Your next writing task is to post your own opinion about the comments made by the three hosts of the popular car show Top Gear in a recent episode on the BBC.
Your post should be at least 5 lines long; express a clear opinion with regard to the subject; use at least 3 opinion expressions (for example: quite frankly, in my opinion); give at least two facts which support your opinion; and contain less than 6 mistakes of grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.
Your opinion paragraph must be posted as a comment to this post before 23:59, Monday 14th March. You'll have time to work on it a little next week during class. Don't post your comment until you are completely ready. You'll need to sign in ("acceder") in order to publish your comment on this post.
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ReplyDeleteWell, I think we must face it; Mexicans are not the best in this world, although not all Mexicans are bad people, there is a big amount that really fits in the Top Gear´s description.
ReplyDeleteWe are lazy, inefficient, we don´t like hard work, we prefer to do things by the easy way and, yes, I have to tell this, we are rude and with no manners.
You don´t believe me? Okay, what happens when we travel in subway (metro) and we see this old lady that only wants to have a sit and rest? Do we stand up and tell her “Please madam, have a sit”? - Of course NO!!!!!! We pretend we are sleeping or that we are so tired to stand up.
And what happens when we are driving our car….drivers are the worst in this world, I hate to drive here in Mexico city, all drivers are rude, with no manners, they don´t respect other drivers or pedestrians….also pedestrians are a special case eh….they think that drivers HAVE to respect them only because they are pedestrians, but they break rules to and they are rude to.
Or maybe we should talk about our politicians and Government workers…..they really work hard and they are the most efficient people.
So, I really think that we don´t have to be offended about what was said, because it´s true….or maybe, that´s why we are really offended, BECAUSE THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS TRUE. In my hometown they said: “The truth is an offense, but not a sin.”
I´ve always said that the strangers that talk about Mexico and said that Mexicans are good people and the nicest….they said all this because THEY DON´T LIVE HERE and because they really don´t know a real Mexican.
And if you believe I`m not including myself in these description….I am, I am lazy, rude and I don´t like to work hard.
I think I will close this hard to accept comment with a little joke: Once upon a time God was craeting the Earth and countries. When it was Mexico´s turn God said: "Okay, lets give Mexico a lot of nature, a lot of seas and flowers and vegetation." One of God´s angels protested and said: "Come on God, that country has a lot of good things, you need to put something bad in order to have equilibrium."
God stopped and thought: "That´s Right....whta can this bad thing be....ah!!!!!! I know!!!!! Let´s put Mexicans in there..."
In my opinion, the “Top Gear” hosts are ignorant in some way, because they don’t know our culture and their comments are influenced by the image that the media has created about Mexican people. It seems to me that we are unable to know all the countries over the world and we give a general opinion based on what we have heard or seen on T.V. The tone of voice was aggressive, of course, but let’s check other T.V. programs, even here in Mexico, in which I think the hosts make jokes in the same way about people from the US, Spain or Argentine; however, the goal is to entertain, if we are not like what the English men said their comments shouldn’t bother us.
ReplyDeleteMexico is wonderful
ReplyDeleteI think that these comments don´t reflect the richness of Mexico and its people. Mexico is a multicultural country; it has 56 ethnics, for this reason it has a variety of food, customs, dialects, etc. so, I am not agreement with the comment of one of the speakers about “Mexican food seems to be vomiting with cheese”, in fact, Mexican food has been recognized as the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010. With reference to Mexican people use “cloth with a hole inside”, this remark omits the complex process by which these clothes are made. Another comment was about Mexican people are lazy; it´s a Western stereotype since the arrival of Europeans to Latin America, because these countries wanted that native people follows their production and life mode, and called to indigenous not only like lazy, too as conformist people, but they didn´t understand (and some of them don’t understand yet) that exist different worldviews and life styles.
In my opinion we only must consider the constructive criticism, and in this kind of program are made comments that try to provoke laughter, with a not creative humor, so we can ignore it.
