Your Country

[makelw]

Ok this maybe stupid thread but I'm interested to know what do you have in your culture or customs/habits... or then the best things like I'm writing.

We have sauna and that alcoholism ;)

Icehockey is one part of our hearts, floorball is one too, if someone knows that (Swedish= innebandy, Finnish= salibandy), soccer is too,not so much though, you can see, for example rankings (46 :( btw we have won Portugal 4-1, 2002, and Greece 5-1, 2003, EC finalists...) but still we have some great players out there.

Music is another thing, we have some great bands in the top place of some European countries, like The Rasmus, propably the best nowadays in European lists, HIM is popular in U.S.A, Sonata Arctica, Apocalyptica, Stratovarius, these are all heavier than rock for example, Nordic countries make all the time metal bands and bands which belong to harder group of music.

Let me know if you're listening these bands.

Well I don't know, maybe there aren't all things but I'll add some if some come to my mind.

[Nando]

You had to mention Portugal, didn't you?

[makelw]

Of course, delicious victory ;) and we took bigger victory when we won Greece, I bet you remember the game or why you're asking?? :cool:

Ski jumping is, of course, top sport...

Oh and I'm not listening those bands, I prefer bands from other countries.

[Gungnir]

Well, Sweden is like Finland only better and less saunas ;)

EDIT: better in most sports I mean, sorry

[Dimitrije]

Of course, delicious victory ;) and we took bigger victory when we won Greece, I bet you remember the game or why you're asking?? :cool:

Ski jumping is, of course, top sport...

Oh and I'm not listening those bands, I prefer bands from other countries.
You are first who said that you don't listen those bands.
I don't like them too.

[makelw]

Well, Sweden is like Finland only better and less saunas ;)

EDIT: better in most sports I mean, sorry

Yeah I know, most of them, you don't have to apologize... Or we'll see how well they clarify in Torino ;) however, Norway beat us :D.

Slalom, Anja Pärsson will win women's group but Kalle Palander is strong in men's group.

Icehockey is one what I'm waiting, we were 2nd in WC 2004 with NHL players and now is almost same situation with the players. Miikka Kiprusoff won't play :(. There are some team mates against if Swe and Fin play against, such as Peter Forsberg - Sami Kapanen, Kim Johnsson - Joni Pitkänen.

Ski jumping is sure thing with Janne Ahonen, I don't know Swedish jumpers at all...

Combination with ski jumping and skiing (I don't know what is it in English), Hannu Manninen is one who we expect to win gold.

I hope there will be some surprises.

You have in Sweden bigger tax rate...And you should have a sauna :D :D



You are first who said that you don't listen those bands.
I don't like them too.

But you know the bands?? Sweden has few metal bands which are good.

[statto]

Don't know what the stereotypical USA is, but no we don't take too warmly to soccer yet.

[Gungnir]

Yeah I know, most of them, you don't have to apologize... Or we'll see how well they clarify in Torino ;) however, Norway beat us :D.

But you know the bands?? Sweden has few metal bands which are good.

I apologized because the way I wrote it first it was like I said that Sweden are better then Finland in everything which I cant judge since I never been in Finland.
Aren't Norway only good at skiing (spelling :S) so I dont think you can count it if they get ten gold in one sort of competition. I feel it's better to have ten golds in diffrent competition like slalom and hockey (I dont think Sweden will get ten golds, but perhaps four or five).

Metalbands, hm. Is Clawfinger a metalband? Or is it harder then metal...

[makelw]

I apologized because the way I wrote it first it was like I said that Sweden are better then Finland in everything which I cant judge since I never been in Finland.
Aren't Norway only good at skiing (spelling :S) so I dont think you can count it if they get ten gold in one sort of competition. I feel it's better to have ten golds in diffrent competition like slalom and hockey (I dont think Sweden will get ten golds, but perhaps four or five).

Metalbands, hm. Is Clawfinger a metalband? Or is it harder then metal...

Oh, me neither, but I have read some books which say that the whole world is jealous to Sweden...wondering what the book was...But anyway Nordic countries are the best..:D

Norway is only good at skiing but there is so many distances like 50km and less, and they are in the top 5 at the end of the Olympics.

Palander's guess was 12 or smthing above 10, and Poutiainen (if you know them) said 10 gold medals..That is something to reach, huh??;)

One good accident about Palander, when he won a competition, I don't remember where, he walked on the first place of the winner's rostrum, and then there played the national anthem of Australia. :D :D

Clawfinger is metal it's called nu-metal which means rap-metal like Papa Roach, Linkin Park, P.O.D, Korn was mentioned by tomer the king it's too 'I think, what bands could I say more, Deftones... ... that kind of music is easy to recognize. ;)

Edit: Clawfinger was the first actual rap metal band

How did I forget that mobile phones is what Finland has, quite big thing though.

[Gungnir]

How did I forget that mobile phones is what Finland has, quite big thing though.

Hehe, Nokia VS. SonyEricsson :P
I like SE more bacause of their simple design and the patriotism to have something half swedish. My first mobile phone was a Nokia but I crashed that one and after that I only used SE :P

[makelw]

Yeah we have a town which name is Nokia, so mobile phones have nothing to do with Japan, it maybe seems Japanese name and some people think something that way. Population is something around 30 000, Nokia has tires too and of course rubber boots..:D and electronic stuff. Hmm..Are you trying to say to the people that Nokia mobiles are breakables?? :D. I haven't even tried SE or Siemens or anything else.
I find SE very good or what I've seen in rankings different types, it has the best camerashots I think...or was it Samsung?? But there we have another to compare haven't we.. ;)

[Mad2Ad]

well i dont know what people think of britain but it seems to us that every1 seems to hate us. at least most of europe. porbs even biggest allys america hate us to most likely. as far as culture gos wel britain suppose to have loads. but people now in britain only care about getting drunk apparently we have the highest percentage of alcholics in europe and soon the world! to be fair i cant think of any one i know who didn't drink alcohol before they were 16 and the limits 18.

[manyoolova]

Well, I'm of Irish/Northern Irish descent and in both countries religion is bigged up a lot and there are lots of terrorists and corrupt politicians e.g. Gerry Adams.

Oh yeah and in one Irish village, Catholics are so extreme that the men of the village are not allowed to watch women on television.

[Gungnir]

Hmm..Are you trying to say to the people that Nokia mobiles are breakables?? ;)

Well, the phone broke when I landed on it after a small crash with my bicycle.
I think that SE k750i has one of the better cameras in a phone. But I dont care about how good the camera is since I think that it is kinda useless function in a phone.

Somehow I have a hard time beliving that UK has highest percentage alcoholics. I always thought that position was Russias with all the Vodka ;)
In Sweden most youth has been drunk atleast once before 16 (I know I was), then there are diffrent from person to person. Some people parties every week some a couple of times in a year. I even had two or three friends taken by cops when being to drunk on a public place and they had to spend the night in "jail". One of those was before he was 18 and the others was over 18.

[makelw]

Well, the phone broke when I landed on it after a small crash with my bicycle.
I think that SE k750i has one of the better cameras in a phone. But I dont care about how good the camera is since I think that it is kinda useless function in a phone.

Somehow I have a hard time beliving that UK has highest percentage alcoholics. I always thought that position was Russias with all the Vodka ;)
In Sweden most youth has been drunk atleast once before 16 (I know I was), then there are diffrent from person to person. Some people parties every week some a couple of times in a year. I even had two or three friends taken by cops when being to drunk on a public place and they had to spend the night in "jail". One of those was before he was 18 and the others was over 18.

You're right that's not so important thing. In Finland we drink liquor a lot like I was saying in my location :) and we have many different genders and names like Finlandish(Finlandia in Finnish) vodka, "Saunalahti" how could I translate it..saunabay :) and Koskenkorva and that's a village too. There are many though the population of Finland isn't so big. I know some 13 yrs kids who had enjoyed alcohol, so was I but I'm older :). Liver is such an important thing though :D. We don't drink alcohol as much as coffee, we are on the top place in the list of countries.

Edit: that camerathing isn't important and Russia well we have been under their rules almost 100 years and God I'm glad we aren't anymore, we have western culture, though we were a part of Sweden over 600 years and that culture was pretty hard to take off. Oh and we won you in quarter finals of u20 in Vancouver. :cool: :)

[Dimitrije]

But you know the bands?? Sweden has few metal bands which are good.
Yes,I know the bands,but I don't like that 'music'.
P.S. Jay-Jay,what happened (I guess I said it right) whit smileys?

