世界英文拼字季军不会英文？真的假的……

Thai wordsmith Komol Panyasophonlert, 31, is one of the world's best scrabble players and ranked third in the world after memorising 90 per cent of the entire language.

He learned how to play from a tatty handbook he found lying around at home when he was 14 and trains by reading the dictionary for six hours a day.

But remarkably, Komol can only utter a handful of words in broken English, can't string a sentence together and relies on Google Translate for written communication.

He said: 'Scrabble is more about logic, memory, maths and being able to outsmart your opponent.

'Plus, I train hard. Before competitions I spend all my free time reading the dictionary. In bed, in the bathroom, on the train - nearly every waking moment.'“

“Ok. it's time to defend myself. These are what I answered the journalist that made him think I used Google translate [sic],” Komol wrote on Facebook.

In their conversation, Komol only suggested that it would be easier to respond via Facebook messages to give detailed answers. It did not say his reason was because he couldn’t speak English. So basically, Komol was doing the guy a favor to ensure he got his story.

Thais use English as a foreign language, and common Thai schools focus on teaching the students written English and grammar, rather than speaking skills. Therefore, some Thais may not have too much experience with casual conversation or need time to think about how they should arrange a sentence when they speak English.