Dustin Hoffman was the Desert Island castaway this week. He obviously hadn’t quite grasped the idea of the programme & submitted a list of 14 records, which was of course ruthlessly pruned by the power that be.
He later admitted that he had never, to his shame, heard (of?) the show, but realised what a great idea it was, since ‘Music is the spine of everyone’s life.’
He had also, earlier, praised Kirsty for her ‘great questions.’ Would that English interviewees could adopt this American habit.
I think I first really noticed it years ago, when John Inverdale, in a then new venture of using sports journalists in current affairs, was presenting the afternoon news magazine on Radio 5 Live. He asked the father of an American pilot who had been disappeared (temporarily) over (I think) Yugoslavia, how he felt, then immediately apologised for ‘such a stupid question.’ The father replied, ‘No, it’s a good question’ & the conversation which opened up thereafter was very moving.
But Americans do not just use it in media interviews; you hear academics saying it to each other, even distinguished professors using it to students. It must be regarded as an essential element of American pedagogy, maybe child-rearing too (unless it's just a way of giving yourself time to think).
In England we tend to retain too much of the ‘seen & not heard’ attitudes, & of the belief that education consists in teachers telling you what is what & then expecting ‘learners’ to provide expected answers to preordained questions
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