American I.Q. takes another hit!

[Theis]

But how many understand Danish?  [smiley=evil.gif]

Erm...Sm

[expat]

But how many understand Danish?  [smiley=evil.gif]

Erm...Sm

[Alonso]

I know that video can't be completely truthful, but United States must have that fame for some reason.

I really don't find out why people think invading countries that sound weird is good. :-/

btw, It really sucks that they refer to U.S.A as "America".... Hey, I live in South America, but not in U.SA.

[a1]

What were they thinking?

[Chris_F]

had only one occurence in my life. A "God bless America!", "God is great!", "America is best!" kind of tourist from - no bad thought intended - Texas.

Those types of tourists aren't uniquely of US origin either.

[JSpahn]

I think this video is either edited or they asked people out of low class areas where people are more likely to be stupid because of lack of education.

People are not "stupid" due to a lack of education, they are uneducated.  The word "stupid" has connotations of a lack of inherent intelligence.  Often it is education, not native intelligence that is the issue.

Speaking as a college faculty member, I think the American K-12 educational system is rather broken at the moment.  I am apalled at the level of education I see in the new freshman class each year; students who already HAVE a high school diploma.   Writing and math skills are astoundingly poor.  Among other things, the "no child left behind" program lowers expectations to the lowest common denominator ..... and focuses classroom time on standardized testing ...........which does nothing for promoting "excellence" nor allowing teachers any creativity.

Mixed right in there is a lot of poor parenting.  Setting positive goals and solid standards for children helps them to rise to their maximum potential.  Too many parents don't seem to really care about their kids, and are too busy focusing on chasing the "American Dream" financially to focus on what is really important; their kids.  So TV time, video games ( oops!  ;) ), the Net, and an incessant stream of soccer practice, theatre practice, clubs, and other such "enriching" activities take the place of interracting with family and friends, and the most important activity of ALL........ reading.  This lets "critical thinking" take a holiday, and the parents don't notice.  

Kids are busy, but not getting what they really need; unconditional love, positive role models, quality time with family, rules and standards, being taught how to think and reason, fair criticism when needed and appropriate strong praise when due.

Lastly, take any information you see on the Net with a LARGE grain of salt.  Particualry "photographic evidence".  Images today can get "doctored" flawlessly, and video can be edited seamlessly.  Having watched news shows being taped on a couple of occasions, it is all about "maximum negative impact".  They will take a lot of time to get the camera angle just right to make things look FAR worse then they often are.  Openly discussing stuff like , "Hey, it looks worse from over here, Bob."  If you turn around from the shot shown, there you see the kids playing baseball on the playground while people go about their business shopping and chatting.  But the picture shown and the commentary used makes it seem like the whole state of Kansas is burning to the ground.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."  


best,

...................john

John my I haven't seen you speak up about anything political since I have been looking around on this forum. I found your point 100% on the mark. I do want add my 2 cents Since so many are after the "American Dream", you know a bigger house, BMW, 600" TV, the dual income "family" is now the  the norm especially where I live. Home prices, auto insurance, food, energy costs have been increasing at alarming rates. Me and my wife both work 40-50hr weeks. We stick our poor son in a day care, where he doesnt get the proper care. And yes we are not giving him the proper start, I agree but our situation demands we both work.

We live in a modest home in an OK neighborhood and have some extras, we very rarely go out to eat and most weekends consist of visiting family. We haven't been able to enjoy any kind of vacation, or save money( this situation is slowly getting worse). The system is failing, but its more broad then just education. Most parents want the best for their children, but some are so trapped by bills to make more time to do the right thing.

As a counter to the above paragraph, there is a growing population of self centered individuals who cannot properly take care of their children. This American culture is now more then ever self serving. I know stay at home mothers who have kids in daycare? Lazy! but they are the first to complain about the day care? Or those who shouldn't have kids, they seem to have the most, basically screwing up the gene pool, or good children growing up in messed up homes.

Dont get me started on how politics the 24 hour media and lawyers are the root of all this.

