JaiDee Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Peru, China, Venezuela, Vietnam, Slovakia......all better http://www.ef.co.th/epi/ Quote Link to comment
azza33 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 No surprises for mine, then again we aren't dealing with the cream of the crop in our circles. Quote Link to comment
globetrotter Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 I'm curious as to how Cambo ranked Quote Link to comment
bumblebee Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Not surprises for mine, then again we aren't dealing with the cream of the crop in our circles. So true Azza. The list looks right from my experience. I teach a lot of Austrian high school students and their English is fairly advanced, whereas the Spanish though weak, tend to be a bit stronger than the Italians and French in the same age groups. I'm curious as to how Cambo ranked Me too GT as there seems to be a greater hunger to learn the language in Phnom Penh than in Bangkok. Quote Link to comment
globetrotter Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I agree , I was surprised how much better on average the level of English was in Cambo considering how much poorer it is compared to LOS Quote Link to comment
JaiDee Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Cambodia not on the list for some reason. Frankly I am surprised to see please like Sweden and Denmark are only in the mid to high 60's, percentage- wise; seems like everyone from those places speak pretty much perfect English. Quote Link to comment
xyzzy Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 As Singapore was a British possesion until 1963 I'm surpised it's not higher than 12. Quote Link to comment
ChaseLB Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 So what! This gives a chance for visitors to learn the Thai language. Quote Link to comment
Tomcat Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 No thanks . I dont have a spare lifetime at hand... Languages are for the young unless your job is getting a suntan Quote Link to comment
KendoUK Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 A shame the list didn't contain more of the ASEAN countries to get a better idea of where Thailand sits within that region, compared to it's closest neighbours. Quote Link to comment
Luung Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 A shame the list didn't contain more of the ASEAN countries to get a better idea of where Thailand sits within that region, compared to it's closest neighbours. I think you'll find that with regard to ASEAN Thailand's sitting second from bottom, just above Indonesia, Kendo... But I'm sure you could have guessed that's about where they'd be. I remember about a year or so ago Yingluck announced that any schools wanting to teach English as a second language would have to fund it themselves... Just at exactly the same time as she brought in about 400 Chinese teachers... So the will to learn is not even there. Talk about a pig headed bunch, even the Chinese are queing up to learn English. 1 Quote Link to comment
williethepimp Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I found the Cambodians who spoke English had far better pronounciation than the thais....maybe it's something to do with Khmer not being a tonal language ,as thai is....Even educated thais have poor pronounciation......I'm sure they lose a few points on the grading system for that.... 1 Quote Link to comment
JaiDee Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 I found the Cambodians who spoke English had far better pronounciation than the thais....maybe it's something to do with Khmer not being a tonal language ,as thai is....Even educated thais have poor pronounciation... I'd agree with that Willie....my friend from PP has great english abilities and he was pretty much self-taught for years. The Laotians, while also having a tonal language, also speak better english from my experience, not sure why. With that said, I appreciate fully the lengths the Thai's go to to accommodate us farangs; even at the 7/11 or the gas station they speak much more English than I speak Thai. I think us farangs - and I am certainly guilty of this myself - are lazy to learn their language because pretty much everywhere we go in Thailand we can use our own and be understood. Quote Link to comment
Luung Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 The Laotians, while also having a tonal language, also speak better english from my experience, not sure why. I think that it might be one of the benifits of once being communist... And I'd say the same probably applies to the Cambodians too, JaiDee Quote Link to comment
Guest JustSumGai Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 No thanks . I dont have a spare lifetime at hand... Languages are for the young unless your job is getting a suntan I heard an American talking with a clerk in Villa on checkout. His Thai flowed...it was just like the girl he was chatting with. I asked him how long he'd been speaking Thai, he said 20 years. THAT I believe is the secret. I've always suspected this. Quote Link to comment
Lefty Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Thailand is at least higher than Kazakhstan, so they have that going for them, which is nice Quote Link to comment
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