Miss Thailand thanks fans for support, Twitter debates answer fail on ‘social movement’

[snoop1130]

Miss Thailand thanks fans for support, Twitter debates answer fail on ‘social movement’

By Coconuts Bangkok

 

Screenshot: Miss Universe Thailand

 

Miss Thailand Maria Poonlertlarp, who made it to the top 5 of Miss Universe, thanked the Thai people for their support during her pageant journey, after months of anticipation and the public’s conviction that she would win.

 

“I’d like thank everyone for your support. I felt so happy that everybody believed in me. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t do as well as you expected, but I really did my best. I hope you had fun watching the show,” Maria said tearfully, in a video posted after the competition.

 

“Now I’ll spend time with my family, who are very important to me. Then I’ll go to the Philippines [with Miss Universe’s committee] and come back to Thailand,” she said in Thai.

 

Full Story: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/lifestyle/miss-thailand-thanks-fans-for-support-twitter-debates-answer-fail-on-social-movement/

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-11-27

[Just1Voice]

She did well, making it to the final five.  Nothing to be ashamed of. 

 

[Bluespunk]

"Social movement has become the most trending hashtag in Thailand this afternoon, as many Thais say the question was way too difficult to answer in 30 seconds."

 

And yet the other 4 contestants managed to do so...

[observer90210]

They should have sent the hon. Ms Yingluck to contest...surely she would have found some fine answers !! 

 

Well done anyhow to Miss Thailand for making it to the top 5.... but she's cute and cute can get away with quite a bit !

[Kerryd]

Maria Lynn Ehren, also known as Maria Poonlertlarp, is a Swedish-Thai beauty pageant titleholder, model and singer.  Maria Lynn Ehren was born in Bangkok, Thailand to a Swedish father and a Chinese descent mother. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Lynn_Ehren

 

She has lived/worked in Thailand for a few years and won the pageants leading up to the Miss Universe title. 

[Kinnock]

Isn't it great to live a country where you can watch the Miss Universe show on TV, then look sideways to see the TGF eating Mama noodles and watching Facebook live on her phone - and realize that she'd give many of the contestants a run for their money.

 

But I do think the National Dress section is a bit misleading, as I didn't see any short jeans, T shirt and flip-flops.

[Jingthing]

It was a clueless answer, but imagine the blow-back if she had actually been knowledgeable enough to answer well. Consider the TRUE answer to that question ... 

 

[jimn]

I just had to look up what "social movement" referred too. Poor girl. I would have had no idea what to answer.

[rkidlad]

Children are the future? Wow! And water is wet. 

 

In all seriousness, she's been criticised by some locals for her answer. Sure, she's not your average Thai, but if she were, could she have done any better with the answer? Absolutely not. Your average Thai isn't educated to think critically or outside the box. 

 

The question wasn't too difficult to answer in 30 seconds. It all just depends on whether or not you know how to think for yourself and have a natural curiosity for things happening around you. 

[Jingthing]

It was a question that demanded diplomacy and high intelligence on the fly. Besides all the other stuff, they're looking for that for the WINNER. The question was also a little "dangerous" because it's potentially a politically loaded question. The answer wouldn't need to be political but that was part of the test of the question how the contestants navigated a more difficult potentially sensitive question. She failed. End of. 

[billd766]

17 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

She did well, making it to the final five.  Nothing to be ashamed of. 

 

 

She was actually #4.

[Kinnock]

OK - I've had days to think of a good answer to 'the most important social movement in her generation', and I'm still struggling.  Considering she's about 14 years old, "her generation" does not give a lot of scope.  The environment is screwed, so that's irrelevant, women got the vote before her grandparents were born, and democracy is also screwed anyway, so that's no good, we're still fighting bronze age religious wars, so that's out, racism seems to be on the rise, so another fail there.

 

An honest answer would be 'Facebook', but don't think that would get many points.

 

 

[NCC1701A]

a bit of a "ambush" type question meant to provoke a thought process not allowed in Thailand.

 

"A social movement is a type of group action. Social movements can be defined as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites"

 

Could you imagine A THAI giving that answer on live television in Thailand?

[Jingthing]

Yes, it was intentionally meant to be a very difficult question. They have high standards for who is going to represent their pageant to the world and a large part of that role is poise under pressure that has nothing to do with looking pretty. 

Most people couldn't have answered that question well. 

They weren't looking for most people to be the one winner.

[PatOngo]

"Social movement has become the most trending hashtag in Thailand this afternoon, as many Thais say the question was way too difficult to answer in 30 seconds."

 

But the answer was ... Yes.........Someone asked some questions last week and got an overwhelming response, and they were extremely hard questions.

[Jingthing]

7 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

"Social movement has become the most trending hashtag in Thailand this afternoon, as many Thais say the question was way too difficult to answer in 30 seconds."

 

But the answer was ... Yes.........Someone asked some questions last week and got an overwhelming response, and they were extremely hard questions.

The Thai whiners should stop complaining about how unfair (and "too hard" ... boo hoo!) life is on the stage of INTERNATIONAL competitions, and take a harder self critical look at their OWN society.

[PatOngo]

41 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

The Thai whiners should stop complaining about how unfair (and "too hard" ... boo hoo!) life is on the stage of INTERNATIONAL competitions, and take a harder self critical look at their OWN society.

Easy to loose sight when you are centre of the universe.

[Mac98]

The answer is: "Trumpism, the lower class revolt to follow a bogus leader who could get us all killed."

[Jingthing]

40 minutes ago, Mac98 said:

The answer is: "Trumpism, the lower class revolt to follow a bogus leader who could get us all killed."

