Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BaldTeacher]

I'm a Canadian and it bugs me when some stupid pothead from my country feels like they need to educate Americans on how their country is wrong.

Also, those who judge Americans based on who 50% of voters elected need to realize that says very little about the individual as a whole. Maybe they didn't want to vote for Kerrys plastic ass or Al Gore. Seriously, most politicians are scumbags and you're screwed no matter who you vote for. People who think Obama is the second coming of Christ are in for a huge disappointment.

The thing about America is- if you're a left-wing extremist, you'll find plenty to hate about America. If you're a right-wing extremist, you'll also find plenty to hate. If you're an atheist, America may bug you for being too religious. If you're a hardcore Islamist, America may bother you for being too secular. America is just too diverse to pinpoint to one stereotype.

[.38 Special]

[morrisonhotel]

[Hindsight]

The problem with America is that no other country seems to get as much international news coverage. Why is that?

America's like one big reality TV show for the amusement of the rest of the world.

Watching the show from the outside, it can be embarrassing to be an American. And sad. There is absolutely no excuse for some of what is going on. But that is no reason to generalize about everyone, of course.

I don't mind if foreigners criticize America, accurately. But I think most foreigners are not actually watching the show, just listening to the reviews. And some of those reviews are written by people who didn't watch the show, either; they just make stuff up.

Next time someone criticizes America, ask them if they have ever been to America. Ask them if they read American newspapers or watch American television online. Ask them whether they even watch CNN on cable. If not, how do they know what's wrong with America? From watching American movies? They aren't real. From watching Fox Newz? OK, Glen Beck IS an idiot.

Foreigners love to criticize America. But they forget that America is largely made up of foreigners. There's more than a million Koreans in America, etc. So you are criticizing your fellow, former countrymen.

[Globutron]

Well, it's like any celebrity. The bigger you get, the bigger the crowd of critics that follow. Good and Bad.

And like Korea, you never hear anything about the good stuff, it's the bad stuff that is overheard, because it's more interesting to whine than it is to boast.

But, The whole stupid stereotype (much like any other) is never unfounded.

For example, Other than Turkey, America has the lowest % of believers in evolution in the world. something like 45%, with about 15% saying they are CERTAIN it's true.


Plus George Bush, who had immense TV coverage, making it hard *not* to find entertaining mishaps.

Plus the 'Ignorance' is not unfounded. Much like Many Asian countries, Americans rarely feel the need to learn about countries outside of their own. I've seen statistics and read books where people from England are astounded by Americans who cannot point to France on the map.

I'm personally more astounded by how a student in Hong Kong had never heard of Germany...

Etc Etc.

I always find it amusing telling an American that I'm just 'taking the P*ss'
or 'I haven't seen that in yonks'. Baffles 'em.

As for England = Ugly... I was unaware of that one =( I know about the bad teeth one which I suppose adds to the equation.

[DorkothyParker]

Slang is baffling because it's unfamiliar. I know enough of it from Guy Ritchie movies and interviews with Jarvis Cocker. I like to joke about the differences in American English and British English, but it is just good-natured ribbing.

The geography issue comes up a lot. I realize that France is its own entity, but in terms of relative size, that would be like asking someone from England to find Montana on a map of the US. The US is huge and very multi-cultural. We don't mean to be dense when it comes to geography, but there is so much to learn about in our own country. Hell, it's like having 50 countries in one!

[Globutron]

[Sody]

People who criticize Americans based on the president are usually ignorant of the political process in America. It's not perfect by any means. Part of the reason there is hate is because Americans have been advocating their style of democracy to many other countries and so these people believe that all Americans are willing participants in the results of any election. Americans are people like anyone else, they have opinions, they aren't all ignorant. They didn't all elect Bush. Not all of them should have to suffer for it.

[southernman]

Bush was good in some ways.... When he was president I used to ask my class who the most powerful person in the world was, the answer Bushee

Then I'd say that everyone in the room had a higher I.Q. than Bush, always to the amazement of the students, so that everyone had the potential to be whatever they wanted to be. Corny but the kids liked it.

As to National steriotypes there are some National foibles that lead to steriotypes, But as has previously been said anyone that rates an individual on which country they come from instead of their individual personality is a tad sad and pathetic

[Hindsight]

Human beings are idiots, especially the ones living on Planet Earth.

To wit:

http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/idiots-delight.html

http://news.yahoo.com/odd

If you were visiting another planet that received our television signals, would you really brag about being from Earth?

[Senior]

[mc_jc]

The US is made up of immigrants- simple as that. Over the past 300 or so years, many groups have went to America and some of these groups have helped the image of the country while others have hurt it.
The news is sensational, so they focus more on the negative things because that is what people like to watch- as someone had said~ The US could be seen by many as a huge reality show because of all the drama that happens on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.
But as another poster had mention, people outside the US tend to base their opinion on what they see on TV and from observing tourists from the US (please keep in mind that when an American goes on vacation, they plan on having fun- sometimes that involve doing stupid things- but that's part of going on vacation; to do things that people will remember and tell back home- however, the people act on vacation is not necessarily how they act back home- and if they do, then I have to agree that they're idiots). I'm not going to compare tourists from other countries since we are not talking about them, we are focusing on Americans.


As for the election- it was rigged. Al Gore won the popular vote be a huge margin. But George relied on the assistance of his brother, Jeb who was the governor of Florida, to rig the votes in his state of Florida. His office hired people to fill out ballots with names of people who were not really eligible to vote, who were dead, illegal immigrants or even still children.
Our system is that we have two types of voting- popular voting and electoral voting. This is based on the Socratic philosophy that ordinary people vote based on feelings rather than rational decision making- thus people could not be trusted with voting a president who would make important decisions that would affect the US and the world.
Al Gore had the popular vote because many people were still favoring the policies of Bill Clinton. However, Bush influenced the electoral vote by having Lewis Libby (who would become GWB's chief of staff) either pay off members of the electoral college or promise them positions within the government.
So with the help of his brother in Florida and the vote peddling in the electoral college, Bush was able to win the presidential election in 2000.

Bush didn't start getting massive support of the people until right after 9/11. He promised to go after those responsible and that appealed to people who felt shock after the terror attacks. Yes, many people in the US viewed the attacks and the initial war in Afghanistan as an "us versus them" battle. After the military initially drove the Taliban out of power, people felt Bush was the right person for the job.
However (and I say this with a bitter feeling) he screwed it up by diverting military resources away from Afghanistan and put it toward the invasion of Iraq. Again, people threw their support toward Bush when the military initially pushed Saddam Hussein from power. BUT, he started losing support due to the insurgency and by the end of the Battle of Fallujah, people were disenchanted with Bush and the war.

I can say this now because Bush is not in office- many Americans did not support him and they were equally shocked when he won.

I have to agree, you can't judge a nation based on who their leader is.
I personally hate Noh Mu Hyun because he tried to push Korea more toward China and almost ended the CFC altogether. Although he promised to help the common people, he actually did little to help them. He even tried to quit half way through his term...

[DorkothyParker]

[pkang0202]

[AmericanExile]

Idiots. Of course we're idiots. I mean obviously. That's what makes the fact that we run the world such an adventure.