Why do you limit your services to clients in Thailand?
What is Culturally Correct language? Why the focus on that?
How do you describe your speech writing style?
Why do you focus so much on Plain English prose? What about Plain Thai?
What are risk and crisis communications?
Do you translate laws and regulations as well?
Can KKQEC compose letters and correspondence for my organization on a contractor basis?
How different is PR English from Plain English?
How do you compare your rates and speed with your competitors?
Why do you demand 30% down payment and immediate cash payment upon submission of work?
Can you design your training courses to suit our needs?
Why do you limit the sizes of your writing classes?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Why do you limit your services to clients in Thailand?
At this initial stage, KKQEC, a small organization, will focus on the quality of its work. Once we’re confident of our ability to provide quality work to a wider group of clients, we’ll expand our portfolio.
What is Culturally Correct language? Why the focus on that?
Culturally correct language is often lacking in translation work. What is acceptable wording in one culture -- unfortunately -- isn’t always acceptable (or downright offensive) wording in another culture, hence the unintended misunderstanding and lack of business trust.
How do you describe your speech writing style?
KKQEC’s speech writing style is best described as more direct and “to the point,” with less flowery language or superfluous sentences, and occasionally with “human interest”. For example, in our speeches you’d find no introduction like, “I am very pleased and honored to address this distinguished audience at this opening ceremony,” but rather something like, “This morning I’d like to tell you a real-life story about this industry…”
Why do you focus so much on Plain English prose? What about Plain Thai?
Plain English is the most effective means of getting ideas across from one person to another. That’s what communication is all about. It’s writing with the audience in mind and focuses on clarity and conciseness. Contrary to the belief by some, Plain English is not baby language and it’s not abrupt, rude, or ugly. Sadly, many English writers misunderstand that “multisyllable,” “impressive,” or “jargon” English adds to their credibility or writing skills. Reality check: If you have to read one sentence twice or three times to get the meaning, that’s not likely to be Plain English.
We feel the same way about Plain Thai. Both Plain English and Plain Thai are the strengths of our organization.
Because you have no native speakers/writers of English, isn’t your English writing a little inferior?
Maybe. We have no native speakers or writers of English on our staff, but can use them occasionally as required.
What are risk and crisis communications?
Risk and crisis communications are used by industry to communicate with the public on health, environment, and safety matters. Often, industry finds itself having to inform communities about what they’re doing, the things they store behind their fence, and how they can or can’t be a threat to public health and the environment. This is risk (or hazard) communication. Crisis communication can also mean the type of communication that any organization has to undertake in an emergency. If handled well, both kinds of communication can help an organization stay in business and avoid trouble with the public.
Do you translate laws and regulations as well?
Yes, we do. Although we’re no experts on laws, there are times when you need to understand the laws and regulations. That’s when our simplification comes in handy.
Can KKQEC compose letters and correspondence for my organization on a contractor basis?
Yes, we can work as a consultant on a “retainer” basis, i.e., we can serve your needs if and when they arise without having to enter into an agreement each time. You enter into a contract with us the first time for a fixed period. Call us for detail.
How different is PR English from Plain English?
In our view, the only difference is the choice of words and vocabulary.
How do you compare your rates and speed with your competitors?
Our rates are somewhat higher. We’d like to think that KKQEC takes meticulous care with its specialized products. Our speed is high, but – if allowed to -- we’d like an extra period to mold the language so that each final product is a communication masterpiece. For that ease of communication, our premium is worth your investment.
Why do you demand 30% down payment and immediate cash payment upon submission of work?
We’d like to treat all our clients as long-time partners, but in this market we have no way of telling who we can trust. Until we’ve developed trust in our relationship with your organization, that’s the only means of ensuring our income.
Can you design your training courses to suit our needs?
Yes. In fact, that’s the way it should be. We’ll sit down with you and design courses that fit your organization and people. In addition, we have well-designed ready-made courses that should be useful.
Why do you limit the sizes of your writing classes?
We do so because we want to coach each person in our writing classes individually. That’s our sure way of improving his or her writing ability.
We believe that writing courses can’t be efficiently taught and learned unless the student is able to write grammatically correct sentences first. To screen those with a need to improve their grammar, we’ll prepare a placement test before a person is enrolled in writing courses.
We believe that an executive needs to have a good range of practical vocabulary, and then some more, to get ahead in corporate and public life. Our vocabulary courses are designed to teach Thai students tricks to learn these words.
How does your writing “workshop/clinic” work?
By “workshop/clinic,” we mean that students bring to the class samples of their own writing for the instructor to study and critique. Then the instructor works individually with each student to improve his or her writing and then shares it with the class. One main prerequisite is that all students in a workshop/clinic aren’t too concerned about mistakes being critiqued or talked about in class. Workshops/clinics work best if students are of the same level and the same organization/company.
Do you specialize in teaching TOEFL?
Although we specialized in teaching TOEFL over 15 years ago, we no longer focus on teaching TOEFL per se. However, we want to help you improve your writing portion of TOEFL.