Student’s ‘Ignorant Thailand’ Banner Impresses, Outrages

[webfact]

Student’s ‘Ignorant Thailand’ Banner Impresses, Outrages

By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter

 

  

Suan Kularb students march with a banner reading ‘Thailand, Land of the Coconut Shell’ on Saturday at Bangkok’s National Stadium. Photo: Troll Students of Suan Kularb / Facebook

 

BANGKOK —  A photo of a banner displayed by students at a football match between two of Thailand’s top schools remained a hot topic Monday on social media.

 

“Thailand, Land of the Coconut Shell,” the banner said, using an age-old metaphor about an arrogant frog who lives under a kala, or coconut shell, mistaking it for the entire universe.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/culture/net/2017/11/13/students-ignorant-thailand-banner-impresses-outrages/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2017-11-13

[coulson]

Asked what improvements he wants to see to free Thai education from the “coconut shell,” Thitisant, a high school student studying arts-math in Matthayom 5, named more creative teaching methods and a focus on teachers’ ethics as priorities.

 

Hard to see why he's being criticised. Good on him.

 

(love the arrogant frog analogy, someone springs to mind)

[jonclark]

Sems a bit of self reflection and truth might be hard for the public to accept. 

 

Learn from the mistakes of the past....don't repeat them!

[Bob12345]

Expect to hear some noise when you wake up the dinosaurs.

[Cadbury]

 

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

".....an arrogant frog who lives under a kala, or coconut shell, mistaking it for the entire universe".

An interesting parable. It sure throws the door open for some interesting responses.

Could the reference to a coconut shell be a metaphor meaning the military?

[JAG]

7 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

 

An interesting parable. It sure throws the door open for some interesting responses.

Could the reference to a coconut shell be a metaphor meaning the military?

Green on the outside....

[NCC1701A]

I met a nice Thai lady who asked me why I am in Thailand. She says she hates Thailand now that she had made it to New Zealand and took a look around. 

[Thailand]

Now we know.

[Bluespunk]

''The photo, first posted by a student group, immediately drew a slew of comments. 

“Insulting your own country, calling your own country Kala Land,” user Patcharaphol Sutthivirat wrote in a post. “I did not expect to this kind of expression from young people at this year’s Jaturamitr football match. Very disappointing and sad.”

“The brains of these kids are inferior even to dogs and buffaloes. They used the word coconut shell to insult their own country where their own ancestors lived and worked for them,” Tanaporn Rakcharoen wrote in reply.''

 

Lot of very deluded, strange people out there.

[Bluespunk]

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

A photo of a banner displayed by students at a football match between two of Thailand’s top schools

Who won the match?

[kotsak]

The path to oblivion had been well paved all this time.. Some manage to see the light but usually they get shot down asap. The allegory of the cave describes the situation in Thailand very well... 

[Bob12345]

Absurd notion that not blindly praising everything in Thailand must mean you hate the country and insult your ancestors.

 

That way you will never question anything or see improvement.

 

Seen similar things happen when i was studying here in Thailand. You write a research paper as a group and after writing your part you hand it to your group mates for feedback. Nobody ever has any comments as they see it as insulting to you. I on the other hand think it is insulting that i spend so much time writing my part and they cant even be bothered to critically read through it and just blindly approve it. I want feedback to improve...

[Sid Celery]

13 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

I met a nice Thai lady who asked me why I am in Thailand. She says she hates Thailand now that she had made it to New Zealand and took a look around. 

 

I think that probably happens quite a lot. My wife wants to leave Thailand now she has seen other countries on the telly. She honestly believed Thailand was a beautiful and socially advanced country developed under a benign political system.

 

Reality came as a big big shock, and her opinion of Thais now largely reflects my own (unstated) view. Life inside and outside the goldfish bowl needs to be seen for what it is, not what someone with a vested interest tells you it is.

[Misterwhisper]

And  judging from the dumb comments their banner apparently incited on the internet, the students hit it right on the head with their "coconut shell" allegory:

 

“Insulting your own country, calling your own country Kala Land. I did not expect to this kind of expression from young people at this year’s Jaturamitr football match. Very disappointing and sad.”

 

“The brains of these kids are inferior even to dogs and buffaloes. They used the word coconut shell to insult their own country where their own ancestors lived and worked for them."

 

It is exactly this sort of blind nationalism that is holding Thailand back on so many levels.

 

But good to see that there are people among the younger generation, like those students, who have actually started to think and criticize, and that they enjoyed some support for their action:

 

“If you want to know whether Thailand is indeed land of coconut shell, just see for yourself the comments that scold the kids 555,” tweeted @gobtaiii.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Misterwhisper

[Rc2702]

This kids going places

[Sid Celery]

Just now, Bob12345 said:

Absurd notion that not blindly praising everything in Thailand must mean you hate the country and insult your ancestors.

 

That way you will never question anything or see improvement.

 

Seen similar things happen when i was studying here in Thailand. You write a research paper as a group and after writing your part you hand it to your group mates for feedback. Nobody ever has any comments as they see it as insulting to you. I on the other hand think it is insulting that i spend so much time writing my part and they cant even be bothered to critically read through it and just blindly approve it. I want feedback to improve...

