Wednesday, August 23, 2006
So, yep, another day in Bangkok. I got such yummer grocheries yesterday, aka chocolate soy milk and banana chips. Banana chips are the best invention yet. They are dried banana slices, so they look like chips, but with almost no sugar. Ohlala, so exciting. Very tres yummers. That's all.
Oh yes, and I had a quiz yesterday, but the professor, for the second time in a row, failed to bring the right amount of quizzes, so we did not have to write it. Brilliance. He is chronic with the unpreparedness. He told us, no matter what, we have to be on time for class and then he pranched in 15 minutes late. I love hypocrites!
Yesterday was intriguing because it was full of drama, drama is all intriging. One such drama was as follows....
Drama 1: Thailand Group Presenation:
So, the Canadians have to present a 5 minute presentation on our country tomorrow night, to all our professors, our Thai buddies, and the other international students. I have a Canada flag, and suggested we sing O'Canada, and since all these kids are under 20 they, of course, do not want to sing out national anthem, because tehy think it would be "lame." I called them on it, saying that they were just embarrassed to sing in front of people, and they denied it. It made me so frusterated that 10 Canadians are refusing to sing our national anthem. One even said, "that is not Canadian" and I almost barfed. Yes, the anthem, how unpatrotic of me to suggest it. Anyways, someone thought of the idea of saying the "I am Canadian" rant that was on the Molson Canadian commerical years ago. This is intriguing, but, as I pointed out, it was marketed to only Canadians, so almost no one will get what the heck it means, except maybe the Americans. Further, it defnies Canadians as being "not American" and doesn't talk about us being CANADIAN. ANyways, as Ambassadors for our country overseas, these kids pushed for it, and some people agreed we should change some parts. So, anyways, this is what we finally have:
1. Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader.... (Tim#1)
2. I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled.... (Tim#2)
3. and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada,
although I'm certain they're really, really nice. (Amy)
4. I have a Prime Minister, and a Queen. (Anna)
5. I speak English and French, and over 96 other languages. (Stef)
6. I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. (Michelle)
7. I believe in peace keeping, not policing, (Lesley)
8. …diversity, not assimilation, (Rob)
9. …and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal. (Andrea)
10. Canada is the second largest landmass! (Faye)
11. The first nation of hockey! (Jenny)
12. …and are diverse from Coast to Coast. (Justin)
13. My name is…. (Rob)
then we all say our names down the line.
14. And we are Canadian! (all of us.)
These are my complaints to the 12 year olds about it:
#1 Why are we, once again, isolating ourselves from the native culture? There are still Canadians who live in igloos, eat blubber, and own a dogsled. Yes, I understand that Canada has systematically oppressed these groups, and it is a horrible, disgusting part of our past as Canadians. It makes sense that we would want to air this oppression on an international scale. I loved it when one of the kids said, "but only like a few 1000 people actually live like that now." Great, that is perfect logic. We should also say, "we don't eat beanfried tofu, don't go to temple, and burn crosses" because that is also an accurate represenation of what it means to be Canadian, going with the logic presented. And then we later say how we love diversity and hate assimilation. A little bit of contradiction never hurt anyone, especially when it is aimed at the natives. The is especially intriguing, as all the 12 Canadians on exchange are of Western European descent. We hardly represent the diversity we are going on and on about. Granted we do have one Asian immigrant on our roster, but 1/12 being non-white is hardly going to be compelling evidence for people who have never been to Canada. I am off on a rant...
#2 Some of us our lumberjacks, some of us do hunt for food, and some of us do wear animal furs. Look, for example, at the great majority of people hacking down trees all over BC. Granted they don't stand there with axes, they prefer to sit in their machines and hack them down, but they may or may not wear red plaid button ups. I have no idea, I just know that we maybe shouldn't pretend that we don't flatten forests and kill small furry woodland creatures. Yes, ideally, we would not sell hunting licsences to Americans, but the truth is, we do.
#3 The Thai's will NOT know what the heck a lumberjack, blubber, dogsled are anyways, as most of them grew up in Thailand and spead English learned in school- I highly doubt they are well versed on words unique to Canada. So, really, none of this matters anyways, as it will not be understood very well by the people who comprise our target audience.
#4 The above takes under 2 minutes to present, slightly shy of the demanded 5 minutes. So not only will we look like racists that make no sense, we will also look like we are underprepared and slackers. Brilliant.
Sure glad we are representing Canada to the fullest out here in Thailand, especially since we are all too embarrassed to sing our own anthem. The Germans are putting on a full on German dance with costumes, for god sakes! And the Sweds are doing some random dance with music. And then the Canadians get up, mumble some randomness about not being lumberjacks and loving diversity, when the only reason we have been in international news lately is regarding the softwood lumber crisis and Harper's support of the invasion of Lebanon. Yes, we love our trees and we sure do love diversity.
Okay, enough of that right now. I have given up the fight, bceause some battles are not worth fighting, such as convincing image-concerned 12 year olds to sing our national anthem. If anything, this experience has lead me to become even more proud of Canada, even if we do lots of dodgy things.
For example, did you know we have tonnes of natural resources, the most lakes of any country, 32 distinct ethnic groups that have over 10000 members, we have 32 million people and growing due to widescale immigration practices, we demand that everyone learn English before become Canadians, we don't even demand that all Canadians learn French even though it is our national language, we will host the U-20 World Cup next year, and the Olympics in 2010, we have the largest unprotected boarder in teh world with the USA, and we have an outpost closest to the North Pole, and we invented to word touqe, invented baseball, and a bunch of other stuff, including having a 99% literacy rate.
