How the USA is regarded from the rest of the world

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Tollorin
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15 Oct 2009, 12:21 pm

Orwell wrote:

Jaythefordman wrote:

I put it all in the same basket because if travel was high enough in your value system you will find a way to do it. Words like "too expensive", "not enough time" , and "I have bills to pay" are all just excuses. Why not say you don't care to travel? Thats the deep down honest answer.

I have no pressing need to travel abroad, and while I would like to visit other countries, I have other priorities that take precedence. Paying for my education, for example, is more important to me than visiting Europe.

That good enough for you?

In Quebec a lot university students spent some of their free times to travel in foreigns cuntry. They profiting of the lack of atachment and responsabilities of their young years.

The study being more costly in USA I guess this only leave some middle aged "bourgeois" with a consummerist vision of the world. A.K.A some dump tourists without real curiosity and confining themself in touristic and artificial area.

(BTW, I never get out of Canada, but I've got the escuse of seriously lacking money.)

skafather84
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15 Oct 2009, 1:17 pm

Jaythefordman wrote:

Words like "too expensive", "not enough time" , and "I have bills to pay" are all just excuses.

You talk about perspective then you pull this garbage? Live in my shoes and tell me how much you get to travel. You talk about visiting other countries and seeing other cultures but you're being and ignorant, arrogant ass right now by saying that my limited income is an excuse. It's not an excuse, it's a very confining lifestyle. You want me to travel? How about you give me money since you've got so much of it? I'll gladly go your way, then to Japan, South Korea, then China. It'd be awesome and all stuff I'd love to see but can't.

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pakled
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15 Oct 2009, 5:04 pm

it does sound a bit silly... Face it; any country, any city, a large majority of people don't or can't afford to visit other countries, so it's not so much an excuse as a fact of life. You have to ask yourself; dinner on the table and a roof over my head? or off to hostel it over the Grand Tour?

Any tourist is not likely to be a representative sample of it's country's citizens.

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MagnusArmstrong
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15 Oct 2009, 7:30 pm

Its really funny that europeans call american ignorant,were for almost all of european history ignorance was the rule,I also hate the sterotype that all americans are rich because I for one know that is not true I like other culture or a ignorant american that sees america has the best place in the world because I acknowledge wec messed lots of stuff up,but europe did that even more.I have never been on a vaction or ever left the country let alone the region on new england I have only been to rhode island where I live and part of massachusets and conneticut thats it because my family doesn't have the money,yet work harder and never have a break while those that work barley ever can go globe trotting all over the world.That because my parents never had the chance to go to college the europeans and all these other critics of america are a bunch of hippocrits who are really ignorant and arrogant who need to get off their horse.Sorry for the rant.

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Orwell
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15 Oct 2009, 7:59 pm

Tollorin wrote:

Orwell wrote:

Jaythefordman wrote:

I have been on the lookout for a way to do study abroad since I arrived at university, and I haven't found a way to make it feasible. I would have to seriously compromise my undergraduate education to do study abroad, as most such programs would severely limit the courses available to me and I wouldn't be able to take the classes I need to be prepared for graduate school. Also, financial aid does not always (or even often) transfer to study abroad, which means I would have to foot the bill myself with money I don't have, rather than continuing to get a good education on a full academic scholarship. So, doing study abroad is just not viable for me. I even tried to arrange to do my entire undergraduate education in Great Britain. I was accepted to every British school I applied at (including Oxford) but my family simply did not have the money to send me.

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Henriksson
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25 Oct 2009, 7:08 am

skafather84 wrote:

Jaythefordman wrote:

Words like "too expensive", "not enough time" , and "I have bills to pay" are all just excuses.

QFT. Most of my vacations have been in Sweden, but I have been to Denmark, Finland and Germany.

And I think being at a German host family for four days has been a greater culture experience than sunbathing in Thailand for a week.

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pandabear
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02 Nov 2009, 11:59 am

Jacoby wrote:

Let me throw this out there before y'all begin, I don't really care what people from irrelevant/small countries in old Europe think of the US. Most Americans besides our beloved president probably feel the same way.

The protagonist in this film seems to epitomize everything that is American:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKXJnmf3-KM[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKXJnmf3-KM

Jaythefordman
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03 Nov 2009, 10:04 pm

pandabear wrote:

Jacoby wrote:

The protagonist in this film seems to epitomize everything that is American:

Maybe. But more likely just one of the many foreigners that make pigs of themselves in countries like Thailand.

pandabear
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03 Nov 2009, 10:24 pm

That was actually Venezuela.

0_equals_true
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04 Nov 2009, 10:46 am

Personally I don't think there is any point taking pot shot at every day Americans vindictively. I'm smart enough to realise it is a mixed bag.

I hate overt nationalism, which is the worst part of any culture. I am just as likely to make fun of Russian ultra-nationalism as this obsession with who is the biggest patriot in the US.

There are no off limits in satire. Some people confuse satire with caricature, farce and even slapstick, not that these are invalid form of humour.

Great satire makes you take look at yourself, and just how absurd some of the things you are willing to get draw into.

I strongly believe and American politics has selective amnesia before the 1950's and is still very influenced by the cold war era. The name calling has just got so much more personal, with formal slots on the telly for broader political spectrum. This is always a healthily thing. It is only just starting to return that way but still very prone to polarisation.

We have the same sort of problems in the UK. People don't want to have someone who thinks for themselves; because chances are they will not agree with something.

People complain that politicians lie, but they draw up the job description. They want someone to lie to them. They ask for the same things time and time again that if they had any common sense they would it goes against natural laws, let alone the human condition.