The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!

Really? I did Chemistry, Biology and English Literature at A level, so everything in SPS was 100% new for me!
Having said that, I'd done History and Economics to HIGCSE level in South Africa and that does pretty much teach you that free trade is wonderful. I've got a copy of Niall Ferguson's Empire on my shelf too I'm still embarrassed that the interview that got me into Cambridge was with a very neoliberal historian with an expertise in humanitarian intervention. At that stage I was like 'oh yes, humanitarian intervention is definitely the right thing' Completely the right answer for Peterhouse though

One of the first things I learnt at Cambridge was that everything I learnt at sixth form was wrong. Including all the Spanish grammar I did. Proceeding from the point of assuming all prior knowledge to be incorrect was much simpler

And then when you go on your year abroad and talk to actual native speakers in a non-educational context, you realise that lots of the grammar rules they taught you in Cambridge just aren't followed as strictly (if at all) in "real life" Everyone thought it was really funny that I used the 'vosotros' form because in Latin America they use 'ustedes' for plural 'you'...suits me, it's so much easier to conjugate

Yeah, I find that really really confusing. In Russian there are all sorts of rules that nobody uses in actual spoken language because they're just too complicated - mostly to do with when to use which case. Particularly with numbers - you're meant to always decline every single number spoken appropriately (so if you had 1254 and needed to decline it you would have to add an ending to the one thousand and the two and the hundred and the five and the ten and the four if you were doing it properly) but then you end up with long strings of syllables that don't really add anything to the meaning of the sentence. So most people will only decline the last number. But then you get back here and have to learn how to do it properly for the exams. It drives me nuts!

Really? I did Chemistry, Biology and English Literature at A level, so everything in SPS was 100% new for me!
Having said that, I'd done History and Economics to HIGCSE level in South Africa and that does pretty much teach you that free trade is wonderful. I've got a copy of Niall Ferguson's Empire on my shelf too I'm still embarrassed that the interview that got me into Cambridge was with a very neoliberal historian with an expertise in humanitarian intervention. At that stage I was like 'oh yes, humanitarian intervention is definitely the right thing' Completely the right answer for Peterhouse though

Oh my That's so complicated! So glad that Spanish doesn't have that! Now I'm back here, I have to remember that a lot of the Chileanisms/slang/swear words I learned on my year abroad (and I learned LOTS, living with native speakers is great for that kind of thing...) aren't really appropriate "classroom Spanish". Essentially, I speak Spanish...but I also speak "Chilean" with my closest friends from Chile

Oooh, I think that might have been my DoS-from-first-year's husband My Dad read one of his books and thought it was really good, despite my dad probably being more lefty than me (that is to say, VERY left-wing).

The subjunctive in Russian is MUCH easier though. Although I'm not sure it compensates for all the cases, or the fact that you have to learn two verbs for each action. I'm feeling a little bitter about grammar today

I still really want to go to Chile. One day... It's on my bucket list, which currently consists only of countries that I want to go to rather than things that I want to do. I have itchy feet!

It was I've babysat for them, and the wife is definitely an MML Fellow at Cauis.

Anyway, he's a really nice person. But he's also one of the founders of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Jackson_Society (read the statement of principles).
I never tried to imply that neoliberals or conservatives weren't academically sound and skilled. I just strongly disagree with the their conclusions and the policies they advocate that's all.
Before I did my degree I'd have looked at that link and nodded along happily thinking it sounded wonderful. Now I'm very sceptical of any military act by the US and others under the name of humanitarian goals.

No, my surprise was more at my (very left-wing) father approving of a book written by a neo-conservative

One of my favourite things about my Russian degree has been the breaking down of Cold War attitudes that I didn't even know I had. Even as late as second year I had this idea that the Russians were oppressed under Soviet rule and that everyone was miserable and poor and hungry and wanted to leave. It was really difficult to accept that this was largely an idea propagated by the US and the West in general and that while conditions weren't always ideal, they were nowhere near as bad as portrayed by the capitalist world. It's funny how much the US can kidnap your subconscious.

Studying and reading about American history is very revealing. I am also incredibly sceptical of their 'humanitarian interventions', because they always have something to gain from it and tend to blow countries to hell in the name of getting rid of people they don't like who are painted as 'oppressors'. This is only a very general view, but they are SO sneaky. At least when the British Empire was conquering the world they were honest about their horrid expansionism and desire to exploit the resources and manpower of other countries for their own gain. Somehow the dishonesty of the US makes it seem that bit worse, although in reality I suppose it isn't. At this point their saviour attitudes seem so ingrained that they can actually kid themselves that these missions are humanitarian. It's a fascinating country and mindset. If I can get enough money together I want to do an OU degree that's entirely open and I will definitely cram some American Studies in there, along with some planetary science and history of art.

I had a similar "revelation" with respect to Cuba on my year abroad...I'd always more or less believed the US line on Cuba, but talking to some of my Latin American friends, I realised that it really is much more complicated than it seems. Obviously, there are serious human rights issues (but probably no more so than in other regimes which the US and Western democracies support), but Cuba has, I think, the highest Human Development Index score for all of Latin America, free healthcare and little poverty. And apparently their medical schools are very good. Cuba wouldn't be so vilified by the Western world if it wasn't Communist.

Heheh, well hopefully we're not so closed minded as to disagree with anything a Tory says on principle

I had a similar "revelation" with respect to Cuba on my year abroad...I'd always more or less believed the US line on Cuba, but talking to some of my Latin American friends, I realised that it really is much more complicated than it seems. Obviously, there are serious human rights issues (but probably no more so than in other regimes which the US and Western democracies support), but Cuba has, I think, the highest Human Development Index score for all of Latin America, free healthcare and little poverty. And apparently their medical schools are very good. Cuba wouldn't be so vilified by the Western world if it wasn't Communist.

Well democracy is part of it, isn't it? The US has to come up with grand noble reasons for its military activities in order to win over the voting populace. For a lot of its history, the British Empire didn't have to give a rat's arse what the populace thought of its conquests.
But yeh, this is why my heartbeat speeds up when I see 'Help for Heroes' advertisement and other military related campaigns/publicity. I essentially feel that the State does a very good job of hoodwinking a huge amount of people with respect to the realities of war, and their motivations behind it. And it angers me that people swallow it, hook line and sinker. And also get fooled into signing up and throwing away their lives for really awful reasons.

PRSOM. We actually agree on something!

Yes, it probably does come down to democracy. But I think it also comes down to the fundamentals of American culture (which I am gleaning from the huge amounts of their media output that I encounter). There is such a strong emphasis on them being not only a 'free' country, but also a country that can promote freedom. You only have to look at their inflated Independence Day ideals to see that. They see themselves as the pioneers of democracy and the only people who can bring freedom and justice to the world. I think this mindset (which was created in the early 20th century when they decided to go expansionist after decades of isolationism) contributes to their policies of interventionism, but is also exploited by the people in power to justify war and invasion and dress it up as something else. It's so self-perpetuating that the leaders themselves end up believing it. Ideologies of this kind are dangerous, because a belief this strong becomes unquestionable - much like what happened in Soviet Russia!

Anyway, horrid generalisations there, and I'm sure there are thousands of Americans that don't believe these things.

No I completely agree. I just sort of assumed all of that went without saying I think that all of those particular cultural sentiments and features of American identity are specific and unique to them and their history, but at the same time they are also constantly drummed up, encouraged and repeated by the country's media and government precisely so that it can use these sentiments to manipulate voters. I should have actually articulated this though.

And my US buddies on the Sociology MPhil last year agreed, so I don't think its an unfair generalisation.