To make a less serious counterpoint than the other people who have already quoted you...
"Aluminium" just sounds bad when our stupid American accents try to say it. And Firefox agrees that it's not a word.
OT: Well, I doubt this is specific to the US, but there are a lot of people around who just simply should not be driving vehicles that weigh a few thousand pounds. People weaving in and out of traffic, people zooming by you going 90 mi/h when the speed limit is 65, people who ride your bumper and act like they're in a huge hurry to get into a car accident.
Also, the US being just about the only country in the world to not use the metric system. WTF, us?
Firefox accepts it if you download it in the UK with the English dictionary!
We use half metric and half imperial measurements... Ask someone in the UK their weight, they will give it in stone... height in feet, meat in pounds, TV sizes come in inches, most smaller measurements are in inches as well and we use miles, and height in feet! Hell... the box in the centre of a cricket pitch measures 1 chain long...! :S
On the other hand we use centigrade, we are taught mostly in cm and m in school, weights of fruit and veg in supermarkets are done in both, volume is in ml and l, (except beer and milk which is pints), even petrol is in litres!
Crazy mixed up stuff...
Also I can't slate the yanks without picking on the UK too... when someone in the UK talks about the rest of Europe, for an inexplicable reason we don't count ourselves as being European!? I'm not talking about being part of the EU, which of course is an opinion peice, but the actual physical location! We refer to people of other European nations as 'Europeans' and we get confused when non-european people refer to europeans, and imply us! We just see ourselves separate!
well, here in denmark, if we dont win. We lose and know that we did something that caused it. So we bash our football team for everything they do, because they could not KICK the ball away in the match against Portugal. stupid them. grr.
I will start with America, my home country. As this is nitpicking, I won't bring up all the bigotry. Let's start with massively long commercial breaks (the reason I stopped watching television) and also I hate how it is okay to watch TV nonstop, but if you play games for an hour a day then you must be a loser psycho.
Also having ventured outside of the US and coming back, I'm kind of grossed out by how unhealthy and overweight a lot of Americans are. Someone called fat in Korea would be considered average and maybe even healthy in America. Stop blaming your genes and put the mcdonalds down! (Sure some people it is due to genetics, but not everyone is 'big boned')
Also Americans are big on blaming others and not taking responsibility.
Now to talk about another country. I have lived in South Korea for 2 years thus far.
~Why does every kid have to have a galaxy smartphone or iPhone?
~delivery scooters that drive on sidewalks
~old ladies who smack gum really, really, really loud on the bus. It is a nauseating sound.
~Newspapers that say foreigners are the ones who cause all the crimes
Oh and for Canada
~I love you guys, but can we quit with the maple leaf? If I went around wearing a big American flag and have American things all over my belongings, and gave out tiny flags as gifts, I would be considered a pompous, nationalistic idiot. Yet, many Canadians come over to Korea and pull exactly that. I hate super nationalism for any country, including my own.
you forgot the cyclists....they're everywhere and they only seem to come in 2 flavours , you get the im on my bike and traffic rules and mortality do not apply to me variety and the i cant look in any direction without somehow veering off that way variety.
(i didnt count the elderly as they seem to be a danger to themselves and others when in control of just about anything with wheels)
For the UK (Or I guess England, since I can only speak for my own country):
Heavily drinking isn't the only activity you can get up to on a weekend, have a bit of imagination, and stop getting in such a rut. Seems people just live to do the same thing every weekend, that's depressing. It's depressing to see so many people that drunk that they can barely walk, it's depressing to see sick on the pavements on a Monday, it's depressing that I get funny looks when I say I'm not going out to destroy my liver for my 18th birthday.
Also I stopped using Facebook because all people my age from England posted up until tuesday was "OMFG FRIDAY/SATURDAY WAS AWESOME, I WAS SOOO DRUNK", then from wednesday onwards was "OMFG THIS FRIDAY/SATURDAY WILL BE SOOO AWESOME".
It's just shit.
also..greece...
how hard can it be to make toilets that i can actually flush the paper down?(being a spoilt westerner ill sooner shit in the woods than have to put me used paper in a wee lil bin next to the toilet)(tho i spose trying to keep a straight face as the maid comes in every morning to change said wee lil bin made me feel lots better about my job)
That's not us, that's the private interest groups. Look up "electoral college" and you'll realize what a sham the whole voting process here is.
My complaint? Hmmm, not a lot really, I like other countries cultural idiosyncrasies, they're very endearing.
