1) This really put a new light on the "English-only" push. I'm not just talking about so-called "bilingual" things which have Spanish as the only other option, which leaved both school children and other immigrants from non-Spanish-speaking countries on their own. Many people are willing to try to talk to you in a multitude of languages - often mixed-together, if you take even the slightest step their direction... as in your high school French, Spanish, or German, mixed in with somethings you learned in weeks prior on the internet, combined with a little Berlitz or Pimsleur instruction on CD.
• In these days of being able to translate any document into any language at the press of a keystroke, albeit imperfectly, there is no reason to have a single language required for official documents. At the same time, having Spanish as the only other option, and having it available makes it seem as though immigrants from other countries, including Spanish-speakers from Europe, are capable of learning English, but for some reason, we believe that people from Latin America are incapable of learning English, and their Spanish is to be preserved. Really--- do we think that those south of our southern boarder are less intelligent or less capable? Are we that prejudiced toward them? Perhaps the real reason for this is to create (another) permanent underclass, who can continue to be employed at slave-wages, and at the same time keep the English-speaking underclass in their own position, with no way to better themselves. Gee… even India outlawed the caste system, just as the US is implementing one.
• English has become almost the de-facto international language, used in trade and commerce. Many people in other industrialized countries study English in school, and are happy to have someone to practice on, even if you DO speak their native language.
• Many schools do not even teach or require foreign languages in their curriculum. Indeed, the way some of the English-only laws have been written, it would be illegal for schools to buy or even print-off copies of material to be used in foreign language instruction. This really puts people at a disadvantage. I have noted as a high school freshman, decades ago, that once you learn one foreign language, subsequent ones are easier to learn.
1) Children obeyed, were a joy to be around, with parents who cared for them. I did not see anyone with more children than they could handle, all acting up and out. I saw some children in several places playing on their own, with no adults evidently present, and they were still nice, polite, and mainly kept their play to themselves.
• Although many European countries are titularly Catholic countries, meaning that a portion of the national budget goes to support the Church, the laws and people generally do what they want or need to. That includes having birth control available from their national health service (under any name). Women given access to birth control, as well as education, have fewer children. Fewer children means more parental time is spent on each of the children, the children are wanted. IMnsHO, every child has a right to be wanted!
• It’s not (just) spanking or its lack. Indeed, in most European countries, spanking children is illegal. Yet, they obey and become polite individuals. Perhaps it is more related to the children needing attention – ANY attention, and acting out to get it. Children also need to know what acceptable boundaries are, and will try to push them. If they are not set or consistently kept, the children will become a problem to those around them.
2) Streets were clean. Cities and businesses employ street sweepers.
3) Farms were clean and junk-free. Even in western Poland, I did not see several non-operational, rusting, pieces of outdated farm equipment, as are often seen at any US farm.
4) Food is different. There was a person Germany I talked to about food in general, who said the ingredients are different in the US. Observation that blood sugar stayed a steady 106 (nearly ideal) no matter what I ate - up through the apple pie, which served to prove that the meter was not broken. That included the "salmon volcano" https://flic.kr/... with polish apple pie https://flic.kr/... , and an hour after I ate a giant cream puff (sorry, no photo). I've been saying for quite awhile that food available in the US seems somehow "puffed up". You eat a lot of it, and it is not satisfying. This is especially true with fast food or food made from mixes at home, but is true with restaurant food and even home-cooked food - even made from organic ingredients. Home cooked food seems less "puffed up", but it still is, somewhat.
5) Streets were walk-able, and public transportation was usable.
6) Treatment and education of gifted children. This will bury us, where all of our school work is geared toward mediocrity, and anti-intellectualism rules.
• Please read Village Vet’s description of Landesgymnasium für Hochbegabte in the last few paragraphs of his diary at http://www.dailykos.com/... A description of the school is available from Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/... I was very impressed with the research and projects that some of those middle-school-aged children did – they would have been good for college term projects in the US. If we continue our anti-intellectualism, and continue to harass the gifted students, and push them toward mediocrity, the Europeans (and Asian countries) will bury us as another uneducated country suitable to provide laborers. However, the world needs less and less manual laborers, and more and more skilled workers.
7) Although there are a great many beautiful, historical buildings built for a religious (Catholic Christian) purpose, never once was I asked what religion I was, told what religion someone else was - of course, with the obvious exception of priests and nuns.
8) Many people in the US, especially local people, thought we were "brave" to go to Europe or even to Canada, a woman from southeastern Europe who I met and had conversation over a couple of cigarettes with thought we were extremely brave to return to the US. Her perception, as well as of others, based on international news reports, is that the US is currently in a multi-sided civil war. I have to admit she's got a point. Shootings every other week. The claims that they are "crazy", "lone-wolves" just don't add up. Neither do the claims that it's all "racism". The occasional nonsense of some militia group taking on the government, as in Cliven Bundy and company. Assorted corporations and industry organizations pushing to keep their agendas through (low wages, low taxes on business, taxes on the poor), elimination of safety nets, lack of any unified health care. The religious bend to the endless war machine, which gets tied in with healthcare, guns, fascism, and lack of family planning, and lack of educational system seems to be a divided set of groups who are trying to destroy the US, and turn it into a (theocracy, fascism, military dictatorship, international tax haven, single-race apartheid...).
Indeed, I fear that she is correct - that the US is in the beginning stages of a civil war with multiple factions. Sometimes, the factions have goals in common, and sometimes one faction can gain support from another, even if they don't appear to have much in common (e.g., what do the corporatists and the fundamentalist Christians have in common? Not much, but they can work together for common goals - at least for a time). Then, wait until the religion being promoted by the Dominionists is unveiled - if any of these fundamentalist Christians who support it think it will be their religion, they are sadly mistaken! When they find out, it will be too late.
