Americans

[tintin]

True story - Honours English class, and they are discussing a Scottish poem about midges (the insects). Suddenly a female JYA pipes up, towards the end of the class (so you'd assume she'd done research before attending the class?) and says, "Who is Midge? Is he a person?"

Academic Fayre last year, and an American student's mother approaches the History stalls.

Mother - "You can do a degree in Scottish History? A whole degree?"

Tutor - "Yes, that's right"

Mother - "Well, isn't that just the goofiest thing you ever heard!"

I don't think the tutor's reaction can be recorded.

Don't you just love our "Liberal Arts College" friends?!

[Miss Maryland]

what really pisses me off about a large number of my american peers going to college/uni in the states is the fact that the credentials that got them into university are based on cheating. it's really sickening, because someone like me, who chooses not to cheat, gets shafted in the admissions process, while kids who work just as hard as i do or less can get in because they cheated. of course they are all paying the price of being honorable people, but i think it says something about my country when a FSA in my hall who will be going to Harvard- where the best and brightest in the states go- next year talks about how much he cheated in school.

[hr]...and there was much rejoicing.

[Kibet]

[s]tintin wrote on 15:06, 14th Dec 2003:
True story - Honours English class, and they are discussing a Scottish poem about midges (the insects).


love it how you put insects in brackets, just in case that american was not the only one that did not know.

i think the american mother story was worse though as since midges is solely a scottish term then it can be excused that they don't know what they are if they have only been in the country for a while.

hopefully more stories will appear.

[Ewan Husami]

"Solely a Scottish term"? ? ????!!?

[dan greenberg]

[s]Ewan Husami wrote on 18:11, 14th Dec 2003:
"Solely a Scottish term"? ? ????!!?


We have midges back home, in Arkansas, you know, 'the South'?

And about cheating, miss maryland, have you ever sat in an economics examination at THIS school. it's disgusting.

[Precious]

Quote from an American: So what town in London are you from? (This to a Scottish person.)
An American I spoke to while doing my summer job for British Telecom: "I'm looking for the number of Social Services in London." When asked to be more specific, she said she wanted them in the Lake District, Cumbria, London.
Someone should really tell these people there's so much more to the British Isles.

[hr]Teeth! Teeth, my preciousss, but we has only six!

[lucycath]

Everybody at my old high school seemed to cheat on classwork and tests...and it's usually the people that you don't initially expect-the overachievers..etc. People just think more about the end result than the means by which they achieve it, and are so driven to 'succeed', get into a good college, etc, that they'll do anything. That's really sad. There's so much more to life than where you go to university...By the way I'm familiar with the term 'midges'...we use it in the South yeah? (i'm from Virginia).

[Andrew Cusack]

Mother - "You can do a degree in Scottish History? A whole degree?"

Tutor - "Yes, that's right"

Mother - "Well, isn't that just the goofiest thing you ever heard!"



To be fair, doing a whole degree in Scottish History is a rather goofy affair.
Some might say Scottish History is just the study/proof of a people entirely incapable of ruling themselves. Others, however, would disagree.

[dan greenberg]

[s]Unregisted User lucycath wrote on 22:05, 14th Dec 2003:
By the way I'm familiar with the term 'midges'...we use it in the South yeah? (i'm from Virginia).


Virginia, the South? Ha! just joking, i spent a bit of time there when i was younger, and in maryland, which is even more debatable!

[Miss Maryland]

[s]dan greenberg wrote on 01:03, 15th Dec 2003:


Virginia, the South? Ha! just joking, i spent a bit of time there when i was younger, and in maryland, which is even more debatable!
[/i]
maryland- yay! where'd you go over there? and we don't use the term midges in maryland. at least we don't over on the eastern shore.


[hr]
...and there was much rejoicing.

[exnihilo]

[s]Andrew Cusack wrote on 00:53, 15th Dec 2003:
[i]
Mother - "You can do a degree in Scottish History? A whole degree?"

Tutor - "Yes, that's right"

Mother - "Well, isn't that just the goofiest thing you ever heard!"



To be fair, doing a whole degree in Scottish History is a rather goofy affair.
Some might say Scottish History is just the study/proof of a people entirely incapable of ruling themselves. Others, however, would disagree.
[/i]

Those would be people who know something about Scottish history then, Mr Cusack? Perhaps you should concentrate on the Mitre if this is the level of your understanding of other subjects. I'm staggered, I'm not even a Scottish History student but even so I find myself utterly unable to think where to begin in mocking your complete want of understanding. If your post achieved anything, it was to reinforce the stereotype of the ignorant American in Britain. A stereotype which, I might add, I had thought to be idiotyic, until now.



