.

The plan calls for the development of English teaching and learning at popular public and private schools to be on a par with international standards. After completing their education at those schools, students would be able to communicate fluently in English, he said.

Native speakers would be recruited to teach English to senior secondary school students, and the ministry would seek the cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry to contact foreign teachers to teach the students.

The ministry would also announce its policy on revamping the school curriculum on Friday.

From the Bangkok Post

[Crustyjuggler]

The minister maintained that the ministry would make a serious effort to improve English teaching and learning in schools even though the second language proposal had been scrapped.

As long as they stick to that and invest in better English education i don't see the problem... I would have thought Mandarin would be the choice for a 2nd language in this country anyway.

One thing i've learned about Thailand over the years is making something official doesn't mean ****.

[Crustyjuggler]

Tweet from renound journalist Andrew Marshall

Thailand has US-born king, UK-born prime minister. Yet govt frets that making English the 2nd language makes it seem "colonized."

[LakeGeneve]

I love the absurdity of it. The basis for not officially declaring a second language is that other people may think that the country was previously colonised!

However, agree with the above that the main issue is educational investment and the quality of language education.

[SoBeIt]

Tweet from renound journalist Andrew Marshall

Thailand has US-born king, UK-born prime minister. Yet govt frets that making English the 2nd language makes it seem "colonized."

Sweet, does he know that curling is Scottish thing?

[admin]

Differences between a western news conference and a Thai news conference:

Western News Conference

Gov Rep: We have decided not to make Spanish the second official language of the United States due to the fact people might think that we were once a colony of Spain.

Reporter: Excuse me, but that sound pretty absurd.

Gov Rep: But people might think we were a colony so we have to make sure they never think that.

Reporter: You are aware, sir, that much of the western portion of the US belonged to Spanish speaking Mexico at one point and Spain had extensive settlements on the west coast, don't you?

Gov Rep: No more questions.

Tomorrow's Headline: Clueless Government Official Completely Unaware of US History.

Thai News Conference

Gov Rep: We have decided not to have English as our official 2nd language because people might think we were once a colony.

Reporter:

Gov Rep: No questions?

Reporter: Nope. I just wrote down what you said.

Gov Rep: Really? If I would have said that space monkeys told me not to have English as the second language you would print that without any questions?

Reporter: That's my job, right?

Tomorrow's Headline: Plan to make English 2nd language vetoed

[pandorea]

The Education Ministry has scrapped a plan to make English the country's second language, saying it could lead to misunderstandings that Thailand had been colonised in the past.

The ministry will make English the main foreign language instead of the second official language, Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said yesterday.

A subcommittee on education standards development under the committee on education reform proposed in July that English be made the country's second official language. The panel hoped this would spur students to achieve proficiency in English and help place the nation on the road map to the Asean Community in 2015.

Mr Chinnaworn said the ministry had carefully considered the proposal and found it might lead to misunderstandings among people and agencies responsible for implementing the policy. Other countries that have declared English a second official language were normally viewed as former colonies, he said. Thai is the only official language of Thailand.

The minister maintained that the ministry would make a serious effort to improve English teaching and learning in schools even though the second language proposal had been scrapped.

The ministry would outline its key policies for education improvement on Friday, with the attempt to make English the main foreign language on the agenda.

The plan calls for the development of English teaching and learning at popular public and private schools to be on a par with international standards. After completing their education at those schools, students would be able to communicate fluently in English, he said.

Native speakers would be recruited to teach English to senior secondary school students, and the ministry would seek the cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry to contact foreign teachers to teach the students.

The ministry would also announce its policy on revamping the school curriculum on Friday.

From the Bangkok Post

This isn't the first time. An English as 2nd language plan has been rejected for the same reason many times before since my grand-father's generation.

English is 2nd language in DK but you should see how they teach English here. It's totally different from Thai and student can choose not to study English. The Dane learn English from junior high-school, not from Kindergarten class like in TH, but I must accept that the Dane can communicate in English much better than Thais. Because they have better change to listen to English than Thai, apart from movies for children, they show original soundtrack, no matter the movie is in French, Italian or even Chinese. I can find almost any book in English at a library.

It isn't that important if English is a 2nd language or not, the more important thing is how to teach/learn English in Thailand.

