mr.sumo.snr. wrote:
> http://tinyurl.com/5jlhw even the BBC is reporting on the Winter Sonata 
> obsession.
> 
> Interesting mention of the Seoul Olympics - those crusty enough to have been 
> here at the time care to share any memories.
> 
> I like the comment from the Japanese woman: "I love Winter Sonata, but when 
> I went to Korea three years ago I got the impression not all Koreans liked 
> Japanese".
> 
> Is it possible that any other race of people in the world could be so 
> unaware of how much they are disliked by their neighbors?  UKlanders and 
> Frogs (in fact that should be INglanders and Frogs - the Celtic nations 
> quite like the Gauls),  Sepps and Canajuns - http://tinyurl.com/5pg8o . 
> India and Pakistan - you've got a bomb so I need a bomb.  Austrians and 
> Middle-Earth dwellers don't seem to get on that well either....but they all 
> know about the whens, whys and hows of their particular mutual loathing 
> (well some of them do).
> 
> Why DO Austrians not especially like the Hobbits across the Tasman Sea - it 
> can't just be about rugby can it?
> 

I don't know if it's common elsewhere but in Austria we often 
talk about having "country cousins", the embrassing wheat farmer 
that turns up at christmas every couple of year complaining about 
the weather, the government, banks, and the international 
conspiracy to bankrupt him.  We consider Hobbits to be our 
"country cousins".

During the world cup while my Japanese friends were saying "if 
Japan can't win I hope Korea does", the Koreans were saying "I 
don't care if Korea loses as long as Japan doesn't win". 
Interesting that English supporters also supported Ireland, but 
you'd never hear a (real) Irishman supporting England.