Sigh* Ignore my post below. Are Americans hated in other countries?

[Stacy in NJ]

:001_smile:

[Rosie_0801]

Come to Eastern Europe, we can turn a 2 lane road into 5 and pass cars against traffic (and if you have the bigger car expect the guy in his lane to move). We can drive on sidewalks and park on round-abouts. I have seen people drive against traffic on divided highways and always remember that mass makes right so those pedestrians better get out of the way! Remember traffic lights are merely for decoration.

 

Driving with my cousin in Poland was nearly enough to convert me to Catholicism.

 

 

:scared:

Rosie- wondering where us Aussies fall on Stacy's chart. What do yo think Aussies? Shall we vote #2?

Edited January 10, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[lovemyboys]

I expect developing countries to have chaotic roads - it's just part of development. I wasn't expecting it in California though.

 

Laura

 

Actually, I was thinking that you were lucky, especially if in SoCal, not to be in a 5 mph crawl for miles upon miles.

[lovemyboys]

:hurray::hurray::hurray::iagree: Awesome post!! So very true. No need to go any further. God bless America!!!!!!!!!! :D

 

Well done! Absolutely awesome!

 

Thanks. :thumbup1: :cheers2:

 

 

Like your sig line too. Ain't that the truth -- A little perspective is an amazing thing.

[Laura Corin]

Actually, I was thinking that you were lucky, especially if in SoCal, not to be in a 5 mph crawl for miles upon miles.

 

The traffic moved along.

 

Laura

[kalanamak]

A lot of the German tourists used to tell me that they thought it was like the Wild West before they came. They thought there would be Indians running around everywhere or something like that. :eek:

 

Despite 20 years of living in the US and traveling as far from Queens NYC as Florida, my ex IL's (from the Panjab), when they heard their darling son was moving to Seattle, wanted to know if we

1) needed to strap extra gas tanks on the rental truck to make it across Montana and

2) If they would need to ship us vegetables.

3) If we were worried about mountain lions.

 

Anyone who knows what veggies were like in NYC before they were rediscovered in late 80's will know how funny #2 is. Shipping vegetables from NYC to Seattle. :lol:

[Ibbygirl]

Despite 20 years of living in the US and traveling as far from Queens NYC as Florida, my ex IL's (from the Panjab), when they heard their darling son was moving to Seattle, wanted to know if we

1) needed to strap extra gas tanks on the rental truck to make it across Montana and

2) If they would need to ship us vegetables.

3) If we were worried about mountain lions.

 

Anyone who knows what veggies were like in NYC before they were rediscovered in late 80's will know how funny #2 is. Shipping vegetables from NYC to Seattle. :lol:

 

ROFL :lol::lol::lol: That's funny. It's funny how we get these misconceptions. My own mother, who is from Tampa (Florida's west coast) and moved to Ft. Lauderdale when she got married (where I was born and raised) used to tell me all the time, "Don't go down to Miami. You'll get shot!" As if they open fire on you as soon as you cross the county line or something. lol Well, I'm happy to say that I have been to Miami many many times (used to work both in Miami Lakes and in Kendall) and haven't been shot at once! hehe My mom thinks I'm lucky. hehehe

 

btw, if you have some nice curry recipes to pass along I'm all ears. :bigear: :) I LOVE Indian food. :)

[lionfamily1999]

Actually my SIL and I were having this conversation last night. Both of us said we would move to Australia if we could afford it, but the HUGE spiders will make us stay in our freezing cold part of the world.

 

When I was younger, and not speaking to people from all over the world online I thought all Americans were morons. All of my friends that travelled the states came back with stories of the idiots they spoke to that honestly believed we lived in igloos and used dog sleds etc. The band director in high school came back after their tour laughing about how the man who worked at a service station within eye sight of the border crossing did not understand where Alberta was. All I knew was those stories and what I saw on the news etc. I thought Americans were idiots, bloodthirsty and constantly in search of world domination.

