Good article. I especially liked the comments from the Thai girl. She describes Asians as 'ferociously determined'. Hmmmm.....I wonder where those students could be? I've not seen any around my parts that fit that description.

And then there's this morsel:

'When you're in a classroom, you're also speaking and writing. Students need all three skills outside the classroom, too, whether it's finding housing or figuring out the washing machine.'

Here's an idea: Maybe, just maybe, Asians, particularly Thais, could try STUDYING outside the classroom to learn LSRW. That means actually doing the homework we farang assign istead of pretending English doesn't exist between visits to our classrooms.

When I took German back in the day, I mastered pronouns in the first few classes. I have students in my classes who still don't know English pronouns after a decade. Yes, German is a cognate of English, which makes it easier for one whose L1 is English. But after a DECADE these guys still don't know jack? Give me a break.

I've no sympathy for these students. Bring on the new TOEFL!

I once had a farang DOS tell me 'It's OKAY if they don't learn anything.' It IS? I wonder what the students in this article would think of that claim?