Do They Speak French?
Shortly after starting a new job, my beautifully modulated English accent attracted this question, "My Grandmother has promised me a trip to England if I graduate this year Do they speak French there?" More than a little confused I reconciled this by thinking, "Hey, this was an aberrant brain fry, no danger of a widespread misapprehension.
" Sadly, just one day later a gentleman in his mid twenties remarked on my accent, "Man", he said with a wistful look, "I'd love to go to England, but don't they speak French there?" "Pardonez moi, je veux fixin' to get out of here," I muttered as I fled home to my Maison (Chez Limey) in Midland, Texas, nowhere near the rest of the world.
I locked myself in the house for a couple a months before deciding to go to University in an effort to assure myself that my experiences were unfortunate.
All was well until a fellow communications student, who also worked for CBS-7 News, proudly told me she had a very good friend who lived in England, "200 miles from Paris," she said...
! Let's get one thing very clear: I love Americans and America; after all I married one and I have no regrets at all about moving to Texas after my wife and I lived and worked in England for the first six years of our marriage.
There is however no mistaking, once I start talking, that I am not from "these parts".
For two years I have been telling everybody that I am from Jackson, Mississippi, but after this caused a choking seizure to a Big Spring resident on a Southwest flight from Dallas I have been more selective in my victims.
Just recently I have been telling people that I am in the United States doing TV commercials for Geiko, "Let's not delve into the private life, love".
There is a more serious side to this piece and that reflects a desire to want to see Americans and America become more familiar with what really goes on in the rest of the world.
Sorry guys but many of you appear to have no idea what goes on outside of the United States and those that do have ideas - well many of your ideas are kind of, well - wrong! Here are some prime examples but first let me tell you that many of these remarks came from both educated and professional people, absolutely not candidates for Leno - all were sincere questions or observations.
"What do you mean you don't have Republican and Democratic parties in England?" "68 Euros, What's that in real money?" From a United States guest who stayed with us in England.
"Do the people that live here have refrigerators and washing machines?" From an El Paso CPA, "I noticed that Mexicans have a different culture to Americans, are you guys pretty much the same as us?" Observed in a small town in England when a United States tourist wanted to buy a newspaper using a twenty dollar bill, "Don't you people respect the United States dollar?" - imagine offering a British pound at the 7-11 in Small Town, Texas.
A visitor from Chicago overheard at the historic Windsor castle which is close by Heathrow Airport, "Why did they build the castle so close the airport, it's so noisy?" "Who's your President, is it still Winston Churchill?" Heard on the Dave Ramsey Show: "America has the best electoral system in the world; no other country in the world has elections so fair".
From a local newspaper editorial "...
No country in the world accepts the change of leadership as well as Americans because it's the people that make those changes.
" Take it from me that there are many other countries in the world whose people are rightfully proud of their country.
There are dozens of other countries that are highly sophisticated, with a thoroughly educated population and technologically advanced infrastructures.
Few of these countries have elections decided by politically motivated judges in Florida - Whoops, just kidding! Why is it that the most economically advanced country in the world has a population that is largely unfamiliar with the rest of the world? First and foremost it is education, American schoolchildren are just not taught about other countries, not their beliefs and aspirations, not their cultures, not their religion and not their economies.
When the United States played Ghana in the 2006 Soccer World Cup, I was shocked to find how many people had no idea where Ghana was located.
No, it is not in the Caribbean! Most well-educated Europeans, Scandinavians, Australians and Asians can discourse knowledgeably about other nations and cultures.
A close, second reason is media.
International news is largely ignored in provincial newspapers unless it directly involves the United States or has some anecdotal or humorous element.
Worse still, almost all foreign news is "ethnically rewritten" by the news agencies so that American readers will be able to relate to it.
As an exercise in supercilious condescension and ethnocentrism, this "dumbing-down" is surely an insult to the intelligence of this nation.
The policy infers that the people of the United States are genetically incapable of understanding anything unless it's related to Uncle Sam and apple pie.
All types of media indulge in this practice.
Just as an unimportant example I saw a report about a controversial incident in the world of cricket a few months back.
I can't recall the network but very little of the controversy was discussed.
In fact most of the effort was directed at poking fun at cricket in general and comparing it unfavorably to baseball.
The point here is that the controversy (which was the story) was glossed over and the piece ethnically rewritten to reinforce the baseball culture of the United States.
Anyone who wanted to hear more details of the issue in question would have been disappointed.
By the way, how come it's called the World Series when only teams from America participate? Does any of this really matter? Well the cricket and the baseball issue does not matter in the slightest but in a society that is irretrievably part of the "Global Village" the serious issues matter very much.
Unless the people and government of the United States gain more knowledge of the rest of the world and generate some sensitivity and understanding about other nations, peoples and religions, the tension so much in evidence today can only get worse.
Is the Land of the Free any freer than the land of the Swedes or the French or the British? Are the electoral processes in Australasia, Canada and Europe less honest than that of the United States? If America is the best country in the world, does that mean that all other countries are inferior? If you can answer yes to all these questions - "there's your sign".
What is my point? I have absolutely no idea other than I feel that the education system and many media institutions are guilty of a genuine disservice to the American people.
The World does not consist of The United States and those poor people that live in other places.
The World is a rich tapestry of sophisticated cultures, aspiring peoples and unmitigated screwballs - sound familiar? The vast majority of this planet's populations do not wake up in the morning worried about what the people of the USA are thinking or doing and neither do they routinely think that America or Americans are superior to them.
As a final thought, a fellow returning student said to me last year, "I know America is the best country in the world for the same reasons I know the Baptist Church is the best way to worship.
