Schools in Far Southern Thailand

[Dalewood]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/24/bridging-language-divide-thailand-muslim-patani-malay-schools-ethnic-tension

I was very shocked that schools did not teach in Thai AND Malay. Is it Thai and Lao in the Northeast or just one language?

[cdnmatt]

Is it Thai and Lao in the Northeast or just one language?

Just one language -- Thai only. Laos / Issan language is reserved for at home and with friends, and not for school.

[fountainhall]

I was very shocked that schools did not teach in Thai AND Malay.
Is it common in countries to teach two languages in just one small part of the country? I fully understand the huge problems in the south which as so often these days is a result of old colonial agreements - in this case between the British in colonial Malaya and the Thai Kingdom. I fully understand the need to retain traditional customs etc. but the fact is, like it or not, this region is part of Thailand. So surely Thai should be the official language of instruction.

[cdnmatt]

In Canada (at least when I was a kid) it was mandatory for all kids to take a couple years of French, even out west where no French is spoken. But well, Canada is officially a bilingual country, so that makes sense.

Thailand isn't bilingual though, and there's only one official language -- Thai, hence that's what gets taught in schools.

[Surfcrest]

Our current Prime Minister's father was an intellectual and a big cheer leader for the french language in Canada, despite what his fellow Quebec'ers thought of him as Quebecois. If anything, learning a second language like french stimulates the mind to learn more about your own language and more apt to learn another language after that.

As for Thailand, wouldn't English...by virtue of western influence be the next best thing to a second language for the next generation of Thais? And judging by some of the profiles on the "Hook Up" apps I've seen, the ability to speak many different foreign languages for Thai bar boys is vast. (LOL)

Surfcrest

[francois]

As Surfcrest writes, it would seem that English would be the second language of choice to teach in Thailand. It has become the lingua franca of the world.

[dinagam]

Many Thais are currently learning Chinese for obvious economic advantages with the strong commercial and touristic development that we see in recent years between the two countries.
Since both languages are tonal, Thais are able to achieve fluency in spoken Chinese much quicker than in spoken English.