I'm quite disappointed with the gullibility of German popular opinion. Especially when I held their intellectual life/standard in such high regards. Well, no longer.
edit 5/26/2009: Goethe's dictum lives, we have it better over here in America.
Encounters With A German
I said: "On the contrary, our media would never smear any other country in this manner. Do you know why so many Chinese students are willing to come to study in Germany? That is because ... " (I wanted to say that we liked Germany because the Germany that we saw on Chinese television is beautiful and developed, and that is why we want to come here to learn.)
But she interrupted me with an arrogant look in her eyes: "Because our education level is well-developed and our tuition fees are cheap. It is very simple."
I was offended by this rude interruption, but I continued to finish what I wanted to say. Then I added: "But once we arrive here, we found out that the German media never reports any good news from China. To a certain extent, we overseas students are disappointed in Germany."
She said: "We did not only say that China is bad. We also said that China is good."
I said: "Good. Let me ask you, what good things are there in China?"
She thought about it and said, "The Chinese economy is developing."
I said: "You don't need the German media to tell you that because the whole world knows that. So what good things have you heard about our government?"
She thought about it and could not come up with anything. But she immediately came up a victorious look and said to me: "Can you tell me what good policies the Mexican government has?"
I said: "I don't know."
She was delighted. She said: "You see, you don't know either."
I said: "I don't know because I don't care. I don't know if they have done something good, but I don't know if they have done anything bad either. But when it comes to a country that I care about (such as Germany), I would know their good as well as bad points. We learn about something from both sides. This is something that we were taught since middle school."
