Dumb Americans?

[catalyna_99]

We have moved the "dumbing for Americans" from the main list.

> > Judy said:
> > >Maybe the reason for this asymmetry is that here
> in the US, we have
> > >little exposure to British popular culture. 
> Perhaps in England,
> > >people have some amount of exposure to American
> TV shows, songs, etc.,
> > >and pick up some US slang.

But what irks me, this is a recent phenomena. In
the 19th century and early to mid 1900s this was not
considered necessary.  I read some children's
magazines my aunt had that were written about 1918,
the terms were definitely British and no one thought
about changing them.  The stories usually took place
in boarding schools (ala Tom Brown) and at first I was
a little confused by words such as bags for trousers,
biscuits for cookies, plus the term fag and fagging
meaning a younger student having to serve an older
form student by fetching, cleaning out the fireplaces,
etc.  The confusion was brief however, because I could
get the meaning from the context.  Why do we think
that children now can't do what we did before?  

Cat

Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing, keep 
pretending.--Kermit the Frog