My my my my......
Well first of all, thanks for the compliments on my English *BG*. Guess I should have made my very-Britishness a bit clearer!
Secondly, I know I was sort of asking for it with the thread title, but this REALLY was not intended as an anti-American thread. I've met LOVELY Americans, and I was feeling a bit homesick and isolated, and just wanted to get some reassurance from the lovely Americans here that you're not all bonkers. I've been feeling isolated because the teacher I work with worships all aspects of American culture, refuses to see anything bad about it, and refuses to hear anything good about Britain - she'll concede Shakespeare, just, and that's about it. And American missionaries turned up, who she worshipped too, and who seemed to find my English accent hilarious. Which was a bit tedious to be honest.
Finally, going back to someone's post about Russians knowing many more folk songs, that's because in former times (and still now) there were youth groups set up by the government for all sorts of things, including traditional music and crafts. So Russian teenagers know more about their countries traditions one the one hand, but on the other it's been taught in quite a contrived way. Still good though, it means that so far a lot has not been lost - though with the onset of Westernization and the closing of youth groups, who knows.....? Anyway lots of love to the Americans who inbetween all the craziness posted here, and served the purpose of the thread (proved they were lovely!) and to everyone else too (yes everyone) and now I'll go and bargain on the market some more Jayohjo XXX