Too shy to speak English? Can you at least read it?

To shy to speak Englisgh
Erm... To shy to speak English

I think everyone knows that to learn a foreign language, it’s one thing to be able to speak it, and even speak it fluently; but it’s a totally different thing to be able to read it. I’ve been trying (on and off) to learn Thai for years. I think you just can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The problem is, they (the Thais) don’t have a romanised alphabet, or follow any gramatical or structural nuances of English. Granted most Thais know one English word. They almost ALL answer the phone with the word “Helló”. I’ve used the accented ‘ó’ there because if you’ve ever heard a Thai say hello, they say it with a rising inflection at the end.

Anyway, this isn’t about that. What this is about are the three following posters. These were seen at Nana BTS when my wife and I got off there yesterday. The funny thing about that is, they were also there 2 years ago when I first arrived here with a mate of mine from Singapore.

The advertisement has obviously stood some test of time, but I still grapple with the fact that if someone is too shy to attempt to speak a language, there’s a damn good chance they can’t read it! But I could be wrong – I’ve been known to be wrong before!

TOO SHY TO SPEAK ENGLISH
As the sign asks, are you too shy?
Speak to....
Speak to....

I could probably have blanked out the company name and or the phone number/web address, but who cares about a free plug anyway…

But I have always wondered, how much business do they get from these signs? I mean, there are three of them, they’re large and (for as long as I can remember) they’ve been there for at least two years.

Good luck guys!

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