Does your Thai partner know much about history outside of Thailand?

[transam]

Just now, blazes said:

Ignorance of how her country "works", how it always seems to work only in favour of the rich and powerful.  My wife has a clear insight into this and sees Thanathon as a possible way out of the nightmare of history as it is played out in Thailand....

So not really any different to elsewhere....????

[blazes]

1 minute ago, transam said:

So not really any different to elsewhere....????

that's why I wrote "played out in Thailand".

Sorry if it's confusing.

[transam]

Just now, blazes said:

that's why I wrote "played out in Thailand".

Sorry if it's confusing.

That's OK...????

[spidermike007]

On 4/25/2023 at 5:21 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

And then there are people who should know about countries and history, and maybe they even know, and then they ignore all that information.

The recent 20-year war in Afghanistan is a "wonderful" example. People should have learned from history. They obviously didn't. 

There is a gulf of difference separating ignorance from arrogance. Cheney, Rumsfeld and their employee Bush Jr. were beyond arrogant. 

[The Fugitive]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Is that important?

An weren't all the really important discoveries made by NAZI's brought over from Germany after the war?

Recently spoke to a young German guy born in what was East Germany although after the Berlin Wall came down. We talked about inventions; the World's first stored program computer at Manchester University, television and radar amongst other things. He said he was taught that Germany invented all.

[spidermike007]

I will simply say I think my life would be infinitely less rich and fascinating, without an interest in history and geography. History is utterly fascinating. 

[bignok]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:13 AM, jaideedave said:

When my Thai wife and I embarked on one of our 1st road trips in Thailand (pre GPS) she was utterly amazed at how I as a foreigner could navigate us around the country using only a road map.I felt a little like Captain Cook. 555

No it just means she isn't well educated. Paper maps in Thailand were always pretty good.

[bignok]

Just now, spidermike007 said:

I will simply say I think my life would be infinitely less rich and fascinating, without an interest in history and geography. History is utterly fascinating. 

So what was the best year in the 1600s?

[Doctor Tom]

1 hour ago, NoshowJones said:

My wife has university degree's, is very clever, I always take seriously everything she says as she always seems to be right, she never stopped fulltime education until she was 22 years old,

My Thai g/f has two degrees from Thai Universities, one  a Masters in Accountancy and she is almost totally ignorant of World history, general science and World geography.  Intelligence and knowledge are two different things. In polite Western social situations, she could easily come across as a thick as a brick, pretty bimbo when she is nothing of the kind.   

[Highlandman]

I'd say it's abnormal for a Thai not to have heard of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge. Not knowing the details, such as exact years of these historical events and key events on the other hand I'd say is normal.

 

Thais can be ignorant, even to some extent of their neighbors, but not quite that ignorant. Every Thai who lives within 50km of a border with a neighboring country will however have a significantly better knowledge of their neighboring country than someone who comes from Bangkok or some random village in upcountry Thailand, say in central Isarn or lower northern Thailand. 

 

Are you sure your wife completed university? Even with the poor quality university education in Thailand (except for some STEM degrees from some more prestigious institutions) I doubt she would have emerged from her schooling without knowledge of these events. I suspect the issue could be that she forgot these topics, didn't pay attention in class and just doesn't care. I also assume she's never been to Cambodia and Vietnam until you took her to these countries. 

 

There are ignorant people everywhere though. Many Americans have little to no knowledge of the Vietnam War, though the vast majority will have heard of it. Many Americans and even some Australians may not be able to locate countries like Thailand on a map and some will confuse Thailand for Taiwan. My wife even had her degree from an American university addressed to Bangkok, Taiwan. Fortunately, it ended up in Bangkok, Thailand! LOL. 

[Highlandman]

41 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

My Thai g/f has two degrees from Thai Universities, one  a Masters in Accountancy and she is almost totally ignorant of World history, general science and World geography.  Intelligence and knowledge are two different things. In polite Western social situations, she could easily come across as a thick as a brick, pretty bimbo when she is nothing of the kind.   

