Do you love your country ?

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Hoogstwaarschijnlijk
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2014-10-03, 17:48

Aurinĭa wrote:
Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:I don't even want to live in Belgium because it would probably ruin my romantic idea of it.
Very good idea. :P Just come to visit sometimes. ;)

I'll surely do that. And in the mean time I watch 'The voice kids Belgium' to get a better idea of the different dialects :wink: I'm now sometimes able to notice when it's West-Vlaams and Limburgs, and I'm practising on recognising Antwerps :P
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Prowler » 2014-10-03, 19:36

Love? Not really. It has a lot of flaws and it's kinda boring.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Levike » 2014-10-03, 19:59

Long Live Transylvania! The rest can go Dutch and drown.

This is how I feel about Romania. :ohwell:

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Prowler
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Prowler » 2014-10-03, 20:13

Levike wrote:Long Live Transylvania! The rest can go Dutch and drown.

This is how I feel about Romania. :ohwell:

Wait, what. You now live in Poland?

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Levike » 2014-10-03, 20:31

Prowler wrote:Wait, what. You now live in Poland?
Yes, as an Erasmus student at this university for 5 months.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Prowler » 2014-10-04, 13:34

vijayjohn wrote:I don't think I've ever known how to answer this question. There are an awful lot of things about this country that I don't like. I mean, for one thing, it's one of the largest countries in the world, yet the majority of the population seems boringly homogeneous (and eager to keep it that way :roll:). But there are some things I do like. Like immigrants. Lots and lots of immigrants. Which means more opportunities to practice languages IRL. :twisted: :lol:

USA, homogeneous? Are you from a rural area? Your location says Austin, Texas. I know it's not the biggest city in the state but surely it has a decent amount of diversity, right?

Or are you saying that the melting pot of the USA makes everyone act similar regardless of their ancestry?

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby linguoboy » 2014-10-04, 13:51

Prowler wrote:USA, homogeneous? Are you from a rural area? Your location says Austin, Texas. I know it's not the biggest city in the state but surely it has a decent amount of diversity, right?

According to the 2010 census, 31% of the population of Austin speaks a language other than English in the home. Granted, 80% of those are Spanish-speakers, but that still leaves at least a thousand speakers each of German, French, Korean, Hindu, Arabic, Urdu, and Japanese and more than 5,000 each of Chinese and Vietnamese. Another 18 languages have at least 250 speakers each.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-10-04, 14:13

Prowler wrote:USA, homogeneous? Are you from a rural area? Your location says Austin, Texas. I know it's not the biggest city in the state but surely it has a decent amount of diversity, right?

Or are you saying that the melting pot of the USA makes everyone act similar regardless of their ancestry?

I didn't say the population as a whole was homogeneous; I said the majority of the population was. Sure, the country is very diverse as a whole - there are looooots of languages spoken here - but the majority is still white and English-speaking.

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mik59
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby mik59 » 2014-10-05, 15:38

No I don't love it. I love neither its political aspect nor the people who live here.
I'm peregrinus in patria, I am ashamed to be labeled as "croatian"...Though, for now I can't be anything else since I haven't yet embraced some another culture or learned their language.

There is even nothing to love here. This is a shell of a country which was destroyed first in the war since 90s and then afterwards economically by incompetent and lackey leadership.
The only thing that is nice and lovable is the nature, but that is not the point since nature is always the same, regardless of politics or the people^^
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vijayjohn
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-10-05, 16:00

That's too bad. Of course I don't mean to discount your view, but I've been to Croatia before (even if it was only for a weekend), and everyone there was awfully nice to me.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby md0 » 2014-10-05, 16:49

I think that for me it's impossible to even identify with something as big and vague as a "country".
All I can tell is that after spending a lot of my weekends in Nicosia for the last 5 years, I'm beginning to feel more at home in that city, than my town.
And still, that's the old town of Nicosia I'm thinking of, not the metropolitan area.

Dunno if that's love, that doesn't seem to be something applicable to things, let alone tenuous notions like "country" or "municipality". So I just think it's because of certain places, certain people and certain experiences lived at that old town that make me associate positive emotions to it.

On the other hand, I cannot in good faith say that Cyprus is boring. For a small island, we sure have a lot going on. Mostly negative but still better than Malta :lol:
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mik59
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby mik59 » 2014-10-05, 17:39

vijayjohn wrote:That's too bad. Of course I don't mean to discount your view, but I've been to Croatia before (even if it was only for a weekend), and everyone there was awfully nice to me.


Yeah, well first, it's not the same if you were in Dalmacija, Slavonija or central Croatia...people are a lot different in various regions. But that doesn't actually matter, they will always be nice and polite to a tourist because, after all, tourists bring money:) (That's the main source of income for the entire country actually...)
And besides, you cannot learn much about people in a weekend^^. But I understand you, visitors always say how hospitable and nice they are to them which is I suppose true.

I am utterly sure that it's a nice place to visit...but it is certainly not nice to live in:)
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby deboertravel » 2014-11-06, 16:48

The Netherlands is a good country to live in and it has a rich history. I don't like the weather and the many rules and laws in our country. Overall it's a good place to live, with a good social and healthcare system.

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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby linguoboy » 2014-11-06, 17:45

deboertravel wrote:The Netherlands is a good country to live in and it has a rich history. I don't like the weather and the many rules and laws in our country. Overall it's a good place to live, with a good social and healthcare system.

This sounds like someone describing their spouse of long standing. Just substitute "moods" for "weather", etc.
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johnklepac
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby johnklepac » 2014-11-25, 4:51

Yes. In fact, I channel the very definition of love: I stick by it despite it occasionally disappointing me.

lazyaficionado
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby lazyaficionado » 2014-11-25, 9:15

I think I love my country on some meta level, like an abstract notion thereof, her culture and her history. However I dislike many her aspects, for example, her government and their internal and foreign policies for the last 104 years.

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Iparxi_Zoi
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Iparxi_Zoi » 2014-11-26, 9:45

I love my country!! It may have its flaws but it's home to me.

Yesterday I went to Mexico (I live on the US-Mexico border, so it can be an everyday thing) and you can see the stark contrast between both countries. Even though I'm Mexican by heritage, the way of life over there is different. After a few hours over there I was happy to be back on American soil. :)
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Lietmotiv » 2015-01-13, 12:35

I love Moldova, but I have nothing to be proud of.
I love the people, of course (among them I feel comfortable), traditions, and all those memories.
I do criticize my country a lot, but I really hate it when foreigners criticize it. I feel that I have the right to, but they don't.

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TeneReef
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby TeneReef » 2015-01-13, 22:11

The only part of Croatia I like is the peninsula of Istria and neighboring islands of Cres and Lošinj.
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Re: Do you love your country ?

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2015-01-14, 20:24

Depends. No, I despise the European Union, the current occupant. But yes, I absolutely love Poland, the nation and culture. Wish she would rise up from the ashes and be proud again.


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