Re: Ignorant USC
 

It's certainly a military thing. I remember teaching a dozen or so helicopter pilots from a certain ex-Warsaw Pact country who had all been stationed in Libya for a year. I asked them what they thought of the local food and which was their favourite dish. They looked at me curiously and then told me they had taken their own cook and fresh supplies had been flown in weekly. Further questioning established that in a whole year none of them had even once tried the local food!

Re: Ignorant USC
 

AAMOI, what did YOU do? :)

Re: Ignorant USC
 

And what about someone in the UK military? Do they not stay on their bases and eat their UK food? And I know for a fact that they do. I truly don't see what good it does to generalise one country and not do the same with another? When I lived in the UK I was gobsmacked at the amount of ignorance I found there, especially on the telly, directed at Americans. Where I worked, especially after the Iraq war started, I had a few people (especially one old man in particular) come up to me and tell me that Bush was a moron and on and on about American politics, etc. Hey, I didn't vote for him....and I agree! :D

Speaking about Brits travelling more abroad. Well yes they probably do, but greater Europe is just a hop, skip and a jump away, so the opportunity is quite good. But, where we lived (North Yorkshire) I can't say that I ran into too many people that took holidays abroad. In fact our neighbours on one side never went further than a campground in Wales with their caravan. The opposite neighbour thought Blackpool was the best! :rolleyes: The only way these people got their "impressions" of Americans was what they heard on the telly. A very sad way, to say the least.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

When I was little a boy had a tail and a girl had a tuppence :D :D

Re: Ignorant USC
 

Er.....Blackpool is by far the best. :confused:

I agree that Brits can be worldly unwise and can also relate tales, but IMO they come well, well behind their transatlantic cousins in their dubious honour.

America was the best example for highlighting the fact that living overseas need not be a cultural experience if it is because you are stationed there in the military since America certainly holds the honour of having the most bases on foreign soil. Other militaries appear to be similar -- I gave a personal example I encountered above.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

Ah. Then I'll put in my thr'uppence worth ;)

Re: Ignorant USC
 

I disagree. And I read your encounter above. People are people and saying one country is less ignorant than the other, IMO, is pretty ridiculous.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

It's not ridiculous, it's worrying! The US seems to have little problem telling the rest of the world how to behave and enforcing it through their military power, but the people who support the implementation of these ideas through the ballot box have little or no concept about the rest of the world. There are plenty of studies showing the lack of this knowledge in the US, not to mention the wealth of real experience from many posters on this very forum.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

You mean like this one?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...perSurvey.html


"In a nation called the world's superpower, only 17 percent of young adults in the United States could find Afghanistan on a map, according to a new worldwide survey released today.

The young U.S. citizens received poor marks generally in geography. But then, as results showed, their counterparts in other countries were hardly star students.

The National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global Geographic Literacy Survey polled more than 3,000 18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the United States.

Sweden scored highest; Mexico, lowest. The U.S. was next to last."

Re: Ignorant USC
 

50% of one country's citizens doesn't make the whole country ignorant. To say that a country is ignorant because of this, that and whatever, is gross generalisation and its quite ironic coming from anyone's thought process.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

Precisely!

I really don't think our intuition is wrong on this one.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

Ah. No wonder everyone looks at me like I'm an idiot savant when I know the counties of England.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

I was concentrating on ignorance in geography and lack of cultural awareness. Ever wonder why US companies don't perform as expected in the global arena?

Re: Ignorant USC
 

Not really, and don't see that as a flippant remark. ;)


I'm quite impressed, Snowbunny, that you know the counties in England. Pretty good.

Re: Ignorant USC
 

My Dad can kick your dad's ass. :mad: