History Main / CultureBlind

* Riff from ''SluggyFreelance'' apparently didn't know that people get weekends off from work. It's somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since he had never worked a 9-to-5 job before, but even so that seems like something he should have picked up from TV or something.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' encourages the player to explore the Bikanel Desert so as to learn the Al Bhed language. Ignoring the fact that, if you are a returning player, you had the chance to learn the language in the [[{{VideoGame/FinalFantasyX}} previous game]], one of the main playable characters in this game ''is an Al Bhed'' and was previously established as fluent in the language!
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* A rather fatal example comes from the series ''Literature/TheTamuli'' by DavidEddings. The church of Elenia continuously sends missionaries to the Rendors in order to try to convert them to their beliefs. Mind you, the Rendors aren't bad people, but they take their religion ''very'' seriously, and while they usually don't go around slaughtering nonbelievers, they are very easily angered, especially when it comes to religion. And unfortunately, the missionaries that the Elenes send tend to be the screaming zealot type, and go around ripping the veils off of women, and screaming that they're all heretics and damned to burn in hell. The end result is a small riot, and a lynched missionary, for very obvious reasons.

* Datak Tarr in ''Series/{{Defiance}}'', a [[HumanALien Castithan]] community and underworld leader in the titular town. He constantly views everything around him from his own culture's viewpoint and doesn't understand why humans don't act more like Castithans. For reference, the events take place on ''Earth'', meaning Datak should really learn the customs of the people whose homeworld he lives on.

* Datak Tarr in ''Series/{{Defiance}]'', a [[HumanALien Castithan]] community and underworld leader in the titular town. He constantly views everything around him from his own culture's viewpoint and doesn't understand why humans don't act more like Castithans. For reference, the events take place on ''Earth'', meaning Datak should really learn the customs of the people whose homeworld he lives on.

* Mr. Miyagi of ''Film/TheKarateKid'' movies is an example of this trope to an extent. In the first movie, having him use broken English was acceptable because we didn't get to learn very much about him beyond being the wise old Asian man who helps the main character learn self-confidence as well as self-defense. After learning in the second movie that he emigrated to the USA at the age of 18, 45 years earlier, his broken English makes quite a bit less sense.
** Possibly justified if Miyagi spent most of the intervening 45 years living in a majority Japanese-American neighbourhood; newly-arrived immigrants tending to cluster together and thus never having the need or the opportunity to fully master the local language is a well-established phenomenon.
** TruthInTelevision. One of my relatives has been a naturalized American citizen for almost 50 years, and lived among a majority English-speaking neighborhood, and ''still'' pronounces English almost like Mr. Miyagi does (even though they ''understand'' English just fine). Some people just have a zero in linguistic aptitude.

''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' encourages the player to explore the Bikanel Desert so as to learn the Al Bhed language. Ignoring the fact that, if you are a returning player, you had the chance to learn the language in the [[{{VideoGame/FinalFantasyX}} previous game]], one of the main playable characters in this game ''is an Al Bhed'' and was previously established as fluent in the language!

Like PingPongNaivete, except instead of back-and-forth, it's stalled completely except when the character's in front of a camera. The alternative to AsYouKnow; since it's bizarrely "As You Don't Know." See also GenreBlind, which is similar to CultureBlind except that it extends to a character's entire reality.

Of course, people like this do exist in RealLife, although probably not to the extreme degree that they do in fiction; some people, for whatever reason, just don't get out much, listen to the radio, or watch the news. In addition, people with {{Autism}} or AspergersSyndrome may not understand acceptable forms of behaviour due to the very nature of their conditions.

* ''{{Naruto}}''. At least Naruto himself is a dumbass, but one wonders exactly what they've been studying for years prior to the beginning of the show since ''every single thing'' needs to be explained.

