Mickeysoft, y u do dis!?
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Oh, we fully understand that USA sees the entire world as a market for Coke and Levis and American movies and TV shows; we are not immaterial to USA in that sense. And the US navy, army and air force certainly care for the rest of the world as a playground. We could list several other areas where the US certainly knows how to make use of other parts of the world. The problem is the way it is done. When a country experiences US actions as an exploitation, you may of course say that they "have an incorrect view of the US"; they haven't understood that the Americans are really nice guys who comes to free up the country for the country's benefit. They just want to give the population what the population is craving for, such as coke, hamburers and American TV shows. If only those people could understand what benefit it would be themselves if they only adapt The American Way (*), they would wish the B52s and army soldiers welcome, and bow to their demands. (*) I've got the first Superman movie in my DVD shelf for one single line: When Superman declares that "I am going to figth for peace, justice and The American Way". Way back in my student days I was at the Norwegian premiere, in a packed 2500 seat movie theather. When this line was said, the entire audience broke out in a roar of laughter, followed by a intense and lengthy applause and heavy foot stomping, so noone could hear the following three or four lines.
Member 7989122 wrote:
And the US navy, army and air force certainly care for the rest of the world as a playground.
Protecting other countries is having a playground? :omg: :omg: I agree, we should get out of the world babysitting business. See how many countries do fine without us. My taxes could go way down.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all. Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA. What do you expect when even their own president hardly knows any other country than Mexico, Russia and China. One of them being more or less OK, the other two ones obvious enemies. When Belgium is part of Brussels they obviously should be able to speak murrican, not the other three dumb official languages in this corner of the world.
Strange how a guy who developed real estate all over the world would not know more than 3 countries and even told you so.
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fd9750 wrote:
Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all. Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA.
Examples?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
fd9750 wrote: Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all. Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA.Examples?
Like getting utterly confused when they are told "no, nobody outside of the USA is celebrating the 4th of July", or Thanksgiving Day. Or that "Cinco De Mayo" is not the Mexican independence day.
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fd9750 wrote: Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all. Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA.Examples?
Like getting utterly confused when they are told "no, nobody outside of the USA is celebrating the 4th of July", or Thanksgiving Day. Or that "Cinco De Mayo" is not the Mexican independence day.
There are ignorant people everywhere. Unfortunately, the US does not have a monopoly on ignorant people.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Member 7989122 wrote:
And the US navy, army and air force certainly care for the rest of the world as a playground.
Protecting other countries is having a playground? :omg: :omg: I agree, we should get out of the world babysitting business. See how many countries do fine without us. My taxes could go way down.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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ZurdoDev wrote:
I agree, we should get out of the world babysitting business.
Please do work for this! There are so many countries around the world that would be grateful!
Member 7989122 wrote:
There are so many countries around the world that would be grateful!
such as?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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On the other hand... When I was high school age, I spent a year in a US family. Part of the experience was giving presentations in various groups about how it was to be a seventeen year old back home in Norway. At that time, Norway had a single TV channel, a fact completely out of the mental reach of the kids. So what did we do, evenings and nighs? We went on trips, walking or biking. Maybe fishing. Maybe to the movies, but that was only in the weekends. So what did you do otherwise? We visited each other and sat down discussing. Talking. Talk??? Did you talk, every night??? That is what I remember in particular "Did you talk, every night?" It made no sense to them, even for upper-teenage kids to spend time talking, disussing. The value of whetting your ideas and thoughts against an opposition, coming to terms with your own thougts, seemed to be a more or less completely unknown value to them. They didn't understand why I valued it highly. There were physical elements quite different from what I was used to: I was familiar with washing machines, so they caused no problem, but I was shocked to learn that wintertime, the sofa and chairs was pulled back from the outer walls, away from the frost. If there were insulation in the walls at all, it certainly was only a fraction of what I was used to. We clinged to the huge central oil furnace, staying away from outer walls and windows. (This was in Minnesota; blizzards were certainly not uncommon!) My shock over missing insulation (and several similar things) I did not proclaim loudly, but filed in my archive: That's how they do it here - rather than insulating, they keep a really huge oil furnace and pull all the furniture away from the outer walls at winter time. Crazy, in my eyes, but if that's how they want it... Actually, it is not too far away from the washing machine: Your Norwegian host family takes you on a two week mountain trip, with no washing machine in the tent. Up in the mountains, what to you prefer: Go on in your dirty clothes, or wash them in a bucket at the cabin? That is what student exchange programs are for: Telling how large the cultural differences may be, even between supeficially quite similar societies. I was shocked how primitive building constructions were in the US Midwest; American kids coming to a higly developed country as Norway may be shocked by how primitive we are when we go out in nature. Dont' be shocked by anything, either way! Just observe that "OK, so that's the way it is done here". Or
Member 7989122 wrote:
I strongly promote that today, the primary responsibility of the student exchange organizaions, like AFS and YfU, should be to bring US students out, rather than bringing foreign students in to the US of A
Exchange should be from every place to every other place. It doesn't matter if US or not. I used myself the "erasmus" program to go to germany. What started with 2 semesters out ended in 15 years and counting... The first year we were a group of erasmus of aprox 110 students from over 40 countries around the world, from the USA, mexico, through Europe, to Middle east until Taiwan... After that I have traveled a lot in many different continents due to work. My most visited country out of Europe was India. I strongly promote to get out of the confort zone and see the world. It is beautiful, you learn a lot of different things, it opens your mind and it makes you to be thankful of what you have when you go back home.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Strange how a guy who developed real estate all over the world would not know more than 3 countries and even told you so.
