Talk provided to officials and guests of The Office of Non-formal and Informal Education, Chiangmai province by Dr. David Evans (PhD, MA, BSC):
"Good morning and thank you for inviting us.
We are members of LIFE, and I would introduce some of our faculty and teachers who are with us today: Tabtim, Sunisa, Bryn, Barbara and me, Dr. Dave.
This is a wonderful event, and very important. We are here to talk about ASEAN Community program for 2015, and why learning English is a vital part of Thailand's future success.
2015 is less than 3 years away, but that is long enough for learning some English. You may think that ‘oh, I'm too old, I'm not in Kindergarten, I cannot learn a new language.’ But you can. I am learning Thai and I am already old!
Many businesses engage with the English-speaking world, whether that is in trading with other countries, or in dealing directly with the 14 million English-speaking visitors a year who come to Thailand. This number will rise, and English-speaking people and businesses are worth a lot of money to this country in trade and investment.
We want to help you to learn English. If we all work together, this can happen. We know already how hard Thai students work and how well they study. and we would ask you to join with us in this work. It may seem a huge task to you, but as the teachings of Buddhism tell us, "a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step".
Will you take that first step with us? Do please speak to us later today.
Thank you so much again for the invitation to talk to you today, it is a pleasure to be here."
LIFE then presented demonstration of various greetings in Thai and English before a very enthusiastic crowd.
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