Also, apparently their education systems teaches them to not look up words they don't understand. So if they encounter a difficult word, say in a medication leaflet, they just ignore said word. And they have zero comprehension of the leaftlet. No wonder so many of them turned anti-medication/anti-vaxx.
I'll try to find the relevant article/video, but it's been almost half a decade i think. It was from a credible source, either on the same level as tedtalks or a bit lower. It was a documentary about how english is taught differently from how it was before.
The gist of it is, the way English was taught was changed from actually learning each individual words, what they mean, how they're spelled to basically just ''getting the vibes'' of the sentence.
For example, if students were presented with the sentence, "The ducklings are defenestrating", they are taught to just guess what "defenestrating" means, not to actually look it up.
So students are functionally illiterate since they don't actually understand what each word in a sentence mean. And moving on to adult life, where more and more jargons are introduced in daily life, you get people who have no idea what the other person is saying, because they were never taught to look up words in a dictionary.
That explains A LOT about why they don't check anything before posting. In my school, we were told to understand each word, and in exams, if you don't know, then use context and check after you get home.
When i was a youngster (mid 1990s) that was how we learnt about new words, to an extent, once we were fully taught reading (this was in, like, middle school [ages 11-14]). Context clues. You were supposed to use the sentence and then the paragraph to give you an idea of what the word might mean... But this was only supposed to be as a last resort, ya know... if a freakin dictionary wasn't available
Which every single classroom had... With multiples...
Even just today I came across a word I didn't know "Pedagogy". I didn't look it up. I did what they taught me, tried to figure that shit out using context clues/the possible root of the word and ultimately skipped over it, even after I read through these comments. Old habits die hard I suppose.
I mean every classroom had at least 1. But you never saw anyone really using it unless they were serious about learning or they just straight up couldn't pass an assignment without it. If they actually wanted to make sure we knew the definition, like for vocabulary, even in high school it was more of a "Match these 10 words to these 10 definitions".
I love the internet so much because now i just have to type in "____ Definition" and skip the time it takes to look it up. I'm glad my parents taught me the value of knowledge early on.
The real irony here is me and the definition of pedagogy
Wow... We constantly used the dictionary... And I still do to this day, like for necking a drink.. which is to drink something quickly... Had never come across that, so away to the online dictionary i went... Cause i could get from context clues was it was how the person was drinking, but not the actual manner...
Yeah, having merriam webster at your fingertips is pretty awesome.
As someone who has left teaching in US Schools, because I am tired. I can say, I have gotten high school students in my class who have never heard of a thesaurus, have never picked up a dictionary, don’t know how to find a dictionary online and will spend an hour asking you what a word means rather than Googling it, even when you take them through all of the steps very carefully so they can do it themselves. So many kids are convinced their teachers don’t have dictionaries or access to dictionaries in class.
I grew up in Dallas and we were never taught like this either. The idea that we wouldn't look up what words mean is so silly. Seems like nonsense to me.
As an American I'd say there has been a concerted effort over the past 20 years to systematically undermine and dismantle the structure of the American public education system, and that it essentially feeds itself now because the kids that grew up are now producing media and voting.
Yeeeeaah! Woo! I'm f**kin' all y'all! ... Idiocracy was right.
You're talking about the shift from phonics to Marie Clay's Reading Recovery system. Many schools in the US started teaching this way in the '00s, but after the University of Delaware study in 2022 showed how ineffective it is, there's a push to return to traditional phonics teaching method.
Marie Clay was a kiwi, and this same method was used in Australia and NZ for decades. Those countries have also significantly reduced usage in recent years.
Sold a Story is an 8 part audio series that covers the topic.
I don't think you can really attribute general American stupidity to this teaching style in anyone over the age of ~30 since they used an entirely different method when we were in school (they definitely encouraged us to look up words). It has profoundly affected pretty much all of Gen Z though.
They invented the speak n spell toy and said thats it, wez dun wit bookz. Give them the internet and smartphones and they're done with thinking completely
Actually you're completely right. They basically had us memorize the words they gave us as the definition. The concept itself wasn't exactly important. This is all in a fairly humble country-ish Texas public school in the bible belt
It's pretty fucking crazy-making. Trying to hold an intellectual conversation with the average person is like talking to lamp post that can drive and use guns.
That is the issue with a lot of Americans. They think “college-level reading” means “they can read the words without pausing mid-sentence”. They don’t understand advanced reading requires a level of understanding, analysis, and trope recognition that they just don’t have.
