Home Country Appreciation

[Daniel Blackworth]

It is a common idealogy that people normally would want to stay in a place that caters to their imagination and wants, that even if they already live in a country that is quite attractive, they'd still want to go somewhere that has a quality not possessed by their home country or town. I know that there are certain things we dislike in our country, but let's try to look at it in another perspective, and see the qualities we each like in our country.

The question arises: What qualities do you like in regards to your home country? [These may involve the systems, the wonders and attractive locales, the people in your country, the culture itself, and other bases of judging]

What I like in my country, the Philippines, is that....
  -     I like that each of the 7000+ islands in my country has an attractive place such as how we've got good views from the top of mountains, beautiful underground caves, clear waters in certain beaches, amazing waterfalls, seemingly chocolate hills, unique volcanoes, and other areas that haven't been marred by modernization as it still remains their beauty.
  -     I like how our culture is a very diverse one, in the sense, that our culture is a mix of the ancient Philippine culture and modern Philippine culture, and how we bear Spanish, American, and Japanese culture, which makes it all the more unique and special.
  -     I like how the educational system nurtures the multiple intelligences. Yes, it's quite tiring what with us being encouraged to work well in groups through roleplays, song performances, dances, making intricate designs, video making, doing investigative work in barangays, practice originality, etc while we are also encouraged to work individually what with the making of written reports, answering different kinds of tests that challenge our knowledge and understanding of the lessons, making reflections, doing public speaking through making and performing speeches, etc.
  -     I like the different kinds of food that are unique in our country such as Lechon, Humba, Adobo, Halo Halo, and other kinds of food. I also like how rice is a very important part of the basic three meals, and I find it hard to do things when I don't eat rice.
  -     I like how Filipino people are mostly hospitable because if you visit someone's place without an appointment, people will try their best to prepare something for you and welcome you into their homes. I also like the cheerful and positive nature that we have, how even though we've got problems, we can still smile and be happy.

 

It's now your turn!

[Zarc]

in France : 

 

-The wines of course , so many awesome place like "bourgogne" or " medoc " where the best wines in the world are made ( in my opinion ).

 

- The temperate and diversity of climats ( mountain , sea etc... well like every country  ) 

 

- the gastronomy , french's gastronomy is renowned. We have a lot of tops restaurants.

 

- the cheeses ( same as wines )

 

- the medicine , renowned in the world ( not an attractive thing but it help sometime ) 

 

- me.

 

 

 

now there many negatives things like everywhere in the world , frenchs have bad reputation about hospitality , bad attitude , expansive prices etc...

[Egzample]

Home Country Appreciation:

 

32 minutes ago, Zarc said:

- me.

 

 and then

 

32 minutes ago, Zarc said:

now there many negatives things like everywhere in the world , frenchs have bad reputation about hospitality , bad attitude , expansive prices etc...

 

That`s the most french thing I`ve seen in a while xD Besides, is there anything you can recommend to visit EXCEPT the Paris? I was aiming towards Toulouse trip this year (or generally somewhere over southern France).

[IntSys]

Taiwan:

• All kinds of exotic food right around the corner. From the Japanese Sushi Express and the Korean teppanyaki, to the American Fridays and the Irish 'Ireland's Potato', the Thai 'Thai Town Cuisine' and many other Mainland Chinese dishes. I'm truly blessed to be born in a place with so many food to try out.
• Healthcare. When I see news of unfortunate Taiwanese mothers accidentally giving birth overseas and having to pay ten thousand NTDs per day to the local hospital, I think about how cheap everything medically-related seems to be in Taiwan. Hell, I even get to have free dental scaling every half an year. While there are quite a lot of elderly people abusing the healthcare to get a bunch of medicines, I think for the most part it's pretty good.
• Rains a lot. At least, in the north. I just love rainy days, okay?
• The Metro system. Let me tell ya, our Metro is one of the cleanest on Earth, all thanks to the magical yellow lines that say 'No Food or Drinks beyond the Yellow Line'. It also allows me to get to my school in about 40 minutes, where a car ride would take an hour or more.
• The next generation of adults look incredibly promising, being active in politics. They might just be able to push aside the political houses that have dominated the political scene for decades.

