10 Things Most Americans Don?t Know About America
- Thread starter Yassen
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Let me put in my two cents (to use USA phrase).
I'm from Serbia and I hate USA government as a whole for a reason that they ordered actions that killed my relatives. They killed them with bombing in Croatia, with bombing in Bosina and Herzegovina and while bombing Serbia and they killed people that actually lived in those republics (my family was fairly scattered, living in every single republic of SFRJ). But that doesn't mean I hate "Americans".
Most of residents of USA I have met I found obnoxious and annoying. Few I have met in Serbia were pretty normal or even cool. I directed one USA family that was scared shitless of me and my friend to the road they were looking for and they were very grateful (I was wearing black shirt/denim/army boots with Yugoslavian officer's overcoat and my friend had the same getup except for the Russian officer's overcoat). There is no reason for me to be anything but nice to ordinary residents of any particular country. No matter what the politic of that country is.
But those I encountered in Turkey and Greece, especially on archaeological sites and public transport where they went on and on jabbering so loud that I couldn't tune them out from the other end of a bus. I mean we, the Serbs, are loud and often obnoxious, and people grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovinia are positively yelling while talking yet they are nothing compared to what i have encountered from "Americans"
As for the rest, I don't live in USA but I know that image USA representatives go around presenting to the world has little in common with the facts. And while we are way deep in septic tank full of crap, it's far from rosy over there too.
I'm from Serbia and I hate USA government as a whole for a reason that they ordered actions that killed my relatives. They killed them with bombing in Croatia, with bombing in Bosina and Herzegovina and while bombing Serbia and they killed people that actually lived in those republics (my family was fairly scattered, living in every single republic of SFRJ). But that doesn't mean I hate "Americans".
Most of residents of USA I have met I found obnoxious and annoying. Few I have met in Serbia were pretty normal or even cool. I directed one USA family that was scared shitless of me and my friend to the road they were looking for and they were very grateful (I was wearing black shirt/denim/army boots with Yugoslavian officer's overcoat and my friend had the same getup except for the Russian officer's overcoat). There is no reason for me to be anything but nice to ordinary residents of any particular country. No matter what the politic of that country is.
But those I encountered in Turkey and Greece, especially on archaeological sites and public transport where they went on and on jabbering so loud that I couldn't tune them out from the other end of a bus. I mean we, the Serbs, are loud and often obnoxious, and people grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovinia are positively yelling while talking yet they are nothing compared to what i have encountered from "Americans"
As for the rest, I don't live in USA but I know that image USA representatives go around presenting to the world has little in common with the facts. And while we are way deep in septic tank full of crap, it's far from rosy over there too.
Don't know if anyone has commented on this, but why don't you just go into the outback and catch one? Australia has the world's only population of wild camels.Clearing the Eye said:
For those who aren't sure, the first sentence was a joke. The second <link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_feral_camel>was not.
OK, I admit it, I got a little butthurt from reading that part. Are Americans really taught that they defeated Nazi Germany? I don't know about the rest of the world but we (Lithuania) were taught that Russia defeated Hitler thanks to the large amount of people and a dose patriotism. USA got directly involved only at the very end of the war.Yassen said:
As for number 4, that applies to our country too. I guess it's because we are part of Northern Europe. Then again, when I traveled to UK I was pleasantly surprised that people there are much more friendly and open than in my country.
That was pretty awesome.Andy Shandy said:
Thanks for that.
OT: I don't know that much about Americans, although I'm sure it applies to a lot of Americans I am also sure it applies to a lot of French, Chinese, British, German etc. people.
If we're talking stereotypes, you are probably correct though.
I gotta say I really like how the article says "I know this has alot of generalizations so you don't need to point out that it's generalized and how you're an exception" yet like a third of the posts in the thread are posts pointing out that the list is full of generalizations and/or explaining why their exceptions to the list. I can never tell if a thing like that is funny or sad.
Anyway I agree with alot of what they guy said, makes me really wish I had the means to travel to other places.
Anyway I agree with alot of what they guy said, makes me really wish I had the means to travel to other places.
