here is your chinese bashing for the day (olympics).....

[broncocalijohn]

How will this go over if it gets out to the mass media.....

http://deadspin.com/5035434/spanish-basketball-team-celebrates-trip-to-china-with-slant+eye-team-photo


This is how Spain celebrates a basketball win. Any comments round eyes?

[Los Broncos]

Nothing like celebrating a win by offending another race.

[SureShot]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fC9DPSu0tYk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fC9DPSu0tYk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[Jens1893]

The Spanish sometimes do think their empire still exists

[cutthemdown]

How could they think that was funny? They didn't even wear little china man hats or have chopsticks in there ears. Totally weak.

[sixtimeseight]

The Spanish sometimes do think their empire still exists

Their empire does still exist! They own the.... uh.... ummmm..... Canary Islands maybe?

[orangeatheist]

Motherf's think that's funny but the second language everyone should be learning isn't Spanish, it's Chinese.

[Smiling Assassin27]

At least the other nations of Europe couch their racism in a subtle manner, these guys just let it all hang out. Stupid effort, boys...

There's a reason that every friggin top level European soccer match begins with the captains denouncing racism over the PA--because racism in Europe is part of the cultural fabric of the continent--always has been and likely always will be.

[Beantown Bronco]

They should at least have the common decency to wear cameras around their necks.

[Borks147]

Motherf's think that's funny but the second language everyone should be learning isn't Spanish, it's Chinese.

maybe if you're into international business...but have you been to new york city or southern California lately??

[Rock Chalk]

They should at least have the common decency to wear cameras around their necks.

Bwahaha now thats funny even though technically thats the Japanese.

[Borks147]

There's a reason that every friggin top level European soccer match begins with the captains denouncing racism over the PA--because racism in Europe is part of the cultural fabric of the continent--always has been and likely always will be.

true ****, that is why Europe is totally shocked that the supposedly backwards United States is on the verge of having a president that is not from the majority group.

ummm, but anyways...shouldn't this thread be moved off the main board now?

[Jason in LA]

Yet another reason to hate Spain. Damn slave traders. ;D

[sirhcyennek81]

Motherf's think that's funny but the second language everyone should be learning isn't Spanish, it's Chinese.

Which of the 1000 dialects?


:Broncos:

[Atlas]

That's pretty harmless.

There is a really big story going around that most of the Chinese girls on the gymnastic team are all under 16. Some of them as young as 12. This is against international rules but what's funny is that they judge the age of these athletes by their passport, which you guess it is supplied by the country they are competing for.

[Jens1893]

At least the other nations of Europe couch their racism in a subtle manner, these guys just let it all hang out. Stupid effort, boys...

There's a reason that every friggin top level European soccer match begins with the captains denouncing racism over the PA--because racism in Europe is part of the cultural fabric of the continent--always has been and likely always will be.

That´s BS.

[Kaylore]

Motherf's think that's funny but the second language everyone should be learning isn't Spanish, it's Chinese.

Not really. Chinese sucks for computers because of the characters and inability to fit them on a keyboard. It's one of the reasons the Koreans have a tech and data processing edge over the Japanese and Chinese. However Chinese if very easy to speak.

[Kaylore]

That´s BS.

No it's not. There is a lot anti-semitism, and general racism in Europe and he's right as it's more accepted over there.

[Beantown Bronco]

No it's not. There is a lot anti-semitism, and general racism in Europe and he's right as it's more accepted over there.

I don't think he's denying that. He's calling BS on the part about the captains getting over the PA before every "top level" European match to denounce racism. They don't.

[gyldenlove]

No it's not. There is a lot anti-semitism, and general racism in Europe and he's right as it's more accepted over there.

There is more anti-semitism in Asia, South America and Africa than in Europe.

There is no more racism in Europe than in the States, racism is just reported more because the press is still free in Europe, not owned by a few media conglomerates who do not care for actual reporting.

[Jens1893]

No it's not. There is a lot anti-semitism, and general racism in Europe and he's right as it's more accepted over there.

I have been to a few hundred "top level soccer games" in person and I yet have to hear one speech before the game with the captains denouncing racism. It´s pure BS, but believe whatever the media feeds you.

I don´t know whether racism generally is more accepted here than over there, but I don´t think it´s a huge problem in my country.

[broncocalijohn]

Not really. Chinese sucks for computers because of the characters and inability to fit them on a keyboard. It's one of the reasons the Koreans have a tech and data processing edge over the Japanese and Chinese. However Chinese if very easy to speak.

Tao tsidow foo ching wang chung tonight. Yes, i dont need cds.

[Smiling Assassin27]

That´s BS.

Hyperbole, Jens. Euro Final as well as UEFA Final both had team captains denouncing racism. Even 10 years ago, there'd be no mention of it, no?


http://www.fifa.com/mm/photo/afprograms/footballforhope/anti%5fracism%5fmain%5f1%5f7032%5fsq%5fmedium.jpg


As is now the tradition, the four quarter-finals on Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to the fight against racism. The team captains will read out a statement before kick-off, utterly rejecting all forms of discrimination in football and society with the words "No to racism". The teams then unite to line up with the match officials before kick-off, displaying a banner to the crowd bearing the slogan "Say no to racism".

From FIFA's website...

At each of the 64 matches, FIFA said a banner covering the entire centre circle would be displayed from the stadium’s opening until the end of the official pre-match protocol, bearing the tournament slogan: “A time to make friends” combined with the anti-racism message: “Say no to racism”.

In addition, anti-racism video spots would be aired at all FIFA World Cup stadiums. FIFA also planned to dedicate all quarter-finals on 30 June and 1 July to a special activity on the pitch to give the participating teams the chance to raise their voices against racism, in a message to be aired around the globe.

[broncofan7]

Racism in Europe? As opposed to the completely homogenous land of the chinese or japanese? Those are two completely closed cultures to outsiders/immigration yet the Europeans, who are generally accepting regarding their immigration policies are getting bashed by you guys because of a few Spaniards with bad taste? wake up.........

[theAPAOps5]

I have been to a few hundred "top level soccer games" in person and I yet have to hear one speech before the game with the captains denouncing racism. It´s pure BS, but believe whatever the media feeds you.

I don´t know whether racism generally is more accepted here than over there, but I don´t think it´s a huge problem in my country.

