Blowing Rock Master wrote:
I spent 10 days at Lornah Kiplagat's camp in Iten in 2006. At the camp with me were 2 Americans, an Englishman, a Scot, 2 Dutchmen, a South African, 2 Austrians, an Australian, and of course a bunch of Kenyans. Conversation during meals, runs, and hanging out in town or the Keirio View was usually lively.
Here is the list of topics I never heard anybody discuss - history, philosophy, or art. Music and movies got briefly mentioned in passing. Only 2 conversations were about politics - one with a Kenyan taxi driver when I corrected his delusion that the US government isn't corrupt, and the other with the Scottish Catholic who enlightened me about the religious prejudice that still exists in Scotland. 90% of all the conversations were about running and people's lives.
The premise of this thread isn't true. Americans aren't uniquely boring. People are the same all over the world. They are wrapped up in their own lives so that is what they are most likely to talk about.