i thought this would be a nice idea for a thread... i mean we don't feel like making a new thread for every little thing we have to discuss... do we??? and with a BIT of luck... this thread might become more popular than the babe thread! i shall start the discussion by discussing the propaganda going on between europe and the US of A... how many people saw the episode of seinfeld where jerrys wallet was too thick and so whenever he sat down, one side of his ass was higher up than the other one... and thus causing him back pains or sumin... and so he got a purse to hold his stuff!!! anyway... someone made a joke about it... and he yelled "it's not a purse... it's european!" hehehe anyway... it's because of these type of things, we get stereotypes. I mean a lot of europeans sorta have a picture of some daft Texan driving down the dirt road in a convertible caddy with the horns in the front! and i'm sure the yanks all have similar stereotypes! and then there's the stereotype bout some big Japanese land owner who owns a whole 3 square metres in downtown tokyo! kinda funny ain't it? so let's discuss stereotypes... or anything else you feel like discussing!!! hence the label "GENERAL DISCUSSION" just try to keep it decent!
Hehe...its not a bad idea for a thread, but that is rather the point of the GD forum Don't worry about posts, just create em and watch em go!! And NOTHING will ever be as popular as the babe thread As for stereotypes, I think the English have a lot of stereotypes about Europeans. Most of it revolves around hating the German and the French, but also little stuff like all Swedes being blonde porn stars I'm Welsh, so I know full-well about stereotypes...
I was thinking about this just the other day, because a lot of countries seem to automatically assume the USA has anti-_insertcountryhere_-propoganda, like their country has anti-USA propoganda. I hear people in Turkiye and Russia and so on telling me about some of the tele shows that play, making out Americans to be big dumb cheeseheads and so on. It doesn't make me mad or anything, but the thing is, I quite frequently have to overcome the "Americans are dumbasses" stereotype that we seem to have. Bill Clinton REALLY did not help things either, I think a lot of foreign people associate the current president with the country's state, and that guy was a complete fool, and a disgrace to office. As for American stereotyping other countries, of course it happens in specific cases, but I think it happens a LOT less here than in most other countries. You have to realize America is one huge "melting pot" so to speak. There are people from every country imaginable here. America really can't afford to stereotype foreign countries, because it's composed of people from all of them. This has been my observation from talking to my foreign friends on the phone, and from dealing with people who have just immigrated to the USA (I teach foreigners English as a volunteer, since I speak many languages, and it's something I enjoy). I don't own a television, so I really can't comment on our media, but I suspect it's more filled with stuff like "Cops" and "The days of our boring, mundane, annoying lives". Cheers. [Edit: I live in Texas currently, btw. I moved here from Washington, D.C., and let me tell you something - there are probably more Northerners down here than there were in DC, hehe. At least in Dallas. Now when you go to some place like Amarillo, that's where you see the real Texans..oh dear..what a sight. Huge brass belt buckles and snakeskin boots. Just what the world needs....where's my gun? ]
English->Americans I am assuming. We don't hate Germans, I think everybody hates the French, and we don't think Swedes are blonde porn stars, just that Swedish women tend to be quite hot...mmm...er..back to the topic. I'm also part Welsch, and I've had no troubles. Actually, I'm a mix of many cultures. 1/2 Greek, 1/4 Irish, and a mix of Russian, Weslch, Deutsch, and American Indian. So if people in America start pulling the stereotype crap, I'm in deep poopoo, if you know what I mean.
Ok here's a good example. SNATCH Avi says: "I'm going to London, you know: fish, chips cup of tea, bad food worse weather, Merry ____ing Poppins... London" or "Sneaky ____ing russians" or "slippery cossack _____" and this time i didn't put **********'s , instead i put ______'s so you can't even tell how long the word which it replaces is, so basically it could replace just about any word! This movie is excellent by the way and i recommend it to anyone! and now one more quote: "i don't like leaving my home country, and i especially don't like leaving it for anything less than warm sandy beaches and cocktail with little straw hats" "we've got sandy beaches!" "so, well who the ____ wants to see em?"
