When and where did you learn about Greek/roman and others mythology?

Morrus said:

I think you're confusing Robin Hood with someone else.

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I’m drawing on the older version who was a peasant and a rebel; the bit about him liking King Richard (and being a noble himself) is fairly late (18th century onwards) to make rich people feel better.

trappedslider said:

So, at least when i was growing up in the school system (1990-2004 roughly), I had never heard any mythology beyond knowing the basics due to Disney movies, then internet memes, then the Percy Jackson and other related books.

But what about you fellow forum users?

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I picked up mythology before school touched those subject (latin classes and litterature). I distinctly remember an end of year (where we were mostly playing and bringing games at school) where I brought a book about greek mythology at age 9, and there was an illustration of Pegasus on the cover. I remember a few of the people in my class thinking it was a book about Saint Seiya, because it was what Pegasus evoked to them, and I had to explain.

Morrus said:

I don't think receiving media from the USA makes NZ particularly unique. US culture is ubiquitous in the Western world. At least, modern US pop culture. History and mythology not so much.

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Sure, it's everywhere, but I think we just received so much more of it since our own media productuon wasn't all that well developed so we ended up with all sorts of shows that might not have been given a shot in the UK. You guys are so much more established in making movies and shows that you wouldn't have needed to plug the gaps, so to speak.

It's a gut feeling on my part, I haven't sat down and done any analysis on it.

We had some in early school. I seem to remember as well that there was an advent-calender based on Greek myths on tv when I was a child. Also got books about the various myths.

Books like these:

cbwjm said:

Sure, it's everywhere, but I think we just received so much more of it since our own media productuon wasn't all that well developed so we ended up with all sorts of shows that might not have been given a shot in the UK. You guys are so much more established in making movies and shows that you wouldn't have needed to plug the gaps, so to speak.

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Nah, we got absolutely tons of US content and still do. Probably not as much as Canada, however, who had to formulate the CanCon (Canadian content) rules for broadcasting to fund a decent level of local content, giving us such classics as Forever Knight, Schitt’s Creek, SCTV, Due South, Kim’s Convenience, and The Littlest Hobo.

(We actually got a fair bit of CanCon in the UK when I was a kid without realising it, such as The Littlest Hobo and Huck Finn.)

I graduated high school in 1986 in the USA and I remember taking a mythology class in high school and college. I feel like I also had one in elementary or junior high (I moved a lot so those all would have been different school systems in different states). Plus I have always been an avid reader so I sure I read about mythology when I was pretty young. I even remember having a conversation with friends as a kid about who our favorite god was. Almost everything I learned growing up until college was Greek & Roman mythology, I learned about other myths as I got older.

jian said:

Nah, we got absolutely tons of US content and still do. Probably not as much as Canada, however, who had to formulate the CanCon (Canadian content) rules for broadcasting to fund a decent level of local content, giving us such classics as Forever Knight, Schitt’s Creek, SCTV, Due South, Kim’s Convenience, and The Littlest Hobo.

(We actually got a fair bit of CanCon in the UK when I was a kid without realising it, such as The Littlest Hobo and Huck Finn.)

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If I remember correctly "Due South" was cancelled, by the US network that carried it, and later seasons were a joint Canadian/UK production."

jian said:

Nah, we got absolutely tons of US content and still do. Probably not as much as Canada, however, who had to formulate the CanCon (Canadian content) rules for broadcasting to fund a decent level of local content, giving us such classics as Forever Knight, Schitt’s Creek, SCTV, Due South, Kim’s Convenience, and The Littlest Hobo.

(We actually got a fair bit of CanCon in the UK when I was a kid without realising it, such as The Littlest Hobo and Huck Finn.)

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NZ is different due to the amount of foreign content, since there are no domestic quotas and too small a market to support a broad industry. NZ Content is 20-25% rarely going over 30 unless you count the joint NZ-Canadian productions. This contrast with Australia with its 50% local content and Canada at 40%.

Although TV broadcasting in NZ started in 1960 (with about 300 TVs in the nation) Real TV Broadcasts only went national in 1969 and was 40% UK content and 25% US and 30% Domestic News and Variety shows. The very first show broadcast was an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood (UK)

The 1980s brought colour and the rise of US content rising to 45-50% where its pretty much remains. UK content dropped to 20% and Australian rose to around 10%.

More relevantly though UK content tends to be Childrens Programming, Period Dramas, Comedy, Documentaries and Panel Shows (including Antiques Roadshow) whereas US content includes Primetime drama, Sitcoms, Police and Hospital Procedurals, Reality TV and Gameshows.

So linking back to OP NZ is more likely to have Childhood influences from UK but Youth programming from US (or Canada). BBC productions are considered more highbrow and better quality than US too

jian said:

Nah, we got absolutely tons of US content and still do. Probably not as much as Canada, however, who had to formulate the CanCon (Canadian content) rules for broadcasting to fund a decent level of local content, giving us such classics as Forever Knight, Schitt’s Creek, SCTV, Due South, Kim’s Convenience, and The Littlest Hobo.

(We actually got a fair bit of CanCon in the UK when I was a kid without realising it, such as The Littlest Hobo and Huck Finn.)

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And that's the thing, NZ is probably a bit more like Canada than the UK. I'm not saying that the UK got nothing, of course you received a lot but due to the UK's own well established media productions (compared to NZ) there were probably far less gaps to fill in in your TV programming so the ones in charge of your channels took all of the good stuff and didn't consider some of the lesser known stuff. That's my hypothesis anyway.

Actually, looks like @Tonguez has explained the NZ situation better than I am.