I currently teach English in a Japanese high school. A British girl teaching at another high school just announced on our work message board she's doing a lesson where she'll have her class put Bush on trial for war crimes and asked if anyone had information she could use for the "trial."

I made a comment that it might be a good idea to teach some cultural sensitivity during the lesson in that "all Americans /= Bush". So she promptly flipped out on me with some anti-American rhetoric.

Was my suggestion really that out of line?

7/30/2008 11:53:28 PM

Of course not. But sounds a bit like she is a crazy, stupid cunt judging by her reaction. Unfortunately her attitudes and opinions toward America and Americans is common throughout Europe and probably beyond. At least in my experience that seems to be the case.

7/31/2008 12:00:11 AM

Between Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, I'm not sure she should be casting stones.

Tell her to sod off.

7/31/2008 12:05:38 AM

Brits can be real cunts to Americans. They're mostly pissed that their once mighty empire now consists of Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the Falklands.

7/31/2008 12:06:56 AM

Quote :

"But sounds a bit like she is a crazy, stupid cunt judging by her reaction."

As a matter of fact she is. She's pretty well known around here for being an insufferable bitch

7/31/2008 12:09:46 AM

^^yup. sour grapes.

7/31/2008 12:12:55 AM

Plz post specific quotes that illustrate her ignorant bitchyness. It will help us sympathize with your situation and will also be entertaining.

thnx!

7/31/2008 2:21:03 AM

I encountered this stuff multiple times daily in France. It's a crazy European thing, it's heavily fueled by their media as well. People would constantly say (Out of nowhere) things like "hamburgers are NOT cuisine" and things like that, even though I never once mentioned or asked for a hamburger. I don't even like hamburgers that much. But it was this media fueled thing that apparently all anyone here eats are hamburgers and people actually believed that. They also said that everyone here is incredibly fat. Now, I agree that there are overweight people here, but from my understanding France has a problem of it's own with that. But as usual the media over there loves to focus on the US.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 4:51 AM. Reason : ]

7/31/2008 4:50:26 AM

Me:

Quote :

"I think it's important if you're doing a lesson on this to also teach cultural sensitivity on politics. Average American citizen does NOT equal George Bush or his policies! "

Her:

Quote :

"what is it that you are afraid of them thinking? The truth that Americans don't care about the rest of the world? That America isn't the ally of anyone but themselves? That Americans don't know what they're talking about most of the time?"

7/31/2008 6:02:21 AM

Haha, stereotypes are cute.

I'm sure their governments love the fact that they're so preoccupied with us that they aren't paying attention to more pressing issues in their home countries.

7/31/2008 6:57:40 AM

ask her for specific examples to each one above.

7/31/2008 8:11:20 AM

"at least we have good teeth!!!" should be your reply

7/31/2008 8:13:27 AM

Quote :

"The truth that Americans don't care about the rest of the world? That America isn't the ally of anyone but themselves?"

Now this is just fucking bullshit. You tell that vapid cunt, if a country has oil, we most certainly do care about them and will ally with them if possible.

7/31/2008 8:17:36 AM

Not only that, but her country might be under nazi rule had we not cared about anyone else.

7/31/2008 8:21:57 AM

just tell her

7/31/2008 8:23:39 AM

There are two things you can do... ask her for specific examples, or provide your own examples that shoot down the claims.

For example, if the US dosent care about other countries, then please remind her how much money we give to foreign nations for aid a year. Tell her to make sure she tells the kids that the US gives more donations than any nation in history.

7/31/2008 8:32:47 AM

Quote :

"The truth that Americans don't care about the rest of the world?"

There's a significant difference between not caring about the world, and not caring what the world thinks of us. I'd argue that both are bad, but the latter is only bad for practical reason-- not moral or "criminal" reasons.

Quote :

"That America isn't the ally of anyone but themselves?"

If a British teacher has the nerve to tell that to a class of Japanese students, the weight of the irony will form a black hole, destroying all of Japan.

Quote :

"That Americans don't know what they're talking about most of the time?"

Lately, I wouldn't argue too much with that. I'd be hard pressed to find an example of Britain disagreeing with us, though.

