Dear Students, Parents
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning and a warm welcome to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
I am very pleased to be here today to speak at the opening ceremony of the “MFA Camp: Beyond English”. Congratulations to all of you who have been selected to participate in this camp.
In today’s connected world, English language is very important to communicate with people from other countries.
With this in mind, the Government decided to make this year ‘English Speaking Year 2012’ where teachers and students across the country will be speaking English in school at least one day a week. The objective of the project is to better prepare ourselves for the ASEAN Community in 2015 when the peoples of the ten ASEAN nations will be brought closer together. We may speak different languages but we can understand each other through the use of English. It is therefore crucial that we in Thailand prepare ourselves for this fast-approaching change by developing our English language skills from a young age, like yourselves.
The four-day camp has thus been organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with two principle objectives in mind. Firstly, to enhance your English language skills. Secondly, to increase your understanding of the critical role that ASEAN is going to play in regional affairs in the next few years. We would like all of you to be better prepared and proud to participate in the development of the ASEAN Community.
At the camp, we will show you that learning English can be fun. With a positive attitude toward learning English, you will be able to use the language confidently and competently. Much more is out there in the world for you to explore, especially with advances in communication technology. Having a good command of English will therefore open up new opportunities in life, give access to new knowledge, and make new friends in ASEAN and beyond.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents for recognizing the importance of English in the modern world and encouraging your children to learn the language. And I would also like to express my appreciation to you, the young participants, for choosing to spend these four days with us at the MFA’s English camp.
My thanks go to the officials of the Devawongse Varoparkan Institute of Foreign Affairs who have committed themselves to providing our campers with a great opportunity to develop their language skills and increase their knowledge of ASEAN.
Before you make your way to Nakhon Nayok, may I now declare the “MFA Camp: Beyond English” officially open. I wish the project every success.
Thank you very much.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th