Questions for Americans?

Well, Im German-Polish and Irish, and obviously have a bias for Europe. I have visited a little, wish to do much more.

I am in total agreement about the French though. I think they are the "armpits" of Europeans. :D

I saw an interview with Ben Stein taped right after the WTC disaster, and he was nearby when it happened. He spoke of the awestruck horror exibited by people on the streets, from all nationalities, except for a pair of French tourists who were laughing and making fun of it. Ben Stein speaks French.:mad:

Slutty b*tches !
 
I'm not American...but I'll say this for the French...they keep on being French no matter what happens!

No wonder that in 1940 in Paris the hit song was "Paris, will always be Paris"...and boy it is...


I liked BM interpretation of Spain...

"Spain is the the grandfather's brother who ran off when he was twenty and no one has seen or heard from since." SO TRUE!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
These are the counties I have opinions about, the rest I am neutral towards:
England: Great Country and people, our best allies
France:Arrogant, no military,rude,cowards,unappreciative for us saving their ass, I hate France
Germany:Great cars, hard workers
Italy: Great food
Holland:Open minded
Sweden and Norway: I Love them both, I'm 75% Scandanavian and I want to there when I get the money
Russia:Capable of great things, once it gets everything in order
Israel:I know they weren't on the list, but I think these people don't get enough credit in my opinion. I think the U.S. could learn a few things from them on how to deal with terrorism.
 
As was said before by the kitten, I am not American, but I do hold somesort of opinions on Europeans, coming from that far off part of Europe called Australia.
Got lots of Irish in me, so I like them very much so.

Am half Swedish, so ditto.

The Brits are alright, even if they are our backward relatives who whine always, suck at sport and wash once a year

The Scots are interesting... (How was copper wire invented? Two Scotsmen arguing over a 2 cent coin {which here was copper}...)

Haven't had many dealings with the Italians or Spanish, so can't really say

The Germans are very, very efficient and hard to offend. Try calling their BMWs Volkswagens, or setting them on fire:)

The French on the other hand are very easy to offend. Just try talking in their language or standing next to them...They will cry out Mon Dieu and attempt to belaubour you about the head and body with a bread stick spread with some nice grenouille et escargot pate:p

Have several interesting Russian friends, so don't mind them.

The Swiss handle my banking quite nicely; this balances out their clock fetish and tendency to coat everything in fondue.

The Low Countries: Based upon my own experiences and the persons one has encountered here, they are alright, even if the Dutch do have a proclivity for saving their nations by sticking their fingers in dykes (Hey, if only it was that easy globally!)

Out of interest, whilst on the topic, what do you barbarian savages out there think of the imperium that is Australia;) ? One keeps seeing references to Britain as the USs best allies, but what about us?
Can't really see why we'd be put in the definition of the rest of the world, like in this:
"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. "

So we wouldn't be there when push comes to shove?




:crazyeyes
 
I for one, would change that statement, and say the best US allies are;

UK, Australia, NZ (Taiwan, Isreal, Egypt too)

The Germans seem to like us enough these days.

The Canadians act like they like us, but hate us.

The French act like they hate us, and hate us.

I beg to differ, that we may have helped to save France from the Nazis, but the French helped us against the British in the war of independence. So were even. And thanks for the great statue. ;)

"We need Italians to make love to our women before we marry them..." - Rodney Dangerfield

The Chinese hate us, but want our $$$

Russia hates us, but wants our $$$

Mexico hates us, but wants to move here ;) :lol:

The Swedish hate us, but are neutral, and dont count :lol:

Viet Nam is starting to like us, and we bombed the piss out of them.

I vote UK, Aussie and NZ as closest allies.:love2: :beer:
 
Touchet Simon...It was I who said "I see the UK as.....". And you're right you Aussies & Kiwis are a damned sight better than alright. While I've never been down under, I've encountered quite a few of your friends & neighbors that have come to the US. And not a one of them has been anything short of a good time.:beer: Man, you guys can drink!!! But back to the topic. I would like to ammend my previous statement to include Australia.
 
Despite the fact that I should have some sort of genetic hatred of the english (1/2 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, some French) I think there generally good people.

I like all the continentals (yes even the French)

Australia, you home to one of the funniest guys I ever met, so If any of you australians see Zaun tel him one of the Fat Canadain Linemen says hello (and 420)

Never met an Isreali.

