What is Digg?207 Comments
- brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -21/+189I think it's funny how europeans can look down on us for not knowing 7 languages and regularly traveling to foreign countries. They don't realize that a) traveling to another country is easy for them, all they have to do is drive for a few hours, whereas we have to buy plane tickets, etc. plus our neighboring countries quite frankly aren't all that interesting, and b) they wouldn't know 7 languages if they lived in an area where the same language was spoken 3,000 miles from you in every direction.
- goostoff, on 10/12/2007, -11/+173This is simple. You've got idiots no matter where you go. Whether it's idiots in the country, idiots in the city, or idiots in the workplace, everyone has a story about some dumb ________.
It's not just an American thing. - nonannystate, on 10/12/2007, -17/+157This is hysterical, but my experience is that Europeans et al are just as ignorant. While in Europe, I've had people ask me how much snow San Diego gets (where I'm from), claim that Americans don't go to Europe but upon asking that same person if they've been to the US "No, but I've been to Spain and England and France!" (was a German) with my response being, well, then you've seen the equivalent of just 3 states. Anyway, still a funny story.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+92@TimmyGUNZ
Have you ever seen someone get shot? - tehJR, on 10/12/2007, -15/+89These three comments sum it all up. No need to keep reading folks.
- danieldrehmer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+61I live in a nation surrounded by spanish speaking countries... but i don't know many people who speaks spanish around here.. It's certainly less common than english. However, when americans come to visit my country, they still bring their "spanish for dummies" book in an attempt to communicate with brazilians, who speaks portuguese.
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -13/+58Since when is American a language?
- BigEazy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+44Wow, those conversations seemed so genuine, not made up at all.
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -11/+47Please. I've been asked by more Europeans if I've ever seen someone get shot than farm-raised American's when they find out I live in New York.
- FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32Agreed. My personal favorite are the Japanese tourists though. They always seem to travel in packs of 20-40 people, each one carrying enough camera equipment to produce a Hollywood movie.
- NinjaDuck12, on 10/12/2007, -15/+44What the ***** is American?
I speak English. - jtp8736, on 10/12/2007, -8/+35These stories are old. The title is just dumb.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+30Take the following statement:
Why ____ shouldn't be allowed to ____.
Replace the first blank with an ethnic group (X), and the second blank with some common everyday transaction (Y). Build a crap web page with a few anecdotes indicating that one member of ethnic group X handles transaction Y badly, post to digg and sit back and laugh.
Try...
X = african-americans, Y = roam free
X = asians, Y = drive
etc etc.
Now ask yourself, who is ignorant? Americans? Or whoever made such a ridiculously prejudiced statement and thought it appropriate to post it to the Internet? - jamessavik, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28Other societies don't have their own rednecks and dumbasses?
- kakwakas, on 10/12/2007, -8/+32Well, in a way we DO speak American. American English. It's a dialect.
- VolatileWhimsy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+32"Funny that when you compare Spain and England and France to 3 States, you perpetuate the stereotype that Americans are ignorant and self centered.
Kudos that you actually traveled outside of your 50 American countries."
Look he was doing it to show that the distance of countries in the EU are in relation to our states... :/
Kudos for being pretentious... - kakwakas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22@sven
Enjoying my peace pipe and buffalo, dammit. - daedalus1982, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23I used to work for an airline call center. I'm bilingual and once received a call from Luis Kreckler of the Argentinian gov't...just google him i don't care what his title is. The man was an ass. After telling him repeatedly that without proper information that i would be unable to give the purchase and flight verification he was looking for, he began to insult me, my intelligence and my Spanish. he switched to English stating "perhaps your English is better," to which i interrupted in English, "sir, the answer is no in both languages."
Its just one of a million stories of people being uninterested in the necessary and being presumptive to the people in charge of their immediate futures.
these are the people that get their food spat on. (his ass sat next to the bathrooms)
I find these stories hilarious
dugg for being human, more than just american, nature - HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21I've had numerous occasions where European distributors /customers would fly into San Francisco, then call me for a ride.
I was in San Diego.....an eight hour drive one-way.
They figured that since they were in California, they were "close". - tutivlahos, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23Agreed. I live in Greece, have lived for many years in Brazil, you hear dumb things everywhere you go. The title is DUMB!
- schroduggity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21I work in tech support and I think that we should license computers. I'm going to start recording my damn phonecalls. yesterday a lady called me because her monitor said "no-signal" she insisted that it must be somthing wrong with the cable modem signal.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Yes, because it makes so much sense for an entire nation of people to learn more languages than they need to get through their entire life.
Sure, some will learn them for fun or practice. I speak 4 languages. But the fact that people think it's peculiar that most Americans only need to speak English to get through their entire life just shows how little these people actually understand about the American experience.
I can drive for 2 and a half days NON-STOP and still be in my country ( http://tinyurl.com/y26sel ). If that surprises you, then you are just as ignorant about living in America as Americans are of living in your country.
And that shouldn't surprise anybody. - LooterMcBeer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Id be willing to bet maybe 1 of those stories is actually true
- celopes, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25@brstilson
"plus our neighboring countries quite frankly aren't all that interesting"
I beg to disagree. They may not be interesting to you, but I'm sure Canada and Mexico are of interest to many others. I for one am very curious about the Aztec ruins and, let's agree, latins in general know how to party. Canada holds less appeal to me, personally, but I'm sure there are very cool things to do and see.
Europeans don't travel just in Europe. They get in planes too, you know.
