How do other nations percieve the U.S.?
 

Everyone had our back but alas, we have some one as President who is not the best diplomat (to put that diplomaticaly). Do other countries look down on us? Our education system is pitiful. How we elect people is confusing even to our own people, and most of our own people who are qualified don't vote. People gave lives, and some people TOOK lives, for that right. A lot of people had to go through the pain and live with the guilt that they took some one elses life, so that we have this right. And we pretty much ignore that. Our country is dirty. We liter way too much and don't recylce enough. We are ressponsible for the cola wars. I love my country, but we need to step up before we're an international pariah. Being the only superpower won't mean jack if the entire rest of the world decides to gang up on us. I think we could take anyone, but I would not suggest trying to take everyone at once. We'd get our ass kicked. I don't think that will happen though. I would like to believe that other North American countries would help us. You still like us, right Canada?

I think other countries view our educational system as being laughable.

I use to work at Siemens and a lot of Germans were working in the Orlando office for a 2-5 year assignment. They brought their whole family over. They cannot believe some of the politics that goes on within the education system. Because it is so weak, they have their kids doing homework that is sent over from teachers in Germany on top of the assignments they get from their American teachers. I remember seeing a ranking system of the world's educational systems in some magazine. It is unbelievable how bad the US is doing in comparison to other countries. I don't even think the US is in the top 15.

sure, we have all those problems, but if you look at every other country out there, they have many more.

america is #1

You guys, our education system is not that bad. Really.

When comparing our education system to others, you have to realize that a lot of other countries have educational systems that are set up in completely different ways. Some European countries have systems where their equivalent of "high school" lasts until you're in your early 20s. In that case, if you were to compare students in their last year of "high school," you'd be comparing statistics between an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old -- well obviously their numbers are going to be quite a bit higher than ours. Other countries, like Germany, divide their kids into a apprenticeship/trade school track (usually for those whose test scores, etc. are lower) and a university track around age 14 or 15, I think, so when we're comparing numbers with them, we're only comparing with the ones who are in the university (usually the higher test scores) track.

Of course we're never going to be able to compete with the Japanese, education-wise, but considering that they're in school for, like, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, who would want to? :D

For the situation that the U.S. education system is put in -- it must provide education to EVERYONE up to age 16, relatively low funding, and in addition to teaching, school officials must also serve as surrogate parents, a counseling service, health care providers, and ocassionally police officers -- it's doing a pretty decent job.

Don't even get me started on our education system..

I think other countries percieve us in a bad light. Many consider us as a big bully.. or that we dont care about the rest of the world. I think that why the average American doesnt know as much about the rest of the world is because we are very seperate despite this "globalized" world we live in. Such as if you live in England it only takes a few hours to get to many other countries as if you were traveling between states in the US.

who knows.. this is just my opinion though..

ZTAngel- you worked for siemens? which division? i work for siemens BAU :)

I worked for Siemens Westinghouse in their power division.

How do they view us? Where do "they" immigrate? Who do "they" turn to for aid. The U.S. is in no way perfect, but I am proud to be an American. I have lived outside the U.S., and have traveled to more that 20 other countries. There are indeed, some nice qualities in many other countries, yet personally, I wouldn’t trade the U.S. for any place in the world. Many complain about our economy, but it’s not bad compared to most of the world (that does not mean that it should not be better than it is). Public education in the U.S. is indeed a joke when considering K-12, but our public universities are among the best in the world. I have seen the political process at work in other places. Believe me, ours in not that bad. Many of those who seem to hate us, need a little history lesson. Especially France and Germany. I think another question should be asked along with yours. My question is, how do we see ourselves? It seems to me, that so many people of our (my) generation expect the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. They complain about EVERYTHING. Every problem they have is everyone else’s fault. That professor, the bad economy, those stupid people in the financial aide office... etc... We are often spoiled. Rant over.

Edited because of a typo... my public school roots are showing.

I can only speak about where I'm right now, but the region perception of America was very very good during the Clinton administration. They love him here. Now, they distrust the administration. One must not confused being distrustful of the current administration as anti-American. Which seem to be dominant in many minds. Put it this way, the South African likes American, but they do not like GWB or his administration.

