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"I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise



 
 
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  #21  
Old December 12th, 2003, 06:16 PM
Turby
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

On 12 Dec 2003 08:42:34 -0800, (Nathan Rebney)
wrote:

(Geoff Miller) wrote in message ...
Americans aren't "too lazy" to study foreign languages.
We simply have no practical need to do so. This is
because of the sheer size of our country and the cor-
responding lack of proximity to peoples nattering in
other tongues. Hell, we have mere *counties* that are
bigger than a lot of those cute little European nations.


Thank you for your textbook example of WHY the shirt was created in
the first place. Yours is typical of the stereotypical American's
outlook on internation relations and the reason why Americans are
believed to be so ignorant of the outside world.


Balderdash. Fluency in a second language has almost nothing to do with
any outlook on international relations. The ONLY relevance it has is
in understanding different ways of conceptualizing reality - for
example, the effects of giving every noun a gender, or the formal and
familiar "you." You don't need to speak a foreign language to have an
understanding of the culture, people, and history of a place.

Ethnocentrism is hardly confined to America. I've spent years
traveling the world, and the one constant is a paucity of world news
in other places. No 3rd world national newspaper publishes a fraction
of the international news seen in any urban American paper, and TV &
radio news is even worse. The rest of the western world hardly fares
better.

Turby the Turbosurfer
  #22  
Old December 13th, 2003, 05:07 PM
Nathan Rebney
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

Turby wrote in message . ..
Balderdash. Fluency in a second language has almost nothing to do with
any outlook on international relations.


I wasn't referring to the element of fluency. I was referring to the
overall tone of the post. "We're so big and wonderful, we don't NEED
to X".
  #25  
Old December 20th, 2003, 01:37 AM
Shashay Doofray
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages,(Schultz)


"Bert Amada" wrote in message
...
You wrote:

And since Americans seem to be too lazy to
study foreign languages, they'll have to believe
you.


I suggest that you visit the numerous American military cemeteries in
Europe and pay your respects to the "lazy" Americans who died saving the
asses of all of you Europeans in two world wars. I hope that if ever
Europe is threatened again, and when you start crying, "Where are the
Americans? Why aren't they coming?" you will be able to visualize me
giving you the middle finger!


B.A.


Oh and let's not forget all the American mega corporations who have
virtually ruined the culture (and possibly the economy) of countless
countries in the name of "progress" or is that "profit", I forget.

SD


  #26  
Old December 20th, 2003, 01:38 AM
Shashay Doofray
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

Absolutely brilliant. I AM an American, but the last thing I would want to
do, if traveling to other countries, is admit it.

I can't wait to buy one for my trip to Mexico.

SD


  #27  
Old December 20th, 2003, 01:39 AM
Shashay Doofray
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

"Geoff Miller" wrote in message
...


Schultz writes:

And since Americans seem to be too lazy to study
foreign languages, they'll have to believe you.



Americans aren't "too lazy" to study foreign languages.
We simply have no practical need to do so. This is
because of the sheer size of our country and the cor-
responding lack of proximity to peoples nattering in
other tongues. Hell, we have mere *counties* that are
bigger than a lot of those cute little European nations.

ObTopical: English is the international language of
aviation. I bet that ****es off the fashionable
America-haters something fierce, and particularly
galls (heh) the French.



Oh and besides, we're right and everybody else is wrong...n'est pas?

SD


  #29  
Old December 20th, 2003, 02:09 AM
Bert Amada
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages,(Shashay)

Shashay wrote:

Oh and let's not forget all the American mega
corporations who have virtually ruined the
culture (and possibly the economy) of countless
countries in the name of "progress" or is that
"profit", I forget.


Corporations are in business to make profits. Ruined the culture and
economy? I suggest you go to "Search" and type in "Marshall Plan." No
other nation on earth has a better history of assisting "countless
countries."

When learning English, the first lesson that Europeans should be taught,
is the meaning of the word "ingrate."

B.A.

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  #30  
Old December 20th, 2003, 10:29 AM
Miguel Cruz
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Default "I Am Not American" Web Site Adds Designs, Languages, Merchandise

Shashay Doofray wrote:
Absolutely brilliant. I AM an American, but the last thing I would want to
do, if traveling to other countries, is admit it.


Everyone will know (nothing about you in particular, just that's how it is).

I can't wait to buy one for my trip to Mexico.


Combining obvious Americanness with a T-shirt disclaiming such would
probably come off as pretty weird.

miguel
--
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