Review of Mieville’s Embassytown

Far, far away and a long time in the future, space travel has enabled humanity to spread throughout the cosmos and come into contact with all kinds of unusual manifestations of alien life. Few aliens, however, are as unusual as the Ariekei, who have formed a complex society based on a dualistic form of language that they call, well, Language. Language differs from ordinary language in requiring two component parts which must be spoken simultaneously: fortunately for the Ariekei themselves, they each have two speaking orifices which can be used for this purpose.

Read the full review here.

Business Research Methods: Cultural Issues

Globalization brings about the integration of different markets involved in production and consumption and that means, for our purposes, different types of people are likely to become customers of a given good or service. When research is involved, therefore, it is increasingly likely that it will involve cross-cultural issues in one way or another.

Read the full article here.

Tourism Education at the Tertiary Level and Competitive Advantage: A Comparison between Thailand and Malaysia

Announcing: Thitthongkam, Thavorn and John Walsh, “Tourism Education at the Tertiary Level and Competitive Advantage: A Comparison between Thailand and Malaysia,” Journal of Education and Vocational Research, Vol.1, No.1 (April, 2011), pp.26-35, available at: http://www.ifrnd.org/JEVR/1(1)%20Apr%202011/Tourism%20Education_at%20the%20Tertiary%20Level.pdf.

Abstract:

Language plays an imperative role in business as a means and a source of power. It is particularly important in the tourism industry when international customers may be unable to communicate directly with service providers in the receiving country, and this has a direct effect on the level of satisfaction that they enjoy during their experience. To address this issue, countries attempt to various degrees to manage their labour markets so as to produce a number of graduates from secondary and tertiary level educational institutions commensurate with the demand from the sector. However, this is quite a young industry at the global level, and it is not clear to what extent the number and quality of such graduates with international language ability will be required. This paper studies the comparative extent of such education at the tertiary level of individuals in both Thailand and Malaysia. It aims to compare the number and variety of people being trained in the tourism and hospitality industry and the extent to which languages are being taught. Results show that there is something of a disconnection between the languages provided and the languages that tourists desire in terms of their mother tongue. Those tourists who can speak English or Chinese may receive service support in those languages, while those who cannot may be disappointed.

Keywords:  Tourism education, competitiveness, Language, Tourism in Thailand, Tourism in Malaysia

 

The Roles of Foreign Languages in Business Administration

Announcing:

Thitthongkam, Thavorn, John Walsh and Chanchai Bunchapttanasakda, “The Roles of Foreign Languages in Business Administration,” Journal of Management Research, Vol.3, No.1 (2011), pp.1-15, available at: http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jmr/article/view/509/393.

Abstract:

This paper explores the roles of foreign language in business administration, investigates managerial perspectives and studies the problems of foreign language usage in communication to discover modes of developing employee’s foreign language ability and to investigate the students’ opinions concerning the roles of foreign languages in business administration in Thailand. In-depth, face-to-face qualitative interviews were employed. The results indicated that foreign languages play significant roles in import and export companies. In the managers’ point of view, foreign languages are very important to their businesses, especially for communication with customers, other companies and suppliers. The problems in some companies might happen because of differences between customers. The problems also come from both senders and receivers who lack knowledge of foreign languages. The informants stated that organizations should invite professional trainers to help improve foreign language skills in vocabulary and conversation in particular.

Improving Competitiveness of the Thai Tourism Industry: Tourism Educational Department Perspectives

Announcing:

Thitthongkam, Thavorn and John Walsh, “Improving Competitiveness of the Thai Tourism Industry: Tourism Educational Department Perspectives,” paper presented at the 4^th International Colloquium on Business and Management (Bangkok: January, 2011).

Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the perspectives of tourism department heads to current tourism education in Thailand, to inspect the positive and negative experiences in dealing with tourism education curriculum, to explore the possible ways to improve tourism education curriculum, and to discover how tourism industry establishes and maintains competitiveness. In-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 32 tourism educational department heads. The Snowball technique was employed. A semi-structured interview form in English was created as a research tool by the researchers. The results of the study revealed that tourism education in Thailand needs to focus on foreign language skills. Tourism curriculum needs to be reviewed. Various factors to be considered when developing tourism education curriculum were also pointed out. The factor of foreign language helps in the competitiveness of tourism industry to a significant extent. Decision makers in tourism industry are required to recognize the requirements of the market, courses to provide in the curriculum, the lecturers to teach, and realise what prospective employees want to study. Moreover, tourism industry product suppliers and marketers might cooperate in establishing and maintaining competitiveness to help make the country a preferred tourist destination by providing opportunities to internship students. Language is one of the crucial aspects in the course of action of developing and maintaining international tourists. Based on the research findings, it is recommended that the government should manage all the efforts to develop and promote tourism education since the strength of the tourism industry is also the driver of tourism education.