 

Improvement implies mistakes. And therein (in Thailand) lies the rub. I remember a Thai teacher in a Thai language school telling everyone that 'pit ben krue' or 'mistakes teach what not to do' (though she was referring to the foreigners in the class, not the Thais outside the class - obviously) I don't know about you but I made a lot of mistakes when I was growing up, arguably the things I did wrong taught me much more than the things I did right.

 

The Thai psyche isn't quite the same.

[Eric Loh]

A step forward and 5’steps back. That’s what repeatative coups will do to this country. 

[Sid Celery]

1 minute ago, Eric Loh said:

A step forward and 5’steps back. That’s what repeatative coups will do to this country. 

 

Already done Eric, though most Thais I've met are not well equipped to tell the difference between forward and back. Soldiers seem to be a blight on the landscape whatever country you're in. Though Mr Trump thinks they're wonderful of course.

[Enoon]

36 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

I met a nice Thai lady who asked me why I am in Thailand. She says she hates Thailand now that she had made it to New Zealand and took a look around. 

 

A lot of overseas Thais have the same opinion.

 

I first heard it from Mr Chotipong (who sold hi-fi in the basement of the Oxford Street Selfridges) in 1980.   He most emphatically did not want to return to Thailand.

 

Today overseas Thai people bombard their friends back home with a constant stream of online messages/images telling/showing them how brilliant life can be in the developed world.

 

 

[Eric Loh]

10 minutes ago, Sid Celery said:

 

Already done Eric, though most Thais I've met are not well equipped to tell the difference between forward and back. Soldiers seem to be a blight on the landscape whatever country you're in. Though Mr Trump thinks they're wonderful of course.

Most Thais, probably the older generation still revered the military. They seem to forget that the military is there to serve the people and not the people serving the military. Ask any family for what they wish their kids to be and most will say soldier or police officers. Guess it years of brainwashing and propanganda by the military. They don’t see the damages that the military has done to the country over the last 80 years. Soon Vietnam and Philippine economy will be larger than Thailand. The students were spot on with their banner. 

[Bluespunk]

45 minutes ago, Sid Celery said:

 

Improvement implies mistakes. And therein (in Thailand) lies the rub. I remember a Thai teacher in a Thai language school telling everyone that 'pit ben krue' or 'mistakes teach what not to do' (though she was referring to the foreigners in the class, not the Thais outside the class - obviously) I don't know about you but I made a lot of mistakes when I was growing up, arguably the things I did wrong taught me much more than the things I did right.

 

The Thai psyche isn't quite the same.

I always tell the kids, you only learn through your mistakes. If you aren't making any mistakes you aren't pushing yourself hard enough. Mistakes are not a bad thing.

[nahkit]

1 hour ago, Bluespunk said:

Who won the match?

Bangkok Christian College 1-0

 

 

[yellowboat]

YOu do not steal or hurt your country, but you should certainly criticize it if need be.  Thailand needs criticism. 

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

an arrogant frog who lives under a kala, or coconut shell, mistaking it for the entire universe.

Actually. the parable has been updated following the Thai 4.0 model. The frog lives now in a stytofoam box.

[trogers]

Thailand a coconut shell?

 

How do they explain the phenomena of locals wanting out, while foreigners wanting in?

 

See the queues at Immigration...

[Emster23]

I used to think my fellow Americans were woefully ignorant of other countries and cultures. Then I moved to Thailand...

Hey, don't like the criticism? If the shoe fits, take it off before entering....

[JimHuaHin]

Thailand moves forward?

 

LOL.

 

Cannot acknowledge weaknesses in their system; do not want change; constructive (critical) criticism not allowed; thinking not allowed.

[hansnl]

3 hours ago, jonclark said:

Sems a bit of self reflection and truth might be hard for the public to accept. 

 

Learn from the mistakes of the past....don't repeat them!

The past tends to teach the world something, the world tends to forget those lessons.

A problem which can be found all over the world.

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

YOu do not steal or hurt your country, but you should certainly criticize it if need be.  Thailand needs criticism. 

Although I sort of agree with you, but what about your own country?

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Most Thais, probably the older generation still revered the military. They seem to forget that the military is there to serve the people and not the people serving the military. Ask any family for what they wish their kids to be and most will say soldier or police officers. Guess it years of brainwashing and propanganda by the military. They don’t see the damages that the military has done to the country over the last 80 years. Soon Vietnam and Philippine economy will be larger than Thailand. The students were spot on with their banner. 

You seem to forget what, in the case of the Phillipines, is slowly eroding that country?

The rampant "black economy", even worse as you can imagine, the shocking eroding of the rule of law by the murderous "war on drugs", and the remnants of former governments still, behind the scenes, are the real puppeteers.

In the case of Vietnam, the same can be said of the "black economy", the centrally led communist government, the remnants of the Vietnam war and the great differences between various parts of the country.

I think, seen the growth of the foreign funds, the still very strong export, the general state of the economy, it doesn't really looks bleak for Thailand, at all.