7/31/2008 8:53:04 AM

I wouldn't blame America's bad reputation solely on "their" media. "Our" media doesn't do us much justice either. Just turn on your TV and watch as we self-deprecate. So, even when we're defending ourselves, be careful not to point fingers. Because when you point your finger:

- There is one finger pointed towards the "culprit"
- One finger pointed up at the "devil" (or at the "God" depending on how you point your fingers)
- And three other pointing straight back 'atcha

7/31/2008 9:03:24 AM

^ oh God, I am so glad I don't live in one of those countries where it's "no, we can't report anything that makes us look bad to the rest of the world!"

When people stop bitching about crap the government comes up with, that's when you know we're about to hit the bottom.

7/31/2008 9:18:52 AM

you should teach your students that america is #1 and that england and the rest of europe are a bunch of socialist fags.

7/31/2008 9:45:59 AM

Most important is that you teach them about all the bad things England did.

7/31/2008 10:41:19 AM

Quote :

"'at least we have good teeth!!!' should be your reply"

pooljobs

FTW.

Then tell her to shove a copy of this up here ass:

7/31/2008 10:48:23 AM

Quote :

"You tell that vapid cunt, if a country has oil, we most certainly do care about them and will ally with them if possible."

lol

7/31/2008 10:52:26 AM

wow. She does sound like an insufferable bitch. I hope you gave her what-for.

7/31/2008 10:58:05 AM

you need to punch that bitch. punch her right in the ovaries

8/1/2008 1:07:52 AM

I need to tell my brother to start teaching his kids bad shit about england. he's teaching english to japanese kids in elementary school, maybe if he gets em young he can bring up a generation of brit hating japanese.

8/1/2008 1:39:33 AM

dont worry, obama the savior will fix everything

8/1/2008 5:46:10 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3RrqBqk14

(since we're on the topic of america bashing)

8/1/2008 7:45:23 AM

Every time I enter this thread, I have to spend 3:53 minutes in it.

BLAST YOU, marko!

8/1/2008 9:01:12 AM

I was talking to some of my Aussie friends here about it and they were appalled that she was doing this as a lesson topic in an English class. One of them apparently tore her a new one to which she replied, "Well we can't expect you Aussies to have common sense when it comes to America since your government loves them so much"

Apparently she hasn't paid attention to British politics at all for the past 8 years

8/1/2008 9:00:50 PM

just freeform a bunch of bullshit about how bush can cause hurricanes that affect only black people and that there is scientific evidence that his heart pumps maggots instead of blood.

sounds like if you say "i found it on wikipedia" the bitch will probably believe it.

8/9/2008 5:41:20 AM

Quote :

"Brits can be real cunts to Americans. They're mostly pissed that their once mighty empire now consists of Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the Falklands."

We'll get our chance to be bitter like this in about 30 years.


In the mean time, ask her how Europe is going about integrating the Muslim minority while we're on the cusp of electing our first minority president who happened to have been educated in a Muslim school in Indonesia.


Wanker.

8/9/2008 11:26:00 AM

^God I hope that doesn't happen.

Quote :

"If a British teacher has the nerve to tell that to a class of Japanese students, the weight of the irony will form a black hole, destroying all of Japan. "

Hilarious!

8/9/2008 12:44:36 PM

i was watching the rowing competition and was amused to hear some of the fans chanting USA USA USA!

i am sure the euros loved that

8/9/2008 2:48:30 PM

^yeah i've heard quite a few "usa! usa!" chants today.

8/9/2008 3:16:32 PM

ah shit, the Chinese love America and George Bush to boot. It was his opening of the trade floodgates that was the fire starter to launch them to superpower size GDP.

Europe can go suck balls with their isolationist trade policies and overbearing government programs.

China + America = the future.

8/9/2008 3:19:29 PM

thats why Europe is th place to be while america headed down the shitta

8/9/2008 3:49:38 PM

If you define "th place to be" as ever increasing tax rates, ever burdensome government interference, arresting citizens for defending themselves, increasing unemployment and rioting, sure I could see how you might think that.

8/10/2008 12:15:56 PM

Unless someone invents some sort of temporal stasis device, we're all the future. Writing off any large country would be a mistake.

(By the way, the EU had a higher real GDP growth rate than the US in 2007. This according to the CIA Factbook.)