I'm not here to sling abuse at Americans (I can do that any OTHER day of the week). To be honest, as I read the article, I thought the author was trying too hard not to step on any toes. "Yes, yes, we get it, you don't want to offend anyone, get to the point", etc. Then I read these comments. Not all of them, granted, but roughly 6 pages.
Do you suppose the author has stumbled on something profound when he says that Americans, as a culture, are kind of insecure? Do you see some correlation between his (admittedly, even by himself) generalizations and your immense backlash? I mean, geez, it's just one person and their comments about the culture, but you're all acting like he personally murdered your dogs.
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Let me relate a personal experience, relating to #5/#6... I was staying with my aunt/uncle/cousins in Michigan (where a lot of my family lives) and I was talking with my younger cousin. He's a very intelligent young man, and he's only a couple years younger than me. I'm 22.
We were talking about the differences between Canada and America (it was his idea). I discovered that not only did he think that Canada was not a democracy, but that the United States was the only democracy. As far as he knew, there were no other Presidents besides the U.S. one, and that the U.S. had reinvented the concept of democracy after it had fallen into disuse for many, many years.
I... was shocked, honestly. A lot of his peers, it turns out, thought the same thing. Mind you, he and his family are pretty rich, so his being sheltered and somewhat censored was inevitable; but from what I understand U.S. schools don't teach much about other countries and instead mostly focus on U.S. and South American history.
Do you suppose the author has stumbled on something profound when he says that Americans, as a culture, are kind of insecure? Do you see some correlation between his (admittedly, even by himself) generalizations and your immense backlash? I mean, geez, it's just one person and their comments about the culture, but you're all acting like he personally murdered your dogs.
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Let me relate a personal experience, relating to #5/#6... I was staying with my aunt/uncle/cousins in Michigan (where a lot of my family lives) and I was talking with my younger cousin. He's a very intelligent young man, and he's only a couple years younger than me. I'm 22.
We were talking about the differences between Canada and America (it was his idea). I discovered that not only did he think that Canada was not a democracy, but that the United States was the only democracy. As far as he knew, there were no other Presidents besides the U.S. one, and that the U.S. had reinvented the concept of democracy after it had fallen into disuse for many, many years.
I... was shocked, honestly. A lot of his peers, it turns out, thought the same thing. Mind you, he and his family are pretty rich, so his being sheltered and somewhat censored was inevitable; but from what I understand U.S. schools don't teach much about other countries and instead mostly focus on U.S. and South American history.
Ok first I'd just like to say - I'm English and I'm not impressed by Americans being American. I know Australians and they're not impressed either. I don't know about the rest of the HUGE populations for either of these countries, but the small case study I performed would imply that the original posters' statement was incorrect.
But nit-picking aside; I work in the tourist industry and i meet people from many different nations, and there is something I need to say about all of them.
Under the very thin skin of cultural conditioning everyone is THE SAME and has the same desires, needs and worries.
These imaginary lines in the sand that people call borders only divide us as people and force us to squabble over what is technically no-one's.
When will people realise that the only true nation we all belong to is EARTH and the only race we belong to is HUMANITY.
Thanks for your time.
But nit-picking aside; I work in the tourist industry and i meet people from many different nations, and there is something I need to say about all of them.
Under the very thin skin of cultural conditioning everyone is THE SAME and has the same desires, needs and worries.
These imaginary lines in the sand that people call borders only divide us as people and force us to squabble over what is technically no-one's.
When will people realise that the only true nation we all belong to is EARTH and the only race we belong to is HUMANITY.
Thanks for your time.
Err - i was trying to avoid saying that because it's racist. The statement you were looking for is:Sparrow said:
Every country has people in it, those people can be dicks, or they can be really nice. But ultimately it's not decided by where they come from.
"racist"FireDr@gon said:
Gee, just jump to extremes why don't you. I am a little bitter towards Americans, it's true, but at no point did I say "yeah, all Americans are dicks". My point was the average Englishman most likely habours resentment toward the average American, for a number of different reasons.
So no. We're not impressed if you're American.
