Thailand threw a tourist part. . . the guests didn't bother coming.

[Rockheart]

The other thing I just thought of is everyone in Thailand is going to forget how to speak English.
Kids take English in school so they will still know some but everyone else will never use it anymore.
When my one GF moved back to the country she totally forgot how to speak English.

Next time we go it will seem like a foreign country. English was one of the best things about Thailand.
Most other non English countries can't say that. If you go to France they won't speak English out of spite.
When i went skiing in Italy, they hotel owners knew Italian, French, German fluently but could barely manage in English.
I find Italian is fairly easy to pick up but nobody in Europe could understand my French and I took 12 years of French in Canada.

Thai is much harder to learn but i know most of the words that are nouns. I almost have food and drink figured out, but I probably have lost most of that by now. My Thai and French are about the same, I know the name of most objects but making sentences is not easy.
Both are jumbled with English words.

Of course we have phones now to translate, but that seems so impersonal. It was always nice that most Thais you meet know some English. Although once outside the touristy areas it gets less and less. When I stayed in Ratchada with Cake I had a hard time with Taxis and others that could not speak English. When she went into the clinic for her surgery, I had to fend for myself around there, it was not easy.

[Escierto]

I grew up in Montreal and whenever I would speak French with someone from France they would immediately stop me and say, I know exactly where you are from. Of course I would respond, oui, je suis un québécois. Then I would ask them, mais tu me comprends? They would admit that yes they could understand me. The fucking French!

[Rockheart]

I grew up in Montreal and whenever I would speak French with someone from France they would immediately stop me and say, I know exactly where you are from. Of course I would respond, oui, je suis un québécois. Then I would ask them, mais tu me comprends? They would admit that yes they could understand me. The fucking French!

That always happens to me in Quebec, if you speak English they pretend they don't understand you. If you speak French they pretend they don't understand you for a different reason. In France they will only try to communicate with you if it is in their best interests, like they are trying to sell you something. Most other hourly employees can't be bothered trying to understand you.

[P&G]

French people could benefit a fairly good teaching in English (5 to 7 years) but unsuffcient to speak it fluently. Since most of them don't study English seriously, the level of English is poor in the population. The problem is that people who have the power in business, politics or just daily at work are not able to figure out what real English sounds like. You probably coped with such people in France.
I sometimes detected French people speaking fairly good English in the USA when they were unable to use idioms correctly. I could even hear their mind think "I needn't use this idiom, I speak with my own words".

I noticed that Italians, Spanish and other people aren't better at speaking better English. German people are very well trained in Foreign languages. However, if you speak with ordinary people in Germany, their English speaking is fairly poor.

Whatever language you need to speak, the main problem is that people using their home language may take the advantage. All the bar system in Thailand has been built with English words so that English speaking people feel more comfortable. I sometimes don't like speaking with American, English or Australian people in Asia since they make no effort to adapt to other people. If they don't, I don't want to speak English. Why should English be used in Thailand ? After all, people should speak Thai first. When going to a daily trip, I try to say hello in the local language. A German once got surprised I said Hello in Vietnamese. I answered in German : "we're in Vietnam, we say hello in Vietnamese".

Another reason why I sometimes refuse to speak English or another Foreign language is that I don't get paid for it. I saw employers disregarding Foreign languages. That's a shame.
Whatever country you visit, you can get a great advantage in many situations if you initiate a contact in a local language and then apologize not to be able to spek their language when you obtain they speak English.

[Escierto]

French people could benefit a fairly good teaching in English (5 to 7 years) but unsuffcient to speak it fluently. Since most of them don't study English seriously, the level of English is poor in the population. The problem is that people who have the power in business, politics or just daily at work are not able to figure out what real English sounds like. You probably coped with such people in France.
I sometimes detected French people speaking fairly good English in the USA when they were unable to use idioms correctly. I could even hear their mind think "I needn't use this idiom, I speak with my own words".

I noticed that Italians, Spanish and other people aren't better at speaking better English. German people are very well trained in Foreign languages. However, if you speak with ordinary people in Germany, their English speaking is fairly poor.

Whatever language you need to speak, the main problem is that people using their home language may take the advantage. All the bar system in Thailand has been built with English words so that English speaking people feel more comfortable. I sometimes don't like speaking with American, English or Australian people in Asia since they make no effort to adapt to other people. If they don't, I don't want to speak English. Why should English be used in Thailand ? After all, people should speak Thai first. When going to a daily trip, I try to say hello in the local language. A German once got surprised I said Hello in Vietnamese. I answered in German : "we're in Vietnam, we say hello in Vietnamese".

Another reason why I sometimes refuse to speak English or another Foreign language is that I don't get paid for it. I saw employers disregarding Foreign languages. That's a shame.
Whatever country you visit, you can get a great advantage in many situations if you initiate a contact in a local language and then apologize not to be able to spek their language when you obtain they speak English.

I agree. My girlfriend has started teaching me Bicol, the language in her part of the Philippines. One nice thing about it is they have borrowed many words from Spanish which I can already speak.

[Rockheart]

Most people in Philippines will tell they are half spanish.
The province where i live the second most spoken language is Tagalog.
In Canada all Federal signs are in English and French.
In my city all the signs are in English with some also in Cree.

Thailand was basically colonized by England, which is the reason that English became the second language.
So now almost all road signs are in English and Thai, and they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Thailand has kept up the English support for the tourist industry.

[flamingofarmer]

Ha ha . Maybe there's a job for an ESL teacher in Thailand.

[Rockheart]

Later, in the 19th century, Britain became, along with France, one of the two major colonial powers exerting pressure on Siam, when it colonised Burma and Malaya to Siam's west and south. During this period, Britain gained significant concessions from Siam through various treaties, including the Burney Treaty in 1826 and the Bowring Treaty in 1855, which remained in effect until after the first World War. Britain directly and indirectly had a massive amount of influence on Siam's modernisation during the late 19th early to early 20th centuries, and the two countries remain important trade partners to the present day.^{[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations}

[Rockheart]

Bowring Treaty, (1855), agreement between Siam (Thailand) and Britain that achieved commercial and political aims that earlier British missions had failed to gain and opened up Siam to Western influence and trade.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Bowring-Treaty

[Aaron S. Young]

Thailand really took tourists and foreigners for a while. I am from Thailand but I have heard about the reintroduction of the old laws regarding the legacy of burdens for legal residences while illegal immigrants roam around benefiting from the business of corruption. Foreigners have to pay a price for everything, not to mention the difference in prices. I wouldn't feel so welcome if I was treated like that from anywhere else. I hope that these issues will be resolved soon so that the pride that Thailand has as a great welcoming host can be restored.