Questions for Americans?

[Strik]

Ok I've read and posted on the questions for europeans thread. It was pretty interesting. Now I'm wondering what do US people think of european countries Like:

England
France
Germany
Spain
Italy
Holland
Belgium
Austria
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Luxembourg
Swiss
Poland
Russia
Portugal
ehhh....I guess you got the general idea.

I myself won't be able to answer any posts until tomorrow morning. My "working" day is almost finished.

 

[joespaniel]

As a bona-fide American, I like all of them (except Holland).

j/k OK, even Holland.

Strik - Sounds like you and Duke o'York "work" at the same place!

 

[joespaniel]

I like your TV shows and advertising better. More nudity, less violence.

Better beer.

Too many languages, everyone should learn one, like the Euro concept.

...oops! I have to go to work now. There, thats another thing. You guys are all posting at work!

:crazyeyes

 

[Strik]

About that "work" thing. I do work but I sometimes have to make samples and run them on a machine. One run takes an hour. And I can't continue until I have the result. So in the meantime I do a report and this. Nobody cares really. And nobody notices. I am typing and that looks like I am working.

It works deliciously

 

[floppa21]

I have no positive or negative to say about any European country. I mean, I've never been to any, and don't know a WHOLE LOT about any of them. I'm an ignorant arrogant American.

Okay, one thing from another thread. In Sweden, apparently they seperate rapists and child molestors from other "normal" criminals in prison. Why? Protecting them is wasted money and effort in my opinion. I don't know if other European countries do this, but I think governments should ENSURE that these people get messed with while in prison.

 

[BlueMonday]

I like, and in fact, admire many aspects of Europe (except France, f*** you France). Europe has a two thousand year historical legacy. And with that is brought all manner of culture. Great architecture, art, music, and food. Not only that, but I also percieve the European moral restrictions and social freedom to much looser and open than American mores and folkways.

On the other hand, I'm am stunned at the amount of power you grant to officials. I was watching a documentary on TV about the police system in England and I was shocked at the amount of personal freedom you throw away to them. Some of the things I saw on there (e.g. face mapping, real-time convict tracking, permanent DNA records for non-convicts and convicts alike, traffic cameras making a digital facial record of everybody in the camera's eye, etc...) would never fly over here.

I am also stunned at how dense everything is. Now, parts the Eastern U.S. are built up just as dense as Europe, but I don't think most Europeans comprehend how much empty space we have in the U.S. (particularly from the Mississippi to the Pacific which is almost all empty space -except southern California.) Anytime I want to I can get in my car, drive for a half hour and be in a place where there isn't another person in a twenty mile radius all around (for real!). I remember being in Arches and I had climped up one of the rock arches in the park and I could see literally a hundred miles in all directions and the only other humans I saw were my homeboys who had climbed up there with me.

 

[Rhye]

Originally posted by BlueMonday
I am also stunned at how dense everything is. Now, parts the Eastern U.S. are built up just as dense as Europe, but I don't think most Europeans comprehend how much empty space we have in the U.S. (particularly from the Mississippi to the Pacific which is almost all empty space -except southern California.) Anytime I want to I can get in my car, drive for a half hour and be in a place where there isn't another person in a twenty mile radius all around (for real!). I remember being in Arches and I had climped up one of the rock arches in the park and I could see literally a hundred miles in all directions and the only other humans I saw were my homeboys who had climbed up there with me.

Hehehe that's true.
In Spain and France the distance are a little greater (in Spain you can travel for hours in the highway in through the...similar to desert, with sometimes giant fake bulls on hills.
But in England, Italy and Germany density is very high...just think that I need 20 minutes by car to get to the nearest city. And on the way there are a lot of small towns

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

first of All ,some coparison's in official population density's:

United States: 73 people/sqaure miles

France: 275 p/sq.m.
Italy: 495
Germany: 596
United Jingdom: 617
Belgium: 865
the Netherlands:965

Bigges density in the world: Singapore with a whopping 15661 people/ square miles.

This is a good thread ,but strik had better used the same questions as floppa21 did in his "Questions for Europeans?" thread.Both thread's can be used to make a good open (and maybe constructive) debate about the differences between Europeans and American's.

 

[sonorakitch]

Duck-You must have retrieved that data from last weeks Economist magazine!

I actually have a great respect for Europeans. I admire their relilience, their intellect, and their history. I view Europe like an old grandfather that will sit you down and tell you how things really were. Of the countries you listed, I only have a real problem with France. For some reason, I encountered an enormous amount of rudeness when I was there; not for being foreign, but for simply being an American. While I find France a beautiful country with a very interesting history, and that my long time girlfriend is half French (her mother is from St. Claude, near Geneva), I still don't have really positive feelings about it.

I have a special affinity for Germany, where my family came from, and Italy, where a great number of my friends are from. In fact, my favorite city in all of Europe is Siena....beautiful Tuscany! I also have a special relationship with Austria (that is where I met a beautiful farm girl when I was in college )

So in general, I have a great admiration for Europe. I often find myself vigorously disagreeing with the politics there, but that doesn't, and shouldn't matter.

~Chris

 

[jc011]

how about the most sparse country?!! i think that would have to be Canada.


CANADA

 

[jiml_63]

Having been in the military for almost 10 years, I had the opportunity to visit/live in many countries. IMO one of the most beautiful places to live is in the Alpine region of Europe (Southern Germany/Austria/Switzerland). The architecture, the views, the people....very nice.

