Many times I have giggled with my sisters about Americans asking directions in London and pronouncing Leicester Square too literally. That was cheap, how many times have I miss-pronounced Potomac? But behind the laughter is a little something. Almost every British person I know, has a passport and has left the little island at some point. Passport ownership in America is at something like 10 - 15%, depending who you ask. What does this tell us about a comparison between Americans and British?
Now the comfortable smug thing to think is "travel broadens the mind", hence British travel more so their minds are broader. Poppycock! The British grand tour of the Victorian times has morphed into the lower-middle-class Asian tour of today. Gap-years, redundancy windfalls and anyone with time and money to kill sets off from Heathrow one day to Bangkok. Some Brits go on the Australia and mingle with an identical culture in a warmer climate. Then back to Asia. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. Drinking cheap beer, avoiding the locals and coming back £10000 lighter and feeling they've accomplished something. These aren't just Brits, many are Australians, Germans, all G20 nationalities and yes a few Americans. But for some reason, the Brits cling to this culture of hedonism, and consider the practise places them up the chain from 85% of Americans who won't leave the country.
In my job I have the fortune to meet the most open-minded, keen and optimistic kids, neh young adults. Many have no passport, many can only boast Canada as their only foreign country. But to call them narrow-minded because they have not yet got round to getting a Henna Tattoo on Koh Phi Phi, is offensive. I am in awe of these guys and girls who walk out into the Alaskan Wilderness, camping in the middle of nowhere, securing their possessions from bears. These young adults have lived 1000 times more than Sally on her gap year strolling drunkenly with a tray of noodles down the Khao San Road. When they tell me about their adventures, my jaw drops. Especially a gentleman called Isaac who hiked the Chilkoot Trail in his precious cowboy boots.
The Americans I see are lovers of life. Optimistic, 'can-doers'. This is with business, with ideas, with relationships. Frankly I found this attitude micro-thin on the ground back in the UK. Does this abundance of optimism and excitement tire me? Of course it does, cynicism came to me at birth. Do I feed off it? Yes I do.
You ask any British person at any time to name The President of the USA. If they couldn't, they would more than a little out of touch. Ask any American who the Prime Minister of the UK is and there is a good chance that they won't be able to name David Cameron. Nor Gordon Brown before him. In fact, historically, many Americans only know Churchill, Thatcher and Blair. Does that make Americans weak on International knowledge? Not at all.
Ask many Brits to name the President or PM of Ireland. The PMs of Norway, Sweden. The President of Germany, the PM of France. These are our neighbours and we don't know who leads them. How dumb! But for some reason a twinge of defensiveness arises when Americans don't know who our PM is.
A teeny amount of offense is gained by an American not fully understanding the geography of Scotland, Wales and England. Why is it only Americans who offend us by not knowing as much about us as we do about them? Its easy to answer this, and hard to hear as truths often are. We British are much more interested in Americans than they are in us. No matter how much you remind them of their history as a former colony of the British. Incidentally they were also a colony of France, Spain and (here in Alaska) Russia. The Spanish and Mexican Wars are as important in the forming of the United States than the War of Independence, but many silly Brits don't even know this.
There are other aspects, of this one-way interest and it doesn't necessarily just include the British. America has been the consistent dominant power since at least WW1. Of course, the USSR, and China are past and present contenders for this crown, but the US has been there the longest and seems most comfortable with its role as major world power. I'm not going too far down the politics thread here, as foreign policy is something that should never define citizens. However, decisions made by Washington effects almost every human being on the planet. Therefore, there are few people on the planet who haven't an opinion on America. However, the same is not true in reverse. Americans are not fully aware, how US policies and export of cultures have effected each person or nation on the planet. As it said in The Rough Guide to the USA Guidebook. "Don't expect Americans to understand how US Foreign Policy has effected your country". And why should they? Americans work hard, pay their taxes, have government waste their taxes like the rest of us. They don't owe you an explanation as to why a McDonalds has closed down a local restaurant in Athens.
So we ask why America is so insular (and it may well be), we have to ask ourselves why we are so insular? If an American cares more about jobs in America, than the trouble with the Eurozone. Ask why you are more concerned about illegal immigrants getting council houses and the Conservatives selling off the NHS than Quebec Nationalism in Canada? Europe not getting its shit together, has taken more than enough of American time, blood and treasure. Frankly the US owes Britain and Europe nothing - but Europe has a huge debt to the US, one which we like to conveniently forget. Namely our freedom.
