Mr Spielberg go back to history class please.
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cuyaya — 20 years ago(January 06, 2006 04:48 PM)
Mr. Conran: your comment is a typical text-book case in American ignorance (sorry to generalize, but most Americans know nothing of that which is outside of the U.S.'s borders).
Portuguese and Spanish are closeley related, but are nonetheless separate and independent languages. The blatantly inaccurate comparison to North American and British English can be more correctly compared to the differences between the way Spanish is spoken in Spain and the Americas. Also, every Spanish speaking country in the Americas has its own different accent (some less distingushable than others) so just as English in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and Jamaica is different from country to country, so is the case with Spanish from Spain, Argentina, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, etc. (by which I also mean that we are not all Mexicans if we speak Spanish).
Commenting on something said before, Portuguese and Galego (or Galician, language spoken co-oficially in Spain's Galicia region) are indeed very closeley related and Galicians and Portuguese can understand each other with a high level of accuracy.
I will never forget this comment from an American girl: "oh, the Dominican Republic. Where is that, California?". -
cuyaya — 20 years ago(January 12, 2006 11:27 AM)
Well, thats your friends. How bout you? Do you know about geography?
Since you seem to be so much of a Seinfeld fan, do you remember the episode where Kramer wants to set up a cigar making gig? Did you even know what he was talking about in the end when he says " theyre not even Cubans. Theyre Dominicans!" -
raattbbooyy — 20 years ago(January 13, 2006 09:30 AM)
Well, thats your friends. How bout you? Do you know about geography?
The answer was implied by the comment. Perhaps I should have written, "most of my 'typical text-book case' American friends and I are well versed in geography."
Since you seem to be so much of a Seinfeld fan, do you remember the episode where Kramer wants to set up a cigar making gig?
Yes, I remember it well, seeing Lloyd Bridges in a Seinfeld episode was an unexpected surprise. -
in2broze — 20 years ago(February 04, 2006 07:19 PM)
"Cuyaya," let's not be ignorant, okay? You say that all Americans are ignorant, but by making those insulting stereotypes about people in a whole other country, YOU'RE being just as ignorant as the people you're stereotyping. Then you say "sorry to generalize" when you're obviously not sorry at all.
You don't know all Americans, not all Americans know you, so nobody here had any right to pass judgment at anybody else. Just leave it at that.
That being said, let me mention that Spanish and Portuguese are two different languages. Period. I know that they ARE similar (because I speak Spanish), but they're not interchangeable for one anotheryou can't just speak Spanish in a movie and pretend it's Portugueseand the producers should have known that.
Still, it was an incredible movie. -
gribfritz2 — 13 years ago(December 31, 2012 11:33 PM)
American's don't need to summer in France or travel to other countries for a different climate. It's all contained in United States borders. Do you know what a snowbird is in American culture? Probably not if you're not from the United States. I'd guess anyone over, say, 30 in the United States has heard the term and knows what a snowbird is though.
I've been to Ireland and have seen the two versions: city and country. I didn't notice much change in the scenery in Western Ireland vs. Eastern Ireland, which makes sense given the size of the country. So if the Irish want to travel, they likely go to "the continent," I would assume. In the United States, you can remain in the same country and entering another part of the same country is a completely different experience. That may explain some of the United States lack of information. I didn't get a passport until I was 27 or so. I imagine many in smaller countries get passports quite early.
Knowing information about 50 states is like knowing information about 50 countries. Granted, many in the United States don't even know about the United States itself (each generation does get dumber), but some do, so let's not generalize. I know the capital of Iceland, Ukraine, and Mongolia. Hooray for me. So do YOU know the capital of Kentucky? Did you even know Kentucky was a state in the United States? Iowa? Their main crop?
We can talk about famous places to gamble. You can tell me about Monte Carlo. All I know about it is it's in Monaco, bordering France. I can't tell you if it's north, south, east, west of France (I could cheat and Google it, but I'm honest). Actually, I just Googled it and now I've learned. There are two famous gambling locations in the United States, you know. Can you name them? One is West Coast and the other is East Coast. Were you aware? Do you know the states they are in? If you do, that's cool. I would guess you don't and that's fine.
