Part of the lyrics from My Fair Lady mentions “A” to “Zed.” I think that was about 1956 or so. Every Broadway music lover was singing the lyrics, but I doubt that we were actually thinking about what we were singing. That’s been a few years – over half a century.
I’m surprised that still more people didn’t find “zed” in James Bond movies.
Our cultures and what we are interested in vary over here quite a bit. Some of us are Anglophiles. Others don’t speak English yet.
Zed’s just one of those wacky British things, same as all the extra U’s in words, an extra I in aluminum, and ph in sulfur.
I learned it in first grade, back in 1959. My grandson learned it from me before he went to school.
I think most reasonably educated Americans are aware that zed is how much of the English speaking world prounce the letter z, not just in Commonwealth countries, but in many places where English is a common second language.
That’s out of date, now.
To be fair, that’s the same in the UK as well, simply because people are too lazy to read subtitles.
You get British films though, and I doubt they are out in the ‘European’ section.
But, your main point is valid. Americans are certainly less exposed to foreign influences than Brits. It’s understandable when you consider I could get on a train in an hour’s time and be in Paris in two hours.
No it isn’t. The chemistry nomenclature people (IUPAC) ruled that in technical usage, the element should be spelt “sulfur”, but standard British English still spells it “sulphur” in all non-technical contexts.
I blame music.
I mean try to sing the A-B-C song and pronounce “Zed”.
Even the Eurythmics couldn’t save that one.
I learned it from musical group All Saints in the song Never Ever. That was back around 1998, so I would have been about 25 before I heard it.
Not unaware so much as indifferent. It really makes no difference how foreigners pronounce letters.
As if you have the first clue what an “average American” knows.
Pretty much this. It’s not necessarily that Americans don’t know, it’s that it doesn’t affect the way we do things so we don’t care.
Yeah! Many Americans also know that English people have bad teeth, Australia has koalas and boomerangs, and… aren’t there hobbits in New Zealand? Or should that be “New Zedland”?
This exactly. I know how the British pronounce the letter Z, but I’m not British and don’t live in the UK, so what difference does it make to me?
Even though it is ever so reprehensible that US natives are unaware of the customs and habits of those of other countries, and in fact many firmly believe things that they could disabuse themselves of with a few mouse clicks (like the amount of foreign aid the US dispenses for example), before everyone gets all contemptuous, take a look at a map, and realize that the vast majority of people in the US live at least a thousand miles from a foreign country with the exception of Mexico – which many unconsciously believe to be a US ghetto, not a real country. We are vast. If having a passport allowed one to drive to France for a nice dinner that would be one thing. The reasons that the US population is ignorant about the cultures of the world aren’t just because we’re pugnaciously stupid.
Although that is a factor.
Unless the pronunciation difference leads to a war that threatens our oil supply, we just don’t care how others pronounce things. They’re foreigners, wrong by definition, and they probably eat weird shit too. 
At least a thousand miles away huh? Really? Look north!
Americans, geez honestly!
“Foreign.”
Canada is just North North Dakota.
What are you saying about Canada? That we consciously believe it to be a US ghetto?
Notes: Montreal is only a 371 mile drive from New York City. Toronto is not much farther.
We don’t need a passport to experience cultural diversity. Not trying to get all defensive here, but you seem to equate having a passport to a level of cultural knowledge. Your average American town will have resturants influenced by dozens of cultures, as do the meals a family prepares at home.
Here in America, different cultures come to US.