Member 12924312 wrote:
Strange how a guy who developed real estate all over the world would not know more than 3 countries and even told you so.
He hired people to know them for him. And hired local people at target country to do that for him. I am not saying he doesn't know, but he doesn't necessarily have to know them to have that empire.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Member 7989122 wrote:
. Why would USA care about the other 95%?
For starters, because you all have an incorrect view of the US. :laugh:
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
ZurdoDev wrote:
For starters, because you all have an incorrect view of the US
Well, we certainly seem to have a different view of the US. But that's the thing; the view of pretty much anything is different from inside when compared to the view from outside. But that does not make either view "incorrect"; just "different".
ZurdoDev wrote:
And you say that you have higher values than the US but are OK with kids running around naked
I don't think he did say he had "higher" values. Again, the values are different, not higher or lower. When it comes to morals, there is no such thing as absolutes; you can only ever judge by comparing to your own morals, and virtually by definition no-one is going to have higher morals than oneself. But this is a common (in my experience) thing with Americans; whereas pretty much everyone else can acknowledge that whilst there may be differences between cultures, they are just that; Americans tend to judge those differences and/or discard different views as being inconsequential. There is an absolute self-centredness that marginalises or dismisses as inferior everything non-American. (Oh, and if you read "self-centredness" and thought I'd made a spelling mistake, that is proof of my assertion! :laugh: )
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ZurdoDev wrote:
For starters, because you all have an incorrect view of the US
Well, we certainly seem to have a different view of the US. But that's the thing; the view of pretty much anything is different from inside when compared to the view from outside. But that does not make either view "incorrect"; just "different".
ZurdoDev wrote:
And you say that you have higher values than the US but are OK with kids running around naked
I don't think he did say he had "higher" values. Again, the values are different, not higher or lower. When it comes to morals, there is no such thing as absolutes; you can only ever judge by comparing to your own morals, and virtually by definition no-one is going to have higher morals than oneself. But this is a common (in my experience) thing with Americans; whereas pretty much everyone else can acknowledge that whilst there may be differences between cultures, they are just that; Americans tend to judge those differences and/or discard different views as being inconsequential. There is an absolute self-centredness that marginalises or dismisses as inferior everything non-American. (Oh, and if you read "self-centredness" and thought I'd made a spelling mistake, that is proof of my assertion! :laugh: )
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:rolleyes: Ya'll need to get educated and culturized more.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
"Culturized" - are you using that as a synonym to "Americanized"? Someone (I don't remember who) referred to USA as the only society that went directly from barbarism to decadence without passing through the culture stage. I am not one who fully support that statement, yet I can easily recognize the grounds for making it. We might respect the US of A for many different reasons. "Culture" is not prominent among those. Maybe in a few very narrow, restricted areas, but not in the general sense. In some areas, the US of A has commercialized a lot of culture that originated outside the US of A. There is some original American culture, but a major part of that is definitely not in any way WASP-based. Historically, it is the culture of e.g. the slaves, the "afro-american" culture. Or the Latin culture from the south that will now the stopped by a 1000+ miles long wall. One major music style is genuinely American: CW (that is, both of them, both Country and Western), but USAnians would probably be surprised by how inessential original American CW is in the rest of the world. It may have given inspiration to artist all over, but they have often created their own style that might be far away from the sources of inspiration. It is not that the WASP USA is completely void of culture. But the outside world never considers WASP USA to be any sort of "cultural beacon" - except in the sense of the culture of commercialism. If marketing of coke and McDonalds hamburgers is culture: Sure enough. It makes the world adopt "The American Way". Anthropologists may refer to it as a cultural artifact, but few cultural workers consider coke and hamburgers to be Culture, in the capital C way. Artist from outside the US of A come to the US of A to make money. And to meet other artists from all over the world, and pick up inspiration from them. Not because they represent any sort of US WASP culture, but because of their original, non-US culture, and to some degree their US but non-WASP culture. Culturally speaking, WASP USA is just another country, and a rather significant one. If you look at WASP culture, keeping afroamerican and latin culture to the side, the result is really not very impressing, considering that the nation has 330 million inhabitants. In terms of dollars: Of course. In terms of real cultural value: Not quite that much. Honestly: Even if I strive for education and culturization, it is not in the Superman sense of "Peace, Justice and The American Wa
