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This article serves to illustrate how different America is from the rest of the world. Outside America nobody knows what NFL is beyond that it is some strange v

This article serves to illustrate how different America is from the rest of the world. Outside America nobody knows what NFL is beyond that it is some strange variant on the football theme, related to football in no more way than how a whale is related to a dog. Then there are 'customary units'. Outside America nobody knows what a pound of weight is, is that pound of 'customary units' the same as an 'Imperial' pound? Nobody knows, particularly when applied to body weight. The height situation is better, there are places like the UK where Imperial measurements are used for height, but, in mainland Europe and beyond, I doubt anyone knows what 6' tall means. I imagine that in America it is hard to see this perspective on how different America is, and, most of the time with most HN stories there is no cultural barrier to understanding things, yet this story is an edge case and reminds me how different American culture really is.

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mahranch 12y ago
> Outside America nobody knows what NFL is beyond that it is some strange variant on the football theme I think this is extremely misinformed. Did you know that there is a world cup for gridiron football? It's the IFAF World Championship. And believe it or not, Japan is ranked 1st right now, with the U.S ranked second. American football was pretty well known in Japan and before I left, was becoming increasingly more popular among high school and college aged kids. The also continually sell out games in London every year. The broadcasts there get extremely high ratings. I think the "myth" that the rest of the world doesn't know what American football is died sometime in the 90s. It's been on the rise globally: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/sports/football/13iht-nflchina13.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/sports/football/13iht-nflc...
rlanday 12y ago
Why are you complaining on an American internet community about our choice of unit system and the terminology we use for naming different sports? The United States has distinct cultural features just like every other country. I waste a fair amount of time arguing on the internet, but I’ve never felt the need to find articles about European football and complain that people shouldn’t call soccer “football” because American football is better, that people who use the metric system feel compelled to tell other people they’re stupid for using different systems, and that Europeans are jerks for charging for restroom access and restaurants not giving free soda refills.

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mahranch 12y ago

> Outside America nobody knows what NFL is beyond that it is some strange variant on the football theme I think this is extremely misinformed. Did you know that there is a world cup for gridiron football? It's the IFAF World Championship. And believe it or not, Japan is ranked 1st right now, with the U.S ranked second. American football was pretty well known in Japan and before I left, was becoming increasingly more popular among high school and college aged kids. The also continually sell out games in London every year. The broadcasts there get extremely high ratings. I think the "myth" that the rest of the world doesn't know what American football is died sometime in the 90s. It's been on the rise globally: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/sports/football/13iht-nflchina13.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/sports/football/13iht-nflc...

rlanday 12y ago

Why are you complaining on an American internet community about our choice of unit system and the terminology we use for naming different sports? The United States has distinct cultural features just like every other country. I waste a fair amount of time arguing on the internet, but I’ve never felt the need to find articles about European football and complain that people shouldn’t call soccer “football” because American football is better, that people who use the metric system feel compelled to tell other people they’re stupid for using different systems, and that Europeans are jerks for charging for restroom access and restaurants not giving free soda refills.