How is British history taught in schools?

[mjw47]

An American invented the telephone? A Scot, Alexander Graham Bell claimed to have invented the telephone. In fact he was one of the most brazen thieves & liars in history.

 

An Italian, Antonio Meucci invented the telephone. He could not afford the fee to patent his invention, & Bell who worked in the New York patent office recognized the potential & stole his idea.

[Harleyman]

american English is 'stripped down' English, designed to make it simpler for foreigners to fit in quickly.

 

"Are you tired, Dear boy? - Do you have one at each corner?"

 

Stationery ? Stationary. Two words with similar sounds, but different - spellings and meanings. Not in American (Where many of the Immigrants couldn't manage a huge number of words and it was easier to use one word for 2 or 3 meanings and let syntax sort it out.)

 

 

 

I learned to speak (not just read) Chaucerian English. (Why not?) It's a really expressive language.

 

Read 'The Tales" in the original and there's a bit more than you'll find in the sanitised version.

 

Sorry - That argument's as f**ked up as a football bat, too. - The 'f' you used is a German symbol (a soft 's') (and it shouldn't have the bit sticking out of the front.) Nothing to do with Bill the Barsteward.

 

 

 

Travel in those times was difficult. If you lived in - say - East Anglia, you were hardly likely to bugger off to London for the weekend. - Easier to go to Amsterdam and the hookers were better and cheaper.

 

 

 

'Numerology' and 'numbers' are two different words with two very different meanings.

 

The "First World' (the civilised One, as opposed to the 'New World) has certain

unwritten (they don't have to be, because they're so widely understood amongst civilised peoples) conventions which dictate the use of Roman numerals.

 

Popes, Emperors and Kings traditionally use Roman Numerals in their names.

 

Others do not.

 

So George Hamilton lV is actually - to use Euopean or Indian styles of address: Mr GH Iv.

 

Americans have problems with that. I have a neighbour whose name is 'Ill' - as in 'Sick'

 

It took him 3 years to persuade the US government that he was 'Paul Ill' and not Paul I the second.'

 

(I've no problem whatsoever in arguing with anybody about anything ... and if you push me hard enough, I'll argue either side ... but when it comes to logic and linguistics in English it's really difficult to argue the American side.

 

It's probably better to walk away from that one.

 

Back to the original question (and, perhaps the point of the question) I doubt that history in the UK [and I know it's taught better there than in the US] is taught in an 'unbiased' manner anywhere.

 

Where you aware that King James- the guy who sponsored the Bible translation [used widely in the US] (I"ll get my dig in later) - (Or Queen James, as he was known to his friends) was an homosexual?

 

My history teacher certainly didn't tell me that. - Nor did he quote the (outrageous ?) pun in which the Kings own ministers objected to his expenditures on "Private ****' - the word '**** had 2 meanings. The first was the same as it has now, the second meant 'tax' .

 

Had my teacher told the truth, that would've (perhaps ) made history slightly less boring ... but we can't talk about 'Queer Kings', can we?

 

That's just misrepresentation of history at the 'silly' level ... but if it happened there, did it happen elsewhere?

 

Where and how?

 

We know, for instance, that Paul Revere discovered computing long before Alan Turing or anybody else.

 

'One' if by LAN, 'Two' if by "C".

 

Americans invented the Telephone, the TV, and the Lavatory brush (Albeit not until the late 1960s.)

 

There's much which fails to meet the eye.

 

You were joking of course. John Logie Baird the pioneer of TV was not American nor was the inventor of the telephone.

Frank Whittle a Brit was a pioneer in jet propulsion along with another pioneer a German whose name I've forgotten

Even Edison was outdone by a guy named Tessler who came up with the AC as opposed to the DC.

 

Otis the Elevator Man was an American however and it's thanks to him that today we can gaze up at 90 floor skyscrapers instead of two story nightmare sprawls covering the face of the earth.

 

As for clinging to relics from the Roman period.... hardly worth it!

The Englsih currency prior to decimalisation was a legacy of the Roman system of units of 12. No one outside the UK could understand it.

Even a year and a half serving in Malaya (which used a currency called Straits dollars) resulted in me feeling disorientated when it came to using Brit money again. I remember going into a pub just after returning home and looking at the silver coins to see of they were two bob bits or "arf crahns" before paying the bar tender

[Rupert_Baehr]

But then, they didn't invent the lavatory brush until the 1960's and it wasn't an immediate success.

