No_Mind wrote: ↑Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:13 pm
Why do Americans not have to announce which country they are from?
Such as -
David is from Las Vegas, Nevada (as shown in brief description)
But Sam is from Sussex, U.K
Why do people from rest of the world announce which country they are from but American place names are supposed to be universally recognised ..
That is so even in Intro .. the way people write the subject line
and American would just write "Hi from Idaho"
But a Norwegian would write "Hi from Norway" and not "Hi from Hordaland"
Here is what I collected from first few pages - Wyoming, Arkansas, Bible Belt, Delaware, Ohio and with no mention in the opening post about where those places/provinces are .. a visitor from Jordan or Cambodia is automatically supposed to know which country Delaware or Bible Belt is located in.
Not very egalitarian.
Edit Add - Unlike the American Exceptionalism episode I am not trying to pick a fight .. I noticed it in Intro and wrote about it a few minutes later with no malicious intent
1-Perspective. I have the opposite question, for example, if someone tells me they are from India I still don't know where they are from. I have to ask again. India is large with a variety of unique regions. This is true of many countries and geographic areas.
2-Similar, if I tell you I'm from the USA, I've told you nothing. While traveling in other countries I've had people ask what country I'm from; when I answer, 'USA', they inevitably start a conversation or ask questions about things like Texas, California, LasVegas, New York. What the hell? How am I supposed to know anything about that? I'm not from anywhere near those places. Yet they are like, 'well, you're from the USA' (morons). The USA is a big place and the various locations, although with many similarities, also have many differing cultures.
I was once working on commisioning a bottling plant in Shanghai before China's great economic leap forward. All the capital equipment came from various parts of the USA so we had field engineers from North Coralina, Boston, Texas, California and myself. We'd go to dinner together with a number the Chinese people on the start-up crew. The locals had a difficult time because they [mistakenly] thought we were all from the same place, the USA. They couldn't figure out why we all talked different; with different accents and different ways of expression. It was like we were from different places to them; and that's because we WERE from different places. I explained it's like China and asked, 'if you have someone from Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Guangdong: will they be the same?' Then they understood.
3- In traveling abroad I've learned that there are a variety of reasons being an American can be a burden. I'd rather be an Earthling or something else in these cases.
4- Related; non-American people do tend to see Americans as "American". Although when abroad you can pretty much spot an American a mile away by their mannerisms, this simply is not true; we vary a lot. I can even spot different cultures within Minnesota (don't ever talk to me like the people in the movie "Fargo". Yes, they are real; but I'm not scandanavian. Although that culture is large, it's less than half of Minnesotans). I'm even more different from West coasters, New Englanders, Southerners, Texans, Hawians, Alaskans, etc. etc.
So, if I put USA, I've told you nothing. Just like puting things like; India, China, Europe etc. tell me little to nothing. I'm from Minnesota, if you don't know what that means, ask me. Of course, if we're on the phone or in person, I hope you're free for the next couple hours.
I hope this has answered your curiousity, Nomind.
p.s. You'll notice I did state that Minnesota is in the USA.