Well, what is she good at or knowledgeable in?

[khunPer]

Yes...

[Highlandman]

I've had some very enlightening conversations with acquaintances I've made who live in border areas of Thailand. They tend to be male, reasonably well educated, are older (generally at least 50 but usually 55+) and are married with grown up children who've long since left home. They have a particularly good knowledge of their direct neighbors, though usually a little less about countries further away. Most of these people live within 25km of the Burmese border so they know a lot about the local and national situation in that country and of course work with Burmese people in their businesses (the majority are business owners). They know less about Malaysia and Cambodia etc. because these countries are further away, but they aren't ignorant about these countries either.

 

Interestingly, despite Thai women being more educated than their male counterparts on average and women making up the majority of university places in the country, I find that whenever there is a story of ignorance on the part of a Thai, where regional and/or world history is concerned, its women who perform the worst.

I see evidence of this when I trawl through social media comments in Thai, almost all the good ones are written by men only. They're the ones who seem to know a bit about their neighbors, whereas the women don't know and don't care.

 

Now having said that, I'm sure there are a lot of ignorant men out there too, especially the lesser educated menial laborers who hang out drinking in their free time.

[Highlandman]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:00 PM, Will B Good said:

Wife was taken out of school at 11, driven four hours away to work 18 hour days, seven days a week at roadside 'restaurant'....until she was old enough to make it to Bangkok to work in the sportswear sweatshops.........totally uneducated. Has no clue about scientific theories, history, geography.....etc....but very sharp minded.

So presumably she bought the Covid narrative and got several booster shots? 

[Highlandman]

On 4/27/2023 at 6:08 PM, sharksy said:

My experience is that they know Singaporians are really rich, Malaysians are rich, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam are poor lol.

I did ask teerak if she knew about the civil war in Myanmar, she only knew about some bombs coming over the border into Thailand.

Hmm interesting, considering that's a very rare occurrence (though it has happened). Many of the active conflict zones do seem to focus on areas right up against the Thai border though. 

[Doctor Tom]

23 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

Well, what is she good at or knowledgeable in?

As I said in the post, she has a Masters in Accountancy; that was the clue  

[Will B Good]

13 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

So presumably she bought the Covid narrative and got several booster shots? 

Yes.....as I did, and I have a BSc, an MBA and an MEd.....???

[Highlandman]

3 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Yes.....as I did, and I have a BSc, an MBA and an MEd.....???

OK. I don't want to get more into that, suffice to say that most people who aren't educated are more easily influenced by what they see on TV and on social media. On any given topic. 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

I will simply say I think my life would be infinitely less rich and fascinating, without an interest in history and geography. History is utterly fascinating. 

History is interesting, languages are interesting, psychology is interesting, and and and.

There are so many interesting subjects out there.

Obviously it's a good idea to have some "basic" knowledge in everything, and then it's up to each individual in which areas they want to know more.

[OneMoreFarang]

5 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

OK. I don't want to get more into that, suffice to say that most people who aren't educated are more easily influenced by what they see on TV and on social media. On any given topic. 

Correct. But it seems there are also many so called educated people who believe lots of things which are without doubt incorrect. And then there are of course all those people who believe in that old man in the sky... 

[Highlandman]

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Correct. But it seems there are also many so called educated people who believe lots of things which are without doubt incorrect. And then there are of course all those people who believe in that old man in the sky... 

Of course. It can go both ways. 

[Freddy42OZ]

On 4/26/2023 at 6:36 AM, sharksy said:

I asked a (younger than Thai GF) Philippine friend if she had heard of the above historic events.  She said it was taught in School and most Phillipine people would have known about it.

 

I guess its quite important to me to be able to discuss things and get an opinion back when visiting historical places, like a regular western GF would.  Have an interest in the place you are visiting - rather than just post up photographs with no knowledge or interest behind them.

 

This is why after 15 years living in Thailand and a total of 50 years living in Asia, I have a European GF. 

