It is often found that shop assistants, service workers, even university-educated office employees are extremely reluctant to speak English to a foreigner needing assistance. Telephone calls from English-speaking customers are put on hold or given one transfer after another .A recent report on Thailand’s human resource competencies in the aviation industry has revealed that the failure among Thai employees in mastering English for effective communication has caused unnecessary delays in customer services, thus leading to business losses.
Many previous studies have reached a similar conclusion that English proficiency is a valuable asset for workers in order to compete in the era of increasing trade liberalization. In their study on English skills among Indian workers, Kapur and Chakraborty, for example, found that those who are fluent in English earn significantly higher relative wages and better occupational outcomes even for the same level of overall education. Looking back the case of Thailand, the relatively small number of competent adult English-speakers makes Thailand’s international future seem gloomy in comparison to nearby countries, especially when the AEC’s launch is approaching closely. The immediate effect would be that a large portion of employment in the mid-level labor market or the service sector in Thailand is taken by Filipinos given their higher percentage of literacy skills in English.