Do Thai men and Thai ladies speak English well?

11 years experience. No the are taught from books that have no actions. Bar girls speak and understand much better. They have experience in doing buying and living with born English speaker's

That is a pretty broad question and an equally general answer would be, no, most Thais do not speak English well.  Thais have their own particular way of speaking and pronouncing English words based on their language and pronunciation rules and most students learn from teachers who don't know how to speak English themselves. 

That said, there are pockets of individuals who speak excellent English.  Those native English speakers who think the language proficiency of Thais is okay have either lowered they standards to baby talk and broken English or don't have a great level of education or language proficiency themselves, in my opinion.

1.Why are you asking the question?

2. English is considered the second language of Thailand, as I am told. Apparently Thailand considers English as being very important, in part because of the significance of tourism, as one aspect. It is taught in the schools within the country. From my first hand experience in Chiang Mai, English is something of a universal language.

A problem arises when teaching English in Thailand.  Again from first hand experience, the Thai's are taught variations of English and are not fully taught the multiplicity of what they are learning, or the complex meaning that are being expressed. There are different dialects in America, England, Australia, and various other parts of the world. On top of that there are different meanings as to what is being said. As an example, a Thai may take a statement as being concrete and only the individual words are expressing the essence of the message, when there is a more expansive message being conveyed by the English speaker.

Two more elements are time and pronouns. Often Thai's look at present tense. For some Thai's beyond present tense does not exists. Pronouns are not entirely of importance. There are an extensive number of elements within the English language that according to Thai's may be completely unimportant.

Today I was in a bank. The teller presented two elements. Many Thai's are unconfident about their English speaking skills. From my English skill level I could not understand her. I'm sorry but there are those Thai students who "simply move forward". The teller next to her had to service me because she was unaware of the actual transaction.

The real issue of Thai's speaking English is you, not the Thai. The further you get out of a metropolitan area the greater your need in speaking Thai instead of English.

There are multiple facets of both language and meaning.

I was teaching several classes business English at UTCC.
When it came to midterm / endterm exams, 95% of them learned the stuff by heart without understanding anything. If a question deviated a bit from what they memorized the answers were wrong.
And I am talking here about university students, not common people.

To be fair; in restaurants visited by foreigners they speak enough English to more or less understand what you want. Some of the waiters speak English well enough for a conversation, but don't be surprised that some words are pronounced in a way that you have to guess what they want to say.

My first stay in Thailand was about October 21, 2012, days 21 days in Chiang Mai. I found it amazing that I did not completely have to learn English as a second language (which is in complete contrast to the last Microsoft update.)

Speaking of whish my present need is for learning how to navigate Microsoft in contrast to expat.com.


On the other hand it was amazing how enjoyable it was to learn how to navigate both Chiang Mai and Thailand.


More later.

One word "NO!"

The vast majority of Thai pepole do not speak English well.

There are excellent language translator app's for our phones that are worthwhile purchasing. Some are free.

The expat ,the non native outsider ,should know some basic Thai even if it is very rudimentary. Khun ,hong naam yu tee nai,khrap ? Helpful finding a W.C. when needed.

If you are going to live here long term and especially in a non English speaking enclave I'd recommend seeking a qualified teacher of Thai as a second language.

You may never be able to pronounce all the vowels and dipthongs correctly let alone the tones but just knowing some of the basics will be very helpful.

Thais are remarkably tolerant of foreigners and generally tend to judge people by their character. If you make mistakes in pronunciation you need not be afraid as Thais will appreciate your attempt to learn their language.

Thai ladies interact more with foreigners so they tend to speak better english than the guys. However i must point out that they dont want foreigners learning much thai , often when they realise a farang can speak thai they switch to a local dialect such as Essan , Lao, Khmer or Malay depending which region they come from. When  i learnt quite a bit of thai i was shocked at the amount or derogatory comments made about us , mostly by thai men . Not surprising really as millions of foreign men flock to Thailand to participate in nocturnal activities with their wives , sisters, daughters mothers and aunts.

No doubt in some circles your comment are true but they do not hold up across a broader sampling of the Thai population.  Yes, in general women rate higher in language skills across cultures, in addition, here the ones foreigners meet are very likely trying to sell something, but their vocabulary is usually very limited.  The Thai men who speak good english are probably utilizing their talents in jobs and social circles not frequented by tourists, so it is understandable that many foreign men don't meet them.

I just returned from a few days in Bangkok with my wife, and on the last night we had dinner with a large group of her friends from the seminar she attended.  There was one english teacher in the group and a couple others who spoke a little english but after a few perfunctory english phrases thrown about, they were very happy to be able to converse in their native tongue for the rest of the night.  No one wished that I did not speak Thai.

Far from any derogatory comments, they were all begging me and my wife to find them a farang just like me.  We had great fun joking that they broke the mold after me so there are no clones out there.  One comparative look at my wife and it should be clear why I chose her over any of them but that is not the kind of thing you point out in a social setting.  Successful educated Thais are really pretty normal people and don't fit the stereotype many foreigners have of Thai people.

Bill's posts will be missed by a number of us.

bill kip wrote:

My first stay in Thailand was about October 21, 2012, days 21 days in Chiang Mai. I found it amazing that I did not completely have to learn English as a second language (which is in complete contrast to the last Microsoft update.)

Speaking of whish my present need is for learning how to navigate Microsoft in contrast to expat.com.


On the other hand it was amazing how enjoyable it was to learn how to navigate both Chiang Mai and Thailand.


More later.