The USA in a nutshell.

It is important to me and other Americans to find out what other countries are teaching in their schools regarding the USA. Do they depict us as an evil empire? A powerhouse? What...

This is more aimed towards our non-American forum members... but all replies are welcomed.

I probably cant speak much about the educational system. But i think i can give you an ok view of how the people around me viewed USA.

Back when i was in china a long time ago, USA was called the land of opportunities, it was where dreams come true if you try hard enough. In fact, the very translation of USA literally means "Beautiful country". From personal experience, my aunt and uncle went to america with pretty much nothing, but 10 years later, my uncle got a phd in like medicine and now he works for this large pharma company owns a big house etc etc.. hard work pays off, my grandpa told me all the time and it has been my dream to work in usa and i guess to some degree it still is.

I only completed grade 4 in china, during that time there seemed to be almost no mention of USA in the textbooks, but no surprise there was some mention of heroes of war (between chinese and japanese) but i recall no reference to USA whom played an important role in the war. In fact, the only reference to any foreigner was doctor norman Bethune, this heroic canadian field doctor. From this i am not sure what it implies about the educational system but as i said it is not an accurate representation of the educational system as i was only in grade 4 and i probably forgot a lot of shtuff.

Similarly in canada, in school they dont talk much about USA at all, just that USA and canada had a war and that was it on america (well in normal history class anyways). But i feel that alot of people seem to think USA is largely a bunch of rednecks with their evil leader dubya. However those people are largely ignorant themselves and most reasonable people i talked with (a large percent being first generation immigrants with the same view of USA i have) have no "beef" with USA other than that they dont agree with the war.

Noow, shifting back. I went to china the past summer and the young people there are pretty much immersed in pop culture of USA. My best buddy and his dad asked me if i went to a raptors game! My other friend loves coldplay and lily allen! Everything in the malls are already have a large american influence if not from america.

In short, most people in my life likes america, and while some disagree with certain actions. Most do not believe america is an evil empior but rather a strong nation.

Please don't use smileys in NP forum. Other than that, great post! -LMcD

Absolutely amazing post. Exactly what I was looking for. You brought out your experiences of two different countries on the US from your eyes. Not to sound redundant, but thank you very much Spooner. This is exactly what I was looking to see.

One of the biggest problems witn my country is we only know the feelings of the people tht hate us...... but we don't talk about the people who are relatively indifferent but have very valid opinions on where our weak points are.

I truly hope this thread continues. I know we have enough non-Americans who visit these forums to post what they personally see talked about from their respective country.

I didn't learn anything about America..


*Walks away*

Oddly, since you live abroad... thats a valid point.

In your schooling there was really nothing related to the US, the US governement, or anything else?

I learned a bit about the Non proliferation treaty a while back.

But that's not limited to the USA.

In Australia, I feel they try to portray America as a best friend kind of country, like a I'll rub your back if you rub mine, which sometimes isn't always the case.

I like this topic a lot. Very interesting.

Great post spoon.

I know in our history classes we learned about other countries. A huge portion because of WWI and WWII.

During my time in education I don’t think America has been portrayed as an evil empire or for that matter anything. The general feel for America though is one of dislike, but then I cant think of anywhere which isn’t disliked. For America though it’s a deeper dislike then most other places. Which has more to do with the people being seen as cocky and rude, then anything which the US government has ever done(Iraq war is a source of great dislike but then that’s mainly because of our government, so I’m not including it).This all comes from the people I know in my area and the wider view could be different.

Going to Rusty’s post the Chinese people seems a lot more pro American(not sure is this right since its mainly from that post, since maybe the view on America is hostile even though there changing to be American like.) . Whilst my area is more anti American, which is opposite to what I would have expected. Also “My other friend loves coldplay and lily allen!” maybe its not pro American but pro Western.

Sorry if my post doesn’t make sense its been a very long day, can barely think straight.

Thank you Sarah. It's nice to have another person outside of the US post.

My question is, other then the war... what are the reasons for dislike? If you and your friends/schoolmates sat around some evening and the topic of the US came up.... what avenue do you think the conversation would take? That of more dislike or indifference?

Every country is just stereotyped. We think of English as cocky and bad teethed. We think of Asians (China, Japan) as gamers and smart as hell. We think of Germans as power-hungry and the Middle-Eastern as screwed up terrorist countries. Every country has its people who, like almost everyone in pWp and n2p, prove that not all Americans are the stereotypical fat, lazy, cocky, rude, bums that we are.

