with Thailand ranking one of the lowest proficiency scores of the countries obtained in the study. Vietnam and Indonesia scores are also categorized under “very low proficiency”, but nonetheless scored slightly higher compared to Thailand. English speaking country like Malaysia scores unsurprisingly well. Interestingly, countries that are perceived to be poor English speakers such as Japan and Korea also score relatively higher than Thailand in this study. Note that the data regarding some of ASEAN members such as Laos, Myanmar, Phillipines, or Cambodia are unavailable.
Regardless of the ranking, it has become obvious that an average Thai is considered to have very low English proficiency. Recent online events and anecdotal evidences prove that Thais tend to be unwilling to converse in English and often revert back to use Thais among themselves. The readers probably also have experienced that Thais who are fluent in English are not common, and those that speak flawless English are considered very rare.
Open economic integration also comes with more competition. With the upcoming AEC economic integration, bilingual and multilingual individuals will be very advantageous at finding job positions and getting promotions. At corporate level, the companies that adapt well to foreign trade will only proliferate from the integration, while those that doesn’t will be ignored. This also holds true among research communities, service industries, government officials, etc. If we do not adapt to communicate better, foreign countries will simply choose to collaborators that are more ready to communicate.
Maybe it is time Thais stop gossiping in Thai among themselves and start paying more attention to the rest of the world.