Council of Australians For Uneducated Americans

[longlongwaytogo]

http://www.johnsons.id.au/?p=54 :D Oh this is good. It's two pictures, educating people about things that do not happen.

Remember you can feel free to post up entries too, about what ever's on your mind that's somehow related to Australia!

Comments

[patriciaofoz]

And they all insist Koalas are bears.

But sadly, it's not only Americans who just don't get us.

[greytweed]

I think that a small part of that comes from the early white settlers to Australia, who did refer to koalas as "bears."

People do the same thing with pandas, who look even more bear-like, despite being more-closely related to raccoons and polecats.

[longlongwaytogo]

http://www.greatbear.org/pandabear.htm actually, pandas *are* bears. They discovered this fairly recently. :)

Yep, the early settlers were calling them 'native bears'. But it's weird to me that so many overseas people have to tack 'bear' onto the end of it. Koala bear. Panda bear. etc. Why not just Koalas and pandas.

[greytweed]

That's excellent news about the panda--and of course it would be genetic testing that would finally solve that debate. I am SO behind the times on science issues! :-)

As to the "bear" question, here's my best guess: only one of the breeds of North American native bears are designated by a single term, like "koala" or "panda," and those are "grizzlies"---and that use is only occasional. Otherwise the breeds are "brown bears," "black bears," "polar bears," Kodiak bears," and "grizzly bears."

[greytweed]

The kid with the Fosters made me howl. I need to send this to a couple of friends!

[ladymurha]

Oh god, I can't stop laughing. I had no idea people actually thought these things happen!

[ktnflag]

Hysterical! *forwards to all my clueless American friends*