sysyphus said:
That pretty much sums it up. You're our polite and clean neighbors to the north. Oh, and you gave us Ann Murray.
America: Leave It To Beaver wholesomeness.
Your national complex
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That pretty much sums it up. You're our polite and clean neighbors to the north. Oh, and you gave us Ann Murray.
America: Leave It To Beaver wholesomeness.
PrinceOfLeigh
Wigan, England
The British think that we should be the best in the world at most sports simply because we invented them. When we are good at something, nobody really cares unless it's football.
We moan about the weather, constantly. Too cold, too windy, too much snow, too much sun, too hot, ect.
We constantly laugh at Americans for being overweight, under-educated warmongers without realising that we are also overweight, under-educated lapdogs of warmongers.
We hate the EU despite being more in line with the ideals of Europe than America with whom we share a "special relationship".
Britian has the greatest range of ego given that we are simultaneously arrogant and full of self pity.
Our Army is the best trained in the world, because it's British.
Scots, Welsh, Irish all hate the English. English are too busy competing with France and Germany to notice.
We moan about the weather, constantly. Too cold, too windy, too much snow, too much sun, too hot, ect.
We constantly laugh at Americans for being overweight, under-educated warmongers without realising that we are also overweight, under-educated lapdogs of warmongers.
We hate the EU despite being more in line with the ideals of Europe than America with whom we share a "special relationship".
Britian has the greatest range of ego given that we are simultaneously arrogant and full of self pity.
Our Army is the best trained in the world, because it's British.
Scots, Welsh, Irish all hate the English. English are too busy competing with France and Germany to notice.
MamboJoel
Cool.
Atropos said:
Well, that's pretty good news isn't it ?
Canada: it's America Jr.
Greece is not so much antagonistic to the rest of Europe, since it is antagonistic to tens of different things, from the ancient Greece to the Byzantine Empire to the image of the great european power which it came close to being in 1920, but then failed in 1922.
The fact that it has the same GDP in total that the rest of the balcans combined (minus Turkey ofcourse) have, means that it is the major player in the region.
Also it is sort of cut out from the rest of the EU, due to no land borders. This will change with Romania and Bulgaria joining in 2007.
There is an atavistic relationship with ancient Greece, and the Byzantine Empire acts as a sort of opposite pole.
The country is mostly isolated and randomly influenced by USA, and then in far more obscure ways by bigger EU countries (in reality not very much, due to not having a border with them).
In my view with immigration from various countries (more than 1/10 of the current population was not born in Greece) it is likely that in the future, due to all the special conditions of the country, it can create a new, more influential culture
The fact that it has the same GDP in total that the rest of the balcans combined (minus Turkey ofcourse) have, means that it is the major player in the region.
Also it is sort of cut out from the rest of the EU, due to no land borders. This will change with Romania and Bulgaria joining in 2007.
There is an atavistic relationship with ancient Greece, and the Byzantine Empire acts as a sort of opposite pole.
The country is mostly isolated and randomly influenced by USA, and then in far more obscure ways by bigger EU countries (in reality not very much, due to not having a border with them).
In my view with immigration from various countries (more than 1/10 of the current population was not born in Greece) it is likely that in the future, due to all the special conditions of the country, it can create a new, more influential culture
Mathilda
Queen
Finland: Does anyone know anything about us?
(Why should they?)
Aren't they?
Seriously, there's a historic reason for that.
Gay liberation in Sweden was 15 years ahead of Finland, so the first flamboyant out-gays Finnish people would have ever seen, would have been Swedes.
But it's such a good image that we're not likely to ever give it up.
(Why should they?)
Well they are.Verbose said:
Aren't they?
Seriously, there's a historic reason for that.
Gay liberation in Sweden was 15 years ahead of Finland, so the first flamboyant out-gays Finnish people would have ever seen, would have been Swedes.
But it's such a good image that we're not likely to ever give it up.
Kayak
Partisan
My take on the US is:
A combination of religion and military-industrial all mixed with the view that everyone else in the world really thinks just like us because they all want to come here. (except the western europeans and they are elitist snobs).
A combination of religion and military-industrial all mixed with the view that everyone else in the world really thinks just like us because they all want to come here. (except the western europeans and they are elitist snobs).
"Brazil should be the richest nation in the world, but the portuguese kept us down. And then the british. And now the americans. It is not our fault!"
"Portuguese are stupid"
"Argentinians are arrogant, racist and dishonest"
"If our National Team ever loses a football match there must be some reason unrelated to the abilities of both teams, as our team is the best in world, has been since 1950 and will remain so until the end of times".