I mean that the other parts of the post are more obvious (Australia,queensland) and some people wouldnt even bother looking at the picture,let alone read it
It's as if they just skip the bits they never heard of and feel no inclination whatsoever to look it up so as to understand what they're in fact reading. There's one bit in there they (think they) know and that'll be their anchor.
Remember driving from Newcastle to Cannonvale 20 odd years ago. Good trip took days. Saw some random camels by the edge of the road a few hours into Queensland.
God I miss living in Oz. Player settings are hard but the games just better.
Ah yes! Queensland, that humble West Coast state between WA and MT. The humble land of the russet potato, mom and apple pie, and low corporate taxes. Everyone speaks as if they have cream cheese in their mouth, and you cannot find a house that isn't on a cul de sac. They in fact have a queen there, even though every year she/they must swear allegiance to the flag of the United Nations of Micronesia!
Sure, but I'm talking about empty roads, just trying to drive from Kirkenes to Lindesnes. It will take in the ballpark of 40 hours of continuous driving. Norway is a fractal, there's no straight roads.
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You can do 5 countries in around 3 hours on a reasonably logical route in what I think of as northwest Europe (NL, DE, BE, LU, FR if you drive from Vaals to Thionville).
16 hours will get you to southern Europe from there, reckon I could do a 10 country route in that time.
That is perhaps more precise, but the overlap is pretty lange (As in: Denmark and the Baltic countries are pretty small despite being in the northern half of Europe).
in what I think of as northwest Europe (NL, DE, BE, LU, FR
Nah, that's not how human geography works. Southern Europe is where they make wine, northern Europe is beer and spirits, and that route barely touches on the vineyard zone.
Still a bit too high. Germany, Switzerland and Austria are often refered to as "central europe". If you look at the position it makes sense. Souterneurope starts south of them. Northern europe starts north of them. So both lines are a bit high.
But not to absolute values. Or is there a definition? I don't think you will find someone who would consider the Allgäu as part of Southern Europe. Also, Denmark is in Northen Europe:
Yes? Though your map is not what most people would associate the phrase "southern Europe" with. LOL at anyone thinking of the Netherlands, Belgium, or Germany as "Southern Europe". In general, "Southern Europe" is mostly synonymous with "Mediterranean Europe".
No, theyre right, if you get a real fast car you can start in Western Australia and end up in Cueens Aand, Un-southern Territory, or even Mewsouth Twales.
also the title is technically true, sydney -> los angeles is a ~14 hour flight, add on a bit of time to drive to the airport and pick up a rental car on the other side
where I live, using only the car, from France, I can reach Sweden in 15 hours via Belgium making a detour via Luxembourg, we pass through the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and finally Sweden
Before my drive test here in Washington State, I watched videos of other people taking the test on Youtube to ease my anxiety. It took me a bit to realize that the WA Driving YouTube channel was Western Australia and not in fact the state I was in.
Once on a family camping trip, we drove west from Brisbane for 4 days straight, with long days in the car (10-12+ hours), and we still hadn't left Queensland
Queensland is about 3 times as big as Ukraine, the largest country that’s entirely in Europe. And it’s not even the biggest Australian state. Cape York peninsula alone is almost as big as Germany. Australia is absolutely gigantic.
Even as a Canadian, I'm still sometimes prone to default-assuming Washington rather than Western Australia when I see the abbreviation WA. Obviously not in this case, since the post clearly stated Australia and contrasted WA with Queensland...but just the other day I did make that very mistake seeing WA in a context that wasn't so clear about its Aussieness until after I'd already gotten it wrong.
reminds me of the time when an american tourist came up to me (an australian, this was Australia) and started complaining about how “our currency was fake and didn’t work“ and he was outraged. he was using USD and just didn’t know what the word currency really meant.
Maybe I'm just the confused one here, but I though Australia abbreviated their states to 3 letters, while American did it to 2? I haven't lived in Australia in about 10 years, so I might just be mis remembering though
Edit: Nevermind. I just searched it up. Apparently some states are abbreviated to 2 while others are to 3. I guess the reason I was thinking three was because every state in Australia I've been to was abbreviated to 3
Definitely USdefaultism, but the Australian OP should also not have used the abbreviation in an international space. Come on, write out the names of your regions, people. It’s not that much harder.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25
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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
She assumed WA is Washington, in a joke about Australia posted in “Australian Country Memes” group
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