in panama chineese english spanish ////......im not saying in nyc theres not a lot of uneducated poly linguals too
Yes, those are a couple of countries, please provide me with facts. Fact is...most people in the Dominican Republic only speak Spanish, most people in India only speak one of the dialects, most people in Poland/ Russia/ Germany only speak polish/russian/german, most people in Mexico only speak Spanish. You said on avrage, you are wrong.
The problem with Americans is we think we are right... and we are closed minded. But not everyone is like that....
EVErYONE NEEDS TO STOP REFERRING TO US AS AMERICANS!!!!!!! WE ARE FROM THE UNITED STATES. AMERICAN REFERS TO THE CONTINENT, WHICH INCLUDES MEXICO AND CANADA IN NORTH AMERICA, AND IN SOUTH AMERICA, BRAZIL, PANAMA, CHILE, AND ALL THAT. but yeah, arrogant people from the united states is more fitting.
MATHS!! It's just maths, the numbers / statistics are against you. America is HUGE. So it goes to say that any generalization is huge as well. Take a percentage of a country to be complete idiots. Let's say 10% So 10% of Britain for example (population 65,000,000) would make 6 million five hundred thousand idiots. 10% of U.S.A (290,000,000) would make 29 million idiots!! So you see how the generalization is overblown just according to numbers. Now take into account the massive media exposure and laughable political system the US has. Then the probability of these idiots getting into the news, being exposed internationally and even getting into the government is greatly increased compared to other countries with smaller populations and less sensationalist media. Also, another problem is geography and culture, also derived from the sheer size. When you travel a mere few miles in Europe you can cross through countries with completely different mindsets, ways of doing things etc. The variety is immense. Europeans are exposed to cultures other than their own from early on. Education that there is an outside world, and not everything has to be done your way to be right is instilled within the psyche. Now this is a hippy site. Most here from the USA are not as insular as the vast majority that drowns them out. (At election time for instance). Many, many North Americans don't have a passport; never look outside their own borders. The country is so huge. Yes it has a variety of cultures, but they are all homogenised and watered down into a samey soup compared to the rest of the world. When some do get abroad they act badly when confronted with something done in a different way to them. Many people see them behave in ignorant ways. Wondering how they can be arrogant when they know fuck all about the place and people they are touristing through. The image created by the loud mouthed and foolish ambassadors that unfortunately outnumber open-minded hippies from the USA is not good. And your economic ethics and foreign policy REALY suck. -That's a government problem, i understand. Lets face it; Democracy can not work when a huge interior population of closed minded bible bashers can out-vote the more educated coastal population! (yes, that was a sweeping generalization ). *I'm just trying to give a picture of the situation. Views expressed are not necessarily my opinion. ~
Something that really bothers me is that a lot of Americans - and I'm not generalizing, I said a lot not all of them - think the French hate them, or Europeans in general, but these days it seems to be the French. Well, as a Frenchperson myself I have to say it's not true, the French don't HATE Americans. Most people of my generation admire them and wish to visit the U.S (well in general NYC and LA) at least once in a lifetime. They don't like Bush and the right-winged capitalist government, that's right (well, some actually like it, but, hey, there are people to like that everywhere), but that isn't the people. The only people who think of Americans as idiots are the uncultured, narrow-minded ones, and people like that, unfortunately, florish on Earth. I've met people in the U.S who didn't know where the fuck Europe was!! But, I've also met people in Europe who were totally unaware of what the U.S really were like, had an image of fat, Mc Donald's eating people or cow-boys shouting "yee-ah" in Texas. A lot of people are ignorant, whether it is in the U.S, in Europe, in Africa or wherever!! And in every country, there are fake stereotypes about people from other countries, and there will always be. It's like that, and, thank God, there still are some cultured people.
I kinda disagree with that, the ones who travel usually are the most cultured: if they wish to see the world, they can't be close-minded about their nationality... But I've met people in NJ who didn't even know what states were around them, and worse: people living 20 min. away from NYC and who NEVER went there!! And those people were, obviously, stupid (this one guy thought France was in Canada)
That's not the problem with Americans... that's the problem with everybody. But right, no everybody's like that.
dhARmaMiLlO is right, the fact that your country is so big means that statistically you will have more idiots. and it seems like there are a lot of americans who are ignorant of anything beyond their own country. i dont think it's solely their fault, but id rather live here where the people are more worldly.
i myself life in a hillbilly town, and i would have to say that its 60/40 in terms of ignorance. there arent many illiterate people, but of the few who are find it hard to accomplish menial tasks abroad. for instance there is this older man who cant read who lives not far from me. he gets to the store by riding a lawnmower to the store cause, he cant get a drivers liscense as a result of illiteracy. i also know many hicks and hillbilly's who drink like fishes and i quote "hate niggers" as well as beat thier wives or girlfriends. but ive seen alot of cool people come out of this town and i know alot of well educated people from this podunk town. it seems the newer generations are beggining to wake up in this town and realizing "i dont have to drink like daddy" or "i dont have to quit school in 9th grade so i can work and support the baby i just foolishly had" or "i can go to college instaed of working in a sawmill or logging industry like my father did". alot of youngpeople here are starting to wake up and its a good sign i think at least. oh and by the way...little known fact: hillbilly grow some awesome chronic i must say