[Dimitrije]

Hehe, Nokia VS. SonyEricsson :P
I like SE more bacause of their simple design and the patriotism to have something half swedish. My first mobile phone was a Nokia but I crashed that one and after that I only used SE :P
I agree.First I used Nokia phones,too (I had 3 Nokia phones),but now I'm using just Sony Ericsson.SE phones have better sound...I like the design... :)

[Dimitrije]

I find SE very good or what I've seen in rankings different types, it has the best camerashots I think...or was it Samsung?? But there we have another to compare haven't we.. ;)
Well I think SAMSUNG have the best camerashots,but simply,I like SE!:)
But quality isn't so important,as Gungnir said.;)

[Dimitrije]

Drinking,well,here (I think),everyone tasted alcohol before 15,but we don't have alcoholic problems with people that are younger that 18.
P.S. Sorry for a lot posting.:o ;)

[makelw]

I agree.First I used Nokia phones,too (I had 3 Nokia phones),but now I'm using just Sony Ericsson.SE phones have better sound...I like the design... :)

Did those phones break down too? I think my Nokia 6670 is designed with sort of style and it has almost everything, though all I need is that I can call or send messages. Of course I have many friends who have Nokia but I have seen that some of them like Siemens. So I think Siemens in my school is at the second place.
About that drinking our village or what it's the word is small, 3000 inhabitants and when we have disco there are some people, who is at same age as I am or older or even younger, they are totally go out and they're sleeping deep in beck.

[Dimitrije]

Here,in my town,we don't like siemens

[makelw]

Our previous president Martti Ahtisaari was there in in Serbia, right? He went to Kosovo, isn't Novi Sad the capital of Kosovo???

[Dimitrije]

Our previous president Martti Ahtisaari was there in in Serbia, right? He went to Kosovo, isn't Novi Sad the capital of Kosovo???
Yes,he was,but Novi Sad isn't capital of Kosovo.Novi Sad is not on south,Novi Sad is on north and it's capital of Vojvodina (my favourite club have that name:))

[makelw]

Yes,he was,but Novi Sad isn't capital of Kosovo.Novi Sad is not on south,Novi Sad is on north and it's capital of Vojvodina (my favourite club have that name:))

Oh yes sorry :o it is Priština, I guess. Our striker Shefki Kuqi is from Kosovo and he is pretty good and strong, we have a nickname for him and it's "the bovine of Kosovo".

Edit: I looked wikipedia's english sites searching Finland and I got few interesting things from those sites:
Culture:
Perkele - swear word
Coffee - Finns drink a lot of it
Koskenkorva - vodka, a lot of that, too
Makkara and Turun sinappi - sausage and mustard

Those made me laugh when I watched the sites.

[Ace]

Yeah I know, most of them, you don't have to apologize... Or we'll see how well they clarify in Torino ;) however, Norway beat us :D.

Owned...! ;) Good to see some nordic people here... :)

[makelw]

Owned...! ;) Good to see some nordic people here... :)

Indeed. How many gold medals do you believe Norway could get? Norway has good metal bands too. But I think it's heavier than what I listen.

[Dimitrije]

Oh yes sorry :o it is Priština, I guess. Our striker Shefki Kuqi is from Kosovo and he is pretty good and strong, we have a nickname for him and it's "the bovine of Kosovo".
Yes,Pristina is capital of Kosovo.Well,I'm not sure that he is serbian (because of his name).I think he is from Kosovo,but he is albanian (because there are to many albanians on Kosovo).

[makelw]

Oh sorry again you must be right. What about Perparim Hetemaj. He is young player with a lot of talent. What that name seems to be?

[Dimitrije]

Albania again ;)

[makelw]

Okey I'll end this guessing:D. Hmm.. one thing which is funny. In Finland were two Italian men and they did a tv program called Fabio & Fabrizio (their names) and they were in different places and tried a sauna and one what I haven't seen yet is that they participated in swamp soccer tournament. Do you ever heard of swamp soccer??

[Ace]

Haven't Finland got many wierd games/contests? Like mobile-phone throwing and stuff like that? :p

[Dimitrije]

Yea,and then children who watch the contests,take the unbroked mobile phone.:p

[Dimitrije]

Okey I'll end this guessing:D. Hmm.. one thing which is funny. In Finland were two Italian men and they did a tv program called Fabio & Fabrizio (their names) and they were in different places and tried a sauna and one what I haven't seen yet is that they participated in swamp soccer tournament. Do you ever heard of swamp soccer??
I heard of swamp soccer.:D

[makelw]

Haven't Finland got many wierd games/contests? Like mobile-phone throwing and stuff like that? :p

Yes we have and rubber boots throwin as well. Record is pretty hard to break in both competitions :D but I won't even try ;). And wife-carrying world championship. There was a Canadian couple last summer and from other countries. And one visitor was there, Dennis Rodman, NBA player, doesn't play anymore.

Edit: Of course I'm very keen to know if someone knows wife carrying competition, because I find it the strangest competition ever, almost. :D

[Dimitrije]

First time I heard forwife carrying competition.:P
Can you explane how this competition work?:)

[JJU]

I've seen the wife carrying competition on TV in the UK. It was on 'Tarrant on TV', which showcases the weird and wonderful events broadcast from around the world. Was rather amusing actually, isn't the prize the wife's weight in beer? :eek:

[makelw]

I've seen the wife carrying competition on TV in the UK. It was on 'Tarrant on TV', which showcases the weird and wonderful events broadcast from around the world. Was rather amusing actually, isn't the prize the wife's weight in beer? :eek:


First time I heard forwife carrying competition.:P
Can you explane how this competition work?:)


Yes that's true that the prize is the wife's weight in beer and last year they received mobile phones. Actually I went to wikipedia if there was something and found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_Carrying . That might be the next flash of Simon's ingeniousness? :p :D :D

[Dimitrije]

Ooo,I know for that competition.When I saw the wikipedia's pages,then I realised what the game is all about.:D

[makelw]

Heh that's good to know because I thought it's unknown.

Jump to another one: the new record of finland is -37,7 degrees of celsius. It was measured couple of days ago. That's not even cold :D.

[Ace]

The norwegian record is on -51.4 c. In Karasjok 1.1.1886. ;)

[makelw]

The norwegian record is on -51.4 c. In Karasjok 1.1.1886. ;)

We got all the icy winds from Russia now and it should continue to the next week. There were died 20 people in Moscow by frost. Now the record is -42,6 in Finland in Kittilä. The world record is -88,3 :blimey: c in Antarctica. That's something to reach ;)

[Nikola88]

I live in Serbia and Montenegro (long name...isn`t it),it is wonderful country,with great parties,traditions,country of world champions in couple of sports(basketball,volleyball,and another few,for which I don`t know the names in English),country with the most beautiful women in the world(I`m not joking,Cavalli said that ,too),great food,great people,beautiful cities,a great place for visiting and fun...is this enough????

[makelw]

Well this isn't a propaganda thread, or is it? :D :D. We have beautiful cities too for example Turku "The Christmas city" or Rauma and a part of it is called "Old Rauma" which is a Unesco world heritage site. Turku has founded in the 13th century and Rauma in the year of 1442. Our food is very healthful, though Silvio Berlusconi insulted our food about year ago. I didn't know what is the reason of blaming..?

This is 5th page and I think you're the first who says something else than alcoholism.. :D. This suddenly turned to an opinion thread.

[GM Duncan Idaho]

Turkish dude here :)
Unlike the most thoughts, Turkey is a modern country. It's not much different from any european countries. Most of the turkish people believe in Islam, but it's very different from the other middle-eastern countries. We are a democratic republic, and the politics are based on secularism.
The Turkish Republic was founded after the collapsing of the Ottoman Empire. We have a national leader who we believed in a lot, called Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. I personally think that he is the greatest leader ever born. If you like to know about what he's done, or interested in history, you may check out http://www.ataturk.com/ or http://www.turkishnews.com/Ataturk/
Football is a very popular sport in Turkey. There are 4 teams mostly on top of the division, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe,Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor. Galatasaray is more known in the world because they are mostly successfull in europe and finally have won the UEFA Cup and then the Super Cup some years ago :)
Also here are more information about Turkey if you like: http://www.about-turkey.com/
I'll answer if u have questions :)

[makelw]

What do you think if Turkey will be European Union country?

[GM Duncan Idaho]

I think that it's good for both sides, otherwise the EU wouldn't start the consultations, nor we would've applied for joining the EU.
What do you think about it? :)

[makelw]

Hmm.. Under the certain rules which are common in the EU countries, I have to say Turkey is one country that should use those custom rules so due to that I think it's quite obvious thing be nice. GB is exception, but I don't remember, was it that they have to use custom duty which isn't in other EU countries? I say I'm bad to tell these things :). But tell me do you want euros to use if there is a national referendum.

