Today Germany failed to qualify for the next round of the world cup. I can understand that this may be particularly tough for them. After World War II you could argue that German National pride has been rebuilt around its economic prowess and its football team. Many countries look for reasons for their citizens to be proud:
- Invented democracy (USA, UK, France, Greece)
- Oldest civilisation (China, Egypt, Persia)
- Biggest (China, Russia)
- Greatest democracy (India, USA)
- Chosen by God (Israel, Saudi Arabia)
- Best food (France, Italy, Thailand, Japan)
- Safe haven (Switzerland)
- Beer (Belgium, Czech republic)
- Wine (France, Italy)
- School system (Finland)
- Vodka (Russia, Poland)
- Technology (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Estonia)
- Inventions (UK)
- Politeness (UK, Japan)
- Equality (Sweden, Norway)
- Different sports (Australia, India, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, etc)
i happen to doubt whether china considers itself to be the 'biggest' country... russia is the largest, by far... but canada and the united states of america are both larger than china... even europe is larger... all of which is well known in china... source: https://en.wikipedia.org
ReplyDeleteTrue I was thinking biggest in terms of land mass or population, probably could add oldest civilisation etc...
ReplyDeleteAnyway you get 7 points for double comment plus bonus for being a new commentator.
only 7? :-(
Deletethe really mind blowing fact is, that we are not able to imagine the united states of america with FOUR times as many people as they have got now... well, that is china...
ReplyDeleterussia is a little bit less than twice as big as the united states, europe or china, but the population is less than HALF the one in the states, less than ONE-FIFTH of the one in europe and less than ONE-EIGHTH of the one in china...
in my view it is important to think numbers and scales when we talk about those 'nations'...
the united states with four times as much people would be hell... china is not hell... at all...