Non-Americans, how often did you learn about the United States in school?

[Deleted]

Bugger all.

Being an English student, we learnt a lot about our own history as well as mostly European history. When we studied the major wars we always focused on European and Eastern events and pretty much ignored everything the Americans had to do with them.

[Wythel]

From France, i'm 28 and had my last history lessons 10 years ago.
Never a single sentence about US only stuff.

[Rhiziana]

Couple of times in english classes, else self learning

[Honzi]

Absolutely nothing. History is only 2 hours a week and in my case that was filled up with Swiss history, western European history (30 years war, world wars etc) and a shit ton of the French revolution, including Napoleon. There wasn't even space for ancient European history (Greeks, Romans).

[Klausk]

We got to know about the revolution, indians and what you stand for etc through some history lessons, but mostly it's about your daily lives through our English lessons. We also watched the Obama speech when he was elected in the classroom. This is in Norway, btw.

[Activi-T]

We studied the cold war, the wall street crash including the depression, the new deal and then the world wars, all in secondary school history. Hell we studied more of America's history than the history of England.

[Honzi]

Absolutely nothing. History is only 2 hours a week and in my case that was filled up with Swiss history, western European history (30 years war, world wars etc) and a shit ton of the French revolution, including Napoleon. There wasn't even space for ancient European history (Greeks, Romans).

edit: What I know about US history is from documentaries on TV.
edit2: That is if you're asking about the internal history of the USA starting with its war of independance. Of course we've been taught about Columbus. Also the international conflicts in the cold war were taught (cuba crisis, korea, vietnam).

[Deleted]

My question to you Limeys is: How did you learn about the USA and its founding if not in school?

We don't :P

Or at least, I didn't.

Honestly, no offence intended, but to me the history of the USA seems kinda boring, compared to other civilizations that are much older and much more interesting.

Ofc, this could simply be a product of me knowing sod all about the US, I simply can't say.

[Velosite]

We also watched the Obama speech when he was elected in the classroom.

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you recovered. :O

[Elim Garak]

We had learnt a lot from Columbus times thru colonization, slavery, then independence rebellion, stupid civil war, WWI participation, the great depression, dry law, WWII participation, and finally Cold War with Cuba, Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan coverage.

Not in the great detail, of course, but we had got the idea. We learnt who was the first US president (and who was the president during crucial historical moments - like Truman who nuked Japan in 1945), who wrote the bill of rights, etc. We also learnt about famous US people (science wise) - like Thomas Edison and Tesla. And we learnt where you got the Lady Liberty. How many states you had. Alaska history (how we stupidly sold it to you).

And not just US, some over major countries that were important too. England, France, Germany, China, etc. We got them covered too. Gotta know the enemy.

That was long ago though, I do not know what they teach about US today.

[Sobedesce]

American revolution, civil war, WWII (if you count that), great depresison/new deal, cold war, monroe doctrine/ good neighbor policy (guess that counts as involving my country though) and Gulf war. It's been quite a while, so i don't remeber it all, but i think that was it.


edit.
actually it went back as far as spanish/french/british colonization, the pilgrims and then the thirteen colonies

[Tokru]

Absolutely nothing. History is only 2 hours a week and in my case that was filled up with Swiss history, western European history (30 years war, world wars etc) and a shit ton of the French revolution, including Napoleon. There wasn't even space for ancient European history (Greeks, Romans).

No Romans in Swiss history classes?. That's kind of odd. We had several weeks about them, especially the Limes, although they barely touched German territory.

[Preau]

I'm not talking about learning about how the US and your native country interact, or how they have interacted in the past, I'm talking learning directly about 'American-only' things (i.e stuff that did not involve your home country at all, just the US).

As a Canadian, Lots. I took an entire semesters course on American history.

[Frozenbeef]

My question to you Limeys is: How did you learn about the USA and its founding if not in school?

What's the usa? :S

Fairly odd parents = signing of the declaration of Independence
adams family = thanks giving
wild wild west, simpsons, family guy = american civil war

[Deleted]

US only stuff? Well, I remember something about that their civil war increased cotton's price and impacted in Europe's economy. And the man on the moon, but that's Cold War and is not US only stuff.

[Kaosbringer]

A lot actually but that is likely because Canada (where I went to school) has a lot of interaction with the USA.

[ati87]

America is mentioned together with Russia when you have World War 2 lessons, Marshal Plan lessons and Cold War lessons.

But history about the American internal stuff isn't really interesting on a global scale is it now.

Sorry to say it but the only historical impact the US had for the last few 100 years revolves mostly around participating in wars (entering WW2, cold war, Vietnam, Iraq/Afgan).

If we start about country's who had huge impact on the world then we talk mostly about countries like France, Spain, Britain, Holland and Turkey (later probably not mentioned because they weren't a Christian Nation even though the impact the Ottoman empire had on the world can't be denied, basic stuff like coffee and yoghurt was introduced to Europe because of the Ottomans)

[Keakee]

Honestly, no offence intended, but to me the history of the USA seems kinda boring, compared to other civilizations that are much older and much more interesting.

Well, American here who loves history. It could just be the nationalism showing, but I find our history very engaging. I mean, learning how it rose from almost nothing to one of the world powers, while still being an infant compared to the rest of the nations...well, it keeps me occupied. We don't have as vibrant or rich a history as say, Europe, but we have produced some very interesting historical figures. That's my opinion, at least.

[Deleted]

Early settlers (Mayflower etc. blablabla), declaration of independence & subsequent war, civil war & slavery, colonization of the west, US foreign policy (nonintervention) in the late 19th century, role in WWI, the treaty of Versailles, WWII and the Cold War - all that in history.
American culture and modern history etc. in English class.

That's from a public school education in Germany. That being said, I imagine that many of my former classmates don't actually remember all of that anymore, so you might want to take some of the answers here with a grain of salt as well

[Deleted]

USA-only? Basically nothing. The most we heard about the USA was when we learned about the Cold War.

For me USA-History is boring anyways, so I didn't miss it.