I could give 2 ishts about how the world views us.

cuz, last time i checked, to quote Denis Leary, "We've got the bombs, ok?"

"Russia, Germany, Romaina, they can have all the democracy they want. They can have a big democracy cakewalk through the middle of Tieniman Square and it won't make a lick of difference, because we've got the bombs, ok?"

As far as i'm concerned, to hell with the UN. Pull out, kick the bastards out of NYC and do what's in OUR best interest.

Kitso
KS 361

This seems to be the prevailing sentiment among most of the people in other countries that I talked to as well. Non-American perception of America is surprisingly positive. :p But I've yet to find a non-American who thinks that Bush was a good choice.

Amen! Everyone is quick to criticize the American K-12 public education system, based on some horror stories and individualized experiences that are hardly across the board. Some of the countries celebrated (with the exception of Japan) for having a superior educational system are also Socialist in nature, and the political system in some ways begets the educational. Also, think about how many international students come to America to get their education.

As for the people who say it doesn't matter how other countries view us, here's some food for thought: millions of American servicemen are stationed all over the world. What if they're in a nation filled with people who hate Americans? They may not be so safe, right? Besides, Denis Leary is hardly the person I would want to base my theories of international relations on. :rolleyes:

To keep with the topic at hand: In Western Europe, America is perceived well. But the current administration is regrettable, the previous one was laughable.

It doesn't matter because we can simply take our service men and our bases that generate large amounts of income for them out and move them to a host country that would appreciate them more.

-Rudey

Okay:)

Well, my personal opinion is that our K-12 system is not great. And that's my personal opinion as well as many other's.

Our university systems are great. Many foreign students go to school at American colleges.

I grew up in the state of Florida where there has been some HUGE problems in the educational system. I have personally seen some horrible things happen over the years. FCATs, vouchers, budget cuts, and government abuse of the teachers. Florida is rated as one of the worst states for education and I base my knowledge off that. As well as the countless studies done of US educational systems vs. the rest of the world.

Well, even though we went to war with the USA and they were our rulers for a while, the Philippines would be a lot more rural if not for the Americans setting up bases and bringing a lot of business to the PI. My cousin who last time I talked to him was living in the countryside called me on his cell phone from Starbucks in Manila!

http://forum.ogrish.com/images/smilies/yelrotflmao.gif

Are you serious?? And I assume you've been around the world quite a bit, eh? Of course we can say America is no. 1, since we are Americans. But same case happens in Germany, Japan, China, etc. So don't be ignorant, be humble!
And do your homework: research other countries before you make a remark! :D

You mean like . . . Saudi Arabia?

I think it's good the U.S. has such a disproportionate amount of GDP spent toward it's military machine....thank god canada doesn't, less of my tax dollars!


P.S. If Chretien wasn't falling asleep during Bush's address this morning I think he would have applauded!

you hit it right on the head!!!

everyone wants to come here, and very few leave.

i worked at a summer camp for kids last month with several counselors from different countries like germany, south africa, england and a bunch of others. each and everyone of them talked about how it was their dream to come here and be an american citizen.

btw, i suggest you stop riding my nuts

Even though they turn to us for aid, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have to like us. Or that they do like us. And yes, it's frustrating for citizens to hear people piss and moan but take the money all the same. Kinda like when you hate your parents but you'll still take their money, because it's there. But I don't think we should get on some self righteous high horse because other people turn to us for aid. Aid means nothing. Saudia Arabia gets millions each year from us, yet lord knows they don't need or deserve it. Some countries desperately need it but because of political reasons we don't shell out a cent. How is this fair?? And I think it presents a sketchy problem when we have our troops stationed in vehemently anti-American countries (i.e. Saudi). The only reason GWB and Co. (and past administrations, too, to be fair) associate with these whackos is because of that 3 letter word OIL. They have enough human rights violations to choke a donkey yet we sit by and let them do it because other wise we'd have no oil for our oversized 3 mpg SUVs. I'm not at all a "tree hugging hippie" but I think that in a way we got ourselves in this mess and we need to stop blaming the government and do something about it on our own.