Questions that german exchange pupils were asked while beeing in the US What language do you speak in Germany? (Hillsboro, Oregon) Is Germany a free country? (teacher from Traverse City, Michigan) What's the drinking age in Germany? ... 16 Oh, I wanna go there!! And what's the driving age? ... 18 Well then - I guess, I better stay here. Do you have beer for breakfast? (St. Louis, Missouri) How can traffic run in a large city, if there is no speed limit anywhere? (Austin, Texas) Do you have mountains and trees? (Huntsville, Alabama) Do you still have signs saying "no jews"? (Avon Lake, Ohio) Is Hitler still your president? (Hemet, Kalifornien) Do you have other cars than Volkswagen? (Tallahassee, Florida) You have your own language? I always thought you speak english with an accent (El Paso, Texas) Do you ride to school with horses in the morning? (Miles City, Montana) How many month do you have in germany? (Rock Island, Illinois) Are there problems on the german-chinese border? (Nashville, Indiana) Do you have something like democracy in Germany? (Oxford, Ohio) Is germany part of russia? (Missoula, Montana)
good point elemental, i believe you... the Saskatchewanians(canadians) all thought that I coming from Finland was some sort of poor immigrant, and when i explained i was going back, nobody believed me?!?!?!... what the heck is all that about??? coming back was the best thing i've done in years! like austin powers: "i'm brittish" "oh!, i'm sorry"
LOL...you made my day Elemental...meatheaded americans! I would think if you went to major cities it would be better. You have more of an interaction with different people/cultures. People from smaller towns (and i don't mean all!) are only familiar with their own area and don't know much about the outside world. It would be the same if i went to mendrisio (small town) in switzerland and asked them about western topics. You know if you came to NYC you would get inamateligent answers because us new yorkers are edumacated, sofistikated people.
So scopEDog you're from NYC!, why don't you mention it next to the part where it says Location in your profile? why do some ppl hide that stuff??? i don't get it... i mean it ain't exactly your credit card number is it??? and yes it is on topic, coz the thread is labelled GENERAL DISCUSSION... you don't have to answer, and you can change the subject any time you want!HINT HINT!
Well cause i don't need stalkers like you hunting me down LOL j/k ..been a new yorker all my life and damn proud of it. Even though we lost our beautiful manhattan skyline without the twin towers, we will rebuild better than before. God bless the USA...
Well you certainly have a point there! then there's one with the Russian "Boris" or "Vladimir", who walks round in one of them fur hats and drives around in a dog sled. Like in Jackass when that dude goes to the auto repair shop, and the owner of the place is like or "I don't know what you're used to in Russia, but a car needs gas to run"
Well at least you dont live in an igloo, drive a dog sleigh and hunt polar bears. If there wasnt six feet of snow at my door I'd come running down to you americans and kick your warm little arses. Well at least it doesent rain all the time eh?
snow rulez... there were some aussies come to my school the other day, and they were like "yeah this is about as cold as it gets in australia in the winter" like "poor you." i've been to places where it was 45 degrees celsius, and i didn't like it much... you don't even feel like going outside... and the airconditioning bill gets too high... no seriously... it gets bloody warm here...like last summer, we couldn't play beach volleyball, coz the sand was so hot, it buurned our feet... we had to jump in the lake every 2 seconds... and i like the winter... haven't you ever heard of snowboarding???
As far as the warmth goes, just watch how far south you go. If'n you come all the way to the land of cowboys and cadillacs rolleyes you would probably get too hot. I worked construction for 9 years and when I was roofing, the bottom of my boots actually melted to the shingles. I'm from Michigan originally and I've never gotten used to this heat crap.
i don't really get what it is with all this "warm sunny beaches" crap... you pay through the arse so you can go lie on a beach with 10000 other suckers just like you, and then you get skin cancer because of the thin ozone layer!
