Comments on: I’m not from America

By: Magdalena Czechowicz

Magdalena Czechowicz — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:35:42 +0000

Thank you Yates,
Couldn’t put it better

By: William O. Yates

William O. Yates — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:09:42 +0000

WOW!

How easily fur can fly… :-)

Read all the above twice, and still can’t manage to get upset…

I’m a USA born citizen, and never lived in one place for over a year until I was married at 35 (my father built churches).

I was 12 before I realized that moving so much was rare in the US.

I believe most US citizens would first think “Huh?” to the original post.

Not that I would argue the original post was wrong, but that the focus was a bit narrow.

I’ve been around the world 3 times, private sailing, merchant marine, and the US Navy.

You can find jerks anywhere, and good people next to most of them…

Sometimes, finding a good dancer is hard, when all you can see are muddy feet.

Your web site is a great tool to fight the good fight on ignorance and social change.

Ease up a bit and take a deep breath, to avoid your good work being ignored.

Social change is best done with small steps.

William O. Yates

http://www.tru2life.net

By: e

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:52:30 +0000

i like ur post… but i think a new point for this frustration is that they assume “global view” = china / india. so, instead of not knowing “what the rest of the world means”, these “Americans” (in quotation marks, not everyone, not a particular person, just on average), they now thought that “rest of the world” = China/ India and at best Europe = France.

By: Ski

Ski — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:32:31 +0000

PS - Cheers to you for learning English because I’m still trying to learn Spanish of all things and if not for your forethought I would not have benefited from your posts.

Also your right nav menu on this page it aligned to the bottom:
http://friendlybit.com/about/projects/

Regards

By: Ski

Ski — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:25:59 +0000

Easy my friend! America is a big country and some of us are trying to get others to “think out side the box” that is Americanism!

Have patience with us - we’re slow learners unless we can profit from it or it immediately threatens our life! *grin*

Regards & Good Cheer

By: average american girl » Blog Archive » American bashing? From a web developer you say?

Fri, 25 May 2007 15:48:36 +0000

[...] so this article “I’m not from America” which he posted April [...]

By: Emil Stenström

Emil Stenström — Thu, 24 May 2007 20:36:14 +0000

@silversk8r: I write in english to be understood by as many as possible (without having to learn a new language). How has that to do with anything?

By: silversk8r

silversk8r — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:09:14 +0000

And the fact that you write your articles in english just adds to all this.

By: Marc Morgan

Marc Morgan — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:31:05 +0000

I have lived in American most of my life (I am American). But my mother is Swedish.

What most Europeans don’t take into consideration, is that the average American, doesn’t travel. My wife had never seen snow until our honeymoon. I have a co-worker who is 30 and he has never seen an ocean. Most Americans don’t wander far from where they were born. When I tell people that I was born in Germany, they assume my father was in the military (and they would be right).

My mother is the only reason I have traveled outside of the United States. She taught me how important it is to experience different cultures and people.

I was visiting some of my family in Sweden several years ago in Uppsala (sp) I was in a great little pub and met a dozen or so college students. I think we spoke till almost morning. I taught them American slang and they taught me Swedish customs. It was an amazing evening of drinking and laughing. I also sold the Levis 501 jeans that I was wearing for a 100 USD.

Most Americans just need to get out an experience the rest of the world.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:36:05 +0000

Wow! What a thread. As an American by birth, I don’t take offense to Emil’s thoughts. But you also must remember that our country is a country of immigrants. I like Fredrik’s comment “People from USA are only Europeans with a little more land.” So funny, at least we started out that way. Until recently most of us didn’t need passports to travel to Canada or even Mexico. And yes, travelling around the 50 states but staying in our country does make a us spoiled and a little clueless to the rest of the world. But we exist because your ancestors and mine wanted a better life and religious freedom. I think most people who do come to America now still come for that reason. Yes, we need to raise our children more aware of their world, and not just of middle-east conflict. But our public schools have suffered from short sighted, money saving views. Our children aren’t taught the arts and even physical education has been phased out in some states. In California where I live (which, by the way is NOT all Hollywood) our schools have to teach to ’state standards’ and little time for much else. The PEOPLE of the United States know that for all the ’stuff’ we have, we’ve given up a lot of our soul. Our parents and their parents made sure we had better lifes and ours and the next generations turned that into being spoiled. The bright side - despite all this, contrary to what you hear mostly about us, our teens are becomming people who are serious and empowered to make the changes needed to improve our world and the world around us. We know it’s there.