Now the comfortable smug thing to think is "travel broadens the mind", hence British travel more so their minds are broader. Poppycock! The British grand tour of the Victorian times has morphed into the lower-middle-class Asian tour of today. Gap-years, redundancy windfalls and anyone with time and money to kill sets off from Heathrow one day to Bangkok. Some Brits go on the Australia and mingle with an identical culture in a warmer climate. Then back to Asia. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. Drinking cheap beer, avoiding the locals and coming back £10000 lighter and feeling they've accomplished something. These aren't just Brits, many are Australians, Germans, all G20 nationalities and yes a few Americans. But for some reason, the Brits cling to this culture of hedonism, and consider the practise places them up the chain from 85% of Americans who won't leave the country.
In my job I have the fortune to meet the most open-minded, keen and optimistic kids, neh young adults. Many have no passport, many can only boast Canada as their only foreign country. But to call them narrow-minded because they have not yet got round to getting a Henna Tattoo on Koh Phi Phi, is offensive. I am in awe of these guys and girls who walk out into the Alaskan Wilderness, camping in the middle of nowhere, securing their possessions from bears. These young adults have lived 1000 times more than Sally on her gap year strolling drunkenly with a tray of noodles down the Khao San Road. When they tell me about their adventures, my jaw drops. Especially a gentleman called Isaac who hiked the Chilkoot Trail in his precious cowboy boots.
The Americans I see are lovers of life. Optimistic, 'can-doers'. This is with business, with ideas, with relationships. Frankly I found this attitude micro-thin on the ground back in the UK. Does this abundance of optimism and excitement tire me? Of course it does, cynicism came to me at birth. Do I feed off it? Yes I do.
You ask any British person at any time to name The President of the USA. If they couldn't, they would more than a little out of touch. Ask any American who the Prime Minister of the UK is and there is a good chance that they won't be able to name David Cameron. Nor Gordon Brown before him. In fact, historically, many Americans only know Churchill, Thatcher and Blair. Does that make Americans weak on International knowledge? Not at all.
Ask many Brits to name the President or PM of Ireland. The PMs of Norway, Sweden. The President of Germany, the PM of France. These are our neighbours and we don't know who leads them. How dumb! But for some reason a twinge of defensiveness arises when Americans don't know who our PM is.
A teeny amount of offense is gained by an American not fully understanding the geography of Scotland, Wales and England. Why is it only Americans who offend us by not knowing as much about us as we do about them? Its easy to answer this, and hard to hear as truths often are. We British are much more interested in Americans than they are in us. No matter how much you remind them of their history as a former colony of the British. Incidentally they were also a colony of France, Spain and (here in Alaska) Russia. The Spanish and Mexican Wars are as important in the forming of the United States than the War of Independence, but many silly Brits don't even know this.
There are other aspects, of this one-way interest and it doesn't necessarily just include the British. America has been the consistent dominant power since at least WW1. Of course, the USSR, and China are past and present contenders for this crown, but the US has been there the longest and seems most comfortable with its role as major world power. I'm not going too far down the politics thread here, as foreign policy is something that should never define citizens. However, decisions made by Washington effects almost every human being on the planet. Therefore, there are few people on the planet who haven't an opinion on America. However, the same is not true in reverse. Americans are not fully aware, how US policies and export of cultures have effected each person or nation on the planet. As it said in The Rough Guide to the USA Guidebook. "Don't expect Americans to understand how US Foreign Policy has effected your country". And why should they? Americans work hard, pay their taxes, have government waste their taxes like the rest of us. They don't owe you an explanation as to why a McDonalds has closed down a local restaurant in Athens.
So we ask why America is so insular (and it may well be), we have to ask ourselves why we are so insular? If an American cares more about jobs in America, than the trouble with the Eurozone. Ask why you are more concerned about illegal immigrants getting council houses and the Conservatives selling off the NHS than Quebec Nationalism in Canada? Europe not getting its shit together, has taken more than enough of American time, blood and treasure. Frankly the US owes Britain and Europe nothing - but Europe has a huge debt to the US, one which we like to conveniently forget. Namely our freedom.
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