[garinda]

Originally Posted by JohnW

Ah, good old common knowledge. I am aware that many Americans have never felt the need to leave the shores of their own country. Of the ones who have travelled abroad, a goodly proportion would, probably, have only visited either Mexico, Canada or the Islands. I agree that this is inclined to make them somewhat insular and less knowledgeable of other world cultures than the well-travelled, average Brit who has multi-cultural continental Europe on his doorstep. But to say "Most Americans would be hard pressed to point to the UK on a world map" is total bull****. It is that kind of sweeping, unfounded and derogatory statement that really gets up my nose. If you are going to criticise, at least make it constructive and factual.

www.greenteacher.com/articles/70kisbell.pdf -

Just one example of the acknowledged examples of the poor geographical knowledge of the world of American students, compared with their European counterparts. There was also a really funny article in the Times at the start of invasion of Iraq, asking Americans to point in the general area of the middle East. The results weren't not very encouraging.

Like I said I'm not being critical, just pointing out that the vast majority Americans don't have the luxury of foreign travel, and this seems to be backed up by their insularism.