I could go on and on, its a shame things are like this, oh well what can you do? Its still funny to see JBaymore going off

[chiptas]

Wow this was an interesting read having travelled a fair bit in the navy and then afterwards backpacking and living in the uk for 3 years i would have to agree with JD that most places are pretty much the same, as an old turkish lady told me once "why you travel so much its the same as here just roads cars and houses" which is pretty spot on its just

[ATI_7500]

I guess "Ugly Americans" are probably more numerous though since there simply are more Americans around than there are citizens of any European country.

Yep.

Maybe they should do personality tests upon entering the EU...

[JBaymore]

masternerd,

(I replied last night but the site slowdown gremlin apparently killed the post.

[ozzy72]

John if you took some average Americans to an average Hungarian village for an afternoon the majority would die of shock. The rest would die of alcohol poisoning (best way to go really)
I think you're quite right in that rampant consumerism is a major part of the problem. I have noticed something as a teacher that speaks volumes. At parents evenings all the good kids parents turn up for a chat, all the little beasts parents don't. Taking time to be with your kids and taking an interest in them makes them far better people as they feel that they are important and don't need to try and prove things. I think it was one of the most profound lessons I ever picked-up on since becoming a teacher. I always try to make time for my daughter.
This morning we spent the whole morning together down at the local lakes playing in the big playground there, watching the ducks and just having fun in the sun. Simple but so important to her and much healthier than being plonked in front of a TV and force fed chocolate to keep her quiet. She is now asleep on the sofa and I'm trying to clean up the "Toys 'R Us just had a terrorist bomb incident" type mess in the flat Parenthood ain't easy but it sure can be fun 8-)

[JBaymore]

John if you took some average Americans to an average Hungarian village for an afternoon the majority would die of shock. The rest would die of alcohol poisoning (best way to go really)

Ozzy,

Interestingly, the same is true in most of Japan .... when you get outside of the "sphere of western influence" areas like the tourist ares of major cities.

[ozzy72]

I know John, we'll probably go again tomorrow and try to do some photography of some of the amazing varieties of wildlife we saw today. About 20 different species of butterflies, about 10 different types of dragonfly (one of Emis favourites), mother duck with her ducklings, a heron, some pike-perch and a brace of Cessnas towing gliders

[Chris_F]

Forgive me for not watching the video, but I've seen it before.  It is really funny.  Remeber though that it's edited, and not for journalistic integrity.  It's edited for comedy which means they show the worst possible cases.  (For example, some guy is rushing home because his wife just called to say the plumber will be there in 10 minutes and needs to get in the door, and all of a sudden there's a camera in the guy's face and a person asking "what state is Oklahoma City in" and the guy answers with "what?!?!" because his brain totally isn't engaged in geography at the moment, and suddenly he's a poster child for the failure of the American school system).  If they did that test on any street in any nation in the world the results would be the same.

Does anyone deny that?

America does have a reputation about being challenged in its knowledge about the world.  But what would you expect?  In Europe you could probably drive to six different countries in a single day.  The largest countries in Europe are the size of a medium sized state in the US.  You can fly from one end of any one country to the other in an hour or two.  Chances are if you drive for six hours in any one direction you'll probably need to speak a different language when you get to your destination.

The US is the size of Europe as a whole.  It would take you six hours or so to fly one end to the other, and you can drive for a day or two or three or four or so without needing to dig your passport out.  It's no WONDER Americans don't know other countries since they don't ever need to experience other countries.  It's a knowledge that has little use in day to day life.  I would say however that the average American is every bit as savvy about the geography and customs of the different areas of the US as the average European is about different geographies and customs of Europe.  Which is really the fair comparison.

[dcunning30]

Chris_F


That was well stated.

[pete]

& don't forget Borat did all this in England 1st in his 'Ali G' shows ... hillarious ..... but they become the same old joke after a while... I got bored 1/2 way through the US Borat movie because I'd seen all the jokes before ....