Language Roles in Communication in Tourism Industry

Announcing:

Thitthongkam, Thavorn, John Walsh and Chanchai Bunchapttanasakda, “Language Roles in Communication in Tourism Industry,” Res Manageria, Vol.1, No.1 (December, 2010), pp.65-75, available at: http://www.assobp.org/Manageria/?wicket:interface=:2::::.

Abstract:

 Language plays a crucial role in communication. It supports employees to work successfully in tour  companies. However, there are some problems in the communication. International tourists have to have techniques to overcome the language barriers. Based on the study, it is recommended that organizations should set their plan to develop their people to have excellent language skills in communication with other corporations and international tourists. The paper illustrates that people can improve language talent for communication by training and practicing.

Keywords:  Language roles, Tour company, International tourists, Language training, Language for communication.

Language Roles and Model Tour Company in Enhancing Competitiveness in Tourism Industry

Announcing:

Thitthongkam, Thavorn and John Walsh, “Language Roles and Model Tour Company in Enhancing Competitiveness in Tourism Industry,” Journal of International Academic Research, Vol.10, No.3 (2010), pp.41-54, available at: http://www.uedpress.org/ojs/index.php/jiar/article/viewFile/12/31.

Possibly an older under-edited version  has slipped though the net.

Roles of Language in Tourism Organisational Management

Announcing: Thitthongkam, Thavorn and John Walsh, “Roles of Language in Tourism Organisational Management,” Asian Journal of Management Research, Vol.1, no.1 (2010), pp.184-99, available at: http://www.ipublishing.co.in/ajmrvol1no1/EIJMRS1016.pdf.

Abstract:

Language plays an imperative role in tourism organisational management. It facilitates communication among staff of head quarters and subsidiaries. It creates abilities to improve customers’ satisfaction, to enhance and maintain skills of tourism staff, to motivate international tourists, and to increase better understanding on demand and culture. Subsequently, personnel with language skills are becoming more and more necessary for tourism organisational management. However, roles of language in tourism organisational management are not understandable clearly to tourism staff and related personnel at managerial level. This paper is an exploratory analysis of the roles of language in tourism organisational management. Ideas for tourism organisational management and development and other related issues with respect to roles of language are pointed out. This paper also encourages practitioners to pay attention on the language issue. Collaboration among educational providers and tourism organisations is required if they want to compete in the global market.

Language Roles in Internal and External Communication in Thai Tourism Industry Competitiveness

I can also announce:

Thitthongkam, Thavorn, John Walsh and Chanchai Bunchapattanasakda, “Language Roles in Internal and External Communication in Thai Tourism Industry Competitiveness,” Acta Universitatis Danubius: Oeconomica (2/2010), pp.46-57, available at: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/oeconomica/article/viewFile/616/567.

Abstract: Language plays important roles in both internal and external communications in the competitiveness of the tourism industry. Communication involves giving, getting, and highlighting information. Communication also enhances understanding and establishing harmonious relationships among people. Effective communication involves nine elements and is influenced by a multitude of factors, including the use of language by employees, employee involvement and commitment and technological change. Language can be a means in helping to maintain competitiveness. The usage of clear and appropriate language and vocabulary-building helps in generating effective communication leading to organisational change. Observation and interview are ways of determining the degree of effectiveness of internal and external communications.

There is still a bit of editing to be done for the online version (which explains discrepancies).

Language and Computer Programs for Tourism Industry Competitiveness

This is the abstract that Thavorn Thitthongkam and myself hope to present at next month’s ICTL to be held here in Bangkok:

            Both language skills and computer programs can play a crucial role in promoting the competitiveness of the Thai tourism industry competitiveness. They provide learners with the opportunity to learn to operate computer programs conveniently and effectively, while develop language skills at the same time. To address this issue, curriculum writers of tourism educational institutions and employers have to pay attention to the importance of both English and computer-mediated educational methods. Instructors who are involved directly with students attempt to assist their students to understand the computer program used (in the case of this paper, the program considered is called Amadeus). However, the instructors face some barriers, specifically that programmers may have technical skills but not necessarily content skills and knowledge. This paper aims to study the connection between English language and the computer program used for promoting the competitiveness of the Thai tourism industry and to investigate the benefits, problems and solutions arising from the use of Amadeus. In-depth interviews of 80 students, 3 instructors and 10 programmers were used to explore these subjects and a semi-structured interview form was created to obtain the information required to answer the research questions. The ways in which these skills can help competitiveness are discussed, as well as the problems associated with them. To maximise improvements in the quality of service, it is recommended that tour companies should also organize training sessions for their employees.

 Keywords – Amadeus, Quality of service, Roles of computer program, Roles of language, Tourism industry