Eh, I dunno, mexico? Seriously Mexico, get your shit together and just napalm the FUCK out of all the drug lords hiding in those jungley areas. Either that or join our state of the union so the National Guard can help you out with it,. we got state-o-the-art tanks n' drones! Plus we won't have that whole border issue anymore if you were with the U.S. of A.
UK: does London have ANY trashcan? Do you people eat your trash or just throw it to the ground? Because it's really stinks when you are walking ALL day with a bag full of your own litter until you get to the inn's trashcan.
Heck, I asked a airport employee where were the trashcans and not even the people that work there can remember where they are.
Yeah, I live in the UK and this annoys me too. The reason for the lack of rubbish bins is (mostly) because the IRA used to leave bombs in them. (They were jokers like that.) So bins were removed from every airport and train station in the country, and a lot of other public places too. Public bins were starting to reappear... right before the War On Terror began. At which point they all vanished again.
We Brits only know one way to deal with terrorists: Remove all the bins!
I can't say there's really anything in particular that bugs me about any specific foreign country.
But there's A LOT that bugs me about my country, the United States. If I were to create a list it'd probably be close to the length of an average novel. So in the spirit of brevity...
I'd don't care what you say, government... PIZZA IS -NOT- A VEGETABLE!
Y'know, I hate when this bullshit gets spouted. Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable! They made it so that the tomato sauce used on the pizza counts as one serving of vegetable so that schools in poorer districts could come up with the legally required 'balanced lunch' without having to take money out of other areas to cover the cost. Pizza also counts as a serving of dairy and grain(and protein if it's the kind with some type of meat on it), you gonna go spouting off that "OMAGOD PIZZA'S MILK AND BREAD NOW!!!1!!!11!" too? It really pisses me off. Congress goes and does something useful and get called idiots for it.
OT Mine's a continent-wide annoyance. Why can no one outside of the UK queue properly? Italy, Scandanavia, all the countries I've visited/lived in have some serious queuing problems. They'll push right in front of you without batting an eyelid. I just can't understand how hard-faced you'd have to be to do that! And when they're forced to queue (like at an airport for instance) they have NO concept of personal space. The amount of times I've been in a slow moving queue and the people behind me have stood so close they're actually touching me is unbelievable. Eugh!
There is a simple answer to that. You brits simply have an amazingly well developed queueing culture. Coupled with good manners and general friendliness this makes the UK a great place to visit.
You can pack your tube cars to the limit and still manage to respect each others personal space, it's glorious to observe by an outsider.
Lack of bins and constant security checks are one of the downsides, but I prefer that to bombs.
The Plunk said:
Why must Scandinavians be so bloody patriotic on the internet? OK, we get it, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are probably the best countries to live in at the moment, but do you really have to post "NORDIC PRIDE" on everything related to Scandinavia?
Being from Denmark myself I hate this as well. It's like some people go "Weee, we live in a country." Yeah big deal so does everyone else. I try to avoid those national colonies on the net and can't help to wonder why people do it. Language barriers may be one reason, history another. Denmark has a history of getting our arses kicked so many times by the Germans, the Swedish and the English that we feel the need to stick together.
Swedish and Dutch people tend to do the same sometimes, but not nearly as much as Danes.
One annoyance I have with people from the US is that they tend to consider the internet as their own backyard. It's kind of cute when people genuinely get amazed that other countries exists. Impractical when it's assumed that 2PM is a universal measure of time. Especially keeping in mind that you guys have 3+ time zones.
Not gonna lie, I knew that already but enjoy pointing out how thick your government is whenever possible.
It's pretty similar over here in England though a bit less obvious, all the major politicians went to the same schools and hung around with the same people.
It's quite sad how much of a farce democracy is, we're only really given the illusion of choice.
I'm going to have a crack at my home country. Why is Australia so against multiculturalism? Some people like it but some people have vast hatred with people from other countries. Why? It's not like they're invading or anything.
I think there is more than we want to recognise. Actually scratch that, I think that we know that we have a racism problem but simply choose to ignore it. Sometimes I honestly think people are as bad as the KKK just without the costumes. The Cronulla Riots spring to mind immediately because it was the focus of the show you mentioned. Remember the text messages that were found on most of the arrested rioters?
"This Sunday every Fucking Aussie in the shire, get down to North Cronulla to help support Leb and wog bashing day...Bring your mates down and let's show them this is our beach and they're never welcome back"
Oh and:
"Just a reminder that Cronulla's 1st wog bashing day is still on this Sunday. Chinks bashing day is on the 27th and the Jews are booked for early January"
I love how they have chucked in some anti-semitism as well. Love me some bogans...
