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BS: To see ourselves as others see us
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Subject: To see ourselves as others see us From: Lyndi-loo Date: 01 Jun 01 - 08:48 AM It's very difficult to know what people think of us. There is a quiz in today's "Glasgow Herald" entitled "Are you an American?" It is a (tongue in cheek, Honest!) look at the way in which Americans are perceived. You can find it at http://www.theherald.co.uk/diary/archive/diary_frame.html (One day I'm going to be brave enough to try a blicky) ps You need to scroll down to get to the offending item |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Billy the Bus Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:08 AM G'day Lyndi-loo, Ummm... Your question is VERY hard to answer...;) I assume from what you write, USA (a subset of America) is your home? Yet you read the "Glasgow Herald"? Ummm.... If I knew where in the world you were from - maybe I could respond...;) Cheers - Sam |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Lyndi-loo Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:29 AM Sorry, I'm confusing you. I'm not an American. I am Welsh, but I live in Scotland. What I should have said is "It's very difficult to know what other people think of oneself", but that sounds too pedantic |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Peg Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:36 AM I think this quiz is a bit silly. Presumably it is the outrageous "C" answers which all Americans are supposed to choose? Most Americans find stereotyping of other cultures offensive....I find it ironic that regarding a country as huge and diverse as the United States of America, anyone in the world would think it possible to pigeonhole or stereotype American citizens in general. This seems to me an impossible task... A lot of Americans are fat, lazy, stupid, gullibel, apathetic war-mongers. But certainly not the majority. I often find when I tarvel in the UK I do better to pretend I am English because it tales people a while to figure out I am not a "typical" American tourist (whatever that is). One pagan friend actually introduced me and my travelling companion to others last year "This is Peg and Berta; they're Americans, but we like them."
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Lyndi-loo Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:47 AM Oh Come on Peg. I did say it was tongue in cheek. Nobody gets more stick than the Welsh like me (Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief) or the Scots for being mean but at least we can laugh at ourselves. Life is too short for taking ourselves too seriously |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Les from Hull Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:51 AM Yes, that's certainly offensive. Well I'm offended and I'm not at all even slightly American. What would be the Glasgow Herald's reaction to a quiz where all the 'c' answers indicated that everyone thought that Glaswegians were fat, drunken, work-shy chauvinists in the Rab C Nesbitt mould. Les |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Midchuck Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:59 AM I don't know. I kinda liked the idea of the (c) breakfast, 'tho I'd insist on coffee rather than root beer. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Lyndi-loo Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:18 AM C'mon Rab C Nesbit was created by a Scot! And what about the recent thread "Glaswegian Pie" that you all found so funny? My Scottish friends certainly enjoyed it. Anyway does anyone ever wonder how these sterotypes came about in the first place ... Hmmm? (that's another joke by the way) *BG* |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Les from Hull Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:26 AM True Lindi. I had to get my Glaswegian mate to explain some of the finer points to me when the series started. Till then I was totally unaware of the connection with the fine products of Buckfast Abbey, or even what a 'swallie' was. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Scabby Douglas Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:50 AM I think that if you came up with such a quiz aimed at Scots or Glaswegians, the Herald diary would publish it.. They've been doing this stuff for years - no target to lofty, no level to which they will not stoop ( not quite true, but they'd see the funny side, honestly)... Cheers SD
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Kim C Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:55 AM Heehee! I answered B to all of them, except the war one. ;-) So what does that make me? |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Peg Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:55 AM Lyndi loo, I said it was silly, which presumably is what you are trying to say when you call it "tongue in cheek." If you did not want people to comment upon it, why did you start this thread? Feel free to laugh at yourself. I do so often. But when one nationality makes a frequent pastime of insulting another, well, it stops being fun after a while... But this is what tabloid newspapers do, and peopel want to read it apparently, so I guess there is no harm in giving the people what they want...
