Most uninformed people

[aronnax]

Indeed, there are probably 1 billion Indians who would gawp at me for not knowing one of there famous Bollywood actors

Indeed.
The problem is that the world we live in is very American-Western Euro Centric, even subconsciously. We live in a world where English is the most widespread language, where we wear Western Business dress and American Jeans, where fries and steak is just called 'food', where everything else is a copy of something American-Western Euro.
e.g. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, Bangkok is the Venice of the East, Shanghai is China's New York but never the other way round.

I would consider myself a relatively well-informed person.
And while I can tell you who the President/Prime Minister/Chancellor of France, Germany, USA, UK and Italy, I cannot remember who is charge of Iraq, who makes the rules in Vietnam, who is top dog in Mexico and before the Arab Spring, I could not tell you who was the autocrat of Egypt either.

I know Mozart but not <googles quickly> Faz&#305;l Say
I know all 50 US states but not more than a couple of Turkish Provinces (and most of them are because of EUIII and Victoria II)
I bet you all know Daniel Radcliffe but few of you know the Legendary Donnie Yen.

We live in a world where we have a bias towards America-Western Europe. And as such, we value the Western-origin knowledge with more weight. Why should the world be expected to know AWE figures but not to know the Four Heavenly Kings of Cantonese Pop?

 

[GoodGame]

It still just amazes me to hear this stuff. I could see if you were some villager I guess but not someone living in the modern world.

Evidence that everyone is a village idiot in some respects.

I think that on one hand you might have a basic non-cosmopolitan group that lacks knowledge of other cultures, and on the other hand you have a semi-cosmopolitan group who believes the whole world is some kind of monoculture, thanks to mass media influence plus ignorance. But to be honest, I couldn't name one Turkish pop music act (and I don't feel guilty about it).

 

[NovaKart]

As others have pointed out, you don't have to travel to Eastern Turkey to find examples. Just going to a local mall anyplace in the US would reveal plenty of evidence.

And I think there is just one primary reason for it: lack of a proper education. It seems like a herculean task just to get most people to the level of basic literacy these days, much less getting them to the point where they are knowledgeable enough to be able to properly vote in a representative democracy.

Yeah I even mentioned that myself in my original post.

Most people I have met in Turkey so far have heard of Mozart and Christopher Columbus so I still think it's pretty strange. I think he's someone who comes from a very provincial background because a few weeks ago he was confused about a question and I think he believed that New York was in Europe but that could just be a misunderstanding.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

This is sad, Its not where its who. Most people just dont care about anything they cant "eat or drink". Some of my friends think Nagasaki and Hiroshima are in Vietnam, that is a bombed them. A Croatian video they asked people whats an Anus and most people said its some plumbing or AC or the pipes in Dioclecians palace, one guy said its 1x1 meters. The video

Link to video.

 

[Cutlass]

I don't think this is really out of the ordinary. These people have modest education, modest access to the outside world, and you are asking them questions outside of their cultural sphere. This is not what they grew up surrounded with. So they don't know it.

 

[velosepappe]

I had to explain to my mother once that the earth revolves around the sun.

 

[The_J]

Indeed, there are probably 1 billion Indians who would gawp at me for not knowing one of there famous Bollywood actors

I guess you could have heard about Sharuk Khan, but else...

If someone is from the other end of the world...you can expect some differences.


Was more shocking when during my military ersatz service i was looking through the library of the youth hostel with one of my coworkers, said "Oh, we have 'In 80 days around the world here'", and the answer was "What is it about?" .

 

[illram]

I was helping out this guy with his English studies, he's a 17 year old Turkish guy, and there were all these questions like - Was Christopher Columbus an explorer, was Mozart a composer. He had never heard of either one of them. I know it's not just a pronunciation issue either because even when I described who they were he didn't know. I'm in Eastern Turkey now in a real provincial city so this isn't typical all over Turkey, most people in Western Turkey know more about the world. In this English book there's also references to the Beatles and I was surprised that no one here knew who they were either. This same guy was confused when I asked him about George Bush and then said " Oh Bush" when I said he was the American president.

I guess it does sound a bit like I'm expecting people in Turkey to know about Western culture but it surprises me because I've found most Turks to be familiar with at least the very well known people in Western culture but here in this part of Turkey, they aren't as much.

