Maciamo wrote:About father having bath with their children. Where I come from, it's unacceptable already after about 5 years old.
How is it even possible in Japan?, the baths are tiny.
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Maciamo wrote:About father having bath with their children. Where I come from, it's unacceptable already after about 5 years old.
ramchop wrote:Maciamo wrote:About father having bath with their children. Where I come from, it's unacceptable already after about 5 years old.
How is it even possible in Japan?, the baths are tiny.
Alcazar wrote:I have been to France (all over), so what was it that you found so different about Australia? I really liked France, but I did not like Paris as much as I liked rural France.
Maciamo wrote:Well it's nothing to do with the sightseeing. Stayed in an Australian host family and studied a few months in a Aussie school. The mentality was so incompatible. So many cultural misunderstandings. I had been exchange student in Germany before and I didn't have these problems. I went to Italy and Spain after, and now live in Japan, but the toughest was Australia. It's probably because it was the countryside, but I found that the people were so narrow-minded and "Australia-centered". They didn't care about the rest of the world, and I couldn't make a single comparison with my country without them accusing me of criticising Australia. Can you believe that. It was comments like "oh the Eucalyptus trees are so high!", "Wow, it's the first time I see a river dried up !" or "Those huge hunterspiders are really scary (when I got one in the bathroom and another in the toilet ). They would just say "if you don't like it you didn't have to come to Australia", while I was even complaining. People there usually got shocked for anything I said. Maybe they thought I was judging when I was only analysing or comparing (neutrally). The boys at school only cared about fighting and insulting each others. Whenever I asked some "intellectual" questions about the history of Oz, politics, etc. they would stare at me saying they had no idea what I was talking about.
My image of the place were I was is that people were incredibly low-brow and closed to the world. Even news on TV were mainly local, then nationwide, but there wasn't much about "overseas". I guess there are places like that in the States too (where rednecks live), but for someone raised in the French culture and way of thinking, this is the worst one can expect. Education and culture are already considered more important in Europe than in the States or Australia in general, but among Europeans, French are those with the highest intellectual standards, especially in the arts, literature and the humanities (history, philosophy...). So Australia was the biggest culture-shock.
GomiGirl wrote:Ah the countryside.. was it hinterland or far inland??? Culture is very different in different parts - did you stay in a city as well or just the country?
Would have to agree with you as it is hard to live in a country town.
Alcazar wrote:I'm not really that suprised about your experience, I don't think the ordinary Australian focuses very much on intellectual issues.
GomiGirl wrote:My friends and I call them the "Westfield Cows" - ie dumb as cattle but spend all their time in surburban shopping malls wearing thongs (footwear). Yes there a heap of them and I am sure if Governor Ishihara was Australian, he would be elected into politics by similar landslides he has enjoyed in Japan.
GomiGirl wrote:People who think have it hard where-ever they go.. but if you hang around long enough you are able to find like-minded people. Intellectual elite sounds a bit too snooty, but there are certainly fewer people who bother to consider the world around them and the implications of actions. The average person is really only concerned about family, death and taxes but are they any more or less happy than somebody who is more aware?
GomiGirl wrote:What I mean is: Is an ignorant person aware they are ignorant? If so, do they care? Are only thinking people able to identify an ignorant person?
Alcazar wrote:Also, it is a mistake of some 'thinking people' to throw around the term 'ignorance' at the drop of a hat. Often the accusation of 'ignorance' is used by some who simply want to put down others who do not agree with them.
GomiGirl wrote: What I mean is: Is an ignorant person aware they are ignorant? If so, do they care?
Alcazar wrote:
For example, I am ignorant of many things to do with cars and sports, I know this, but I don't care that I am ignorant about these topics because I don't deem them to be important.
Maybe people who don't care about 'high end' intellectual issues are like this-they feel that abstract ideas don't really affect them, when in reality they really do-in the abstract! To most people, these ideas in the abstract are not important because you can't sell them or eat them.
Maciamo wrote:Good point. Maybe it's due to a different brain sensitivity (e.g. to testosterone), or how much each lobe is developed, which could explain why some qualities, talents or interest run in families to a certain extent.
Education and culture are already considered more important in Europe than in the States or Australia in general, but among Europeans, French are those with the highest intellectual standards, especially in the arts, literature and the humanities (history, philosophy...). So Australia was the biggest culture-shock
GomiGirl wrote:But also exposure.. there are the rare people who have an inherent thirst for knowledge and they would be able to educate themselves in a vacuum (ever seen the movie "Matilda"?)
But for regular folks I really think it is nurture rather than nature...
People are more aware in some families more than others as they live in the same environment. Personally I don't think it is a genetic trait.
Testostone?? what has that got to do with it?
Naniwan Kid wrote:Education and culture are already considered more important in Europe than in the States or Australia in general, but among Europeans, French are those with the highest intellectual standards, especially in the arts, literature and the humanities (history, philosophy...). So Australia was the biggest culture-shock
I have never heard a more uneducatated statement in my life. I think that you need to realize that the French NEED their surroundings to survive. For all intents and purposes, Japan is an island. Australia is an island. America is (almost) an island. France NEEDS their surroundings to survive.
Pardon me, but you come off as a real prick with the above statement (and I was on your side earlier). To generalize entire continents in that way compared to France (which is the size of Texas) sounds petty and pissy. I don't want to get into a pissing war, and you don't either.
GomiGirl wrote:Maciamo.. Books by Allan Pease are only meant to be read as entertainment and not as scientific texts.
I'm glad you put that in quotes, because bulk wine is NOT wine... it's grapes mixed with sugar, and it shows.Maciamo wrote:It's possible to find cheap "table wine" for 1$/liter in France.
cstaylor wrote: I have a set of California wines that I puchase every year for my Japanese friends because (a) I know they like it and (b) I know it will taste the same every year.
I agree, but then they make inconsistent gifts... I'd say for a majority of the casual wine consumers, consistency is probably their biggest gripe about wine. I can take a can of Kirin and know it will taste the same as the can I drank last year.maraboutslim wrote:Most years French grapes will have no trouble producing optimum sugar but if they don't and the wine is a little different that year, then such is life. This does produce subtle differences in taste from year to year. That's one of the enjoyable things about wine. In my book...
cstaylor wrote:I agree, but then they make inconsistent gifts... I'd say for a majority of the casual wine consumers, consistency is probably their biggest gripe about wine. I can take a can of Kirin and know it will taste the same as the can I drank last year.
cstaylor wrote:I'd say for a majority of the casual wine consumers, consistency is probably their biggest gripe about wine. I can take a can of Kirin and know it will taste the same as the can I drank last year.
ramchop wrote:cstaylor wrote:I'd say for a majority of the casual wine consumers, consistency is probably their biggest gripe about wine. I can take a can of Kirin and know it will taste the same as the can I drank last year.
Kirin makes wine?
And it comes in cans?
Maciamo wrote:GomiGirl wrote:Ah the countryside.. was it hinterland or far inland??? Culture is very different in different parts - did you stay in a city as well or just the country?
Would have to agree with you as it is hard to live in a country town.
That was in Victoria, about 3h by car from Melbourne. Really the country.
cliffy wrote:Give me a Town name please, I grew up in Victoria about three hours from Melbourne, shit everywhere is about three hours from Melbourne or thereabouts . No hassels just curious I never fit into the mindset of my hometown myself .
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