3 Cultural Facts That You Hate When People Get Wrong

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:31 am

Damn it, I hate it when the crack causes me to screw up!!!

Lipstick · Post by **Lipstick** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:57 am

This is kind-of a pretentious thread, but okay--count me in.

1. The newly invented word "Proactive." Barely means anything, but every business person in the US now thinks it has to go into every memo/presentation/conversation.

2. Calling every brownish person a Mexican, even if they were born in the US and speak English better than me. (I? Me? Not sure...which is exactly my point.)

3. Carrying around a highbrow book for everyone to see, even though we all know that they're actually reading juicy romance novels and the Star.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:02 pm

I don't think there are that many people that think Canada is part of the states are there? Then again, the US education is abit egocentric. No offence...but when I went to school there, people thought brits wore bowler hats and lived in foggy cobbled-streets.

And that hadn't heard of Wales either on that US who wants to be a millionaire.

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:11 pm

Yeah... very few American children know anything about Canada except that it's their "friendly neighbor to the north." Of course, our anti-war sentiments these days may change that

My favourite misconception about Canada is that it's winter year round. I'd love for one of those people to come here in July & August, when temperatures can get to be in the mid-90's farenheit.

Someone once asked me: "Do ya'll celebrate christmas in Canada?"

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:15 pm

BlueChair wrote: Someone once asked me: "Do ya'll celebrate christmas in Canada?"

You really should get back to me about that one. It's been over a month now.

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:16 pm

I'm not sure, but I'm under the impression that it's a year round holiday as my neighbors still have their lights up from last Christmas.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:26 pm

''So you're from Canada?''

''Yes''

''Then where's your mountie uniform and the moose you ride home to your log cabin after a hard day toiling in the forest...eh..eh..eh..eh? Oh yeah,..and Toronto is your capital right?''

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:29 pm

El Vez, I don't remember Donovan using any power chords....

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:49 pm

miss buenos aires wrote: This is why I get annoyed by poor grammar: it's imprecise. You're not saying exactly what you mean, and anyone can get distracted or misled. It betrays certain limitations, allowing others to discount your argument on the basis of a perceived lack of culture or intelligence. Which brings us back to the war in Iraq (to which DrJ implied that us nitpickers were giving short shrift): look at all the careful grammatical parsing of what Bush did and did not say about imminent threats.

But I am a grammar nitpicker, mainly for the reasons you describe above. I have to say that this message board has very impressive grammar when u compare it 2 d rubbish way peeple rite on the net. I got a number of hilarious text messages on my phone last week from some stranger written in hardcore gutter text-speak. The highlight was future spelt 'futcher'. Wow.

In a similar vein to the Canadian thing, I dislike the assumptions that are made because I'm Irish, i.e. Perma-Drunk or, as I've heard some US citizens think, that Ireland is some Iraq-like warzone.

DrJ

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 5:24 pm

BlueChair wrote:Yeah... very few American children know anything about Canada except that it's their "friendly neighbor to the north." Of course, our anti-war sentiments these days may change that

My favourite misconception about Canada is that it's winter year round. I'd love for one of those people to come here in July & August, when temperatures can get to be in the mid-90's farenheit.

Someone once asked me: "Do ya'll celebrate christmas in Canada?"

I spent the second half of the 80's in PEI, Canada, and, Blue, you're right, while the winters are ghastly and seem to go on forever, the glorious summers more than make up for it.
As an outsider, the 2 questions from Canadians that drove me mental were
1. Does it snow in Ireland?
2. Do they play hockey in Ireland?
If I had a € for every time I was asked these questions......

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:14 pm

Lipstick wrote:2. Calling every brownish person a Mexican, even if they were born in the US and speak English better than me. (I? Me? Not sure...which is exactly my point.)

Well, it's no worse than calling an American Irish extraction "Irish" without an accent....EXCEPT that, at least here in California, a "brownish" person might be from just about anywhere in Latin America, or Phillipino/Samaon/Tongan/etc., or Native American...and it's gets more complicated because most Phillipinos have Spanish names. (My one-time roommate and great friend is Phillipino, and he gets a lot of telemarketing calls in Spanish, direct mail for Latin music clubs, etc. It's pretty funny to try and communicate with Spanish-speaking telemarkerters...)

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:42 pm

how about when people assume that a "brownish" person, who happens to be of Mexican ancestory, but born in America, doesn't speak English? It happens to my mom more than it should.

And you know what else bugs me? The widespread misuse of the word beaurocracy.

i seem to be stuck at two...more later..