Thailand rates high in ignorance based on 40 nation survey

[Jingthing]

7th most ignorant. 

But this isn't Thai bashing. 
The USA rated as more ignorant than Thailand, with India the most ignorant (just "ahead" of China). 

Netherlands least ignorant. Not surprising.

UK just under Netherlands. Hmm. 

 

Quote

The supposedly most ignorant places in the world have been named based on a survey of people's knowledge about their own country.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-most-ignorant-countries-index-ipsos-mori-poll-survey-a7481196.html

 

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by Jingthing

[onthesoi]

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

[sean in udon]

The questions asked to create this league table of ignorance are interesting...

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3817/Perceptions-are-not-reality-what-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx

[kannot]

1 hour ago, onthesoi said:

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

Whats America?

[Jingthing]

59 minutes ago, kannot said:

Whats America?

We're talking about the nation -- the USA. Duh. 

[kowpot]

Internet warriors. Got to love them. Why is it, they never say this stuff to an American to their face?  

[Berkshire]

Pretty bizarre list.  Nevermind the USA being so high on this list, but even regionally, to say Singaporeans are more ignorant than Filipinos?  More ignorant than Vietnamese?  Whatever.  I do think the word "ignorant" is misused here.  Shouldn't it be misinformed or uninformed?  Ignorant seems to imply the deliberate act of ignoring the facts.

[mamypoko]

8 hours ago, onthesoi said:

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

You and de Tocqueville

[Emster23]

8 hours ago, onthesoi said:

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

Pretty sure we haven't met. However, proving a case by anecdote does have it's shortcomings...

[ksamuiguy]

Ignorant people are teachable and mostly intelligent, but gullible.

Stupid is just stupid, nothing can be done for them.

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, kowpot said:

Internet warriors. Got to love them. Why is it, they never say this stuff to an American to their face?  

No problem saying it to their face. Did it a couple of times when the army was in Phuket.

[CaptHaddock]

Bizarre set of questions from which to determine "ignorance."  Really the questionnaire is a measure of the discrepancy between the self-image of a country and the reality.  Such a discrepancy may say a lot about a society, but calling it just general "ignorance" hardly seems appropriate.

 

Seems like a useless study to me.

 

 

[Pdaz]

1 hour ago, kowpot said:

Internet warriors. Got to love them. Why is it, they never say this stuff to an American to their face?  

 

Cos Americans don't get sarcasm  ( Speaking as an ex-long term foreign resident )

[SymS]

If that survey aimed a looking about ignorance / knowledge levels of different countries, then it's pretty flawed in so many respects...

[Aggressive]

48 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

No problem saying it to their face. Did it a couple of times when the army was in Phuket.

 

So, on more than one occasion, you were walking around telling US Army Soldiers they are ignorant? 

 

Nobody has ever called me Ignorant to my face like that based on being American. Sounds like it could be hazardous to ones health. 

[Beats56]

10 hours ago, onthesoi said:

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

I watch a show on TV interviewing supposedly educated students at places like Harvard etc. 90% don't jack about history, geography and common knowledge. Unbelievable people are so uniformed. That said my tgf didn't know who was the president of the US. Didn't know men have landed on the moon and could not find NA as well her home country Thailand on a map! Ignorance I'd bliss so they say.

 

[FritsSikkink]

30 minutes ago, Aggressive said:

 

So, on more than one occasion, you were walking around telling US Army Soldiers they are ignorant? 

 

Nobody has ever called me Ignorant to my face like that based on being American. Sounds like it could be hazardous to ones health. 

I wasn't walking around, they walked around and came in to the bar behaving like idiots and I told them to behave. which the later did after some more arguments. I am not the type who is afraid quickly.

[Aggressive]

1 minute ago, FritsSikkink said:

I wasn't walking around, they walked around and came in to the bar behaving like idiots and I told them to behave. which the later did after some more arguments. I am not the type who is afraid quickly.

 

Usually people that say things like you are now, are the polar opposite the image they are trying to portray. 

 

So US Army soldiers, on shore leave or whatever, in phuket, came in to a bar, are were behaving like idiots? Sounds completely normal to me. Dunno where you get off being bar police telling people to behave in a place like Phuket - let alone why you think anyone, especially a group of shore-leave soldiers, would even think about listening to you. 

 

Anyway whatever you say. 

[FritsSikkink]

1 minute ago, Aggressive said:

 

Usually people that say things like you are now, are the polar opposite the image they are trying to portray. 

 

So US Army soldiers, on shore leave or whatever, in phuket, came in to a bar, are were behaving like idiots? Sounds completely normal to me. Dunno where you get off being bar police telling people to behave in a place like Phuket - let alone why you think anyone, especially a group of shore-leave soldiers, would even think about listening to you. 

 

Anyway whatever you say. 

Because my friend the bar owner asked me too. You don't know me, people tend to listen.

[Aggressive]

8 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Because my friend the bar owner asked me too. You don't know me, people tend to listen.