Not appropriate for a Thai.

 

[Mac98]

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Not appropriate for a Thai.

 

Miss Universe is an international spokeswoman. That's the kind if answer they are looking for, although couched in more diplomatic language.

[anon467848]

Funny how Miss Thailand always seems to be a Luk Kreung... are Thais to ashamed to crown one of their own...

[Wilsonandson]

Well done Maria, you made us proud!

 

 

[lamyai3]

14 hours ago, jimn said:

I just had to look up what "social movement" referred too. Poor girl. I would have had no idea what to answer.

I agree, it's a compound noun that is ambiguous at best. She mistook the question to mean something to do with demographic shift, in which case her answer is quite appropriate, a movement towards an aging population is a growing concern in many countries now. I think the phrase "social activism" should have been used in the question - much more precise. 

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

I agree, it's a compound noun that is ambiguous at best. She mistook the question to mean something to do with demographic shift, in which case her answer is quite appropriate, a movement towards an aging population is a growing concern in many countries now. I think the phrase "social activism" should have been used in the question - much more precise. 

Funny, I don't have a PhD and I know exactly what social movement means. I've even been involved in some of them in my life.  Her answer was daft and showed she didn't understand the question at the very least. Stop making excuses. It's a tough contest and it's meant to be tough.

 

BTW ... if I had a way to give her a hint when she was asked, I think something about the ENVIRONMENT would have been on topic and safe enough for that venue. Obviously, getting explicitly political wasn't a good idea. Yes, it's kind of a B.S. game but there are ways to win such games and ways to lose them.

 

Also, if the question was that impossible to deal with (it wasn't) obviously some other contestants were not tripped up by it. So it was just "too hard" for some people. Again, it's a competition. 

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Funny, I don't have a PhD and I know exactly what social movement means. I've even been involved in some of them in my life.  Her answer was daft and showed she didn't understand the question at the very least. Stop making excuses. It's a tough contest and it's meant to be tough.

 

BTW ... if I had a way to give her a hint when she was asked, I think something about the ENVIRONMENT would have been on topic and safe enough for that venue. Obviously, getting explicitly political wasn't a good idea. Yes, it's kind of a B.S. game but there are ways to win such games and ways to lose them.

 

Also, if the question was that impossible to deal with (it wasn't) obviously some other contestants were not tripped up by it. So it was just "too hard" for some people. Again, it's a competition. 

Unless the question arose from an appropriate context it's not very clear. If you're not familiar with the expression "social movement" it would be equally plausible to think of an answer in terms of demographic shifts, or perhaps migrations of population. It'd actually be dangerous for her to comment on any of the recent social movements in Thailand, she'd probably welcomed home to a week of attitude adjustment.

 

Also, who's to say the question wasn't immediately preceded by asking about her fitness regime or her favourite boy band? 

[Jingthing]

16 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:

Unless the question arose from an appropriate context it's not very clear. If you're not familiar with the expression "social movement" it would be equally plausible to think of an answer in terms of demographic shifts, or perhaps migrations of population. It'd actually be dangerous for her to comment on any of the recent social movements in Thailand, she'd probably welcomed home to a week of attitude adjustment.

 

Also, who's to say the question wasn't immediately preceded by asking about her fitness regime or her favourite boy band? 

I really don't get where you're coming from. An educated person, even a young one, would know the meaning of social movements. I totally agree it was a potentially risky question to answer in the context of Thailand and many other countries. That's part of the test. How could the contestants finesse a diplomatic answer but still on topic. She couldn't. The winners of these contests tour the world and speak at many public events. They are expected to be highly intelligent, think on their feet, and diplomatic.

 

Anyway it really could have been worse --

 

[lamyai3]

14 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I really don't get where you're coming from. An educated person, even a young one, would know the meaning of social movements. I totally agree it was a potentially risky question to answer in the context of Thailand and many other countries. That's part of the test. How could the contestants finesse a diplomatic answer but still on topic. She couldn't. The winners of these contests tour the world and speak at many public events. They are expected to be highly intelligent, think on their feet, and diplomatic.

 

Anyway it really could have been worse --

 

 

To be honest, I haven't watched a beauty contest since the best answer to a question was "world peace."

 

I'd prefer something like this as a clearer phrasing: "We've seen a lot of social activism around the world in recent times, which of these social movements do you think is most important important to your generation, and why?"

I still think the questioner is at fault here, and in the unlikely event that she showed up on this forum I'd take her to task for it directly. 

[Stargeezr]

I think that Miss Thailand presented herself a lot better than Steve Harvey did. At least

she did provide an answer to the question and the whole contest was being judged, not just

that question.

Congratulations on making it to the top five.

Geezer

[Jingthing]

Another "contestant" takes a stab at the social movement question.

Start at 5:40.

 

 

[robsamui]

Thai people are brought up to believe they are the best nation in the world.

So millions of Thai people following this contest had confidence she would win.

 

Thai people are specifically educated to know nothing about the world outside Thailand.

And so when faced with a question about "the best social movement of her generation"  - a question which firstly needs an understanding of what "a social movement" means, and then also the world-knowledge to be able to not only be aware of a range of different "social" issues, but to have informed opinions on them, the poor woman was lost.

 

The reaction of the Thai people? It was not a fair question ( . . . because to answer it it needed knowledge that a Thai person could not possibly be expected to have).

 

With the ASEAN community on the horizon, and Thailand soon having to interact with Singapore, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia (et al) for individual employment and international contracts, I wonder how many more generations of Thais will be saying "it's not fair" when they are passed over in preference for candidates who not only can speak quality English, but also are better educated and have an informed world view?