[3NUMBAS]

unlikley they know about WW2 

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Freddy42OZ said:

This is why after 15 years living in Thailand and a total of 50 years living in Asia, I have a European GF. 

This is, why after living in Thailand for almost 30 years, I still have a Thai gf. She concentrates on the important things to make me happy. If I want to talk about history or politics, I can do that with lots of other people. 

[spidermike007]

9 hours ago, bignok said:

So what was the best year in the 1600s?

Alot happened in the 17th century. 

 

78% of women were illiterate in the 1670’s but twenty years later this figure had shrunk to 52%. Quakers believed in women’s intellectual capabilities and eight year old girls who could read well at Mrs Makin’s school at Tottenham received instruction in Latin, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish.

 

Charles I was put to death. That was a good thing. On his acceptance of the Crown Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda, which formally recognised religious toleration, protected rights to land ownership and subordinated control of the Army to the sovereign. Ever wary of how his father’s uncontrolled tyranny had created years of bloodshed, Charles was eager to achieve a new settlement. 

 

This began the Glorious Restoration. Many of the stifling restrictions imposed on public life during the Commonwealth were also lifted, creating more liberal circumstances in which the arts and politics could flourish. Theatres reopened, religious festivals were reinstated and the natural rhythm of life was resumed.

[spidermike007]

7 hours ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

This is why after 15 years living in Thailand and a total of 50 years living in Asia, I have a European GF. 

Personally, I prefer a smart Thai, who is not highly educated. Takes care of the practical end of things, without the intellectual arguments, debates and her need to always prove she is right. So much more harmony at home. Tried it both ways. Will stick with a Thai angel. 

[Scott]

Off-topic post reported and removed.  

 

[sharksy]

9 hours ago, Highlandman said:

I'd say it's abnormal for a Thai not to have heard of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge. Not knowing the details, such as exact years of these historical events and key events on the other hand I'd say is normal.

 

Thais can be ignorant, even to some extent of their neighbors, but not quite that ignorant. Every Thai who lives within 50km of a border with a neighboring country will however have a significantly better knowledge of their neighboring country than someone who comes from Bangkok or some random village in upcountry Thailand, say in central Isarn or lower northern Thailand. 

 

Are you sure your wife completed university? Even with the poor quality university education in Thailand (except for some STEM degrees from some more prestigious institutions) I doubt she would have emerged from her schooling without knowledge of these events. I suspect the issue could be that she forgot these topics, didn't pay attention in class and just doesn't care. I also assume she's never been to Cambodia and Vietnam until you took her to these countries. 

 

There are ignorant people everywhere though. Many Americans have little to no knowledge of the Vietnam War, though the vast majority will have heard of it. Many Americans and even some Australians may not be able to locate countries like Thailand on a map and some will confuse Thailand for Taiwan. My wife even had her degree from an American university addressed to Bangkok, Taiwan. Fortunately, it ended up in Bangkok, Thailand! LOL. 

Funny, enough, she completed the course : Tourism + Hotel Management.

 

It seems many posters are correct, history is just not important to them.  My Thai friend back home told me that history is more of a western thing.

Most Thais (border regions probably excepted) really don't have a clue about other countries.

 

She has been to Laos and Japan before I met her, and you are right, she had never been to Vietnam or Cambodia before.

The main reason Pattaya exists (rather than a fishing village), is largely due to the nearby airbase from which US aircraft flew sorties to Vietnam.  I'm surprised Thais don't know this.

 

[spidermike007]

13 hours ago, Doctor Tom said:

My Thai g/f has two degrees from Thai Universities, one  a Masters in Accountancy and she is almost totally ignorant of World history, general science and World geography.  Intelligence and knowledge are two different things. In polite Western social situations, she could easily come across as a thick as a brick, pretty bimbo when she is nothing of the kind.   

Not to be too disparaging of the educational system here, but the top University in the country is considered to be Chulalongkorn. Rated 463rd worldwide. The focus on education has always been intentionally poor, on the part of the authorities. And we know why. 

[newbee2022]

YES, since we are married????