You were already to drunk to listen! :wiggle:

There is a lot of racism in europe, at least there was when I was there. You have the neo-nazis. There is a huge rift between the Turks and Euros, Gypsy's are frowned upon and so on.

whether its worse than here I don't know. Spend 4 years in the South and you will think no once can be as racist.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Racism in Europe? As opposed to the completely homogenous land of the chinese or japanese? Those are two completely closed cultures to outsiders/immigration yet the Europeans, who are generally accepting regarding their immigration policies are getting bashed by you guys because of a few Spaniards with bad taste? wake up.........

*pointing* see that thing flying over your head? that's called a 'point'. who gives a rat's arse if china and japan are also racist havens? the topic is the Spanish team's obviously ignorant and foolish photo op, which is kinda patronizing and disrespectful. you wanna argue that it's a-ok because racism exists in china and japan as well?

[broncofan7]

*pointing* see that thing flying over your head? that's called a 'point'. who gives a rat's arse if china and japan are also racist havens? the topic is the Spanish team's obviously ignorant and foolish photo op, which is kinda patronizing and disrespectful. you wanna argue that it's a-ok because racism exists in china and japan as well?

This thread was turning into a euro bashing party----and my point was that the chinese are far more bigotted than any Europeans could ever be ---as stated in my previous post it is ingrained in their culture (see their immigration policy). Why don't you acknowledge the homogenuity of the chinese society that the Spainards are making fun of? Was this spectacle created by a spanish team or was it sanctioned by the spanish government and in fact practiced within their borders? SEE THE BIG PICTURE.

[Jens1893]

You were already to drunk to listen! :wiggle:

There is a lot of racism in europe, at least there was when I was there. You have the neo-nazis. There is a huge rift between the Turks and Euros, Gypsy's are frowned upon and so on.

whether its worse than here I don't know. Spend 4 years in the South and you will think no once can be as racist.

I don´t deny that racism exists here, but I think some people here are exaggerating. Racism is a global problem and it exists here just as well as over there. God knows whether it´s worse here or over there.

I do know, however, that our coach wouldn´t get away with racially abusing another player or that Lewis Hamilton being racially abused at the race track would create a huge public uproar.

[Jens1893]

Hyperbole, Jens. Euro Final as well as UEFA Final both had team captains denouncing racism. Even 10 years ago, there'd be no mention of it, no?


http://www.fifa.com/mm/photo/afprograms/footballforhope/anti%5fracism%5fmain%5f1%5f7032%5fsq%5fmedium.jpg




From FIFA's website...

Hyperbole, yes.

[Cito Pelon]

The Spanish sometimes do think their empire still exists

Good one.

[Smiling Assassin27]

I don´t deny that racism exists here, but I think some people here are exaggerating. Racism is a global problem and it exists here just as well as over there. God knows whether it´s worse here or over there.

I do know, however, that our coach wouldn´t get away with racially abusing another player or that Lewis Hamilton being racially abused at the race track would create a huge public uproar.

Agreed. Racism exists in all parts of the world. By putting a spotlight on Europe (specifically what the Spanish team has done) does not mean I or anyone else is denying this fact. The Spanish have been reprimanded more than a few times for racism by FIFA and even the last Euro had issues between nations like Croatia and Turkey. Spain's stupid photo sticks out like a sore thumb. Do you think the US Team would take a photo like that? No. Nationalism often morphs into racism and Europe is filled with nationalistic tendencies from Ireland to Sweden and all points in between, despite the EU.

[theAPAOps5]

I don´t deny that racism exists here, but I think some people here are exaggerating. Racism is a global problem and it exists here just as well as over there. God knows whether it´s worse here or over there.

I do know, however, that our coach wouldn´t get away with racially abusing another player or that Lewis Hamilton being racially abused at the race track would create a huge public uproar.

I agree, I was pointing out that both our countries/continents have racial issues. Its sad really.

[ShutDownPoster]

This is really f*** up, if you got an issue with china fine - but to pull this old school rascist 'ching chong' slant eyes stuff, thats just absurd.

[Jens1893]

Agreed. Racism exists in all parts of the world. By putting a spotlight on Europe (specifically what the Spanish team has done) does not mean I or anyone else is denying this fact. The Spanish have been reprimanded more than a few times for racism by FIFA and even the last Euro had issues between nations like Croatia and Turkey. Spain's stupid photo sticks out like a sore thumb. Do you think the US Team would take a photo like that? No. Nationalism often morphs into racism and Europe is filled with nationalistic tendencies from Ireland to Sweden and all points in between, despite the EU.

That I can agree with it. There is a very fine line between patriotism, nationalism and racism sometimes and some countries cross those lines way more often than others.

[Atlas]

Did you guys see where the Chinese did a Mili Vinili during their show? That cute little girl that sung in front of 2 billion people well, it wasn't her. Let's just say the real girl that sang the song was kind of homely country girl with buck teeth. Something the Chinese couldn't allow.

Also some of those fireworks outside were fake!!! LMAO

Great Olympics you stupid bastards!!!! Hilarious!

[JJJ]

I have lived in China for two years and Europe for the last four. Chinese are not racist but they are very nationalistic and dangersously overly proud of their country, kind of like Americans. They save most of their animosity for those trying to break away from the inner kingdom, like the Taiwanese and Tibetens. But I must say the average Chinese is really nice and friendly. It is a much more friendly place than Europe with a low threshold to meet people, make friends, and have a good time. Much more social and easy going than I expected. They love to laugh and like to joke.

In Europe I have been pretty shocked by the widespread amount of anti-semitism, more people than not seem pretty biased against Jews. Same for blacks. Seems more acceptable to state if don't like a certain race over here. Political correctness, and the fear of bloodsucking lawyers, have not penetrated the day to day consciousness of the Euros. I have heard many things I would never hear in the US, but then again I am from California and not from a more racially polarized place in the states. And without any doubt it is much more chauvinistic here. It is still very much a man's world in Europe. Women are kept in their place. Female CEO? Certainly not on the continent, maybe one or two in the isles.

[NaptownChief]

I have lived in China for two years and Europe for the last four. Chinese are not racist but they are very nationalistic and dangersously overly proud of their country, kind of like Americans. They save most of their animosity for those trying to break away from the inner kingdom, like the Taiwanese and Tibetens. But I must say the average Chinese is really nice and friendly. It is a much more friendly place than Europe with a low threshold to meet people, make friends, and have a good time. Much more social and easy going than I expected. They love to laugh and like to joke.

