Are Americans really dumber than other people? One of the favorite snobbish British laughs is about how dumb Americans are about geography. “They don’t have passports! They don’t even know whether Moscow is in Russia or Italy! How dumb can they be?”
This is certainly true. I picked up a hitchhiker in Virginia once who, when she learned I lived in England, said, “Do y’all drive over here from England?” Another American girl asked me if we “spoke fluent English in England.” A third girl once asked my German sister in law if she spoke German.
Now all this may be excused by the fact that most Americans don’t actually need passports. It’s a big country. They have no need to travel outside America. Everything a holiday maker needs is here. They don’t need to go to Greece or Spain to get hot weather and a decent beach. America has tropics, mountains, deserts, beaches and endless entertainment. Why would most Americans want to go to Europe? To visit museums?
Are Americans confused about European geography? Perhaps. But then, ask an ordinary Brit on the street if he knows what state Chicago or Atlanta is in, or whether he can find Arkansas on a map of the USA or whether he knows the difference between Yosemite and Yellowstone.
Anti-American snobs are everywhere in Europe right now, but the British are the most hypocritical. The ones who are snobbish about dumb Americans usually have an amazing blind spot about the condition of their own countrymen. The British anti-Americans are mostly from the educated elite. They look down their nose at dumb Americans so they don’t have to see the dumb Brits in front of their nose, and geesh, are the modern crop of British youth dumb! Visit any British town on a Saturday night. They’re not only dumb, but they are inarticulate, lazy, violent drunks. Whenever the British feel uppity about dumb Yanks they should remember the lager louts, football hooligans and dumpy slags their country exports to the Spanish resorts each summer.
In fact, this whole argument is moot. There are smart educated people everywhere and dumb people everywhere, and what all of us do is excuse the dumb people in our own country and blame the dumb people in other countries.
What we really ought to do is look in the mirror and have a good laugh and realize that we’re dumb too. None of us know it all, and the ones who would debate that universal fact are the dumbest.
So, just for fun, use the combox to send in your dumb Yank, dumb Brit stories.
I’m a dumb Brit but fortunately I’m too dumb to be insulted
When I visited the States one thing that came immediately apparent was that the media focus almost entirely on what happens locally, and hardly a mention is given of anything outside the USA. Much of the ignorance may due to this. However I did notice that the people were very keen to know what England was really like apart from the stereotypes. And it has to be said, we in these Islands have just as many untrue stereotypes about the US!
You’re right about American news. A cat stuck up a tree in Milwaukee is more important than a famine in Africa.I like the BBC and the Daily Telegraph, and am delighted that they’re online.
When I was in the UK I was in a rather confusing conversation with someone about Chicago (where I am from). It wasn’t until I realized that they thought Chicago was in Florida (where they had visited) that I realized what the problem was.An Italian friend used to make fun of Americans lack of knowledge about Europe until he came to visit and planned on renting a car here in Chicago and driving to LA. I tried to convince him that it was not the best idea… but he was sure it would be great. He called me from Kansas absolutely freaked out that he was in the middle of nowhere and had driven seemingly forever and not gotten to LA yet. He turned in his car and flew to LA but he admitted that until that experience he really had no idea of the vastness of the US.I am a bad person that I will start discussing S. American politics and history with Europeans who are so convinced that Americans are ‘dumb’. Usually, they are as parochial as Americans – with their knowledge of the world focused on their own continent.
This post is humorous save for one aspect. What we know or ‘think we know’ about others has dire consequences when it comes to projecting power. But it does help us reflect on our own mistaken notions.BTW, I borrowed the title of your blog for the title of my latest post…(actually, I stole it from Chesterton). Come take a peek :http://tau-cross.blogspot.com/2008/02/standing-on-my-head-does-hurt.html
I met some charming English girls who were taking the Greyhound from NY to LA. They hadn’t really understood why the bus trip was scheduled to take so long, until they got in the bus and started going. (They had assumed the bus was going to stop in every village to pick people up, I guess.)But I don’t fault the kids on that. It apparently can take a longer time in the UK to get from city to suburb than it takes us to go from city to city. Traffic is a bear.
Just learning all 50 of our US states is a challange. People who travel a lot to other states find it much easier to remember the ones they visited. But if you want an easy and fun way to learn all the states in just a couple of readings, check out a new book by Schoolside Press. The Littel Man In the Map – With Clues To Remember All 50 States.You will be amazed how quickly you will remember all of them.
I once was speaking to a recent college graduate in Chicago – we were taliking about Pope John Paul II – I mentioned that he was Polish – the young man said – “what language do they speak there?” I replied that they spoke Polish – “is there such a language?” he replied!
Though I can’t comment on the “dumb” part of the title of the book, I was recently in the international terminal of Philadelphia airport as the evening’s roster of transatlantic flights prepared to board and there were quite a few overweight European fashion disasters to be seen. The US hardly has a monopoly on “fat” or “ugly.”