 

Waddya t'ink of dose new 'lavatory brushes'?

 

"I prefer paper".

 

Ther was absolutely nothing wrong with the English currency immediately prior to decimalisation. A (somewhat) confused American in Canterbury asked me to explain it to him.

 

Dead easy. In 1971, the exchange rate was $2.40 = £1.00.

 

"One cent equals one English penny. Do the sums."

[Harleyman]

But then, they didn't invent the lavatory brush until the 1960's and it wasn't an immediate success.

 

Waddya t'ink of dose new 'lavatory brushes'?

 

"I prefer paper".

 

Ther was absolutely nothing wrong with the English currency immediately prior to decimalisation. A (somewhat) confused American in Canterbury asked me to explain it to him.

 

Dead easy. In 1971, the exchange rate was $2.40 = £1.00.

 

"One cent equals one English penny. Do the sums."

 

Well the old lav brush was a considerable improvement on the mop warnt it?

Yes that's right...... when I was a kid they used mops to clean out toilet bowls in public lavatories.

 

Squish! Squish! around the bowl, flush, dip the mop in a bucket full of strong smelling disinfectant then use it to mop the floor

 

As for ass gaskets.. they didnt have em back then. You shat with backside raised above the toilet seat hoping you didnt catch anything your mother warned you about while ignoring the writing on the wall that said "It's no good standing on the seat... the crabs in here can jump six feet"

 

And the old currency... you must be about the only one I know who holds any nostalgia for it

 

That will be nineteen shillings and seven pence three farthings for this reply please

[Michael_W]

Forget about the old £ s d fellas, they will be all but forgotten in another 50 years, but the good old imperial measurement system is still with us for a bit longer I feel

 

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

[Harleyman]

Forget about the old £ s d fellas, they will be all but forgotten in 50 years, but the good old imperial system is still with us for a bit longer I feel

 

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

 

I notice that the UK has changed to litres from gallons at petrol stations but speed and distance are still measures in miles.

 

Up in Canada they went all the way. Everything gone European.

 

Fortunately the speedometer on my car has measurements in miles and kilometers so I can keep an eye on speed limits if driving around up there.

 

As for the USA it wont change anytime soon if ever. Engineering specs are all in metric anyway

[Michael_W]

I notice that the UK has changed to litres from gallons at petrol stations but speed and distance are still measures in miles.

 

Up in Canada they went all the way. Everything gone European.

 

Fortunately the speedometer on my car has measurements in miles and kilometers so I can keep an eye on speed limits if driving around up there.

 

As for the USA it wont change anytime soon if ever. Engineering specs are all in metric anyway

 

I know, but many engineering drawings have just been converted from imperial to metric dimensions, and you would not believe how many people still get themselves confused using the imperial and metric systems at work, though it does not help that some manufacturing companies still have to use a mixture of both.

[callippo]

Americans quickly get used to thinking in kilometers and not miles. It is not difficult. You see this when you see them abroard in places where the concept of 'a mile' is not known by hardly anybody, and the speedos on motorbikes and cars they might drive, only show kilometers. They stop talking in miles, even among themselves.

[Michael_W]

Americans quickly get used to thinking in kilometers and not miles. It is not difficult. You see this when you see them abroard in places where the concept of 'a mile' is not known by hardly anybody, and the speedos on motorbikes and cars they might drive, only show kilometers. They stop talking in miles, even among themselves.

 

We Brits do it when we travel abroad, however I reckon most of us often do a quick head conversion between Km and miles because that is what we are used to.

[callippo]

when you actually live abroard where the concept of a mile is not known at all, you do stop thinking in miles and after a while you don't even convert any more. Why should you. The speedo on your vehicle only says kilometers. The signs only say kilometers. Nearly everyone you meet has no idea what a mile is supposed to be. You think of the distance between two places as being 100 km, not 60 miles and when you calculate how long it would take to drive there, you do it on the basis of what your average speed is likely to be in kilometers. When Americans who are living just about anywhere outside the US (except the UK) say they were 'doing 60' or 'doing 80' they will not be meaning that they were travelling at 36 or 48 miles an hour but in kilometers.