As far as people back in America, I do sometimes come across people who when they hear I was working in Turkey, they think it's like Saudi Arabia and you can't drink alcohol and women have to veil. Once I saw a women who was being interviewed about this small community's reaction to a Buddhist monastery being built there and she said she had never heard of Buddhism and thought it was some kind of cult.

It still just amazes me to hear this stuff. I could see if you were some villager I guess but not someone living in the modern world.

I have some Turkish relatives and have visited Turkey a few times. They are from Istanbul and Ankara and think of the East as a sort of backwater. My brief visit there made me think the East was much, much poorer than the West. Maybe this has something to do with it? I.e. less educated, more cut off from the Western world, more localized and concerned with the family. You will probably find variations on this theme everywhere. Even in the US there are some very backwards, cut off and remote parts of the country where the people are simply tuned out from what is going on in the world.

 

[Narz]

I'm sure this is pretty well-known by now, but what the heck:


Link to video.

Shoot, how many sides does a triangle have? My daughter knew that one at age two (she evens knows what an octagon is, thanks to me pointing out that are the Stop signs are octagons, I'm so proud ).

I'm not really afraid to discuss anything & everything therefore my ignorance gets brought to the light pretty quickly & I learn. It's the only way to be.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I had a middle school history teacher who thought Israel was in Africa. My Jewish classmates were extremely offended. She also was extremely wrong on geography and history for a lot of other things, but I seriously don't remember most of them.

Anyhow, wasn't there some study done a few years ago where apparently a noticeable percentage of American adults can't even locate places like Iraq or America itself on a world map? Some people I've talked to about it (informed people, I guess) thought I was BSing them, but I came across it several places but I don't remember who did the study and how reliable it was. Still, some people are definitely very geographically ignorant, I can tell you that much.

 

[ZeletDude]

Some kids I know think Iraq is in North Dakota and think that Nazi Germany fought in WW1.. lol.. :\

 

[BasketCase]

One shouldn't be surprised any more; there's far too much info in the world to expect every single person to know even a significant portion of it. As Dr. Cox said: "brain space--FEEEEOOOOooooooo"

 

[Mango Elephant]

As far as people back in America, I do sometimes come across people who when they hear I was working in Turkey, they think it's like Saudi Arabia and you can't drink alcohol and women have to veil. Once I saw a women who was being interviewed about this small community's reaction to a Buddhist monastery being built there and she said she had never heard of Buddhism and thought it was some kind of cult.

That's funny. I wonder why they interview stupid people like that. Could offend some people.

 

[Tee Kay]

I don't worry as much about uninformed people as I do about misinformed people.

You can at least try to teach uninformed people. It's harder to explain things to misinformed people since they tend to be too entrenched in their beliefs.

 

[_random_]

A friend of mine on Facebook will occasionally post about his misadventures as a college tutor. One of his students didn't know what the Holocaust was. Another didn't know what happened on 9/11. And these are the ones that actually go to college.

 

[Agent Cooper]

I don't worry as much about uninformed people as I do about misinformed people.

You can at least try to teach uninformed people. It's harder to explain things to misinformed people since they tend to be too entrenched in their beliefs.

True - as Mark Twain so elequently put it:

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”

 

[warpus]

I was helping out this guy with his English studies, he's a 17 year old Turkish guy, and there were all these questions like - Was Christopher Columbus an explorer, was Mozart a composer. He had never heard of either one of them.

That's nothing, I have friends who think that Columbus went out to prove that the Earth is round.

 

[aelf]

I knew a person who does research for documentaries (among them documentaries about history) and one day she expressed surprise to have found out that the US was British colony and had won its independence. I was like, "Have you never heard of the American War of Independence?", and she answered in the negative. Very nice lady, but I really wondered why she's working in that role and about the quality of documentaries. I already knew they mostly sucked, but I didn't know they use people with no knowledge of the subject matter to do the research.

 

[Agent Cooper]

The fact that English is the official language of the US is a pretty good clue as well...

Oh well, I was surprised to learn not long ago, that some US states are technically also still Commenwealth states to this day.

 

[Rulle_Kebab]

The discussion was just what examples of shocking ignorance have you noticed before .

Did you ever read Jerusalem Post?