 

That's about it. Taiwan has a lot of nasty problems deeply-rooted within its core, but hey, we (at least, you) don't need to care about that.

[Anime]

Anything i like about Tunisia? let's see

-Food, sleeping

Negative stuff:

- we have terrorists that keep bombing every now and then, yaay

- our military force's weapons is as old as the president, also yay

what more can i say

- Our 'president' is 90 years Old, we expect' great things' from him

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by Another Retired Shipper

[Zarc]

2 hours ago, example said:

That`s the most french thing I`ve seen in a while xD Besides, is there anything you can recommend to visit EXCEPT the Paris? I was aiming towards Toulouse trip this year (or generally somewhere over southern France)

 

I'm only saying fact.

 

So , if you would like to visit south of France , i can recommend you Montpellier ( where i live ) it's a student city side to the mediterranian sea. Then you have Bourgogne region( next to the center of France ) ,  Aquitaine region ( next to Bordeaux ) , and Pays Basque region ( Biarritz ). In general , for the landscape , the entire France is beautifull to visit.

 

On the north you have Bretagne , Normandie and of course Alsace Lorraine. For Toulouse well yeah you can , but there are not so much things to do here.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Zarc

[Tartar]

So, Denmark. Pretty rad country if I may say so myself. "But why?" You may ask, considering Denmark has 200 or so rainy days a year, sub-par weather, extremely plain local food,and having to pay +50% in taxes?

But the things we do have are pretty cool:

 

- Low inequality, and the world's highest social mobility. Education is free, and students are paid money just to go to university.

- Excellent and free health-care. 

- A low crime-rate

- Good social security where people can feel safe, even if they lose their jobs.

- Bicycling culture, with great infrastructure supporting it. I love how pretty much everyone I know bikes to work/school, especially in the Copenhagen where everything is in quite close proximity to each other. 

- Denmark also has a preeety good internet infrastructure, sure it isn't on the level of South-Korea *jelousy intensifies* but considering we're in the top 10, that's pretty good already, and it's improving quickly, with Fiber being adopted more and more. 

Again, most of these aren't unique to Denmark, and are shared by most of Northern Europe. But still, these are the main things I like about living in Denmark. 

 

I truly hope developing countries in Asia will follow look to Scandinavia as a role model, when building their societies in the future, rather than looking to the US, as I find many of the policies in place there to be horrifying and unhealthy for those at the bottom of society. 

 

[Felicity]

This goes against the British philosophy of moaning about everything as a facade to hide any appreciation. I disapprove.

[5hift]

There is pretty much nothing I like about China other than the fact that I can visit my family there.

 

Everything is fucking dirty there the Olympic stadium is basically a public landfill. I'll spare you guys the horrors of public bathrooms there. Not only that but all the national parks are completely overcrowded. They've got a saying there: 人山人海 which pretty much translates to "People mountain, people sea." and holy shit it could not be any more accurate. I remember getting separated from my family during my visit to the Great Wall and I thought I was totally fucked since everyone was packed together like penguins in Antarctica.

 

Speaking of Antarctica its fucking freezing during winter and spring. On the other hand, during the summer the place literally becomes Satan's armpit due to how goddamn hot and humid it is.

 

The only reason I tolerate the 10+ hour plane ride to there and all that other shit I mentioned is to visit my family who are genuinely great people. I really wish they could come visit America but traveling out of country is expensive as fuck and my grandparents are a little too old to leave home.

 

I guess the food there is pretty great if you go to the right places. My favorite food there has to be xiao long xia which is spicy boiled crawfish. As far as I'm aware there isn't any place near the place I live that sells this stuff. Keep in mind though some restaurants do some really shady shit like use grease that they got from the fucking sewers to cook their food. Its gotten to the point where they have to post government notices about the authenticity of certain restaurants unlike here where all you have to do is go on Yelp or something and read some pretentious asshole's review of the place.

