Education In Thailand

[sibeymai]

Thai TV3 has a game show where there are a number of students about 10/11 year old and a celebrity answering questions for money prizes.

The question "How many weeks are there in 10 years" was asked in english.

All 3 students and the adult woman celebrity could not answer the question correctly.

Was this a public confirmation of what so many believe, that the Thai education system is severly inadequate ?

Or was it just that the people did not understand the question because it was asked in english.

I'd like to believe the latter, but my wife who has a degree in computer science also answered incorrectly and her english is good.

With a baby due in a number of weeks, this really has me wondering about education in Thailand. I always thought there must be good schools and student attitude has a lot to do with successful learning, but this has made me wonder whether education in Thailand is actually as bad as rumour says.

In which case if it is so bad, apart from overseas education, what options are there in Bangkok that don't cost a fortune (ie. international schoools).

Are there any decent government schools at all ? And if there are, how does one get children into them ?

[Kruang]

I think I have the explanation for you.

I asked my wife, a high school English teacher at a Thai government school.

"How many weeks are there in 10 years?"

Answer: 480

"How did you calculate that?"

Answer: there are 4 weeks in a month

Close enough for government work, I guess ... sigh

[sibeymai]

I think I have the explanation for you.

I asked my wife, a high school English teacher at a Thai government school.

"How many weeks are there in 10 years?"

Answer: 480

"How did you calculate that?"

Answer: there are 4 weeks in a month

Close enough for government work, I guess ... sigh

That's the same answer the woman celebrity gave, and exactly the same method she used to arrive at the answer.

[Kruang]

So I gave my wife a second chance.

Wanjai ja, how many days in year? .... 365

And how many days in a week? ..... 7

So how many weeks in a year?

Answer: 58

Sorry dear, pood pid

Koh thod ka ... 55?

Edited October 12, 2007 by Kruang

[onethailand]

LOL...

This question is kind of loaded - the reasoning of the celebrity isn't nonsensical either - but even if you knew that there were 52 weeks a year, for an answer of 520 (52 weeks x 10 years), you'd still be wrong - the answer should be 521 weeks 5 days except for years ending in 00 in which case the answer would be 1 day less...

If you quickly ask someone "What's 2x2" they'll quickly answer 4. If you follow that up quickly with "What's 4x4", quite often you will not get the answer you expected...

Edited October 12, 2007 by onethailand

[Kruang]

If the question had been "How many weeks in 10 consecutive years?, onethailand would be entirely correct.

[RueFang]

That is incredible! I just asked my Thai husband who has a law degree and he answered the same thing...480 because there's 4 weeks per month!!! He said he had never been taught it and had never even thought about how many weeks in the year before (but did know how many days thank goodness!). Just amazing!

[madjbs]

If you saw Paris Hilton on TV in America would you assume that the whole school system is completly rubbish?

[sibeymai]

If you saw Paris Hilton on TV in America would you assume that the whole school system is completly rubbish?

As far as a "random" sample goes, so far we have 7 incorrect answers out of 7 attempts comprised of:

- 3 adult university educated Thais

- 1 adult who may or may not have a university degree

- 3 10-11 year olds who are considered bright enough to be on a TV quiz show

I'm no statistician, but the results so far are surprising and illuminating, even if not conclusive or wholly scientific.

[Khun Jean]

Same here. 5 people in the house all answer 480.

It is just easy. (translate lazy).

No wonder the chinese have a blast. No 13th month here.

BTW the chinese are also vulnerable.

1 of the 5 i asked is chinese.

3 adults all working in the office and do daily accounting. 2 children 12 and 13 years old.

So now 12 incorrect out of 12 attempts.

Edited October 12, 2007 by Khun Jean

[madjbs]

You need to start asking farangs as well if its to be a fair test.

[madjbs]

Also its worth pointing out that I have found most Thai students who make it to uni are far better at maths than their fellow farang students. I think the problem here is that lots of people simply forget there is 52 weeks in a year and have problems working out 365/7 in their heads.

[sibeymai]

At least we know that respondents (so far) have no problem multiplying 4 by 12.

[Kruang]

To be fair to the Thais, the Gregorian-style solar calendar is a fairly recent innovation here, introduced by King Rama V in 1888. The lunar calendar is still widely used for determining the Buddhist holy days. If you ask how many days in a year in the lunar calendar, the answer may be 354, 355 or 384 days. Lunar months don't really divide into weeks at all, but rather into periods of the waxing and waning moon.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Very interesting stuff here I just tested my thai boyfriend (almost 30 years old, bachelor's degree). His answer came as if shot by a cannon:

"Wait there's 52 weeks in a year so should be 520 weeks".

Maybe gays are just more intelligent......

Thanh

[lazeeboy]

Thai TV3 has a game show where there are a number of students about 10/11 year old and a celebrity answering questions for money prizes.

The question "How many weeks are there in 10 years" was asked in english.

