Tailandia,educacion y ASEAN 2015

Bridging the language & cultural gap with other ASEAN states will require learning more English as well as ASEAN languages.

Photo above of a teacher Guillaume Langlois teaching English at Kunnatee Ruttharam Wittayakom School in Din Daeng district. The school is urging students to speak more English as Thailand prepares for regional integration under the Asean Economic Community (AEC) (Photo: Jetjaras Na Ranong).

Hubs, not pubs

English fluency is critical if Thais are to thrive in the wide-open environment of the AEC
8/03/2012
Nanchanok Wongsamuth

'Hey, a farang's on the phone. Can someone take the phone call.

You'll often hear this in offices around Thailand. And it is usually easy to find someone to take the call, as a good number of Thais have learned English and are well versed in Western culture.

But if a call comes in from a neighbouring country, there is often no one around to do the talking. While some countries in Asean may share borders with Thailand, the language and cultural gaps are huge.

This fact will be a real problem in the workplace once the Asean Economic Community (AEC) is established in 2015, say experts.

Korrakod Padungjit, a deputy secretary-general of the Federation of Thai Industries, said it is important for companies to adapt to cross cultural differences.

"Thais don't have an interest in Asean countries. Instead we look towards Japan, China and the West. I think our neighbours are skilled in terms of language, and Thailand has to adapt in order to become a hub," he said. 

"But most of the time we prefer pubs," he joked.

"Body language is important. For instance, touching someone's head may mean something else in another country, but it's offensive in Thailand," said Mr Korrakod, who is also the vice-president of corporate affairs at BlueScope Steel (Thailand) Ltd.

He said his company has a high demand for Malaysian workers, as they can speak Chinese, Malaysian and English.

Meanwhile, with the daily minimum wage set to increase next month, companies are going to have to change. They will have to start using more skilled labour and will have to increase automation.

"Thailand will have problems, as we've been overusing manufacturing labour. We have grown up emphasising labour and don't have much of our own research," said Kriengsak Chareonwongsak, president of the Institute of Future Studies for Development.

He said Thailand has the lowest level of awareness in Southeast Asia. While some countries in the region were dependent on Thailand in the past, it has become too used to having an advantage.

Before, Thailand was the perfect place to conduct business, as it is not a communist country and is conveniently located.

But Thailand has been in decline over the past 40 years, as it lacks good leadership, said Dr Kriengsak.

"If Thailand has a smart and talented leader, then we can definitely survive in the future. The problem lies in a lack of quality in politics. Our country lacks maturity in terms of understanding the world. It's like we're all children fighting with each other all the time," he said, blaming the Thai education system.

Thais like to obtain their degrees just to take pictures, but in actual fact they have no knowledge of the world, he said.

They are supported from kindergarten until work. When they get jobs, they get them through connections, and the result is the "old boy" phenomenon.

In case of problems, they will just phone their dads, said Dr Kriengsak, a senior fellow at Harvard University's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.

(Source: Bangkok Post, Economics, REGIONAL INTEGRATION, Hub, not pubs, English fluency is critical if Thais are to thrive in the wide-open environment of the AEC, 8/03/2012, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, link) "
 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/283467/preparing-...