OPINION

Worth the wait?

Re: "Land bridge faces uphill battle", (BP, May 11).

I would be delighted if someone could inform me how long it would take to load/unload the endless line of lorries and the endless train onto a standard cargo ship.

Also, how many ships' cargoes will the road/rail be able to accommodate at any one time?

I'm honestly intrigued.

Other side of the coin

Re: "Iran's violent reach", (PostBag, May 9).

The rabid anti-Iranian outburst by the writer of the letter needs to be counterbalanced by the fact that there is another country in the Middle East which causes never-ending wars and turmoil. That country is Israel, led by the accused war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet.

Israel has totally decimated Gaza and is committing war crimes there on a daily basis, it is obliterating south Lebanon, bombing Syria, Iraq and vast swathes of Iran, and it is still egging Donald Trump to carry on with the war against Iran and its leaders, of whom there are not many left.

Would the writer clarify what he means by any means possible? As Israel and the US have nuclear bombs, that could be an easy task.

Let's see the other side of the Middle East coin.

Not that simple

Re: "Invest legally", (PostBag, May 8).

As usual, Burin Kantabutra made good points in his letter. More must be done to allow foreigners to operate businesses here, instead of illegally hiring Thais as nominees.

Additionally, he is correct that forcing all tour guides and other related tourist occupations to be manned by Thai individuals will only hurt the tourism industry.

By opening up tour-related occupations to foreigners, Thais will become more motivated to work harder and do things such as learning a foreign language, says Mr Byron. He ends off by saying that ... "learning a foreign language shouldn't take more than two years".

Oh really? Thai students have been learning English for up to 15 years in public schools, and most pupils are hardly fluent in the language.

If learning a language should only take a couple of years, then what Thai students need is more independent study classes in English, where the advanced students could work at their own pace and their abilities improve exponentially.

I should add that in the Canadian province of Ontario, there exists something called a French Immersion Language programme in both public and Catholic schools, where all subjects, not just Literature, are taught in French.

The long-term results indicate that students who stay in the programme throughout elementary and high school show high levels of French proficiency, usually being fluent in the language, though there is a high drop-out rate.

So even though many Ontario students in Canada do develop high levels of French proficiency, the successful individuals invariably studied the language for at least 10 years, rather than just a couple.