OPINION

Embassy clarifies

Re: "China offers navy subs as purchase deal hits snag", (BP, Feb 7).

I do have to comment on a wrong fact which was given in the Article though: ("…refused to sell one to China after learning that it would use the engine for assembling a new submarine for sale to another country.")

Germany did not refuse the export of the engine because of the product being for Thailand as a third country.

The export was refused because of its use for a Chinese Military/Defence industry item.

China did not ask/coordinate with Germany before signing the Thai-China contract, offering German MTU engines as part of their product.

Re: "When baby well runs dry", (BP, Feb 6).

Given our very poor quality of public education, our low birth rate means that those of working age will have increasingly major problems in supporting and caring for their retired relatives.

We need leadership with long-term vision. We also need to be more welcoming towards non-Thais who have the skill sets we need -- particularly in science, technology, engineering and math.

Re: "Some are going collectively ape over NFTs", (BP, Jan 31).

Many people are hyping all manner of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as if they were hawking tulip bulbs in seventeenth century Holland. As the article noted, "the more people like Eminem that acquire Bored Ape, the more publicity the project gets and more valuable it becomes to be in the network, driving up the prices of tokens themselves, to the benefit of current holders". If this isn't the essence of a Ponzi scheme, I don't know what is. Would-be "investors" would be well advised to note the predictably disastrous culminations of all Ponzi schemes.

Re: "Unspoken English", (PostBag, Feb 6).

I agreed with almost everything which the writer had to say concerning the continuing poor English fluency rate of many (if not perhaps most) Thai students. However, as the author took aim at the prime minister for our English woes, he missed an important target, and that is the students themselves.

I have been an ESL teacher in Thailand for many years, and one of the first things we ESL teachers learned in the pre-Covid era was that most Thai students were not interested in learning English. The thought process among Thai youth went along the lines of "I have everything which I need in Thailand, a country rich in natual resources and blessed with a capitalist economy which our neighbours [then] did not have, so I will never need to move away from Thailand and I have no need to learn English."

It remains to be proven that it is in any way the fault of the prime minister's initiatives that this writer's children fell behind. Covid-19 may change that calculus, but if not, most Thai youth won't learn fluent English and, no, they don't care if teachers "try to make learning English fun". They'll learn English when they perceive they really have a reason to.