 

So in other words some soldiers came in to your friends phuket bar being rowdy (this is shocking why?) and you told them to settle down. 

 

They were not "Ignorant" as the OP says, and did in fact, in the end, settle down. Took the high road like gentlemen, and settled down. Does not sound stupid or ignorant to me but your take away from that is that you are 'hard'?

 

Anyway getting off topic. Im out. 

[Deepinthailand]

4 hours ago, kowpot said:

Internet warriors. Got to love them. Why is it, they never say this stuff to an American to their face?  

Oh I do have many yank friends and I'm always telling them to stop being ignorant and arrogant. As they say never a truer word spoken in jest.  Oh and yes I still have the same amount of yank friends. It's given back in my direction as well. I I keep telling them there only a few hundred years old no history yet one day they will get some?

[deathmule]

Story time on Thai ignorance

 

My ex girlfriend comes from a rich family, her father owned 3 factories.

 

She had studied in New Zealand for 4 years, spoke good English and all.

 

Once, I started asking her geography questions for the laughs. I started like "Do you know where is Thailand in the map?" Showed her the map, she knew. 

 

Then I asked her where is England. She didn't know and she showed me the Caribbean Sea  .  Then I asked her where is the USA, this one she knew. After a few "more difficult countries" (Germany,France,Brazil) which she didn't know where they are located in the map she dropped the bomb.

 

When I asked her where was Australia (She has been to Sydney and Melbourne when she was studying in Auckland)... She didn't know and then I asked her in a semi serious semi jokingly way "Do you f know where is New Zealand?" .

 

She points at Madagascar. 

Edited December 21, 2016 by deathmule

[Aforek]

Normal Thai ( meaning not going at school long time ) know only Thailand

for the rest, I don't know if it's true, an European friend of mine ( French ), living in Thailand, told me that sometimes, with other farangs, they have sort of " parties " with competition of knowledge between them, Europeans against Americans, they have questions about general culture ; result : Europeans win all the times

why they didn't do their survey with Finland, I have read that Finish children are the best in the world, so I think that Finish adult must be very cultured , too ?

[The Deerhunter]

4 hours ago, Berkshire said:

Pretty bizarre list.  Nevermind the USA being so high on this list, but even regionally, to say Singaporeans are more ignorant than Filipinos?  More ignorant than Vietnamese?  Whatever.  I do think the word "ignorant" is misused here.  Shouldn't it be misinformed or uninformed?  Ignorant seems to imply the deliberate act of ignoring the facts.

Everyone who owns a smartphone has the power in their hand to be informed about the world. It comes down to  choice.  At that point being uninformed about the world becomes wilful, ergo deliberately ignoring the most basic global information.

[The Deerhunter]

25 minutes ago, deathmule said:

Story time on Thai ignorance

 

My ex girlfriend comes from a rich family, her father owned 3 factories.

 

She had studied in New Zealand for 4 years, spoke good English and all.

 

Once, I started asking her geography questions for the laughs. I started like "Do you know where is Thailand in the map?" Showed her the map, she knew. 

 

Then I asked her where is England. She didn't know and she showed me the Caribbean Sea  .  Then I asked her where is the USA, this one she knew. After a few "more difficult countries" (Germany,France,Brazil) which she didn't know where they are located in the map she dropped the bomb.

 

When I asked her where was Australia (She has been to Sydney and Melbourne when she was studying in Auckland)... She didn't know and then I asked her in a semi serious semi jokingly way "Do you f know where is New Zealand?" .

 

She points at Madagascar. 

I think we can safely rest our case now.

[Baerboxer]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

No. Just saying what was in the article and the focus is the Thailand content. I think we all know Thailand isn't the most "woke" nation in the world, but it might surprise some people that such major nations as USA, China, and India showed even worse on at least this one survey!

 

It's about people's knowledge and perceptions versus reality. As people are fed BS through the media, internet, social media and the views of people they regularly interact with, this just shows which nations, based on the sample, appear to have most misinformation or who only have surface knowledge. Or a high portion of citizens who don't know, never have, and can't be bothered to find out.

 

If they are lacking knowledge in their own country hardly surprising they know so little about others.

[ubonjoe]

Seral off topic posts and replies to them that brought politics have been removed. A repeat ot if will result in a formal warning.

[Shot]

3 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Because my friend the bar owner asked me too. You don't know me, people tend to listen.

 

What?????

[amjamj]

14 hours ago, onthesoi said:

I find when I talk to Americans I know more about their country than they do, if I compliment their authors, artists, poets, film makers, academics etc I'm usually met with a blank look....who?

 

 

We are USA, we do not need to know anything !

 

 

[onthesoi]

7 hours ago, kowpot said:

Internet warriors. Got to love them. Why is it, they never say this stuff to an American to their face?  

 

So if Ipsos Mori was in a bar saying the US was the 5th most ignorant country in the world you be all like 'Ipsos...you better sthu before I beat you ass' ?