 

Since I started spending time online, my views have changed for sure. Now I know Americans are not all idiots or bloodthirsty...as for world domination, well the jury is still out on that one :tongue_smilie:;)

One of my absolute favorite Jim Carrey stand-ups is when he talks about coming from the frozen tundra of Canada. My dad's family moved to Canada from France (Brodeur, yes I'm proud of em') and then down to Mass. I thought it was HIL.AR.I.OUS that enough Americans thought that way the Jim Carey would come up with an entire bit about it. (Then Tanto, my faithful eskimo friend and I...)

From a Canadian, this I can understand. But from folks from the US I just can't work out where after trumpeting their constitution and right to bear arms and healthcare issues they would want to come to a country with UHC and no right to bear arms (among other issues we appear to have with regards "lack of freedom") I sometimes wonder if this board gives me a rather warped view of the average American.

Dh would like to live there, but keep his citizenship. If I had to leave here, I would have preferred Australia. Granted, that was before it was revealed what low opinions y'all have of Americans. Sort of seems like jumping from the frying pan and into the fire now ;)

because when you ask an American "if you HAD to leave the US" the understood reasoning is that you are asking about a time [that might be coming] when the Constitution, our rights, and the representative republic have been DESTROYED.

 

In that case, there would be nothing to lose.

 

oh-- and remember that when y'all look at foreign aid $$, the US has quite a hefty amount of personal giving to private charities: we don't rely on the gvt to disperse all our charitable funds for us. ;)

Exactly!

:001_smile:

It was a wonderful post :D

[keptwoman]

Driving with my cousin in Poland was nearly enough to convert me to Catholicism.

 

 

:scared:

Rosie- wondering where us Aussies fall on Stacy's chart. What do yo think Aussies? Shall we vote #2?

LOL I was thinking there were quite a number of items there that would also apply to Australia :) Particularly as regards a place where people head for safety and freedom, and a country people look to for help :)

 

People pass on both sides on the freeways here too :)

[Rosie_0801]

Dh would like to live there, but keep his citizenship. If I had to leave here, I would have preferred Australia. Granted, that was before it was revealed what low opinions y'all have of Americans. Sort of seems like jumping from the frying pan and into the fire now ;)

 

 

I don't think you could hack the process of assimilation. You'd have to learn to stop thinking of "y'all" as a word.

 

;) :P

Rosie

[HollyinNNV]

You shouldn't concern yourself overly much with the opinions of non-Americans.

 

America is the great mirror. We're whatever everyone else needs us to be...

 

We're the great imperialist aggressor if they need to justify their aggressive, religion based expansionist ideology.

 

We're a bunch of puritanical, bible toting, gun clinging, racist rednecks if they need to justify their post-religious cultural nihilism.

 

We're sexual deviants out to destroy the cultural's of natives if they need to justify the oppession of women and gays.

 

We're the promised land of financial and personal freedom if they need to justify their flight from authoritarian, oppressive homelands.

 

We're the hyper-competitive promoters of social injustice if they need a foil for their expansion of authoritarian social democracy.

 

We're the last great desperate hope for those subject to genocide.

 

We're the slack, lazy fallen empire to those that need to justify their desire to financially, religiously, culturally dominate.

 

Sooooo, we are everything..........And their opinions shift like beach sand under the feet.........as they need us to be something different.

 

Some of their needs, dreams, and criticisms are rational, a great many are not. As an American, its your job to figure out the difference, consider, and act accordingly. :001_smile:

 

Stacy,

This is probably one of the best posts I've ever read on this board. Thanks for making my night!

Holly

[TXMomof4]

I don't think you could hack the process of assimilation. You'd have to learn to stop thinking of "y'all" as a word.

 

;) :P

Rosie

 

What?!? Is that not in your dictionaries down there??? They really must not teach much at your schools! :tongue_smilie: Every well educated person should be fluent in the use of y'all and all y'all.

[Lisa in Jax]

We've traveled to Germany, India, Ireland, Scotland and England since 2003. With one exception, we have not experienced any obvious prejudice against us as Americans. Quite the opposite, in fact. When we traveled to India to adopt, we heard "lucky baby" from total strangers several times a day. It was quite surprising, actually, given that we'd heard so often how disliked American were in other countries.