In Europe I have been pretty shocked by the widespread amount of anti-semitism, more people than not seem pretty biased against Jews. Same for blacks. Seems more acceptable to state if don't like a certain race over here. Political correctness, and the fear of bloodsucking lawyers, have not penetrated the day to day consciousness of the Euros. I have heard many things I would never hear in the US, but then again I am from California and not from a more racially polarized place in the states. And without any doubt it is much more chauvinistic here. It is still very much a man's world in Europe. Women are kept in their place. Female CEO? Certainly not on the continent, maybe one or two in the isles.


I haven't been to China but my travels throughout Europe certainly support your thoughts on the topic.

To hear the average ignorant American talk about the topic you would think that racism was born, bread and held captive in the USA but from my experiences the USA is very possibly the most tolerant country out there. It isn't without flaw as it is impossible to ever come close to achieving perfection in this area but we are much closer than most.

I'm sensitive to the topic and certainly don't condone the ignorant acts of many but I must say that when I hear people railing on this country over racisim I always think to myself "you need to take a trip and show me some place better..."

[Kaylore]

I have been to a few hundred "top level soccer games" in person and I yet have to hear one speech before the game with the captains denouncing racism. It´s pure BS, but believe whatever the media feeds you.

I don´t know whether racism generally is more accepted here than over there, but I don´t think it´s a huge problem in my country.

I have lived in China for two years and Europe for the last four. Chinese are not racist but they are very nationalistic and dangersously overly proud of their country, kind of like Americans. They save most of their animosity for those trying to break away from the inner kingdom, like the Taiwanese and Tibetens. But I must say the average Chinese is really nice and friendly. It is a much more friendly place than Europe with a low threshold to meet people, make friends, and have a good time. Much more social and easy going than I expected. They love to laugh and like to joke.

In Europe I have been pretty shocked by the widespread amount of anti-semitism, more people than not seem pretty biased against Jews. Same for blacks. Seems more acceptable to state if don't like a certain race over here. Political correctness, and the fear of bloodsucking lawyers, have not penetrated the day to day consciousness of the Euros. I have heard many things I would never hear in the US, but then again I am from California and not from a more racially polarized place in the states. And without any doubt it is much more chauvinistic here. It is still very much a man's world in Europe. Women are kept in their place. Female CEO? Certainly not on the continent, maybe one or two in the isles.

Golly Jens, maybe the media is feeding you something.:welcome:

[Willynowei]

This thread was turning into a euro bashing party----and my point was that the chinese are far more bigotted than any Europeans could ever be ---as stated in my previous post it is ingrained in their culture (see their immigration policy). Why don't you acknowledge the homogenuity of the chinese society that the Spainards are making fun of? Was this spectacle created by a spanish team or was it sanctioned by the spanish government and in fact practiced within their borders? SEE THE BIG PICTURE.

Having been to multiple countries in both Europe and Asia including China, I have to say that this qualifies as one of the most ignorant posts I've read on the mane in the past month.

[gyldenlove]

I And without any doubt it is much more chauvinistic here. It is still very much a man's world in Europe. Women are kept in their place. Female CEO? Certainly not on the continent, maybe one or two in the isles.

I am not quite sure where here is, but I am guessing Europe. Currently the German prime minister is a woman, and Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland have all had female heads of government. The President of Ukraine is a female as well. 9 members of the european commission are females as opposed to only 8 state governors in the US.

Only 12 companies on the Fortune 500 list has a female CEO for a measly 2%. In Denmark over 4% of all CEOs are female, still not great but at least twice as high.

[NaptownChief]

This qualifies as the most ignorant post I've read on the main in the past month.


You do know that it is bulletin board law that when you create a post calling someone else ignorant you can't have a misspelling in that post. ;D

mane....main....mane....main

[Willynowei]

You do know that it is bulletin board law that when you create a post calling someone else ignorant you can't have a misspelling in that post. ;D

mane....main....mane....main

caught me before the edit :P

[gyldenlove]

I haven't been to China but my travels throughout Europe certainly support your thoughts on the topic.

To hear the average ignorant American talk about the topic you would think that racism was born, bread and held captive in the USA but from my experiences the USA is very possibly the most tolerant country out there. It isn't without flaw as it is impossible to ever come close to achieving perfection in this area but we are much closer than most.

I'm sensitive to the topic and certainly don't condone the ignorant acts of many but I must say that when I hear people railing on this country over racisim I always think to myself "you need to take a trip and show me some place better..."

For anyone who thinks America is tolerant, watch this clip: Top Gear goes to Alabama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI)

[JJJ]

I haven't been to China but my travels throughout Europe certainly support your thoughts on the topic.

To hear the average ignorant American talk about the topic you would think that racism was born, bread and held captive in the USA but from my experiences the USA is very possibly the most tolerant country out there. It isn't without flaw as it is impossible to ever come close to achieving perfection in this area but we are much closer than most.

I'm sensitive to the topic and certainly don't condone the ignorant acts of many but I must say that when I hear people railing on this country over racisim I always think to myself "you need to take a trip and show me some place better..."

Agree across the board.

Europeans are a bit perplexing because they are quite liberal and peace loving and seem quite progressive in many ways but a rather strong undercurrent of racist tendencies seems to lie just below the surface. The influx of ethnic minorities has been quite large and is fairly recent compared to the US and I think this stresses those not accustomed to living in a melting pot.

[Willynowei]

The issue is that racism in the US is prevelant only at the lowest of our socio-economic stratospheres, it's also geographically isolated. However, in Europe its absolutely every where; across every income level and stretches from the country side to the city.

[Jens1893]

For anyone who thinks America is tolerant, watch this clip: Top Gear goes to Alabama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI)

Tarring 300m Americans with the same brush is about as idiotic as tarring 700m Europeans (500m if you only count the EU) with the same brush.

[Jens1893]

Golly Jens, maybe the media is feeding you something.:welcome:

I am fairly certain you are the expert here, Kaylore. You should maybe make the effort to read all my posts and not just pick the one that suits your argument. And maybe, just maybe you should make the effort to read my post you quoted again to understand what point in Smilling Assassin´s original post I was referring to. Strangely, me and Smiling Assassin seem to have found a point we can both agree on.

[LordHelmchen]

The issue is that racism in the US is prevelant only at the lowest of our socio-economic stratospheres, it's also geographically isolated. However, in Europe its absolutely every where; across every income level and stretches from the country side to the city.

no need to comment that really :rofl:

[Willynowei]

Agree across the board.

