Americans are clever

[AnnieS]

@JBR

In my experience of working with Americans (I worked in an American hospital in Saudi Arabia) I found them really insular, even to the extent that at least some of them were even unaware of other countries in the world! Certainly, some of them had a ‘superiority complex’, believing that they were better than people of other nationalities!
That at least is the impression I got at the time, though most of them in that hospital came from the south-eastern states: Atlanta, etc.
On the other hand, when we have visited our relatives in New England, the people we met there were really quite different.
I don’t know about California. I believe that over there they are all hippies anyway!

There seem to be large pockets of the US where ordinary people do not have access to information on the outside world. The internet has changed that but even when I last visited in 2002 I noticed the oppressive vacuum of external news sources when we did a road trip through several states right across through the mid West and down to Arizona.

I met a less fortunate young lad my good friend was helping out and he was so eager for me to talk to him about things we took for granted in the UK. Just current affairs, bits about British pop culture, basic things that we saw all around us here. I couldn’t believe some of the grinding poverty there too. Particularly in Las Vegas. This was before the crash so it must be far worse now.

In terms of the news vacuum it was explained to me that some of these places were just too out of the way to justify supplies being driven there. So they ended up with very limited access to information outside their own small town bubbles. These days they will likely get their information from the net which explains a lot. We forget how hard it can be to live in some of these areas despite all the advancements in technology.

So I suppose their humour has derived from that culture of determination despite a hurricane blowing down your house or a forest fire destroying everything you own. Perhaps our humour may be linked to living in a “green and pleasant” island with variable weather but a general lack of threat of natural disasters. Too much predictability and routine has made irony the order of the day?

[AnnieS]

Nice video by the way Lovemyboys. I also didn’t realise Russell Crowe was from NZ. He is always referred to as Australian.

[LongDriver]

@AnnieS

to mark down using US spelling or terminology too

Oh yes … the body was drug across the floor … she brung me the books … he singed to me

[JBR]

@AnnieS

There seem to be large pockets of the US where ordinary people do not have access to information on the outside world. The internet has changed that but even when I last visited in 2002 I noticed the oppressive vacuum of external news sources when we did a road trip through several states right across through the mid West and down to Arizona.

I met a less fortunate young lad my good friend was helping out and he was so eager for me to talk to him about things we took for granted in the UK. Just current affairs, bits about British pop culture, basic things that we saw all around us here. I couldn’t believe some of the grinding poverty there too. Particularly in Las Vegas. This was before the crash so it must be far worse now.

In terms of the news vacuum it was explained to me that some of these places were just too out of the way to justify supplies being driven there. So they ended up with very limited access to information outside their own small town bubbles. These days they will likely get their information from the net which explains a lot. We forget how hard it can be to live in some of these areas despite all the advancements in technology.

So I suppose their humour has derived from that culture of determination despite a hurricane blowing down your house or a forest fire destroying everything you own. Perhaps our humour may be linked to living in a “green and pleasant” island with variable weather but a general lack of threat of natural disasters. Too much predictability and routine has made irony the order of the day?

Very interesting, Anne. Thanks for the information.
Mind you, the ‘superior’ ones in the hospital where I worked were not the sort of people you refer to as not having access to information on the outside world. In fact, a lot of the staff in our department were Filipinos, and the Americans certainly looked down on them sometimes in quite an embarrassing way.

[lovemyboys]

@AnnieS

The rivalry thing is cute as they all seem to get along well. What I have noticed is that both Canadians and Kiwis rise above it all. It seems more important to the bigger neighbours (or is that neighbors?!) to be seen as bigger and better. NZ has definitely put itself on the map of the world recently with Jacinda. I don’t think any country has such a strong young female role model at its helm.

I can understand the teacher as they have their own version of the language, although I am sure she couldn’t mark down the correct spelling . I hope she was polite! Teachers here would be likely to mark down using US spelling or terminology too (well in the old days at least).

(Sorry for the real late reply - get real bad headaches at times that bugger up my sight. )

Teacher was not overly polite, to be nice!
At the time, in schools in BC, they were supposed to be teaching English spelling, not American.
Now it seems they can spell whatever the heck they want!
Anyways, hope you and yours have a very jolly Christmas!