Keep in mind, some people have no reason to emigrate. Not "everyone" wants to leave their country for the United States--there are wealthy, educated people in other countries, you know.

I don't want to nitpick, but the educational system in Northern Florida is just fine. I know that my local district had the top FCAT :rolleyes: scores in the state, and sends kids to the top public and private colleges in the nation. It also has one of the highest starting salaries for teachers in the state. Like in everything else, it's South Florida that gives the rest of the state a horrible name. ;) The majority of public schools in the state of Florida are not horrendous, especially when you factor in the somewhat rural, yet wealthy, North.

Heh-Heh. South Florida always gives Florida a bad name.

There are a lot of good schools in SoFL. I came from a HS in Broward County that is consistently ranked as one of the top High Schools in FL. But, yes, the majority of South Florida schools are in desperate need of help. And the FCAT isn't helping. But that's a whole other debate. ;)

The thing is, there's no guarantee that the studies are useful because most don't take into account the differences between educational systems. I did some more research on what I published earlier and got some clarification on the Germany educational system. At age 10, Germans are sorted into the apprenticeship track and the university track. SEVENTY percent are shuffled into the apprenticeship track. The remaining thirty go into the university track. When educational reports compare systems, most of them ONLY use that upper thirty percent of the German system. That would be the equivalent of only counting American students that take AP and honors-level classes for our scores.

In the Swedish and Finnish education systems, school is only mandatory through age 16. Then there is an optional "secondary education" from 16-19 for those who plan to go on to universities. So again, if an educational comparison were to be done on Swedish versus American secondary schooling systems, the report would give an advantage to the Swedish because it only counts those who are planning on attending universities, whereas the American report counts ALL high school students. There are many, many European systems that are set up the same way. Instead of compulsory primary and two sets of compulsory secondary education, there is compulory primary and secondary education PLUS an optional secondary education. Sort of like having mandatory elementary and middle school but with high school being optional.

So the problem isn't so much that our schools are failing us. If you take the top five percent, the creme de la creme of American students, and compare them to the top five percent of German students, Swedish students, Italian students or probably even the Japanese, they're probably going to be remarkably similar. It's just that many European educational systems allow for them to only educate the upper half of students, whereas the American systems require that everyone be educated until they don't want to be anymore. The problem, in my opinion, isn't so much that our schools are failing us as much as it's that we're failing our schools. If we set things up the way the many European systems run, I imagine our scores would be much closer to theirs, if not comparable.

As a future teacher, I could rant about this for hours, but I don't think the rest of you care quite as much as I do. :D

You got that right... My own alma mater (in what is now known as Miami-Dade County) consistently scores in the bottom of the barrel in average FCAT scores. Last year they celebrated because they went up from a 'D' level to a 'C' level school. I graduated 20 years ago... didn't hafta worry about a basic skills test.

For all of the fall and part of the spring semester, school is nothing but a test prep for the FCAT. Administrations live and die on FCAT scores.

Another thing to consider: our special education methods are definitely tops. Many children w/ learning obstacles are denied education in many of the countries we've already mentioned. Certainly they're not counted among the statistics in reading and math ability, whereas here they can be, provided they have the ability to take the test with only slight assistance. Most of us on here are above average and definitely helped "our side" boost the scores, but we have to take into account those that didn't because they couldn't. In France especially, the educational system is not for the faint of heart or the sensitive soul. While their system does great for overachievers (gives them even more drive) it's hell on kids w/ LD. While sure I think our system could use some tweaks, I'd say we're not too bad overall. :)

I could care less what the world thinks of the US.

After the traffic jams today and yesterday, I agree with you about the UN.

It's terrible. My sister's alumnae chapter is about 95% teachers, and they say their hands are basically tied when it comes to a curriculum for those grades. They are essentially teaching them to take a test, which is relatively new--I graduated in the late 1990s, and I never took the FCAT. I had to take the HSCT, which was a joke.

Oh, a lot of people from other countries think that Americans are naive, loud and stupid. The fact that there are so many embarassing American tourists doesn't help matters much. ;) I for one don't want to be seen as a dumb American--we used to play "Spot the American!" in big tourists spots because we're oh so obvious. :)

LOL! You could certainly play that in France.