[GM Duncan Idaho]

GB? what do you mean with that?
about the euros, well I don't really care, but I think it'd be good for the country. I think most people will say no tho

[Mad2Ad]

all though i think the uk shouldn't go into the eu i think that the eu is a good thing however the uk will never join if it comes down to a referenden thingy there aren't enough good things in the eu(for the uk) to get us to join. Its good though for the smaller countires like turkey etc etc

[Mad2Ad]

gb means Great Britian

[Gungnir]

all though i think the uk shouldn't go into the eu i think that the eu is a good thing however the uk will never join if it comes down to a referenden thingy there aren't enough good things in the eu(for the uk) to get us to join. Its good though for the smaller countires like turkey etc etc

Isn't UK already a part of EU, or what do you mean?

I dont really see what the EU has done good for Sweden, we have paid like 200 billion swedish crowns (around 20 billion euros) and got around ten billion back. While other countries get up to 80-90% of what they have paid back in diffrent support (farming and such things). And I think it has proven that swedes have started to drink/buy more alcohol since we joined the EU because of the cheap alcohol in Germany, Finland and Denmark.
I'm glad we didn't get euros in Sweden :dance:

[mackwilson]

I'm living in France (despite knowing only a small bit of French), but I'm originally from the United Kingdom (born in Cardiff, raised in Southampton - not a Southampton supporter though (altough I'd be rather ****ed if I was, I pledge my alleigance to Marseille these days, although it might not be much worse)...

From my point of view, it's hard to see exactly how the European Union has helped big countries, but from Europe's point of view it's done loads of good. Although I wouldn't argue this fact, it should be pointed out that Western Europe has been completely free of war since the creation of the European Union, beyond that, the EU has been used to helped bring many Eastern European countries more quickly to democracy than just about any other form of foreign aid. I know I'm also contradicting what I said earlier, but countries like Spain have benefitted immensley from the common market, whilst countries like Italy have much less of a debt burden due to the Euro. Beyond that, from what I can see the faults of the EU aren't in the EU itself but rather in certain in member countries (like the one I currently live in, and the one that is just a couple of miles down the road, Italy) which instead of opening to a common market would rather keep their own market to their own companies but want their own in a common market, using the EU for selfish purposes.

But about my culture, French or English? I'll probably give a biased view of French culture and not one that a true Frenchman would give, but I feel that having lived here a year and a half I can speak about it. The French have great feelings of pride not just about their country, but about their culture. Being from Britain, I truly had no idea about the extent of French influence in the world before moving here and having to travel to Africa alot. The French are so proud of their culture that they very much dislike things of theirs leaving their culture. French writers, directors, actors/actresses, artists, musicians who are amazingly popular in France aren't even known in Britain and the States because of how much France loves its culture, they feel that translating things into English would un-Frenchify what they have. Often this Frenchism goes so far to the fact that they hate Anglicized things, huge rows have come up in France over whether or not Shakespeare should be translated into French (being an English pig), and you can barely find any English writers translated into French (save for Beckett, but that's because he became French) or French websites that can be translated into English, I dare you to find a French football clubs website (other than maybe PSG) who have an English translation like the other big clubs as Real Madrid, Juventus and what not. However, behind that, they are more scared than anything, they feel that their culture is being taken over by a world culture, which is why they legislate so hard against it (note the 35-hour work week, and the French literature google). The French find themselves much more intellectual than they are, and unlike the rest of Europe are much more passionate about politics than just about any other European country (except for maybe Germany, I couldn't speak from experience), also they are extremely passionate for what they call culture, like the arts and what not, however, of course the most watched shows on television and most bought magazines are the gossipy ones. To me it seems France is at war with itself, between what it wants to be and what it actually is, its a modern nation that is coming into line with the world around it which is far less French than France thinks it should be.

The United Kingdom is a different place than France, completely. The culture is different, even before Margaret Thatcher came along and made us work, we were far less a leisurely culture than France (damn that Protestantism.) I can really only speak about English and Scottish, but they care more about their football than just about anything. My father is mad when the Labour party wins elections, but is far madder about Cardiff City selling Grahm Kavanagh for £350,000. I'm tired of writing, but I may add more later.

[siread]

Great post. I actually learnt something about the French.

[statto]

Alright.

America is ultimately a messed up country. And while I am proud to be American, I often find myself disgusted with a lot of other Americans just because there are so many different types of people here, and a lot of them think stupid things. It's generally because the health system sucks if you are poor, the education system is not set up well if you are poor, and Wal-Mart takes advantage of the poor by offering lower prices, subcontracting to China, and making tons of money by offering their workers little to no health insurance while the corporation rakes in billions.

Now, this sounds very socialist, and I'm not really trying to be, but America is definitely a country where people with money have the power. It's the way the political system is set up - you can't successfully run for office without having a large base of people to draw funds from. It's just sad that a country as successful as America has difficulty providing for the lower- and middle-class families.

[gerard.barrett]

Republic of Ireland: full of drunks and idiots. tax evasion means a luxury jail cell with internet connection.

oh im living in cork. born and bred here, and am currently very angry at the state of the judicial system because it doesn't make any sense anymore. the radio has been announcing that a drunk guy who tried to blow up a british naval vessel with homemade petrol bombs got 3 years in jail when a few weeks ago a guy who strangled a child to death got 4 years with a chance of being out in two.

by this i don't support the bombing of naval vessels just sterner penalties for killers.

[Darkfield]

Hi guys,
I'm from Tehran, Iran also I'm new here and recently addicted to NSS3 :)
Thank you Si now I'm really enjoying your game ;)

[makelw]

Due to silver medal in Torino, curling became very popular in Finland. I don't know how long it will continue. I would like to hear Ace's sentence of Norway, it was very funny ;).. But it might insult some countries probably. Probably not.

[Ace]

The "Oil reserves are empty, war with Iraq, Egypt... blahblah" Sentence? :lol:
Err, can't remember it ... :redface:

[makelw]

"We're in war with Iraq, Egypt and Libya, our oil reserves are empty, half of the country is dead of a disease, but except from that, nothing special..." I think that's what you said :D

[Dimitrije]

What are you talking about here?

[Ace]

Just a conversation we had on MSN lately ... :lol:

[Nikola88]

I`ve already posted here,but now,my country has a different name than it was last time i wrote...Now it is Serbia(Srbija),everything is like it was,although we have new team in soccer,better ,younger,and more beautiful shirts.Our flag is changed ,too.It is red,blue,white.Also,we became European champs in waterpollo(i hope it is written like this)-was a great celebration wit a lot of alcohol :) Did I mention that teenagers in Serbia are first in Europe by drinking alcohol.I know maybe 5 people who doesn`t drink alcohol and I know a lot of people.My country is also famous for wars we survived,and by Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic who are wanted by Hague.And you,Finland guy,we are in the same group in soccer in qualifications for European Chamionship...We`ll see who is better...Serbs are also very smart people,what other people knows to write and read cyrrilic and this kind of writing?Maybe just a Russian people.So,greetings for the most beautiful country in the world!!! ;)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Do you have coasts at Serbia??? if not then it may not be the most complete place ;)

[makelw]

That was a great post by Nikola88. Especially the "Finland guy" ;). Yea I want to see that match in Helsinki. I will be there. I hope that I meet some mates of your country.

[Nikola88]

[QUOTE=Fabrizio Gatti]Do you have coasts at Serbia??? if not then it may not be the most complete place ;)[/QUOTEWe had before when we were Serbia and Montenegro,but now we don`t...I forgot to mention that we have the best women in the world!!!They are so good looking,beautiful that you will probably want to stay and live here!I`m not kidding,especially in my city-Novi Sad,which is probably the most beautiful city in Serbia!If someone of you will come one day,say and I will show you everything in here!!!

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Well, Uruguayan girls aren't bad, and we got a coast all along my city, the capital Montevideo

[Nikola88]

Well, Uruguayan girls aren't bad, and we got a coast all along my city, the capital Montevideo
I know that,girls from South America are vey beautiful,but here,when you go out in the evening,you can`t make it to see all of them because there are so many of them :) Many of them are almost naked ;)

[makelw]

I know that,girls from South America are vey beautiful,but here,when you go out in the evening,you can`t make it to see all of them because there are so many of them :) Many of them are almost naked ;)

What a great passion to your own country. The people from Serbia is propably the most devoting people. The Finnish people is quite modest.. which leads to the next question :D, what kind of people does your country contain?

[Nikola88]

What a great passion to your own country. The people from Serbia is propably the most devoting people. The Finnish people is quite modest.. which leads to the next question :D, what kind of people does your country contain?
Well you should come and see,I`m sure you`ll like it,people here are very friendly...You can start talking with someone you see the first time in your life and he will speak to you as he knows you for ages :)

[Dimitrije]

That's true :D :)

[Soha]

some words about Polish... many countries are scared when they hear about Polish. Poland is country which no one will never understand. we have many kinds of people so you can fiund here everything :) Poland is very rich in each way of culture and history. something about Polish people... hmm... we always know eveything the best and we will never forget you your mistakes (most people in Poland hate Germans/Germany after second World War...). i saw that you were talking about girls :D in my opinion the most beautiful girls are in Poland and i will never change my mind!

[Fabrizio Gatti]

In my opinion, best girls are from Brazil, luckily I'm close to those

[Nikola88]

Yeah,yeah,have you ever been to Serbia???Roberto Cavalli wouldn`t lie,and he said that best girls are from Serbia.We also have that problem as you in Poland.Many people are scared when they hear that we are in the south-eastern Europe...They have really negative opinion of this part

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Many people are scared when they hear that we are in the south-eastern Europe...They have really negative opinion of this part

Really??? here we have a nice opinion of you :D

[makelw]

And for us Uruguay is way too far :D. But it's kind of an exotic place to travel to.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Is it??? wow, that leaves me happy, as we are now promoting oursekves as a really touristic country. Has anybody in this forum (excluding Argentinians an Brazilians XD) been to Uruguay??

[Nikola88]

[QUOTE=Has anybody in this forum (excluding Argentinians an Brazilians XD) been to Uruguay??[/QUOTE]
I have never been to Uruguay but I would like to come!maybe when the time when I can travel ,only with the passport come...And you have a good opinion of our country...that`s great,many of them in the world doesn`t actually know where our country is,especially those from North America...

[makelw]

Of course there's will to travel to Uruguay with every Finn, but I think that Greece is on the first spot so the Finns travel often around Mediterranean Sea more than La Plata. I would like to go to Uruguay of course, Montevideo and Buenos Aires (ARG) is in my list pretty high :D.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

:D Well then, if you decide travelling for south, let me know, so that I can go and receive you at the airport ;)

[Dimitrije]

I would like to come to Uruguay too,but I don't think it will be in near future.:rolleyes:

[AlboBlood]

And dont nobody mix latins with European girls,latins are the sexiest girls in the world,especially Puerto Rico girls,yum!
As for my country i would say nothing right now,except that it was pushed 500 years by Otoman Empire and since 1912 it became nothing but a medium country in Balcany.
And...for girls,just imagine what they could be,when Gerd Muller fell in love with an Hotel worker,when playing the qualif. game in Tirana,but that love was never achieved again,cause
of little problems with germany and albania in fact.


Some text here was really offensive, I recommend that you read the rules again Alboblood, if you are to stay at the forum. And next time, please write all-english, as I had one day of delay to know what you were writing, we will not allow this kind of posts in the future...

[Fabrizio Gatti]

And javna kuća would be..???

[Dimitrije]

Hehe,AlboBlood where are you living?

[makelw]

I guess he's from Albania, using my knowledge of European capitals :D, I know every capital town of European countries and some other around the world, for example Montevideo-Uruguay.

Editing---He speaks about albanian too :D. that TURNIPS, well never heard..

[Nikola88]

I guess he's from Albania, using my knowledge of European capitals :D, I know every capital town of European countries and some other around the world, for example Montevideo-Uruguay.

Editing---He speaks about albanian too :D. that TURNIPS, well never heard..
That -TURNIPS- is in serbian,it is a house where the NICE GIRLS are.
And he probably didn`t see any of girls from Novi Sad,Belgrade...so don`t listen to him...

[makelw]

Okay, that's pretty tough text. AlboBlood why you ever wrote that text.. I mean I didn't make this thread for that someone could make a fight or something, so try to tell something less censorable.

[Dimitrije]

Nikola is right!
I'm not sure he will be here,at forums,in near future ... :D ;)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Ok mates, corrected issue, let's try to forget this, I've PM'd Alboblood and asked him to behave, now please continue with this interesting thread :)

Nikola, revenge, is not the way, better telling a mod by PM next time ok?? You made me correct several posts by cascading responses, better hold your breath ;)

[AlboBlood]

Yeah right i got the PM from Fabrizio,whom i respect as anyone in the forum.But i really dont like untrue things,dunno exactly for the girls,but u must not get your country to the top,and forget other things.We'll leave it here,no more untrue things please,as i just wrote reality.Umm...that TURNIPS,i dont think it's what nicola said,whatever,all the best!

[makelw]

Well we don't take that seriously what other people say about their own country.. You might have heard of devoting on own country. It's not forbidden to "love" own country and to praise it, either what you said is true or false. People is able to say that Finns have a wealth style of living, and it's ranked in top 3. People is able to say that it's true or false. So please, try not to grasp on little things :).

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Yeah mate, and if you think something is untrue, you can help us notice in a nicer way, you don't need to be a flame for us to notice ;)

BTW did you know makelw that there's a huge FINN Paper factory starting t build here at Uruguay???

[makelw]

Is it?? What's the name of it? UPM? Stora Enso? Well anyway that's great that we put to Uruguay those factories as around Europe is some I guess :).

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Here we call it BOTNIA, tough I'm not sure whether it's the real name ;)

I think it's great, now that this kind of industries do not pollute, to be put here, as they will give lots of direct/indirect jobs :)

[makelw]

Oh of course it's Botnia :redface:, think that's the third option to make in the list, but I left it. Well at least it gives a nice smell of gabbage ;) which comes from cellulose.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Actually I'll be about 300/400 kms to the factory, so I guess smell won't be an issue for me, but it is still good to have a bond with an important country like Finland, with whom we hadn't had any before ;)

[jcre04baeu]

Hello I am new here. but I would like to know more about each of the members countries and the soccer history and good times, bad times, and the ones to come.


I am from Bolivia and to tell you that the national team is great is not :(. But I remember the good times like in 1994 when the Bolivian team qualified for our first World Cup. The best of our nation was there and it was amanzing to see that passion for futbol does not only come from brasil nor argentina. The love for soccer comes from those who are in the beginning thinking of the unthinkable. Dreams that create an unreal world that became real in 1994. The Bolivian team was back then trying to get in heavens of futbol. In the mist of the high planes of La Paz we were invinsible, but in USA 94 we were not. But at least it brought some happiness :D .


But since then The bolivian team has not made any progress, nor did it qualified for France 98, Korea/Japan 2002, Germany 2006. Those were the bad times, when our national team had only 2-3 days to figure out who was to play before the match. Even in the qualifying round for Germany 06 we finished last in the table. But recently that our way to the heavens is coming back. The soccer player that once was up there in the World cup USA98 is back in the team but now as a coach. And the first match we beat El Salvador 5-1:D . Our nation is very humble and timid. But as it says in the bible there is coming a time where the humble would rule. And this might be. ..

PS: I like the discussions in this forum.

[Ace]

We already have a thread about our country. :search:

http://www.newstargames.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?t=1905

[jcre04baeu]

my bad. O Well!!!
:wall: now I know how to use this icon. :doh:
LOL.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Welcome, and thanks for the comment on discussions :)

Could you tell us who the new manager is??? :D

[siread]

Threads merged. :)

[makelw]

Nice post anyway.. but who is the manager?? I'd like to hear it too. About between bad and good Finland has the good time now as we have Roy Hodgson as our coach.

Btw, this is the 100th post in this thread :lol:

[Dimitrije]

It was 101th :lol:

[makelw]

Yesterday was the independence day of Finland :clap: :dance:..

[Nando]

Yesterday was the independence day of Finland :clap: :dance:..

Cool!


Go Finland!

http://img.infoplease.com/images/finland.gif

For those who don't know where Finland is, here is a map:

http://www.nationsonline.org/map_small/finland_small_map.jpg

[Fabrizio Gatti]

And very important people were invited to the president's palace in Helsinki (the capital) and greeted by the president himself


Note: A Finn told me this :lol:

[makelw]

Wowww totally appreciate you guys..! Thanks, next year will be a total celebration year because Finland gets her 90 years!!

[Nando]

Wowww totally appreciate you guys..! Thanks, next year will be a total celebration year because Finland gets her 90 years!!
In eleven years eleven years (100th Birthday) if I have some spare cash I will visit Finland...;)

[Dimitrije]

Nice makelw :)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

70 years? I sincerely thought you were older :) But you're growing quick anyway :D

Uruguay has 181 years :) and we don't want to know how much England has :lol:

[makelw]

70??? nono 90.. :D. Hey think about China, how old is that country, when or IF Marco Polo visited there, it was already an old country :lol:.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Yeah, they have more years than the ones that have been counted :)

BTW Anyone from china around??? :D

[makelw]

Hmm.. There was a Chinese once, but I think he's not active anymore.
So, Christmastime! How does your country celebrate Christmas? Is there any special way. I think Finnish way is.. kinda... boring :D.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

I think our is a nice celebration... we gather round and have dinner with our families, and then at 0 o'clock of the christmas day, we go out and light a bunch of firecrackers, and many other noisy stuff :) and thenwhile that, Santa Claus puts the presents near the tree ;) It's different to the countries where presents are put during the night :D

[Mad2Ad]

70 years? I sincerely thought you were older :) But you're growing quick anyway :D

Uruguay has 181 years :) and we don't want to know how much England has :lol:

lol funnily enough England is not independent. It has not been independent since the acts of union in 1707. This is a act to political unite the kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

At present the acts of union have made England part of the United Kingdom or Great Britian and Northern Ireland.

Allthough before that it was independent from the 7th century i belive and therefore was independent for about 1000 years allthough im sure that other countries has been independent for longer.

[Mad2Ad]

Hmm.. There was a Chinese once, but I think he's not active anymore.
So, Christmastime! How does your country celebrate Christmas? Is there any special way. I think Finnish way is.. kinda... boring :D.


im afriad England doesn't really do anything special for christmas really or not that i can think off.

by the way whens 0 o'clock i always thought that was midnight

[Fabrizio Gatti]

:redface:

I was a little asleep when I wrote that post...

[adam_the_scouser]

In England we do special things. We had my wife's family over for Christmas this year to spend with the baby and stuff and they had never seen a Christmas cracker. They loved them though. Do any other countrys get christmas crackers???? I dunno if they do!!!! By the way they are from America. Statto do you get christmas crackers in your parts?

[Fabrizio Gatti]

We launch some firecrackers, but I'm not sure if you mean the same :think:

[adam_the_scouser]

No fabrizio a christmas cracker is...how can I describe this...a cardboard tube with the ends tied and twisted at the end.....then two people grab either end and pull...the cracker breaks in half and has what I would describe as a very very tiny fire cracker inside which goes bang as it is pulled apart and whoever gets the bigger end wins. Inside is usually a little crown hat with a joke and trivia question and a little prize. What you win inside is very tacky but everyone loves it. Even the yanks.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Hmm I think now I know what you mean :)
Here we launch firecrackers onto the sky and streets :)

[Drozdov]

China as a unified country has existed for 2300 years, with a written language that has existed since about 6000 B.C. if I remember rightly. I don't think any other country has existed for as long as that.

Funny thing is I probably know more about ancient Chinese history than Scottish history - I've never been taught Scottish history at school, and haven't done it at university either. I actually couldn't tell you when the concept of 'Scotland' appeared, but it was as much of a nation as England since about the 9th centruy (by that I mean it wasn't exactly a unified country, just a collection of local areas governed by lords who recognised a king as their overlord).

By the way, England has been conquered more times than Scotland, so Scotland has maybe existed as an independent country for longer than England if you agree that after 1707 neither country is independent. England had the Romans, Saxons, the Danish (in 1017) and the Normans invading and conquering it - Scotland only had the Scots (from Ireland) taking over most of the nation and the Vikings taking over Orkney, Shetland and some of the Western Isles.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Man, you know a lot about history!! What do you study/ did you study at University??

[Drozdov]

I'm in my 3rd year of a history degree. My history is pretty limited, but I've studied European Medieval history and I did a course on Far Eastern civilization in first year, which is where I got that stuff from. Interesting stuff, Chinese history.

[adam_the_scouser]

If the chinese culture has been around so long why do people credit Greece as the cradle of civilization? Anyway I want to start a debate cos I am feeling narky!!!!

Greece is better than China because:
The Wheel
Doctors
Medicine
Philosophy
Art
Warfare
Democracy
Religion (come on we all love learning about their Gods it's fun)
Myths and Legends (Trojan horse, Icarus' wings, minotaur)

GREECE RULES!!!!!! Plus I have been to see where one of the original 7 wonders of the world once stood. The great collosus!!!!

[Fabrizio Gatti]

I am sorry, but I believe that there's been said that a couple of those advances were actually first established by China (philosophy is one of)
:D

[makelw]

WhoA what a conversation.. interesting indeed. Drozdov, could you say some words of the history of Finland?? If the miracle has thrown in the air I mean Finnish history somewhere abroad :D.. They say pasta was a Chinese invention, but there are some proofs that pasta is an Italian invention.

[Mad2Ad]

WhoA what a conversation.. interesting indeed. Drozdov, could you say some words of the history of Finland?? If the miracle has thrown in the air I mean Finnish history somewhere abroad :D.. They say pasta was a Chinese invention, but there are some proofs that pasta is an Italian invention.


go on
www.wikipedia.org
they always have good stuff on about any thing

[makelw]

Actually I meant that I'm eager to know does a foreigner know about my country's history :D, I know a bit, and the important years of course :D. From the 16th century I guess.

[Drozdov]

Sorry to disappoint, but I wasn't being falsely modest when I said my history is limited. I don't know anything about Finnish history outside the 20th century. All I know is that Finland was a Swedish colony for a while, and that Finnish was the basis for the Elvish language in the Lord of the Rings. ;)

There's an easy answer to the question of why people credit Greece as the cradle of civilisation. First of all, that's a European/American view. I don't think Asians or Africans would agree with that statement. We think that because Greek thought travelled throughout Europe because of the Roman Empire - when they conquered Greece, the best points of its culture and history impressed them, so it became part of the Roman culture as well, and since they ruled much of Europe it was of course passed on. But even more importantly, Greek texts were preserved in the Middle-East, where both the ancient Greeks and the new Eastern Roman Empire centred in Byzantium had been dominant, alongside the Persian Empire, until the emergence of Islam which eventually blew both away. But the Greek texts were preserved and translated, because they were useful and also interesting on a philosophical level, even if they didn't agree with Islam. Remember Arabic civilisation at this time is far more advanced and had more interest in academia than most Christiain countries, and was not so intolerant of different thought. The only reason Greek texts came back to Europe is because of the Crusades - European crusaders plundered the Islamic universities and libraries and found the classical Greek texts, and some of them no doubt found them interesting and brought translations of them back home. That's why Greek thought, philosophy and myths have persisted to this day. The reason we Europeans don't give any credit to Chinese civilisation is because our first real contact with it was only 200 years ago, so people to this day are still almost completely ignorant of it. Even Karl Marx said that China had no history before Europeans opened it up and began exploiting and industrialising it. Just a question of geography as much as anything - it's so far away that its culture couldn't reach Europe, so of course we don't credit China as the cradle of civilisation, because as far as we are concerned it's had no obvious impact on us. Therefore Chinese thought doesn't reach Europe, but of course European thought doesn't reach China, so you can't argue about which one was the birthplace of civilisation - there was no one birthplace, both worlds developed independent and largely ignorant of each other until imperialism brought them into contact.

I don't know enough about ancient Greece to say who developed what first. I do know that Chinese philosophy comes from exactly the same time as Greek philosophy, and it's probably more important than Greek philosophy ever was, or at least it's more obviously applied in the real world. Confucianism and Daoism were both established 2500 years ago, and both still have followers to this day. The Chinese had medicine as well, I'm no expert on that, but it's still practiced successfully to this day. China had all those accomplishments you've listed as Greek, as did India and probably many other countries around the world, it's senseless to say one is objectively better than the other. It's also illogical to say one country was the inventor of things like pasta, the wheel, or anything else, because these aren't things that one country found the secret to and then had it stolen from them by every other country, they would have been invented in lots of countries around the world at a random time, and then they would have spread throughout that region. If two cultures have the same sort of invention, it's just chance unless one imported it from the other, so you can't say that one is better than the other because in one country the first evidence of that invention was found earlier than in the other.

[Dimitrije]

Wow,nice post!:clap:

[Fabrizio Gatti]

REally nice indeed !!

[makelw]

What a post. Top 3 in the thread. Could anyone say something about your own languages, the good and the bad sides, what makes it unique or something funny details :D, I know Fabrizio can do this :). And I really learnt smthing.

[Drozdov]

Er, the best thing about English for me is that it has no gendered words - you don't need to worry if an object is a female or male word, you just use 'it' for all objects. That's much better. I also like how English usually has lots of ways of saying the same thing - as far as I know other main European languages use a more restricted vocabulary. I think English has about twice as many words in common usage as French or German.

But the best judge of a language's good and bad points is someone who isn't a native speaker and has had to learn it. Everyone probably thinks their language is easy to learn and simpler than all those other nasty complex languages they don't know (well, not everyone, I know Finns and Poles who say their language is a ******* to learn). And I'm not a good judge anyway since I only speak English and a bit of French, so I don't have much to compare it to.

Hard to think of many funny oddities in the English language - there are plenty of oddities but not many I can think of that are funny and easy to explain. There's the old joke about an Indian man who's slow in getting out of a bus in England, and is totally confused when the driver says to him 'Come on, get off!'.

Proper Scots dialects can be funny, although pretty much nobody speaks them nowadays. The Aberdonian dialect is funny - they say 'futret' instead of 'ferret', and an earwig (a beetle-like insect, called an earwig because people thought it would go in your ear and make its nest there, but that's just a myth) is called a 'forky gulloch' or something.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Well, something about Spanish :)

Spanish is according to experts one of the harder languages to learn (if not the hardest) in the whole world.
It has gendered words, and it means you have different forms for male words and female words. That's a crap.

Also, in spite of what Drozdov said, I find Spanish vocabulary is really bigger than English, so I guess we are huge compared to French :P
We have lots of words to mean the same thing, and there's almost no word that has a lot of meanings.
Another thing that makes Spanish so hard to learn is that instead of the two groups of persons (I you we they) (he she it) with one verb form for each other, we have one for each person, and for every tense, whic makes Spanish grammar and verb conjugation one of the hardest :think:

One advantage of learning Spanish is that, words sound a lot like they are written, that doesn't happen in most languages, a letter always sounds the same, it doesn't depend on the word or the letters around it. Another advantage would be that phrasal verbs are not very important, and mean exactly what the words forming them mean. Example: To put something away, who would know it means taking it to it's place??

One really funny thing is that there are differences between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from South America, and a lot of words that are common in Spain, are dirty words in Uruguay, so you might speak with a Spanish, and he will be swearing even if he doesn't want to :)

I think this pretty gives a lot of clues about Spanish, but if you want to know more, just ask

[Drozdov]

I did some internet scrounging, and found this site: http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/size_of_spanish.htm which says that English actually has twice as many words as Spanish.


One advantage of learning Spanish is that, words sound a lot like they are written, that doesn't happen in most languages, a letter always sounds the same, it doesn't depend on the word or the letters around it.

Well that part I don't agree with. To the first part, I say that's only true for Spanish speakers - to an English person, the words aren't pronounced as they are written. To us, German is a simple language to pronounce because everything is pronounced in much the same way as it's written, but that's only because we share the same 'sound bank' for pronouncing letters. Spanish uses different pronounciations from letters, so reading the Spanish name 'Cruz' literally, an English person will say 'Cruise', an Italian says 'Crootz', and a Spaniard will say 'Cruth'. And the second part, from what I know letters do change according to what's around them - isn't 'G' pronounced more like an English 'G' when it's followed by a 'u', and like an English 'H' when followed by an 'E'?

Is Spanish really difficult to learn? The grammar sounds complex, but in my high school we thought Spanish was the easiest of the three languages available to learn (the others being French and German). I didn't do Spanish in school, but I find it an easier language to understand than other languages I only know a few words of.

Ever since I started watching Argentinian football I've wanted to know more about the different dialects and pronounciations of Spanish. The commentator they have for Argentinian football seems to be an Argentinian, and I was surprised that he pronounced his Zs almost like Ss, so he says Lópes instead of Lópeth, which I'd always assumed was the proper pronounciation. And he pronounces 'Gallardo' like 'Gayardo' rather than 'Gazhardo' which I've also heard. I'd be interested to know first of all if that's Argentinian pronounciation, and if that pronounciation is common in South America? Or does Argentina have a different dialect because there were more European immigrants, and a lot of Italians?

[Fabrizio Gatti]

The thing is that South Americans pronounce different than proper Spanish people ;)

About the word amount, I meant normal use words, not total, sorry :)

And the pronounciation, it's always as it's written, I mean there are a couple of rules, like G having different sounds followed by 'u' or 'e', but after you know that rules, then it's always the same :)

[adam_the_scouser]

Sorry to disappoint, but I wasn't being falsely modest when I said my history is limited. I don't know anything about Finnish history outside the 20th century. All I know is that Finland was a Swedish colony for a while, and that Finnish was the basis for the Elvish language in the Lord of the Rings. ;)

There's an easy answer to the question of why people credit Greece as the cradle of civilisation. First of all, that's a European/American view. I don't think Asians or Africans would agree with that statement. We think that because Greek thought travelled throughout Europe because of the Roman Empire - when they conquered Greece, the best points of its culture and history impressed them, so it became part of the Roman culture as well, and since they ruled much of Europe it was of course passed on. But even more importantly, Greek texts were preserved in the Middle-East, where both the ancient Greeks and the new Eastern Roman Empire centred in Byzantium had been dominant, alongside the Persian Empire, until the emergence of Islam which eventually blew both away. But the Greek texts were preserved and translated, because they were useful and also interesting on a philosophical level, even if they didn't agree with Islam. Remember Arabic civilisation at this time is far more advanced and had more interest in academia than most Christiain countries, and was not so intolerant of different thought. The only reason Greek texts came back to Europe is because of the Crusades - European crusaders plundered the Islamic universities and libraries and found the classical Greek texts, and some of them no doubt found them interesting and brought translations of them back home. That's why Greek thought, philosophy and myths have persisted to this day. The reason we Europeans don't give any credit to Chinese civilisation is because our first real contact with it was only 200 years ago, so people to this day are still almost completely ignorant of it. Even Karl Marx said that China had no history before Europeans opened it up and began exploiting and industrialising it. Just a question of geography as much as anything - it's so far away that its culture couldn't reach Europe, so of course we don't credit China as the cradle of civilisation, because as far as we are concerned it's had no obvious impact on us. Therefore Chinese thought doesn't reach Europe, but of course European thought doesn't reach China, so you can't argue about which one was the birthplace of civilisation - there was no one birthplace, both worlds developed independent and largely ignorant of each other until imperialism brought them into contact.

I don't know enough about ancient Greece to say who developed what first. I do know that Chinese philosophy comes from exactly the same time as Greek philosophy, and it's probably more important than Greek philosophy ever was, or at least it's more obviously applied in the real world. Confucianism and Daoism were both established 2500 years ago, and both still have followers to this day. The Chinese had medicine as well, I'm no expert on that, but it's still practiced successfully to this day. China had all those accomplishments you've listed as Greek, as did India and probably many other countries around the world, it's senseless to say one is objectively better than the other. It's also illogical to say one country was the inventor of things like pasta, the wheel, or anything else, because these aren't things that one country found the secret to and then had it stolen from them by every other country, they would have been invented in lots of countries around the world at a random time, and then they would have spread throughout that region. If two cultures have the same sort of invention, it's just chance unless one imported it from the other, so you can't say that one is better than the other because in one country the first evidence of that invention was found earlier than in the other.


Ok so while you put up a good point allow me to retort. Greece did not need the Roman conquest to spread their influence around the globe. Greece was acknowledged as the most powerful nation in the world before the Romans. The island of Rhodes was the central point in most of the worlds trade to pass through it's port.

Greece were masters of the sea and were already in all things. It was a Greek doctor (Hipocrates I think) who wrote the laws of which to practice medicine, the hipprocrtic oath, which is still preached to all doctors today. Number one being Thou shall not cause any harm!!!!!!!! If you would like to learn more about the "Father of medicine" go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates

If China was so advanced why did they not venture into the sea and trade with other nations? Also China could not protect it's people like Greece could. That's why they ended up building a bloody big wall in the first place. And that took them something like 6 centuries to figure out they needed to do that.

The only reason why the Greek empire fell was due to the great earthquake which levelled most of Greece and it's beautiful architecture. Leaving open the way for the likes of Alexander the great and the Roman Empire.

While I agree about what you said with confuciasm he was also a nutter and people treat his teachings as if he were a god were as socrates brought a more philosphical thought to his teachings and he was killed for his beliefs. However his words were widely taught when they realised what a horrible mistake they made.

[Fabrizio Gatti]

If China was so advanced why did they not venture into the sea and trade with other nations? Also China could not protect it's people like Greece could. That's why they ended up building a bloody big wall in the first place. And that took them something like 6 centuries to figure out they needed to do that.



That's becase their communism-socialism indicated so ;)

They didn't want to have any relationship with the world at that time, they wanted to live by themselves

[Drozdov]

Wow, you're a real Greece fanboy. :blimey:

China had the most advanced ships in the world in the 15th century, Zheng He led a massive fleet on voyages around Africa, Asia and Arabia (although not to America as some have claimed). After the 15th century, ships went out of fashion with the Chinese - I believe there was some naval disaster and an important official or maybe an Emperor died. After that they regarded ships as the tools of barbarians and pirates.

China has had limited trade with Japan and other East Asian countries, as well as with Muslim countries both over land and over sea. The reason it has less overseas trade is because it's such a vast country, it doesn't need to import anything from anywhere. China's internal trade is more than enough to fulfill China's needs and make their merchants rich. It has a canal system that was established thousands of years ago and linked the north and south of the country, covering thousands of miles and allowing easy transportation of trade goods. The only valuable item outsiders could offer China was jade, and that came from overland trade with modern Turkmenistan where most high-quality jade was located. When confronted with European traders in the 18th century, the only things they had to offer China in return for its tea and silk was silver (which the Chinese already had) and opium. China didn't need anything from the rest of the world, so of course it preferred isolation.

The Romans built a wall against us Scots, that doesn't mean they couldn't defend themselves. And by the way, it was tribes like the Mongols they built the wall to protect themselves against, and we all know how weak they were :rolleyes:. Construction on the wall began almost as soon as the First Emperor founded China. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of great strength to be able to fund and organise such a massive undertaking. It was a sensible policy - the alternative was to either launch endless wars against nomads who can run away and regroup even if you defeat them, or conquer the huge steppe areas which just wouldn't be worth the effort. In any case, the Greeks hardly defended themselves well against the Romans, Arabs, Turks...

[adam_the_scouser]

Like I said though the Greeks couldn't defend themselves after the earthquake. Nearly everything was destroyed.

The thing about the great wall was, it wasn't a great show of strength, nor a great feat of engineering. It took 6 centuries to build and countless thousands died building that one structure. While I accept that people died building structures back then I am positive Greece, in it's entire history of engineering, never lost so many of it's people to what can only be described as slave enforced labour. China was far, and still is not civilized in that resepct. Especially when they are throwing old people out of their homes for the olympics. The olympics were created by which civilization again? I am sure you don't need me to tell you.

By the way the Romans couldn't defend themselves!!!! To me that was a bit of a bad pointer because as we all know they got bitch slapped back to Rome. Building a wall will only protect you for so long. Then all the English people got slaughtered. "What have the Romans ever done for us?" "The acqueduct". Sorry going all Monty Python there.

While I agree with you that China has a self sustaining economy, this in my opinion is what made Greece so special. A lot of countries became rich due to the trade they were able to get passing through Rhodes. Goods from all over the world could be acquired. I would rather trade there than with the hostile chinese saying "What have you got to offer us??". It's like dealing with America these days.

A greece fanboy I may be but only because in my mind it WAS a Utopia. Democracy, free trade, free practice of religion, security, scholars everything we hold dear these days were in abundance back then. I don't think Greece would have fallen like the other empires either. Mainly because they were not hell bent on conquering the world. They just influenced other nations.

[keerthan]

sorry to change the topic but i want to tell the story of India as i know it...
Indian civilization is one of the oldest civilization on earth with lots of heritage balh blah.........

Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 .....
click here to read it fully (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India#History)

But i want to tell about the present and the recent past
in 1947 india was divides into india and pakistan by the muslim league India's economic devolopment was very stagnant till 1990 when india was partly liberalised but now the gdp is cruising at 9.2%
most essential stuff like electricity are mostly public sector and consumer goods are mostly private sector
the general image of India to people form the west seems to be like everyone lives in poverty and stuff like that. but it isnt like that on the ground here...
the political system is pathetic but things seem to go on fine

and religion india is a secular country with almost 80%(i think) being hindus normarlly people of all religions live in peace and harmony but there are some stupid religious fundamentalists of all religions and in a few states there is communal tension

education system is very competitive for example 3 lakh students (including me this year) compete for 4000 seats of the most prestigeous engineering college in india the IIT'S
cricket is the most popular sport here
but lots of people have an interest in the epl but not the national football league
if u want to know more about my country ask me here ...
thanks for reading this HUGE article

[makelw]

Again fantastic work with a great post. And you did not change any subject because the main thing is to tell everyone about your country ;).

[Dimitrije]

One more time,congrats to makelw on this nice thread!!! You can learn a lot about foreign countries! :) Of course,this thread would be nothing without you guys! :);)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Today I had a little Serbian class :P

Nice language, worth learning, specially as it's very similar to close countries' languages. (similar to what happens with nordic languages)

It is pretty difficult, as words are different for every speech mode, as in reflexive, possesive, etc. You might say 'hey some other language has them too!' but Serbian has this for every single word :blimey:

Also, I got to the conclusion that in every speech mode, words are ender similarly, as for example in the normal speech mode many words are ended with an 'a' letter. I'm not sure why, but they seem to use the 'j' letter a lot too.

Okay, this is my humble opinion, as a foreigner, and also (believe it or not) as a person that has never spoken anything near to Serbian :)
But that like learning languages a lot, and finds it easy...

Hope you enjor this reading, and learn something new.

If you like it, and want your language to be reviewed, you can PM me to have an MSN chat about your language. If there are many interested, I'll split the thread into a new one, to keep this one tidy

[statto]

Fab, ja sam :)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Cheers Statto :)

[Dimitrije]

Fab,explained that very nice!:)
And,as he said,if you know serbian then you know and bosnian,montenegrian,croatian...
The thing with the 'a' and 'j' usually happens with first names.
Here is the cyrillic and latin alphabet and the pronounce if enyone want to learn some more:

Cyrillic | Latin
А | A - like A in word Fabrizio :)
Б | B - like B in word basketball
В | V - like W in word World
Г | G - like G in word gool
Д | D - like D in word doughnut
Ђ | Đ (DJ) - like italian G (Luigi)
Е | E - like E in word every
Ж | Ž - like J in Rio de Janeiro
З | Z - like Z in first name Zak or S in as
И | I - like I in Rio de Janeiro or imperial
Ј | J - like Y in enjoy
К | K - like C in Canzas
Л | L - like L in immortal
Љ | LJ - like ... I don't know :D
М | M - like M in mother
Н | N - like N in Nike or never
Њ | NJ - like NI in Tania
О | O - like O in Ontario
П | P - like P in Peter
Р | R - like R in (again) Fabrizio :P
С | S - like S in seven
Т | T - like T in Turkey
Ћ | Ć - like C in ciao
У | U - like U in Uruguay
Ф | F - like F in father or football
Х | H - like H in Hockey
Ц | C - like C in socialism
Ч | Č - like C in chat
Џ | DŽ - like J in word joy or enjoy
Ш | Š - like S in first name Shone

Wow...

[makelw]

Well, it's kinda hard to believe but Finnish and Hungarian are, don't know if I put it right, distant relatives in language things. Grammar is a little common to Finnish one.. that's interesting thing..:P

[Fabrizio Gatti]

Hoy did you realize that?

[makelw]

That's what they teach in the school. Don't know why they say about where Finnish comes, what languages are relatives with ours blah blah :D.. Even in Siberia we have some languages... :O

[Nando]

I am writting my name in cyrillic:

Н А Н Д О

Strange... is it right, dimi?

[Dimitrije]

Yep! :)
My name is: Д И М И Т Р И Ј Е :P:)

[Max1992]

М A П S И H :p :p

[Kyo]

Lithuania is bad country.There LOTS of ******* rich&VERY bad politics.Only president is quite nice man,but he much more loves USA!Sucks!Sure,Lithuania is known as basketball land.There are very beautiful girls!Really.I don't know what i can tell positive about Lithuania...This land is very bad!

[Ladrinski]

Sure,Lithuania is known as basketball land.There are very beautiful girls!

i think this is quite enough ... later on You'll discover that the crap regarding politics etc applies everywhere indipendently from the land itself

[Nando]

Yep! :)
My name is: Д И М И Т Р И Ј Е :P:)

No ofence to your home Dimi, but after I saw that alphabet, portuguese is looking pretty nice xD

[Dimitrije]

I like that alphabet,you like portuguese alphabet,someone from India loves indian alphabet!xD;)

[Fabrizio Gatti]

I believe the fact that you've used it for your entire life has something to do ;)

[Nando]

I believe the fact that you've used it for your entire life has something to do ;)

Maybe... but I don't think so... xD

[statto]

Icelandic alphabet is ða best i þink

[makelw]

I have no idea of those alphabets, all I know that Icelandic is somehow related to English many centuries ago.

[statto]

Icelandic has the ð (like a soft td) and the þ (th) but that´s it. Personally, I love the þ and þink þe countries þat speak english should use it

[makelw]

Ahh I thought it a while and it really would be nice, those are like phonetic alphabets

[Dimitrije]

I believe the fact that you've used it for your entire life has something to do ;)
Well,I don't know... :lol:

[DJUKA1979]

I bolive that serbian language is vethe most easyest language to learn for evrybody if you youse latin version!

[Olsinho]

Norway is known to be the only national side Brazil hasn't beaten:D

[Nando]

Norway is known to be the only national side Brazil hasn't beaten:D

That is somehing to be proud of... I guess...

