Maciamo
先輩
- 17 Jul 2002
- 3,423
- 261
- 122
I know that knowledge of history is not comparable in Europe, where people in most countries must learn history for 6 years of more, and in Japan, where people only have 3 years of compulsory history, then choose between Japanese history, world history or geography. But there are basic things which people should know without being taught about it in highschool, some things that an average 8-year old Europe instinctively know. These are the things that shock me about the Japanese. If they haven't learnt it at school, they will almost never know it from other sources (parents, friends, books, documentaries, movies, Internet, etc.). Even when they have learnt it, most of them only vaguely remember or have completely forgotten.
Here are examples of "extreme ignorance" about world history that I have noticed among educated Japanese people (most were university graduates, not primary school drop-outs) :
- while talking about the movie "Alexander", I aksed when the story took place, approximately. The first guess I got was "300 years ago". I made a strange face, to which she corrected "200 years ago ?". I would have been happy with 2000 or 2500 years ago, as I knew I could not expect her (a Japanese !) to give me a more accurate approximation, like 2300 years ago.
- Napoleon was a medieval knight
- The Vikings lived in the 18th century, at the time of the French revolution
- The Vikings were hunters because they had axes (!)
- The Japanese were farmers before the Europeans (one of the most aberrant so far, when we know that Europe developed agriculture up to 9000 years before Japan; yet I have been told this by about 20 Japanese people, including one with a PhD, a few with a Masters and most of the other with a bachelor's degree).
- European colonialism in Asia was as violent and bloody as the Japanese one between 1895 and 1945 (of course the Japanese still learn at school that Japan "liberated" China and South-East Asia from Western occupation, and do not learn about their own massacres, rapes, plundering, etc.)
- Europe only built great buildings because it got rich from colonisation (this was actually posted by one of our Japanese member here, who was obviously ignorant of Ancient and Medieval Europe, and the great constructions of the Greeks, Romans as well as the great cathedral and castles of the middle ages).
This thread is dedicated to examples you have heard of complete absurdities about history uttered by Japanese people.
Enjoy yourself !
Posting rules for this thread : all posts that do not give examples of Japanese ignorance of world history will be considered as offtopic and deleted.
Here are examples of "extreme ignorance" about world history that I have noticed among educated Japanese people (most were university graduates, not primary school drop-outs) :
- while talking about the movie "Alexander", I aksed when the story took place, approximately. The first guess I got was "300 years ago". I made a strange face, to which she corrected "200 years ago ?". I would have been happy with 2000 or 2500 years ago, as I knew I could not expect her (a Japanese !) to give me a more accurate approximation, like 2300 years ago.
- Napoleon was a medieval knight
- The Vikings lived in the 18th century, at the time of the French revolution
- The Vikings were hunters because they had axes (!)
- The Japanese were farmers before the Europeans (one of the most aberrant so far, when we know that Europe developed agriculture up to 9000 years before Japan; yet I have been told this by about 20 Japanese people, including one with a PhD, a few with a Masters and most of the other with a bachelor's degree).
- European colonialism in Asia was as violent and bloody as the Japanese one between 1895 and 1945 (of course the Japanese still learn at school that Japan "liberated" China and South-East Asia from Western occupation, and do not learn about their own massacres, rapes, plundering, etc.)
- Europe only built great buildings because it got rich from colonisation (this was actually posted by one of our Japanese member here, who was obviously ignorant of Ancient and Medieval Europe, and the great constructions of the Greeks, Romans as well as the great cathedral and castles of the middle ages).
This thread is dedicated to examples you have heard of complete absurdities about history uttered by Japanese people.
Enjoy yourself !
Posting rules for this thread : all posts that do not give examples of Japanese ignorance of world history will be considered as offtopic and deleted.
Last edited: