For all the Scots in the room

[Goats 0]

• The size of the minority ethnic population was just over 100,000 in 2001 or 2% of the total population of Scotland in 2001. The ethnic population in the US from the latest census is 27.6% (non-white). I would bet a typical Scotsman has had much less exposure to "other cultures" than the typical American. From the 2000 US census:

15.2% of the US population has German ancestries

 

10.8% of the US pop has Irish roots

 

8.8% African American

 

8.7% English

 

7.2% American

 

6.5% Mexican

 

You can not live in the US and not be exposed to other cultures we are one of the most culturally diverse nations in the World.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

 

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/02/18876/32939

[MIKE*A 0]

This will be my last reply to this post....I don't know what part of the country you live in, but where I live (Southern Ohio) every school public/private in this region offers foreign languages.....my kids are bi-lingual English/Spanish....They are both getting ready to study a third language by "Choice"...not because they are "Forced" to.......Part of what makes this country of ours so great! Freedom of Choice!

[m_grieb 0]

Why would you even post something like this on here? Really? You don't even have anything right. Language education requirements are set by the state that you live in. Who cares what the President calls himself? If you don't think he should be called that, where is the law saying you have to call him that? Call him whatever the heck you want! And where I live, students are required to take a foreign language. Students cant even go to certain colleges if they don't take two years of it. Do you know how to speak two or three languages? Fluently? If we were arrogant and not willing to understand cultures, why is America consistently pumping around 50 billion dollars a year to other countries with different cultures than ours? If we were not willing to understand other cultures and were so arrogant, why would we want to help countries and cultures like that? I think you have the word pride and arrogance confused. Seriously, if you think that about the people that live in America, leave. I can almost guarantee that I'm less than half the age you are, and you are acting half the age I am. I think you could do something better with your time then to start a conversation in which YOU KNEW would cause problems.

 

No hard feelings.

 

Matt

[shoebop 0]

Please forgive me if my tone was combative, believe me my tone is one of concern and regret for what I feel we have turned into as a nation. My intention in this gross generalization was not to offend any specific person or population of the 300+ million people living in America today. I love this country too and everything it has to offer but I think that our priorities as a nation have gone far askew. I feel like the American culture pushes itself on a lot of other cultures, Ex: We call our President "The Leader of the Free World"-- I'm pretty sure Canada's a free country, does our president rule over them? Same scenario with Great Britain, France, Scotland, and all of the other parts of the "free world". Children in many other countries are required to learn English as a second language and many know three languages. Why do we not require our children to learn a second language at all, we assume everyone else in the world will speak English when we travel abroad. This really went the wrong direction, I'm terribly sorry.

Any apology with a "but" in it, is not an apology. It's just a further explanation of your original stance. You have ony thrown fuel on the fire. Remove all the above language in red and blue colored print and you have an apology. FYI

[lykos33 0]

One question...have you ever lived any where else besides the USA? I grew up in the deep South and now live in the Great White North (Florida to Nova Scotia) and i can tell you that I see as much intolerance of other cultures here as I ever did in Florida. Ya might want to try moving to Iran or some other Middle Eastern country and see how they "tolerate" your culture...

[Piker20 0]

^^ well said ^^

[JSzymczyk 0]

Hello,

 

First of all, I'm from the US (by birth, not choice). We all know that the US is rife with arrogance and no desire to undrstand other cultures.

 

EVERY culture with history, pride, and honor is arrogant. YOU seem to have no desire to "undrstand" others.

 

Having been to more than 30 other countries around the world, well, around the northern hemisphere at least, one thing I know for sure is I am thankful EVERY DAY for what we have right here in the USA. There may have a lot of things F'd up, and we may be headed down a path of self-destruction- 180 degrees from the principles the nation was founded upon. Still, for now, it is the only place I'd care to hang my hat.

 

As an "American" (quotes just for you) you have the CHOICE to go somewhere you feel more at home. Bye.