[Olsinho]

Norway was rated as the best country in the world to live in too:P

[makelw]

Okay I didn't make this thread that you can praise your countries.. just for that that you can tell me about the culture and sports and like that

[Fabrizio Gatti]

I smell some north rivalry there :P

Nah, just joking ;)

Actually we had some presentation about life quality indexes, and northern europe's countries are top in almost everyone of them :)

And I didn't know the Brazil thing... :blimey:
How many times has Norway played them?

[Olsinho]

Only 4 times:
28.07.88 Friendly: Norway 1-1 Brazil
30.05.97 Friendly: Norway 4-2 Brazil
23.06.98 World Cup Group Stage: Norway 2-1 Brazil
16.08.06 Friendly: Norway 1-1 Brazil

[Fabrizio Gatti]

That's some record then! :clap:

[Lazman]

impressive, all i have to say is Nikola Tesla;)

[Lazman]

Fab, ja sam :)

lol waa? "fab, i am :)" :S lol ?:S

[Lazman]

Hmm I think now I know what you mean :)
Here we launch firecrackers onto the sky and streets :)

we used to do that for new years (in serbia) and party like crazy :), good times :)

[Cookie Monster]

Sony Ericsson is better. Can't explain, probably because I have a SE T68i...

It looks simpler...


Edit: This is all that I had to answer to the first page thing about Nokia and SE...


-------------


Norway was rated as the best country in the world to live in too:P

Now that's something to be proud of...

[lormeni]

I'm from The Faroe Islands. I see that you, makelw, is the master of Faroe Islands. And if you need any help, i can help you :)







And if you guys wanna see results from the Faroe Islands :P

Faroe Islands - Georgia 0 - 6

Scotland - Faroe Islands 6 - 0

Faroe Islands - Lithuania 0 - 1 (Almost)

France - Faroe Islands 5 - 0

Georgia - Faroe Islands 3 - 1

Faroe Islands - Italy 1 - 2 (We were better... TRUE)

Faroe Islands - Scotland 0 - 2 (We were also better against Scotland)

Lithuania - Faroe Islands 2 - 1

Faroe Islands - France 0 -6

Ukraine - Faroe Islands 5 - 0 (No comments)

Italy - Faroe Islands 3 - 1

[DS]

you guys seem to go well against Italy

[lormeni]

Yeah, thats cool :D

[makelw]

I sent back PM, but I forgot to welcome you as a Nordic fellow ;) and welcome to the forums of course.

[Mistrinho7]

Okk i just find out about this topic,so it would be nice to wrote something about my lovely Croatia ;)

Croatia is small,but nice country! It is well known for it's great Adria sea,which is visited every year about 10 million people from all around world...
Croatian people are not shy,the love to hang out,making jokes,always looking for company...
Our favorite sport(around 80%) is of course football. In the past we had players like Davor Suker(1998 World Cup Golden boot,6 goals),Zvonimir Boban(Long time A.C. Milan Captain),Robert Prosinecki(Champions league winner with Red Star) and many others...

That was then...now we have superstars like Eduardo Da Silva,who is currently recovering from a horror injury made by Martin Taylor(if i ever see that guy,i will break his legs),who scored over 12 goals for arsenal in his first season(he could score even more,if he didnt got injured),with his finishing,no keeper could stop him(remember the goals against Man City and West Ham...)...just go to youtube and input Eduardo Da Silva,u will find everything u need...

there is also Luka Modric,now Tottenham Spurs player,who is called as ''Hot prospect'' and he is only 22 years old,

We also have Niko Kranjcar,who plays for Pompey,that lad have a cannon in his foot and superb accuracy and precision,he won his first medal with Portsmouth,the FA Cup,and he will have chance to win Community shield against Man U this august...

Man City player Vedran Corluka,stone cold player who can handle any pressure what is on him(did anybody watched game Croatia - Germany,EURO 2008,when Podolski tryed to took ball from him,Corluka just turned around and scared him so this one scared like a chicken..)! Corluka was also regarded as ''The best young defender'' by Micah Richards(Man City Player) and Sven Goran Erikkson(ex-Man City manager)....

and the latest star,Ivan Rakitic,a player who parents are from little town called Sikirevci,near my town where im living,came to Suiss where later Rakitic was born..he decided to play for CRO national team and he didnt made a mistake...

Also known Croatian Players:
Dario Srna(Shakhtar Donjeck)
Ivica Olic(HSV)
Robert Kovac and Mladen Petric(Borrusia D.)
Niko Kovac,captain(Red Bull Salzburg)

Any questions,folks???

[AlboBlood]

Remember the funny debate in 2006 about my country ? Look at Kosova now,independent,happy as never before.

Just wanna see the reaction of those that tried to talk something,but didn't know and prove a thing,about this fact,whatever,all the best from me.

[tiago_wakabayashi]

I am from Brazil \o/

Hey blood i stay happy for the kosova imdependency \o/

touch here o/

[Duncan Murray]

Hey all, I am from South Africa where the next soccer world cup will be held!!!

[Cookie Monster]

Hey all, I am from South Africa where the next soccer world cup will be held!!!

How's the airport expansion and the new stadium construction going? Do they look like they are gonna finish it in time?

[Duncan Murray]

How's the airport expansion and the new stadium construction going? Do they look like they are gonna finish it in time?

Yes, all the stadiums (except for 1 in Port Elizabeth) will all be ready for the Confederations cup next year!

Airports they still working on, there is a fear that we won't have enough qualified people so the chances are high we will bring in extra people from overseas to help out!

All in all, its set, if you coming, bring loads of batteries as we might not have enough electricity! See you in 2010!

[makelw]

Yes, all the stadiums (except for 1 in Port Elizabeth) will all be ready for the Confederations cup next year!

Airports they still working on, there is a fear that we won't have enough qualified people so the chances are high we will bring in extra people from overseas to help out!

All in all, its set, if you coming, bring loads of batteries as we might not have enough electricity! See you in 2010!

Wohoo African Big Brother..
Cheers South Africa hosting the WC2010. I hope I'll have a chance to travel there. The top 5 where I want to travel to is South Africa.

[Cookie Monster]

My top 5 is:

5 - Finland (I like the cold and Nokia :D)
4 - Germany (I like chocolate xD)
3 - England (I like the cold and they are a very cult country)
2 - Andorra (Tiny but cold and has a lot of places where you can do ski, woo)
AND THE NUMBER ONE... Canada! (Cold, nice landscapes, i love snow, Cobie Smulders(Robin in How I Met Your Mother (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Met_Your_Mother)))

[west_ham_ 4_life]

I am originally from Chelmsford in England, but have been living here in Australia for 6 years now, and i feel like a fair dinkum aussie, lol.

Australia. We have the Sydney Harbour, Ayers Rock, and some guy called Kevin Rudd. Soccer is the fourth favourite sport, after AFL (australian rules football)all forms of rugby, and Cricket. Soccer is regarded by AFL/Rugby enthusiasts as a pansies sport where u cant touch anyone without them crying, thanks to the likes of Christiano Ronaldo.

With such players as Kewell, Cahill, Bresciano and of course Mark Schwarzer (we share a birthday), Australia have started to make a name for themselves in international soccer. We qualified for the 2006 world cup finals by defeating Uraguay over two legs. Bresciano scored the "equalising" goal in the 2nd leg in australia to take it to the penalty spot. Mark Schwarzer and John Aloisi were the heroes of the shoot out, with Schawarzer saving a couple and Aloisi slottingg home the winning penalty to take us to Germany; the first time we have made it to the WC finals in 30 years!!! Well, the world cup was overall great for us, makin it past the group stages by beating Japan, a draw with Croatia and a 2-0 loss to Brazil. Making it through to the round of 16, we lost 1-0 to Italy in a tight game. Our world cup run was full of controversy, with a Croatian player receiving THREE yellow cards before being sent off, and a dive in the penalty area by some italian doosh in the last minute of the game saw us out of the world cup.

Currently well on our way for qualifying for South Africa, now we are in the Asian groups, not Oceania which means we wont have to go to a qualifying final against fifth place of the south american world cup qualifiers.

The A-League is our national league. The "golden toilet seat", as the trophy was dubbed, is fought for between 7 teams from Australia and 1 from New Zealand. Next season, the A League is expanding to 10, with the addition of North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United. Adelaide United :dance: and Melbourne Victory are the powerhouses of Australian soccer (even though Adelaide have not won the A League yet).

Well, hope you learnt a bit from this

[west_ham_ 4_life]

with his finishing,no keeper could stop him(remember the goals against Man City and West Ham...)...just go to youtube and input Eduardo Da Silva,u will find everything u need...
' and he is only 22 years old...

There was absolutely NO NEED to bring up that goal against us :wall:, u COULD have just left it at Man City.

Keep that in mind and we'll get along fine, lol, jks.