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On the other hand... When I was high school age, I spent a year in a US family. Part of the experience was giving presentations in various groups about how it was to be a seventeen year old back home in Norway. At that time, Norway had a single TV channel, a fact completely out of the mental reach of the kids. So what did we do, evenings and nighs? We went on trips, walking or biking. Maybe fishing. Maybe to the movies, but that was only in the weekends. So what did you do otherwise? We visited each other and sat down discussing. Talking. Talk??? Did you talk, every night??? That is what I remember in particular "Did you talk, every night?" It made no sense to them, even for upper-teenage kids to spend time talking, disussing. The value of whetting your ideas and thoughts against an opposition, coming to terms with your own thougts, seemed to be a more or less completely unknown value to them. They didn't understand why I valued it highly. There were physical elements quite different from what I was used to: I was familiar with washing machines, so they caused no problem, but I was shocked to learn that wintertime, the sofa and chairs was pulled back from the outer walls, away from the frost. If there were insulation in the walls at all, it certainly was only a fraction of what I was used to. We clinged to the huge central oil furnace, staying away from outer walls and windows. (This was in Minnesota; blizzards were certainly not uncommon!) My shock over missing insulation (and several similar things) I did not proclaim loudly, but filed in my archive: That's how they do it here - rather than insulating, they keep a really huge oil furnace and pull all the furniture away from the outer walls at winter time. Crazy, in my eyes, but if that's how they want it... Actually, it is not too far away from the washing machine: Your Norwegian host family takes you on a two week mountain trip, with no washing machine in the tent. Up in the mountains, what to you prefer: Go on in your dirty clothes, or wash them in a bucket at the cabin? That is what student exchange programs are for: Telling how large the cultural differences may be, even between supeficially quite similar societies. I was shocked how primitive building constructions were in the US Midwest; American kids coming to a higly developed country as Norway may be shocked by how primitive we are when we go out in nature. Dont' be shocked by anything, either way! Just observe that "OK, so that's the way it is done here". Or
I went to Japan for a couple of years while in my early 20s. When people ask me what the most surprising thing was when I got there, I always answer, "I was most surprised to see that everything, except for the language on the signs, looked just like it did in the U.S." I later learned that the washing machine was different. No more or less advanced, just different, and more appropriate for the way the homes/apartments are layed out. It took me a while to figure it out, but I got it. I kind of miss it. As far as the misconceptions, I blame the public schools here. Most of the textbooks are horribly out of date, and the newer ones are more politically driven rather than fact driven. There are a handful of good teachers, but most of them are incompetent, and each generation is a little less competent than the last (being a product of the previous). I even had a High School English teacher that could not understand when I, as a student, kept pointing out that there was a problem with that weeks vocabulary list. Vocab: tort (noun) - to twist Me: "Excuse me, Teacher, but isn't 'to twist' the definition of a verb?" Teacher: "What?" Me: You listed it as a noun, but your definition is for a verb. Teacher: "What do you mean? If you have a problem with it, go look it up in the library." Me: looks up 'tort' Dictionary: "Tort (n): any harm done, whether intentional or accidental, causing injury or loss to another which can be tried in a court of law, including but not limited to negligence, intentional . . ." [it went on for about 3 long paragraphs] Me: [thinking] "Hmm. I wonder if she is confusing this with the word root 'tort' that means to twist. That isn't a word by itself though. The noun is the only actual word 'tort'. I don't think teacher or the other students will understand this. Let me simplify it" Me: "Ok Teacher. I'm back. Tort is a noun. It means 'Any harm done.'" Teacher: "Fine. I'll change the vocab list." Vocab: tort (noun) - to harm by twisting Me: blows up into a tirade on how much of an incompetent boob teacher is ... with multiple examples ... in front of the full class ... until teacher bursts into tears and runs from the room. No Teacher: Never came back. We had a "substitute" teacher for the rest of the semester. Amazingly enough, I never got in trouble for it. I was never even asked about it by school admins. Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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"Culturized" - are you using that as a synonym to "Americanized"? Someone (I don't remember who) referred to USA as the only society that went directly from barbarism to decadence without passing through the culture stage. I am not one who fully support that statement, yet I can easily recognize the grounds for making it. We might respect the US of A for many different reasons. "Culture" is not prominent among those. Maybe in a few very narrow, restricted areas, but not in the general sense. In some areas, the US of A has commercialized a lot of culture that originated outside the US of A. There is some original American culture, but a major part of that is definitely not in any way WASP-based. Historically, it is the culture of e.g. the slaves, the "afro-american" culture. Or the Latin culture from the south that will now the stopped by a 1000+ miles long wall. One major music style is genuinely American: CW (that is, both of them, both Country and Western), but USAnians would probably be surprised by how inessential original American CW is in the rest of the world. It may have given inspiration to artist all over, but they have often created their own style that might be far away from the sources of inspiration. It is not that the WASP USA is completely void of culture. But the outside world never considers WASP USA to be any sort of "cultural beacon" - except in the sense of the culture of commercialism. If marketing of coke and McDonalds hamburgers is culture: Sure enough. It makes the world adopt "The American Way". Anthropologists may refer to it as a cultural artifact, but few cultural workers consider coke and hamburgers to be Culture, in the capital C way. Artist from outside the US of A come to the US of A to make money. And to meet other artists from all over the world, and pick up inspiration from them. Not because they represent any sort of US WASP culture, but because of their original, non-US culture, and to some degree their US but non-WASP culture. Culturally speaking, WASP USA is just another country, and a rather significant one. If you look at WASP culture, keeping afroamerican and latin culture to the side, the result is really not very impressing, considering that the nation has 330 million inhabitants. In terms of dollars: Of course. In terms of real cultural value: Not quite that much. Honestly: Even if I strive for education and culturization, it is not in the Superman sense of "Peace, Justice and The American Wa
Member 7989122 wrote:
"Culturized" - are you using that as a synonym to "Americanized"?
:laugh: :laugh: QED. Now, who is making everything about America?? :laugh: :laugh:
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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I went to Japan for a couple of years while in my early 20s. When people ask me what the most surprising thing was when I got there, I always answer, "I was most surprised to see that everything, except for the language on the signs, looked just like it did in the U.S." I later learned that the washing machine was different. No more or less advanced, just different, and more appropriate for the way the homes/apartments are layed out. It took me a while to figure it out, but I got it. I kind of miss it. As far as the misconceptions, I blame the public schools here. Most of the textbooks are horribly out of date, and the newer ones are more politically driven rather than fact driven. There are a handful of good teachers, but most of them are incompetent, and each generation is a little less competent than the last (being a product of the previous). I even had a High School English teacher that could not understand when I, as a student, kept pointing out that there was a problem with that weeks vocabulary list. Vocab: tort (noun) - to twist Me: "Excuse me, Teacher, but isn't 'to twist' the definition of a verb?" Teacher: "What?" Me: You listed it as a noun, but your definition is for a verb. Teacher: "What do you mean? If you have a problem with it, go look it up in the library." Me: looks up 'tort' Dictionary: "Tort (n): any harm done, whether intentional or accidental, causing injury or loss to another which can be tried in a court of law, including but not limited to negligence, intentional . . ." [it went on for about 3 long paragraphs] Me: [thinking] "Hmm. I wonder if she is confusing this with the word root 'tort' that means to twist. That isn't a word by itself though. The noun is the only actual word 'tort'. I don't think teacher or the other students will understand this. Let me simplify it" Me: "Ok Teacher. I'm back. Tort is a noun. It means 'Any harm done.'" Teacher: "Fine. I'll change the vocab list." Vocab: tort (noun) - to harm by twisting Me: blows up into a tirade on how much of an incompetent boob teacher is ... with multiple examples ... in front of the full class ... until teacher bursts into tears and runs from the room. No Teacher: Never came back. We had a "substitute" teacher for the rest of the semester. Amazingly enough, I never got in trouble for it. I was never even asked about it by school admins. Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
@willichan The unfortunate reality of the public education here in the U.S. is that in many school systems, teachers are grossly underpaid. I have heard of teachers having to go on SNAP (government program to help people buy food) and with the constant cuts to education budgets, teachers often have to dip into their own paychecks to buy pencils, notebooks, and other baseline classroom materials. They are being asked to do more and more with less and less resources. Thus, due to the the poor pay and the poor support teachers receive, many who want to be teachers go into other fields and unfortunately, those that do become teachers tire of not doing the job they were hired to do, i.e. having to be parents, social workers, and psychotherapists to the students in their classrooms (due to poverty/hunger/family problems) before any educating can be done. The difficulties of attracting and keeping talent in the field has been going on for a long time. Turnover puts pressure on the schools and often have to hire out of desperation - "anybody is better than nobody". It is a "tough sell" to ask someone to go $100+ into debt for a college education only to get out and be poorly paid in a system that is poorly funded.
