Why are Thai people not good at English?

[31Phuthita063บัณฑิตครู]

I think Thai people not use English in their daily life. Another reason, Thai people are afraid to use English because isn’t their language.

Phuthita 063 3EN

[31Supitchaya039ครูชำนาญการ]

From my point of view, the reasons why Thai people are not good at English depend on various factors. Plus, “Thai people” from your question can be divided into many groups. For example, a group of people who have to learn English because it’s compulsory such as students, a group of people who don’t even have any interest in English and don’t want to use it, or a group of people who have interest in English but don’t know how to use it correctly. Therefore, to answer your question, I think I have to know more specific details about “Thai people” from your question because the answer can be different.

Supitchaya 039 3EN

[24Pimthong022นิสิตฝึกสอน]

Personally, I think Thais are good at some skills in English like reading and listening but for some reasons which stop them to develop other skills. Their attitude towards leaning English. They may see English as unnecessary thing to learn or have. Plus they may think that they are not smart or good enough to learn English like the others or afraid that they will look silly if spell the words wrong, use wrong grammar or even when they try to speak or commute in English. Those reasons I have mentioned seem to be external factor from the environment they live, so not only Thai people should keep developing their English skills, but also the environment or society that need to support them as much as they can.

Pimthong 022 2EN

[31Khampeeraphan003บัณฑิตครู]

Maybe because they didn’t use it in daily life, I guess if we use English since we was young we will speak and understand well more than we learn today. Another reason they don’t haven’t people to talk with or practice with. I’ll tell you since I was young I like English, but I don’t have someone to talk with then, I can’t remember well because I didn’t use it. I just learned English, but don’t know how to use it in my real life. Maybe we have to use English in L1. Haha

Khampeeraphan 003 3EN

[32Bhapitchaya028นิสิตฝึกสอน]

I think that Thai education focus too much on grammar and students did not practice 4 skills which are the keys of the language. When we learned our first language (Thai), we listened to our parents speak and then we spoke what we heard, then we started reading and finally learned to write. But in English these pattern is mixed up, so in my opinion this is the main problem of learning English in Thailand.

Bhapitchaya 028 3EN

[32Phichayapak062นิสิตฝึกสอน]

Because Thai education focuses only on grammar, when They try to use English, they're afraid to try. This is because the Thai education system doesn't focus on speaking fluently but focuses on rules. This is different from international schools, where the environment makes using English feel normal. What's important is that it doesn't matter if you make mistakes, you can always correct them and learn it.

Phichayapak 3EN 062

[31Natthamon017ผู้อำนวยการ]

In my opinion because Thailand did not have the environment to speak English that much. I mean we did not use English as a First language. It seems to happen with other countries which also did not use English as a first language or use English as a national language as well. However the point is that Thailand is weaker in English than other countries because we do not create the environment to focus on listening and speaking skill that much. I mentioned listening and speaking skills because I think everyone would agree that we should practice these skills first. It seems like we set it in the wrong step. Right now, it is still in process to develop, but imagine encouraging and forcing students in high school to speak English, focusing on fluency more than accuracy, but the test of going to university is about accuracy. They speak only one language almost their entire life. It is going to be really hard to do so. I did not mean grown up students cannot do but that I think the time of going to university is coming closer. It cannot be blamed that they want to focus on accuracy to do the test more than fluency. I think we have to be serious to create the program and curriculum that encourages our students to speak English since they were little.

Natthamon 017 3EN

[32Neeranuch050ครูชำนาญการพิเศษ]

Because Thai people have L1. We use it to communicate with others. We use it in daily life. But the English language is L2 we’re not use it in daily life. So, Thai people are not good at English.

Neeranuch 050 3EN

[31Siriruethai057บัณฑิตครู]

It’s hard question. I think because most Thai people are embarrassed to speak English and English isn’t a language we use in everyday life.

Siriruethai 057 3EN

[22Paphawin004นิสิตฝึกสอน]

In my opinion Thai people not good at English because environment is not appropriate to practice English, Thai people not use English in their daily life and don't want to practice English because their worry about their accent , grammar and have a bully when their want to pronunciation like a native speaker that I think why Thai people not good at English.

Paphawin 004 2 EN

[32Sunisa038ครูเชี่ยวชาญพิเศษ]

For me, Thai people are good at English like grandma, reading, listening, writing but not speaking. Of course, because we are Thai and English is not our mother tongue. We are not around by English conversation every day so we are not familiar to speak English.

Sunisa 038 3EN