Quote:stavastano Wrote:
American cuisine? English? Are you kidding?
Name me an american dish? Or anglo?
You manage to call a fried fish with chips a dish...
Are you an American? You sound like a resentful Continental European living in the US.
"I" don't decide what the names of dishes are nor did I say anything about "fish and chips" (that's British by the way, not American) although let me remind you that Spain ALSO has fish and chips in the South...particularly in Cadiz.
Look, I'm not going to waste my time arguing about cuisine because if that is the measure of how you rate a country, then you are most shallow indeed. What you say about Southern European cuisine can be said about Latin American or North African or Middle Eastern...it doesn't mean SHIT. Those countries would still be third world hell holes for the most part...DESPITE their cuisine, so I'm not really sure what you are trying to prove here.
It's also a matter of taste. Do you really think everyone like paella and sangria and tapas? NO.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
They had a war you tool. A civil war which devastated the country in the 40´s. How´s that for a fucking political debate??? The wounds are not healed. Also I once heard politicians are people with unhappy marriages. Spanish people who live with around 5-10k´s/month have the best life in the world. They don´t care for politics. Because they´re life is good.
Pathetic nonsense. What the hell does that have to do with anything? I know my history...and it was NOT IN THE FORTIES. READ. The Spanish Civil War was from 1936-1939. You're welcome. Guess what genius? My GRANDMOTHER escaped the Civil War in Spain. What "wounds are not healed"? OH RIGHT! I get it: you mean the ones that the government REFUSES to heal because this is the only country in Europe with TWO HUGE monuments to fascism - one in Madrid, arco de la victoria, the other in Valle de los Caidos. Oh and of course, all the graves of people who were murdered and with which no historical memory or justice has been done.
Their life is good? Tell that to all the unemployed and to the people you see eating from trash bins near Mercadona or sleeping on the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. And who the hell was talking about debating the Civil War?? I was referring to SIMPLE debates about everyday affairs that in any other normal country or rather, sorry, civilized country are debated with ease and normality. NOT HERE.
Dictatorships are not exclusive to Spain but they are certainly NOT something you will find in any English speaking country. Sorry, but that is fact. No English speaking country has had a dictator in CENTURIES...except England with the brief period of Cromwell. Europe, even in the 20TH Century has had their fair share. But that's also irrelevant to my earlier points. You brought it up so I am answering you.
English do treat Americans with some superiority, yes -- but they are much much better at hiding it in a professional setting. Read what I said.
You can't have a good quality of life (not for me) if your professional and academic goals are not met and if you don't have money. Why? Because then you end up like Greece and Spain -- "living la vida loca" and expecting those "awful mean serious anglos with no good food" to fucking pay for your siestas and excessive holidays. I'd love to see the quality of life in Spain if there were no EU handouts. It'd be back in the 60s with rampant poverty and even more unemployment.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
The el que diran is what keeps woman in check. Southern europeans don´t go to Eastern europe or northern europe because woman are better. They go there because they are EASY. They are easy lays. Period.
Of course...but so are Spanish WOMEN when they go to London. How seedy is that? So at home many pretend to be really good girls and then they get on a plane to Paris or London and act just as sleazy as those "bad English" you hate so much.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
Travelling 8 hours and 1 hour is the same for you?
Not the same numerically but it makes no difference to me in terms of making a decision about where to live.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
As for the rest of your posts. The only question I have is why did you live there for 10 years if it´s so fucking awful?
You didn't read what I said apparently. In the beginning I fell for the easiness of life in Spain...but it gets OLD fast and nothing ever changes for the better in a professional or academic sense. That was my point and I said that IF, and ONLY IF, you have other ambitions, this isn't the right place to be long-term.
You also neglect to mention that MANY SPANIARDS agree with me and can't wait to leave. Are they also mean and vicious Germans or hordes from the North?
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
Also Spain is so diverse. Basques, Catalans, Andalucians, Islands. How can you put all these people into the same package and generalize.
Trust me, you don't know Spain more than me. As I said before I HAVE FAMILY here so I know! I have some Catalan origins and I have even mentioned how different it is in Catalunya. I LOVE it up there and go often. I was talking about living in Spain generally, not in those specific regions, although Andalusia is the worst for me.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
As for people criticizing their woman. The grass is always greener and all that shit. But spanish woman are clearly superior to americans. In every possible form. When was the last time you´ve been to the US?
I go TWICE a year, EVERY year. So I know what's going on and still think American women are nicer than Spanish women as a whole.
Quote:stavastano Wrote:
South america is a shithole because of the US. Spain has no influence in zone of the world for a long time. Everyone knows SA is the backyard of the US.
No. South America is a shithole BECAUSE of Spanish culture. Even LATIN AMERICANS will tell you that the reason they are really fucked up is because of shitty Spanish empire's legacy. At least the English knew how to colonize well. Do you really think that SA would be in better shape if Spain was still controlling them? PLEASE. That's the joke of the day. Spain cannot even manage its own internal affairs politically (that's why Catalans WANT OUT and I support them) let alone control other people's problems.
