Are Americans uneducated?
I am a french guy, I lived in the USA for two years. Here are some funny stories about Americans’ lack of knowledge about the world. I realize it’s funny to write about lack of education, with a limited english, so forgive the irony of the situation, and forgive my poor english.
An American friend, let’s call her Barbara, a 24 years old woman, once told me that she used to ski in France. I asked her where, and she replied: “In the Swiss Alps”. I laughed, and asked if she meant the “French Alps”. She said: “no no, the Swiss Alps, or maybe the Italian Alps, I’m not sure…”. I was laughing a lot, so she asked me what was wrong. I explained to her that, even if the Alps mountains belong to many different countries (France, Swiss, Italy…), it was super funny and absurd to say that you ski in France in the Swiss Alps. It’s like saying you drive in the USA on the Canadian Highways. Here is a (bad) map of the Alps:
I want to stress out something. The funny thing here, for me, was not that she didn’t know the geography of the Alps, it was that she didn’t realize that Switzerland, Italy, or France, are different countries.
Yesterday, I watched a very interesting documentary on Netflix about the Varsity Blues scandal. I’m not going to talk about the subject of the documentary itself (Ivy League bribery admissions scandal), but about one inaccuracy that surprised me, and is very telling about the problem we are discussing here.
During a transcript by the FBI of a conversation between a very high profile businessman (John Wilson), and Rick Singer, the responsible for the bribery scheme, the businessman says he is in Saudi Arabia, in Dubaï. But, as a world traveler businessman should know (because Dubaï is a famous business city) Dubaï is not in Saudi Arabia. It’s the most famous city of the United Arab Emirates. I wondered how a serious businessman could make such a mistake while being in Dubaï, and moreover why the director of the documentary didn’t indicate somewhere that it was a mistake:
Another friend of mine, while I was living in Miami, once told me that she thought Normandy was in Germany. I understand that people don’t know the geography of other countries. But the beaches of Normandy are an important part in her country history. After all, a lot of American soldiers died there on D-Day, for one of their most important battles. They died to save us French by the way, so I forgave her for her inaccuracy. I also thanked her for what you (Americans) did to liberate us. I thank you again here my American friends. We will never forget, even if we like to make fun of you sometimes (and I know you do the same). In our hearts you will remain our heroes forever!
This next story is not really an evidence that Americans lack education, because what I’m going to tell you is not so well known. But I think it’s a fun fact, so I included it here. It’s a conversation that happened at a party. My former roommate (also french) and I tried to put some french music, to change from Bad Bunny that everybody listens to in Miami. One of my American friends asked me if there was any worldwide famous french musicians or band. I told him that the Daft Punk are indeed pretty famous. He was shocked, and didn’t believe me that they were french. We even made a bet about it, which I of course won. Most French know, and are proud of the fact, that those two guys from Boulogne, near Paris, are so famous around the world. That’s why I decided to include them here ^^.
The last one is so absurd I really hesitated to write it. I’m afraid nobody will believe me. I was once in a shared uber, in Miami, with another young man. He asked where I was from, I said from France. He then asked me if I was from the city of London. I tried to remain serious (I didn’t want to laugh and risk hurting his feelings, because I didn’t know him), so I simply replied “no, from Paris”. He then asked me if the Eiffel Tower was in London or Paris. I know what you think, maybe he was just kidding, making fun of me. To be honest, maybe he was, I’m not sure to this day. What I can tell you is that on the moment, it really felt as he was serious. He didn’t laugh at all.
So, tell me what you think in the comments, am I too harsh? Maybe it’s normal to not know a lot outside of your own country. If you have funny stories like those ones, I would also be really interested to hear them. I want to add that I love my American friends, they are amazing and I just wanted to share those stories for entertainment, not to denigrate them. They, of course, also made me discover a lot about the USA that I didn’t know ;)