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: mousethief Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:20 PM How can you possibly be both apathetic and a war-monger? In fact according to the brits we were "late" entering both of the world wars. Hardly a war-mongering stance. Alex |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Kim C Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:20 PM I thought it was sort of humorous. Being a Southerner I am used to such jabs anyhow. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Rick Fielding Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:26 PM We all have our supposed "National Characteristics". Canadians are supposed to be: Polite, Un-Patriotic, identity-confused, non-aggressive, aetheistic, Bi-lingual, racially tolerant, liberal do-gooders, who feel hurt that Americans don't know anything about us. Hmmmmmm, not far off, although personally, the less George Dubya know about us, the better! Oh, and Fidel Castro's Birthday is one of our national holidays! Rick |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: SINSULL Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:26 PM Lyndie Loo, We laugh at ourselves for the same reasons. Check out the "You Know You're A Redneck If", travelling salesmen, Texas, Maine, etc. jokes. No offence taken. Then take a look at Spaw's Cletus, Paw and the Reg boys' adventures. I was in a small restaurant in Sydney, alone and waiting for service. The waitress was totally frazzled by a pair of midwestern women who were being obnoxious(SP). Their latest complaint was that the flowers on their table were not fresh and this would never be tolerated back home in the states - voices that would etch glass. I smiled, handed her my flowers, took theirs, and got a menu. When the poor lady came to get my order, she said under her breath "Damn Americans! I hate them!" Then I gave my order - she was horrified at my accent and started to apologize. I laughed and said that I hated Americans like that too. I call it "Big Fish In A Little Pond" syndrome. Mrs. Murphy from nowhere USA is so thoroughly impressed by her own self importance (after all no one in her home town has ever gone beyond DisneyWorld) that she starts to believe her own hype. It's too bad that American sitcoms make it around the world. They are to the average American what Benny Hill is the average Brit. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Les from Hull Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:28 PM Actually, Alex, I don't mind if the USA was 'late' entering the world wars. Just so long as you're not too early in the next one! Les |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:39 PM Hmmmm...what if we added a stereoptyped Canadian to that list: d) Stiff neck in the morning? Chug a Molson Export and go back to sleep, eh? d) Breakfast? Okay, it's at 2 pm, eh? Donuts, back bacon, left-over pizza, and Kraft Dinner with lots of Maple Syrup...oh, and another beer, eh? Then go back to sleep. d) A war? Wait till it's over and send in a peacekeeping force, eh? Free beers all around. d) Marriage ceremony? Okay, like, we all come in on snowmobiles, eh? And have an outdoor ceremony around the old campfire, and sing lumberjack songs and get totally wasted and ride the snowmobiles across the lake at midnight, ice or no ice...that's in winter, eh? In summer we do sorta the same thing, except without the snowmobiles, but maybe with canoes or jetskis. You gotta have a lot of mosquito repellant and bug spray, eh? Them little cabins ain't sealed up so good, and the bugs always get in, eh? d) Oh...I guess that was all, eh? With stereotypes the lowest common denominator always sets the tone, it seems... - LH |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Jeri Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:50 PM Well, the bit was too "over the top" to be very offensive to most people...well, me, at least. You have to get closer to the truth to really bug people. It's more like "look at the dumb stereotype we have of Americans." Not that governments don't have something to do with the stereotypes and a good chunk of responsibility for how other people see us as individuals. We'll get even for this, I say!! Infest them with McDonalds!!! Whoops, we did that. How about Starbucks? You got Starbucks yet? Disney could do a Middle Ages theme park or something. We could have Burger King sponsor a Morris side. We do not invade large, developed countries with weapons of war anymore. We use capitalism. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: mousethief Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:56 PM The funny thing about American culture is that we don't export it. Y'all import it. We don't shove McDonalds's down your throats. If you didn't like them you wouldn't eat at them, and they'd go out of business. But they DON'T go out of business. Whose fault is that? Alex |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: DougR Date: 01 Jun 01 - 01:06 PM Er, Rick, uh ...let's see now ...uh ...Canada is located ...where the heck IS Canada, Rick? DougR |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: kendall Date: 01 Jun 01 - 01:09 PM As Jean Harris said in her book STRANGER IN TWO WORLDS, "Stereotypes afford us the luxury of not thinking, but, eventually, they will extract the price of our not thinking." I was treated like family in Scotland. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Mountain Dog Date: 01 Jun 01 - 01:25 PM During an extensive period of traveling throughout Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England, people continually mistook my wife and me for Canadians (which we considered a compliment, by the way) and people were routinely suprised to discover we were Americans. The consensus was that we "were too soft spoken to be Americans". Peg, we, too, were regularly introduced by one couple - very dear friends and very proper Englishfolk - to their friends as "Don and Monta, who are from America, but they're very nice." However, we never took it amiss; we understood and appreciated the distinction that was being drawn. I've always thought that those who travel to foreign climes and spend the greatest part of their time complaining about "how things aren't like this at home" are not only missing a great deal that could delight and broaden their horizons, but are doing a grave disservice to their compatriots at home through their boorishness. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Clinton Hammond Date: 01 Jun 01 - 01:40 PM Geeze... Some people just can't take a feckin' joke eh! Feck 'em! ;-) I thought it was good fer a chuckle... |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: CarolC Date: 01 Jun 01 - 01:46 PM Aw... you guys are just jealous 'cause you don't have any transvestite vicars dressed as Elvis. Although I noticed you had a 'raving loonie' running for some sort of office. (In one of the other articles.) Goodness knows we don't have any of those... |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Clinton Hammond Date: 01 Jun 01 - 02:05 PM "transvestite vicar dressed as Elvis" HA! That was me!!!!!! LOL!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Jim Krause Date: 01 Jun 01 - 02:20 PM American excess MORE from our quiz entitled Are You An American? which appears to have struck a chord with a few readers. * You wake up in the morning with a stiff neck after sleeping in an awkward position. What do you do?
(a) Ignore it. It will probably loosen up as the day progresses.
* What do you have for breakfast? (a) A bowl of cornflakes, slice of toast, and a mug of tea. (b) Glass of orange juice, croissant, and a cup of coffee.
(c) A bag of doughnuts with ice-cream, a 32-ounce steak with six eggs sunny side-up, 15 pancakes with maple syrup, 10 waffles, five corn dogs, and a diet root beer. * There is a war in another part of the world; do you: (a) Monitor to see if human rights are being infringed and step in when necessary. (b) Monitor to see if human rights are being infringed and bring the culprits to justice.
(c) Invade the country, flattening all buildings, fire at all allied and enemy airplanes, killing people no matter which side they're on - after all, a kill is a kill. * You and your partner decide to take the plunge and get married. What sort of ceremony do you have? (a) A quiet party with a few friends in a registry office. (b) A church service followed by a traditional reception at a hotel.
(c) A minute-long mockery at a 24-hour drive-through chapel in Las Vegas, presided over by a transvestite vicar dressed as Elvis.
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Van Date: 01 Jun 01 - 02:38 PM Given the welcome the people of that great city are currently giving assylum seekers and such who have had the misfortune to be given accomodation there (beatings and stabbings for those of you not from these shores) it would be a good idea if the Glasgow Herald didn't bother with an "aren't foreigners funny" quiz just now. I don't want to get too heavy on this and the original posting was from a Welsh woman but I live in the central belt of Scotland and have an English wife and the jokes and the insults from your warm hearted weegies just aren't funny when you are at the receiving end day in day out believe me I've seen the results. |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Kim C Date: 01 Jun 01 - 04:04 PM Van, welcome to the South. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Rick Fielding Date: 01 Jun 01 - 05:00 PM Hi Doug, OK, start driving North, when you get to the perma frost, turn left. You'll pass the Sealblubber shoppe and the Mooseburger emporium. Turn North again. You'll hit our Capital "Iglooville" and when you start talking to some bilingual Eskimos sporting Kruschchev for P.M. buttons you know you'll be there. I'm in the third yurt on hockeypuck Ave. I'll have some whale-tea waitin' for you. See yuh eh, eh, eh? Maurice Du Rubberboot |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: Clinton Hammond Date: 01 Jun 01 - 05:23 PM Hockypuck ave? Isn't that off Blackfly Lane? ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: To see ourselves as others see us From: DougR Date: 01 Jun 01 - 05:27 PM I don't see how I could miss it with directions like that, Rick. Thanks! DougR |