Argentina - Enough with the Falklands already. You never owned it, it belongs to the UK fairly and the people who actually live there don't want you. Get over it.
Scotland - Enough with the English bashing. We get it, you don't like us. Hurry up get your independence so you can shut up about it.
Very much agree with your first one, especially when they spout the 'Give peace a chance' motto while being the aggressive ones.
We will not hear the end of Scottish independence, Salmonman wants to keep the British monarch as Scottish head of state which is rather fair since the Queen is monarch of Scotland already.
My own country: England, why must you contain people like Nick Griffin?
Ireland, why does everyone love you when you had the IRA, a terrorist organisation that killed people yet isn't as hated as Al-Quaeda and even got funding from that 'Enemy of Terror' the USA.
USA: Why did you fund a Republican group and not realise they were terrorists? The American Taxpayer may not realise that their money helped fund terrorist attacks in the past.
I think there is more than we want to recognise. Actually scratch that, I think that we know that we have a racism problem but simply choose to ignore it. Sometimes I honestly think people are as bad as the KKK just without the costumes. The Cronulla Riots spring to mind immediately because it was the focus of the show you mentioned. Remember the text messages that were found on most of the arrested rioters?
"This Sunday every Fucking Aussie in the shire, get down to North Cronulla to help support Leb and wog bashing day...Bring your mates down and let's show them this is our beach and they're never welcome back"
Oh and:
"Just a reminder that Cronulla's 1st wog bashing day is still on this Sunday. Chinks bashing day is on the 27th and the Jews are booked for early January"
I love how they have chucked in some anti-semitism as well. Love me some bogans...
I will say (and I can't stress this enough that I'm not condoning what happned)
but I can kind of see why this happened, around that time there was still this fear of "muslims" in particular...things like burkas and all that I think (obviously 9/11 had something to do with it)
this Idea that they were secretly infiltrating our country...and soon were going to force our women to wear burkas and have under sharia law with the Taliban..and the media didn't exactly help, its ridiculous to think now but when I was a kid and with my parents....."they should all be bombed" wasn't anything odd (in defense my mum isnt racist...its the religion/culture thing..not saying its ok...well...I'll stop talking)
so thats one thing..but these messages are just pure racsim...and I'm actually a little surprised
I will say (and I can't stress this enough that I'm not condoning what happned)
but I can kind of see why this happened, around that time there was still this fear of "muslims" in particular...things like burkas and all that I think (obviously 9/11 had something to do with it)
this Idea that they were secretly infiltrating our country...and soon were going to force our women to wear burkas and have under sharia law with the Taliban..and the media didn't exactly help, its ridiculous to think now but when I was a kid and with my parents....."they should all be bombed" wasn't anything odd (in defense my mum isnt racist...its the religion/culture thing..not saying its ok...well...I'll stop talking)
so thats one thing..but these messages are just pure racsim...and I'm actually a little surprised
And that's the worst part... You aren't even that surprised at this behaviour. It actually saddens me that something like this happened in 2005 as well, I mean seriously? Australia is a very multi-cultural country and its only going to become more so, why even bother forming some 'crusade' against it if it bothers you so much? And in regards to your mum I can understand, it is definitely a 'sign of the times' thing, my grandparents are the same. My nanna always jokes that Muslims will give you a 'moozzie bite' if you get too close. Its all in jest but you can tell she isn't entirely joking.
snip
OT Mine's a continent-wide annoyance. Why can no one outside of the UK queue properly? ... They'll push right in front of you without batting an eyelid. I just can't understand how hard-faced you'd have to be to do that! And when they're forced to queue (like at an airport for instance) they have NO concept of personal space. The amount of times I've been in a slow moving queue and the people behind me have stood so close they're actually touching me is unbelievable. Eugh!
Oh my god this as well. I was in some Italian train station and these damn European tourists kept ramming me against the wall. Had to push back to be able to stand.
This is a failed attempt at queuing in all the other countries I've been to, which makes things awkward for everyone involved:
That's if the people in the queue are even attempting a line, and not just a jumbled mess. I think all non-Brits think it's a game where you've got to create a vacuum between you and the person in front's back.