All 3 students and the adult woman celebrity could not answer the question correctly.

Was this a public confirmation of what so many believe, that the Thai education system is severly inadequate ?

Or was it just that the people did not understand the question because it was asked in english.

I'd like to believe the latter, but my wife who has a degree in computer science also answered incorrectly and her english is good.

With a baby due in a number of weeks, this really has me wondering about education in Thailand. I always thought there must be good schools and student attitude has a lot to do with successful learning, but this has made me wonder whether education in Thailand is actually as bad as rumour says.

In which case if it is so bad, apart from overseas education, what options are there in Bangkok that don't cost a fortune (ie. international schoools).

Are there any decent government schools at all ? And if there are, how does one get children into them ?

the invention of the calculator didnt help matters ,ask any kid around the world to deduct 26 from 501 ,err.

[sibeymai]

Best maths I've seen in LOS is by BGs scoring darts games. No calculators needed.

[elkangorito]

Hi

Very interesting stuff here I just tested my thai boyfriend (almost 30 years old, bachelor's degree). His answer came as if shot by a cannon:

"Wait there's 52 weeks in a year so should be 520 weeks".

Maybe gays are just more intelligent......

Thanh

I fully concur with this .

Anyway, I have been asking/teaching my students about this very thing in my college & they all come up with "48 weeks in a year"...with no exceptions!

When I explain to them that each month is not exactly 4 weeks (28 days), they then begin to think. And as other posters have done, I then say that there are 365 days in a "normal" year (not leap year). After I go through the "exact" knowns of;

1] 1 week = 7 days,

2] 365 days = 1 "normal" year,

the pennies begin to drop.

The lesson ends when I tell them that they must work with exact figures, that is, 7 days = 1 week (no exceptions) & 365 days = 1 year (leap years excepted). Mathematics takes care of the rest.

[fletchsmile]

LOL...

This question is kind of loaded - the reasoning of the celebrity isn't nonsensical either - but even if you knew that there were 52 weeks a year, for an answer of 520 (52 weeks x 10 years), you'd still be wrong - the answer should be 521 weeks 5 days except for years ending in 00 in which case the answer would be 1 day less...

If you quickly ask someone "What's 2x2" they'll quickly answer 4. If you follow that up quickly with "What's 4x4", quite often you will not get the answer you expected...

Could also be one day more

10 x 365 = 3650. That's 521 weeks 3 days. The question is then how many extra days are there for leap years in the 10 years. It could be 2 or 3 extra. If yrs 1,5,9 are leap years you'd get 3 extra, so 521 w 6 days. I'd still say 521 weeks tho'.

[Pepe']

Thai TV3 has a game show where there are a number of students about 10/11 year old and a celebrity answering questions for money prizes.

The question "How many weeks are there in 10 years" was asked in english.

All 3 students and the adult woman celebrity could not answer the question correctly.

Was this a public confirmation of what so many believe, that the Thai education system is severly inadequate ?

Or was it just that the people did not understand the question because it was asked in english.

I'd like to believe the latter, but my wife who has a degree in computer science also answered incorrectly and her english is good.

With a baby due in a number of weeks, this really has me wondering about education in Thailand. I always thought there must be good schools and student attitude has a lot to do with successful learning, but this has made me wonder whether education in Thailand is actually as bad as rumour says.

In which case if it is so bad, apart from overseas education, what options are there in Bangkok that don't cost a fortune (ie. international schoools).

Are there any decent government schools at all ? And if there are, how does one get children into them ?

------------------------------

There are 520 except when leap year comes than there's one more...

[onethailand]

Could also be one day more

10 x 365 = 3650. That's 521 weeks 3 days. The question is then how many extra days are there for leap years in the 10 years. It could be 2 or 3 extra. If yrs 1,5,9 are leap years you'd get 3 extra, so 521 w 6 days. I'd still say 521 weeks tho'.

Aaaaahhhh! You got me...

I'd say these little mental errors come from how we are taught short methods of calculation... as you can see I made the same type of mistake!

[sibeymai]

The answer to the question "how many weeks are there in 10 years" has two answers ranging from 520 weeks if each of the 10 years being counted has 365 days, up to 521 weeks if at least 7 of the years being counted have 366 days.

On probability, considering that years with 365 days outnumber years with 366 days at a ratio of 3:1 the most proabable and therefore the most correct answer is 520.

Even if the years counted are consecutive the answer is still 520 weeks (in whole numbers).

[Khun Jean]

Depends on what kind of year you calculate in.

It seems Thais use the Fiscal year which is normally 12 months and in practice it is easy to assume that 1 month has 4 weeks.

Again easy and practical which is a way of live for many Thais.

For people like me, a year is 365.2425 days long. Every 4 year you need a leap year except on every century year not divisable by 400 (Gregorian calendar).

So it depend on when the question is asked.

If it is asked today according to my prefered calendar it is 365.2425 * 10 / 7 = 521.775 weeks.