 

Oh and you can pretty much forget about using the internet granted there even is any internet because of all the blocked websites. A classic line from my friends who moved there because of their parent's jobs: "Thank god for VPNs."

 

So yeah, sorry for pretty much turning this thread into a country bash but I just gotta say, fuck you China. Fuck your dirty ass cities, fuck your stupid government and mother fuck your ridiculous environmental protection policies(there are none).

Edited May 6, 2017 by 5hift

[Egzample]

5 hours ago, Zarc said:

 

I'm only saying fact.

 

So , if you would like to visit south of France , i can recommend you Montpellier ( where i live ) it's a student city side to the mediterranian sea. Then you have Bourgogne region( next to the center of France ) ,  Aquitaine region ( next to Bordeaux ) , and Pays Basque region ( Biarritz ). In general , for the landscape , the entire France is beautifull to visit.

 

On the north you have Bretagne , Normandie and of course Alsace Lorraine. For Toulouse well yeah you can , but there are not so much things to do here.

 

Okay, thank you for the tips, I`ll surely take them into consideration. I had some hopes for Toulouse, cos it has outrageously cheap flights, and since I like mountain hiking, I`d make use of the fact it is close to Pyrenees, but nothing is certain so far.

[mde2001]

Australia:

- Has an exceptionally good health care system that works for most people 

- Generally good quality of education

- Very diverse environments in different areas of the country

- Culturally diverse and generally accepting of this (although there is a bit of a white nationalist movement growing which isn't good)

- Low poverty levels 

- Laws that protect the rights of minorities 

- Fair legal and political system 

 

[Seal]

My home country means a lot to me, I always get a little too mad when something happens to the Netherlands.

[FairFamily]

Belgium, let's see:

 

-The fries and friterie

 

- Education

 

- The small size of the country

 

- Comics

 

- The weather

 

- healthcare & social security

[Alextron]

Greece (or Ελλάς in greek).

- The weather is overall nice. Hot and warm at Spring and Summer time, not too cold Winters.

- A lot of touristic activity,with tons of tourists coming from around the world.

- And why they come? To visit the islands. Some of the popular choices are Mykonos,Paros,Zakynthos etc.

- The greek culture that exists for over 2,500 years. The history the ancient greek made, their discoveries in sciences and philosophy and the creation of civilization.

- The food is good, though my preferences are very weird (I don't eat vegetables...it's very bad right?).

 

And some cons (nothing is perfect):

- In terms of politics, it's bad. For ''some reason'' we tend to choose leaders that suck. And i mean they don't do what they need to do to honestly improve the state of the country #feelsbadman. Also they lie a lot.

- Education is not very good either. You could blame the teacher for not doing his job right,but initially it's not his fault. Again, politics.

- Underemployment. And even if you find a decent job, the salary is still not as good as you think it is (minimum at around 400-500 euros per month (might have changed) ). Except if you are a politician ($$$$$).

- I won't talk about healthcare. Because it's incomparable (not superior but inferior to others).

 

And it's 3 am so i need to sleep.

 

Καληνύχτα (which means Good Night).

 

[Daniel Blackworth]

15 hours ago, Zarc said:

in France : 

 

-The wines of course , so many awesome place like "bourgogne" or " medoc " where the best wines in the world are made ( in my opinion ).

 

- The temperate and diversity of climats ( mountain , sea etc... well like every country  ) 

 

- the gastronomy , french's gastronomy is renowned. We have a lot of tops restaurants.

 

- the cheeses ( same as wines )

 

- the medicine , renowned in the world ( not an attractive thing but it help sometime ) 

 

- me.

 

 

 

now there many negatives things like everywhere in the world , frenchs have bad reputation about hospitality , bad attitude , expansive prices etc...

I didn't know France was known for those you've mentioned. Isn't France also known for its artistic side due to its museums, art galleries, and overall fashion?

