*DED*

[fightingthecage]

The World according to America.

I. Am. So. Ded.

Standard Disclaimer: I'm pretty damn sure none of the Americans on my flist think this way. If you do, please make yourselves known so I can stare in horror at you.

If anyone wants to know where I found that, it was in a comment replying to this post in overheardnyc

Teen girl #1: Okay. Maybe I'm, like, retarded for not knowing this,
but...did you guys know that other countries have national anthems, too?
Teen girl #2: Duh! It's the same song, in different languages!

--Bay Ridge


Overheard by: Lysa

Overall just - BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

ETA: Another one! HEE!

Comments

[halfwest.livejournal.com]

Frishteningly, that's actually pretty on-target. I'm one of the smarter humans in any school I've ever been in, but no, I cannot tell you where Germany is. Or Portugal. I know South America pretty well but I thought Bolivia was over near Transylvania, which I hear may or may not be a country anymore, along with Czechoslovakia. And no, I don't know where Vietnam is, either, but Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a rockin' musical about it. However, I have no beef with Commies. I think their philosophy is, in essence, a sound one -- or at least, no crazier than democracy.

America sucks. That much is correct. And yes, Americans are shamefully retarded.

Also -- I kinda knew other countries had national anthems, but the only one I know is England's.

Because America stole the tune for some other patriotic song of ours.

[romanticapathy.livejournal.com]

Word.

I think it's to do with a mixture of a useless educational system and a big fat dose of patriotism arrogance. Not only that, our culture is vastly moronic and completely shallow.

[halfwest.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

I never had a geography course. Ever. I never learned any history outside the US until 9th grade. Granted, this has a LITTLE to do with odd school-switching, going from a school where certain areas of ancient history were taught later to one where it was taught earlier, therefor missing it all together. But also we never studied any history past WWI.

We have culture?

As far as I can tell, the extent of American culture consists of hotdogs and adding "-izzle" to random words.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I also find it amazing that you were never taught history beyond WWI. Because...um, America eventually got into WWII, y'know? And...the Wall Street Crash? The Depression? Vietnam? They were all pretty huge events in the States. The first two were hammered into me in history class, because of the worldwide repercussions it had on the world economically - and it was also a large part of the build up to WWII. And they don't teach it in American schools? 0_0!

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

But does that mean that y'all study it for only two years? I mean, we study specific parts of history the last two years in high school, for our GCSE's - and that's pretty much all 20th Century history. Both the World Wars, the economic aspects that contributed to WWII (globally, not just British), the League of Nations, the Cold War - don't touch Vietnam, because it didn't impact Britain but anything that did from other countries got dug into in-depth.

Even before that though, we got a general look at world history in the first three years of high school - and in primary school, we had years of English medieval history (I think they knew that the blood and gore of the Battle of Hastings would be fascinating to 7-8-9 year olds :D). So...yeah, it's kind of hard to see that history isn't really taught as much in America - and also understandable I guess, seeing as the stuff we had to learn about all happened before America was discovered by the Europeans.

I don't want to make it sound like we have a great education system because we really don't. To take history, I had to give up Geography (fine with me, I hated it) and English and Maths and the Sciences are far more important to schools. Languages too. But Humanities (name used for both history and geography before you choose one specific subject to study for exams) certainly don't get screwed as much as the other Arts. Music and drama are almost an afterthought now, as is formalized sports lessons (by that I mean that any kid can play sports in lunchtime/after school activities but if kids don't want to bother in the actual lesson they're not pushed all that much). Maybe it's because the way history is taught makes it relevant to what's going on now, and with our neighbours etc. Perhaps America doesn't have that dimension, having peaceful neighbours.

Hmmmm. Interesting.

[halfwest.livejournal.com]

Canada has a government? o.o

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that it does make sense that it's less focused on - I mean, over here alot of history has to do with who in Europe we were fighting and the long-term repercussions of that. And America doesn't really have that problem.

It's the sheer WTF?! involved, to realise that some people out there actually think that other countries don't have their own national anthems, y'know? It is arrogant. It just is. OK, those teeny girls might just be undereducated or something, or just thick - but still, it's shocking to realise. Do they think that Canada and Mexico don't have any of their own nation identity either? It's just...bizarre to think about.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'd buy that - except that America the Beautiful doesn't have the same tune as the God Save the Queen. I know there is a song that does, but not that one. Unless the Elvis version I have is waaaaay wrong.

And dude, people prefer America the Beautiful to the Star Spangled Banner? 0_0! I mean, they're both beautiful songs - but as an anthem, I would say SSB is much better. Hell, it'd make me proud to be an American. If, y'know, I was one.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

Ah OK, that makes sense. Yeah, God Save the Queen is easy to sing. SSB - not so much. I enjoy giving it a go but I sound like a strangled cat for the high bits.

I do have a great version - Lauren Hill, after 9/11. It's got excerpts of people talking, from when they were interviewed on TV when the Towers came down. Stunning really. It is a beautiful song.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I may not be staring in horror at you right now mate, but certainly blinking, yes.

Umm...well, I can understand Americans not knowing the where all the European countries are located. I know because I've been to a lot of them and they're a lot closer to me than they are to you.

Having said that, I do know where a lot of the South American countries are too, and no, Czechoslovakia does not exist anymore. That would now be the Czech Republic. Slovakia is also a country in its own right.

I also know where Vietnam is, even though British schools don't teach about it because we weren't involved and I didn't take geography.

As for national anthems - well, yeah. Um, that kind of blows me away. Again, being European and living in a place that has three other countries as part of the UK, right next to where I live (and family and friends in every single one of those countries) - I suppose it would never occur to me that people wouldn't know about others national anthems. I mean, even without that - look at the Olympic games. Or any major sports event. The national anthem of the other team always gets played. Over here at least.

I dunno, it just freaks me out. I thought that was stuff that everyone knew. And while I know that a lot of Americans are nowhere near as insulated as my original post would have people believe they are - this sort of thing kind of makes me think differently, y'know?