American Kid in the V&A

[Lincoln Imp]

Interesting point (but surely only to me) is that the £ sign is an abbreviation of 'Librae' (pound currency) in the same way that 'lb' is an abbreviation of 'Libra (pound weight) and because neither word uses a letter 's' to indicate the plural form it is ALWAYS wrong to write '£s' or 'lbs'.

As with sheep and cannon, the plural of £ and lb is exactly the same as the singular. 2lb of spuds anyone?

 

[Paskman]

I lived I the States for 3 years and believe me the average British child in Florida does not exactly create the best impression of our education system!

Sent from my Android thingy by Tippy Tappy.

 

[xenophon]

Another prime example of the American education system.

Yeah, same as those dumb bastards in MIT

 

[The Spanish]

Was on the point of getting defensive about the initial anti-American sentiment originally expressed here since I count myself very fortunate to live in the USA and one of my kids is , by birth , a dumb Yank (I realise that's not a direct quote by anyone on here). Pleasantly surprised to see more balanced comments later on. Some American kids are a pain. Most in my experience are very polite , respectful and a pleasure to know. Some English kids are ignorant chav pieces of shit. Happily most are not. What did we learn here? Beats me.

we have learnt on here that there are a lot of very stupid British people who will sneer at American children while showing themselves up massively.

 

[little al]

Is it not more shocking that the mother didn't know what it was rather than the kid, she was after all spending the currency.

 

[Acker79]

We can ridicule the US, but WHY should they know what our currency is at that age?

Do you English all know every currency in Europe, and every sign?? Why not,

I have made sure I know the currency and symbol for said currency of every country I've visited before I went there. Granted, that's easier to do when it's only been dollars, francs or euros.

 

[NMH]

I have made sure I know the currency and symbol for said currency of every country I've visited before I went there. Granted, that's easier to do when it's only been dollars, francs or euros.

But would you at 11 years of age, when your parent is handling all the money-handling and you don't need to know the finances?

 

[alan partridge]

Adults laugh at child for not knowing the currency used in one country in the world. Is that what's happening here?

 

[Acker79]

But would you at 11 years of age, when your parent is handling all the money-handling and you don't need to know the finances?

I did. At eleven years old I still had pocket money, my parents didn't handle all my finances. At eleven years old I was learning french at school, so my parents relied on me somewhat to translate somethings (mostly just the menus at cafes).

 

[The Spanish]

Adults laugh at child for not knowing the currency used in one country in the world. Is that what's happening here?

pretty much. arent americans stupid like george bush hahaha zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz makes you despair. its too tedious for words and a massive embarassment to a section of british society these snobby attitudes. the thousands of brits who go to disney world dont think like that about america but then the sneery type brits hate them almost as much.

 

[Acker79]

Adults laugh at child for not knowing the currency used in one country in the world. Is that what's happening here?

More accurately that they didn't know the currency of the country they are/were currently in. Which is more specific than "not knowing the currency in one country in the world".

 

[The Spanish]

More accurately that they didn't know the currency of the country they are/were currently in. Which is more specific than "not knowing the currency in one country in the world".

and why exactly is that bad, or at least a vital thing to know for a small child.

 

[fork me]

That's not the right comparison at all. The right comparison is whether a 12 year old British kid would recognise a dollar sign. They ALL would.

That's not REALLY a fair comparison either, the US is a far bigger country than us. A fairer comparison would be whether a British kid would recognise a Yen sign.

 

[Acker79]

and why exactly is that bad, or at least a vital thing to know for a small child.

Knowing the currency of the country you are in is a pretty important thing, I would have thought, even if you're a kid and your parents are holding the purse strings.

Even if not necessary, part of the reason of going to another country is to experience other cultures, and finding out about the currency is one of the aspects of that.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Which Americans - South or North or Central, and if North - does that refer to English speaking Canadians, or include French Canadians too?
:whatever happened to the wink smiley?:

Most everyone (sic) knows that the # sign is aka 'the pound sign' on a keyboard or telephone - and any confusion might be caused by the lack of a £ sign on a US keyboard!
# prefixes a number, and is usually used in place of the very word; "number".

Good one though LB

It did cause some confusion for Brits in the mid 1980's ringing the US and getting an automated message from a company switchboard to dial the extension followed by the pound sign. On a keyboard or telephone keypad (plus the fact a dialphone didn't have * or # signs) the # was known as the hatch key which over time mutated into the hash key.

 

[The Spanish]

Knowing the currency of the country you are in is a pretty important thing, I would have thought, even if you're a kid and your parents are holding the purse strings.

Even if not necessary, part of the reason of going to another country is to experience other cultures, and finding out about the currency is one of the aspects of that.

you still dont really explain why recognising a symbol for a local currency is important. because its not really is it. kids on holiday will refuse to try local food (cue loads of groovers lining up to say how little tarquin tried steak tartare and bouilabasse and learnt loads of french and wowed the locals) moan whinge about going to the waterpark instead of a boring castle and want to watch DVDs no matter how much you can kid on yours dont. not knowing the pound sign is a drop in the ocean compared to most of the cultural nuances he has missed. being a little kid.

i am staggered at the levels of imbecilic snobbery shown in some posts on here. thats my only axe to grind. if that kid grows up to vote for bush support the death penalty and own a gun and eat burgers all his life i dont give a shit. I am sure not many on here do either.

It appears its must more important to us that we get the opportunity to look down our noses at americans even to the extent of humiliating ourselves and making us look abosolute snobby WEAPONS, than to be genuinely concerned the childs cultural lessons from his trip to britain are life enriching.

 

[Acker79]

you still dont really explain why recognising a symbol for a local currency is important. because its not really is it. kids on holiday will refuse to try local food (cue loads of groovers lining up to say how little tarquin tried steak tartare and bouilabasse and learnt loads of french and wowed the locals) moan whinge about going to the waterpark instead of a boring castle and want to watch DVDs no matter how much you can kid on yours dont. not knowing the pound sign is a drop in the ocean compared to most of the cultural nuances he has missed. being a little kid.

i am staggered at the levels of imbecilic snobbery shown in some posts on here. thats my only axe to grind. if that kid grows up to vote for bush support the death penalty and own a gun and eat burgers all his life i dont give a shit. I am sure not many on here do either.

It appears its must more important to us that we get the opportunity to look down our noses at americans even to the extent of humiliating ourselves and making us look abosolute snobby WEAPONS, than to be genuinely concerned the childs cultural lessons from his trip to britain are life enriching.

I've not looked down at americans.

I've merely highlighted that for me, knowing the currency of a country you are in is a basic knowledge requirement (I thought 'knowing the currency' would include 'knowing the symbol for it' - so didn't feel the need to specifiy). Kids on holiday may refuse local food, but they still go in shops and want one of them, or one of them, or they want to go to that theme park/attraction, and so on. Food isn't the only thing that kids in a foreign country experience.


When questioned, I clarified that even at 11 years old I made sure to know that.

And then clarified that the people who are laughing at the kid are laughing at him for not knowing the currency of the country he is in, not some random country, which I think is an important distinction to make. Making fun of someone for not knowing the currency of some random far off country is unreasonable, laughing at someone for not knowing the currency of the country they are in may be mean, may be a bit much, but it's not nearly as unreasonable.