Then you have the following types of years:

Gregorian, Julian, Persian, maybe a Tropical year is appropiate in this area, if the moon is your measure you can calculate in Full moon cycles which is about 411.7 days and there are many more but i not remember them at the moment.

The question would normally be answered with 520 which is wrong in all of the calendars. 521 would be right in a few.

[Khun Jean]

On probability, considering that years with 365 days outnumber years with 366 days at a ratio of 3:1 the most proabable and therefore the most correct answer is 520.

Even if the years counted are consecutive the answer is still 520 weeks (in whole numbers).

Ahum,

If you take a year 365 and divide it by 7 then you have 52.14 weeks.

the 0.14 times 10 is enough for at least 1.4 weeks.

So even with the shortest year times 10 it is 521 whole weeks.

[sibeymai]

The answer to the question "how many weeks are there in 10 years" has two answers ranging from 520 weeks if each of the 10 years being counted has 365 days, up to 521 weeks if at least 7 of the years being counted have 366 days.

On probability, considering that years with 365 days outnumber years with 366 days at a ratio of 3:1 the most proabable and therefore the most correct answer is 520.

Even if the years counted are consecutive the answer is still 520 weeks (in whole numbers).

Sorry, I must make a correction: answers should be either 521 or 522 weeks.

[onethailand]

My Thai g/f usually watches in awe as I answer rapid consecutive questions on The Weakest Link.

No great feat I know, but it impresses her nevertheless.

She also got the answer completely wrong, so I simplified the question to how many weeks in a normal calender year. She gave the answer 48 on the logic that each month has 4 weeks.

Makes you wonder if they're actually taught this in school... maybe can't fault the logic but can certainly fault the common Thai habit of doing everything "pra marn" (approximately)...

[elkangorito]

Hi

Very interesting stuff here I just tested my thai boyfriend (almost 30 years old, bachelor's degree). His answer came as if shot by a cannon:

"Wait there's 52 weeks in a year so should be 520 weeks".

Maybe gays are just more intelligent......

Thanh

I fully concur with this .

Anyway, I have been asking/teaching my students about this very thing in my college & they all come up with "48 weeks in a year"...with no exceptions!

When I explain to them that each month is not exactly 4 weeks (28 days), they then begin to think. And as other posters have done, I then say that there are 365 days in a "normal" year (not leap year). After I go through the "exact" knowns of;

1] 1 week = 7 days,

2] 365 days = 1 "normal" year,

the pennies begin to drop.

The lesson ends when I tell them that they must work with exact figures, that is, 7 days = 1 week (no exceptions) & 365 days = 1 year (leap years excepted). Mathematics takes care of the rest.

Did everyone overlook the real information?

1] Did the "gameshow host" clearly explain what was required with regard to the answer?

2] Is the answer expected to be mathematically calculated or otherwise?

Look, it's very simple!

The question was, "How many weeks are there in 10 years", asked in english.

There are 3 answers to this question.

Mathematical answer.

In any 10 year period, there will be 2 leap years. Therefore, there are 8 years of 365 days each & 2 years of 366 days each. 8 years at 365 days each per year = 2920 days & 2 years at 366 days each per year = 732 days.

732+2920=3652 days in a 10 year period.

3652 divided by 7=521.7 weeks, round off to 522 weeks.

The logical answer.

1 year=365 days.

1 week=7 days.

365 divided by 7=52.14

52.14 x 10= 521.4 weeks. Round off to 521 weeks.

The most normal & sensible answer.

1 year=365 days.

1 week=7 days.

365 divided by 7=52 weeks (sensibly rounded off).

Therefore, 10 years has 520 weeks.

Does this affect global warming calculations?

Edited October 12, 2007 by elkangorito

[onethailand]

Just for a laugh, I asked my staff in the office this question.

My personal assistant, who was educated in Australia, answered 48 weeks.

My admin staff (my personal assistant's assistant), who was educated in Thailand, said "Hmm... 365 days in a year, 7 days in a week...", got out her calculator, and said "pra marn 52 sapda" (about 52 weeks).

Go figure...

[naka]

Just for a laugh, I asked my staff in the office this question.

My personal assistant, who was educated in Australia, answered 48 weeks.

My admin staff (my personal assistant's assistant), who was educated in Thailand, said "Hmm... 365 days in a year, 7 days in a week...", got out her calculator, and said "pra marn 52 sapda" (about 52 weeks).

Go figure...

It's a bit sad that someone needs to use a calculator to figure out how many weeks in a year

Naka.

[naka]

Also its worth pointing out that I have found most Thai students who make it to uni are far better at maths than their fellow farang students. I think the problem here is that lots of people simply forget there is 52 weeks in a year and have problems working out 365/7 in their heads.

Ah! ... This explains Thailand's excelence in Science and Engineering.

People simply forget there are 52 weeks in a year ... good golly gosh !

Naka.