While Thailand slips down the English language proficiency league table, one Thai Company is putting Thai students at the forefront of international English communication.
News that Thailand has dropped 11 places in the International English Language proficiency ranking was alarming and not a little embarrassing. But this new Thai student exchange program, Engenius International, is reversing that trend and placing Thai students at the heart of the English language.
Mr.Kritsada Pornrattanapitak, President of Engenius International, explains, “Engenius International Student Exchange Programs was set up in 2015 with a vision to helping Thai Students to have a cultural experience in the best schools and homestays in the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Europe, and more than 20 countries around the globe. To facilitate this and make it affordable, the company operates an exchange program where students from Canada and America get to stay in Thailand and immerse themselves in our language and culture. It’s a perfect quid quo pro and brings the experience to an affordable level.
His wife, Mrs.Muanfan Korattana, is Engenius International Student Exchange Programs’ founder and CEO. In 2001, she won a scholarship and became an exchange student to America. Mrs.Muanfan Korattana or Ajarn Pang, as she likes to be called for short, has achieved a masters degree from University of Oxford in Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching. She started her career as a professor of English as a Foreign Language at Chulalongkorn University and worked there for three years. With her passion for student exchange programs, she decided to initiate Engenius International with the help of her husband six years ago. Ajarn Pang says, “The exchange program enables Thai kids to learn English for social, academic, and commercial communication while at the same time promoting critical thinking and creativity in that language.”
Mr. Kritsada Pornrattanapitak, or Poon as he likes to be known, is also proficient in English and French. “Our aim is to promote huge learning opportunities for Thai kids in an affordable environment where being immersed in the home of the English Language is the best learning experience Thai children could have. We are now developing work exchange programs such as Summer Work and Travel, Au Pair Program, and Hospitality Internship in America so that Thai youth can work and learn abroad at the same time.”
Ajarn Pang added, “We are aware that Thailand is failing its children in this critical aspect of learning the English language but we are not. We arranged for more than 500 Thai students to study and work abroad last year and we are growing each year despite the Covid-19 situation. Next year, we are planning to open a language prep school, Engenius Academy, in Siam Square area. The benefits to Thailand’s future from our programs are inestimable. We are proud of what we are doing for Thailand.”
It is possible that while Thailand slips down this league table, Engenius International is growing to become Thailand’s most talked-about phenomenon.