I just got thinking then, don't really know how, about how there are no English who go to this site [according to frappr at least, or last time I checked anyway]
Does this mean that they say they don't appreciate Bad movies [because that would be a damn lie] or is it because their country is in quarantine from the Zombie invasion that happened there 28 days ago? I mean, I haven't heard too much about England and that general area in a while now: are they just being boring and nothing interesting is going on, so I could actually believe that.
Anyways, I just thought I'd ask people's opinions on this somewhat random and odd fact, or even for lurking Brits to come out and say 'hey we are here, we are just hiding because you don't want to take the ashes away from us again.'
Oh bugger, we do have one from London, who is suggesting a podcast of some sort.
I knew that I should of checked these things first.
But my question still stands, but just 'why aren't there MORE Brits and such on this site?'
I still think the zombies got 'em.
They are here...look at the bottom of the board where it says "guests"...it's them.
There used to be several Brits here but they've long since disappeared.
A couple of them were regular posters and for the life of me I can't remember their names.
Yea, like Ashthecat said there was one British person on the board a long while back. Don't remember the name at this moment.
Don't mind me Dean, but I have to ask. What are the differences between an Australian and a New Zealander. I mean are there any cultural differences? The whole whole thing seems distantly British to me. At least the accents. I know the accents are different between Australia and England, but Canadians sound like Americans and you can hardly tell them apart. Is it the same between Australians and New Zealanders?
hmmm... well I just found it odd there wasn't more representation from the UK.
As for Australia and New Zealand, well there is slight differences in culture and accent.
First of all, I guess as a stereotypical accent difference, we say fish and chips, they say fush and chups. They do sound very similar though: the vowels are just pronounced slightly different.
In terms of culture there are also slight differences, though they are small enough not to be too different, and would probably be likened to the difference between a southern American to a Northern [I'm guessing] with a little twist.
Also there is a slight difference in culture which I may attribute to the Maori population. This is because [if I remember my history correctly] the Maori population wasn't subdued completely by the British [unlike our Native population, which is a terrible terrible story in itself]. For instance, I seem to remember that all street signs were in both English and Maori. This lends a somewhat different cultural position than in Australia, though like I mentioned, the differences are fairly small, from what little I remember from my trip over there.
Of course we also have a healthy rivalry which mostly involves Aussies making fun of Kiwis and vice versa. I remember we were holidaying in New Zealand and staying at a small motel, in which Australia and New Zealand were playing each other in the cricket. We lost, and the owner, when we came in, told us he had been waiting 20 years for an Aussie to come in when the Kiwis have beaten them in the cricket. So that was kind of funny.
We also introduced Possums as a pest into their country [it's a native animal here] so they are generally kind of annoyed about that. Plus I heard we bought their Airforce a while back. But our armed forces have a strong united history with the ANZACS [Australia and New Zealand Army Corps] so there is a strong bond there.
In reality we have slight differences, but I don't think many people would bat an eye if we were to join forces officially, though I'm assuming many people would object to the idea [it's almost possible to consider NZ like another state/territory of Australia, even if I'm positive that every New Zealander would go nuts at me saying that.]
As for the whole British thing, well we aren't really that British [though New Zealand seems a little moreso compared to Australia] but we still have close ties with them [unlike a certain revolutionary country that shall remain nameless]
Fun fact: Whenever Russel Crowe does something stupid the Australian media usually says: 'New Zealand-born Crowe' and when he does something good they generally say 'Australian-trained Crowe, or Australian Raised Crowe,' which I find somewhat amusing.
Of course I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this, for those who may know both cultures more intimately than me, or if you're a lurker who's from NZ [Braindead and Forgotten Silver rock by the way NZ lurkers.]
>Also there is a slight difference in culture which I may attribute to the Maori population. This is because [if I remember my history correctly] the Maori population wasn't subdued completely by the British
>unlike a certain revolutionary country that shall remain nameless.
