Ignorance is bliss..or is it?

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

Is it really blissfull to be ignorant? Is it stupid to be wise? 

Ceritanya begini, a malaysian student told me the story about her fellow student, a young german girl who wanted to go to Malaysia and spend four weeks there as holiday. So this malaysian student pun akur, since this german girl insist that she wants to go 'see' Malaysia.

So after four weeks jalan-jalan Malaysia, diorang pun balik Germany and I, being my curious self, asked her how it was. This malaysian student starts telling me stories, after one another about her experience with this german girl in Malaysia. Just for info, both of them are 24 years old and are really good students la. Kira geng-geng bijak la ni.

I wont go into details, but basically, she was shocked to see how Malaysians live. Pastu dia kata, dia tak sangka Malaysia is soooo different than Germany. Ermm..okay. They are situated far away from each other kan? Was she seriously expecting Sauerkraut und Bratwurst in Malaysia?? She actually said that she was shocked that she couldn't find anything simillar to Germany in Malaysia. She said the Malaysian culture is komisch which means weird. You see, banyak orang jerman still think that budaya diorang saja yang betul, budaya lain semuanya pelik.

She told my friends mother she does not want to help out in the kitchen sebab dia geli tengok kawan I ni kopek udang. FYI orang jerman tak reti cakap berlapik, they are not trained to, they say what they think and sometimes forgets that human beings have feelings. Anyway, dia geli nak makan steamboat sebab dia kena handle raw shrimps and fish, hmm... I wonder if she has ever cooked before since she's studying Nutrition at the Uni. 

Mostly she had problems with the food, which I dont mind sbb ramai tourist macam tuh. So she ended up eating toast and marmalade saja. She told a friend she had to cover her body and leave her shoes outside as she visited an 'indian temple', which later we found out, she was actually talking about Masjid Kapitan Keling in Penang. And the list of unfortunate events followed...

Pheww!..Now, I am talking about a very inteligent girl who is good in school and uni, not someone who is not educated. In the end I just asked myself why she wanted to go to Malaysia in the first place.

Since duduk Germany ni, I have encountered many similar ingorance cases like this one. I really wonder, because some of these questions comes from people who has been in the uni and have important positions at work. 

• Do you speak japanese in your country?..erk..
  
  
• Do you speak german in your country?..wt...erk..ni buat I nak melompat macam Hagemaru nih..
  
  
• Once I used english words to describe something (that time my German was so crappy), a girl asked me what language I was using. I told her English and she says she hates English (the language not the people) and she wont learn it because she doesnt need it anyway...erk!
  
  
• Is Malaysia near Pakistan? I had to draw this girl the world map to show her where Malaysia is. She was impressed and said she can never draw the world map just by remembering...Budak skolah form 3 kat mesia pun bleh lukis punya lah..
  
  
• I know Thailand and Indonesia, but I dont know where Malaysia is....hmm..bummer..
  
  
• Mamak was at a Singaporean restaurant and he heard two women saying, "This Indian restaurant is really good". There was 'Penang curry' on the menu and the lady told her friend " Penang means Coconut". True story!

Aaaanyway, geram jugak rasa hati bila jumpa orang-orang macam ni. I guess they are like that because they feel that they dont need anybody else, since they are in their comfort zone dalam negara sendiri. They dont feel the need to understand other culture. Itu culture, tapi general knowledge kena la ada sikit kan. I wonder what they learn in schools, takkan tak belajar geography kot? Sampaikan kekadang tu India and China pun diorang tak tau kat mana. So most of them end up categorising most asian countries as 'Asian', thinking that every 'Asian' culture is the same. I always end up saying this to my german friends, "You know, Asia is so very big, how can all Asian countries have the same culture?"

We malaysian pulak, sangatlah merendah diri sebab ingat kaum-kaum diorang ni lebih pandai dan bijak dari kita. Patutnya kita bangga as Malaysians, kita ambil tahu , kita merendah diri and kita pandai jaga hati orang. We maybe not as smart, but we are never ignorant. 

  

I think I rather be stupidly wise than blissfully ignorant.