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. Thai employees’ foreign language proficiency skills in business firms facilitate smoother communication and coordination between local headquarters and offshore subsidiaries. Most employers and owners consider foreign language proficiency skills assets to their business operations, but surprisingly not all do. This paper focuses on the role and influence of foreign language in five business firms in Rayong Province, Thailand. It concentrates on four foreign languages: English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The primary purpose is to assess the benefits of foreign language proficiency to Thai employees in the five selected firms. The findings show that there is indeed a close relationship between the 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 than Thai employees who lack such skills. This research should prove useful at three levels. At the national level, it will be added to the many studies and research projects conducted by the Thai Ministry of Labor and Employment to improve the proficiency of the Thai people in a foreign language. The results of this research will provide more evidence and support for the Ministry in its ongoing efforts to improve Thai student skills needed for the working environment of the globalized world.

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