I feel you, buddy. I was born and raised in America, but I see all these things and then some. Can't wait to move in a few years, but I'll be visiting a few contacts short-term in 2014 and 2015 first to get a better firsthand feel for alternative cultures where I might thrive.
I also found the fact that the book "To kill a mockingbird" was banned, and even now it hits the nerve of some Americans surprising.
Huh? I have never met a single person who didn't think this book was pretty much the greatest thing ever written. (okay, thats hyperbole, but you get the idea.) I cringe to think that anyone would base their perception of America on something like that!
Huh? I have never met a single person who didn't think this book was pretty much the greatest thing ever written. (okay, thats hyperbole, but you get the idea.) I cringe to think that anyone would base their perception of America on something like that!
I have met people who disapprove of the book, they are some of my running friends from America. I don't base my perception of America based based on that, as I think I made clear in my post. There are world views that I have trouble with and they are not restricted to any country.
I've been thinking about this article since it was posted and I can't decide how I feel about it. I don't disagree with his perceptions so much as his explanation of them. He isn't setting these things down objectively as "cultural clashes," but rather as thinly veiled criticisms. I wouldn't go to a foreign country and come back and say, wow, that foreign culture is so rude and dirty. How can any culture be worse than another? (which I feel is what he's trying to say, without actually saying it)
But then again, I'm trying to keep an open mind to what he is saying (even though it doesn't match most of my own observations), because, hey, I'm an American and I've never travelled outside of my country. If he doesn't want to be a part of this culture, more power to hi, but I happen to like it here well enough.
I have met people who disapprove strongly of the book, they are some of my running friends from America. I don't base my perception of America based based on that, as I think I made clear in my post. There are world views that I have trouble with and they are not retricted to any country.
I didn't mean to imply that you personally base your views of American on this fact. I just find it shocking that some people would. It makes me think a lot about how and why people form opinions in general. This part of American culture is so far removed from my personal experience that I wasn't even aware it existed, much less common knowledge in the global sphere. Being an American, I find that to be enlightening.
I didn't mean to imply that you personally base your views of American on this fact. I just find it shocking that some people would. It makes me think a lot about how and why people form opinions in general. This part of American culture is so far removed from my personal experience that I wasn't even aware it existed, much less common knowledge in the global sphere. Being an American, I find that to be enlightening.
I was surprised too, Marie. I like that book, and posted it on my facebook page as a like. And it surprised me that posting it as a like was sensitive to some.
haha it is so true! Buttwiperr is the worst "beer" well, there is also Coors which gives horrible headaches and Old Milwaukee is just the lowest of lows to drink, though I have drank a few during real hard times.
As for sales tax-we have none in my state except a few towns here have a "resort tax". The place I worked at this summer had one of those taxes and people were so rude and pissed off about it, literally throwing the item across the counter and walking off in a huff! I have to agree, the prices were so stupidly high b/c it was a tourist trap and then the 3% tax was adding insult to injury.
I didn't like it, but that may have something to do with dissecting it painfully in high school English. :bigsmile:
^ I had to read it my sophomore year in high school and I actually didn't care for the book either. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I might read it again someday, just to see if my opinion changes since it'd be on my own and not forced down my throat, dissecting included. I think the over a-nalysis of books and the way the reading was assigned was the most hated part of English class throughout high school for me. Being a lover of books, I never complained when we had a new book we had to read. What I didn't like was how they drew out the novels for soooo long, a-nalyzing every detail, reading a chapter or two a week and doing homework on it from there. When I have a new book in my hands, I'm ready to read it and finish it all within a day or two. I often did that too, although when the time came for in-class reading I ended up extremely bored and would usually be left trying to work on other homework.
The thing with needing a car is increasing in Europe too.. unlike in development countries, where you have all services in your face all the time which I find quite comfortable. In the UK for example if you live in the country and don´t have a car you just can´t get to the town because often there are no bus services in the villages. Often there are no local shops either, nothing.
Hm, of the 20 people or so I know in the city I live in, one has a car. The others don't. They use public transportation or bicycles.
I'm just glad to have been born in a place where I have access to clean drinking water, without roving rape gangs and what not. There are much worse places to be.
@Coyote - thanks for your explanation. I was 3 months there but mostly in one place. I feel like I´d need more experience to be able to judge the country more objectively. But partly it´s also that it´s been 10 years ago and I just forgot many things and details.
@Flanscho - I was talking about the countryside. If you´re living in town there of course is public transport. A bike is great and I use it a lot myself. We live 8 km from the town, I can and do bring shopping on it, but it´s not a viable way of life always and longterm. You also can´t do big shoppings on it like you can with a car. But otherwise I love bike, you can get almost everywhere with it fast and on top of it have excercise/fresh air. I wish more towns were like in the Netherlands where biking is customary.
As for the smiling in Prague metro, I don´t know why people should smile in there:). But the NY underground was beating it, I remember I thought everybody looked like a terrorist.
Btw there will be some new service on Prague metro, I just read it in the newspaper:
English News
Prague Transit Co. launches communication wagon on A route
08.11.2013 - 16:52 | English news
PRAGUE (ČIA) – Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) will launch so-called communication wagon on the “A” metro line. On Saturdays, the middle wagons on all trains will be used for communication and get-to-know purposes.
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