Jump to content

Talking To Americans


apsham

Recommended Posts

Oh, and another thing that pisses me off about America.

These two phrases in particular:

"I/we could care less about X"

and

"I/we could give a shit".

Now, see, the word not is quite important here, as if you can't be bothered to say/type it, it changes the entire meaning of the phrase :P

Sorry, just something I noticed a lot of Americans do at the EWB, and it annoyed me, because they obviously didn't realise that what they were saying made no sense.

English saying: I couldn't give a shit = I don't care.

American saying: I could give a shit = I do care.

Just as:

English saying: I couldn't care less = Quite literally, I care so little about the subject that it would be impossible for me to care less about it.

American saying: I could care less = I could care less about it, thus I am obviously somewhat interested.

It's trivial, yeah. But it annoys me. It's not just at the EWB either, it's on TV shows too, especially news correspondants.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hahahahaha.

And you wonder why people drive planes into your buildings.

As wrong as it might have been this easily qualifies as one of the best quotes ever on EWB.

mason, you're the one trivializing things here. It's because of your arrogance and cockiness that you are involved in the Middle East and that's why the world hates you.

Does this guy have and DVDs or something out.....sounds like something I'd want to see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well allow me to explain the statement I made about not caring...

We're not taught Canadian history in school. As we shouldn't be. There's really no reason for us as a country to need to know that Canada has a Queen, or a two house parliamentary government.

And I as a college student right now have no reason or desire to learn about Canada. If I was entering a field where I would need to know some stuff, I'd gladly look it up, but I don't consider it important to learn about America Jr.

That's what I meant by I don't care.

We can't really blame you for that mentality, but we can blame the US school system. The US probably has one of the worst public school systems of the industrialized world (and Canada isn't far behind), and that lack of general knowledge about that sort of stuff is directly linked to this. To give you an idea, I went to a school run by the French and had 10 hours of history a week. It all depends on the culture, and Americans don't place that sort of interest in other cultures and societies.

Edited by SkinMySenses
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And you wonder why people drive planes into your buildings.

This echoes my thoughts exactly. If America wasn't the big country, would (some of) you be still ignorant? Just because America pretty much runs the world (and it is true, coming from a Canadian here), every eleven year old kid is taught that Canada is nothing. Pretty pathetic the USA is in pretty much every category.

Edited by Media 2.0
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very good point Media, but it IS a proven fact that the US school system is not in the top 5 in the world. It may not be as bad as I insinuated earlier, but it is pretty bad. Public schools anyway, inner city schools especially.

If you want a good education you either move to a wealthy area, or go to a private (probably porochial) school.

But I do agree that saying "The US is pathetic in every category" is very weak. Especially when providing no examples.

Well said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And you wonder why people drive planes into your buildings.

This echoes my thoughts exactly. If America wasn't the big country, would (some of) you be still ignorant? Just because America pretty much runs the world (and it is true, coming from a Canadian here), every eleven year old kid is taught that Canada is nothing. Pretty pathetic the USA is in pretty much every category.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fact of the matter is that when George Bush, the President of USA doesn't even know the Prime Minister's name, the man who leads the country to the North with whom you export BILLIONS of commodities to and as well border on is pathetic. Its deplorable.

You can try and defend your stance on this issue and say that you don't need to know anything about Canada, and that we aren't important. But the fact of the matter is, we aren't England, we aren't Iraq, we aren't Japan. We are Canada and we are your neighbour. We aren't going away and we aren't going to be silenced. If you seriously think America can just be ignorant towards Canadians, than you are wrong. We bring a lot of money to your economy through importing, exporting, tourism, etc. And we benefit in the same right.

Talking To Americans isn't making fun of Americans, simply pointing out a very important fact. Why is that Canadians know more about Americans than Americans know about Canadians? It isn't as simple as "Americans are Idiots" or "Canadians are Unimportant."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone has good points, yes. But as I'm neither American nor Canadian, I can't really have a say in the matter, except that the Canadians are right. Why do Americans on the board keep picking fights with the Canadians (here) and British people (Sports Bar)? Americans really are ignorant. You know they are when the country's president can't even name Canada's prime minister. Okay, I don't know that either, but I'm from Asia, and we're not taught about stuff like that. Forget it, there'll be no conclusion to this argument.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did not vote for George Bush. He does not represent me. Thank you.

EDIT: Before anyone criticizes that statement, let me clarify...

Judging EVERY American on our stupid-ass President who was elected by the Religious Right in the US, is like judging a kid because his dad's an asshole.

Well not quite, but sort of.

Edited by SkinMySenses
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The majority of your country elected George Bush. Therefore he represents your country. It is called democracy.

He speaks on behalf of Americans and you are American. And judging by your shared attitude towards Canada, he does speak on behalf of you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The majority of your country elected George Bush. Therefore he represents your country. It is called democracy.

He speaks on behalf of Americans and you are American. And judging by your shared attitude towards Canada, he does speak on behalf of you.

So, whatever your prime minister or whatever says, is correct, and you agree 100% with it? If they say it then it must be true for you too, because they represent you. And whatever Saddam hussein believes, is what all the people in Iraq believe. Etc. ...

Wow, you learn something new everyday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. To learn more, see our Privacy Policy