Yes, tres exciting. Okay, I am done that rant. No more drama, no drama, no no drama. Heh. Bye. ¶ 9:19 AM
Oh yes, and I had a quiz yesterday, but the professor, for the second time in a row, failed to bring the right amount of quizzes, so we did not have to write it. Brilliance. He is chronic with the unpreparedness. He told us, no matter what, we have to be on time for class and then he pranched in 15 minutes late. I love hypocrites!
Yesterday was intriguing because it was full of drama, drama is all intriging. One such drama was as follows....
Drama 1: Thailand Group Presenation:
So, the Canadians have to present a 5 minute presentation on our country tomorrow night, to all our professors, our Thai buddies, and the other international students. I have a Canada flag, and suggested we sing O'Canada, and since all these kids are under 20 they, of course, do not want to sing out national anthem, because tehy think it would be "lame." I called them on it, saying that they were just embarrassed to sing in front of people, and they denied it. It made me so frusterated that 10 Canadians are refusing to sing our national anthem. One even said, "that is not Canadian" and I almost barfed. Yes, the anthem, how unpatrotic of me to suggest it. Anyways, someone thought of the idea of saying the "I am Canadian" rant that was on the Molson Canadian commerical years ago. This is intriguing, but, as I pointed out, it was marketed to only Canadians, so almost no one will get what the heck it means, except maybe the Americans. Further, it defnies Canadians as being "not American" and doesn't talk about us being CANADIAN. ANyways, as Ambassadors for our country overseas, these kids pushed for it, and some people agreed we should change some parts. So, anyways, this is what we finally have:
1. Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader.... (Tim#1)
2. I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled.... (Tim#2)
3. and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada,
although I'm certain they're really, really nice. (Amy)
4. I have a Prime Minister, and a Queen. (Anna)
5. I speak English and French, and over 96 other languages. (Stef)
6. I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. (Michelle)
7. I believe in peace keeping, not policing, (Lesley)
8. …diversity, not assimilation, (Rob)
9. …and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal. (Andrea)
10. Canada is the second largest landmass! (Faye)
11. The first nation of hockey! (Jenny)
12. …and are diverse from Coast to Coast. (Justin)
13. My name is…. (Rob)
then we all say our names down the line.
14. And we are Canadian! (all of us.)
These are my complaints to the 12 year olds about it:
#1 Why are we, once again, isolating ourselves from the native culture? There are still Canadians who live in igloos, eat blubber, and own a dogsled. Yes, I understand that Canada has systematically oppressed these groups, and it is a horrible, disgusting part of our past as Canadians. It makes sense that we would want to air this oppression on an international scale. I loved it when one of the kids said, "but only like a few 1000 people actually live like that now." Great, that is perfect logic. We should also say, "we don't eat beanfried tofu, don't go to temple, and burn crosses" because that is also an accurate represenation of what it means to be Canadian, going with the logic presented. And then we later say how we love diversity and hate assimilation. A little bit of contradiction never hurt anyone, especially when it is aimed at the natives. The is especially intriguing, as all the 12 Canadians on exchange are of Western European descent. We hardly represent the diversity we are going on and on about. Granted we do have one Asian immigrant on our roster, but 1/12 being non-white is hardly going to be compelling evidence for people who have never been to Canada. I am off on a rant...
#2 Some of us our lumberjacks, some of us do hunt for food, and some of us do wear animal furs. Look, for example, at the great majority of people hacking down trees all over BC. Granted they don't stand there with axes, they prefer to sit in their machines and hack them down, but they may or may not wear red plaid button ups. I have no idea, I just know that we maybe shouldn't pretend that we don't flatten forests and kill small furry woodland creatures. Yes, ideally, we would not sell hunting licsences to Americans, but the truth is, we do.
#3 The Thai's will NOT know what the heck a lumberjack, blubber, dogsled are anyways, as most of them grew up in Thailand and spead English learned in school- I highly doubt they are well versed on words unique to Canada. So, really, none of this matters anyways, as it will not be understood very well by the people who comprise our target audience.
#4 The above takes under 2 minutes to present, slightly shy of the demanded 5 minutes. So not only will we look like racists that make no sense, we will also look like we are underprepared and slackers. Brilliant.
Sure glad we are representing Canada to the fullest out here in Thailand, especially since we are all too embarrassed to sing our own anthem. The Germans are putting on a full on German dance with costumes, for god sakes! And the Sweds are doing some random dance with music. And then the Canadians get up, mumble some randomness about not being lumberjacks and loving diversity, when the only reason we have been in international news lately is regarding the softwood lumber crisis and Harper's support of the invasion of Lebanon. Yes, we love our trees and we sure do love diversity.
Okay, enough of that right now. I have given up the fight, bceause some battles are not worth fighting, such as convincing image-concerned 12 year olds to sing our national anthem. If anything, this experience has lead me to become even more proud of Canada, even if we do lots of dodgy things.
For example, did you know we have tonnes of natural resources, the most lakes of any country, 32 distinct ethnic groups that have over 10000 members, we have 32 million people and growing due to widescale immigration practices, we demand that everyone learn English before become Canadians, we don't even demand that all Canadians learn French even though it is our national language, we will host the U-20 World Cup next year, and the Olympics in 2010, we have the largest unprotected boarder in teh world with the USA, and we have an outpost closest to the North Pole, and we invented to word touqe, invented baseball, and a bunch of other stuff, including having a 99% literacy rate.
Yes, tres exciting. Okay, I am done that rant. No more drama, no drama, no no drama. Heh. Bye. ¶ 9:19 AM