Are you aware there's a South Dakota and North Dakota? I can't imagine anyone across an ocean would have any idea there is a West Virginia. And if they somehow knew, they would assume there is an East Virginia, which there is not.
I can top your American girl talking about the Dominican Republic:
"George Harrison died."
"Who's that?"
Umm..he was one of the Beatles."
"What's that?"
This seriously happened. The woman was about 30. I was probably about 18 and was floored. Hey, I just realized it's another female. Maybe THEY'RE the dumb and ignorant ones. Let's generalize in a non-PC direction now. Maybe they're both the same race and we can get REALLY non-PC. Or we can stick with bashing Americans because that's cool. -
Asur18 — 20 years ago(January 16, 2006 02:55 AM)
Wrong. US english is to UK english as portuguese (from portugal) is to portuguese from brasil or angola. It's different languages. Portuguese and spanish can understand (more or less) each other because we're latins
Oh, and if your friend could understand a portuguese, that's probably because he was speaking spanish
"Look at usI'm frozen, you're deadAnd I love you!" -
newvalhalla — 20 years ago(January 21, 2006 06:15 AM)
Im Spaniard, and Spanish and Portuguese are two different lenguages Its not like UK English and US English A similar example of this could be the Spanish from Spain and the Spanish from Mexico (Or Portuguese from Portugal and Portuguese from Brazil). Spanish and Portuguese are similiar, but not the same lenguage Lenguages like French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Gallego, or Catalan are a derivation from Latin, and this lenguage are all very similiar BUT NOT THE SAME.
In any case, Mr Spielberg needs urgently a histiry class for other reasons. The film Amistad is a big lie. The Queen of Spain there aren a stupid girl of ten years, the regent queen was his mother in these years.. but is more sperpentic to show this if you want to make a bad and manipulate image of a country The history by Spielberg is ever the same: United States are heroes that fights for the liberty, thar ever take the good way, martyrs and all people abroad are stupid, opresors and villians. This aproach is not the better from a historical movie, precisely.
I would like to see a reaction from americans agains a historical movie full of lies and half trues who decribe themselves like bad people, killers, or villians, and the others like heroes, when the history is not like that. A bad reaction, obviusly.
This movie is only for american patriots and blinds who wants autopleasure himselves, but not to know the real history. -
ctina2277-1 — 20 years ago(January 25, 2006 07:10 PM)
I know I can't stand how all these movies make the Americans look like the good guys ALL the time. In cinema we have no faults Well anyway I actually came to say that I am Cuban and let me tell you that I understand Italian and French a lot better than Portugese. They are not that similar
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mixedmed — 14 years ago(December 26, 2011 09:06 AM)
In any case, Mr Spielberg needs urgently a histiry class for other reasons. The film Amistad is a big lie. The Queen of Spain there aren a stupid girl of ten years, the regent queen was his mother in these years..
Yes, it's true that Queen Isabella's mother was running the country at the time, but the basic fact remains that the country of Spain was one of the claiments in the Amistad case. You could argue that they depicted Queen Isabella instead of her mother to prevent confusion between why a Queen Regent was running things instead of the Queen. But while this point is taken, it doesn't make the entire movie a big lie. She was only shown in three small scenes after all and she clearly didn't DO much of anything in those scenes.
but is more sperpentic to show this if you want to make a bad and manipulate image of a country The history by Spielberg is ever the same: United States are heroes that fights for the liberty, thar ever take the good way, martyrs and all people abroad are stupid, opresors and villians. This aproach is not the better from a historical movie, precisely.
The U.S. president Van Buren was shown as actually overstepping his presidential powers to influence the Amistad case! How was that depicting Americans as heroes fighting the cause of liberty? What the film shown was that there were SOME Americans fighting for the cause of liberty while there were SOME Americans fighting to keep the status quo. Neither side was completely clean.