8/10/2008 12:30:33 PM

^^ I think you over-exaggerate problems in Europe. While individuals may not have the same opportunities and economic freedoms to get rich as we do in america, i am willing to bet the average citizen lives a much more enjoyable/healthy lifestyle in places like Germany/UK/Scandanavia.

Quote :

"ncreasing tax rates, ever burdensome government interference, arresting citizens for defending themselves, increasing unemployment and rioting, "

compared to here where we have the highest murder rate in the modern world, gangsters mugging people in the street, a slumping housing market forcing 100's of thousands out of their homes, a gov't tapping phone calls w/o a warrant as well as holding suspected terrorists unconditionally in the name of "national security", putting millions in jail for the "war on drugs",and congressmen who care more about catering to the corporate lobbyists and bible thumpers than the rest of the population.

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 3:06 PM. Reason : l]

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 3:06 PM. Reason : l]

8/10/2008 3:02:59 PM

btw Europe, how's that peak oil looking?



And how come the 'next big thing' always just seems to happen to come from America? Seriously, if mankind gets a good alternative for oil soon, it's going to come from here. No joke, point me to one organization in Europe that seems closer to mastering cellulosic ethanol, algae biofuels, or fuel cells than the best we are. The EU has more people and a higher GDP, right? Western Europe can have that Hadron collider, we'll take the space tourism and everything that's actually practical.

I think that the ability to innovate might have a little to do with a sustained edge, even if we took out a lot of bad loans that folded last year. Running out of oil probably won't help the EU either.

8/10/2008 3:51:21 PM

^ Science is an international process. Get your nationalism out of here. It's not a contest. Research in any country helps us all.

8/10/2008 4:08:05 PM

I agree. But...

Tell that to our national labs that put export controls on their work.

--
Nationalism isn't a good thing, of course not. But you can't discredit a valid observation just because it looks like nationalism. If there's a crisis coming up, there's something to be said for positioning one's country to where it'll come out ahead, an aspect of that is technology, and I think our leaders have always used research as a means for national gains and continue to do so. And even if information is shared throughout the world, those who were at the forefront of the breakthrough are the best for actually implementing it, epically when it's a heavy infrastructure project with difficult economics.

If research was always a pure quest for knowledge and advancement, then I would find some funding choices by our government... suspicious.

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 4:22 PM. Reason : ]

8/10/2008 4:21:00 PM

Quote :

"compared to here where we have the highest murder rate in the modern world, gangsters mugging people in the street, a slumping housing market forcing 100's of thousands out of their homes, a gov't tapping phone calls w/o a warrant as well as holding suspected terrorists unconditionally in the name of "national security", putting millions in jail for the "war on drugs",and congressmen who care more about catering to the corporate lobbyists and bible thumpers than the rest of the population."

Of course I'm using hyperbole, but then again, I'm responding to someone saying that Europe is "th place to be" and we're going down the shitter.

Besides, you list isn't exactly problems unique to america. Yes we have an extremely high murder rate, but we're also a much more diverse culture set. Let's look at the muder rates in a few years as the cultures of european countries get more diverse and see how it looks then.

As for gangsters in the street, need I remind you that the UK has banned swords because of people using them in crimes, never mind the gangs of teens who quite literally have beaten other children senseless in the street while people look on. In fact, a look at assaults per capita puts the UK only 2 places below us, followed immediately by Canada and Australia. Never mind that in some parts of Europe, you will be hunted down and killed for drawing a cartoon of a certain religious figure. And in terms of crime per capita, we are mostly in line with the rest of the world. (source http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/cri-crime).

As for a slumping housing market, show me the number of people being forced out of their primary home that actually bought a house they could legitimately afford on their budget using normal purchasing procedures (at least 10% down last I saw, and a payment of no more than 33% of income), then I'll start weeping.

As to wire tapping, national security jailings and the war on drugs, I would love to see all of those issues go away, but europe is hardly a bastion of personal liberties. In certain european countries, they drive around in vans looking for TVs and Radios that you haven't reported to the government so they can tax you. Never mind constant video surveillance (that despite it's failure over there, we seem to have politicians hell bent on implementing over here). In other countries you would be jailed for selling a copy of Mein Kampf.