" I guess I can't argue with logic like that.
And by the way they built Windsor Castle near to the airport so that the nice American tourists wouldn't have too far to travel!
" Sadly, just one day later a gentleman in his mid twenties remarked on my accent, "Man", he said with a wistful look, "I'd love to go to England, but don't they speak French there?" "Pardonez moi, je veux fixin' to get out of here," I muttered as I fled home to my Maison (Chez Limey) in Midland, Texas, nowhere near the rest of the world.
I locked myself in the house for a couple a months before deciding to go to University in an effort to assure myself that my experiences were unfortunate.
All was well until a fellow communications student, who also worked for CBS-7 News, proudly told me she had a very good friend who lived in England, "200 miles from Paris," she said...
! Let's get one thing very clear: I love Americans and America; after all I married one and I have no regrets at all about moving to Texas after my wife and I lived and worked in England for the first six years of our marriage.
There is however no mistaking, once I start talking, that I am not from "these parts".
For two years I have been telling everybody that I am from Jackson, Mississippi, but after this caused a choking seizure to a Big Spring resident on a Southwest flight from Dallas I have been more selective in my victims.
Just recently I have been telling people that I am in the United States doing TV commercials for Geiko, "Let's not delve into the private life, love".
There is a more serious side to this piece and that reflects a desire to want to see Americans and America become more familiar with what really goes on in the rest of the world.
Sorry guys but many of you appear to have no idea what goes on outside of the United States and those that do have ideas - well many of your ideas are kind of, well - wrong! Here are some prime examples but first let me tell you that many of these remarks came from both educated and professional people, absolutely not candidates for Leno - all were sincere questions or observations.
"What do you mean you don't have Republican and Democratic parties in England?" "68 Euros, What's that in real money?" From a United States guest who stayed with us in England.
"Do the people that live here have refrigerators and washing machines?" From an El Paso CPA, "I noticed that Mexicans have a different culture to Americans, are you guys pretty much the same as us?" Observed in a small town in England when a United States tourist wanted to buy a newspaper using a twenty dollar bill, "Don't you people respect the United States dollar?" - imagine offering a British pound at the 7-11 in Small Town, Texas.
A visitor from Chicago overheard at the historic Windsor castle which is close by Heathrow Airport, "Why did they build the castle so close the airport, it's so noisy?" "Who's your President, is it still Winston Churchill?" Heard on the Dave Ramsey Show: "America has the best electoral system in the world; no other country in the world has elections so fair".
From a local newspaper editorial "...
No country in the world accepts the change of leadership as well as Americans because it's the people that make those changes.
" Take it from me that there are many other countries in the world whose people are rightfully proud of their country.
There are dozens of other countries that are highly sophisticated, with a thoroughly educated population and technologically advanced infrastructures.
Few of these countries have elections decided by politically motivated judges in Florida - Whoops, just kidding! Why is it that the most economically advanced country in the world has a population that is largely unfamiliar with the rest of the world? First and foremost it is education, American schoolchildren are just not taught about other countries, not their beliefs and aspirations, not their cultures, not their religion and not their economies.
When the United States played Ghana in the 2006 Soccer World Cup, I was shocked to find how many people had no idea where Ghana was located.
No, it is not in the Caribbean! Most well-educated Europeans, Scandinavians, Australians and Asians can discourse knowledgeably about other nations and cultures.
A close, second reason is media.
International news is largely ignored in provincial newspapers unless it directly involves the United States or has some anecdotal or humorous element.
Worse still, almost all foreign news is "ethnically rewritten" by the news agencies so that American readers will be able to relate to it.
As an exercise in supercilious condescension and ethnocentrism, this "dumbing-down" is surely an insult to the intelligence of this nation.
The policy infers that the people of the United States are genetically incapable of understanding anything unless it's related to Uncle Sam and apple pie.
All types of media indulge in this practice.
Just as an unimportant example I saw a report about a controversial incident in the world of cricket a few months back.
I can't recall the network but very little of the controversy was discussed.
In fact most of the effort was directed at poking fun at cricket in general and comparing it unfavorably to baseball.
The point here is that the controversy (which was the story) was glossed over and the piece ethnically rewritten to reinforce the baseball culture of the United States.
Anyone who wanted to hear more details of the issue in question would have been disappointed.
By the way, how come it's called the World Series when only teams from America participate? Does any of this really matter? Well the cricket and the baseball issue does not matter in the slightest but in a society that is irretrievably part of the "Global Village" the serious issues matter very much.
Unless the people and government of the United States gain more knowledge of the rest of the world and generate some sensitivity and understanding about other nations, peoples and religions, the tension so much in evidence today can only get worse.
Is the Land of the Free any freer than the land of the Swedes or the French or the British? Are the electoral processes in Australasia, Canada and Europe less honest than that of the United States? If America is the best country in the world, does that mean that all other countries are inferior? If you can answer yes to all these questions - "there's your sign".
What is my point? I have absolutely no idea other than I feel that the education system and many media institutions are guilty of a genuine disservice to the American people.
The World does not consist of The United States and those poor people that live in other places.
The World is a rich tapestry of sophisticated cultures, aspiring peoples and unmitigated screwballs - sound familiar? The vast majority of this planet's populations do not wake up in the morning worried about what the people of the USA are thinking or doing and neither do they routinely think that America or Americans are superior to them.
As a final thought, a fellow returning student said to me last year, "I know America is the best country in the world for the same reasons I know the Baptist Church is the best way to worship.
" I guess I can't argue with logic like that.
And by the way they built Windsor Castle near to the airport so that the nice American tourists wouldn't have too far to travel!
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