Language training in Southeast Asia: which language depends on where you land
Thai, Vietnamese or Filipino, and inside the Philippines the island decides again. Asia Relocation matches a native-speaker trainer to the posting, one-to-one or in a small group, in the country or online, for the words of an ordinary week rather than a distant fluency.
The language changes with the country, and it does not carry over. Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino are unrelated: a household that has learned one arrives in the next of our three countries at zero, and a transfer inside Southeast Asia means starting a language again. Two of the three are tonal, so the first lessons are spent on hearing before a word is learned; the third is not, and its first lessons go to courtesy forms.
What the lessons are for is not fluency, a longer project, but the vocabulary of an ordinary week: the forms that open a conversation, the words of the market and the building, what to say to household staff, how to give a driver directions. The person who needs those most is rarely the one with the contract; it is the partner who runs the household in the language, and the children who meet it in the playground.
Asia Relocation has taught arriving households and professionals across Asia since 2011, with native-speaker trainers who live in the country and are matched to the posting: the capital or the regions, the workplace or the home. The consultants who take the brief work in four languages.
What the course carries in any country, and what sits beside it
The same method in the three countries; the language, the tones and the trainer are not.
Carried by the service
- The language, chosen by the posting: Thai, Vietnamese, or in the Philippines Filipino or Cebuano according to the island, and English for a household arriving without it.
- A trainer matched to the learner: a native speaker who lives in the country, chosen for the region and for the workplace or the household.
- A course built for the week you will have: courtesy forms, the market, the building, staff and drivers first; workplace registers for professionals; tones before vocabulary where the language is tonal.
- The format that fits: private lessons or small groups, in person in the country or online before the flight and between trips.
- The culture with the words: a phrase taught with its register and the situation it belongs to; the wrong form is a mistake even when the grammar is right.
Learners, hours and format are fixed at the brief and quoted per country.
A different service
- The culture beyond the words. How a decision is taken, what a yes means, how face works: cross-cultural training, often taken alongside.
- The school where the child will hear the language. Choosing it is school search, on the same file.
- The home and the district. Where the household will use its new words is home search.
- Interpretation and translation. Documents and meetings in the local language are a different trade; we say so rather than stretch a trainer.
One Asia Relocation coordinator carries these beside the course.
Four courses, and who takes each one
The language is chosen by the posting, then the course by the person.
Household course
For the partner and the children: the words of the market, the building, staff and the school gate, in the language of the district. The course most households take, in all three countries.
Workplace course
For a manager or a professional who works in English but leads local colleagues: courtesy forms, registers, and enough of the language to hear what is said around the table.
Pre-arrival course, online
Lessons before the flight, so the first week on the ground is not the first week of the language. For tonal languages, the weeks spent on hearing before arrival are the ones that pay.
English for the household
In the Philippines, for partners and children arriving without English, who meet it in the building and at school before they meet Filipino. Taught by local trainers, in the accent they will hear.
Four steps from the brief to the first conversation
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The brief
Who is learning, at what level, for which country and region, for the workplace or the household, and when the flight is.
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The trainer
A native speaker who lives where you will, matched to the posting, with a first session to set the level and the goal.
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The course
Private or small-group lessons, online before arrival and in person after, built around the week the learner will actually have.
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The transfer, if it comes
When a household moves to another of our countries, a new language and a new trainer, on the same file, with the method carried over.
Four learners, and what the country decides for each
Each ends up with a country trainer; Asia Relocation names the language and the format.
The partner who runs the household in the language
The market, the staff, the school gate: the person who needs the words most and is offered them least. The household course is written for them, in all three countries.
The manager leading a local team
Working in English, leading colleagues who do not always think in it. Enough of the language to hear the room, and the registers that keep respect intact.
The household transferred within Asia
Fluent enough in one language, starting from nothing in the next. A new trainer and a new set of tones, with a method the household already knows.
The mobility team with arrivals in three countries
One programme on paper, three languages and three sets of trainers in practice, one report. Asia Relocation holds the scope; the country trainers hold the lessons.
Three countries, three languages
What each language asks of a beginner, and where the course runs.
In Thailand, Thai: a tonal language whose first lessons are about hearing, then the essential phrases and the conversation of daily life, from native trainers in the capital and the regions. In the Philippines, the language changes with the island: Filipino, built on Tagalog with English woven through it, in the capital; Cebuano in the south, where a Tagalog phrasebook is understood but not answered in kind; a workplace course for those who lead Filipino colleagues; and English for a household that arrives without it.
In Vietnam, Vietnamese: tones and pronunciation first, then the foundation of the language as it is spoken in the city you live in, from native trainers who bring the culture with the words. In all three, Asia Relocation matches the trainer to the posting, and quotes per country.
What households ask before the first lesson
Which language will I need?
We are transferring inside Southeast Asia. Does the language carry over?
Is fluency the goal?
Who are the trainers?
One-to-one or in a group, in person or online?
Do you teach English as well?
What about the tones?
How is language training priced?
The service usually taken with this one, and the rest
You want the culture behind the words
Three programmes, one per country, for the assignee, the family and the team, from trainers who live there.
Cross-cultural training in Southeast Asia →The whole relocation service
Home, school, office, temporary housing, cultural and language training across the three, and which of them your move needs.
Relocation services in Southeast Asia →Tell us who is learning, and where they will live
Asia Relocation names the language, matches a native trainer to the posting, and starts the lessons online before the flight if you want the first week on the ground to be easier.
Start a language course →