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| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Excessive exposure, and stupidity from nationalists that happen to live in other countries due to Tall Poppy syndrome.
Let's face it, we don't know much about other countries, except the ones that get the most exposure. Kazakhstan is amongst the world's ten largest countries, and even educated people find it difficult to name the capital; Portuguese is the 7th most spoken language in the world, yet I don't think anyone would know how to say "Thanks" in Portuguese without looking it up on Google, though they might get this word right in 8th and the 9th most spoken languages (Russian and Japanese, respectively); Bollywood is one of the largest centres of film production in the world... can you name three films produced there? "Slumdog Millionaire" isn't on the list.
This usually drives nationalists nuts. "How come Americans expect me to know their capital is New York [sic] yet they think our capital is Buenos Aires?" is among the things I've heard here in Brazil. Add this to the fact that no country is made up of intellectuals, and you're set: the American version of the ignorance that could be shown anywhere in the world is lampshaded and, because we do know a thing or two about the US, their oblivion regarding the rest of the world is seen as utterly moronic.
And there's also the idea that Americans are too militaristic for their own good. And overly religious. And, in a rather ironic twist, I heard many a Brazilian girl claiming that American women are sluts |
I could be butchering this, and I haven't the slightest clue if there are any accents, but my only Portuguese friend taught me...Vem Ca Lira! (Let's go Lira!)? I hope that was right haha. Anyways, thank you for some relevant discussion.
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