With respect to top gear’s xenofobic comments I wonder if in England they have mirrors, if they did they could look at themselves and the consequences would be positive in the sense that nobody is perfect… not even the ‘royal family’ , or the Mexican politicians, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteQuite frankly I think that people from England are just like the rest of us , human beings with virtues and faults , and this is the main reason I believe we should not take things like this so seriously. for all I know this show was having financial troubles, so they went out ‘fishing’ in search of a topic that would be controversial enough to create a big fuzz and get attention to the show, that I find is very dumb and boring.
Indeed, no matter how dumb or boring a show might be, nobody has the right to diminished o to put another culture down just because they don’t understand it, yet they have the right to do it –it’s called freedom of speech- just as we have the right to watch any other show –or none- and also the right to laugh at them, (not with them) for it is a sad thing to make a living based on offensive remarks to everything, all the time.
As a paradox it takes actions like this show to make us realize that we also have the right to do more productive activities in our free time like having a nice conversation with any member of our family, take part in community actions or just read a good book.
Quite frankly, we should not take offence about this kind of cheap jokes. The BBC explained in its apologies letter to our ambassador to England “jokes based on national stereotyping are a part of British humor”. Moreover, it seems to me that people express what is in their minds and if this is just a joke made by those three immature hosts, I would say their ignorance about Mexico deserves our disdain.
ReplyDeleteI believe stereotypes are always extraneous to truth. I can say the majority of Mexican people are not lazy; there are many valuable Mexicans all over the world. This is a fact: every morning when I am on my way to work I do not see lazy, feckless, flatulent and over weighted people, leaning against a fence asleep and looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat.
In addition, I have read about the Mastratti MXT and I do not think it could be qualified as a lazy car or as a giant “tortilla” on wheels. This is the first car of his kind that is fully designed and manufactured in México, powered by a turbocharged 2.0 liter Ford Duratec four cylinder engine with around 250 horsepower; the vehicle should be good for 0-60 mph dashes in the high four seconds range thanks to its lightweight design. Is this a lazy baby?
Although some things they mentioned about Mexicans are true, I think they were despective in the way they said it. Everyone has the right to say whatever they want but I consider they shouldn´t did that because they generalized and they don´t really know all Mexicans.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don´t like that way of fun because it´s without respect and with ignorance. Those comments provoke that people, who doesn´t know a culture, only gets the stereotypes and the wrong and negative ideas of other kind of people. Unfortunately, even though the TV is a great technologic invention that could help in positive ways, what it causes is terrible. Thanks to TV and ignorant persons is easier to know that Mexican people are lazy or stealer than to know that actually Mexico has a lot of cultural and natural richness, and many outstanding women and men, like Nobel´s award Mario Molina.
We can´t be very offended because also Mexicans mock about many things, it is in us not to be part of that stereotype.
Well, in my opinion I think we should not get offended because they are just saying worthless nonsense and obviously they don’t have any idea about they are saying. They are relying on opinions and stereotypes about Mexico and it´s clear that they haven´t ever tasted the delicious Mexican food. Besides it is a tv show of acidic comedy about cars and it is common to find those types of comments although I consider they spent a lot on what they said about all a country.
ReplyDeleteQuite frankly I don’t care what they said because we Mexicans who know our country know our reality and how we are.
In my opinion Mexican people have the knowledge, ability, capacity and aptitude to develop and create technology; an example of this was the Vehiculos Automotores Mexicanos S.A. which was established in 1963. This firm manufactured passenger cars and jeeps, nevertheless financial problems during a collapsed of Mexican economy in 1982 forced the sale of the company.
ReplyDeleteTo me this kind of criticism could be exploited to promote Mexican products over the world, you might think that bad criticism about the car could affect it´s status, but if the Mastreta MXT inventors created a quality car they shouldn´t care about the criticism.
Well I think that nowadays there are not such stereotypes so remarkably important. Everyone in the world has the right to say what they will but that does not mean that he/she will be heard with no question. The problem with these guys is that they just make laugh of trivial things. I mean, there is no inglish that had never been a lazy, flatulent and so on person. So, what is the trouble to point those aspects of Mexicans?
