During a recent trip to the scenic valleys of landlocked Bhutan last week, a young Bhutanese tour guide's sophisticated and highly fluent English caught the Thai entourage by surprise.
Given that he's 28 years old and a public high school graduate without an overseas education or a college degree, they couldn't help but ask: How can his English be so good?
"We learned all subjects in English in school, except Dzongkha [Bhutan's national language]," Phunso Namgay, the tour guide told us, wondering why we were so interested in the standard of education in the Himalayan country which has a population of about 700,000 people.
"No. They were not taught by native English speakers or foreigners, but by Bhutanese teachers," I said, translating Phunso's answer to a question asked by my fellow journalists.
Surasak Glahan is deputy oped pages editor, Bangkok Post.
Like Thais, Bhutanese people are patriotic and proud of their nation. However, unlike Thais, they have not let nationalism or pride cloud the need for a good education and exploring the world.
It took openness to possibilities in order for the once-isolated country to open up to the world and adopt a Western education model.
In the 1960s, Bhutan, under King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, made English the language for school education. He realised education should be a priority as the country needed to reach out to the world.
Bhutan recruited many teachers from India and a handful of Canadians to train Bhutanese teachers in English and other subjects and set up a curriculum, Kunzang Lhamu, director of Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children, told me.
Today, Western-style education is available to all children up to college level. All classes are taught in English. The result is high school graduates like Phunso can communicate with the rest of the world and gain more knowledge and information on the internet.
Now that Thailand and Bhutan plan to boost bilateral tourism cooperation under a so-called "two kingdoms, one destination" theme, Bhutanese people like Phunso with their English skills are likely to capitalise on the opportunity. Many Thais, however, are likely to look at it as a "two-countries, one language" (Thai, "because we've never been colonised") campaign. Another missed opportunity.
The poor English skills of Thais remain one of the key obstacles to Thailand's competitiveness when it comes to economic development.
Thailand's workforce will miss upcoming opportunities, not just in tourism but also in other sectors. The Asean Economic Community (AEC), where 630 million people reside with English as the universal language, offers numerous business and job opportunities for Thais. This means we can no longer avoid an English-mediated work environment.
A survey by Jobstreet.com revealed Thai workers at all levels on the employment ladder had the lowest English skills in Asean. This was despite the country being more economically developed, according to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Also, many reports point to our university graduates not possessing relevant knowledge and skills needed by employers, making the national unemployment rate higher than it should be. Poor performance in English makes it worse.
Thailand's lack of a sufficiently educated workforce has been one of the most problematic factors for doing business in the country, as indicated by the World Economic Forum in 2013. It reflects the need for vigorous educational reforms, not just in English but also in other fields such as technology.
Unlike Thailand where economic opportunities are easily available, Bhutan lacks professional opportunities for its well-educated young people. Bhutanese prime minister Tshering Tobgay has acknowledged that unemployment is one of the country's key problems.
The private sector is largely underdeveloped and the two industries that mainly drive Bhutan's economy -- hydropower and tourism -- cannot generate enough jobs.
Thailand, even with bad English, is in a better position when it comes to job and business opportunities, especially with the arrival of the AEC. We just need to admit that we don't have to be colonised by a Western nation to be good at English.
Teaching all subjects in English may be too challenging for Thai teachers. But we should at least start teaching English in English in our schools.
Our workforce needs to be better prepared to compete in the AEC. Otherwise, it could result in investment going elsewhere and missing more opportunities.