 

The only rude people we have encountered on our various trips were not locals, but tourists from France. On our recent trip to Ireland, a group of French soccer players sat down at the next table in a pub where we had stopped for lunch. I said, "Excuse me," when I needed to get past one of the men to get the bathroom. He mimicked my accent in a high voice and glared at me w/o moving out of the way. When I got back to the table a couple of minutes later, he proceeded to talk to his friends loudly (in French) while looking at us and making rude gestures toward our table.

 

I'm not sure what I did to deserve his derision, because prior to this, we'd been sitting at our table, chatting quietly while we waited for our lunches. I guess that this particular Frenchman thought it was all right to be rude to me based solely on my nationality. I doubt he would have appreciated it if I had done the same to him.

 

Lisa

[Rosie_0801]

What?!? Is that not in your dictionaries down there???

 

No, it is not.

 

They really must not teach much at your schools! :tongue_smilie:

 

No, they do not!

 

Every well educated person should be fluent in the use of y'all and all y'all.

 

Lost me there, Sistah ;) If you wanna come here, you havta learn a new dialect. "Youse," which sounds like "ooze" but with a "y" at the start is the correct word to use instead of y'all. Okeydokey? ;) Except "youse" isn't a word. I'm nitpicking over the correct form of words that aren't. Heat exhaustion has addled my brain...

 

41C, which is something like 107F. At least we're not on fire...

 

Rosie- melting some of these :chillpill: on her forehead

[IsabelC]

If I had to leave here, I would have preferred Australia. Granted, that was before it was revealed what low opinions y'all have of Americans. Sort of seems like jumping from the frying pan and into the fire now

 

OK, now I will have to think of a list of nice things to say about Americans.

 

1. Some of them are very helpful with classical homeschooing info ;) (thanks to those who have taken the time to give me advice MWAH)

 

2. Accents. I *love* accents, and you have such a fantastic variety.( I would love to have this forum as an audio presentation just so I can hear how all the members here talk.)

 

3. More interesting history, and great speeches to make the kids memorize. Of course Australia has an interesting history as well, but unfortunately we didn't have written records until later in the piece. And we didn't have a war of independence. (Hey, maybe that's why we're not quite independent, duh)

 

4. It is a republic. (I won't say anything about the style of republic and the political processes.)

 

5. It has made a huge contribution to music

 

6. Ditto writing (I have to confess I elected to take American Lit at uni in preference to Australian Lit - don't tell anyone!)

 

OK, I'm off to do stuff with my kids, but I will come back and add to this.

[Ibbygirl]

I'm not sure what I did to deserve his derision, because prior to this, we'd been sitting at our table, chatting quietly while we waited for our lunches. I guess that this particular Frenchman thought it was all right to be rude to me based solely on my nationality. I doubt he would have appreciated it if I had done the same to him.

 

Lisa

 

Sounds to me like he's just a jerk and they're universal. I'm sure that guy would be a jerk to whomever no matter what country they were from. ;)

[Lisa in Jax]

Sounds to me like he's just a jerk and they're universal. I'm sure that guy would be a jerk to whomever no matter what country they were from. ;)

 

I agree. That's why I said "that particular Frenchman." ;)

 

The part that bothered me most was that he seemed to feel *entitled* to be rude to a total stranger for no obvious reason. What an a$$.

 

Lisa

[lionfamily1999]

What?!? Is that not in your dictionaries down there??? They really must not teach much at your schools! :tongue_smilie: Every well educated person should be fluent in the use of y'all and all y'all.

:lol:

No, it is not.

 

 

 

No, they do not!

 

 

 

Lost me there, Sistah ;) If you wanna come here, you havta learn a new dialect. "Youse," which sounds like "ooze" but with a "y" at the start is the correct word to use instead of y'all. Okeydokey? ;) Except "youse" isn't a word. I'm nitpicking over the correct form of words that aren't. Heat exhaustion has addled my brain...

