An assessment of the benefits of foreign language proficiency to Thai employees in selected business firms in Rayong Province Thailand

Foreign language skills in Thailand have become an important key to professional advancement and business operations. Having some fluency in a language other than the employee’s native language improves employee coordination, clientele satisfaction, business operations, and business management. Foreign language proficiency skills of Thai employees in business firms facilitate smoother communication and coordination between local headquarters and offshore subsidiaries. Employers and owners generally consider foreign language proficiency skills as assets to their business operations. Thus, Thai employees with foreign language proficiency skills have an advantage in terms of job promotion or salary increase over other employees who do not have such skills. This paper focuses on the role and influence of foreign language in selected business firms in Rayong Province, Thailand. In the interest of brevity, this study concentrates on four foreign languages, namely English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The primary purpose of this paper is to assess the benefits of foreign language proficiency to Thai employees in the five selected business firms.This paper argues that there is a close relationship between degree of benefit and level of foreign language proficiency. It finds that foreign language skill improves the promotion opportunities, income, prestige and working conditions of Thai employees. Thus, Thai employees in Rayong who have a good command of any of the four foreign languages studied here have more advantages and opportunities, compared to Thai employees who lack such skills.