Colourful Gaols and Realisations

aka: Why people think Americans have no concept of the world outside the USA. Sometimes on this big intarweb thingy, we come into contact with people from different countries and they might have different ways of expressing things or even (shock horror), spelling things. Witness this slashdot posting (which has no particularly worthwhile content but a non-american spelling of “gaol”). Note the flamewar that ensues. The first response (regarding the nineteenth century wanting it’s spelling back) is naive yet funny. My response was pointed and uncalled for but providing a at least somewhat humorous correction. Then it all went downhill. How is it that Americans manage to so consistently portray this image of absolute ignorance towards anyone outside their own country (and no I don’t just mean on slashdot…)? It’s like all the support queries that come in at work after people discover we’re in Australia – they all start with “Good day mate!”. How is it that these people can’t learn to spell “Good day” in Australian properly (G’Day)? And don’t even get me started on American actors trying to do Australian accents…. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to go wrestle a crocodile or two… Crikey!