I think it’s to do with the fact that some Americans who come over to visit act like they are better and generally have a bad attitude. So it has a lot to do with stereotyping, but that cant be helped. Although I know there’s dislike, I’m really not that bothered about America. So never wanted to question why they had this dislike. I’ll asked sometime tomorrow if I remember about this when I get up.

All ima say whenever you need help and you come to America and ask for the help you get it. ITs funny how people come in from other countries and have the view of "why should I have to change the way our goverments way of doing things and conform to democracy" if you dont liek how we do things dont come to us to protect your country.


People hate our country because they know we work as a nation and dont have different govt types depending on where you live and they hate that. I will persoanlly back America up in anything it does because i love what our Country stands for wether you agree or not America is the best place to live.

Who exactly gets America to protect their country?

And i agree with tool, and anyone else who said anything about stereotype.

In my point of view, America is disliked, at least in Mexico, for the lack of culture of it's own. If there's a culture that is to be associated with America is that of consumerism, pop culture, and trashy morals. I know how you all like to think of yourselves as the ultimate purveyors of liberty and whatnot, but outside your borders you're not seen that way. It is that smug attitude that you're representing the free and the great and that you're somehow the epitome of all the human civilizations that turns other people against it.

Refer to Legacy's post for an example.

To me, I mostly dislike the american way of life because everything seems so... syntethic. It's hard to explain. It's like in Mexico, if you want to meet a woman in a club, you have to approach her, talk to her, buy her a couple drinks, and dance like god intended. From what I've seen, at least in the Americans I've seen in Mexican clubs (cannot legally enter US clubs), the appropiate way to meet an American woman in a club is to approach her from behind while she is dancing and rub your package all over her ass, then proceed to get her wasted. I mean, I realize that's probably not how you meet a decent woman, but the fact that that is the way how men approach any woman at a club is frankly repulsing.

At the same time, it's synthetic in the way that yo go to any McDonalds and get the same food, with the same design, etc. And this happens in non-chain restaurants as well. There's something beautiful about that sweaty mexican making tacos with his bare sweaty hands in a greasy stand in the middle of the street, or that chinese lady that cooks and sells dumplings from her garage filled with stray dogs and 12 kids, or the indian yelling down the street to come buy handcrafted pottery or whatnot. America lacks all those features of it's own.

I don't mean I hate America for that, but I mean I'd rather live within another culture.

Sketch HAve you knowledge of the War worlds which is the easiest example of who calls America for protection if you want me to klecture you in US history i gladly will


Pornfish- from what i see what your saying is you dont like america cause of how its different from your home country which is okay but what i have to say about it is if you dont like then dotn come to our land you know what i mean?

I've been there, and I will return in the future, as a tourist. But do you see me living there? Since I know you mean mexicans as a whole, do you seriously think immigrants are leaving their families and friends behind, risking their lives, and wasting all their life savings for some reason other than necessity? The funny thing about necessity is that implies that you need something to survive, it's not a matter of liking it or not, at all.


I'm going to have to ask you, for the sake of discussion, to please tell us your version of both World Wars. You make it sound as if every other country came begging for the U.S. to please please please join the war and America went: "Sigh, here we go again, let's clean this mess up for the kids".
I mean, if there was asking for the U.S. to enter war it was because who wouldn't like an extra strong ally on their side? But when did the U.S. go: "You know what? Those fellas over there are taking a pretty strong pounding! I'm going to go ahead and help them." There was always an interest in mind if the U.S. intervened in anything. Maybe that's part of why the negative mentaliy towards the U.S. exists?

In the strict field of teaching, the only time we learned something about US was when we came on the second world war topic., when we saw the fordism model and when we came on the krach of 1929. It was not really in a bad or a good way, it was just descriptive. The only thing he told us about about US image is that they were was perceived positively at the end of the war. I asked my grand parents and they confirmed me that, american soldiers were seen as both liberator and chewing gum providers, they had a good image.

Personnaly, i dont have america in my heart. The same feeling goes for the peoples around me. The biggest common factor is the hate of bush junior who is perceived in the best case as an ignorant puppet and in the worst case as war criminal (If you ask me why i can develop). We barely understood how he got elected TWICE .
The main reason i dislike him is the two wars he engaged in: the wars against irak and afghanistan appears here as a nice way to generate profits for the weapon industry and the oil lobbies trough equipment contracts between these industries and the state, exploitation contract for the oil in irak and nothing else.
The bond between industrial lobbies and the politcal power is too strong in the US, the guy who has the millions $ is ensured to be the one who arrive on the president chair as he can pay the best campaign. And who provides the cash: the industrial lobbies. thats how i see things (i dont think the US has an exclusivity on the problem, i also hold grudges against the european system, but its not the topic) .