Europeans are a bit perplexing because they are quite liberal and peace loving and seem quite progressive in many ways but a rather strong undercurrent of racist tendencies seems to lie just below the surface. The influx of ethnic minorities has been quite large and is fairly recent compared to the US and I think this stresses those not accustomed to living in a melting pot.

They have as big of an immigrant problem as we do, they've just done a more thorough job of ignoring it than us.

Europe is built up on immigrant labor every bit as much as this country, we just appreciate it more.

[Jens1893]

Um Gotteswillen.

[Willynowei]

no need to comment that really :rofl:

Not to mention Germany's known to be one of the worst.

[JJJ]

For anyone who thinks America is tolerant, watch this clip: Top Gear goes to Alabama (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syY12OPkwI)

That was hilarious. Love that show.

[Jens1893]

Not to mention Germany's known to be one of the worst.

I am fairly certain you´re the expert.

[Willynowei]

I am fairly certain you´re the expert.

Not quite, I'm yankin his chain based on his location. But what I've heard from the Germans that I do know certainly supports that.

[Txdonk]

the lip syncing is a bonehead move for sure, a totally unnecessary move.

the fireworks with the giant footsteps were real, but they couldn't capture it on film without sending the helicopters too closely, so what we SAW ON TV was CGI. If you really want to call that fake, fine, kind of a stretch imo.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wbZrI8onelg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wbZrI8onelg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Did you guys see where the Chinese did a Mili Vinili during their show? That cute little girl that sung in front of 2 billion people well, it wasn't her. Let's just say the real girl that sang the song was kind of homely country girl with buck teeth. Something the Chinese couldn't allow.

Also some of those fireworks outside were fake!!! LMAO

Great Olympics you stupid bastards!!!! Hilarious!

[Jens1893]

Not quite, I'm yankin his chain based on his location. But what I've heard from the Germans that I do know certainly supports that.

Thanks for admitting it because I only live like 20 miles to the West of him. ;)

[LordHelmchen]

I am fairly certain you´re the expert.


yes, he must be..

not to mention that I'm half Vietnamese, and from my looks have been mistaken to be Mexican, Greek, Italian and Turkish... and guess what..I had ZERO problems with racism in my whole life.

[Jens1893]

yes, he must be..

not to mention that I'm half Vietnamese, and from my looks have been mistaken to be Mexican, Greek, Italian and Turkish... and guess what..I had ZERO problems with racism in my whole life.

Deary me, get out of our country! :)

[cutthemdown]

yes, he must be..

not to mention that I'm half Vietnamese, and from my looks have been mistaken to be Mexican, Greek, Italian and Turkish... and guess what..I had ZERO problems with racism in my whole life.

the thing is people confuse stereotypes and jokes that are in bad taste as racism. Racism is actually thinking you are superior and doing things to try and keep the other races down. Just making a joke that is based on a stereotype is not racism IMO.

[Txdonk]

Could you enlighten me on China's immigration policy? what's so bigoted about it?

I left there when I was little, so there might be things you know that I'm not aware of. There are 50+ minority ethnic groups in addition to the majority Han, so it's not as homogeneous as you think.

This thread was turning into a euro bashing party----and my point was that the chinese are far more bigotted than any Europeans could ever be ---as stated in my previous post it is ingrained in their culture (see their immigration policy). Why don't you acknowledge the homogenuity of the chinese society that the Spainards are making fun of? Was this spectacle created by a spanish team or was it sanctioned by the spanish government and in fact practiced within their borders? SEE THE BIG PICTURE.

[Jens1893]

the thing is people confuse stereotypes and jokes that are in bad taste as racism. Racism is actually thinking you are superior and doing things to try and keep the other races down. Just making a joke that is based on a stereotype is not racism IMO.

I agree with this.

[LordHelmchen]

Deary me, get out of our country! :)

well, I'm moving to Hamburg soon.. so basically, that is out of the country :afro:

seriously though, there are of course problems with racism here as well, I'm not denying that. But when you see that Germany has the third highest immigration rate in the world... we're getting along a lot better than one could expect.

[LordHelmchen]

I agree with this.

I'll second that

[JJJ]

I am not quite sure where here is, but I am guessing Europe. Currently the German prime minister is a woman, and Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland have all had female heads of government. The President of Ukraine is a female as well. 9 members of the european commission are females as opposed to only 8 state governors in the US.

Only 12 companies on the Fortune 500 list has a female CEO for a measly 2%. In Denmark over 4% of all CEOs are female, still not great but at least twice as high.

Scandanavia is much better than the rest of Europe.

Politics it seems much better environment for women also. But in the business world I live in it is very white and very male. My last Swiss company had 100 senior managers and every one was male, not a single female. Never even come close to meeting a black executive or manager in the 13 years I have been doing business in Europe.

By the way, God bless the Danes. Great country and great people. You guys and the Poles were about the only ones who put some thought into your positions on Iraq. Whether it was the right or wrong position will be argued by both sides but you guys stood by your decision to support it and that is very admirable.

[Dark Helmet]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zuM9oauZVxY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zuM9oauZVxY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[LordHelmchen]

a classic.. FIRE ZE MISSLES ;D

[JJJ]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zuM9oauZVxY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zuM9oauZVxY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Superb. "WTF Mate".

[Rock Chalk]

Not really. Chinese sucks for computers because of the characters and inability to fit them on a keyboard. It's one of the reasons the Koreans have a tech and data processing edge over the Japanese and Chinese. However Chinese if very easy to speak.

Not true.

The Chinese and Japanese have alphabets (in Japanese they are called kana) that are similar in function to english characters in the alphabet. These are then typed via IME's and when a common kanji is typed it is inserted in lieu of the characters.

Typing in Japanese and/or Chinese is not a difficult thing. They both have the five vowels, and then the consonant sounds are added to each vowel (i.e. ka, ki, ku, ke, ko) each with a symbol. The IMEs are very intelligent and know what word you are attempting to spell once the word is finished.

Korean's use a similar method only they do not have the traditional Chinese characters to replace their "kana". Its one extra step that is generally done by using the spacebar. I have typed documents in Japanese on average about as fast as I can in English comparitive to my fluency.

[Jens1893]

Not true.

The Chinese and Japanese have alphabets (in Japanese they are called kana) that are similar in function to english characters in the alphabet. These are then typed via IME's and when a common kanji is typed it is inserted in lieu of the characters.

