"Sorry sir but is UK in the USA or ROW?"

There is a WHFSV legend of a former member of staff who was driving from the CES show to San Francisco to visit Dolby, and was stopped in the desert by a cop who appeared on his tail from behind a rock.

'Do you realise what speed you were doing, sir?' the officer asked. Glad of the fact he'd actually slowed down from his breakneck speed of about five minutes ago in order to spark up a gasper, our hero adopted his best cut-glass and replied 'I'm terribly sorry officer, but I'm from England and there we drive on the other side of the road...'

'Oh, I see. Well, you have a nice day, sir, and take it easy...'

A few years ago on holiday, I was talking to an American. We had been chatting for a couple of minutes after which I told her I was from England, to which she replied "do they speak english there?"

This threw me a little given that I hadn't exactly been talking in Chinese. To her credit, she had heard of England before but given that we weren't in America, I would have expected a greater level of awareness from someone who had actually left the country, or at least a hint of intelligence to associate "England" and "English," particularly since I was speaking in English.

Having said that, I know a few Americans and they are intelligent, knowledgeable people and in my experience back packing around the states, most people knew of the UK, Great Britain and England. Even in downtown LA at a bus stop, two girls whose command of the English language left a lot to be desired, when enquiring about my strange accent, immediately associated London with England. However, I think I would have been justified in asking them whether they spoke English.

Clare Newsome:

It drives me mad when Hollywood movies have to append/clarify locations - eg London, England. Or Rome,  Italy -  that gem in Angels and Demons recently, superimposed over big shot of the Vatican. Yes, i'm sure there are loads of towns called Rome in the US, but how many have St Peters' etc in all its glory

I think the Bourne Ultimatum is guilty of that as well. It's London, England - but funnily enough New York is just New York!

This clip just about sums up American geographical knowledge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

surely american ignorance can be summed up with the on-going debate about implementing a "national health service" and the example given for not doing so?the fact that stephen hawking would've died a long time ago if he'd been english!?

Lets not forget that us Brits aren't exactly held in the utmost regard when we go abroad. Ignorance is not only the domain of the Americans. We Brits are perfectly capable of it. I was backpacking around Cuba last summer, and I had the misfortune of spending 3 days in Varadero (all inclusive, beach type area). The place was beautiful, but I got quite bored of lying by the pool or at the beach and by the second day wanted to leave.

There was a group of English tourists who had spent 14 days at the resort and their response to a proposed day trip to Havana (which they hadn't seen) was:

"Havana.....I don't know, I think it might be s**t. I'd rather stay here, drink beer and work on my tan."

hmtb:

Lets not forget that us Brits aren't exactly held in the utmost regard when we go abroad. Ignorance is not only the domain of the Americans. We Brits are perfectly capable of it. I was backpacking around Cuba last summer, and I had the misfortune of spending 3 days in Varadero (all inclusive, beach type area). The place was beautiful, but I got quite bored of lying by the pool or at the beach and by the second day wanted to leave.

There was a group of English tourists who had spent 14 days at the resort and their response to a proposed day trip to Havana (which they hadn't seen) was:

"Havana.....I don't know, I think it might be s**t. I'd rather stay here, drink beer and work on my tan."

That's a bit like all the Brits who go to Benidorm to soak up the Spanish culture.

If you can define Spanish culture as spending a fortnight eating egg and chips, drinking English beer, watching UK TV via satellite, reading The Sun (I believe they actually print a version of it over there now) and getting burnt to a crisp, that is!

I spent most of 2004 working in Paris.  For the Merkins, as I shall be calling them from now on (see today's Daily Telegraph), that's Paris, France, not Paris, Texas.

I routinely enjoyed watching young Merkins getting off the Metro trains and seeing the signs "Sortie" on the walls, then spending ten minutes trying to find "Sortie" on the maps.

I lived in Texas for seven years, and my wife is Texan.  In Texas I always got a giggle out of the drive-through ATMs (cashpoints to you and me) with instructions in BRAILLE on them, not to mention the almost daily stories in The Houston Chronicle about some gun-owner, who, cleaning his pistol with a few beers inside him, forgot about the "one in the chamber", looked down the barrel and promptly blew his one remaining brain cell out.

One for the hi-fi pages, the HR Manager who, at one company I was working at, received complaints that the new fire alarms were way too loud (which they were).  He issued an e-mail stating that they could only be turned down by a mere three decibels (from 110) and that a reduction of less than 3% wouldn't be significant.  Rather sad for the HR Manager of supposedly one of the best engineering consultancies in its field.  We engineers had to point out the decibel scale is logarithmic, and that a 3 decibel reduction actually amounted to about a halving of the noise level.

