Average American?

[Cilpot]

Originally posted by gael
This really annoys me that people outside Americia, when they come to America, think Americians are stupid because they know nothing of thier country.

The world knows where America is, they know the culture, they practically grow up learning about it through TV, music, fashion.
Yet when they go to the US they seem suprised that the normal Americian has'nt a clue about were they come from or what they listen to or what.......you get the drift.

A country like Americia was not build on stupidity or ignorance.
The average man on the street in the US does not get bombarded with your culture like we do US culture worldwide.
They don't give a f**k about your country, most of them probably never heard of of it.
Why would they care to know about it?

This pretty much sums up my opinion as well. And it isnt just america that is un-interested in the surrounding world. It is just that it is the "biggest fish" and therefore are not interested in the outside. Why would they? If a Burkino Fasoian came to norway, not many here would know where in the world that was. And when I was in London I met someone who thought Norway was the little country next to Belgium.

It goes all the way. The bigger fish does not pay much interest to the smaller one. People from the bigger cities does not know much of the more rural parts of the country.

Well, enough examples.

But there are, of course, many exceptions from this "rule". Like me, who would welcome the Burkina Fasoian and actually know where it is because I am interested in geography. And some of you americans here who list european countries

 

[Siegmund]

It isn't JUST that Americans are rude self-centered pigs. (I'm not denying a fair few Americans are, but enough other posters have covered that part.)

Another part of it is that it is such a darn big country, and is separated by oceans from all but two other countries (one of which has few culutural differences from the US.) A great many people in the United States will live their whole lives without ever visiting a foreign country or even seeing very many of the other states. If you grow up somewhere a bit off the beaten path, you can literally live your whole life here without ever hearing a foreign language spoken or meeting a group of people from a drastically different culture.

In eastern Idaho where I grew up, it wasn't THAT extreme (you would hear a little Spanish, because of the Mexican farm workers, every few weeks you would see a black guy, and every now and then one of the Indians would come off the reservation and be sitting in a bar) -- but if you're trying to choose essential items for the school curriculum, you will turn first to those things you'll need in your everyday life, and anything about the "rest of the world that you'll never see" is just icing on the cake.

If you are born in a small European country, you are going to NEED to know how to deal with people who come from another country, because you'll run into them all the time... and in studying your own history, you can't help but study the history of all your neighbors too. the US had such long periods of being first uninhabited by white men, and then of being isolationist, that there just aren't that many episodes in world history that get called "must-know" items here.

 

[YNCS]

I remember trying to explain to a Swiss where exactly in the U.S. I lived. His mental picture of the United States seemed to have Los Angeles across the Hudson River from New York City, with Texas just to the south of them.

 

[gael]

Originally posted by Siegmund
It isn't JUST that Americans are rude self-centered pigs. (I'm not denying a fair few Americans are, but enough other posters have covered that part.)

Another part of it is that it is such a darn big country, and is separated by oceans from all but two other countries (one of which has few culutural differences from the US.) A great many people in the United States will live their whole lives without ever visiting a foreign country or even seeing very many of the other states. If you grow up somewhere a bit off the beaten path, you can literally live your whole life here without ever hearing a foreign language spoken or meeting a group of people from a drastically different culture.

In eastern Idaho where I grew up, it wasn't THAT extreme (you would hear a little Spanish, because of the Mexican farm workers, every few weeks you would see a black guy, and every now and then one of the Indians would come off the reservation and be sitting in a bar) -- but if you're trying to choose essential items for the school curriculum, you will turn first to those things you'll need in your everyday life, and anything about the "rest of the world that you'll never see" is just icing on the cake.

If you are born in a small European country, you are going to NEED to know how to deal with people who come from another country, because you'll run into them all the time... and in studying your own history, you can't help but study the history of all your neighbors too. the US had such long periods of being first uninhabited by white men, and then of being isolationist, that there just aren't that many episodes in world history that get called "must-know" items here.

I agree.
This is another thing that annoys me went people talk about Americians. They judge the US as if it was there own country.
The US is bigger than than europe, and yet all those countries in Europe look at it, and its statistics, as if it was there own.

I think people forget thet the US is more than a country, its a continent compared to anything we have over here.

 

[GotD?]

Originally posted by MummyMan
True, the schools are bad. In all seriousness i've learned more about world history and world geography through Civ2 and Civ3 than probably my entire 10 years of schooling thus far.

Yea that's true

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Henrique
Though I know this might sound a bit like prejudice (and I'm sorry for it) but there's sth that really puzzles me: everyone I know that has been to the U.S. to study (and they are quite a few) has said that the average american knows far less about general matters (particularly in geography and history) than the average non-american. That doesn't makes sense to me: U.S. has the best universities, the best teachers, the greatest income avaliable to invest in education and so on...
The real question is: how much of this is idiot anti-americanist propaganda and how much is true? And if it is true in some way, why the heck is it so??

I once had to explain to an american girl, 27 years old with a Knoxville university degree, I DO have running hot water at home. And not only me, but everyone in Holland! That makes one wonder, doesn't it?

About the education system: The US has some of the best universities in the world. But not just anyone can effort it to go there.

But this not the point. The answer has been said in the thread: many american don't care about Europe? The capitol of Denmark? Who cares? On what River is Prague? Who cares.

But then again: how many europeans know the capitol of Wyoming, let go Texas, New York or California?
And howmany know what river seperates Texas from Mexico?

 

[knowltok2]

Originally posted by Stapel


I once had to explain to an american girl, 27 years old with a Knoxville university degree, I DO have running hot water at home. And not only me, but everyone in Holland! That makes one wonder, doesn't it?

About the education system: The US has some of the best universities in the world. But not just anyone can effort it to go there.

Just about anyone who wants to can afford college. Not everyone can afford Harvard, but then again, not everyone can go to Cambridge either.

As for the woman you met, part of the problem is that it is quite possible to get through both public education and a university degree without picking up much knowledge about geography or history. Had I wanted to, I could have made it from age 14 till the present without one course on history that did not have as its focus the US. That includes an undergrad, and post-grad degree. Thankfully, I didn't want to.

I think those that say it is a question of interest are dead on. I think the info is out there, and typically it is presented at least once, but the interest isn't there, nor the importance stressed. Once upon a time, I had to memorize the countries of Africa. I was only mildly interested, and knew that my society didn't place a huge value on it. Consequently I don't know African geography as well as I could. Don't get me wrong, I know some of the high points, and I'm not going to mistake an African country for a South American one or anything.

Just to let you know about the American education system, My school spent more time on Wuthering Heights (English Novel (that sucked)) than on the entire continent of South America.