Despite boasting among the region's highest human development scores, Thailand is among ASEAN's worst for English ability. Language experts and reformers alike believe cultural factors and structural flaws in the education system are holding the kingdom back. This is an issue close to home for the Globe’s Tara Abhasakun, a Thai-American national, as she reports from Bangkok.
#Thailand #Culture #Language #Education #TaraAbhasakun

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/thailand-english-teaching/

Under the looming threat of violence since Myanmar's coup, activists in the country are working to ensure the highly-politicised programmes working to preserve ethnic languages don’t go missing for good, even if it means going into hiding. The Globe’s Kiana Duncan reports.
#Myanmar #Coup #Culture #Language #KianaDuncan

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/ethnic-languages-myanmar/

In Cambodia’s Battambang province, a unique Khmer language has survived for decades and is thriving and evolving amongst queer communities as a code to show solidarity and share banter. But pia saa Sor, or “white language,” holds a wider history. For older generations it was also a coded dialect for those living under the Khmer Rouge. Globe’s Fiona Kelliher was on the ground in Battambang to speak with those who speak pia saa Sor, track its journey through the Kingdom’s turbulent history and share an insight into other international overshadowed languages shared by marginalised communities.
#Cambodia #Language #History #LGBTQ+ #FionaKelliher

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/queer-language-survives-cambodias-history/