>Fun fact: Whenever Russel Crowe does something stupid the Australian media usually says: 'New Zealand-born Crowe' and when he does something good they generally say 'Australian-trained Crowe, or Australian Raised Crowe,' which I find somewhat amusing.
All that other info was also good and interesting Dean. Thanks. Also like the possum and air force info..
I could never understand the why Canada and the U.S. are seperate country's. Though Quebec is different with the French element. In fact I don't understand the concept of national borders anyway or rather I choose not to.
Well, New Zealand and Australia do have water between them.
The world never needed borders and now the world is at a point in time where we really don't need borders except to capitalize on each other. That is about it.
Scott Wrote:
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> The world never needed borders and now the world
> is at a point in time where we really don't need
> borders except to capitalize on each other. That
> is about it.
Going off topic slightly but, yeah, in cases like this [Aus/NZ, US/CAN] it seems like borders aren't exactly the be-all end-all, and seem kind of redundant, but I seem to have found that in most cases the main problems that occur with borders is ethnic borders rather than official countries: NZ and AUS are similar enough to be able to pull off a merge, but still different enough culturally to have huge problems going about it. Combine this with our relatively small histories in terms of modern culture and we're really young, so I guess we can get away with it a lot easier.
Throw in ancient tribal/ethnic groups in opposition and you open a whole can of nasty worms.
The world shouldn't need borders, because ideally we should all have sense enough to get along, but since that's nigh on impossible, borders maintain an official seperation of groups, albiet a rather diluted group. I mean, every city/suburban town seems to have their 'Chinese' areas and such in which many people of the same ethnic group seem to flock together [I'm being extremely general of course] and this can create a great sense of community, but at the same time can create a bit of a problem, especially when outsiders come into this community.
Wow, I'm really getting a bit too into this. I guess it's because I'm still p**sed off about the recent trouble up in Sydney in which there was a bunch of 'race riots.' I won't go into too much detail, and rather will send those interested away to search for the appropriate news articles such as Here. (http://news.google.com.au/news?q=cronulla+riots+december+11&hl=en&lr=&cr=countryAU&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr)
But simply speaking, a bunch of white 'Aussie's' at a beach town were angry about a bunch of Middle Eastern folk, and organised a massive protest which quickly erupted into violence. Just generally lots of tension which had a very 'US vs THEM' feel about it. Very f**king stupid, if you pardon my quite appropriate swearing. The whole thing just makes me very angry really. But you get the picture: if this kind of thing can happen in this country, imagine how things are where there is more historical tension and in a less educated environment.
And we pride ourselves on our mulitculturalism...
Anyway, sorry to hijack my own thread but that whole ethnic/racial border issue got me sparked up. There are of course many other things to consider with what Scott was saying [before I took it way off topic] but in my mind, the biggest problem in the world at the moment is that attitude of 'Us vs Them' and when you combine that with a strong sense of ethnic or national identity and you'll quickly come across some problems. Some people are just too bloody proud...
Whilst I'm interested in continuing this, it may be too much, and I'm all worked up now and won't be able to go to sleep... well I just got a copy of the 70's version of King Kong, maybe that will subdue my beastial mood.
I have to disagree with Scott about the Canadians. Many of them do sound like Americans, but many do not and it's not so much that they have a distinct accent as it is the cadence of their speech. Anyway if you watch a lot of American television and movies you'll soon find out that a lot of them are filmed in Canada, especially in and around Vancouver. A lot of modern westerns are filmed in Alberta, which is stikingly beautiful country.
Canadians like New Zealanders and Australians insist on putting those extra u's in words like color. They also pronounce the letter Z as Zed. And I don't know which part of their country it originates from but some people there have a habit of ending almost every question in "eh?". "How are you doing, eh?." I talked to quite a few Canadians when I worked tech support for Compaq.
There has always been this cultural thing too about the Canadians being exceedingly polite compared to Americans. As far as American politeness, it tends to depend on which part ot the country you're in.