Even tough im well aware its an enormous stereotype, i perceive america as the land where you exists trough money. Tell me if im wrong but the one who have an assurance and can access to medical cares are the one who can pay it. Same goes for the superior studies, i heard about stories of student who have to borrow money from a bank to pay their studies, expecting to pay it back later once they have a job. It give the idea that in america, if you are rich its probably because you deserved it and if you are poor you dont deserve any help as its obviously your choice to not work and get no money. A lot of people around me and myself have been surprised about the few helps bush gave for the damages caused by the storm katrina in comparison to what have been spend in the "war against the the terrorism".

Ive no personnal reasons to hate america but seeing how its government acted under the bush era and thinking its americans who elected him twice. It gives me no reason to like it as a state . I said "as a state" because i really cant say if i like americans in general or not as i dont know most of them. And some personalities i respect a lot for their ideas are americans so..

Legacy wrote:Sketch HAve you knowledge of the War worlds which is the easiest example of who calls America for protection if you want me to klecture you in US history i gladly will


Pornfish- from what i see what your saying is you dont like america cause of how its different from your home country which is okay but what i have to say about it is if you dont like then dotn come to our land you know what i mean?

were you alive at the time?

Or would you give me a lecture of what you heard from an American made resource?


America would give a biased opinion.

Legacy wrote:Sketch HAve you knowledge of the War worlds which is the easiest example of who calls America for protection if you want me to klecture you in US history i gladly will


Pornfish- from what i see what your saying is you dont like america cause of how its different from your home country which is okay but what i have to say about it is if you dont like then dotn come to our land you know what i mean?

what a egoist way of thinking....
do you rly think that ppl immigrate to other lands to have fun?

dont do it.. after all your all sons of people that left their country to go to another place to start a new life, a better life.
so you as american arent really american. also you should be the first one to understand this..
but looks like you dont!

sorry for double...


if you research closely you will find out that Britain and USA invested large ammounts of money in germany before the WW2

(or maybe some onther crap conspiracy thing i heard)
but im pretty sure its right...

I know the USA invested money into the Weimar Republic. Because it was one of the factors(when coupled with the wall street crash) which helped Hitler be offered the chancellorship, but I’m not sure about Britain.

Also, another point which is currently bringing out anti American feeling is the extradite of Gary McKinnon. Since most people believe he should go though our court system instead of the American one.

The US has invested money/time/training to every single country we have ever fought... one way or another.

To be honest, what I keep reading is that the US is seen as an arrogant, pompous, mediocre, self indulgent, and full of BS country. To an extent, I have to agree.

You have to understand it's really hard to see that the same way from inside the borders, but I do believe in a way it's a correct assumption.

What is worse to me is that we have so much internal problems in this country being poverty. drugs, corruption, disease, and many many other things.... but we feel the "need" to lend help to other countries.......


We cant even take care of ourselves.

T@D wrote:The US has invested money/time/training to every single country we have ever fought... one way or another.

To be honest, what I keep reading is that the US is seen as an arrogant, pompous, mediocre, self indulgent, and full of BS country. To an extent, I have to agree.

You have to understand it's really hard to see that the same way from inside the borders, but I do believe in a way it's a correct assumption.

What is worse to me is that we have so much internal problems in this country being poverty. drugs, corruption, disease, and many many other things.... but we feel the "need" to lend help to other countries.......


We cant even take care of ourselves.

To me, America is seen as (And i'll try not to stereotype.) But American's are often seen as arrogant, and prejudiced country. Any other country just isn't good enough. To be honest, that's why i think they were targeted in 9/11.

Not to turn this into a gaming forum, but i play a little bit of xbox. And the way Americans speak is different to every other country that i play people from. Saying stuff like;

"Are you jealous that your country isn't as good as ours?"
or
"Just because you're a foreigner."
or
"Are your kangaroos clogging up your internet connection to make you lag?"

I know quote 2 is correct, we are foreign to you guys. Burt a lot of childish Americans will say quote 1 and 2 on regular occasions.

I want to bring this topic back now that a lot in has changed. New president, enonomic hardships, different war strategies. Anyone else that hasn't posted that are from other countries aside of the USA.... please post your opinions or what you have been taught in school about the US. I can tell you what I was taught about various countries as well for those that post.

Mart, this would be a good place for you to say what you were taught, being you are from a "distant land".

Any other reiterations or new insights by others that have posted before are also appreciated.

I think it is very important and some times humbling for the USA citizens to see or hear what other countries are saying.