Americans tend to think the rest of the world knows all about us, and thinks about us a lot. Pays close attention to our doings. How many times have you heard some idiot jock exclaim, “We shocked the world!”? And mean it. Because, sure, everyone in Africa and Asia and South American thought American Team X had zero chance against American Team Y. It was all anyone talked about, in Caracas and Soweto and Singapore.

Well, rest assured, no matter the U.S. pro sports event — up to and including the Super Bowl — 90 percent of the world doesn’t know what happened. Nor does it care.

The world does care more, however, about American elections. Presidential elections, anyway. Because U.S. policies have far-reaching impact around the world. Many of them in ways most Americans, childishly self-centered, never think about.

In Hong Kong, the changing of presidents, and the inauguration of Barack Obama today … is an American event that actually is getting some attention.

The Hong Kong media, like nearly all of it around the globe, seemed pleased when Obama won the election, back in November.

In many places, and I believe this includes Hong Kong, there was a certain wonderment — amazement even — that someone from a minority group could win such an important election. I believe many of the planet’s people of color, including Asians, liked that idea. A lot.

I was in a cab just after New Year’s Day. Almost three weeks ago. The driver was the most fluent in English of all the cabbies I’ve ridden with. The bar isn’t high, no, because most of the cabbies seem to come from the mainland and know hardly more English than I know Cantonese …

But this guy had some English. And he wanted to practice it. Or show off. Or just chat.

He asked me if I was an American. I said yes. And he turned on a huge smile and said, “Obama!” …. with an accent not quite in the right place. He pronounced it oh-ba-MAH. Which would be more Chinese, yes.

As he said it, he gave me a thumb’s-up signal, with the big smile still spread over his face.

Then he bent over to a little calendar hanging below the cab’s meter. And with a finger on his left hand he poked the third Tuesday in the month and turned and smiled.

I was worried about the guy driving into the back of a bus, or over a batch of pedestrians, but I knew what he was saying. He was pointing at the day when Obama would become president, Jan. 20.

And I said to him, as clearly as I could, “Yes. In-aug-u-ra-tion Day.” And he attempted to say it, without much success, but give him credit for trying.

It occurred to me, later, that it was a little presumptuous, on his part, to assume that every American voted for Obama. Turns out, something like 46 percent of those who went to the polls did not.

But then it struck me that if he were from mainland China, where elections feature only one party, and the Communist Party hacks who “run” get 100 percent of the vote … maybe it would be natural for him to assume all Americans must have voted for oh-ba-MAH, because that is how elections work, right?

Obama’s inauguration will, I believe, be shown on local cable television. I’ve seen lots of what appear to be promotions for something involving Obama — though the audio is all Chinese. But I’m guessing that at 1 p.m. Wednesday here — noon Tuesday in Washington — there will be some U.S. inaugural coverage on local TV.

(And could you imagine American TV showing, ever, the accession of any foreign political leader? And, no a king of queen of England is not really a political leader.)

Anyway, my little chat with the enthused cabbie happened nearly three weeks ago. But I haven’t forgotten the quasi-conversation. I’ve thought more about it.

And I have taken away two concepts from the happy, thumbs-up cabbie.

1. Obama’s election was a popular event in most of the world, and perhaps particularly in the non-Euro parts of the world, where the idea of a non-white man being elected in a mostly white country … just boggles people’s minds. “Americans would do that?”

2. No matter your political affiliation, all Americans can take pride in something we don’t think much about. That on one day we can go to the polls and change the direction of our city. Our state. Our country. That, too, is an amazing concept in much of the world. Even in a place as modern and thriving as Hong Kong. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back.

And we should try to remember that sometimes just the example of our open and free political system — in which one man today will give up awe-inspiring power and hand it over to a man from another political party, without a shot being fired — deeply impresses most of the other 6 billion people on the planet. As much as anything else we say or do.