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Posted

A Baiting troll post and personal attack have been removed.

 

9. You will not post disruptive or inflammatory messages. You will respect other members and post in a civil manner. Personal attacks, insults or hate speech posted on the forum or sent by private message are not allowed.

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Posted
3 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

It upset my now ex-wife when she finally realized I could understand, speak and read Thai.

I understand far more than I ever admit to and I'll keep it that way as long as I can - the things you hear when they don't think you understand can be very revealing.

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Posted
13 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Can it be explained by a lack of education, is it arrogance - or both?

Ignorance .

I wanted to talk to my ( not close ) stepdaughter ( she finished University ) , about her Philosophy in life ... her personal values , what her decisions are based on , but she had no clue what I was trying to talk about , she doe not know what ' Philosophy " means . Sad .

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Posted
2 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

Well, any thread that begins w/this is not Thai bashing???

 

So, lets say for example, a farang goes back to his Gf's village - poor farmers, not much formal education, farmers who know how to do necessary things for farms... And they lead a simple life... quite pleasant for what they need to get by happily in their own world...

 

And their daughter returns w/a fellow who cannot read the newspaper or even understand when the news is spoken on the television. He cannot hold the simplest conversation, but he seems to have some money that he spends on beer. The beer part is ok, but he doesn't seem very bright or otherwise have much to offer - he can barely eat the food... 

 

And then this farang drinks too much beer and starts acting really stupid... 

 

Yes, I have seen this type of behavior. The guy might be 'accomplished' in the West, but is a total moron in the village... should they respect him and where he comes from? 

 

 

Teach them the meaning of respect first, then  they might

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Posted

History. Suggest you check what is currently taught in your country of origin's 2023 curriculum. 

I'd suggest it is vastly different than what the memories here are, relics of the 'empire' and old war stories. 

Barely relevant in 2023.

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Posted
10 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I took a look at my stepson's timetable once - the amount of time spent on Buddha and what I call 'I love Thailand' lessons was unbelievable.  In essence there's nothing wrong with teaching such subjects but when it comes to them taking preference over the core subjects, in my opinion, there is - and very much so. In addition, from what I could make out, his history lessons were almost completely related to Thailand's royal dynasties.

 

The job of a school is to provide a child with the basic skills they will need for their lives and careers. Hopefully that will also lead to higher education with more of a leaning towards their vocation and self deveopment.  Through these skills, disavantaged children may be able to achieve social mobility - at least that's the model I was educated under.

 

Could it be that certain groups have little interest in people becoming socially mobile and don't want too many kids to become so educated that they start to think for themselves?

When teaching it was amazing how many times the kids didn't show for a lesson. Asking why reasons were, Gone to Temple. Not finished scouting lesson. Have to visit nurse. Not back from swimming lesson. This was the whole class.

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Posted
13 hours ago, moogradod said:

The OP has a very valid point here. And it extends far beyond World History to many aspects of life.

 

Now you always have to distinguish between Knowledge - which is just that (nowadays an Internet search could help to compensate your own) and Understanding in a broad and narrow sense. Broad because what you know may be connected to other phenomena (actually the usual case) - this needs a wider horizon and broad knowledge of the effects of that dependence. Narrow because it might be quite concentrated on a single thing (like how to repair an Aircon)

 

Thais may sometimes be very good at the narrow understanding - and it is understandable that they might be reluctant to accept advice from a foreigner and probably non-specialist in their field of expertise then. And there may be cases where indeed the circumstances in Thailand are different from what you know (because of climate or other maybe even sociological circumstances).

 

But when it comes to a broad understanding the deficiencies of the Thai Education System might play a significant role. Indeed in average they seem not to understand how things interact and are dependend on each other - like in economics (even the most simple - everybody knows the joke of "raise the price if the demand goes down to compensate for your losses). Of course this is a severe flaw of the simplest knowledge. Not because people are not inteligent, but because they were not educated. Most do not seem to have the slightest idea what a business plan is and how important this approach is.

 

It is in this area that valuable advice from a Western University Graduate in Economics  is even turned down. And I find this is disturbing. It may be their pride to admit that they do not know and feel inferior and then they may simply ignore the importance of a business or budget planning, because this implies to think about something that lies in the future and somehow their minds are programmed to think about what is now - thinking about the future later because its planning cannot be done anyway since you cannot know what will actually come. Maybe you win in the lottery ? This seems to be a very common mind setting here - a cultural thing rather than ignorance. I face quite a lot of difficulties to convey this idea of longer range thinking even to my Thai wife which I know for more than 20 years.

 

Now as far as pure knowlege is concerned the deficiencies of the schooling system become even more obvious. They do not learn very much about the basics of Mathematics, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, especially Multiple Languages and these things that everybody in Western countries learns. My stepdaughter attends a technical college with the main aim of "Marketing". I did never see a plan what she is acutally learning. She seems to understand English a bit but far from being of use in a business context. Languages are extremely important and may at times  get you a job only because of your ability to speak a rare language.

 

Then - it cannot be denied - I must mention the possiblity of a xenophobic mindset (to what extend is of course quite individual). "A foreigner telling me what is right and wrong ?". Big smile in the best case, total ignorance for what you have said with the best intentions. On top comes another cultural issue I think. Thais like it simple. Complicated although helpful approaches are not "sanuk". And thats it then. Dropped.

 

Anyway, the most important thing is that we as individuals get along well. No anger, no greed. Honesty. Based on that, slowly slowly a more sophisticated intellectual landscape and education may grow. I hope we just see the very beginning of that.

well written Sir,

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Posted
14 hours ago, moogradod said:

They do not learn very much about the basics of Mathematics, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, especially Multiple Languages and these things that everybody in Western countries learns.

I didn't know anyone in the UK who could speak a foreign language.

And French/German/Spanish in UK schools was a joke, I know I used to teach French and German.

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Posted
45 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

No Thai would ever do that!

I never said they wouldn't... but even still, it does not tend to make one interesting or attractive to me... whatever their nationality... 

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