Comments on: Europe versus USA

By: JoeDuck

JoeDuck — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:35:45 +0000

Yes Horatiox I’m also always impressed with how many in Europe can chat fluently in several languages, especially the younger folks. Talking with two young Belgians in perfect English I asked if they’d had many years in school. Yes they said, but the way they *really* learned English was from watching … US TV show “Friends” and US movies, which they clearly loved.

Which leads me to wonder if the USA could largely take over the world without firing a shot simply by pumping free internet and TV shows everywhere along with coupons for free Big Macs and KFC Chicken. Sure would save a lot over M1 tanks and Stealth bombers.

By: horatiox

horatiox — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:53:36 +0000

I agree with this. Even the cobblestone’d “Altstadts” of the rhineland now have Burger Kings, McD’s,pizza hut etc. Sort of a disappointment (and many germans agree). Thankfully traditional open air pubs, bistros, etc. exist.

Europeans’ linguistic skills never fail to impress me, however. Most educated germans, at least in western part, speak fluent English, of the British variety (the average stooopid Americanisch will mistake them for brits), along with french, probably some italian or spanish, maybe scandanavian tongues as well (or polish, farther east)–and latin or greek as well.

That’s not just the case with scholars or professors, but engineers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. ‘Mericans are lucky if they manage 10th grade level language skills

By: philipscottwikel

philipscottwikel — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:02:52 +0000

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By: hottiemcsorry

hottiemcsorry — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:01:22 +0000

hmm.. I agree