Typing in Japanese and/or Chinese is not a difficult thing. They both have the five vowels, and then the consonant sounds are added to each vowel (i.e. ka, ki, ku, ke, ko) each with a symbol. The IMEs are very intelligent and know what word you are attempting to spell once the word is finished.

Korean's use a similar method only they do not have the traditional Chinese characters to replace their "kana". Its one extra step that is generally done by using the spacebar. I have typed documents in Japanese on average about as fast as I can in English comparitive to my fluency.

You disappoint me, Alec. I firmly expected you to tear into Europe here. :)

[gyldenlove]

[QUOTE=JJJ;2035526]Scandanavia is much better than the rest of Europe.

Politics it seems much better environment for women also. But in the business world I live in it is very white and very male. My last Swiss company had 100 senior managers and every one was male, not a single female. Never even come close to meeting a black executive or manager in the 13 years I have been doing business in Europe.
QUOTE]

That is true, I have never met a black senior executive in any country I have lived and worked in (Europe or North America).

Actually, on the subject of female leaders, in Norway they have laws now that mandate that I believe it 35% of all members of any board should be female (or male in a female dominated situation).

[LordHelmchen]

You disappoint me, Alec. I firmly expected you to tear into Europe here. :)

Zwei Dumme, ein Gedanke 8')

[Kaylore]

My experience is the older prejudices run much deeper in other parts of the world than they do in America. It's like Russians and Georgians are cool here when they see each other, but back in their homeland they beat on each other. They say some crazy stuff you wouldn't hear here. My Armenian friend swears that Turks don't have souls. I mean that's a pretty horrible thing to say. The French almost elected a freaking anti-semite in a major election. Anti-semites aren't even taken seriously here and Jean-Marie Le Pen picked up 20% of the vote there. In Asian the hatred toward the Japanese is severe and there is a lot of nationalist animosity towards other countries. It's just not as severe in the US in a lot of ways. I'm not saying that the US doesn't have it's problems or that Europe is flawed, but you can make the case that there is more racial tension there than in the US.

[Rock Chalk]

You disappoint me, Alec. I firmly expected you to tear into Europe here. :)

Bah, too easy.

[cutthemdown]

I agree with this.

For instance I'm American but my great Grandparents were from Holland. We are talking wood show wearing, live by a big windmill, tall white Dutchman.

I have a pair of wooden shoes my friends love to get out and make fun of me with. It's not racism it's just a joke. If the whole world would just lighten up we would be better off. Who cares if the Spanish team made a slant eyed joke it doesn't mean the hate Chinese people. As long as the can take a joke about Spaniards without getting all upset then who cares. Chinese can just joke about how they are kicking there asses in the Olympics.

[Willynowei]

well, I'm moving to Hamburg soon.. so basically, that is out of the country :afro:

seriously though, there are of course problems with racism here as well, I'm not denying that. But when you see that Germany has the third highest immigration rate in the world... we're getting along a lot better than one could expect.

You have a load of asian migrant workers in your country thats taking jobs away from the locals. My understanding is that in all the EU, and especially germany, animosity is starting to brew against those migrant workers much as they have gone on here in the US with mexicans.

My whole take is not to really say that Europe as a whole is racist. It isn't but here in the US, you can sort of point a finger at certain segments of the population. In Europe, racism pops up in areas you woudln't expect. I think this is mostly because of the sense of pride among most Euros.

[Jens1893]

You have a load of asian migrant workers in your country thats taking jobs away from the locals. My understanding is that in all the EU, and especially germany, animosity is starting to brew against those migrant workers much as they have gone on here in the US with mexicans.

My whole take is not to really say that Europe as a whole is racist. It isn't but here in the US, you can sort of point a finger at certain segments of the population. In Europe, racism pops up in areas you woudln't expect. I think this is mostly because of the sense of pride among most Euros.

I disagree and I especially disagree about the last sentence because most people here are or at least used to be **** scared of flying our flag with pride.

[LordHelmchen]

My experience is the older prejudices run much deeper in other parts of the world than they do in America. It's like Russians and Georgians are cool here when they see each other, but back in their homeland they beat on each other. They say some crazy stuff you wouldn't hear here. My Armenian friend swears that Turks don't have souls. I mean that's a pretty horrible thing to say. The French almost elected a freaking anti-semite in a major election. Anti-semites aren't even taken seriously here and Jean-Marie Le Pen picked up 20% of the vote there. In Asian the hatred toward the Japanese is severe and there is a lot of nationalist animosity towards other countries. It's just not as severe in the US in a lot of ways. I'm not saying that the US doesn't have it's problems or that Europe is flawed, but you can make the case that there is more racial tension there than in the US.
I would call that more nationalistic tensions than racial tensions.
Well, why would your Amernian friend say that? Turkey commited the first genocide in the 20th century ... by masskilling Armenians.
Same thing why the Chinese hate the Japanese. Add to that Japan has been far less reluctant to admit its war crimes and pay reparations..compared to Germany e.g. . Then again Germany is a lot more popular in the countries it didn't occupy ;) Odd thing here, from my experience Russians are mostly really friendly towards Germans. If one nation suffered the most from NAZI Germany, it was Russia.
And of course they are less likely to go at each others throats in the USA compared to their home countries. There they are far removed from the place where the atrocities happenend. They don't have to live next to each other, old rivalries don't get heated up again and again. The left that more or less behind and started a new life.
Le Pen was more anti-immigrant than anti-semite btw, or at least the former got him most of the votes.

[Houshyamama]

I have a Chinese roommate. He told me it's hard to see when he laughs sometimes. I thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

Asians have different eyes than us white folk. Oh no!

Let's not acknowledge it or ever point it out, because then they'll know that we know and haven't been saying anything because deep down we find it slightly amusing.

I loathe political correctness.

[Kaylore]

Not true.

The Chinese and Japanese have alphabets (in Japanese they are called kana) that are similar in function to english characters in the alphabet. These are then typed via IME's and when a common kanji is typed it is inserted in lieu of the characters.

Typing in Japanese and/or Chinese is not a difficult thing. They both have the five vowels, and then the consonant sounds are added to each vowel (i.e. ka, ki, ku, ke, ko) each with a symbol. The IMEs are very intelligent and know what word you are attempting to spell once the word is finished.
Katakana and Hiragana are excessive by design. They are 60+ characters including consonants and vowels put together for both. English has 26 and Korean 29. Not to mention they change the letter depending on the word's origin. Factor in that Kanji is more regularly a part of their regular language and you get a severe slow down in communication exchange.