13 hours ago, IntSys said:

Taiwan:

• All kinds of exotic food right around the corner. From the Japanese Sushi Express and the Korean teppanyaki, to the American Fridays and the Irish 'Ireland's Potato', the Thai 'Thai Town Cuisine' and many other Mainland Chinese dishes. I'm truly blessed to be born in a place with so many food to try out.
• Healthcare. When I see news of unfortunate Taiwanese mothers accidentally giving birth overseas and having to pay ten thousand NTDs per day to the local hospital, I think about how cheap everything medically-related seems to be in Taiwan. Hell, I even get to have free dental scaling every half an year. While there are quite a lot of elderly people abusing the healthcare to get a bunch of medicines, I think for the most part it's pretty good.
• Rains a lot. At least, in the north. I just love rainy days, okay?
• The Metro system. Let me tell ya, our Metro is one of the cleanest on Earth, all thanks to the magical yellow lines that say 'No Food or Drinks beyond the Yellow Line'. It also allows me to get to my school in about 40 minutes, where a car ride would take an hour or more.
• The next generation of adults look incredibly promising, being active in politics. They might just be able to push aside the political houses that have dominated the political scene for decades.

 

That's about it. Taiwan has a lot of nasty problems deeply-rooted within its core, but hey, we (at least, you) don't need to care about that.

I'm liking these positive things you've mentioned. I didn't know that we're practically in the same timezone. I'd be really interested to visit Taiwan when I grow older.

12 hours ago, Another Retired Shipper said:

Anything i like about Tunisia? let's see

-Food, sleeping

Negative stuff:

- we have terrorists that keep bombing every now and then, yaay

- our military force's weapons is as old as the president, also yay

what more can i say

- Our 'president' is 90 years Old, we expect' great things' from him

 

Aren't these mostly negative things? From what I've read from history, isn't Tunisia known for sea and agriculture related things?

10 hours ago, Tartar said:

So, Denmark. Pretty rad country if I may say so myself. "But why?" You may ask, considering Denmark has 200 or so rainy days a year, sub-par weather, extremely plain local food,and having to pay +50% in taxes?

But the things we do have are pretty cool:

 

- Low inequality, and the world's highest social mobility. Education is free, and students are paid money just to go to university.

- Excellent and free health-care. 

- A low crime-rate

- Good social security where people can feel safe, even if they lose their jobs.

- Bicycling culture, with great infrastructure supporting it. I love how pretty much everyone I know bikes to work/school, especially in the Copenhagen where everything is in quite close proximity to each other. 

- Denmark also has a preeety good internet infrastructure, sure it isn't on the level of South-Korea *jelousy intensifies* but considering we're in the top 10, that's pretty good already, and it's improving quickly, with Fiber being adopted more and more. 

Again, most of these aren't unique to Denmark, and are shared by most of Northern Europe. But still, these are the main things I like about living in Denmark. 

 

I truly hope developing countries in Asia will follow look to Scandinavia as a role model, when building their societies in the future, rather than looking to the US, as I find many of the policies in place there to be horrifying and unhealthy for those at the bottom of society. 

 

Yeah. I've heard about education in Denmark from you; I like those other benefits especially that Top 10 in Internet (at least your country's in the Top 10). Our country's got no choice, but to adapt American policies since we do have an alliance to USA. Also, I like the biscuits made in Denmark.

10 hours ago, President Felix said:

This goes against the British philosophy of moaning about everything as a facade to hide any appreciation. I disapprove.

What is this supposed to mean? Lol

9 hours ago, 5hift said:

There is pretty much nothing I like about China other than the fact that I can visit my family there.

 

Everything is fucking dirty there the Olympic stadium is basically a public landfill. I'll spare you guys the horrors of public bathrooms there. Not only that but all the national parks are completely overcrowded. They've got a saying there: 人山人海 which pretty much translates to "People mountain, people sea." and holy shit it could not be any more accurate. I remember getting separated from my family during my visit to the Great Wall and I thought I was totally fucked since everyone was packed together like penguins in Antarctica.

