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Why more Americans don't travel abroad
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eurobound



Joined: 04 Apr 2011
Posts: 155
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
isabel wrote:
eurobound wrote:
Captain_Fil wrote:
...wander around Walt Disney World...


Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing


Hey! Who says Americans don't see the world. Who needs a passport?


Hehe, Uncle Walt will teach you all you need to know...
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sheikh radlinrol



Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 1222
Location: Spain
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ancient_dweller wrote:
Russians are also told from a young age that Russia is the best country in the world,

Unbelievable! How on earth could even the most patriotic Russian justify this in front of his kid? They wasted 70 years of their history and imposed their idiotic system on their neighbours. Russian cuisine is crap and their national drink (little water, I believe, is the translation) is a vile, tasteless concoction that just gets you hammered and anaesthetises you to the misery of life in a drab Moscow suburb.
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ah, but you have no Slavic soul, being misled by the capitalist piggies from the most tender years. These statements are therefore mistaken. Russian food is delicious, and has influences from lots of other regions. It's like Turkic food, but with lots of pork. Vodka is the elixir of the Gods, but if you've just tasted the cheap rubbish sold in decadent Western bars, then your statements might be forgiven, but are no less baseless. Their idiotic system was imposed in a similar military way as the idiotic US/UK one, and they both seem to be unravelling at about the same speed.

The great Russian soul is what makes the country great. It's very hard to explain it - you need to feel it. But a quick look at the roll call of great cultural figures Russia boasts who exemplified this spirit should lead you to a more sympathetic understanding of why a Russian parent would tell the kids that they live in the best country in the world.

Hic!
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you were born in hell, you'd get homesick in heaven. Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy

Regards,
John
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dear Johnslat

Very true. But when you listen to the Borodin Quartet, watch a Tarkovsky film, or read Bunin, then you know that you are closer to heaven than is usually possible anywhere in this weary world.

Hic!

S
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dear Sasha,

I hope you didn't think I was referencing Russia as being "hell" in my last comment (which, by the way, is an original aphorism, created five minutes ago by me.)

I, too, am a believer if the Great Russian Soul (which tends to become even more soulful when fueled by vodka Very Happy.)

Regards,
John
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dear Johnslat

I wasn't sure, if truth be known. Though, for you to refer to Russia as Hell would seem out of character for you, as you have revealed in another thread that you have some poetic part of the great Russian soul in you too.

However, hic, as you, hic! may, hic! have gathered, no one hic! is as soulfully fuelled, hic! as me.

Sashhhzha
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Speaking of souls, here is 'Vancha', another North American with Russian soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uPfEHlHaXI

I shall cry myself to sleep this evening...
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steki47



Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
nomad soul wrote:
No excuse for that mindset, but unlike Japan, the US is known as a nation of immigrants. The history and roots are so easily dismissed...


Actually, the US is a nation of settlers. Immigration came much later for the US. Essentially, European settlers came to North America and created a new country and society. Immigrants came after the fact. Not to start an argument, but the late Samuel P. Huntington made that distinction very clearly.

But you're right that Japan has not had much flow in or out of the country. Monocultural nations have their benefits (greater unity, sense of trust and community, increased efficiency of communication) but they also can become quite insular and xenophobic. (Oddly enough, the US is quite pluralistic yet Americans can be insular and xenophobic.)

nomad soul wrote:
By the way, of all the core disciplines taught in US public schools, geography is the only one excluded from receiving federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act. With this lack of attention and instruction, no wonder there isn't an appreciation or fair amount of knowledge about this world we live in and share.


This seems sad to me. Learning about the world around you is part of growing up. Just as children learn to respect other people around them, educated people should be aware of the general patterns of cultures, countries, religions, etc.
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