Man pays library $171, 47-year late fee

[Pisis]

Sure, don't take me wrong, I'm the last one to generalise! Generalising - especially among the national theme might very quickly slip to stereotypes. And from stereotypes, there is only a very short step to hatred and wars.

I am an amateur historian, so I think I know quite something about history.

I am just sometimes really amazed about Americans' "self-centrism". It is not that they would do it actively. They are grown up in this kinda attitude - that America is the "belly of the world" (a Czech saying) and everything out of there is kinda less important. By the way, Borat proved that fantastically.

I don't say EVERY AMERICAN IS LIKE THAT! I know and meet people who know much more then I do, of course.

And sys, you know Asian history because your wife's from that region, am I right?

[the lancaster kicks ass]

sys knowing one area of history doesn't give you the right to act all superior to others, by virtue of the fact we're here to learn we're smarter than your average American, there're things you know that few others here will know, but there're things i know that other's don't the same is true for absolutely everyone here, heck even matt's an electrical engineer don't play the education game with us.............

[syscom3]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

sys knowing one area of history doesn't give you the right to act all superior to others, by virtue of the fact we're here to learn we're smarter than your average American, there're things you know that few others here will know, but there're things i know that other's don't the same is true for absolutely everyone here, heck even matt's an electrical engineer don't play the education game with us.............

You seem to have this strange impression that Americans are uneducated.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

a view supported by many americans on the site, of course i'm not saying there aren't uneducated Brits, i was simply objecting to you getting on your heigh "I've got a degree" horse..........

[Pisis]

Well, I can kinda support Lanc's statement. It is a very different style of those US and European (Czech) educational systems. Once you have very good Universities but really poor Grammar Schools, we have very strict and demanding schools and especially High School are very though to go through. You have to learn simply everything - Math,. Physics, Chemistry, Languages, History, Geography, Psychology, Biology...

I see it at the place where I work. It is an American University focused on Czech and Central European Studies - most of the folks who come here from the States (the study lenght is 6 Months) know simply nothing about Europe, even mentioning the Czech Republic...

[syscom3]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

sys knowing one area of history doesn't give you the right to act all superior to others, by virtue of the fact we're here to learn we're smarter than your average American, there're things you know that few others here will know, but there're things i know that other's don't the same is true for absolutely everyone here, heck even matt's an electrical engineer don't play the education game with us.............

You are the one who said something about Americans not needing libraries.

And since you have never traveled to the US, your comments struck me as the height of absurdity and condesension (sp?)

You also seem to "cherry pick" incidents of some dumb comments that some Americans make.

But you cant conceptualize that there are just as many ignorant Europeans as Americans. And just because someone doesn't know the geography or history of Europe doesn't make them ignorant because theres more to the world than just your region.

Further, there people that are poor at history and/or geography but are brilliant in other fields. Do you understand that?

Now, when I was in Bali back in '95..... I couldn't believe the stupid comments made by Europeans tourists about SE Asia.... they had no clue on the local history, culture and geography. I found the US and Aussie surfer "dudes" had more knowledge than them.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by Pisis

You have to learn simply everything - Math,. Physics, Chemistry, Languages, History, Geography, Psychology, Biology...

You have to do the same in Highschools in the US as well.

Algebra, Algebra II, Calculus, Trig, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, 2 years of Languages usually French, Spanish or German, History, Geography, Government, English, etc... and then there are the electives that you can take and you are required to take elective each year (you just get to choose what you want) such as ROTC, Humanities (that was one of my favorites), Band, Auto Mechanics, Shop Work, Electronics, Psychology, Home Ed, Marine Biology, etc...

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by syscom3

You are the one who said something about Americans not needing libraries.

He was making a joke... Jesus Christ...Lets not get into another of these stupid discussions that takes 300 posts over absolute stupidity.

Originally Posted by syscom3

You also seem to "cherry pick" incidents of some dumb comments that some Americans make.

Sorry not trying to side with anyone here because as I said before stupid people come from all over the place but you seem to do the same for people coming from other places in the world. So dont even put that card on the table.

Originally Posted by syscom3

And just because someone doesn't know the geography or history of Europe doesn't make them ignorant because theres more to the world than just your region.

And just so that we get this out here for you. There is more to the world than the US.

Originally Posted by syscom3

Now, when I was in Bali back in '95..... I couldn't believe the stupid comments made by Europeans tourists about SE Asia.... they had no clue on the local history, culture and geography. I found the US and Aussie surfer "dudes" had more knowledge than them.

That shows that stupid people come from all over the world, however in Lancs defense you use that (and you have in many threads before) to say that Europeans are ignorant and stupid people.

You see Syscom even though I am not siding with anyone here I am just trying to show you that you are just as guilty of doing the same stereotyping as everyone else.

Ofcourse you wont admit to this...

[Pisis]

Originally Posted by syscom

And just because someone doesn't know the geography or history of Europe doesn't make them ignorant because theres more to the world than just your region

Of course, stupid people are everywhere...

But you have to agree with the fact that you have to know European history to fully understand the US history. No doubt about this point.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

by virtue of living in Europe you have to be aware of other cultures, we live together very closely and they come over here just as much as we go over there, in America there're vast expances of the same country, ultimately you share the same culture, many Brits have a knowledge of our vast empire covering most of the world so don't say we don't know anything about other cultures, there's more culture and history in any one of the Great European Cities as there is in the whole of America... but you have a Degree so what does that matter hey..........

[Pisis]

LOL