Research On The Course Instruction Of Business Chinese In Thailand

For the past few years, Chinese language has been progressing increasingly rapidly in Thailand’s education. There is even a saying " Only for those who possess the skill of Thai, English and Chinese can compete effectively in Thailand’s job market. The evidence is shown by the economic globalization trend. China’s position in the world economy has been growing steadily. Besides, the relationship between China’s and Thailand’s economy has been moving forward. Obviously, the need of "Chinese speakers" in Thailand’s labor market is also growing as a consequence. Moreover, " Business Chinese" has progressively gained the attention. In order to fulfill the labor market’s requirement, many universities have begun to offer a course in Business Chinese. The aim of the course is to build solid knowledge, skills, capability required for effectively communication in Business Chinese.Nowadays, even though the course instruction in Chinese major is relatively abundant, the research into Business Chinese is still understudied. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, which is a centre of economy, politics, science and technology, and education. Besides, Bangkok is the most crowded city in Thailand that explicitly implies a huge requirement of labor more than the other cities. The author thinks that Bangkok would be the most suitable place to undertake the research in Business Chinese for its economic predominance. The author has chosen five universities situated in Bangkok as the samples of the study. The in-depth interview with some Business Chinese instructors and questionnaires were conducted.With the research it has been found that most of the students taking Business Chinese attend the class for the purpose of communication, commerce, doing business, or finding a good job. It is also found in the research that among students taking the class, some of them take the class because it is a compulsory subject, not because of personal interest. The result has found that several reasons could contribute to the problem of students lacking interest in the subject, including:1) the detail of the subject is too specialized; 2) the teaching instruction is relatively conservative; 3) no practicing opportunity; 4) outdated course materials; 5) course materials are aimed to instruct Chinese students and somehow not quite appropriate for Thai students. The interviews with Business Chinese instructors and questionnaires filled by students have shown that the main problems contributed to Business Chinese learning are Chinese instructors, instruction methods and course materials. These problems result in the lack of adequate skillful Chinese instructors, the inefficiency of instruction and the inability to fulfill the job market requirements. Therefore, this paper primarily aims to study how to increase students’ interest in the subject, and how to improve the quality of Business Chinese teaching.