Not that there aren't idiots of all nationalities out there, like other commenters state very well above. - streak, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Then there was the "travel agent" in the Indian call center. I told him I wished to travel to the island of Hawaii. The agent replied, "Sir, Hawaii is a state. Which of the islands do you wish to visit?" To which I replied, "Hawaii. It's one of the islands." Upon which he reiterated his statement. Can you see where this led? Eventually I just had to hang up.
- HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18You should go there (keeping your mouth shut) and see for yourself.
- tutivlahos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16@willdiggforfood
If you are not joking, man. It's stuff like that, that makes me think that the conversations in the article might be true.
Ignorance! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13True.
Europeans typically know several languages because they have to. Drive an hour, and you're in a different country. Americans typically know only English because we don't have to know anything else, although I did learn Spanish because Mexican chicks are hot.
In the U.S. it takes a good 3 days to drive across the country and then you hit ocean. We only have two neighboring countries, and the biggest one speaks English too (sort of, eh). So if you're a regular working-man, there's just no need to put forth the effort. - milomilomilo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13The whole "Americans should learn multiple languages debate" is looked at from the wrong perspective.
Many other nations speak english as a second language because is the international language of commerce, media and trade.
Most international conferences are held primarily in english, and many countries use it as their primary language.
Americans don't feel the need to learn another language because the majority of our country doesn't do much international travel.
Also, many europeans are surrounded on all sides by countries who speak a different language, that they can travel to with ease.
It's almost a mandate to be bilingual over there. In america, most of the time it's not necessary. - drmangrum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14The title is should read "Why idiots shouldn't be allowed to travel."
As long as the intellectually impaired have genitals, they will perpetuate the madness no matter where they live. - jjb123, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15You are the person that shouldn't be allowed to travel, or use the interenet.
- mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I'm in Texas, but I've never been to Mexico, except for that one time I went to the Big Bend and swam across the river. I'm just not interested in Mexico. But I speak French and have been to France a couple of times, and when I went to Japan I learned a little Japanese, enough to get by for 3 weeks, even enough to read the train schedules.
The point is, you don't need to learn a language you're not going to use. Even in Texas I've never been in a situation where I really needed to know Spanish. - drmangrum, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I would sincerely like to know why we are looked down upon because the vast majority speak only English? We have two countries bordering us. There are only two other languages that would even remotely need to be learned, and could argue only one other; Spanish. A lot of Americans know at least some rudimentary Spanish, at least enough for basic communication. As for the other language ( French), the vast majority of Americans will never come in contact with a French-Canadian.
Expecting us to learn 5 language is like expecting a lawyer to learn computer programming. - MattL920, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@TimmyGUNZ: Just reply "Of course I have, it's hard to aim with your eyes closed"
- PaulOwen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13I met a Florida highschooler in Japan who was amazed to learn that she could travel to Alaska overland from her home town. She genuinely thought Alaska was an island according to the map of the USA she was taught from at school.
When I asked her where she thought Canada was, she replied "isn't that near England and Iceland?" (she was thinking of Greenland). - DoubtingThomas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9To add to what ayeroxor said, I can drive north for 10 hours, be in an entirely different country and guess what? They speak English also /boggle.
Being multi-lingual is commendable but is definately far from practical for a large portion of the US population. - krakkinem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10So... America is the only country in which a typical citizen only speaks one language? There are many others.
- twinklyJesus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Yeah, my neighbor came over one day, distraught, because his parents sent a letter that they would be arriving from Paris. We lived in Dallas, and he was understandably upset, as they were flying into JFK in New York! They had no concept of the distances involved, they were just wanting to save money and rather than have to change flights, have their son drive a "few miles" to pick them up. We did finally get it resolved, but wow what a mess! No clue as to how far it actually is, from Dallas to NYC!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@PaulOwen
I have to let you know, that's not most of the US, that is, however, normal for someone who went through the Florida school system. - WestDC, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13@nonannystate
"but upon asking that same person if they've been to the US "No, but I've been to Spain and England and France!" (was a German) with my response being, well, then you've seen the equivalent of just 3 states."
...And THAT is the kind of reasoning that earns Americans the reputation they've got, I'm afraid. England, Spain and France are all VASTLY different countries. - groovychk, on 10/12/2007, -17/+25Lame.
- Gojulas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Funny, but does submitter think this is just an American thing?
- sven007, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11If you remember your history properly, Europe colonized the Americas and influenced the people in order to create the countries we now live in (talking north and south america here). without them, where would we be?
- VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Yes, I loved hearing all the people coming to town for E3, all about their hotels in Sherman Oaks, Long Beach, the beach-front Malibu house that they rented... Ha, suckers. Nowhere near downtown L.A.
- JackyTreehorn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8You know what I haven't had in a while? Big League Chew
- hipstershaun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Sure. And Brazilians don't speak Portuguese, they speak Brazilian. Mexicans don't speak Spanish, they speak Mexican.
What posters like cheesehead9805 are trying to say is that if the dialect of the language you speak is not the European dialect, it doesn't count.
Who's narrow minded? - VolatileWhimsy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Sure Mexico and even Canada have some interesting things, but nowhere near as much as all the historical crap that's in Europe."
I wouldn't necessarily say that.. Life did start before colonization on this continent.. :/ - Corvidae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Actually I've been coming to the conclusion that intelligence is a constant...It's just the population keeps going up and spreading the brain power a bit thin in places.
- baaj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"I'm sure there's at least 4 times as much ignorance in China as in the US."
The big gulf of ignorance between the US and China is that most Chinese can't get enough facts to get past the propaganda fed to them by the state run media. We Americans have the facts, but choose instead to believe the propaganda.
Yep, a sad state of affairs. - satanatnmtedu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5And, morons should not post on digg because their posts often make no sense whatsoever.
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