Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bulsajo]

"We know it's the IDF"
Uh, sure- whatever.
And Jews blew up the WTC.

[The Great Toad]

I'd prefer if I had not read this- in fact I think I am going to stop checking this forum. Killing a Marine is one thing- killing a little rough and tumble WM makes me want to suit up and go on crusade in Iraq. My fondest memories are delicately approaching female Marines who were in NCO courses with me. I sublimely mentioned perchance we could meet up, and was nonchalantly rejected like I was a fat toad. Later in the same professional NCO course I got to sing the "Baby Marine" cadence song as the scrappy little punk girl took a turn singing cadence. They were all so cute and fuzzy- like the big cats in the zoo you want to touch but will tear you to shreds...

[Smee]

Women are people, too, which means they can be slaughtered and butchered just like the rest of us.

[Wrench]

I never said I dislike or am better then Americans. Infact no where in my post does it say that. All I stated was the fact I feel absolutly no symphaty for americans in Iraq. Lets be serious if you join up to be a soldier expect that you might get killed, whining when a soldier dies makes me ill. Kind of when three Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, wah wah cry me a river. Polish soldiers were killed in iraq too but I will not shed a tear over them either.

[Gopher]

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[mithridates]

It's a lot more subtle than the anti-Japanese sentiment here, so first of all you have to remember that it's not specifically anti-Americanism, more a superiority complex than anything else. There's no anti-Americanism in the school textbooks for example, and if you look only at them there is no problem. There is a specific lack of American history though; we learned about Canada, Europe, Japan, China, Brazil, pretty much everything except the United States and I assume that's because some 80% or so of our tv is from the US and they thought that we didn't need any more exposure, which is probably the right decision. I would have liked to have seen a bit more on specific Canada-US relations though.

The anti-Americanism comes first from being ignored as a country and not specifically from meeting actual Americans on the street who travel to the country. And since the US is the only country to border Canada there's a lot of comparing the two, so Canada is like the US plus an extra language, like the US but minus the guns and less crime, like the US but more respected around the world, like the US but better when it comes to the environment (this is a myth), that sort of thing. That's the impression you get anyway. In that way it's different than Japan-Korea, Finland-Estonia etc. because Canada is as developed as a country whereas the other smaller (populationwise) countries mentioned there are actually not as developed and know that they have to work hard to catch up, whereas Canada is just as developed.

But note that any anti-Americanism doesn't ever go as far as to turn into boycotts of American products or shows; not many people pretended that North of 60 was as good as X-Files, for example, and besides the economies are so intertwined anyway it would be impossible to boycott anything.

I do think we enjoyed seeing the fact that Chretien and Clinton were actual friends; they used to play golf together all the time and they worked together on a lot of projects, so when Bush came to office and declined to visit Canada first as is usually the case, there were a lot of hurt feelings. Bush doesn't understand that Canadians are easily pleased by just being paid attention to. Visiting a few more times, making a few jokes with the Prime Minister from time to time and mentioning the country a few more times in his speeches probably would've won the whole country over. That "are you coming with us? If you're not with us you might as well just be our enemy!" approach doesn't work with Canada, and that seemed to puzzle Bush and his advisors.

[Wrench]

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[mithridates]

Yes, it is pettiness. There's no way to get rid of it but there are things people on both sides can do to reduce it. Right now your president is somewhere out in space and our leader is weak and corrupt, so I don't see anything improving until we both get some new leadership.

[wannago]

Great post, Gopher. I didn't realize things were that way in Chile.

[Sleepy in Seoul]

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Gopher]

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[Pyongshin Sangja]

I'll be constructive: unless you are planning on respecting Canada, stop telling people you are from there.

[Gopher]

[deleted]