Hi All, I'm A Thai Student Ka

[YimSiam]

I've worked with or had contact with quite a few Assumption students, and found them at least as effective - sometimes much more so - than students from big Chula/Thammasat. Most were Burmese or Arabs, international students, and some Thais.

[Flashermac]

Assumption teaches in English (except for actual Thai language subjects). That gives them a definite advantage, since Chula and Thammasat don't. Outside of the English majors and minors, most Thammasat students are not very fluent in English. That is going to make a big difference once the country is fully open to all ASEAN member nationals and the Filipinos and Malaysians start coming in. Even the Vietnamese are becoming serious about learning English. Most Thais simply aren't interested enough to bother to going beyond "survival level" English, and it's going to hurt them.

[YimSiam]

I work in an international field, in English, with a broad array of nationalities - and sometimes wonder just how influential I let that mastery of English be. Everyone can speak reasonably well, but really identifying excellent people I suspect is often colored simply by how well they can communicate and sell themselves in English. Would be interesting to that the national/local staff who they think of as the brightest, most effective workers, and compare it with my own list - do I just appreciate the English speakers, or am I capable of valuing those who may not be as good in English, but have better overall intelligence, skills, commitment, etc?

 

The fact that I appreciate Assumption probably means I'm putting my too much weight on language - but then again, even the fully fluent, internationalized students I've known from Chula-sat or whatever, they have rarely had a very insightful critical perspective, regardless of English - whereas my intl Assumption colleagues certainly have.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Most Thais simply aren't interested enough to bother to going beyond "survival level" English, and it's going to hurt them."

 

Yep. One of my staff needs to go on a business trip to the Phillipines and his English is not great at all. We're sending him for additional tutoring first, but 20hrs of conversation study just isn't gonna cut it I'm afraid.

Very hard to find staff that speaks good English. They all manage - and reading/writing tends to be better - but I have to speak Thai with them to really make sure they understand what needs doing.

I guess this makes my skills more valuable , but it definitely hurts their prospects.

 

Sanuk!

[Vintage_Kwai]

Khun Kanokwan,

I seem to remember a similar request on the Hua Hin forum a couple of months ago, regarding retirees in Thailand and 'expats only'. Are you the same person with the same questionaire?

Just curious...

[JaiRai]

I work in an international field, in English, with a broad array of nationalities - and sometimes wonder just how influential I let that mastery of English be. Everyone can speak reasonably well, but really identifying excellent people I suspect is often colored simply by how well they can communicate and sell themselves in English. Would be interesting to that the national/local staff who they think of as the brightest, most effective workers, and compare it with my own list - do I just appreciate the English speakers, or am I capable of valuing those who may not be as good in English, but have better overall intelligence, skills, commitment, etc?

 

The fact that I appreciate Assumption probably means I'm putting my too much weight on language - but then again, even the fully fluent, internationalized students I've known from Chula-sat or whatever, they have rarely had a very insightful critical perspective, regardless of English - whereas my intl Assumption colleagues certainly have.

 

I work in healthcare -- the physicians I work with are kinda split between traditional 'usa' and asia (eg, india, china, korea) - same with the nurses. If anything, the ESL folks work twice as hard to prove themselves. If I personally were to be hospitalized I'd much rather it be under the competitive care of southern california opposed to the traditional WASP midwest. And even further -- my own personal experience at University (IU, UCLA) taught me that probably the most worthless majors were English, Sociology, Political Science, etc. So maybe some folks who favor the best English speakers - well, you know - maybe you're not that smart.

 

All I know - it's a crazy mixed up world.

 

Ps. - The OP is pretty eloquent.

[YimSiam]

For clarification, I don't really work with any USA/UK/AUL native speaker types, just a minority of senior managers come from that background. So everyone is ESL ('ceptin' myself), but when thinking of work in Thailand there's basically the Thais (whose English is good, but overall not as good as the 'internationals' like Arabs, Pakistanis, Burmese - many Assumption) that work alongside the Thais. So the comparisons are different than, say, Chula vs University of Wisconsin, or Wisconsin nurses vs. Filipino nurses. Much of the work is legal and analytical, requires a skeptical and curious approach - this is where I'm afraid Thainess serves least-well. Love working with many Thai colleagues - but this critical thinking and argumentative element is weak, even at the best schools.

[Mekong]

Hi,

 

Very hard to find staff that speaks good English. They all manage - and reading/writing tends to be better -

 

Sanuk!

 

Been there done that, work with very bright Thai Engineers who could read Standards, Technical Specifications etc in English, produce Project Deliverables and Reports in English but could hardly speak or understand a word of it.

 

I was forever communicating with them via email even if sat at the next desk to them.

[PhDstudent]

Wow @Flashermac You really know a lot about universities in Thailand. Are you former or current teaching staff here? By the way, now Chula is ranked 250 it used to be under 200 some years ago. But, you know, in order to do well on the list, besides the university reputation, it has to have good number of foreign students, foreign teaching staff, and it is obvious that Chula lacks those aspects.

[PhDstudent]

Khun Kanokwan,

I seem to remember a similar request on the Hua Hin forum a couple of months ago, regarding retirees in Thailand and 'expats only'. Are you the same person with the same questionaire?

Just curious...

Yes, it's me ka