Thai girl I met thinks all farangs are from Europe.

[mihalis]

I doubt she was educated, as even the uneducated have a clue....

[mihalis]

A lot of Americans also have no clue where Australia is, i saw a news reporter, asking, in a few cities of USA, non had a clue,,

[monkey4u]

The "bird" was right. The first Australians came from British prisons, Americans from Europe, too. Did you not learn that at school?

WRONG

The first Australians were there long before us convicts arrived

About 50,000 years before

[vogie]

A lot of Americans also have no clue where Australia is, i saw a news reporter, asking, in a few cities of USA, non had a clue,,

I knew a guy in England who genuinely believed that if a lift cable snapped and the pod was descending at a rate of knots, that you had a 50 50 chance of survival if you jumped up and down.

[luke000]

The "bird" was right. The first Australians came from British prisons, Americans from Europe, too. Did you not learn that at school?

WRONG

The first Australians were there long before us convicts arrived

About 50,000 years before

Australia only came into being a few hundred years ago, so, people from before that wouldnt have been Australians

[Old Croc]

Dude, The Brit's sent all their jail birds to Australia; long time ago. You are British roots. The same girl you met knows about the prisoners

being sent to Australia. She said that she will tell all the Thai Friendly girls, to stay away from the bad Aussie men.

Unless they want to learn how to bake a cake with a file in it We all came from Monkeys !

I don't think you're far removed.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

she is wrong ... only the best farangs are from Europe

Or is it the arrogant ones ? 555

Edited February 8, 2016 by SOUTHERNSTAR

[Dogbreath]

Geography is no longer taught in schools to any degree of proficiency. Americans and Europeans are equally clueless. I suppose the meaniing of farang is somewhat different from region to region in LOS depending on where the majority of visitors come from. In Cha_Am most Thais think farangs are Scandinavian.

[zig]

She is right, of course. The word "farang" is just a shorter version of "farangset", i.e. French people...

[KhaoNiaw]

She is right, of course. The word "farang" is just a shorter version of "farangset", i.e. French people...

No it isn't. (Discussed many times, lots of information to be found on the web etc. etc.)

[scorecard]

And there are Americans, folks form European countries and from Australia, etc., who think Thailand and Taiwan is the same country!

[cyberfarang]

Where I`m from in England, Australians and Australia are almost at the opposite end of the world and most Brits I know are grateful for that.

[Emster23]

For many Thais, geography lesson consisted of "Thailand" and "Everywhere else" (that is inferior). English that went as convicts to Australia or America were often what we would call petty criminals now. Stealing a coat was a hanging offense.... hang or go abroad? Other American colonies were settled by religious nuts that Europe didn't want to put up with. US today shows that legacy still going strong. Oh, many Thai also think US is part of Europe. Some of those European countries not big enough to swing a cat in if don't have proper visas (kidding).

I bet the Australians are at least as pleased about distance twixt them and "mother country" as the English

Edited February 8, 2016 by Emster23

[smotherb]

Are you sure she was Thai? Sounds like a typical American;)

Yeah, those dumb Americans; just wonder how they became the greatest economic, military, political, scientific, entertainment, and living standard nation on earth.

[soc]

The "bird" was right. The first Australians came from British prisons, Americans from Europe, too. Did you not learn that at school?

Australia was only founded because the Americans got their independence & refused to take any more British criminals.

Australia took them from 1788 until about 1860, 72 years.

British criminals were sent to America from about 1650 until 1780, so thats at least 130 years.

And you have to get it in perspective, although there were violent criminals transported, you could get a 14 year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread(maybe hungry?)& 14 years to Australia meant that you were unlikely to ever return.

Both countries, of course took free settlers also.

l always have a little smile when l realise that most Americans do not know their own history.

Here endeth the lesson.

[giddyup]

Are you sure she was Thai? Sounds like a typical American;)

Yeah, those dumb Americans; just wonder how they became the greatest economic, military, political, scientific, entertainment, and living standard nation on earth.

Yes, fond memories of what once was.

[MaeJoMTB]

Similar school of thought being all white people speak English.

I would estimate 95% of Thais believe that.

Edited February 8, 2016 by MaeJoMTB

[TeaMonkey]

I was on a ferry from England to France and I overheard some Americans asking if this was a lake they were crossing over.

[Suradit69]

Took mrs to NZ she wanted to go. At the visa place in Bkk I asked her to point it out on the map on the wall- no idea at all. At least the girl in the OP had heard of Europe

They can never hope to catch up to farangs in worldly knowledge

UP to a third of Brits holidaying abroad have no idea where on a map they are going.

More than half of those flying to Cyprus — 53 per cent — had no clue where in Europe their destination was, a new poll revealed. The most common guess was mainland Greece.

Almost half of those heading for the sunshine in Turkey — 49 per cent — turned out to be just as confused.

They typically pointed to Ukraine on a map — more than 300 miles north across the Black Sea.

