Wednesday at a a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) town hall in Luang Prabang, Laos, President Barack Obama said Americans can be “lazy” because we are so big we think “We don’t have to know anything about other people.”

Obama said, “You know I believe that the United States is and can be a great force for good in the world but because we are such a big country we haven’t always had to know about other parts of the world. If you are in Laos you need to know about Thailand and China and Cambodia because you are a small country and they are right next door and you need to know who they are. If you are in the United States sometimes you can feel lazy and think, ‘You know we are so big we don’t have to really know anything about other people.’ And that’s part of what I’m trying to change.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN