Is your country interested in educating about other countries?

I can only speak of what I see and I say no America (US) is not really interested in other countries. You can see it here on mylot with the way they respond to dicussions. It's sad but, it's really true. Look at politics, when a person from another country gives their opinion about US politics, the OP always responds with that whole,"You're not American, so I don't care about your opinion".

Generally, American students do learn some of the basics about foreign countries and other cultures but it's been my experience that the instruction doesn't go into too much depth. There are opportunities in college to increase your knowledge of other cultures...but those courses are usually electives so not all students choose them. That's a shame, too, because I have always found other cultures and their histories and traditions to be very interesting.

It has been forever since I was in High School, but at that time a second language was required and so was World History. I think there were electives like "Current Events" as well. My daughter went to Hungary twice in High School, and Mexico a couple of times, but those were church sponsored trips. I think in my community we are pretty globally minded.

yes, absolutely yes..my people really interested on it, the government encourage so many education programs for students to study abroad. beside education, it's also a culture exchange programs. but mostly, it will lead to one purpose..which is to educate the young generations about worldwide, and so they can wider their experiences and knowledges about the world. there are so many interesting different cultures, habits, government system, educations system, that we can learn from other countries. And we can also use to improve our systems in this country, from the developed young generations.

Well I spent my childhood in South Africa and in schools we learnt world history and we even had culture class where we learnt of different cultures from around the world. But according to statistic 60% of Americans do not know anything about what's beyond their borders because they are not interested. I read that in time magazine.

hi, every developed and developing countries must help underdeveloped countries with education. It is the real help done a human to another human. A country needs many skilled and educated people in order to self-sustain in various aspects. So our county would be an ace country to do this task all over the world. For example, we have sent many teams of people to support education in Srilanka along with many supports which they badly need due to the war.

We have geography lessons in our schools. In the 6th and the 7th grade the children study the geography of all the countries from all continents. One lesson per country - sometimes two countries at once, if they are smaller (for example, one lesson for the small European countries: Luxembourg, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, Cyprus, Malta, Liechtenstein)... There is also the political geography from the 3rd year of high school, and the physical geography from 5th grade and the first year of high school - these objects treat the entire world, not just my country (the 8th grade and last year of high-school are reserved for Romanian geography). History is taught in a similar manner (7th and 8th grade and last year of high school for Romanian history and the other classes for ancient, Middle-Age, modern and contemporaneous world history). There are also two foreign languages kids are forced to attend (depending on the schools - I took French classes 2-7 grade and high school, Russian classes 6-8 grade a and high schools where kids learn German, Spanish or even Japanese). Summarizing all of the above, I'd say the Romanian educational is fairly interested in teaching kids about other countries. Of course, that's not enough - many of the teachers don't care about doing their job properly, and even more (and unfortunately the ratio is increasing) children don't take school seriously and end up with no general culture...

i think america does to an extent..but most of the textbooks i recall from school (for example)were mostly american slanted glorified history. when learning about a country i prefer to ask somebody actually from there,so i can hear the real thing instead of filtered crap,or only stuff relating to events of 2000+ years ago.

hi thea I am an American and while in school we did learn' smatterings of things going on in other countries I am'sure we could have been taught a lot more. Although in high school we did learn more about cultures,and histories, not so much politically but to be fair, I was coming up through high school and graduated from highschool just in the start of the second world war.1944. I do remember we studied geography and also a lot about Germany and Russia. It just depends on what you think is sufficent education. I think we are well aware we are not alone in this ever shrinking world. As an American I am not going to downgrade my own country.I am proud to be an American but since I first talked to you I would love to see your school system put in place over here. what you have there in Greece is marvelous. I do think that we should be more aware than ever of all the things that go on in other countries and the schools are one place to start. In other words we are educated but probably not as much as we could or should be Thea.

Yes Americans are educated on other countries when it comes to geography, history and politics, culturally as well. The things that are taught depends on the state or school district though. Also I think that the countries with the most history are featured, and with specialty to those who have had an impact on America either good or bad. I hope this answers your questions.

I don't think u can put all Americans or people from any other country all in one category , Thea. I'm sure there are alot of Americans that are interested in alot of things from other countries just as sure as i think alot of people could care less. I have many interests & i have quite enjoyed hearing U speak of things in your country just as i have w/some of my other friends that are from somewhere beside America. U can't speak for other folks or i can't & want even try. U got your AMERICAN ANSWER.

Hi Thea. Since I am an American, I can say that yes, many of us are aware and interested in the things that go on beyond our own borders...including cultural things in other countries. Not all things, but many. They appear in our newscasts and are offered in university courses, and then there are sites like this online where we learn a great deal. Evidence lies in the fact that we often send aide, money, and volunteer workers and free commodities to other countries. Many of our charities address the needs of countless places beyond our borders. We do free surgeries for foreigners in need, and parents adopting children in third world countries are common. We have charities that sponsor children's education and food and such, as well, in under-developed countries, such as the Christian's Children Fund. This is done by personal, average citizens, and I have done this myself. Many churches have members who travel at least once a year to foreign countries to help build homes or teach on vital subjects, and many from foreign countries come here to attend our universities. There are many ways we not only tell of our awareness but show it! I cannot even remember them all, but it is a privilege when people help other people. Countless Americans become involved in exactly this, not only for our own citizens in need, but for those around the world. Take care, Karen

if you are mentioning about school education then i am afraid it is not in proportion to other things taught. such things are limited to history and geography. this would also include great civilizations (Greek included) or great achievements/personalities, and also availability of natural resources. beyond this there is nothing much taught in schools.

Hi Thea You know some of my experience from other threads...lol... Of course there are many here who are educated about things outside. Haven't met many but I do think my town has a particular 'smalltown' culture and when I used to get customers in work from Boston and Providence, the cities nearby, they were a little more informed. But overall, the lack of awareness or interest in other countries is incredible to me. No world news seems to be reported unless its a special program, on BBC America, or its about , for example Iraq, understandably. Almost everyone I meet thinks England is made up of London and maybe a couple of villages, and someone told me that Scotland is to the south of London! I would hope my experience is extreme, but honestly I do not think so. I have met many wonderful Americans and have some good friends here, but I do believe from what I have seen that they are brought up with a sort of insular attitude and a big 'superiority complex' about being American. I know every country, including my own will go 'we're the best' but we don't truly believe we are inherently superior to other races. From what I have seen, Americans do.

hi thea, I am from India and we do get to learn a lot about the world. Not only geography but also history and civics too. We did learn about french revolution, about the Incas in south america, about greek civilization american revolution too. In geography we did learn about various regions of the world including Tundras and various deserts and countries and all this we learnt well before tenth standard and well i know for sure not many countries teach their kids about other countries but out here yes they do and these days they are even teaching about history of vietnam though not in detail.

I'm not too sure but when I was in school everything related back to how it effects new zealand not USA of Britain or anywhere for that matter. I guess they should be teaching about other countries because it will then give you a more diverse knowledge of the world outside. Then again that was a few years ago they might have changed by now.

Oh yes, that is why history and geography is such a boring thing!!! We had two most glamorous teachers to teach these subjects though!!! We were taught about the important countries in the world, like russia, britan...I cant remember wehter I learned anyhting about US. Ofcourse more importance in is on our country, but at some point or the other, other countries came in and the main movements, important people who started it were a part of the thick fat book...Geography was more fun than history...We had huge maps for diffrent continents and many sessions about the important rivers, mountains,deserts and so on of diffrent countries...But again I dont remember studying about Europe hi hi..Ok I am being frank, I was very bad at these subjects, so I actually dont know what all were there hi hi...But in short we were taught about other countries...Indian education is way much better than us'

I am not sure what you mean? There are many countries that contribute national funds to UNESCO which finance educational programmes in most under developed countries. Individuals, on Christian missions have been going to many countries to promote education since the early 1500s. Many local schools today are of internationa lstandards thanks to those Christian pioneers. As for USA, the Peace Corps programme is the best programme America under President J.F. Kennedy has ever contributed to the world and is still contributing. The teaching and learning methodologies of the famed Dartmouth English Faculty under the then tutelage of Professor Rassias is monumental in driving efforts to teach English world-wide.The impact is phenomenal!

I think so, because nowadays more and more countries know each other well. so the education gets well too. on the other hand, we can know a country well by internet, and so do others. but our country is not very interested in other countries, we just receive basic language, culture education in college.

I think American students are not informed about other countries and people beyond their boundaries. They just learn how to get more money and how to make our economy powerful. They are not concerned with miserable condition of developing countries. Politician and Intellegence agencies are fully awared how to overcome these developing countries and how to get their mineral resources. Americans are people who have no sense of love.