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bannie
Raventhedark wrote: Everyone I know considers Taiwan/Singapore to be Chinese. I consider them to be their own countries. I just don't like referring to Taiwan as part of China or Singapore. Obviously they are not part of China.

If you were to ask anyone where I live if the US/UK/Australia were all English countries most people would say yes. lol

I am studying Japanese/Chinese atm

Ni hao ma :D


They are being ignorant.

Glad ur not.
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bannie
Szasha wrote: Yep. Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese government.



It's a SAR from China which means that they have a "high autonomy" (well, depends on your definition, I guess). :p


No Taiwan is not.
I would slap you if I didnt like you.


And yes, Hong Kong, unfortunately is governed by China.
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Sleepninja MOD
Hmmm That doesn't mean they are being ignorant, that just means they don't know. If they lack the willingness to learn, then they are ignorant. I wouldn't blame somebody for not knowing something, there are lots of facts that lots of people do not know. That doesn't equal ignorance. So it would be better to inform someone rather than say they are ignorant. I'm sure there are thing that you yourself don't have knowledge of, but you wouldn't want somebody to call you ignorant.
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Crazy4You
Sleepninja wrote: Hmmm That doesn't mean they are being ignorant, that just means they don't know. If they lack the willingness to learn, then they are ignorant. I wouldn't blame somebody for not knowing something, there are lots of facts that lots of people do not know. That doesn't equal ignorance. So it would be better to inform someone rather than say they are ignorant. I'm sure there are thing that you yourself don't have knowledge of, but you wouldn't want somebody to call you ignorant.


That's true. If you grew up believing something to be one way because it was taught to you like that then you're not really being ignorant but you're just lacking the knowledge without knowing any better. Some people don't bother to learn more than on their own
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Sleepninja MOD
Crazy4You wrote: That's true. If you grew up believing something to be one way because it was taught to you like that then you're not really being ignorant but you're just lacking the knowledge without knowing any better. Some people don't bother to learn more than on their own


Agreed! You also have to factor in the amount of misinformation that is passed around which can confuse those that are trying to lear. As well as the fact that people have lives and their own problems that take priority over furthering their education. As well as the public school education that is received. If they live on the other side of the world, their education will be limited to the info that is more of a requirement and more relevant to their personal needs. If you live in the U.S., for example, info like which countries are or are not under the rule of China take a lesser priority to information dealing with their own government or the governments in their immediate vicinity. :)
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bannie
Sleepninja wrote: Hmmm That doesn't mean they are being ignorant, that just means they don't know. If they lack the willingness to learn, then they are ignorant. I wouldn't blame somebody for not knowing something, there are lots of facts that lots of people do not know. That doesn't equal ignorance. So it would be better to inform someone rather than say they are ignorant. I'm sure there are thing that you yourself don't have knowledge of, but you wouldn't want somebody to call you ignorant.



Nope.

When you make a statement as blatant as suggesting a country belongs to another country, that is ignorance.

Or maybe the earth is flat and the sun revolves around the earth?
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bannie
Crazy4You wrote: That's true. If you grew up believing something to be one way because it was taught to you like that then you're not really being ignorant but you're just lacking the knowledge without knowing any better. Some people don't bother to learn more than on their own



Someone who believes in everything they are taught instead of critiquing their sources is exactly what it is... ignorant.

The OP also clearly mentions that this was a topic of discussion with his peers, and despite their differing facts, his peers do not seem to have taken to either
1) furthering their understanding (or lack of) of the topic
2) accepting the OP's facts
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bannie
Sleepninja wrote: Agreed! You also have to factor in the amount of misinformation that is passed around which can confuse those that are trying to lear. As well as the fact that people have lives and their own problems that take priority over furthering their education. As well as the public school education that is received. If they live on the other side of the world, their education will be limited to the info that is more of a requirement and more relevant to their personal needs. If you live in the U.S., for example, info like which countries are or are not under the rule of China take a lesser priority to information dealing with their own government or the governments in their immediate vicinity. :)



Like I mentioned above, the lack of education, or the desire to be educated, even when provided with information, is ignorance.
People should stop blaming their lack of time, education, or resources for their lack of knowledge.

Perhaps the best solution for this is for the OP to educate his peers.
However, this will not be easy, as you have mentioned in your post, the prevalence of misinformation and lack of adequate education is a pervasive problem in the US. (Although OP might not be from US)
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bannie
But at least people on MDL will know better now :)
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Sleepninja MOD
bannie wrote: Like I mentioned above, the lack of education, or the desire to be educated, even when provided with information, is ignorance.
People should stop blaming their lack of time, education, or resources for their lack of knowledge.

