Subject:
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Re: A Brave New World
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Jul 2001 13:13:56 GMT
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Viewed:
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233 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jason J. Railton writes:
> > It does occur to me that opinion on artefacts of a foreign culture can
> > differ considerably to those in its country of origin. That the above is a
> > remarkable work to you in the US, but not so great here, is one such
> > example. Another would be that you probably think Dick Van Dyke did a
> > really good Cockney Accent... :-)*
>
> I'm willing to go with "really funny". But since I've had the "privilege" of
> riding in a taxi driven by a Cockney I know that for the accent to be even
> close to correct it has to be completely unintelligible to an American.
And up until then, you assumed this trait was limited to cabbies in NYC?
(Hey - I'm only taking the line I've been fed here). P.S. to everyone else
- not everyone in the UK has a cockney accent either.
> > Anyway, what's this about 'civics' class - you've mentioned it twice now.
> > What is it?
> It's a generic term for classes that educate one on how government works, in
> particular one's own government. In my schooling I got my civics from
> History, Government, Political Science and other classes (at various points)
> but I never actually had a "civics" class so named..
Oh, right. We group geography and history as 'humanities'. There's nothing
specific about government, probably stemming from some overly-protective
ideal not to be political. You get the origins of our monarchy and
government, but you don't get the option to study recent history until later.
> I'm amazed at how ignorant we Americans can be about so many many things.
> Not me, of course(1) but other Americans... The bits that you see on the
> Tonight Show where Leno interviews people and they can't name things like
> how many states we have, or whether Ontario is a state or not, etc. are
> downright scary.
The 'not being able to point to your country on an unmarked globe' is an
amusing one, since the typical US map you see around (in company literature,
on the net, presumably in schools too) shows nothing of the surrounding land
mass. Also, is it true you're all taught Alan Shepard was the first
AMERICAN in space/orbit, not that Uri Gagarin was the first MAN in space/orbit?
Still, I don't know how many counties or MPs we have, nor could I recite all
our Prime Ministers or Monarchs. I'm sure I know the important stuff
though, whatever that is...
Jason J Railton
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: A Brave New World
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| (...) I'm willing to go with "really funny". But since I've had the "privilege" of riding in a taxi driven by a Cockney I know that for the accent to be even close to correct it has to be completely unintelligible to an American. (...) It's a (...) (23 years ago, 23-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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