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fd9750 wrote:
Having been to the USA umpteen times that does not surprise me at all. Most of the population there is hardly aware that there is something like a world outside of the USA.
Examples?
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
Read the junk posted in Facebook from the Americans
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Read the junk posted in Facebook from the Americans
James Lonero wrote:
the junk posted in Facebook f
Not if my life depended on it. :omg: But you prove my point. You're basing your opinion of America based on what you see in social media. Not a smart move.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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@willichan The unfortunate reality of the public education here in the U.S. is that in many school systems, teachers are grossly underpaid. I have heard of teachers having to go on SNAP (government program to help people buy food) and with the constant cuts to education budgets, teachers often have to dip into their own paychecks to buy pencils, notebooks, and other baseline classroom materials. They are being asked to do more and more with less and less resources. Thus, due to the the poor pay and the poor support teachers receive, many who want to be teachers go into other fields and unfortunately, those that do become teachers tire of not doing the job they were hired to do, i.e. having to be parents, social workers, and psychotherapists to the students in their classrooms (due to poverty/hunger/family problems) before any educating can be done. The difficulties of attracting and keeping talent in the field has been going on for a long time. Turnover puts pressure on the schools and often have to hire out of desperation - "anybody is better than nobody". It is a "tough sell" to ask someone to go $100+ into debt for a college education only to get out and be poorly paid in a system that is poorly funded.
I know that the money is becoming more of a problem in recent years, but the problems with public education go way back, and are a big part of why money is not available for paying good teachers. When tax dollars that are intended to go toward paying for supplies and paychecks, instead go political ads and feel-good programs (not to mention wasted money on poorly thought out programs like giving iPads to students), things are only going to get worse. Believe it or not, the teachers share a big part of the responsibility for this happening. When politics take precedent over knowledge, you are on the wrong path. Let me give a more recent example of this. Every year, I encouraged my children to participate in the school science fair. Back when I was in school, the science fair was a serious competition that carried to a regional, state, then national level. It was not the joke it is today. I insisted that my children work on a project that involves real scientific research and understanding. They were not allowed to "see which chewing gum lost its flavor first" (the most common project I saw every year, even at the High School level). Every year, my children had fun learning a scientific concept, writing a summary report, and building an interactive display. Every year, my children were passed over, and not added to the school's public display. One year, my middle school daughter told me that she really wanted to be chosen for the public display that year, and asked me what she could do. I told her that she would be doing two science projects. One that she would submit to the school, and one that she would submit to me. For her school project, I told her to scour the internet for pictures of birds and animals covered in oil, and pictures of ships on the ocean surrounded by oil slick. She then put these pictures all over her display board with a title of "Cleaning up oil spills". She then had a dish of water with cooking oil poured on top, and a toy boat floating in it. Then strips of makeup removal cotton rolled into bails, and forming a barrier between the oil and a far end of the dish with a rubber ducky floating in it. That was all; no report, no write-up, no evidence of any kind of scientific research or use of scientific method. She turned it in, and was unanimously voted for the "Teacher's Choice Award" by all of the school's teachers, and was placed in the front row of projects for the public display. The project she turned in to me was an analysis of the comments and responses she go