Baffled tourists picked out France on the map most often — even if they were headed for Germany, Greece, Portugal or Spain.

But 14 per cent of those actually travelling to France instead picked out nearby Belgium on the map.

Nearly a quarter of those off to Germany could not find it — and 29 per cent misplaced Greece.

Likewise, 31 per cent could not pinpoint Portugal and 23 per cent failed to find Spain.

Even the location of neighbouring Ireland left 24 per cent of travellers stumped. They pointed to Spain — or even to BRITAIN itself.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/5090500/third-of-brits-fail-holiday-destination-map-test.html

[tigermonkey]

A couple of years ago, we had a fresh new face in our little local post office. She was a brand new graduate from a university in Bangkok . I had two letters for Canada. She took them and weighed them, and put the postage stickers on them. Then she wrote USA underneath Canada. I crossed out the USA, but she insisted Canada was a state of USA. She was writing USA again, when I snatched the letters, paid her and departed.

I drove the half hour to the next post office, and sent the letters. She still works there, but mow she sits at a desk in the back - she doesn't seem to have any work - Inactive ?

Thailand's quality of education is not a matter of amusement.

Edited February 8, 2016 by tigermonkey

[lostinisaan]

Dude, The Brit's sent all their jail birds to Australia; long time ago. You are British roots. The same girl you met knows about the prisoners

being sent to Australia. She said that she will tell all the Thai Friendly girls, to stay away from the bad Aussie men.

Unless they want to learn how to bake a cake with a file in it We all came from Monkeys !

You're wrong. I came from my mom. And she wasn't a monkey.

[sawadee1947]

well, farangs are originally from France (that's teh name cimes from) as everybody knows. Meaning at the end all caucasians. But not all foreigners. Otherwise Chinese would be called farangs.

So the girl was not too wrong as Australians got their roots in Europe

[bazza40]

The "bird" was right. The first Australians came from British prisons, Americans from Europe, too. Did you not learn that at school?

Actually, the first Australians ( Kooris ) came across from South East Asia to Australia some 40,000 years ago.

[waza46]

Are you sure she was Thai? Sounds like a typical American;)

Yeah, those dumb Americans; just wonder how they became the greatest economic, military, political, scientific, entertainment, and living standard nation on earth.

Yes, fond memories of what once was.

Hit a nerve there what!

[Saan]

The "bird" was right. The first Australians came from British prisons, Americans from Europe, too. Did you not learn that at school?

I thought the first Australians had been there for about 60,000 years before the other mobbed arrived.

I must be confused - to much SangSom.

[Suradit69]

Similar school of thought being all white people speak English.

I would estimate 95% of Thais believe that.

The vast majority of farang in Thailand do seem to speak English. It may not be their home language and they may not be terribly fluent, but they speak it.

We have a lot of Germans in our building and, of course, they converse amongst themselves in German, but from my experience they all can hold their own in English, even at annual condo meetings. The same applies to the Scandinavians, French, et al and to a lesser extent the Russians. It would be difficult to survive in Thailand if one wasn't fluent in Thai and spoke no English.

And I've heard some Thai "companions" managing to speak German, Italian and French. Maybe some villagers think English is THE only farang language based on their experiences, but in the cities I'm pretty sure most Thai fully understand that languages other than English are used by foreigners.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Suradit69

[Jing Joe]

Trivia for today;-

From the 1956 movie "The King and I" (maybe was not allowed into Siam way back then), the son of the then King was quite indignant when the map of the world was shown by their new teacher Anna from England.

He couldn't believe Siam was so small.

'Twas only from a make-believe story anyway called; "Anna and the King".

[mankondang]

A bird i met from Thaifriendly.com honestly thought all farangs were from Europe and when I explained when I was from Australia and had to show her on google maps, she had no idea where Thailand,Europe or Australia was on the map.

This was an educated girl working for a company too.

G'Day mate, Many people, including Americans, have the same impression that Australia is in Europe. Maybe because they confuse it with Austria, maybe because they have not been fought geography. No big deal.

[Roomuck]

I would bet that most Aussie sheias wouldn't be able to point out Thailand on a map either. Or Taiwan, Columbia, Ethiopia, Korea, Argentina or Turkey or Bangladesh. Aussies think they are are so important but all the previously mentioned countries have populations way bigger than Australia's.

Can the OP point out most of the worlds 200 or so countries on a map? Doubt it.

Not the sharpest tools in the shed those white Aussies ( who originate from Europe, just as Asians are from Asia.) But considering they descend from prostitutes and thieves it is understandable. Have a look at the history of the Lady Juliana.

[giddyup]

Are you sure she was Thai? Sounds like a typical American;)

Yeah, those dumb Americans; just wonder how they became the greatest economic, military, political, scientific, entertainment, and living standard nation on earth.

Yes, fond memories of what once was.

Hit a nerve there what!

Not with me, I'm Aussie.