But the prize for extreme Merkin stupidity happened when the company I was working for at the time moved into a newly refurbished office building, replete with poisonous snakes in the car park - but that's another story.  There were no signs on the toilet doors, so, to be helpful, someone printed off "Male" and "Female" signs in English and Spanish and with little ideograms underneath.  "Fair enough", I hear you say.  BUT said person went on to excel herself and comply with The Americans With Disabilities Act by repeating the information in Braille.  She printed the signs out on her laser printer.  Sadder still, I suppose, is that 99% of Merkins don't understand why that was so stupid.

I liked this one as well (unashamedly nicked from today's Daily Telegraph, in an article about Dan Brown's literary prowess):

 14. Angels and Demons, chapter 100: Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers glorified the four major rivers of the Old World - The Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Rio Plata.

The Rio de la Plata. Between Argentina and Uruguay. One of the major rivers of the Old World. Apparently.

Darren Heal:

(see today's Daily Telegraph)

hmtb:

There was a group of English tourists who had spent 14 days at the resort and their response to a proposed day trip to Havana (which they hadn't seen) was:

"Havana.....I don't know, I think it might be s**t. I'd rather stay here, drink beer and work on my tan."

 

But they would all have known what language they speak in the USA and have a very good idea about its cities etc. Not wanting to check out the local culture and wanting to spend time on the beach, when you live in a cloudy, rainy country like ours is understandable.

American ignorance of what is abroad is not understandable. It makes you wonder what they teach at school. It also makes Americans very prone to accepting their government's habit of painting whole cultures/societies/religions as evil, hence the Red Thread and the present bogeyman of Muslims. For a country that has a massive armed force and geographic isolation which makes it virtually impenitrable to invasion or any serious attack and such a diversity of cultures within its borders, my experience of Americans is that they are very easily scared by what is 'foreign'.

idc:

American ignorance of what is abroad is not understandable. It makes you wonder what they teach at school.

National Geographic/GFK Roper 2006 Geographic literacy study (18-24 year olds in USA)

The ignorance of where things are at home (not just abroad) is stunning....

"Such lack of geographic literacy shows up closer to home, as well. Half or fewer of young men
and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map (50% and 43%,
respectively)."

Yes, 50% of Americans aged 18-24 in 2006 could not identify New York State on a map.

Well, as am American, you'd think I be pretty offended by this thread...LOL.  BUT, you've got a point.  In our defense, we live in a gigantic country that is really like 48 contiguous little European countries we call States.  No, that's not an excuse. The rest of the world is pretty irrelevant to most Americans. 

But, there's no question that our education system is an embarassment.  I blame government schools that don't compete for students with teachers that can never be fired and are only rewarded based on years of service, never for job performance.  What do expect with a system like that? 

Plus the latest generation spend far more time working on self esteem than the three Rs.  That's why American high school seniors rank 1st on how good they think they are at math, but generally rank around 10th on actual international math competitions. 

But, you've got to admit, we've still got a few smart people.  Not to brag, but I can think of an American product or two that I'm proud of. 

And, oh yeah, I can name both the country on our northern border and that other one down south.  AND I can tell you the geographic location of a person that can walk 1 mile south, 1 mile east, and 1 mile north to end back where they started.

Not taking an interest in local culture when abroad does not constitute, in and of itself, ignorance. However, making the assumption that Havana will "probably be s**t", I think does display a certain level of ignorance.

I don't think it is understandable to go all the way to Cuba for a little over 2 weeks and not want to at least explore the local surroundings. Such lack of interest, to me, is astounding. I can fully understand the appeal of spending time in the sun, but to the extent which it excludes all other types of activities except those alcohol related, I think is beyond comprehension.

I was unclear in my statement, and I should clarify that they weren't even going to the local beach (a mere 5 minute walk), rather choosing to lay around the pool, drinking beer and exhibiting their stupidity.

In any case, I admit, it certainly isn't on a par with a failure to know that English is spoken in England and the inability to locate the UK.

Just to re-assure (myself more than anyone) that I know where all of our English (and Welsh) counties are,  I just played a few rounds of this.....

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/countycountup

About 2 minutes against the clock and 100 point penalties for every one wrong. (No time to look them up.)

I am 'CHE' on the leader board currently (I got my best score after polishing the desk and cleaning the mouse.)

I will try again when my mouse hand stops aching.

This one is good for identifying countries. I play against my youngest daughter who is studying A ' level geography. (I win usually.)

jaxwired:

AND I can tell you the geographic location of a person that can walk 1 mile south, 1 mile east, and 1 mile north to end back where they started.

North Pole.