As far as the U.S. goes, just go from where I was raised and now live again (Arkansas) to a place like New England and it's friggin' culture shock. It's the only place I've ever been where people would ask me to talk just so they could hear a southern accent. New Englanders have their own distinct accent. Just listen to one of the Kennedys speechs. Americans have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences.
A lot of these regional differences depend on what group of immigrants was prominent in that area when it was settled.
The aboriginal people issue is something that I think Australia and the U.S. share. What our government did to the Native Americans was what we would call government sanctioned genocide nowadays.
As far as Brits, I seem to remember someone a couple of years ago from England but I can't remember their handle. I lived in Scotland for two years while I was in the Navy and really enjoyed it and tried to extend my stay, but the Navy wanted me in the Aleutians.
Anyway, I really enjoy learning about other cultures. This turned into an interesting thread.
I agree with you Trek, about Canadians. Some sound almost the same and some are downright difficult to understand. Back when I was 18, I worked at a gas station and every few weeks there was a Canadian logging truck that would come in and fill up. The guy would sit there and talk to me for a few hours while there was nothing going on. He was a real cool guy but I had trouble understanding him quite a bit. I can't recall for the life of me where he was from though.
Now, look at AndyC (our token Canadian ;) )...he writes like he's an American and doesn't write with an accent either!
"I could never understand the why Canada and the U.S. are seperate country's"
We tried taking over Canada twice, once during the Revolution, and once during the War of 1812. Both times we lost (damn Canadians .) The original border west of the Great Lakes was going to be the 54th parallel, but eventually in the first half of the 19th cent. we wound up settling on the 49th parallel. Guess we didn't want to lose to Canada a third time.
I'm bascially a New Yorker (not the city); it was very interesting living in South Carolina for a few years. First there was the flap about finally taking the Confederate flag down from the state capitol, and then ocassionally I'd see a bumpersticker "Yanks 1, Rebs 0. Halftime" though to be fair the majority of southerners didn't seem to want to finish the game, or even view it as halftime.
trek_geezer Wrote:
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> As far as the U.S. goes, just go from where I was
> raised and now live again (Arkansas) to a place
> like New England and it's friggin' culture shock.
> It's the only place I've ever been where people
> would ask me to talk just so they could hear a
> southern accent. New Englanders have their own
> distinct accent. Just listen to one of the
> Kennedys speechs. Americans have a lot in common,
> but we also have a lot of differences.
Ain't that the truth!
I live in east central Iowa and fall into THIS CATEGORY (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American).
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4891/generalamerican0cm.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
That's why there are so many telemarketing centers here in Iowa, Nebraska, IIllinois & Missouri.
I've been to other parts of the country and they tell me that I have an accent.
Actually, it's a lack of an accent.
I grew up in "upstate" New York and often crossed over into Canada in the Summers and I have known a few Canadians here in New Jersey also and you can hardly know the difference. What you can notice is nothing to write home about. Now if you came from Arkansas that would be a different story.
The U.S. was very close to taking Canada in those days Raj and by only a few men. They killed one of the American commanders after the long journey through Northeaster mountains and forest to get there. Imagine holding Canada and everything all the way down to Panama. Less border to protect.
Naturally from there we could have pursued world conquest. Only without borders can we really experiment with democracy. Say "Yes" to One World Goverment.
Bring back Manifest Destiny.
Scott Wrote:
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> Naturally from there we could have pursued world
> conquest. Only without borders can we really
> experiment with democracy. Say "Yes" to One World
> Goverment.
>
> Bring back Manifest Destiny.
I am still waiting for the days that have 'President' or 'Emperor' Of Planet Earth. Yet another thing sci-fi promised but has yet to deliver...
On a similar note, if we all were one united planet, like a giant country, where would the capital city be? This is of course disregarding the fact that realistically we wouldn't be stupid enough to have such a thing [man, that would cause some troubles] but I'm interested in this idea nonetheless!
Personally I'd suggest some boring backwater town in some random country because it would be interesting to see: 'Town Name' 'Population 200' 'Capital of Earth' on a sign...