ReplyDeleteI really don´t care because it is useless trying to defend mexican people, I mean the reality that they talk about of course exist (I do have a traditional mexican coat at home and I love it) but that is not all the reality. The actual situation occurs without they even notice so why to pay attention to ignorant people that don´t even know about how mexican food is. So let the dumbs live in their world. The actual world is much more complex and in it exist wonderful inglish and mexican people as worse too.
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ReplyDeleteMaybe some comments from three British men are unworthy of any response. Actually I believe that so big demonstration of disrespect to Mexicans is a small proof of how ignorant and stereotyped some persons can be.
ReplyDeleteMexicans’ stereotype has been accepted by foreign people without carrying about knowing who Mexicans are. We have given so many good contributions to the world they don’t even know.
Great thinkers as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, OctavIo Paz and Amado Nervo gave another special way to see the world and transformed the form people expressed their thoughts.
Great scientists as Mario Molina showed important facts that were even destroying our world and nobody could ever imagine.
Great artists as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Siqueiros and many others have impressed the world with their work.
In fact our culinary wealth is considered to be one of the most important so UNESCO declared it as Human Cultural Heritage. I think that if they were referring to Mexican food as something disgusting is because they have never tasted real Mexican food.
Mexican people are warm. We have many problems just as any other country can have but I believe that every person most show respect to everyone else. Actually I think that none of us really cares about these comments but we may take this opportunity to learn and stop making laugh of other persons.
“Respect for the rights of others is peace.”
In my opinion the comments that those three guys said can show us a little bit of how other people (specially foreigners) have a stereotype about mexicans, obviously we know that stereotype is the poor man sleepping under a cactus and close to him a bottle of tequila, maybe that´s why they think we are lazy; I don´t know. I feel that they were prejudging without having a real knowledge about Mexico; I believe that if they visit Mexico, they´ll love it.
ReplyDeleteQuite frankly I didn´t like their comments about mexican food because I know that mexican gastronomy is considered as one of the best in the world, sharing with the french, chinese and italian food. So what they say has no sense for me. Now if these guys really meant about their comments that will only make me feel that they´re very ignorant people.
Despite of that, I think that there´s no need for taking this in a personal way. I have also read other comments of south americans about the video and they say that we should not feel really offended, even mexicans talk in the same way the British did about other countries.
I think what these three hostages said was wrong because it shows a racist attitude; but we shouldn’t be offended since their only basis is a joke attempt; and a really bad one, if you ask me. I believe that instead of complaining we must demonstrate with actions that we are not the way they say, so we would show the world the great country Mexico is. Besides the fact itself that we are doing what we are doing right now (to study a degree in a university internationally recognized) proof that we are not at all lazy or at least that we wanna get ahead.
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing that I completely disagree, what they said about the food, I mean Mexican food has awards all over the world and it’s really popular for having very good flavor.
I think that people is overreacting to the comments from this TV show. There are a lot of similar comments on the show and they should be taken as a joke because they were only said to entertain people. One proof of this last statement is the commentators' opinion about Mexican food, this is because British food is considered to be one of the worst kind of food in the world. This is why I think people shouldn't really care about these opinions.
ReplyDeleteFor me it is not an important thing to discuss because Mexican people have so many other things what to care about, for example:
ReplyDelete1)The Mexican public television has a lot of trash programs, like soups, which are seen by children, the most of this programs are offensive and inappropriate for all ages…and nobody asks to this programs to give an apologize for his comments or contents.
2)Pay attention in the things we can do well and work on what we are doing; the Masteratti is an excellent example that Mexicans are capable to make whatever we want and with high quality.
• If we put attention and analyze the things this guys are saying, we can find that his job is not really a hard job because all what they do is to make fun of something just using some common stereotypes… so in one way they are lazy (because they didn´t even investigate, when they must do, although his show is about mockery).
Alene G. Savage
I think the comments of three English men has been overrated and the worst thing we can do is get angry; I mean the comments are very hurtful but it is a fact that this TV show handles this kind of rude humor, let’s say we had bad luck this time.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the saddest part are the comments about the Mexican food, because the Mexican cuisine is in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible World Heritage, and the ignorance about facts like this shows that we need to refine our projection means.