And as to congressmen catering, that's our own fault for not holding our elected officials accountable (why is it that a congress which promised us change and has failed to deliver hasn't been ousted?).

I don't say that we're perfect or even close, but to say that Europe is some glorious paradise while we're falling apart is hardly accurate or fair. Or put another way, how many people who swore if Bush got elected, reelected or some other event happened in this country have followed through on their promise to move to Europe? Why do you suppose that is?

8/10/2008 6:18:56 PM

Well, this country does seem to be the scientific leader for the moment. But it's not a huge edge. Consider the following study:

http://www.thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/sci/206286

In terms of most cited papers, we beat Germany per capita. England, on the other hand, may beat us per capita. Using population figures for the entire UK, it comes out to about even.

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 7:13 PM. Reason : I blame the government and say it on the radio]

8/10/2008 6:54:01 PM

Quote :

"compared to here where we have the highest murder rate in the modern world, gangsters mugging people in the street, a slumping housing market forcing 100's of thousands out of their homes, a gov't tapping phone calls w/o a warrant as well as holding suspected terrorists unconditionally in the name of "national security", putting millions in jail for the "war on drugs",and congressmen who care more about catering to the corporate lobbyists and bible thumpers than the rest of the population."

While we do have higher murder rates, overall violent crime is comparable across most western countries. Our housing market is a temporary economic downturn due to a economic anomaly. It isn't a systemic issue like the aging population of Europe, declining birth rate of Europeans, and increasingly high birth rate of less educated Turkish immigrants. It is estimated that a Londoner is captured on camera at least 400 times a day, we're not that bad yet. Guantanamo is an abomination. The war on drugs should be ended. I hope you don't really think that corporate corruption is an American-only phenomenon.

8/10/2008 6:58:00 PM

If you want to argue that we have had lagged growth due to a host of problems on a 2 year horizon... then sure.

Now point me to long term factors that will cause the US go 'down the shitter', and for Europe to do better. That doesn't make any sense, there are no long term driving forces to do that. Maybe lost faith in foreign holdings of dollars causing a further falling of the dollar, but with the oil producing nations becoming better and better off, we can probably expect greater demand for US dollars, except maybe more using the Euro as a hedge, which we've already seen.

And with the end of oil, I consistently fail to see anything that makes the US more venerable than Europe, Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan (the latter 3 of which are about 100% imports). With low taxes to start out with and huge SUVs, we clearly have much greater demand sensitivity than the tree hugging Europe and with revived drilling, we can expect a leveling off of the domestic share. While at the same time, Europe will see it's trade balance go to hell and become Russia's whipping boy. Not to mention that our consumption has been about constant for 2 decades and we have solid domestic electricity sources.

We also face a softened demographic trap, as we have lots of working age people and lots of people coming of working age, and as people go into retirement immigration and young people will make up for them economy-wise if not in Social Security trust fund. This is compared to Western Europe and Eastern Asia that will soon completely have their hands tied by too many old people.

^^ Nice picture of a turtle.

But Germany and England are probably some of the top in the world for research. Germany, in particular, has been one of the few countries well published enough to give me a problem of not being able to read German. I would in no way dispute that their research and economic power is on a per capita basis more-or-less what we are. But... we have more people. And more natural resources. I mean, that's not something to take pride in exactly, I'm just saying...

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 7:03 PM. Reason : ]

8/10/2008 7:01:42 PM

The EU as a whole, however, has more people and (barely) more economic power currently. If the Eastern European countries catch up with Germany and the UK, our population advantage disappears. Some of them have been posting solid economic growth figures (6% and higher), so that's quite possible.

8/10/2008 7:22:20 PM

aha this thread took a turn I wasn't expecting

8/17/2008 9:15:54 PM

^^ That still makes optimism from Western European nations (see the UK) seem kind of odd. I mean, you can say it's a good thing that stuff's looking better for your poor neighbors, but I doubt that England wants to tout it's economic prowess as a product cheap labor and material influx. Similar to how our growth in trade with China is more of a blemish than anything else...

[Edited on August 17, 2008 at 9:29 PM. Reason : oh yeah, they're the United States of Europe now ]

8/17/2008 9:28:44 PM