Oceania My scary experiences with Americans

Seeing as I am moving to OZ, I can say hopefully I wont be too stupid. It helps to actually read threads like this to know what not to ask.

anyway being an American in London with a group of exchange students and Germans on a field trip I was appalled at the American tourists, loud obnoxious rude and no idea what they were doing. All of us exchange students refused to be in anyway affliated with them.

Oh and not knowing German or little of it sucked.

Try going to a restaurant. A few times I was given an english menu. Sure it was nice but it felt like I had the kiddie menu. I still needed someone to translate.

And road signs werent easy.

after pulling into london on the bus It was a refreshment to see and be able to read every single sign. It was a welcome reprieve for all of us exchange students.

and by the way I was an exchange student for an automotive school so German was really taught in great deal.

 

Pfft. At least you can match the words to a German dictionary.

When your menu is all in Classical Chinese and most guidebooks only have simplified Mandarin from the Mainland, you're utterly lost.

Luckily, I learnt how to order food, so I could an entire Subway sub in Chinese. Though my flatmate preferred being a bitch in Subway.

E_S

 

I'd like you to name me a country that don't make fun of or stereotype or hate foreigners. And if you think you've found one, have another look.

And if you're thinking of shunning Aus for some xenophilic xanadu - good luck! (FYI: you'll find xenophobia in most dictionaries but not xenophilia. Something in that for all of us).

And you know that whole Aussie joke about New Zealanders fancying sheep ... well NZers say the same about Aussies ... and Brits say the same about Aussies ... and the Irish say it about Brits ... and ...

...and people make fun of Scots for being tight with money, and Scots make fun of Jews for being tight with money, and Jews make fun of Scots. And QLDers make fun of NSW folk, and NSW folk make fun of QLDers. And people in my town make fun of people in the next town. And people in my half of town make fun of people in the other half. People at the bottom of the hill make fun of people on top of the hill, and they make fun of people at the bottom of the hill. And people in my department make fun of people in other departments and vice versa. And people in our research group make fun of people in other research groups and vice versa. And people on my mother's side of the family make fun of people on my father's. And Mac users make fun of PC users, and vice versa, and they both make fun of Linux users, who make fun of them both. And Star Wars fans make fun of Star Trek fans, and vice versa ... and on and on it goes.

So, yeah, good luck finding a xenophilic paradise. And good luck finding people to live in it.


And if you've never - ever - made fun of another group of people in your life, then feel free to be righteous and judge away.


To quote Dead Like Me: ?Hey, you have ten fingers, I have ten fingers, let's be friends. We'll make rules and slogans. Then if we find someone with nine fingers, we can beat the crap out of them.?

 

I'm not sure if you're aiming that comment at me, since I ne'er once pretended the Chinese (and Japanese) aren't startlingly racist...

E_S

 

That was just a rhetorical shrapnel grenade. Not aimed at anyone in particular, just anyone in the vicinity.



?If you take life too seriously, it ceases to be funny.?
? Alan Shore

 

I remembered another one! Yay!

I studied Chinese at a language school in XiMen (West Gate). Of the class of 12, you had one Aussie (me), 5 Canadians hey, 1 American, 2 Indonesians and 2 South Africans.

Chinese doesn't employ grammar as we do, and they use measure words which are different depending on what you buy. If you buy a car, you say "yiliang/yibu che". If you buy a pen, "yizhu bi". If you buy a book, "yiben shu". Yi, btw, is "one", pronounced "ee".

Similarly, past tense is often created merely by adding a previous time, or putting "le" on the verb.

"Wo kanle naben shu" = I (have) read that book.
"Wo zuotian mai yiben shu" - I yesterday buy one book (lit), I bought a book yesterday.

Can you guess who had asked why they didn't just do it like in English?

E_S

 

I sure can.

Eurocentric fools!