the thread sounds so strange. what if i wrote "TURKSSS! LOOK HERE!"?

i dont mind if my country is not known, but it is now very popular thanks to my brother Borat.

I am an American who long ago lived in Turkey and love it very much.

But huge numbers of Americans cannot even identify the states around their own state on a map. In one study 38% of college graduating seniors identified the large country north of the United States as "Delaware".  Huge number of Americans - particularly in the largest cities where the very worst schools are - don´t even know the names of major political leaders of the country.

Americans live in a huge country such that they can travel thousands of miles and not approach a national border. That is not true in Europe and in the Middle East. America has many attributes and has been a world leader in many areas of accomplishment, but international curiosity is not one of them for the great masses of Americans.

That is unfortunate, but true. Americans, for the most part, do not have to have any knowledge of the rest of the world. Newspapers are dying in America. Television network news is being abandoned for cable stations. Even if every American read a newpaper everyday and watched television news, they wouldn´t learn anything about other countries unless there was some sort of sensational event to report - a plane crash or explosion, flood or earthquake. I recall watching for coverage of the last Turkish earthquake in the American press. It was reported in one or two sentences and if a map was used it was so small that detail was not defined.

News reporting in America is awful, but then, its done by news reporters. What do we expect. As one of my heroes once said, "Most people learn to read and wriote in 2nd grade and then they go on to better things."

I think the average Eurpean is much better educated than the average US citizen. It´´s not something I´m happy to say, but I think it´s true. The US educational system has been going down for years.

We have seen a great rise in private and "charter shcools" and the demise of public education. Today I´m amazed at the amount of young university aged people who are not seeking higher education. Many who do get higher education are in reality getting vocational training, rather than a good well rounded education. College is out of the economic capabilities of a great many who would have gone in the past.  For too many, If they do go, they all but become indentured servants to the credit industry....it´s terrible. How can one relax and get educated when this millstone is around one´s neck?

 I guess at least knowing something about the food of other nations is a start, but it hardly substitutes for deeper historic & cultural knowledge.

It may very well be true that an average European is better educated than an average US citizen - and it´s something that will most likely be confirmed by various statistics. I also think that the educational system here leaves a lot to be desired (at least at the primary and high school level, once you get to the graduate (master-level and doctoral-level) education I do believe the situation changes in favor of American schools).

However, in my post I was comparing the motivations behind seeking current info about world news. As Iskenderunli said earlier, Americans don´t have to know about the world. At least not as much as their European counterparts. What is happening in Europe does not have an immediate impact on an average American as it would on an average European - the distance between Europe and the USA makes it less of a pressing issue. (And as I´m writing this I hear my American co-workers in the background discussing the situation in Greece ). So my question is, what would motivate an average American citizen to feel compelled to learn about Turkey? I gave the example of the festivals and resturants as one of the means by which they could get interested in this country and I did not imply that eating kebabs is equivalent to "deeper historic & cultural knowledge". I don´t see not having in-depth knowledge about Turkey to be something to be embarassed about either - I wouldn´t expect a Turkish person to have an in-depth knowledge about, let´s say, Brazil or Canada  (unless they were interested in those countries for whatever reason). Those of us who are interested in Turkey, we are motivated to learn about it. I could hardly expect other people to share my enthusiasm. Why would they?

 Maybe it is the mulled wine, maybe it is the season, but I am LOVING your posts lately alameda

 I believe alameda is putting mushrooms in the mulled wine again! 

I can assure you that an average Turk has a deeper knowledge about Brazil or Canada than an average American about Turkey or Guatemala.

but I agree that not knowing anything about Turkey is not something embarassing.

 Tami.....don´t make me cancel your snow globe order!

I´ll have to take your word for it, I haven´t done a survey between neither Turks nor Americans. My point is, I wouldn´t have that expectations of them, as I don´t expect an average American to have in-depth knowledge about Turkey.

I think we disagree somewhat in your second point. I don´t think it´s embarassing to not have an in-depth knowledge about Turkey. I do think it´s somewhat embarassing to not know anything at all. People should know something about everything and everything about something, in my humble opinon. 

ok, for the sake of snowglobe, I agree with everyone here no matter what they say!

 Awww....I knew you had a sweet side afterall!