* Miaka from ''FushigiYugi''. Sure, she [[TimeTravel traveled into the past to ancient China]]... but some of her actions can't even be justified using that as an excuse. One example that stands out is in the beginning, when she was with Tamahome watching the Emperor's procession in the city. Tamahome jokes that in exchange for his help, he wants her to get him a jewel off the Emperor's hat. She then actually proceeds to run up to the Emperor's palanquin, yelling for the Emperor to give her a jewel from his hat, and proceeds to grab at the palanquin and break part of it. And she acts ''shocked'' when the soldiers grab her and attempt to execute her. Think about it for a second in equivalent terms of a modern-day society: She runs up to the prime minister's car, grabbing at the car door and breaking parts of it, while screaming demands for the PM to give her ¥50,000. Miaka must have been living under a rock all her life, because no ordinary high school student (who supposedly gets high marks) would think (when not under the influence) that that would be a good idea.
* In ''HunterXHunter'', the first arc of the story has Gon and Killua understanding their world and culture just fine. And then the second arc comes... and all of a sudden, ''everyone'' except Gon and Killua know all about the techniques of Nen, Ren, Zen, etc. and have apparently known about it all along. So they end up having to start from the beginning, learning the basics and everything about it. It makes one wonder how in the world neither of them (who were actually considered ''strong'' in the first arc) were ever taught anything about it. It especially doesn't make sense in Killua's case, since he was supposed to come from a super powerful family of assassins.
* Exists in ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'', as the anime is about American football, something relatively unknown in Japan. One big example is a news reporter who came to the Devil Bats vs. White Knights game solely to cover athlete/model Haruto Sakuraba, and kept asking questions about how things worked. And on more than occasion an outsider has mistaken the game for rugby. Additionally, NASA Aliens receiver Jeremy Watt is an OccidentalOtaku whose actual knowledge of Japanese language and culture is extremely limited, and often hilariously flawed.

** Jeremy Watt, however, is just a {{Cloudcuckoo Lander}}.
* Gino Weinberg of ''CodeGeass'' knows little about civilian life being a [[UpperClassTwit clueless nobleman]].

* Mr. Miyagi of TheKarateKid movies is an example of this trope to an extent. In the first movie, having him use broken English was acceptable because we didn't get to learn very much about him beyond being the wise old Asian man who helps the main character learn self-confidence as well as self-defense. After learning in the second movie that he emigrated to the USA at the age of 18, 45 years earlier, his broken English makes quite a bit less sense.

* A rather fatal example comes from the series ''TheTamuli'' by DavidEddings. The church of Elenia continuously sends missionaries to the Rendors in order to try to convert them to their beliefs. Mind you, the Rendors aren't bad people, but they take their religion ''very'' seriously, and while they usually don't go around slaughtering nonbelievers, they are very easily angered, especially when it comes to religion. And unfortunately, the missionaries that the Elenes send tend to be the screaming zealot type, and go around ripping the veils off of women, and screaming that they're all heretics and damned to burn in hell. The end result is a small riot, and a lynched missionary, for very obvious reasons.

* ''TheBigBangTheory'': Sheldon Cooper. Although some of that could be because he's a) an example of ComedicSociopathy and b) a long way along the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale.

* ''{{Bones}}'': Another example, although less blatant, is Brennan. Although she's focused primarily on her work, she displays a remarkable ignorance of current culture, which is odd given that she clearly wasn't always like that (she's a ''WonderWoman'' fan, likes classic rock, but still has no idea what's in any movie or TV show released in the last 20 years).

* ''TheOffice'': Michael Scott from the American version could be this trope's poster child. His misunderstanding of other races and cultures is massive.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Jaune Arc is completely ignorant of things every warrior should know, like [[BattleAura Aura]].

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}'', Jaune Arc is completely ignorant of things every warrior should know, like [[BattleAura Aura]].

** Worf as well, should act as human as Riker. He's raised among humans, knows human values and ethics, but acts as if he's fresh off the boat from Quonos most of the time. While it doesn't excuse outright ignorance, a lot of his failing to fit in is implied to be overcompensation for just that. He is described as having spent much of his time growing up embracing his heritage and trying to be as Klingon as possible in Human society. That combined with his formantive years being among Klingons, makes it pretty reasonable. Guinan [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this in one episode, telling him outright that most Klingons [[BoisterousBruiser do not]] act as [[TheStoic stiff and stoic]] as he does.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Granted, she's been purposefully kept sheltered for most of her life and their settlement is supposedly out of the way...but how does someone spend 15 years growing up in [[AWorldHalfFull a post-Blackout world]] and ''still'' not fully grasp [[AppealToForce how things work]] there? Fortunately, she has come a long way since then.

** OTOH, when he refuses to buy Leonard a birthday present, Howard encourages Penny to tell Sheldon that it's a "non-optional social convention," at which point Sheldon happily capitulates.