Chinese is even worse because it's exclusively character-driven and they have no phonetic equivalent. To make matters worse, Chinese is tonal, where auditory inflection can be the difference between four or more words. This puts the language at a significant disadvantage to other written languages.

Korean's use a similar method only they do not have the traditional Chinese characters to replace their "kana".
False, They have what's called Han-ja, which are Chinese characters, a roughly close equivalent to Kanji. And as I said they have an alphabet where the vowels and the consonants are separated. The Chinese characters that they do use can all be written with their standard alphabet and they are being phased out.

Basically Korean can all fit on one keyboard as easily as English. Japanese is crammed in and the typing speed and logic of the language as it's written is slow and contains multiple redundancies that aren't ergonomic. Chinese is the worst.

[LordHelmchen]

You have a load of asian migrant workers in your country thats taking jobs away from the locals. My understanding is that in all the EU, and especially germany, animosity is starting to brew against those migrant workers much as they have gone on here in the US with mexicans.

My whole take is not to really say that Europe as a whole is racist. It isn't but here in the US, you can sort of point a finger at certain segments of the population. In Europe, racism pops up in areas you woudln't expect. I think this is mostly because of the sense of pride among most Euros.
We do? Asians? Well, ok if you count Turks. Most of our immigrants are from Europe.
But what you are talking about happenend mostly in the early 90s (especially the OH noes..they take our job away....). Nowadays it's more a public discussion about the state of integration of the 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants. Mostly those problems are coming from a lack of education and thus perspective for those immigrants. To go into detail would be too much for now. (this applies to Germany)

But anyhow, this kind or racism you describe you will find mostly among the jobless, uneducated youths from rural areas especially in former East Germany. Ironically our Neonazis and our immigrant troublemakers share the same fate ;)


And I also strongly disagree that it has anything to do with a heightened sense of pride. One of the differences might be, that no state in Europe has ever been a traditional immigration coutnry, compared to the USA, where basically all citizens have an immigration background.. your country is founded on immigration.

[orangeatheist]

I have a Chinese roommate. He told me it's hard to see when he laughs sometimes. I thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

Asians have different eyes than us white folk. Oh no!

Let's not acknowledge it or ever point it out, because then they'll know that we know and haven't been saying anything because deep down we find it slightly amusing.

I loathe political correctness.

You may loathe political correctness, as do I, but sometimes there's a line that gets crossed that has nothing to do with political correctness. My wife is from Asia and my two kids, consequently, have Asian features. I sure wouldn't like it if my daughter brought home her class picture with all the white kids making "slanty eyes" because she had hosted a sushi party for them.

Oh, and by the way, sometimes I can't see when I laugh, too. And I'm about as Wonder as they come.

[TDmvp]

race is over rated ...

[SonOfLe-loLang]

My armenian friend says Georgian jokes in Armenia are like Polish jokes here. And then he gave me this "funny" armenian joke...which to me is something straight out of borat:

There is the story of the Georgian who started the Russian Revolution because he wanted some goat's milk. As it goes, the Georgian loved goat's milk so much that he called it "mother's milk". One day he went to a store and asked for mother's milk, they said they only have cow's milk. So the Georgian asked a nearby soldier for his mother's milk, which the soldier took offense to and knocked out the Georgian with the but of his gun. Well Lenin was in that store and decided the government should intervene and provide milk for the people. While the war was raging on, that stupid Georgian kept smiling like a retard (actual translation) and drinking his goat's milk. Which is why it's written on the Georgian flag "we shall not fight, only drink mother's milk."

[sirhcyennek81]

race is over rated ...


Profound.


:Broncos:

[shakenbake]

Katakana and Hiragana are excessive by design. They are 60+ characters including consonants and vowels put together for both. English has 26 and Korean 29. Not to mention they change the letter depending on the word's origin. Factor in that Kanji is more regularly a part of their regular language and you get a severe slow down in communication exchange.

Chinese is even worse because it's exclusively character-driven and they have no phonetic equivalent. To make matters worse, Chinese is tonal, where auditory inflection can be the difference between four or more words. This puts the language at a significant disadvantage to other written languages.


False, They have what's called Han-ja, which are Chinese characters, a roughly close equivalent to Kanji. And as I said they have an alphabet where the vowels and the consonants are separated. The Chinese characters that they do use can all be written with their standard alphabet and they are being phased out.

Basically Korean can all fit on one keyboard as easily as English. Japanese is crammed in and the typing speed and logic of the language as it's written is slow and contains multiple redundancies that aren't ergonomic. Chinese is the worst.

Chinese isn't that hard to type using a keyboard, you just have to understand pinyin which is romanization of Chinese ( most chinese know pinyin). There is another way based on the stroke of the characters but I believe that may be more common in Taiwan where they don't learn pinyin. Anyway, when I want to type something in Chinese I just use the input program and type the pinyin of the word, then I will get a list of characters based on the word usually the more common ones are at the beginning of the list. Now if I just type one character at a time it could be slow going because there can be many possible choices for a character with that pinyin. For example the pinyin for the word "shi" there are like 70 different possibilities for the word "shi" the most common is probably 是。luckily most chinese words are two character combinations so you just type in the pinyin for both characters at the same time and you get far fewer choices. For example “shi chang" 市场 which means market. When I type that I only get 5 choices of words to choose from. My chinese is by no means great but sometimes I prefer to type in Chinese rather than english. Some inputs are getting even better to where you only need to put the first two letters of the characters in and it will give you the choices.

[Houshyamama]

You may loathe political correctness, as do I, but sometimes there's a line that gets crossed that has nothing to do with political correctness. My wife is from Asia and my two kids, consequently, have Asian features. I sure wouldn't like it if my daughter brought home her class picture with all the white kids making "slanty eyes" because she had hosted a sushi party for them.

Oh, and by the way, sometimes I can't see when I laugh, too. And I'm about as Wonder as they come.

Haha, I get your point. I'm in no way condoning making fun of people because of their race. I just think it is also ridiculous to pretend we all look the same.

[TDmvp]

Profound.


:Broncos:



being adopted i have a very different view of things then some people ...
I think people worry/dig in their past far to much ... I have no idea any info about my race besides the fact that i'm white ... and who cares all races have skeletons ..

Being proud of your race is stupid , you didn't pick it ... or do anything to achieve it ... thats like being proud of your hair color , or the fact your tall ... or that you won a raffle ....