Everything you say just shows how much you hate America...but see that's the difference. I don't "hate" Spain....I limit myself to pointing out its deficiencies. Why don't you open a post about American deficiencies? Unlike insecure you, it won't offend me in the least bit. You seem personally touched by this. Are you Spanish? Are you a Med?
------------------------------
Quote:elflaco Wrote:
Would it really? The keenest observers are usually outsiders with some kind of substantial interaction with the host society.
This has quickly turned into one of my favorite threads on the board. I've never been to Spain but virtually everything that OP Baldrich has described about Spain applies as well to Latin America, where I have lived for a decade. For example, no ambition. Try Roosh's 'What Is Your Project?' test and you'll get an answer like 'my goal for the next year is to paint my bedroom'.
If you visit a country on vacation, or party there for a year (I did both of these at first), or work in an international company where you don't have to build a business or interact directly with local clients or government, or you don't have to build a social life with friends/family who aren't foreigner-seeking groupies, your experience by definition is limited. That's fine, of course -- in some ways the best of both worlds -- but you aren't getting a complete picture. This is doubly true if you aren't highly fluent in the language.
Definitely. Spain and Latin America are VERY similar despite what Spanish racists will tell you. The only thing that helps Spain is the fact that it is in Western Europe, receives a ton of European Union money and has American military bases. It is in the US interest to make sure it doesn't go to hell. But this country would never be stable and would be like Mexico were it not for those factors. And if you walk around any Spanish city, the streets tend to be very dirty and smell of urine. People have "botellon" (they DRINK IN PUBLIC in parks, massive crowds of youths) and then urinate on doorways, sidewalks...you name it. Definitely not a behavior you would see in Switzerland or many parts of central and northern Europe.
Quote:pater familias Wrote:
A lot has been said in this thread. I just will make some comments:
"Diversity": when you have a real culture, you don’t care about others', you just work for yours. The need of diversity is for rootless, shallow, people. French-Spanish-Italian food is the best in the World. Period. Why should I care about fucking Chinese shit, tacos, stupid sauerkraut, or spicy indian crap? When I want that, I take a plane.
Again, I was referring to diversity of styles and thoughts, not culture. US had no diversity (culturally speaking) until recently. But it always had diversity in terms of individualism. Your statement "French-Spanish-Italian food is the best in the world PERIOD" is shocking to me how categorical, absolutist and ignorant it sounds. There are MANY other cuisines which I find just as good (if not more). This is the typical cultural arrogance I was referring to about many Southern Europeans. Do you expect to be taken seriously with those kind of statements about food? Calling Chinese food "shit" or "spicy Indian crap", dismissing entire nations just because YOU don't like their food. Wow wow...
Many Americans eat on the go, you're right. Americans don't live to eat. They eat to live. That's another fundamental difference - if all you care about is living to eat, then you are shallow. There is more to life than food. Enjoy your paella every single Sunday with the same people in the same village for a century though. Keep it.
Women: Spain didn't generate feminism, but like everything else, it has DEFINITELY COPIED IT INTENSELY. You gotta love the Spaniards. They shit on American culture but COPY IT and fill the place with Mcdonalds, Starbucks and Burger Kings and guess who the customers are? SPANISH. HAHAHA. "Oh I hate American food" but you sure love Mcdonalds. Fucking hypocrites.
You wear American CLOTHING BRANDS. MAKE YOUR OWN. If you guys are so talented as you claim to be, why don't you make your own stuff?
Spain not only copies, but imports and copies the WORST aspects of US culture. Not the good research universities, not the Scientists, not the respect for the individual...no,no,no....the worst aspects: petty regulations, fast food restaurants, feminism....people seem to love it here...THE MOVIES. Not a single Spaniard I have met prefers their own cinema - they ALL like and prefer AMERICAN cinema. Why is that? Aren't you guys so cultural? Give me a break.
You say America is a lobbycracy. Sure...because money is not necessary in Spain right? What's so good about having 7 parties if none of them can govern anyway and you have to ask Europe for permission on sneezing?
Spain has NO CLUBS either inside or outside college. Catalunya certainly is a bit different in this regard, but try starting a reading club in Madrid. Tell me how it goes.
You say 55% of Americans live in suburbs. So do many Spaniards. Not as high as that, but all you have to do is see what people do in the Summer and not much diversity of activity either. You all have the "abuelo house" in the village and go there in the Summer or on the weekends...you eat with the same people day in day out, nothing going for you when it comes to dynamic change. And that's fine, if you like that that's OK. But my original point was that it's not for me.
I agree with you on the economics part.That's depressing too. Basically you have a country filled with old people, a very LOW BIRTHRATE (well , you do have lots of Muslims breeding) but the Spanish birthrate is among the lowest in the world, no future at all, no prosperity, no jobs and young people hanging on by a thread from "abuelo's pension". What a sorry state of affairs...and what's even sadder: nobody is doing anything to fix it.