Things I want to know about the US (but was afraid to ask!)

Thanks Asherman. I don't enjoy being largely ignorant of the most powerful country in the world and my own country's "closest ally", and would like
to put it right. The best way I could think of was to actually ask those who know the country best - Americans.

In my defence, I would like to guess that I probably know more about the US than the average American knows about Britain. Not A2Kers, BTW! Many Americans here know more about Britain than I do!

I would not wish to speculate on what passes for knowledge of England among "average Americans," In their defense, they live on a large continent, the majority of the population of which speaks the same language. Most of those who learn a language in secondary school learn Spanish, the other major language of this continent. There is little reason for most Americans to look beyond the culture and the events on this continent, so i doubt that most do.

As long as America doesn't try to do their own versions of Blackadder or The Young Ones, I'll consider them a freindly neighbour.

True Set. Many in my own country are guilty of the same thing, and we are a small island 22 miles from continental Europe. Sorry if I've offended any average Americans.

They've had a go at some recent British sit-coms - Coupling and The Office come to mind - and they have, by all accounts, been utter shite. As are most British versions of American programmes.

Well, we still stick to the good old 'Archers', Grand Duke? :wink:

Who choses the Homecoming and Prom Kings and Queens? Is it a vote by classmates?

I thought they'd axed that years ago!

Yes, at my high school the students voted. It's possible that some group (teachers? student council?) came up with the nominees, but the student body did the voting for the winners. The runners-up were the "court".

Thanks Mac. I guess that the winners are those the voters deem 'the best' or 'the most likeable' rather than on say, academic or athletic achievement?

This is actually really interesting to me. My wife works in the TV industry. We now get the original British sit-coms The Office and Coupling....I had no idea that on the other side of the pond, Brits did crappy American TV. Please provide some examples.

Total beauty contest, GD--usually, the "most popular" girl (read, most expensive and stylish clothing and accessories) and the most athletic boy are chosen. Funny how that works, because i don't remember being consulted on the nominees at any time . . .

I was, of course, nominated but did not serve.

UK: Robot Wars (remote control robot arena fighting) US: forgotten name
UK: Scapheap Challenge, US: Junkyard Wars (teams build machines from scrap/junk and race them)

Actually, I may have to withdraw my statement as (1) I can't think of any more, and (2) I'm not sure now if they are US to UK, or UK to US!! Let me do some research.

BTW, what do you think of Coupling and The Office?

See here.

(To be honest: I never liked that .... since now more then 40 years :wink: )

Actually, and I wonder how often this happens, the gal who was HC Queen for my graduating class was a sweetheart and not really what most people would call the most beautiful, probably more like the most graceful. He boyfriend was the HC King, for whatever weird reason we voted on the Queen, but the King was not selected at all and was just a hanger-on, like the First Lady, I suppose. She (our HC Queen) was also pretty good academically, and the salutatorian ended up being in the HC court, but so were a lotta gals whose only claim to fame was a pretty face.

Many high schools have votes for most popular (male and female), best dressed, funniest, best athlete, best looking, etc. The students vote. The winners are given special attention in the year book. Yes, there are yearbooks for high school and college. My high school yearbook was, in fact, a book. Hundreds of pages of photos of the graduates. Photos of activities and events. Writing such as essays about the school, musings on life, the standard stuff.

Despite the fact that I graduated from junior high school in the stone age, we had graduation ceremonies, and a yearbook as well.

I don't know whether it's still true, but when I was a graduate, we would ask people to sign our yearbooks. In many cases, there were autograph books, special books issued by the schools with lots of blank pages for people to write all manner of stuff. In fact, I have not only my own autograph books but one of my mother's. She didn't graduate from high school, and junior high schools didn't exist back then. So I have to assume that that there was some kind of ceremony after eighth grade.

I'm guessing, based on my own family experiences, that graduations are especially meaningful here because many of us (especially in NY) are only one or two generations removed from immigrants. Education was important to them. It provided the kids with a chance for a future.

Things like Proms and graduation ceremonies for kids highlight for me just how different the US and UK are in so many ways. Even if we had graduation ceremonies at 16 and 18, there could be no valedictorian or salutatorian, as exam results are not released by the exam boards untill the end of August, several months after the school or college has broken up for summer holidays.

Proms are strange creatures.
We didn't have them here in my time as a student, but US culture penetrates fast. Now several high schools do. I guess we're just entering the stone age ,
Still no prom queen or king, though, thankfully. No valedictorian, salutatorian or any other pig-latinorian.

This brings the attention to 2 of the US cultural features.

One is voting. In the US, you don't only vote for the student council, like elsewhere. You vote for who's the brightest, the prettiest, the most likely to succeed, etcetera.
The other one is competition. From the very start they compete for everything: grades, popularity, a place in the cheerleading squad.

The day I learned there were extreme differences between American and British cultures was on Christmas '75. I was among the guests of a professor of the London School of Oriental Studies. There were Brits, Chinese, Japanese, one Mexican (me) and an American woman from Sacramento. We played movie charade. Towards the end, the Britons were quite angered by the Sacramento girl's behaviour: she wanted badly to win at the movie charade game, and it showed. Honestly, I hadn't noticed.