Whose English counts? Exploring Unequal Englishes through Thai professionals’ workplace experiences

This qualitative study examines how English becomes unequally valued in Thai workplaces by analyzing how 14 Thai professionals perceive their own English use and evaluate it in relation to other English varieties. Drawing on the Unequal Englishes (UE) framework, the study shifts attention from abstract hierarchies of varieties to everyday professional practice. Data were generated through semi-structured online interviews and were analyzed thematically. Findings show that participants treat English as routine workplace labor embedded in meetings, documentation, customer service, media production, healthcare, and transnational coordination. English proficiency emerges as ongoing performance rather than fixed competence. Participants link English use to professional credibility, organizational image, and career mobility. While American and British English remain prestige benchmarks associated with authority and employability, participants foreground intelligibility, clarity, and interactional success as primary criteria in actual work. The study also highlights strategic coping practices, including rehearsal, stylistic adjustment, and routine reliance on AI tools such as ChatGPT and Grammarly. These practices reframe professional English as technologically mediated and collaboratively produced. By providing cross-sector evidence from Thailand, the study refines UE as enacted through micro-practices of evaluation, preparation, and repair in globalized workplaces.