Quite frankly the best thing we can do is work hard to improve as a country, stop being mediocre and so hopefully will be only these three men who think Mexicans are lazy.
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ReplyDeleteFor me, it's not worth taking seriously this kind of comments. Keeping in mind that the hosts wanted to make people laugh not think, does it make any sense to discuss their opinion? I'm certain that it's really easy to destroy their 'arguments'. For instance: my teachers are not lazy, my father is not lazy and I’m not lazy. Furthermore, there are many Mexicans (children, old men, pregnant women or handicapped people) who work eight or more hours a day. I have to accept that many Mexicans are lazy. If they conclude from it that all Mexicans are lazy, we could conclude from Top Gear that all the British are boasters or clowns. Both are, of course, really mistaken conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI believe everyone has the right to say everything he wants; it doesn´t how awful or stupid it could be. And something important I want to say, it is I don´t think they express a general opinion of English people, so I disagree with people who stared to say bad things about them, taking like a kind of revenge for that comments. I don´t know if Mexican people are better than others, but I feel myself very proud for to be part to this Nation, because we have a great culture. As a final point, I feel so tired to answer them.
ReplyDeleteVanessa said ...
ReplyDeleteHi everybody!! it´s to late jaja but i need to say something about the video; i think that the programs have changed the aims to give information at the people, mass media are spaces to give relevant and important facts, choices and healthy entertainment and people once on the video have mitigated its advantages. It´s frustrating for me to hear things like that because i´m proud to be Mexican and i cán´t do anything with that situation, i mean to shut up those people because they don´t have idea about Mexican´s culture, traditions and real wealth.
It´s true that we live in a country with many problems but all the countries have them. The image that they give about Mexican people is complety widespread.
Posted by vanesukyyy at 21:56
Leticia said ...
ReplyDeleteOffensive Comments
With respect to the comments made by the commentators in The Top Gear Program are highly offensive contemptous, xenophobic, and racist. Furthermore, the words of commentators reinforce negatives stereotypes about Mexican people, our culture and food. Fortunately, there are some facts that prove the opposite. As everybody knows, Mexican culture and traditions are widely accepted all over the world. Moreover, Mexican food has been recognized by UNESCO as a part world's cultural heritage. Those type of comments should be condemned because some people might think that what is said is true.
Posted by Leticia at 18:08
Lorena said ...
ReplyDeletehow did they dare?
Quite frankly the comments were said about Mexicans and Mexican culture on Top Gear seem to me offensive for all Mexicas because the commentators compared to Mexican food with vomit covered with cheese. Also, I saw with sadness the widespread stereotype that English people have about Mexicans; they thing we are lazy, flatulent, flat, and even they doubt about or capacity for produccing good technology. It is obviously no all Mexicans have this characteristics that were said by racist commentators. I wonder if they give us an apologize.
While, why don´t you see this response by Mexican commentators against the English commentators statements, just for laugh a little?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKac9THej4g&feature=related
posted by lorena
Posted by lore beato at
I think these three conductors have never come to Mexico. If they had, they would know that our culture is wonderful, always full of color and joy; you can just see it bye our folk dances or our traditional party-days.
ReplyDeleteEven their comments were really annoying and full of stereotypes, I believe those shouldn't ve taken seriously and much less to think that all England think the same way.
Jokes are good, but not when they insult unknown things or -in this case- cultures.
First of all we have to admit that this program is about to talk about serious things making fun and jokes of it and we should take their comments in that sense, however they went too far and they insulted us in many different ways such as our behavior, food, culture, etc. and We can’t just laugh. Even when what they said has some true in it I can’t feel fine when someone who is not Mexican makes jokes about us. Every country has their customs, food, way of dressing, and generalizations about how other people around the world look at them, but it’s never proper to make fun of their culture. I don’t see how they called the Mexican car “tortilla”, it doesn’t even seem to be a “tortilla”, and maybe they are jealous that we finally made a car, a very beautiful one. Sadly many people around the world think all Mexicans are lazy, fat, ugly, etc. when that’s not true and by far our food is the best in the world.
ReplyDelete