whatever, hun. i see a lot of transits chuggin' their way along the roads & fartin' out gas.

I am a champion farter, they are rather glorious though.

well then fart with pride. suppressin' them aint healthy.

These two posts have made my night. haha.

People who say "we was going to town", no, you "were going to town".
People who use colloquialisms within writing, you're not Irvine Welsh, sorry.
Peopl who ype lik his. Why do they insist on either dropping the first or last letter in words?
Those who don't know where Wales is/anything about Wales, such as a uni friend who to this day believes that London is the capital of Wales, if anyone reading this agrees with my friend, you are going to be diagnosed as stupid.
Free loaders, such as when a friend leaves a large amount of their things, such as library books in your house, then you receive a text telling you to take them all the way to the library, lets see will I take them? No, I am not your employee.
Dirty people
Housemates that leave empty toilet roll tubes/empty bottles etc in the bathroom then moan that the bathroom is cluttered!

"People who use colloquialisms within writing, you're not Irvine Welsh, sorry"
what are those? ^^^^^

A colloquialism is a local saying, it shouldn't be used in formal speech or writing, such as people who have aint and y'all throughout their writing.

Good luck finding any American who could point to Wales on a map!

I've stayed quiet through this whole thread but I have to speak up. I'm an American and I can point to Wales on a map! :) And why am I so proud of that?

I'll tell you because I'm sure you're dying to know! I finally learned where Wales was last year while teaching geography to my second grade son. lol. Actually, I've learned an amazing amount of information from his primary grades than I ever learned (but should have) in high school and college.

Good to know! :)

Out of interest, is your son home schooled? And if so, are the materials you use American or European? (I ask because I think the reason most Americans don't know things like where Wales is, or that only Northern Ireland is part of the UK, is because geography is so poorly taught in American public schools)

Yes, we homeschool him. The materials we use are from here in the USA, but this company makes an effort to be globally focused rather than "Americentric". (Okay, I know, it's not a real word)
We study lots of other cultures and the histories of other countries as well as our own. We also get several different views of history and have discussions about which ones are more accurate and balanced and which ones seem more biased. It's a good program.

(Sorry, didn't mean to start sounding like a commercial.)

Yeah, I couldn't quite believe he was getting taught such good geography in an American public school!

I've always said I'd never homeschool (because I'm not qualified, and I personally don't think it is good for a child's psychological development, socialisation etc, but that is just me...) HOWEVER, this is exactly why I also totally understand why so many American parents DO choose to homeschool... public schools should teach this stuff. But they don't. Thankfully education in the UK is much better in my opinion, so I'd quite happily send a child to public school here.

Hey! I could! lol

Haha, I could!! My grandmother immigrated from London while pregnant with my mom, and she taught me all about the 'home country' and things she thought I should know that most Americans wouldnt teach me.

Apologies, I should have said good luck finding an American who doesn't have direct British relatives, who can point to Wales on a map!

Haha, yeah that makes more sense, because honestly the American school system is CRAP. I wouldnt know anything about other places if it wasnt for my grandmother. I will be sending my girls to public schools so they can be socialized, but we will also be doing school work during the summer since the schools do not teach them anything about anything.

That sounds like a good plan. My impression is just that the American public school system only teaches about America. Where as in British schools our geography/history/sociology/politics lessons included subjects on other countries too.

It seems that American schools teach any white students that they are Irish!

Particularly if they have red hair!

(And I'm not even a tiny bit Irish!)

Its very one sided, the way it was taught me made it seem like everyone else is the enemy and we are the 'good' ones, thankfully I had a well rounded education, otherwise I could have ended up like my friends who cannot stand people from other countries.

Seriously, your friends really feel that strongly about people from other countries?

I'm aware of the America-is-best attitude that so many Americans seem to have (and believe it is why so few Americans travel... they're taught that everything they could possibly need to see is right there in America), but I didn't know there was an actual dislike of people from overseas. If that's what American children are being taught it's shocking.

I'm not sure it is any better in many European countries, I have friends from Romania, Poland and Greece, none of them had any idea that Wales is a country and they chose to come to uni here!

Dont misunderstand schools dont say 'hate other countries', but based upon the lessons we are taught many of my friends do have a huge distaste for people from other countries. Honestly, the dont even embrace their heritage or know anything about where they are from, where-as I have taken the time to research my ancestory, and where my relatives came from. We embrace cultures from our heritage, rather then just doing it the American way. I would have it no other way. One of my goals in life is to visit my family in London, who I have talked to but never met. I also want to visit Norway, which is where my fathers family is from.

I think that the reason why so few Americans travel is because our country is huge. It's different when you live in Europe and you're a short flight away from everywhere. Also, some Americans are brought up with the notion that everything is best here and there's no reason to leave. Having said that, I think it's wrong to make broad generalizations about Americans or the American public school system when this country is so diverse and there are so many differences amongst people. Yeah, some Americans can't see past their front yard, and some can barely spell. Others, however, are well educated and have traveled extensively. I realize that bloop is not exactly booming with that segment of the population, but we do exist.

Except that Brits don't just travel to Europe. We travel all over the world (often covering distances greater than it would take many Americans to leave the US). I know hardly anyone here who hasn't left Europe at least once in their life. Where as in America it's the opposite. So it's not JUST about distance (although of course it is easier for us to leave our country than it is for most Americans)... it's also got a lot to do with attitude (and a little to do with weather!).

I never said that all Americans have an America-is-best attitude and no desire to ever leave. But that sort of attitude is FAR more common amongst Americans than amongst Europeans who I think for the most part (although that is not always the case) are encouraged far more to learn about other countries.

And you're not American! ;)