Now unfortunalty I have met two South AFricans in my life. One was a complete Nazi F*** the other was a stuck up little rich girl (stupid B****)

As for the Americans...
I have a couple of Uncles and Aunts living there (One looks EXACTLY like GWB, except he has black hair)
And beleive it or not I am a DIRECT DESCENDANT of Benedict Arnold (I s*** you not)

Oh and the crazist person I ever met was Dutch
 
Well I've lived and worked in Europe (mostly Britain), even married one of you Euro-types (German), and there are a lot of things I've admired & enjoyed: culture, language, music, architecture, ........ beer. (Could do without the smug, condescending, ill-informed anti-Americanism that is oh so fashionable these days)

Ironically while Europeans are much better quantitatively informed about us as we them via the local media, it's almost always through the prism of a very stereotyped image of this country. Even reputable outlets like the BBC often have a rather shallow analysis of the prevailing political & cultural moods here, and this usually further slanted by the reporter's (typically left-wing) bias. And, as always, there's the typical Euro blunder of mistaking our lack of worldly urbanity with a lack of intelligence.

That said I admire Europe's generally higher commitment to social justice. I admire the fact more people are outraged by someone not having health care than they are by higher taxes.

And then there's the beer ............ :beer:
 
Now i'm Flemmish ,but i live on 20 miles of the border of France and my girlfriend is French. I realy know France pretty well ,and indeed ,there are french people that hate America ,but not more than there are Dutch ,german's or other European's that hate American's.Yes ,french are chauvenists ,and you can really notice that.But the conclusion that i take out of my patriotism for american's thread ,was that there are some American Chauvenists aswel. Now my girlfriend study's politics/socioligy ,so she has her well-outlined oppinion's about America's politics ,but she doesn't feel any particular grudge against the American people.

Afcourse france is a very diverse country.There is a big social difference between the North of France and the South.Paris is an architectural beautifull city (it's full of monuments) ,but the social life in paris is really ****ed up.But try to go to the center of france ,let's say the Central massive ,or the south ,city's like Marseille at the mediteranian ,you will find a lot of warm and kind people there.

I suggest though ,if you go to france ,learn French.French people have a real problem (out of chauvinism) with any other language than french ,especcialy English.Speak French to them and they will be much friendly'r to you.

But ,because i love my girl ,she is really a french beauty ,i kinda like france more than i used to.
 
Well, I would like to speak you of an experience I had last year. Last september a french team, a spanish one, an english one and a german one came to my city to play a soccer tournament of 18-years old with my school's team.

In a few days I became a close friend of spanish, while french seemed to be "snob". They were sure to win, and they lost :lol:
So:

-Germans were too little (16 years old) to ge to know with them.
-English came here with the only aim to defeat Germany, but after a few days they moved their hatred to french.
English were a lot reserved at first, but then they tried our motorcycles :)
-I brought spanish boys with my friends to take a "tour" of my city, and we spent two weeks together. They hated french.
-I spoke only one time to french, but they only seemed interested in bothering italian girls with sentences with a double meaning. They often invert the order of the letters, like foret -> terof (here's another double-meaning...)
 
Well Duck, my aunt was an exchange student in France in the 1980's. And she's told me quite a bit about her experiences over the years. She speaks fluent French, but she does so with an American accent. Becuase of that she was constantly snubbed by the Frogs even though she had mastered the language. Although not all of the Frogs were rude to her, she said that the "vast majority" of them were. I myself have met more than a few French nationals in my time (mainly when I was in the army). And with the excaption of two encounters, I wanted to knock ths s*** out of them. If you think that Americans are arrogant, you need to take a closer look at the French. And they don't even have anything to be arrogant about!!!
 
If you think that Americans are arrogant
Click to expand...

i don't thin american's are arrogant ,nore the french or any nationality.I don't think black or white about a nation.every country has it's percentages of arrogant ,inteligent or moderate people.Sure ,there are lot's of arrogant people in France ,yet there are lot's of arrogant people all over the globe.

Becuase of that she was constantly snubbed by the Frogs even though she had mastered the language.
Click to expand...

the frogs :lol: :lol: ,where did you get that name

But seriously ,couldn't it be that youre aunt was was constantly been snubbed just because she was a bit un-social herself.there are a lot of people that try to laugh with me to sometimes.the smart thing to do is to laugh with it yourself and i think people will eventually accept you.But if you are *****ing because of the first joke somebody pulls onto you ,then you don't have to wonder why people laugh constantly with you.
 