 

Speaking of Antarctica its fucking freezing during winter and spring. On the other hand, during the summer the place literally becomes Satan's armpit due to how goddamn hot and humid it is.

 

The only reason I tolerate the 10+ hour plane ride to there and all that other shit I mentioned is to visit my family who are genuinely great people. I really wish they could come visit America but traveling out of country is expensive as fuck and my grandparents are a little too old to leave home.

 

I guess the food there is pretty great if you go to the right places. My favorite food there has to be xiao long xia which is spicy boiled crawfish. As far as I'm aware there isn't any place near the place I live that sells this stuff. Keep in mind though some restaurants do some really shady shit like use grease that they got from the fucking sewers to cook their food. Its gotten to the point where they have to post government notices about the authenticity of certain restaurants unlike here where all you have to do is go on Yelp or something and read some pretentious asshole's review of the place.

 

Oh and you can pretty much forget about using the internet granted there even is any internet because of all the blocked websites. A classic line from my friends who moved there because of their parent's jobs: "Thank god for VPNs."

 

So yeah, sorry for pretty much turning this thread into a country bash but I just gotta say, fuck you China. Fuck your dirty ass cities, fuck your stupid government and mother fuck your ridiculous environmental protection policies(there are none).

Er.... okay, I can accept these negative things, but aren't there beautiful places and the like in China?

6 hours ago, example said:

 

Okay, thank you for the tips, I`ll surely take them into consideration. I had some hopes for Toulouse, cos it has outrageously cheap flights, and since I like mountain hiking, I`d make use of the fact it is close to Pyrenees, but nothing is certain so far.

Are you not gonna give some positive things related to your country?

4 hours ago, mde2001 said:

Australia:

- Has an exceptionally good health care system that works for most people 

- Generally good quality of education

- Very diverse environments in different areas of the country

- Culturally diverse and generally accepting of this (although there is a bit of a white nationalist movement growing which isn't good)

- Low poverty levels 

- Laws that protect the rights of minorities 

- Fair legal and political system 

 

I thought you were American, mde, but I guess I was mistaken The positive things are cool there. I've also heard that there are flying doctors and the like there and wildlife is cool.

4 hours ago, Seal said:

My home country means a lot to me, I always get a little too mad when something happens to the Netherlands.

What are the positive things in the Netherlands? I've heard that Amsterdam is really beautiful.

3 hours ago, FairFamily said:

Belgium, let's see:

 

-The fries and friterie

 

- Education

 

- The small size of the country

 

- Comics

 

- The weather

 

- healthcare & social security

I've also been wanting to go to Belgium because I've seen it from The Amazing Race. What's really famous in my country are 'Belgian Waffles' and I'm sure the waffles are good.

2 hours ago, Alextron said:

Greece (or Ελλάς in greek).

- The weather is overall nice. Hot and warm at Spring and Summer time, not too cold Winters.

- A lot of touristic activity,with tons of tourists coming from around the world.

- And why they come? To visit the islands. Some of the popular choices are Mykonos,Paros,Zakynthos etc.

- The greek culture that exists for over 2,500 years. The history the ancient greek made, their discoveries in sciences and philosophy and the creation of civilization.

- The food is good, though my preferences are very weird (I don't eat vegetables...it's very bad right?).

 

And some cons (nothing is perfect):

- In terms of politics, it's bad. For ''some reason'' we tend to choose leaders that suck. And i mean they don't do what they need to do to honestly improve the state of the country #feelsbadman. Also they lie a lot.

- Education is not very good either. You could blame the teacher for not doing his job right,but initially it's not his fault. Again, politics.

- Underemployment. And even if you find a decent job, the salary is still not as good as you think it is (minimum at around 400-500 euros per month (might have changed) ). Except if you are a politician ($$$$$).

- I won't talk about healthcare. Because it's incomparable (not superior but inferior to others).

 

And it's 3 am so i need to sleep.

 

Καληνύχτα (which means Good Night).