[hr]
[i]"Most people are not as stupid as they look; I mean, how could they be?"[i]

[dan greenberg]

[s]Miss Maryland wrote on 01:50, 15th Dec 2003:
[s]dan greenberg wrote on 01:03, 15th Dec 2003:[i]


haha miss maryland, glad to see a fellow home-stater! i was born in gaithursburg, grew up in bethesda for two years, bounced around chevy chase, and spent some time in severna park (20 minutes outside of annapolis). And yeah, marylanders always look real confused when i say midges, but i'm hoping it'll catch on! will you be flying into bwi? or do you live further out?

dan

[echo]

[s]exnihilo wrote on 04:30, 15th Dec 2003: Those would be people who know something about Scottish history then, Mr Cusack? Perhaps you should concentrate on the Mitre if this is the level of your understanding of other subjects. I'm staggered, I'm not even a Scottish History student but even so I find myself utterly unable to think where to begin in mocking your complete want of understanding. If your post achieved anything, it was to reinforce the stereotype of the ignorant American in Britain. A stereotype which, I might add, I had thought to be idiotyic, until now.

Wow calm down calm down. I know Scottish History pretty well and its a tragic (but very interesting tale). In the end its one of defeat, utter and total. Apart from the former East Germany, we are the only country in Europe depopulating and have been for years. Like it or not, Scots are voting with their feet.





[hr]
"Most people are not as stupid as they look; I mean, how could they be?"[i]




[hr]
Manchester, so much to answer for

[echo]

While it makes for a few timeless hours of fun, mocking Americans for ignorance in the end it looks a bit sad.

Americans invented lots of good things (In-n-out burger for a start), they had a democracy of sorts long before we did (1918), they have laws which respect your privacy and human rights. They dont have an inbred child of a previous ruler now ruling by divine right (err, OK OK, scratch that). At least they dont have the House of Lords, Princes and Bishops in the legislature.

America is a hugely diverse country. British people are mocking a relatively small portion of the people. Imagine how it feels to be British in Greece.

[hr]Manchester, so much to answer for

[Cain]

[s]echo wrote on 12:30, 15th Dec 2003:
While it makes for a few timeless hours of fun, mocking Americans for ignorance in the end it looks a bit sad.


True. Besides, it is really easy to "prove" somebody's ignorance. It happens on these forums all the time with checking of basic grammar or people saying stupid stuff. does it mean that they are stupid? no.

[The Grammarian]

timeless hours?

*proves previous post`s point*

at least it seems an odd phrase to me.

[tintin]

"While it makes for a few timeless hours of fun, mocking Americans for ignorance in the end it looks a bit sad."

I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing in certain cases - there are stories of the Afghanistan and Iraq coflicts when some people there were asked to point out these places on a map, and the diversity of different answers was shocking to say the least, especially for a country with so much wall-to-wall TV etc.

It is all too easy to mock many Americans here for their perceived lack of knowledge, however. Yet at the same time, I resent being told time and again that my University is situated in a "quaint little village" in a country that is so "traditional" and backward.

I have generally found (without wanting to be accused of sweeping generalisations (again)) that those American students who attend the better of their Universities, and come from families who are much more educated, are not nearly so ignorant, and do not regard us as anomalies stuck in a time-warp, whereas those who come from The Anonymous Liberal Arts College of the Midwest really have no clue.

So how do these seemingly ignorant people get in? On other posts, we have seen the assertion that "all they have to do is sign the piece of paper", and this is the problem. I had thought that admittance was based on criteria of intelligence and thirst for knowledge, but I may be mistaken.

[Miss Maryland]

[s]dan greenberg wrote on 09:18, 15th Dec 2003:
[s]Miss Maryland wrote on 01:50, 15th Dec 2003:[i]
[s]dan greenberg wrote on 01:03, 15th Dec 2003:[i]


haha miss maryland, glad to see a fellow home-stater! i was born in gaithursburg, grew up in bethesda for two years, bounced around chevy chase, and spent some time in severna park (20 minutes outside of annapolis). And yeah, marylanders always look real confused when i say midges, but i'm hoping it'll catch on! will you be flying into bwi? or do you live further out?

dan
[/i]

i know where severna park is! yes, im flying into bwi. i'm from talbot county on the eastern shore (oxford to be exact). why didn't you figure i was from maryland by my sinner name?

[hr]
...and there was much rejoicing.

[PurelySynthetic]

[s]echo wrote on 12:21, 15th Dec 2003:

Wow calm down calm down. I know Scottish History pretty well and its a tragic (but very interesting tale). In the end its one of defeat, utter and total. Apart from the former East Germany, we are the only country in Europe depopulating and have been for years. Like it or not, Scots are voting with their feet.



Yet again a bloody stupid commment considering the amount of non scottish people in a SCOTTISH university.

[Mr Comedy]

I remain adamant in my view that St Andrews will shortly be announced as an American State.
We had an amusing episode in Melville last year. While watching the Simpsons (a pleasant time after the drudgery of yet another Melville dinner) an American announced "I am so glad that the Americans invented the TV". You should have seen the look on the Scots faces, as they all went straight for his jugular...

[hr]
Word of the day : ravage