Comments for Thai Woman Talks - Language, Politics & Love

Comment on Weird Thai Nicknames by François

François — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:20:06 +0000

55, In fact we can find a lot of “strange” name in Thailand for a human. Of my side I m French and my name “François”, than Thai person pronounce like “Farang shoua” means Bad Foreigner … It’s not my fault, it’s could be worst but little bit disturbing.

A lot ask me why my name means this in Thai language, sometimes for jocking but some others they’re more serious :-/

Comment on COMMENT by Nikk Walsh

Nikk Walsh — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:22:54 +0000

Sawadee khup kaewmala khun hru !

I listened to your radio interview about your book and the nuances of sexuality in Thai culture.

It was comforting to hear you say that farang should simply treat a woman special and unique..above the stereotype.

I fought against this in my earliest conversations with my love interest.. (yes who just happens to be from Thailand)

I think that the fact that I am a Musician..coupled with being a Farang made her weary and understandably scared at first.

Fortunately through my explanation that all farangs aren’t “cowboys” and all musicians are not Playboys…I think that we broke the barrier that you refer to. About falling for the stereotype…when the special and unique person is here in front of you.

Although quite late (betterlater than never) I found some beautiful terms of endearment in your Valentines Day article…Korp khun krap khun kru..

I really like your writing and I will purchace your book. You have obviously mastered the English language…and you sarcasm and wit are socond to none.

So thank you again.. I look forward to reading much more of your writings.

Nikk

Comment on Ask QUESTIONS by PocketSafari

PocketSafari — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:46:32 +0000

Without being vulgar, how do you say ‘sex’ in Thai?
And what does ‘pun pun’ mean? Is it Thai slang for sex or a sexual act?

Comment on The Sorry State of Thai Education – Part 1: Ridiculous O-NET Questions by Ban Phe Guy

Ban Phe Guy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:46:20 +0000

I have lived in Thailand for 16 years. My wife is Thai and all three of my children attend Thai government schools (M3, M4 and M6, currently). I work in the Education industry. My mother was a teacher in the US school system for 30 years. My wife’s aunt, whom she was very close to, was a teacher in a Thai school. I have literally hundreds of friends who are teachers in many countries. And I state this with no glee–the Thai education system is absolutely terrible. It is fatally flawed in so many ways its tragic. Reading these test questions (and confirming their existence with my kids as we laughed about how ridiculous they are) is no surprise to me at all.

In fact, many teachers in Thailand often do not teach much in class. Generally speaking, the students show up late and leave whenever they want. They do not bother to listen to the teacher and simply talk amongst themselves. The teachers cannot fail them. Of course the teachers often do not show up for class and no substitute is provided. And many teachers make far more in their home tutorials than they do as teachers so there is a built-in conflict of interest–why teach the students in class when the less they learn results in an increase in after-school classes?

I send my children to school for social reasons and tell them “just graduate”. But I know perfectly well that they need a great deal of extra classes, both online and locally, to provide them with an actual education that they should be receiving at school.

I remember my first visit to a Thai school. I was living in Hong Kong at the time and my wife and I visited her aunt. We arrived at school at 9 am. Her aunt was in the middle of teaching her Pratom 4 students but, upon seeing us, left her class and spent the next three hours meeting with us. After an hour I asked, somewhat dumbfounded, “What are your students doing while you are here talking to us?”. “They are ok”, she explained. My mother till doubts that this story is true–she cannot believe a teacher would just abandon her class like that, especially when the students are so young. But I assure you it actually happened. And it is not an isolated incident.

Other countries certainly have their problems but to compare the US education system to Thailand is simply uninformed.

Comment on The Sorry State of Thai Education – Part 4: Dismal English-language education by Teo

Teo — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:47:38 +0000

I have a step daugther who is 11 years old.I have seen her English text book and sad to say that there are full of mistakes.I ask her why after some years of learning she still cant form a simple sentence.
The answer is that in school the teacher only teaches her the word of object in English but no grammar so if I point out to her certain thing or object and ask her what is it called in English she will get it right 10 out of 10.
But if i were to ask her to string up a sentence she got lost.I cannot teach her myself as i need to travel out of the country due to the nature of my job and the only western teacher that i found in where we lived(Phayao) are only interested in the tution fee and not much else.
I am not a teacher and i believe that even if one is a native speaker that doesn’t mean he/she is qualified to teach.
In my observation I believe the key is to improve the kids English is the teaching method itself and to re-train the local teacher.
It will also be helpfull to make them realise that English in an important langauge that are used everywhere which is what i told my step daugther.
As for the other subject i am sure you have some smart kids somewhere who can make the grade but as i have mention earlier on,the problem lies with the teaching method.
One last note,to all who are reading in,if anyone know of a good English teacher living in Phayao do drop me a line.

Comment on ‘Bahasa ASEAN’ – Can Thai or Malay be ASEAN lingua franca? by Teo

Teo — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:37:35 +0000

Hi Kaewmala,your topic on which language to use as Asean lingua franca is interesting.
However as you can see it will remain English for a very long time to come,in fact i dont see any changes in the near future,not even remotely.
As for chinese taking over,it will never happen.
First China is not a member,2nd among Asean the population of oversea chinese is small and some don’t speak the langauge.Maybe chinese will be the lingua franca of the bussiness world in Asean.
As for learning each another language among Asean i think we are already doing that in a small way by mean of travelling and visiting each another and also by having a small number of national in each another country,we have little Thailand,vietnam,Burma and a lots more.The Malaysian crosses into southern Thailand daily for whatever reason and vice-versa.
Whoever want their language to be the lingua franca of Asean is only a matter of pride and if not handle with care may lead to unwanted problem which we all can do without.

Comment on The Sorry State of Thai Education – Part 4: Dismal English-language education by Australian farang

Australian farang — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:35:09 +0000

I am not a teacher. But as one of my many ideas for an income stream I enrolled in and qualified as a TEFL teacher. But as I completed it I realised I did not want to be a teacher struggling with tenses and other things in the course that I had never even heard of. Also they would not give me feedback on the test, as I wanted to know what I got wrong, apparently I passed.
But I have since tutored a Thai couple who astounded me by wanting to learn and being prepared to pay for it and then expressing a desire to emigrate to New Zealand. I mainly focused on conversational English. I found their reading skill at Thai year 6 high school to be OK. Anyway it will be interesting to see how they go. I wish I could get the same motivation from family members in school now, the 4 and 5 year olds are very good but the early teenagers are not interested.
Look forward to a discussion of how things can get better.