Perhaps the best solution for this is for the OP to educate his peers.
However, this will not be easy, as you have mentioned in your post, the prevalence of misinformation and lack of adequate education is a pervasive problem in the US. (Although OP might not be from US)



And obviously you didn't pay attention to my post. I said it was an example. And how can somebody be blamed for something they have no control over? The government picks and chooses what is taught in the schools. Also If a person is busy battling a life threatening disease, then they are ignorant for not taking the time to worry about who governed by China? Wow, buddy. I'm starting to wonder who is the ignorant one.
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bannie
Sleepninja wrote: And obviously you didn't pay attention to my post. I said it was an example. And how can somebody be blamed for something they have no control over? The government picks and chooses what is taught in the schools. Also If a person is busy battling a life threatening disease, then they are ignorant for not taking the time to worry about who governed by China? Wow, buddy. I'm starting to wonder who is the ignorant one.




Keep it civil and on topic. No need for personal attacks here.

In response to your post,

I wonder who votes for the government?
Regardless, unless you live in a third world country where there is no access to information (and you would probably also not know the existence of China or Taiwan for that matter) then of course, the individual is not ignorant.
If this has come up in discussion, and opinions have not been rectified, then this is a clear case of ignorance.
The OP at the very minimum talked about Chinese, and Singapore/Taiwan with his friends.
And yet, it does not seem that they have changed their opinion.
Is this ignorance? Yes? No?

Not sure why you brought up the issue about a person busy battling a life threatening disease.
This is nothing close to what we are discussing, clearly not the best example.

At least now that you know the differences between the countries you will be better placed to inform your peers about it, I trust?


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Skye-N-Rain VIPAdmin
I've always been under the impression that Taiwan and Singapore are their own countries. Taiwan used to belong to China, but then due to circumstances, Chiang (former Nationalist dictator) fled/"retreated" their after Mao Ze Dong beat his forces back. China still wants Taiwan, but they probably won't get it. Now if you were talking about Hong Kong, that would be more difficult, though I believe Hong Kong used to be a port under British rule and only recently went under Chinese rule, which is why the culture between Hong Kong/rest of China are different. And if i'm wrong, well then.....it's because im not Chinese!
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bannie
Szasha wrote: Could it be that you are throwing two separate questions together? :)

1. Are Singapore, Taiwan etc (in your eyes) "Chinese" (ethnically-wise) countries?
2. What languages are predominately spoken in either of them?

Just because English is spoken in the UK, Australia and the US the countries aren't all classified as "English", are they? They share a common language and a historical background, nevertheless they are not to be confused and indeed we refer to Americans as Americans and not English.
I believe the same applies to the countries mentioned in your question.

I see all of them as separate countries, some of them more or less interfering with each other, but I do think in either of them Mandarin is mostly spoken (with exceptions).

Regarding the aspect that people like to refer to the whole of Asia as China, it's just a matter of limited exposure to the respective cultures. I know dozens of people who think Japanese and Chinese are almost the same language (eg Dutch and German) despite the fact that the spoken languages differ distinctively. They are times I'd like to smack those people, especially when they are defending their position on very fluffly theories they heard or made up themselves, but usually I just smile and convince them that it's not the case. (Or smack them, nevertheless :p)

Actually I am a little sad I was anticipating a thread for people who study Chinese and thought I had someone to discuss with. You! :p



You should create a thread about studying Chinese. ^_^
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bannie
Skye-N-Rain wrote: I've always been under the impression that Taiwan and Singapore are their own countries. Taiwan used to belong to China, but then due to circumstances, Chiang (former Nationalist dictator) fled/"retreated" their after Mao Ze Dong beat his forces back. China still wants Taiwan, but they probably won't get it. Now if you were talking about Hong Kong, that would be more difficult, though I believe Hong Kong used to be a port under British rule and only recently went under Chinese rule, which is why the culture between Hong Kong/rest of China are different.
And if i'm wrong, well then.....it's because im not Chinese!


Might as well sticky this.
You know too much for your own good... lol
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Raventhedark
bannie wrote: Like I mentioned above, the lack of education, or the desire to be educated, even when provided with information, is ignorance.
People should stop blaming their lack of time, education, or resources for their lack of knowledge.

Perhaps the best solution for this is for the OP to educate his peers.
However, this will not be easy, as you have mentioned in your post, the prevalence of misinformation and lack of adequate education is a pervasive problem in the US. (Although OP might not be from US)


Nope I'm from the US. Most people here don't care about anything outside their little daily bubble. Most people in this country couldn't even tell you when the war of 1812 took place let alone pin point China or Taiwan on a map -_-
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