The majority of americans are brainwashed into thinking their country is the greatest, I don't blame them for their patriotism but as most of them have never left their state let alone the country what knowledge do they have to compare, I was asked where I came from yesterday, I told them England and they said they didn't know anyone who'd been there but their father had been to London, my children had better knowledge when they were very young as we'd travelled to many countries.

What I don't get is why anyone who is not English would think they are not Johnny Foreigner anyway ?

A bit off-topic but....

I had an interesting conversation with a psychology student once about the American education system. Apparently there is a form of indirect control that can be exerted on a population if you can make most of them ignorant and have them live in fear, he told me the name of the technique but I don't recall it any more.

The explanation was that an ignorant population living in fear does not question the information from a government and the policies of that government. They would have no capacity to think for themselves, but they would be under the impression they were free.

It's a type of mind control effectively.

Strikes me it's a trip round US military bases. If you've ever been in them, they're just little America on foreign soil. Not exactly living there at all!

They are a whole new world...and people that are contracted to work for those said bases that aren't directly in the military don't count either...

A little naive of you to assume that everyone that is sent to a foreign country while in the military lives on the base

Hear Hear.We always lived off base while in europe.

Nope -- they live like Americans in America. They eat Yank things, play Yank sports, get shiny white Yank teeth off swarmy Yank dentists etc., whether or not they actually live on the base. When they leave the base to see more of the country, they usually do so more as tourists rather than residents. Their lifeline is the base and they could not function without it. The point is that they aren't living there in the same way as someone who has emigrated to another country.

In your case, there was probably more a little more assimilation into the host country. But that was surely an exception rather than the rule.

While I certainly must defend the right of freedom of speach each and everyone has here in the US, I also am puzzled as to how some here can't seem to find one single thing that is acceptable to them. I just have to think that there many who simply love to complain about anything and everything and whose main mission in life is to be miserable. I do wonder how their US spouses handle such a degree of misery though.

When I lived in Spain, I guess there also were many things to bitch and whine about...you just have to choose to make the most of the good things around you and minimize the bad things impact on your psyche, or else you become an whiney grump that nobody wants to be around.

Having lived in Germany while in the military I must take issue with your broad stroke of the paintbrush. While there are indeed many who live on the base as 'Yanks" and interact with the natives, I would say there are an equal if not greator number who live on the economy and 'assimilate'. I knew both types- guys who had never stepped off base, who had never had a 'local' beer, or meal...and many of us who only spent our working hours on base and were off base in the cities and villages exploring the country all of our free time.

Yes, I agree, although alot of Americans I know tried very hard to integrate with the community they were living in, sure there were some that wouldn't even venture off the base at all, but for the most part they probably have seen more of the U.K and Europe than most Brits, be it as a tourist or not I'm sure the experience helps to open their minds a little more than those who have never left the USA
BTW, hope you now have the shiny white Yank teeth from the swarmy Yank dentist

Living in fear? At least I can wear my baseball cap here!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...nt/4534903.stm

Apologies if my generalizations didn't take account of the exceptions.

The US military certainly have more opportunity if they take it to claim some cultural competency in a foreign country than, say, a Brit holidaymaker in Orlando for 2 weeks has to claim they have some understanding of Yank culture. However, claiming to have cultural knowledge from travelling abroad as US military may or may not hold true; as you say, it all depends on the person. Conversely a person emigrating successfully to a foreign country must possess cultural competency, otherwise they simply would not survive.

Any way to get rid of chav "culture" is fine by me

Yep -- did the Yank thing to my teeth to assimilate properly (and, of course for the benefit of my dentist's nice new Boxster). Also get to enjoy constant lectures at check-ups about how my smoking and espresso fixes are ruining her fine work. I explain that it's in my blood, part of my cultural heritage, but she seems not to understand.