All this stereotyping is kind of silly and rather tiring.I remember not too long ago when it hit the news that 60% of Americans were overweight. Of course, the small print mentioned that it was so because what was considered overweight had changed, so more peopel fell in this category.I’ve seen people from home country then repeating this stereotype over and over again. Interesting enough, a couple of days later a local paper reported that 40% of the population there was overweight according to the new criterion. And that was Brazil, a country not quite known for its financial wealth.The fact is that we eat better than pharaohs and emperors did and at the same time we don’t have to go hunting boars everyday.On European news, it’s as narrow as American. Other than the domestic news, they dedicate a considerable time to reporting about America and little to nothing about elsewhere. American news is the same, only the domestic news also happen to be about America. :-)The fact is that the news will focus on what’s important to people. As making a living is usually a top priority to most, what affects the bottom line grabs most of the attention. And no European economy could survive without America, so a lot of time is spent on America.Finally, British news about France doesn’t count as international news anymore… 🙂
I worked at Spindletop, a tourist bar in the Hyatt Regency in Houston, during college. The number one most arrogant folks on our list were the English. Coming in number one for rudeness was the French.I will have to say the French women looked good but so loud and bossy – Bleh.
When I first stayed with a Catholic lay community in New Mexico, years ago, the teenage girls saw me as something of a curiosity (with my peculiar accent no doubt) but what amazed me most was that when one asked me where I was from, and I duly replied England, she then proceeded to say, “oh, and what language do you speak there, is it French?” I felt rather disappointed that I had to reply “English”, as though it made me somewhat less exotic!!!It did make me realise how small and insignificant England is to ordinary Americans.But you’re dead right about some of the British youth of today too, Father.
I’m NOT even going there Fr! Not with my MJs from the States!
To illustrate the perceived dumbness of Americans – but in particular the present President:-The Pope, the Queen, President Bush and a 12 year old boy were flying together when the pilot came on the intercom and said,”I have some bad news and some good. The plane’s engines have all failed and we are going to crash. But there are four parachutes on board and I have one of them. Goodbye and good luck.”President Bush immediately said,”I’m President of the most important country in the whole world. I must have a parachute.”So he grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the plane.The Queen said,”I’m Queen not only of Britain but the world-wide Commonwealth of nations. I ought to have a parachute.”She took one and jumped out.The Pope turned to the boy and said,”Son, I’m an old man and have had a good life. I’m ready to meet my Maker. You take the last parachute and save yourself.”The boy replied,”Your Holiness, there are still two parachutes left so we can have one each.””How come?”, said the Pope.The boy replied,”President Bush grabbed my school satchel!”
and all this time I thought Moscow was in IDAHO…U.S.A!When we were small, we lived in Japan. We visited the US annually. One year, someone asked us where we were from. We replied, Japan. They then asked if we spoke Japan.Our uncle asked us if we had driven to Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada from Japan…Living in Afghanistan after Japan came up with some great fun, too – – we did not speak Afghan – we did speak Farsi. The Af was a coin – an Afghani was a person – not like what the media reports today. Ah yes, human foibles in all nations…
Wow… I do wonder about people who ask about driving from Europe or Japan. Wishful thinking makes me wonder if the lady you met wasn’t hearing “New England” rather than England. But as you say, no matter where you go, some people are just dumb.But seriously, I could pick out all the major countries of Europe by middle school, and I had to learn all fifty states!Mary Martha- Your poor friend.. I have actually heard many a story about tourists getting lost because they assume the map is on a smaller scale. One story I heard involved a group of Japanese tourists attempting to walk a distance of ten miles or so.
As regards people who arrogantly and hypocritically slight Americans, Canadians are probably the worst. Here, if they want to use scare tactics against an opponent they simply say you want “American style politics” and you’re done for. Canadians, not particularly caring to notice how young we are as a nation, have largely succumbed to a kind of passive insanity: we are the ones in “The Ball and the Cross” who keep preventing the two duelers from having their fight. Yet we’re worse than that, of course.
This is a North/South one. I am a convert, roots from Western North Carolina/Eastern Tennessee. I went through “discerning my vocation” period for a couple of years, writing orders, etc. I got the Vocations magazine. One of the articles talked about the difficulty a sister from the South might have, moving in community with well-educated Northern women. That was good for a giggle.
When I first saw the graphic and the writing on it I thought “Why is Father writing about Michael Moore?”****************My only comment about Brits in America – and I used to wait on them at a restaraunt near an airport and a convention center frequently is the polite but pointed complaint so many make about the poor selection of teas to choose from at most restaraunts when they order tea.Brits, I love and respect you, I really do… But if you have your heart set on drinking Earl Grey with every meal or some variety that is more obscure still, bring a few dozen tea bags with you in your purse or your jacket pocket. As much as some Americans love tea, we just don’t, won’t and can’t have them all…
oh, the same thing holds true for Scotch – not every bar is going to have “Talisker 10” or Dalwinnie 15 or whichever.
I find that English and Europeans all think that we live in Hollywood, when I visit. I have never lived in or near California, and never will, God willing; but they ask if I know certain celebrities. It’s all about TV.My English relatives do the stupid vast-America mistakes on their first visit but then seem to get it after that.But then again…my cousin and his kids rented a Corvette convertible for long distance driving in the South in summer. Duuuuuuumb.