I've often wondered how Americans see the world. I have a lot of family and friends from there, and something about meeting them is striking.
The rest of the world gets an enormous amount of information from America. I've never lived in the US, but I know all the states. I couldn't write out all the counties in the UK. I know more US supreme court justices than combined from all other countries. I know the presidents going back 100 years, which I can't say I know even for the countries I've lived in for decades. I know some names of people who play the local sports there, the ones that aren't played in Europe. I even know brand names of businesses that don't have a European presence. This is all stuff outside of celebrity culture, where of course you get a huge number of US singers and actors.
What happens when you go to Europe and everybody knows a bunch of stuff about your home country? Does it surprise you? Do you ever run into people expecting you to know how the economy of Sweden was doing in the 90s? Or what the Departements of France are?
The rest of the world gets an enormous amount of information from America. I've never lived in the US, but I know all the states. I couldn't write out all the counties in the UK. I know more US supreme court justices than combined from all other countries. I know the presidents going back 100 years, which I can't say I know even for the countries I've lived in for decades. I know some names of people who play the local sports there, the ones that aren't played in Europe. I even know brand names of businesses that don't have a European presence. This is all stuff outside of celebrity culture, where of course you get a huge number of US singers and actors.
What happens when you go to Europe and everybody knows a bunch of stuff about your home country? Does it surprise you? Do you ever run into people expecting you to know how the economy of Sweden was doing in the 90s? Or what the Departements of France are?