Didn't care to much for Poland or Hungary....but I am sure that the Cold War had as much to do with that opinion as anything else.

.

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

how about the most sparse country?!!

mongolia with 4 people /square mile

i think that would have to be Canada.

Canada with a "whooping" density of 8 people /square mile.

 

[amadeus]

England
The UK, I'd say I'm pretty impartial to. I liked Churchill.

France
Nuts to them, they never did anything for me.

Germany
I wouldn't mind them so much if we didn't have to kick their asses every fifty years.

Spain
Madrid's nice...but outside of that...eh.

Italy
I like Italy. Nice country.

Holland, Belgium
I really don't know how these two countries differ, but I'm impartial to both of them.

Austria
See Germany.

Sweden, Finland, Norway
To me, all three of these countries are the same.

Luxembourg
Don't think by breaking off from France means you can become any better of a country. You're France's Taiwan.

Swiss
I didn't mind them when they weren't sponsoring the Nazi Party (which, to my recollection, was NEVER)

Poland
Great country, very brave to fight against the Soviets and the Germans, not like some countries *coughseeabovecough* (can you tell I'm from Poland? )

Russia
Communists, no. Capitalist, sure.

Portugal
See Spain.

That's my view, and odds are, it won't be popular.

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

That's my view, and odds are, it won't be popular.

Must be because they arn't realy popular views.

 

[JBearIt]

I've been to Germany, France, Austria, UK (England & Wales), Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Most places I went the people were friendly and helpful. Here's some random impressions....

Paris - Charles de Gaulle airport - pervasive stale smoke smell. Most public places in the US ban cigarette smoking so it was a little weird to spend time in that airport and breath in the smoke.

Toledo and Segovia, Spain - great cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig)!

Madrid & London - impressive public transportation systems

Dublin - Can't go wrong with Guinness. Best meal - Irish stew in a pub

Portugal - Great bargains, liked Porto better than Lisboa. The train stations throughout the country had beer in the vending machines! Don't ever see that in the US.

UK - why do peas come with every pub meal??? Most pubs served fish & chips, shepard's pie, bangers & mash; all of which is very understandable. But I was surprised to see that most pubs served Lasagna too!

Germany - why are all the wursts twice as long as the buns?



Just realized I talked about food too much....all of the places I went had impressive castles, churches and landmarks. Quite a sense of history. I look forward to visiting again.

 

[SunTzu]

Honestly, i didn't have anything against Europeans until all of this crap on the forums about how they hate the US.
I still don't have anything against europeans. Because i don't really think that most of them represent their people. Especially some of the posters from Sweden

 

[GeneralHotRod]

Well lets see...I'm an 1/4 English, 1/4 Swede and 1/2 Italian...so those places are alright by me. I can't stand a lot of the French. The Germans are cool, especially when they loosen up.

I like to throw back the Vodka with my Ukrainian buddies (even though they've lived here longer than the Ukraine).

The dutch are cool, but they need to quit shipping ecstacy over here, its becoming a real pain in the ass.

Belgian waffles are pretty tasty. My wife is Polish, other than that I don't have much of an opinion.

I my fly to England this spring if airline tickets stay cheap like they are, or go to Frankfurt (its a direct flight)

 

[gjts00]

England is the best friend that the US has. Since world war I, our relationship has taken great strides in a positive direction. I see the UK as the US's only truly unconditional ally. And they're the only other nation that I'll take for thier word when push comes to shove.


France...I believe that Blue Monday said it best "F*** you France"!!! Never have so many asked so much of others in times of trouble & been so ungrateful for the help that they've recieved in return. France is only a soverign nation today because of countries like the USA & the UK. If not for those entities (along with others like them) France would've ceased to exist a long time ago.



I feel the same way about the Swiss, but for very different reasons. All that "neutrality" crap is a thin veil for major cowardice IMO. I could go on, but I don't want to be here all night. Suffice to say that they need to get their heads out of their fifith point of contact.



My opinion of the north western European reigon has dropped sharply becuase of what I've seen here. I'm not narrow minded enough to think that ALL of them are the likes of those that frequent this site though. But it still doesn't help much.



As for the rest of Europe...They're either on my OK list, or I don't know anything/enough about them to comment list.

 

[BlueMonday]

Originally posted by sonorakitch
I view Europe like an old grandfather that will sit you down and tell you how things really were.

Ahh...the family metaphor. Let's run with it:

America is the teenaged High School Football player. Young, powerfull, but a little out of control. It hasn't been seriously hurt yet so it's got a feeling of invincibility.

Britian is it's older brother who, though they might not have the strength or vitality of America, still backs up it's brethren.

Japan is the the rich cousin with a Harvard M.B.A.

France is the slutty sister who's been around the block once or twice. She has too much experience in that sort of thing and is a total ***** because of it.

Germany is the rowdy uncle who's a good guy underneath it all, but get's really drunk every now and then and pisses everybody off. But for some reason we still love him.

Spain is the the grandfather's brother who ran off when he was twenty and no one has seen or heard from since.

Russia is the visionary aunt who set off to do something revolutionary, but was dissappointed when it didn't work out.

Switzerland, Sweden and the other neutrals are the distant relatives who got swept up by the Hippy Flower Power movement and convinced themselves that free love and philosophy could alone overcome the evils of the world. It's a utopic vision, but not a realistic one. Someday they'll have a Jim Jones come along and convince them to cut off their balls.

Canada...well, Canadians are just Americans with fewer guns.

 

[joespaniel]