[admin]

The Education Ministry has scrapped a plan to make English the country's second language, saying it could lead to misunderstandings that Thailand had been colonised in the past.

The ministry will make English the main foreign language instead of the second official language, Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said yesterday.

A subcommittee on education standards development under the committee on education reform proposed in July that English be made the country's second official language. The panel hoped this would spur students to achieve proficiency in English and help place the nation on the road map to the Asean Community in 2015.

Mr Chinnaworn said the ministry had carefully considered the proposal and found it might lead to misunderstandings among people and agencies responsible for implementing the policy. Other countries that have declared English a second official language were normally viewed as former colonies, he said. Thai is the only official language of Thailand.

The minister maintained that the ministry would make a serious effort to improve English teaching and learning in schools even though the second language proposal had been scrapped.

The ministry would outline its key policies for education improvement on Friday, with the attempt to make English the main foreign language on the agenda.

The plan calls for the development of English teaching and learning at popular public and private schools to be on a par with international standards. After completing their education at those schools, students would be able to communicate fluently in English, he said.

Native speakers would be recruited to teach English to senior secondary school students, and the ministry would seek the cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry to contact foreign teachers to teach the students.

The ministry would also announce its policy on revamping the school curriculum on Friday.

From the Bangkok Post

This isn't the first time. An English as 2nd language plan has been rejected for the same reason many times before since my grand-father's generation.

English is 2nd language in DK but you should see how they teach English here. It's totally different from Thai and student can choose not to study English. The Dane learn English from junior high-school, not from Kindergarten class like in TH, but I must accept that the Dane can communicate in English much better than Thais. Because they have better change to listen to English than Thai, apart from movies for children, they show original soundtrack, no matter the movie is in French, Italian or even Chinese. I can find almost any book in English at a library.

It isn't that important if English is a 2nd language or not, the more important thing is how to teach/learn English in Thailand.

I can think of nothing I hate more than movies or television shows dubbed in a foreign language. I remember living in Germany and watching reruns of the Cosby Show dubbed in German. There's a reason those actors are getting paid millions of dollars. They work at having the right timing and tone in their voices. Then you get some voice actor (who probably wasn't good enough to be a screen actor) to try and dub that into another language and it loses 90% of the performance.

And don't even get me started on farang movies dubbed in Thai. Oh my god. Just shoot me.

[Admin_2]

And don't even get me started on farang movies dubbed in Thai. Oh my god. Just shoot me.

Have you noticed that it's usually the same guy doing the male voices EVERY SINGLE TIME? It's amazing. Seriously, I don't think the guy ever sleeps.

On some scenes he plays 2 or 3 different characters at the same time. It's funny to hear a guy arguing with himself. Kind of reminds me of someone on TF...

[English_Bob]

I hate the voice of the guy they use for EVERY SINGLE BLACK GUY!!!

He always sounds like a ******* cartoon version of that annoying DJ in the movie The Fifth Element.

[Crustyjuggler]

And don't even get me started on farang movies dubbed in Thai. Oh my god. Just shoot me.

Have you noticed that it's usually the same guy doing the male voices EVERY SINGLE TIME? It's amazing. Seriously, I don't think the guy ever sleeps.

On some scenes he plays 2 or 3 different characters at the same time. It's funny to hear a guy arguing with himself. Kind of reminds me of someone on TF...

Interesting to know if Thais prefer dubbed over subtitled. I understand their not avid readers but do they really like this dumbed down alternative over the voice and character of a real actor?

[pandorea]

I can think of nothing I hate more than movies or television shows dubbed in a foreign language. I remember living in Germany and watching reruns of the Cosby Show dubbed in German. There's a reason those actors are getting paid millions of dollars. They work at having the right timing and tone in their voices. Then you get some voice actor (who probably wasn't good enough to be a screen actor) to try and dub that into another language and it loses 90% of the performance.

And don't even get me started on farang movies dubbed in Thai. Oh my god. Just shoot me.

Your comment remind me of watching "good morning Vietnam" dubbed in Thai. They killed the movie!! I watched it again some years later in English. Dubbing Robins Williams was a crime.

[PJack]

Actually if Thailand were colonized it could have benefited greatly. Just think how nice Bangkok would be if it only had colonial architecture.

Anyways... it was Thailand that colonized Laos. More than half of Thailand is Lao anyway