Knowing your places.

[DryRash]

Hopefully I am in a good place to post this otherwise the mods will be on my ass >_>
Anyhow OT:
I have noticed (This could be very sterotypical so don't take offence but its in general) that most American people only know a lot of stuff about their country and that not so much about some other countries.
As I am from England we learn about everyone else's countries a bit ours but not so much. When it comes to places we can tell you a lot of places in America however when you ask an American what places do you know in the UK they could maybe only name you 2 or 3. Is it down to that America is very (I don't know what word I'm trying to say so I will say this) Patriotic and like to only know about their country. We probably know more about everyone else's country's then we do ours!

Again this could cause arguments so remember if you are American please do not take offence. I just wanted to know is it for some reason or maybe its not all Americans maybe its just a certain area. If someone could shed some light that'd be great.

P.S If I did offend you in any way please do tell me and I am sorry.
Or if you have no idea what I am trying to say here just leave it as a comment I will try explain a little more O_o

Have a great day

[Mark]

Does this happen only in England or is the rest of Britain included?

[DryRash]

Does this happen only in England or is the rest of Britain included?

Wouldn't know, Never been taught in the rest of UK only England.
Sorry.

[FlyingJesus]

Oh I thought this was gonna be a thread about poor people

tbh there are a lot of things we're still not taught in England, I bet no-one has the history of Yemen on their syllabus

[Futz]

I can honestly say my school never taught us **** about america so I wouldn't just pick on america for the awareness of the rest of the world

Literally the only reason I know the geographic location of some cities and states in america is from knowing people from those places & self-research

Also UK is a tiny island compared to the rest of the world, if I was from America I reckon I'd only know about London

[wixard]

we're only aware of it because we've been exposed to the american culture through the media for quite awhile now, as american tv shows/news stations would be shown in the UK whereas they obviously didn't watch UK shows (before the internet became super popular)

in ireland we have all your tv shows, but you guys wouldn't have ours. this means i know way more about your culture than you would about mine, half the people on this forum probably couldn't tell you what the capital of ireland is.

[DryRash]

we're only aware of it because we've been exposed to the american culture through the media for quite awhile now, as american tv shows/news stations would be shown in the UK whereas they obviously didn't watch UK shows (before the internet became super popular)

in ireland we have all your tv shows, but you guys wouldn't have ours. this means i know way more about your culture than you would about mine, half the people on this forum probably couldn't tell you what the capital of ireland is.

Dublin. As you can tell I know a lot of places and no I didn't just search it in on Google for any of those who may so so, But OT: You are right I guess, A lot of American TV shows are shown in the UK and that's how people know a lot about places.

[karter]

really tell me something about my country

[-:Undertaker:-]

Britain, America and others such as France, Russia and Germany are more well known in terms of culture or just their history simply because they have been or are the Great Powers/Superpowers of the world and thus more attention/the spread of their history has been more widespread. We are exposed to a lot of American culture for example through their films which glorify their most precious values or historical moments: the constitution, the Founding Fathers, the Confederacy vs the federalists, the Great Depression and it's the same for Britain with her Empire, Industrial Revolution and the world wars, France & Russia with their Revolution and Republicanism and Germany with her great industrial, scientific and warfaring recent history.

The history of other nations and cultures often just doesn't compare, or we don't take it in because we're not as interested or cannot relate to them in the same way or there's simply not enough time to learn about them. A lot of civilisations and countries have done a lot more than others and that's what we've got to accept: that they aren't all equal. Besides in my view, one should know about his own history, culture and country before all others. How can one begin to understand the world before you understand why you and your people hold the values you do?

And it's a lot easier to relate to America/Australia/Canada and even most of Europe if you are a Briton for example. The Anglo-Saxon countries and indeed a lot of Europe have similar ideals, values, histories, institutions that make it easier to understand one another whereas if one attempts to read on the history of another great civilisation such as Japan for example - as I have - it's very difficult to wrap your head around Japan as it's so complex and alien to the historical concepts we hold in the west.

[Futz]

lmfaooooo dryrash literally answered your capital of ireland question @wixard