Someone or world power will conquer the world eventually when the time is right, but in the end a "goal" should rule, not a person. When long hidden weapons are revealed then it will come. The end of a divided world shall come in a twinkling of an eye. We will be totally defenseless. Hopefully "they" have the worlds more positive future in mind when they turn it all on.
About small towns Dean.............we were driving to Ft. Laramie, Wyoming once and the sign at the entrance of town read "popluation 89 good people and 3 sore heads". Well something like that. Might have the numbers wrong, but they are close. It was a funny sign.
Wonder if any of them where Brits? : ) Brits don't get sore heads do they? That might be an American illness.
I found these articles on Wikipedia to be very informative:
AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English)
NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English)
I've been to Australia and what got me was the amount of slang everyone used.
I thought AMERICAN ENGLISH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English) had a lot of slang until I traveled Down Under.
They've got us beat by a longshot!
I constantly would have to ask what something meant after someone spoke a slang word or phrase that I was unfamiliar with.
Now I'm pretty much a master after spending just one month in OZ.
Well as a proud South Australian, I've got to say that I would rather move to New Zealand than your godforsaken city of Melbourne, in that cesspit called Victoria, there, Dean. ;-)
Ouch, my wife just hit me, I forgot she was born in Melbourne.
Just cos we are in the same country doesn't mean we have to like each other though ;-)
Actually I quite like Victoria, but the rivalry between Vic and SA is incredibly fierce - At least we in SA think so - the Vics probably don't care about us, they are too busy trying to convince everyone that they are superior to New South Wales (Where Sydney is, for those not familiar with our states). It seems that within the state, people will support their own state rabidly, however if there is no-one from their own state involved in whatever rivalry is at hand, they will support any Aussie against any other country - Especially NZ.
In South Australia, everyone will assume that you support one of the 2 local teams in the Australian Football League (Aussie Rules) - I get some quite annoyed looks when I tell people that I support a Victorian team. Carn the Saints! (Heard that one before, Ashthecat? ;-) )
That said, I would love to see Australia and NZ merge.
Rombles Wrote:
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In South Australia, everyone will assume that you
> support one of the 2 local teams in the Australian
> Football League (Aussie Rules) - I get some quite
> annoyed looks when I tell people that I support a
> Victorian team. Carn the Saints! (Heard that one
> before, Ashthecat? ;-) )
Actually, no I haven't.
I visited Adelaide and loved every minute of it!
They turned me on to Aussie Rules football while I was there.
The people I stayed with were hardcore footie fans.
After watching it, it wasn't too difficult to figure it all out.
What totally perplexed me was Cricket.
I couldn't get it no matter who explained it to me.
I remember picking up a bat in a friend's backyard.
I asked him, "What is this?"
He said, That's a cricket bat."
I asked him what cricket was and he explained it and the rules to me.
I remember saying, "Huh?"
We went inside and he fired up his Playstation and put a Cricket sports game disc in. (I forget the actual name of the game itself)
Even then, after showing me how it's played on the Playstation, I still didn't get it.
The phenomenon of Americans not understanding Cricket has been played out in films such as "The Beach" starring DiCaprio.
In that movie, most of the characters didn't get it either.
Scott, man...you're starting to scare me. I guess it's a good thing that my built in paranoia has made me stockpile weapons for when it all happens.
odinn7 Wrote:
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> Scott, man...you're starting to scare me. I guess
> it's a good thing that my built in paranoia has
> made me stockpile weapons for when it all happens.
>
But those weapons are focused on the squirrel menace aren't they??? God help us all...
Rombles Wrote:
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> Well as a proud South Australian, I've got to say
> that I would rather move to New Zealand than your
> godforsaken city of Melbourne, in that cesspit
> called Victoria, there, Dean. ;-)
Such anger... is that a hint of jealousy?? :-P
> Actually I quite like Victoria, but the rivalry
> between Vic and SA is incredibly fierce - At least
> we in SA think so - the Vics probably don't care
> about us, they are too busy trying to convince
> everyone that they are superior to New South Wales
Oh and Rombles, we know we are better than NSW so don't even go there. I've only spent a brief time in SA, and it was pretty cool [alot of good bad movies were filmed in SA, so you can't really go wrong] but I haven't gone to Adelaide the city itself before [just the outskirts on a family trip] But there isn't really that big a rivalry between SA and VIC, from our side of the fence at least [well, from my point of view anyway: I'm too busy b***hing about NSW]. Where's your wife from in Melbourne by the way?
