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English_Ocean
Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Location: You don't have the right to abuse me!
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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While the title of the article is inflammatory, the content is serious. With 30,000 exchange students, it isn't really a surprise that some of them are placed in flakey or dangerous situations since the system is not well regulated.
I question whether there are 'thousands', but the safety of kids is important enough that it warrants government oversight. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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There was a similar story posted on some German newspaper's "reader contributions" website a while back, about a Polish exchange student's harrowing experience with some American fundamentalist Christians. The whole thing seemed a little dodgy to me, like it was written to appeal to Europeans' stereotypical ideas about religious-fanatic Americans. Plus, some of the details seemed a little off, eg. the exchange parents wanted the kid to help them set up a church in Poland, even though the parents knew the kid wasn't a Christian and thought that anyone who wasn't Christian was satanic.
This story about the Danish girl could be true, of course, but I'd like to see a more reputable source than The Seoul Times.
Yata Boy's overall point is well-taken. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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According to this Univeristy Of Virginia website, the number of American Christians who still practice snake-handling is miniscule...
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Size of Group:
An exact number is unknown due to the autonomy of each individual group, but estimates range between 1,000 and 2,000 total church members [including those who do not actually handle snakes] (Burton 1993, 165). Snake handlers can be found as far south as central Florida, and as far west as Columbus, Ohio and as far north as West Virginia (Melton 1996, 636).
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http://tinyurl.com/2hrpe |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, and I found this amusing...
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The following is a true account of the first two months of an exchange student's life in the United States of America.
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Yes, The Seoul Times is indeed the kind of newspaper that feels itself obliged to assure readers that a story is true. |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:29 pm Post subject: Re: Who writes this dribble? |
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| English_Ocean wrote: |
http://www.theseoultimes.com/ST/index.html
Foreign exchange student is forced to worship snakes? |
Heh, she probably knows otis. |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: Who writes this dribble? |
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| gang ah jee wrote: |
| Heh, she probably knows otis. |
Damn! Beaten to the punchline.
My sister, in 30 plus years of living in rural Western Kentucky, where there's a Baptist church of a different theological stripe on every corner, has come across all kinds of weird things, but no snake worshippers yet. People down there do make jokes about it, though, so they're familiar with the concept. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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I found this article the most interesting:
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Women Prefer New Clothes over Sex: Survey
For most women, the choice between sex and a new wardrobe is simple � they go for the clothes.
Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 U.S. cities.
Sixty-one percent of women polled said it would be worse to lose their favorite article of clothing than give up sex for a month.
"Some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him," fashion designer, stylist and TV personality Carson Kressley from the reality TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" said in a statement accompanying the poll.
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I have to confess that judging by that article, I'm probably not very womanly. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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People down there do make jokes about it, though, so they're familiar with the concept.
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Yeah, the concpet of snake-handling is pretty widely-known. I don't recall when I first heard about it, but it was no later than high school, in northern Canada. I remember seeing a picture of it in one of those Life Magazine photo anthologies. |
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English_Ocean
Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Location: You don't have the right to abuse me!
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| Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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I was trying to find the authors name. Oh I could quote and quote, but there is something about this article that really strikes a cord with me! I like snakes.. poor little things were finally getting some respect until some half-wit writer blasted that away! 
This is a national newspaper written by high school students? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| English_Ocean wrote: |
This is a national newspaper written by high school students? |
I don't think it really qualifies as a newspaper, in any meaningful sense of the word. It's basically just a self-glorifying version of an ESL message board.
Thanks for drawing my attention to the article, anyway. It prompted some research into an interesting topic. And I'm thinking of writing up a "fresh-faced euro kid in darkest America" hoax of my own. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| Oh, no! He's drivelling down the court...he shoots! He scores! Oh no! He got undercut. He's down! Yuck! He's bleeding. Blood is drivelling down his chin. Arg! Look at that blood drivelling down his chin. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:56 am Post subject: |
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Finally.  |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:01 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| Finally. |
Yeah. That's what I was waiting for. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:28 am Post subject: |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| Finally. |
Yeah. That's what I was waiting for. |
Heh, didn't even notice that.
And I call myself an English teacher.  |
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