Re: [luv-talk] Reading the Bible
Russell Coker wrote:
OK, but WHY are you focusing solely on the anglophone community? Because they are the ones that are connected to us.
That's a depressingly "White Australia Policy" attitude to take. e.g. one in four Australians speak a LOTE at home https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Australia#cite_ref-50 e.g. one in four Australians was born overseas, of which the biggest contributing nations are UK, New Zealand, and China. We've more Sri Lankan immigrants than US immigrants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Australian_Residents_by_Country_of_Birth_... e.g. our biggest trading partners are in East Asia, not North America (nor UK). UPDATE: I'm wrong; the top bilateral partners in decreasing order are CN, US, JP, KR, UK, NZ, SG, TH. http://dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/trade-at-a-glance/Pages/default.aspx Comparing exports and imports separately presents a different picture https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/aus/#Destinations https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/aus/#Origins
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
e.g. one in four Australians speak a LOTE at home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Australia#cite_ref-50
e.g. one in four Australians was born overseas, of which the biggest contributing nations are UK, New Zealand, and China. We've more Sri Lankan immigrants than US immigrants.
Heldigvis bor jeg i et land som ikke har et offisielt språk, så det er perfekt for meg å snakke norsk. (Fortunately, I live in a country that doesn't have an official language, so it makes perfect sense for me to speak Norwegian. ;-> )
Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
Oh are we going to have an argument about bokmål vs. nynorsk now? :P
Grandma Margot Moen, who was from Oslo, said 'De nynorskene er galne. De trenger å leve i den moderne verden.' (Those nynorsk people are crazy. They need to live in the modern world.)
On Friday, 16 March 2018 4:05:50 PM AEDT Trent W. Buck via luv-talk wrote:
Russell Coker wrote:
OK, but WHY are you focusing solely on the anglophone community?
Because they are the ones that are connected to us.
That's a depressingly "White Australia Policy" attitude to take.
No that's just an analysis of the facts.
e.g. one in four Australians speak a LOTE at home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Australia#cite_ref-50
e.g. one in four Australians was born overseas, of which the biggest contributing nations are UK, New Zealand, and China. We've more Sri Lankan immigrants than US immigrants.
Thanks for the link. It shows that 72.7% of Australians only speak English at home and the next most popular language is Mandarin at 2.5%. So 72.7% of Australians can't follow politics in non-English countries easily. I have some friends in Spain, Japan, and the Netherlands who I follow on Facebook. I read the translations of their Facebook posts and sometimes discuss it with them. I usually don't comment on Facebook because I'm not confident enough in the ability of Google translation to not make a hash of things. Now I'm sure the 2.5% of Australians who speak Mandarin are influenced by what happens in China and the 1.4% who speak Arabic will be influenced by what happens in the Middle East. But it doesn't really compare to the 72.7% who are exposed to American media every day.
e.g. our biggest trading partners are in East Asia, not North America (nor UK).
UPDATE: I'm wrong; the top bilateral partners in decreasing order are CN, US, JP, KR, UK, NZ, SG, TH. http://dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/trade-at-a-glance/Pages/default.aspx
Comparing exports and imports separately presents a different picture https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/aus/#Destinations https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/aus/#Origins
If you asked some random Australians to name the leaders of countries then almost everyone would get the US correct, a good portion would get the UK correct, and many would get North Korea reasonably correct due to Trump tweeting about him. If you asked some random Australians about the systems of government of other countries I expect that most could give a rough summary of the US system as well as describing at least 2 consititutional amendments. Most Australians are aware of the UK system in general (partly due to it being like our system) but probably most don't know about some of the peculiarities like who gets to be in the upper house. For popular political TV shows there's The West Wing, House of Cards, and Yes Minister. I'm sure that there are some great shows about the governments of non-English speaking countries, but I don't know of them and I think it's safe to assume that the majority of Australians aren't watching them. I'm pretty sure that most Australians are familiar with at least one of those political TV shows I cited. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Quoting Russell Coker (russell@coker.com.au):
For popular political TV shows there's The West Wing, House of Cards, and Yes Minister. I'm sure that there are some great shows about the governments of non-English speaking countries, but I don't know of them and I think it's safe to assume that the majority of Australians aren't watching them. I'm pretty sure that most Australians are familiar with at least one of those political TV shows I cited.
The one, true incarnation of 'House of Cards' in my view was the original with Ian Richardson as Francis Uruquart doing his Richard III imitation around the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. The first year (of three) was delightfully evil skullduggery, and the perfect tonic during the Thatcher era. (The latter two years saw the magic fade, a bit.) Be sure to get the DVD set because it includes, as a special feature, an utterly delightful behind-the-scenes-of-Parliament featurette hosted by the great (and now late) Tony Benn, leader of the pre-Blair Labour Party. I am aware that American television made a remake, but, based on seeing a few scenes of it, it cannot compare, despite the presence of Robin Wright. Frank Underwood is a pale, pale imitation of Francis Uruquart, and the writing just cannot compare. I would put in a few words for a couple of other series. 'The Thick of It' was utterly brilliant, an updating of 'Yes Minister'/'Yes, Prime Minister' for the new age with profanity in operatic proportions and utterly, utterly hilarious -- showing what behind-the-scenes politics is probably _really_ like. This British programme by Armando Iannucci was such a success that a transatlantic feature film tenuously connected to the series followed, 'In the Loop', which is also wonderful. Last, I would strongly recommend the Danish series 'Borgen', which British admirers aptly dubbed "the Scandinavian West Wing', a series about a (fictional) first woman prime minister and her and her party's surrounding politics. The first two years (of three) were damned near perfect. The third lacked some of the first two's fire of inspiration, but did conclude the story.
participants (3)
-
Rick Moen -
Russell Coker -
Trent W. Buck