[hr]
Personally, I have never, ever met a moral Italian gamer. I think they are the most morally wrong people on the planet for gaming based on past experiences. A German, Brit or a Frenchman might find a glitch and use it for a game (I don't. I actually turn against unfair-advantage-seeking team mates), but Italian will make it his life goal to exploit that one glitch in its most vulnerable form in every possible way he can, gathering Italian friends to join in too, relentlessly for hours upon hours of mundane glitch-doing just for the sake of doing it. Every time. I have rarely met an Italian who just sits down and plays fair game. That's probably why the Mafia is infamous for what it is, and of Italian origin and not some other country's.
Other stereotypes I've created over the years for gaming online (NOT IRL! People behave differently when they're gaming!):
US ignorance is unrivalled. You play their connection, (with lag delay thanks to the Atlantic and stuff) to only just lose, and get told your shit. Anything you send back, anything at all, falls on deaf ears to a repeated onslaught of trashtalk. I savour the days I play with/against genuinely remorseful US gamers.
French arrogance is top-notch. You beat them and get a slew of hate mail, to which all of your replies are stunted by unintelligible, lackluster insults. Makes me wish I was being insulted by an american, because at least it's comprehensible and -sometimes- clever. A strong correlation I have noticed with French gamers also, is camping. If 10 people are camping in a team throughout an entire online match on ANY FPS. I woudl bet money on it that 50%+ are French.
...and Germans are too good at games for their own good.
Scandinavian countries are littered with exceptionally good players, like the Germans, possibly even better - but if there's one running trend I've noticed, it's that they will do ANYTHING to gain that unfair advantage over opposing players. Anything. Including team killing. If your team is made of Scandinavians, you will win - but you will be turned on for the best equipment/spots/weapons/times etc.
The ONLY country I don't hold an online gaming stereotypical grudge against is Greece. I do enjoy myself a Greek in a game, on either my side or against.
Other Brits seem to be the most polite. A few that I've had heated arguments with have apologised for their knob-headedness surrounding gaming, which is a few more than any other country. But we can certainly raise our hand and say we're the most liable for our under-aged playing rated games: "Those squealers? Yep, they're ours. Sorry internet".
To be perfectly honest, we might be the worst country. We aren't specialised in any particular douche-baggary online, but we're proficient in all of them. Glitching, rage inducing, hating, trash talking, dodgy connections, inhumanly skilled players, the lot.
So on behalf of the considerate British gamer, I apologise.
Right then time to bash the homeland. I live in the countryside in Ireland so the attitudes I'm about to rail against are more prevalent here. Warning, a large amount of swearing to follow.
Ahem.
People of rural Ireland, WILL YOU STOP GOING ON ABOUT THE FUCKING BRITISH ALREADY! THE COUNTRIES SEPARATED NINETY FUCKING YEARS AGO, GET THE FUCK OVER IT!
HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT WRONG JUST BECAUSE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SAYS IT IS!
AND STOP JUDGING PEOPLE JUST BASED ON THE FACT THAT THEY ARE FOREIGN! YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW THEM OR WHAT THEY'RE LIKE!
AND YES, IT RAINS A LOT, YOU HAVE LIVED YOUR ENTIRE LIVES IN THIS COUNTRY, YOU KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE, STOP GIVING OUT ABOUT IT!
Whew, glad I got that out of my system.
And lastly to the government, Irish is a dead language. Forcing us to learn it is not going to revive it. Just let it go the way of Latin, die a dignified death, and be studied by those who actually want to learn it. This way those who come after this generation will have more time for useful things, like science, or foreign languages. You know, those other languages that are actually of some fucking use.
I personally hate when Americans ***** and moan about someone "taking away their freedoms" (See Post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.379494-What-do-you-think-of-a-ban-on-larger-size-drinks]). If taking away a fucking 32 ounce drink is the end of the world then I don't want to live on this planet anymore. (BTW I'm American)
EDIT: I just had to add onto this. These fucking people are honestly baffling. You do not need a full liter of coke with your meal. I don't care what anyone says about it being their freedom to get that, a fucking liter is something you bring to a party of people and share around. You do not need a full liter with your meal EVER. No questions asked. I don't care if "the government is taking over our lives and the next step is Fahrenheit 451 style book burning totalitarian Nazi control". Get the fuck over yourself and learn to have a smaller size drink with your fucking quadruple patty Big Mac with 3 large fries. FUCK.
Yeah I needed to get that out. Sorry to anyone who got offended but FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKINGPEOPLEICANTSTANDTHEMSOMETIMES!!
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Firefox accepts it if you download it in the UK with the English dictionary!