 

41C, which is something like 107F. At least we're not on fire...

 

Rosie- melting some of these :chillpill: on her forehead

So... youse guys are like the wise guys up north?

 

Now I'm scared :p

 

It's 23 here. What's that in your language... 50 below? :lol: (and yes, this is a joke)

OK, now I will have to think of a list of nice things to say about Americans.

 

1. Some of them are very helpful with classical homeschooing info ;) (thanks to those who have taken the time to give me advice MWAH)

 

2. Accents. I *love* accents, and you have such a fantastic variety.( I would love to have this forum as an audio presentation just so I can hear how all the members here talk.)

 

3. More interesting history, and great speeches to make the kids memorize. Of course Australia has an interesting history as well, but unfortunately we didn't have written records until later in the piece. And we didn't have a war of independence. (Hey, maybe that's why we're not quite independent, duh)

 

4. It is a republic. (I won't say anything about the style of republic and the political processes.)

 

5. It has made a huge contribution to music

 

6. Ditto writing (I have to confess I elected to take American Lit at uni in preference to Australian Lit - don't tell anyone!)

 

OK, I'm off to do stuff with my kids, but I will come back and add to this.

You've been nice the whole time. It just seems that many of your beloved countrypeople aren't too hot on us Yanks.

[Ibbygirl]

I agree. That's why I said "that particular Frenchman." ;)

 

The part that bothered me most was that he seemed to feel *entitled* to be rude to a total stranger for no obvious reason. What an a$$.

 

Lisa

 

Yeah, he most certainly was raised by wolves or maybe jack asses. ;) When my daughter was an infant (about 5-6 months old) I was walking up to the door of a bakery in my neighborhood and an elderly man (a tourist) was holding the door open for his wife to walk through. He saw me walking up with my baby in my arms, I know he did because he looked me right in the eyes, once his wife had gone through the door ( I was right behind them by that time) he went through the door himself and then let it slam on me and my baby. I never in my life saw anyone behave so rudely!! :mad: I'm not usually one to make a scene in stores but when I got in there I said in a very loud voice to the man that he was a rude pig. He just chattered back at me in his language and I was like "whatever!" Jerks are definitely everywhere.

[Mrs Mungo]

While this board is a pretty even mix of liberal and conservative, at least the ones that post a lot, the general military population is more conservative as a group. They vote that way too.

 

I think what someone (Jumped in the Deep End First?) is trying to say is that when you speak with authority from a military perspective, which you often do, it reflects your liberal views as representative of those of the larger military/dependent community. And that would not be accurate. Yes, you do have every right to speak out as a military dependent and to bring those anecdotal events into the conversation here. But, as you've said, the military is not a monolithic community -- and as you've no doubt seen IRL, liberal views tend to be in the minority in the general military/dependent population.

 

I'll use this to address both you and pqr. I never said that the military wasn't largely conservative. However, being somewhat of a minority and being "outside the mainstream" are two very different things. And I'm not a liberal, not even close.

 

I, for one, have been amazed over the years just how conservative many of our younger military members and spouses truly are. Perhaps they are reluctant to share this with you knowing what your views are ... here and IRL.

This is clearly one of those, you obviously do not know me in real life things. :lol: Edited January 11, 2010 by Mrs Mungo

[pqr]

I'll use this to address both you and pqr. I never said that the military wasn't largely conservative. However, being somewhat of a minority and being "outside the mainstream" are two very different things. And I'm not a liberal, not even close.

 

This is clearly one of those, you obviously do not know me in real life things. :lol:

 

I have been overseas for the better part of a decade and I assume definitions may have changed, but.......

 

In response to your post and rebuttal, I would ask how can a vocal supporter of the administration (during the election cycle), a proponent of homosexual marriage, a supporter of open homosexual service in the military, a supporter of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and a supporter of HC legislation not be a liberal??

 

I might accept that a single one might not be a litmus test but given your support for all these causes, in concert, it would seem that perhaps the "lady doth protest too much, methinks."