By: dd ddd

dd ddd — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:00:39 +0000

@ddd,
Um, I think you are allowing your emotions to cloud objectivity. My point is that I think Swedes lie to themselves alot. America bashing is a sport in Sweden. Yet, I don’t think you (meaning the collective “you” not “you” personally) realize how silly it looks when you all complain about America almost every micro-second of the day yet consume everything thing that you can which is “American” while you are doing it. There’s a Macdonald’s or 7-Eleven on every corner of Stockholm - and you know it. Please don’t mistake my points here. I am fully aware that less than 20% of Americans even have passports and that is a crying shame - I think Americans really miss out alot on life. But where we differ in opinion is that you seem to think it’s an “American” thing when I would argue it’s a “human” thing. When people cater to you, it makes you lazy — notice how many thousands of Swedes who eat meatballs and listen to SR or watch STV while on holiday in Spain every year. Since they know they are going to be catered to, most don’t bother learning even though they’ve been there every year for the past 10+ years. This is just a small example. I guess the point I am making is that I think it is down right foolish how obsessed Swedes appear with regard to criticizing America/-cans given how much you embrace culture. It would be like me walking around criticizing the French when I openly embrace everything French. So, I feel for all those Swedes who feel the way you do, you should avoid being hypocritical by bad-mouthing a country one minute, then imitating it the next. Seriously dude, it looks so stupid. I always chuckle when I watch Swedish television and one minute they ae talking about the shitty things America is doing then bring up some lame story about what such-and-such American celebrity is doing the next. I mean if Americans complained about Swedes the way Swedes complain about Americans, there would be no way in hell we’d be imitating them!!!

By: Emil Stenström

Emil Stenström — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:15:04 +0000

@dd ddd: So what you’re saying is that since so many countries imitate the US, it has in fact become the world? I don’t pick up China or Sweden as examples because I don’t see that mentality there. Sweden has three core courses in school, Swedish, Math, and English. We know we can’t cope with only our own little language… Accept that the world is larger than your own country, no matter what country you live in. Agreed?

By: Johan

Johan — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:51:37 +0000

What about China, almost
the largest economic force in the world?

I think it is lame to bash on the US. US people I met, they were just overly into Europe, and could not wait to live permanently here (=Belgium).

Sweden is well respected for its high living standard and social efforts but I believe you should not mix up US foreign policy with US identity = over 50 states with so many different cultures and ways…

By: dd ddd

dd ddd — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:03:11 +0000

PS…to lighten things up, I meant to tell you you have nice eyes :D

By: dd ddd

dd ddd — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:58:44 +0000

@Emil Stenström
What I’m refering to are the comments made by Joe America and others above. Please try very hard to read with comprehension.
My point was and is this: whatever you focus on expands. The very fact that on average everyday DN, SVD, Aftonbladet, etc. runs front page stories about every minute thing that is happening in America only reinforces the “America as center of the world” mentality. As the saying goes “imitation is the highest form of flattery. Perhaps is Swedes (and others) weren’t so obsessed about America, America wouldn’t be obsessed about itself. I find it hypocritical how Swedes complain about how self-centric America is yet consume so much of what is America. I mean if anything, take the lead of France. They too feel the same way about America and that’s why there is less consumption of “all things American” there. I feel if so many Swedes have certain feelings towards American, demonstrate it with your words. Instead of buying “American muffins” at Wayne’s Coffee, by “Canadian” or “Uruguayan” (or whatever” muffins. Instead of watching American movies all the time, watch South African movies, etc. Instead of everyday writing about what XYZ American is doing on the front pages of the newspapers, write about what is happening in Finland. And so on, and so forth. But once again, it’s pretty hypocritical to talk about how “America sees itself only as the world” when everywhere you look in Sweden there so much “Amerification….”
Tack…