No Duck, my aunt is a very articulate, sociable person, not given to exaggeration. And when she tells me that that's the way things were for her, I have absolutely zero doubt that that's exactly the way they were.



As for "Frogs", that's a term for people of the French persuation that I picked up when I was in the army. What it exactly means or it's origins I'm not sure, but it's not a complimentary term.
 
It seems alot of Canadians have disdain for their southern neighbors. Im not really sure why.

However, the origional question was about European countries, so UK would ofcourse be our greatest ally in Europe.

I have nothing against Canada, and you are correct, they are a great ally too. We are making this up as we go, so someone is bound to get left out!:D
 
I think most Canadians secretly want to be Americans. :rolleyes:
 
I think most Americans secretly want to be Bill Gates...;)

"Frogs" came from the fact that frogs legs are a French delicasy. :frog: Yum!
 
Well Corn, the reason that I believe the UK to be our best & most trustworthy ally has to do with what they bring to the table more in terms of assets (mainly economic & military). The bulk of the benefits of association between the US and Canada that you mentioned are pretty superficial when put into proper prospective. Yes, sharing cultural enhancements is a good thing. But we also share most of those things with the Britts to a lesser degree. I'm not bashing Canada, but what does Canada have to offer given our current situation, in comparison to the UK? I believe that Canada is on board with what the US is trying to achieve & further acknowledge that Canada is a valuable ally just the same. They just don't have the assests availabe to bring to bear at this time. And I don't hold a grudge against Canada because of that, as I believe that the Canadian government will do what it is that's in it's power to do.



I'd like to make a clairification...When I said "the UK is our best ally..." I meant absolutely no discredit to any of the rest of our (the US's) allies. Granted, there are some that are suspect in my mind. But, I believe that the majority are for real.
 
Disclaimer: 1/2 German, 1/4 English, 1/4 Swedish

Canada - OK, they weren't on the original list, but I've seen a few posts ripping Canada a bit in here and I had to defend them. I love Canada. I grew up in Detroit so I feel like I'm half Canadian. I live in Chicago now and one thing that I miss is having Canada 30 minutes away. They have a wicked sense of humor, the best beer in the world and amazing women. Toronto is the greatest city I've ever seen. "Canada is the 51st state...Canadians are just Americans without guns...blah blah." Let Canada be Canada. They're a great nation and a great people.

England - I really don't know how an American could ever criticize the United Kingdom. Especially now.

France - Seems like they've dug themselves a few holes but I've personally never understood the whole blood boiling "I hate the French" thing. BUT...never been there...never have really met anyone from there.

Germany - My father's entire side of the family is German so I feel biased if I talk about them...

Spain - The one European country I've ever been to. Generous to a fault and ridiculously friendly. Fantastically laid back people...I wish every American could spend two weeks in Spain...we could learn a LOT. I really, really enjoyed my time in there. My only knock on the Spanish...they don't understand sarcasm and dry humor AT ALL...which pretty much trashed my enitre ability to communicate the whole time I was there. And, my hand to God, they don't have one bad looking woman in that ENTIRE COUNTRY! Sure, they're not all supermodels, but holy shi...

Italy - Ah, Venice.

Holland - How can anyone possibly have a problem with Holland?

Sweden - I respect Sweden immensely. Possibly the most progressive country on the planet. Far too many blondes though.

Swiss - I don't have a problem with the Swiss but the whole neutrality thing always seemed a bit wishy washy to me. Seems like some shady stuff goes on behind that official stance. Not that MY country ever does anything shady...

Poland - That country has gotten screwed left and right for far too long. I wish them the best. And I LOVE girls with Polish accents.

Russia - I'll never understand why Russia was our mortal enemy for so long...well...OK, I *understand* why, but I've known a lot of Russians in my time and I've always enjoyed being with them. Pretty outgoing and one hell of a sense of humor. I think the United States and Russia could be great friends. I really hope they can get their house in order because I think a stable, democratic Russia would be a tremedous positive for this planet. OK, I'm done. :)
 
As should be obvious from some of these statements, most Americans have some European ancestry in them so at least have a fond place in their hearts for those places where their ancestors came from...

As for me, I'm 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Italian, 3/8 Slovenian, 1/8 Austrian.

However, as I said in my previous post, I've visited a number of other European countries and pretty much like them all (well, maybe not France...:) )
 
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