And yes, when it comes to international rivalries, especially in sport, our country is a united force, despite how much crap people give Tassie. To do it any other way just isn't cricket.
Carn the Dees by the way!
Actually while I've got you guys on [and then off] the topic of the cricket I've got an interesting story about cultural differences. Years ago my family hosted a couple of American baseballers who came down for some reason I've forgotten [My brother and I were playing a bit of baseball at the time so it was organised through our club, in fact my brother still plays] and they stayed for about a week or so.
One interesting experience was trying to teach these baseballers Cricket. I won't go into too much detail for those who don't know the rules, but basically when we were explaining it, somehow one of them thought that in order to get the batter out you have to throw the cricket ball at the batter instead of the wickets [when they are running that is] and it scared the hell out of me having a pitcher throwing a very hard cricket ball at me instead of the nice and safe stumps... very scary indeed.
Then when the other guy batted, he hit the ball over four fences [we were playing in our backyard, which really isn't big enough for a big-hitting baseballer who doesn't know the word 'soft'] Guess it was six and out for him...
All in all a bit of fun.
[sorry to confuse, I really can't be bothered elaborating]
Oh and Rombles, should we tell them about the Drop Bears? Gotta be real careful with the Drop Bears...
I think Drop Bears probably deserve their own thread, don't they? They are a menace not to be taken lightly....
I'd like to talk about a couple of things. Not about the differences and smiliarities between Australia and New Zealand. I'll leave that up to dean and Rombles, who probably know more about the subject, than I do.
I would like to talk about Canada and the United States. I don't know whether it's still true, but in the past, Western Canadians said that the international boundary between Canada and the United States ran the wrong way. Instead, of running east and west, it should run north and south along the 100 West Longitude. As they felt, they had more in common with the Americans who lived in the Western United States, than they did with their fellow Canadians who lived back East. And listening to some Western Americans, they probably think the same. Feeling they had more in common with the Canadians, who lived in Western Canada, then their fellow Americans back East.
As for North and South, there are still some die hard Confederates out there. I now live in a state that left the Union. And while there was not much fighting there, as it was too isolated from much of the rest of the South, it did send alot of men into the Confederate Army. Of course, to be fair, there was alot of support for the Union in the state, both before and during the war, or, at least opposition to the Confederate government. But, 141 years after the end of the war, the descendants of those Confederate soldiers still exist and are proud of thier Confederate heritage.
This was brought up by an incident at one of the local area schools. One must understand, that where I live, there has been so much conflict between various ethnic groups and within ethnic groups, that certain colors and certain symbols are banned from school grounds, because they only cause conflict. One of these symbols being the Confederate flag. So, when a group of girls came to school with the Confederate flag on their purses, they were sent home. Of course, this only caused a royal brouhaha with certain individuals, who said the girls were only showing pride in their Confederate heritage. Which only caused another royal brouhaha, as it was debated in the "Letters to the Editor" section of one of the local papers, as to what the words "Confederate Heritage" may or may not mean. No, for some individuals, the war never ended in 1865.
Clicky the link for appropriate info on these pesky native creatures...
LINK 1 (http://www.cfr.com.au)
LINK 2 (http://www.purple.dropbear.id.au/curios/dropbear.html)
That's funny, because most actors that come from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand tend to use the general American accent. I could never watch Cold Mountain because of the way Nicole Kidman murdered her southern accent.
My accent is not very pronounced because I have lived in a lot of places including Scotland. In fact when I came home on leave, my brothers gave me quite a bit of hell for speaking like a "yankee". I actually slip in and out of the accent depending on who I am talking to.