"Portuguese are stupid"
"Argentinians are arrogant, racist and dishonest"
"If our National Team ever loses a football match there must be some reason unrelated to the abilities of both teams, as our team is the best in world, has been since 1950 and will remain so until the end of times".
Corlindale
Emperor
Actually, Norwegians are the "joke people" in Denmark
Wonder if we are the joke people of the Swedes... Then there would truly be basis for Scandinavian conflict.
Xenocrates
Deity
We British are the Greeks and the US are the Romans.
We watch with amusement as our younger cousins across the Atlantic repeat all of our own errors and more!
This gives us the right to criticise the US and offer advice.
Like any parent, we'd like our Son to grow up good and strong, but sometimes we despair at the US.
We watch with amusement as our younger cousins across the Atlantic repeat all of our own errors and more!
This gives us the right to criticise the US and offer advice.
Like any parent, we'd like our Son to grow up good and strong, but sometimes we despair at the US.
Reno
The Studio Ghibli Fanatic
Every single news program that interviews foreigners usually asks that idiotic question everytime; What do you think about Finland/Finns? I've gotten totally sick of hearing that at the end of every singe interview.
Well, atleast there's Conan O'Brian with his Finland related jokes promoting this place. But even that's getting tiresome, he even supported the wrong person for president.
Che Guava
The Juicy Revolutionary
Erik Mesoy said:
Leifmk said:
Heh heh, I feel the same about Canada: we think that we're so nice and polite we end up coming off arrogant and smug, and spend lots of time and too much money trying to find that elusive 'canadian culture' that only seems to appear on the side of maple syrup tins.
Sysyphus said:
...I can't begin to imagine what our country would be like if we didn't have the America around: we'd have no idea who to be contrary about....Oh, the other great thing that Canadians seem to do: find obscure links to inventions, historical events, or great people so we can claim them as our own (just ask a Canadian sometime about the invention of basketball...
)
Che Guava
The Juicy Revolutionary
Corlindale said:Actually, Norwegians are the "joke people" in Denmark
From the people I've spoken to in Scandanavia (according to each other): the norweigens were the timid backwards ones, the swedes the arrogant ones, and the Danes were the funny ones with the speech impetement...
silver 2039
Deity
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India: We are the largest democracy in the world!
We have the second largest pouplation in the world
All your base are belong to us
We have the second largest pouplation in the world
All your base are belong to us
Corlindale
Emperor
Yes, our language does have some reputation for being exceedingly difficult to learn, and for sounding very badly. Being used to it, I don't think it sounds terrible, but the grammar rules does not make much sense. For example, most languages have different words as "prefixes" to nouns, for example a and an in English, or der, die and das in German. Common to these is that there are usually some guidelines for which to use in a given situation - the English ones are perfectly logical, German and French ones do not always make sense, but there are still some general guidelines for people wanting to learn the language. In Danish, there is no system for their use whatsoever. I'm really glad I'll never be a foreigner trying to learn Danish
Just be thankful most of us speak English quite well. I think it is generally true for smaller countries that there is some kind of national "pride" and a tendency to want attention in a world of larger nations. During the Cartoon Controversy, for example: While it was indeed a very shocking event, it was also kind of fun to see Denmark mentioned in Newsweek, and see us appearing on American news and such.
Xenocrates said:
So when do we absorb you into the Empire, or have we already and not noticed?
willemvanoranje
Curitibano
luiz said:
Yeah.. I get sick of all that "Nike bought the World Cup 1998 Final" CRAP!
As for Holland:
* inferiority complex: we are a small country and feel the need to prove ourselves
* lost glory complex: we once were the richest and most famous, now we are just another small country.. yet we try to act like at least a middle power
* Germans: has to do with the inferiority complex, we have to show we're better than the big brother
* Belgians: they have an inferiority complex towards us, so we kick them down
* World War II: we look for horsehockey excuses as to why we lost our country within 4 days and glorify the few points where the Germans were stopped
* World War II and Jews: we like the world to think the Dutch were the best helpers of Jews in the history, but the municipal administrations always helped the Germans to identify Jews with their records
* World Cup 1974 (related to Germans and inferiority complex)
willemvanoranje
Curitibano
Corlindale said:
1. We have the same system hehe
2. It sounds like **** indeed! It's even worse than Dutch! It's Swedish with a German accent and some really ugly sounds..
3. If written it's not so hard.. for Dutch people.