TIME HAS COME FOR US TO GET OVER OURSELVES ...
be proud of a achievement you worked for , of a loved ones success , not something that just randomly happened cause that is just stupid ... and pointless

[Jens1893]

being adopted i have a very different view of things then some people ...
I think people worry/dig in their past far to much ... I have no idea any info about my race besides the fact that i'm white ... and who cares all races have skeletons ..

Being proud of your race is stupid , you didn't pick it ... or do anything to achieve it ... thats like being proud of your hair color , or the fact your tall ... or that you won a raffle ....

TIME HAS COME FOR US TO GET OVER OURSELVES ...
be proud of a achievement you worked for , of a loved ones success , not something that just randomly happened cause that is just stupid ... and pointless

Good post, same goes for nationality IMO.

[Rock Chalk]

Katakana and Hiragana are excessive by design. They are 60+ characters including consonants and vowels put together for both. English has 26 and Korean 29. Not to mention they change the letter depending on the word's origin. Factor in that Kanji is more regularly a part of their regular language and you get a severe slow down in communication exchange.

Chinese is even worse because it's exclusively character-driven and they have no phonetic equivalent. To make matters worse, Chinese is tonal, where auditory inflection can be the difference between four or more words. This puts the language at a significant disadvantage to other written languages.


False, They have what's called Han-ja, which are Chinese characters, a roughly close equivalent to Kanji. And as I said they have an alphabet where the vowels and the consonants are separated. The Chinese characters that they do use can all be written with their standard alphabet and they are being phased out.

Basically Korean can all fit on one keyboard as easily as English. Japanese is crammed in and the typing speed and logic of the language as it's written is slow and contains multiple redundancies that aren't ergonomic. Chinese is the worst.

No, they are not excessive. How much research did you do on this? Katakana and Hiragana are two kana sets but there are technically only about 13 characters.

You do realize that most japanese use a Qwerty keyboard that have kana on some of the characters for quick access right?

Have you ever typed in Japanese or Chinese? Have you ever studied either language otehr than the quick google search you just did to find out about the characters? Probably not. I have. And I can tell you that while it is different, most of them use qwerty keyboards to accomplish their characters and IMEs that convert the roman text to the symbols of their language.

Also, you are wrong. English has 26 characters + puncutation. Single quotes, double quotes, periods, questions, exclamations, percent signs, dollar signs, pound signs, asterisks, paranthesis, braces, curly braces, colons, semi-colons, dashes/hyphens, + teh shift key to signify capital letters + all the rules required to properly format the written word.

No writing system is superior. Chinese seems difficult to Americans because they dont understand. Japanese too. But what YOU dont understand is that all of their symbols are combinations of other more basic symbols. Memorization is the tough part but no more difficult than memorizing the various words in English since almost nothing is spelled phoentically.

Whats the difference?

[shakenbake]

No, they are not excessive. How much research did you do on this? Katakana and Hiragana are two kana sets but there are technically only about 13 characters.

You do realize that most japanese use a Qwerty keyboard that have kana on some of the characters for quick access right?

Have you ever typed in Japanese or Chinese? Have you ever studied either language otehr than the quick google search you just did to find out about the characters? Probably not. I have. And I can tell you that while it is different, most of them use qwerty keyboards to accomplish their characters and IMEs that convert the roman text to the symbols of their language.

Also, you are wrong. English has 26 characters + puncutation. Single quotes, double quotes, periods, questions, exclamations, percent signs, dollar signs, pound signs, asterisks, paranthesis, braces, curly braces, colons, semi-colons, dashes/hyphens, + teh shift key to signify capital letters + all the rules required to properly format the written word.

No writing system is superior. Chinese seems difficult to Americans because they dont understand. Japanese too. But what YOU dont understand is that all of their symbols are combinations of other more basic symbols. Memorization is the tough part but no more difficult than memorizing the various words in English since almost nothing is spelled phoentically.

Whats the difference?

I along with most of China uses a QWERTY keyboard to type. Like I said sometimes I think it is easier and I can do it pretty quick.

[Inkana7]

I'm 6.5% Native American. So, I guess I hate you ****ers.

:)

[gyldenlove]

No, they are not excessive. How much research did you do on this? Katakana and Hiragana are two kana sets but there are technically only about 13 characters.

You do realize that most japanese use a Qwerty keyboard that have kana on some of the characters for quick access right?

Have you ever typed in Japanese or Chinese? Have you ever studied either language otehr than the quick google search you just did to find out about the characters? Probably not. I have. And I can tell you that while it is different, most of them use qwerty keyboards to accomplish their characters and IMEs that convert the roman text to the symbols of their language.

Also, you are wrong. English has 26 characters + puncutation. Single quotes, double quotes, periods, questions, exclamations, percent signs, dollar signs, pound signs, asterisks, paranthesis, braces, curly braces, colons, semi-colons, dashes/hyphens, + teh shift key to signify capital letters + all the rules required to properly format the written word.

No writing system is superior. Chinese seems difficult to Americans because they dont understand. Japanese too. But what YOU dont understand is that all of their symbols are combinations of other more basic symbols. Memorization is the tough part but no more difficult than memorizing the various words in English since almost nothing is spelled phoentically.

Whats the difference?

Written Norwegian is superior to most other languages in that the spelling is 100% based on phonetics. This makes it very intuitive and easy to learn.

Several of the non-letter characters you mention exist outside of language and predates English language by centuries or even millenia.

The English language consists of 26 letters that exist in upper and lower case, the apostrophe is needed to indicate if an object belongs to a subject and the normal punctuation characters ,.;:? are needed as well.

[JJJ]

Katakana and Hiragana are excessive by design. They are 60+ characters including consonants and vowels put together for both. English has 26 and Korean 29. Not to mention they change the letter depending on the word's origin. Factor in that Kanji is more regularly a part of their regular language and you get a severe slow down in communication exchange.

Chinese is even worse because it's exclusively character-driven and they have no phonetic equivalent. To make matters worse, Chinese is tonal, where auditory inflection can be the difference between four or more words. This puts the language at a significant disadvantage to other written languages.


False, They have what's called Han-ja, which are Chinese characters, a roughly close equivalent to Kanji. And as I said they have an alphabet where the vowels and the consonants are separated. The Chinese characters that they do use can all be written with their standard alphabet and they are being phased out.

Basically Korean can all fit on one keyboard as easily as English. Japanese is crammed in and the typing speed and logic of the language as it's written is slow and contains multiple redundancies that aren't ergonomic. Chinese is the worst.