* A rather fatal example comes from the series ''TheTamuli'' by DavidEddings. The church of Elenia continuously sends missionaries to the Rendors in order to try to convert them to their beliefs. Mind you, the Rendors aren't bad people, but they take their religion VERY seriously, and while they usually don't go around slaughtering nonbelievers, they are very easily angered, especially when it comes to religion. And unfortunately, the missionaries that the Elenes send tend to be the screaming zealot type, and go around ripping the veils off of women, and screaming that they're all heretics and damned to burn in hell. The end result is a small riot, and a lynched missionary, for very obvious reasons.
** One knight, who had been assigned to be the bodyguard of a missionary that ended up this way, was asked why he didn't stop the crowd from lynching his charge. His reply is that he was supposed to protect the man from UNPROVOKED attacks, and when a man runs through the streets of a foreign city, ripping the veils off of women, and screaming out that they're all heretics, he's not only provoked them, but is obviously [[TooDumbToLive too stupid]] to risk himself and his men trying to save him.

* Classic example is Data from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Although his backstory has him serving in Starfleet for almost two decades after he was discovered and before he's assigned to the ship, apparently no one bothered to talk to him for all that time because it's only when he arrives on the ''Enterprise'' that he starts learning about things like aphorisms, clichés, common sayings, human social behaviour and the like.
** Data, at least, was somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the ExpandedUniverse; in the {{prequel}} novel ''The Buried Age'', Picard discovers him working as a records clerk in a backwater spacestation, where [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman he's largely treated as a machine, not a person]], so no-one ''does'' talk to him, except to make specific requests. (That still doesn't explain how he got through the Academy without ever hearing the phrase "wild goose chase", of course.)
** Worf as well, should act as human as Riker. He's raised among humans, knows human values and ethics, but acts as if he's fresh off the boat from Quonos most of the time. While it doesn't excuse outright ignorance, a lot of his failing to fit in is implied to be overcompensation for just that. He is described as having spent much of his time growing up embracing his heritage and trying to be as Klingon as possible in Human society. That combined with his formantive years being among Klingons, makes it pretty reasonable. Guinan [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this in one episode, telling him outright that most Klingons [[BoisterousBruiser do not]] act as [[TheStoic stiff and stoic]] as he does.
*** His stiff nature is itself lampshaded and explained in a later episode of Deep Space Nine, when he explains that as a youth living among humans, he accidentally killed another boy with a head-butt during a soccer match. It was accepted as an accident by everyone involved, but he realized how [[WorldOfCardboardSpeech frail humans were compared to him and decided that to live among them, he had to always stay in control of himself.]]
* Another example, although less blatant, is Brennan from ''{{Bones}}''. Although she's focused primarily on her work, she displays a remarkable ignorance of current culture, which is odd given that she clearly wasn't always like that (she's a ''WonderWoman'' fan, likes classic rock, but still has no idea what's in any movie or TV show released in the last 20 years).

* Michael Scott from the American version of ''TheOffice'' could be this trope's poster child. His misunderstanding of other races and cultures is massive.
* Sheldon Cooper in ''TheBigBangTheory''. Although some of that could be because he's a) an example of ComedicSociopathy and b) a long way along the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale.
** OTOH, when he refuses to buy Leonard a birthday present, Howard encourages Penny to tell Sheldon that it's a "non-optional social convention," at which point Sheldon happily capitulates.

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* In ''{{Mulan}} II'', Mulan is shocked when she hears that three princesses have been betrothed in an arranged marriage. This shouldn't surprise her, as it is most likely one of the most normal things in the world where and when she lives, and her own marriage to Shang for love is probably a huge exception.

** Seems to cut both ways with Chick himself (for starters, he seems to think that Muslims worship a ''moon god.'')

** Seems to cut both ways with Chick himself (for starters, he seems to think that Muslims worship a ''moon god.''

* Mr. Miyagi of the ''[[TheKarateKid Karate Kid]]'' movies is an example of this trope to an extent. In the first movie, having him use broken English was acceptable because we didn't get to learn very much about him beyond being the wise old Asian man who helps the main character learn self-confidence as well as self-defense. After learning in the second movie that he emigrated to the USA at the age of 18, 45 years earlier, his broken English makes quite a bit less sense.