 

I've heard from someone that there's usually a need to learn a third language so that you can get a decent job. I also like its climate, but what I love the most about Greece is the mythology.

[Felicity]

My answer can't really be elaborated on beyond breaking apart the individual components of what I'm saying.

[Zarc]

2 hours ago, Monsieur Divergent said:

I didn't know France was known for those you've mentioned. Isn't France also known for its artistic side due to its museums, art galleries, and overall fashion?

 

yeah of course , i forgot that  , famous museums and art galleries are essentially in Paris

[Daniel Blackworth]

4 hours ago, Zarc said:

 

yeah of course , i forgot that  , famous museums and art galleries are essentially in Paris

That's part of the reasons why I'm interested in going to Paris someday. I'm also really invested in going to the Eiffel Tower.

[Zarc]

The Eiffel Tower is just a beautifull monument to visit , when you are at the top of the building ... wow... just wow.

 

don't hesitate to ask me if you want advices or informations

[Daniel Blackworth]

49 minutes ago, Zarc said:

The Eiffel Tower is just a beautifull monument to visit , when you are at the top of the building ... wow... just wow.

 

don't hesitate to ask me if you want advices or informations

I know right; I've read about the beautiful places in France from different media and I also liked the way it was portrayed in some books I've read. I also do feel a kind of connection to France since my given name is close to France, although it's patterned to be kinda unique and special.

 

I shall if I have some concerns. Thanks

[Zarc]

no problems bro  and it concern everyone here too

[5hift]

10 hours ago, Monsieur Divergent said:

Er.... okay, I can accept these negative things, but aren't there beautiful places and the like in China?

Yeah there are some pretty cool places that haven't been completely ruined by people(yet)

 

Most notably to me would be Tai mountain.

Spoiler

I remember climbing this bitch when I was a kid and it was really nice although my legs were pretty much ruined for the rest of the trip.

 

And even though you hear how nice these places are there's a good chance that they'll be packed as hell when you actually go there. Take the Great Wall for example.

Expectation:

Spoiler

 

Reality

Spoiler

 

I have a pretty vivid memory of some really famous national park, forgot what the name was but its centered around a lake. The thing is... The lake was so polluted and so overgrown with algae that the water was fucking milky green. It was just a surreal experience like how fucked up does that water have to be to look like a pool light green paint?

[Daniel Blackworth]

@5hift I find that mountain cool, but whoa, I didn't expect the Great Wall to be that crowded. Isn't the Great Wall like thousands of kilometers long? So, why is there such a crowd? And yeah, I heard that China's quite polluted, to the point that there's smog in certain places.

[5hift]

3 minutes ago, Monsieur Divergent said:

@5hift I find that mountain cool, but whoa, I didn't expect the Great Wall to be that crowded. Isn't the Great Wall like thousands of kilometers long? So, why is there such a crowd? And yeah, I heard that China's quite polluted, to the point that there's smog in certain places.

Bruh thats the front entrance very few people have the balls to walk miles across the wall to areas that are relatively less crowded and thats if  they get past the sea of bodies. Since the Great Wall is extremely famous its no surprise that thousands of people will be wanting to go there.

 

And ohhhhh boy you haven't even heard the worst about China's pollution. There is literally no sunlight in the big cities just depressing cloudiness and smog. I'm deadass serious when I tell you this but about a year ago there was some major holiday going on and by order of the national government everyone got the day off so there were no factories running. And wouldn't you know, the fucking smog cleared and everyone was freaking the fuck out like they've never seen a clear sky before in their entire life. Everyone was snapping pics of the clear sky and sharing it with their version of Twitter/Facebook (its called WeChat). Meanwhile back at the states we're all just "Psh, see that shit every goddamn day."

[Daniel Blackworth]

@5hift I figured that would happen when tourists visit the Great Wall, considering that most tourists don't prefer walking really long distances.

 

And whoa, that is unbelievably extraordinary. Didn't think it'd be that worse to actually produce a shock to the people who live in China to see clear skies.