Correct. But since Katakana (used for foreign words) and Hiragana (used for verbs mostly) represent two or three letters it is almost as efficient as our 26 letter setup by themselves. However, in a standard Japanese sentence you need Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana characters so they have to use a lot shift functions. I used to play a game when I worked in Japan and China. Get a paragraph, have it translated, and then see who could type it faster in their computer. English can definitely be typed faster, Japanese second, Chinese third.

[DomCasual]

I have an honest question.

I can't give you examples, but I recall reading/hearing at least a few jokes recently about the teeth of people in the UK. Everybody laughed. Nobody seemed offended. This was on television or in print, mind you - it had some exposure, in other words.

Am I missing the difference between that and pointing out a unique feature about the Chinese?

[CHANGSTER]

I have an honest question.

I can't give you examples, but I recall reading/hearing at least a few jokes recently about the teeth of people in the UK. Everybody laughed. Nobody seemed offended. This was on television or in print, mind you - it had some exposure, in other words.

Am I missing the difference between that and pointing out a unique feature about the Chinese?

You cant brush your eyes wider.

[sixtimeseight]

You can't brush your teeth straighter either.

[Garcia Bronco]

I'm 6.5% Native American. So, I guess I hate you ****ers.

:)

I am an 8th NA. Bring on the reperations.

[CHANGSTER]

You can't brush your teeth straighter either.

Yeah, Yeah you got the point.

[Kaylore]

I would call that more nationalistic tensions than racial tensions.
Well, why would your Amernian friend say that? Turkey commited the first genocide in the 20th century ... by masskilling Armenians.
Same thing why the Chinese hate the Japanese. Add to that Japan has been far less reluctant to admit its war crimes and pay reparations..compared to Germany e.g. . Then again Germany is a lot more popular in the countries it didn't occupy ;) Odd thing here, from my experience Russians are mostly really friendly towards Germans. If one nation suffered the most from NAZI Germany, it was Russia.
And of course they are less likely to go at each others throats in the USA compared to their home countries. There they are far removed from the place where the atrocities happenend. They don't have to live next to each other, old rivalries don't get heated up again and again. The left that more or less behind and started a new life.
Le Pen was more anti-immigrant than anti-semite btw, or at least the former got him most of the votes.

I'm not arguing there aren't definite reasons for all this tension. I'm saying that it exists. There's no question you can clearly see why each nation and/or culture feels the way they do. However just because it's origin is identifiable, that doesn't excuse the attitude.

Le Pen is a symptom of a what's becoming a bigger problem and that's the mass influx of Muslim's into Europe. I saw a statistic that said 29% of Austria is now Muslim. Anytime you have a jump in immigration from one type of ethnic group you're going to get racial tension. You're already seeing it in places like France and the UK. Things are getting pretty crazy in Europe because of this.

[crawdad]

Why is this political thread on the OM Central discussion board. It ain't football and it ain't about the overhyped Olympics?

[Kaylore]

No, they are not excessive. How much research did you do on this? Katakana and Hiragana are two kana sets but there are technically only about 13 characters.

You do realize that most japanese use a Qwerty keyboard that have kana on some of the characters for quick access right?

[QUOTE]Have you ever typed in Japanese or Chinese? Have you ever studied either language otehr than the quick google search you just did to find out about the characters? Probably not.
Actually I took a year of Japanese in High School, and I'm fluent in Korean and can read and write it at a fifth grade level.

Also, you are wrong. English has 26 characters + puncutation. Single quotes, double quotes, periods, questions, exclamations, percent signs, dollar signs, pound signs, asterisks, paranthesis, braces, curly braces, colons, semi-colons, dashes/hyphens, + teh shift key to signify capital letters + all the rules required to properly format the written word.

Which amount to like less than 1% of the standard sentence usually.

No writing system is superior. Chinese seems difficult to Americans because they dont understand. Japanese too. But what YOU dont understand is that all of their symbols are combinations of other more basic symbols. Memorization is the tough part but no more difficult than memorizing the various words in English since almost nothing is spelled phoentically.
This is actually not true. They have tracked language use and it's degree of difficulty in the abstract. They can also trace the efficiency of languages and see which ones are more streamlined than the others. It's pretty much agreed that any language that uses pictographs is using archaic language and an alphabet with words broken in consonants and vowels is superior.

Whats the difference?
Huge differences. You have to memorize every word, true. In spoken form there is no difference. However if you can't draw the correct picture your idea cannot be conveyed. You basically have to hope you think the same way as some 3,000 year old men did when designing the language. In English, once you know the alphabet you can flub your way through. Even with spelling errors you can convey the gist of your meaning. As long as they rely on their style of the Chinese characters it will be something that holds their ability to communicate back.

[gyldenlove]

According to a researcher at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.
It really does work. The preceding paragraph, in jumbled letter format is:
Acocdrnig to a reschearer at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.


Most people with decent grasp of English can read both above paragraphs, in most symbol based languages that would not be possible as mistakes can severely alter the meaning of a symbol, whereas with roman letters most mistakes are harmless as they do no not significantly alter the word.

[LordHelmchen]

I'm not arguing there aren't definite reasons for all this tension. I'm saying that it exists. There's no question you can clearly see why each nation and/or culture feels the way they do. However just because it's origin is identifiable, that doesn't excuse the attitude.

Le Pen is a symptom of a what's becoming a bigger problem and that's the mass influx of Muslim's into Europe. I saw a statistic that said 29% of Austria is now Muslim. Anytime you have a jump in immigration from one type of ethnic group you're going to get racial tension. You're already seeing it in places like France and the UK. Things are getting pretty crazy in Europe because of this.

Where did you get this from? I assume it was from one of those fearmongering article that spell the doom of Europe because of Islamisation?
As of 2001 (last official census) 4.3 % were Muslims , 2006 it was estimated to be 4.9%, almost all of them being very moderate Turks and Bosnians and Austrians.
While it is certainly a jump, and given the tendency that on average those immigrants reproduce more than natives, this will for sure be higher in the future, it is a far, far cry from 29%.

[broncocalijohn]

back to the topic of the spanish photo, here is a follow up of the story.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/basketball/news?slug=ro-spain081308&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Los Broncos]

I like how Paul Gasol said it wasn't any big deal, I bet the Lakers don't like that.

[ElwayMD]

Look for the Spanish team members who play in the NBA to get a big old fine for the picture.