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Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 41 of 59 21 March 2010 at 7:07pm | IP Logged |
Volte wrote:
Johntm wrote:
Volte wrote:
Johntm wrote:
JacobTM wrote:
As an Engineer, you'll be in the upper crust of Mexico's economic hierarchy, but you'll still have to worry about the usual problems of getting mugged if you're walking around alone too late etc. |
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Carry a knife/gun. Problem solved:) |
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Idiotic advice. A knife/gun escalate the situation, and won't help much against a group, or anyone who's also armed and more prepared than you are.
Safety isn't that simple, and glibly offering incorrect advice on it is something I don't condone.
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Depends on how you use it. It's more likely to diffuse it. And it'd be a hell of a lot better against a group, as opposed to bare hands. Of course safety isn't that simple, you'd have to know how to use it and get a permit (if required). |
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Safety has several components.
1) Awareness. Know what areas are dangerous at what times of day, pay attention to your surroundings, pay attention to warnings about what to avoid.
2) Avoidance. See trouble coming and avoid it. If there's a bar fight breaking out, consider leaving, for example. If there are a group of people looking questionable or dangerous, move away, to a well-lighted street with lots of people.
3) If things have already gotten difficult, look for a way out. Perhaps you can de-escalate the situation verbally, perhaps you should run, perhaps you should hand over all your cash and be glad to keep the rest of your wallet and leave unharmed.
4) As a last resort, there's violence or the threat of violence. This should never be done lightly. If you're against 10 people with a knife, it's really not likely to end well for you, no matter how well you're trained. If you're carrying a gun you're not trained to use in a foreign country with language and culture barriers and use it, the situation is also extremely unlikely to end well for you.
Waving or using a weapon will scare away some attackers; it also increases the odds that you wind up seriously harmed or dead if the attacker(s) are not scared off. It's not advice to casually give to people, with or without suggestions that they get training, and it's never a first resort, much less "problem solved".
Travelers (and people in general) should pay attention to safety; with any luck, point 1 is all they'll ever end up using in practice. If they're interested in learning how to use a weapon or in self-defense in general, classes are readily available - and every good class will warn against casually escalating situations.
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I never said there weren't components of safety. Using a weapon should be your last resort, when someone has you against a wall or is starting to become aggressive. I doubt you could bring a gun in a country if you were just a tourist, that'd be more of something to have if you were planning on living there. A knife, if it's legal, would be better than nothing when visiting a foreign country.
Volte wrote:
3) If things have already gotten difficult, look for a way out. Perhaps you can de-escalate the situation verbally, perhaps you should run, perhaps you should hand over all your cash and be glad to keep the rest of your wallet and leave unharmed. |
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Why not defend yourself (legally of course) and keep all your money, while teaching an outlaw a lesson?
1 person has voted this message useful
| Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6011 days ago
4399 posts - 7687 votes
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 42 of 59 21 March 2010 at 8:54pm | IP Logged |
Johntm wrote:
A knife, if it's legal, would be better than nothing when visiting a foreign country.
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Why not defend yourself (legally of course) and keep all your money, while teaching an outlaw a lesson? |
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If you are the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, knock yourself out.
If you aren't the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, you might just get yourself knocked out instead.
You try teaching the wrong guy a lesson and you'll find that you're the pupil, and you're way back in first grade....
Edited by Cainntear on 21 March 2010 at 8:54pm
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 43 of 59 21 March 2010 at 9:42pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
Johntm wrote:
A knife, if it's legal, would be better than nothing when visiting a foreign country.
...
Why not defend yourself (legally of course) and keep all your money, while teaching an outlaw a lesson? |
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If you are the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, knock yourself out.
If you aren't the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, you might just get yourself knocked out instead.
You try teaching the wrong guy a lesson and you'll find that you're the pupil, and you're way back in first grade.... |
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You don't have to be the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy to win a fight. Just have some brains and some brawn, and preferably a weapon, and you have an advantage over the attacker.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Guido
Super Polyglot
Senior Member
ArgentinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6528 days ago
286 posts - 582 votes
Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Catalan, Dutch, Swedish, Danish
Studies: Russian, Indonesian, Romanian, Polish, Icelandic
| Message 44 of 59 22 March 2010 at 2:03am | IP Logged |
duschan wrote:
Talairan wrote:
brandon wrote:
guesto wrote:
I picked the hardest accent I could
find (Rioplatense) and started watching a TV series. At first I understood only about 15%
but by episode 135 (yes, you can find full series on Youtube) |
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What's the name of this series? Not sure what to search for on YouTube to see one.
¡Gracias! |
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A second request for the name of the series :) |
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And a third :) I may want to give it a try. |
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This one? Valientes?
(It's in Rioplatense Spanish)
EDIT: I'm editing this, beacouse I think I've found what guesto saw on youtube: A horrible remake of the original
serie (and it's not Rioplatense Spanish, so guesto, if that's what you saw, I'm sorry, but that's some other accent. If not, please tell us :D)
Anyway, your listening comprehension is better now, and that's what you intented to do. So, mission accomplished.
Edited by Guido on 22 March 2010 at 2:47am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6439 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 45 of 59 22 March 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged |
Johntm wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
Johntm wrote:
A knife, if it's legal, would be better than nothing when visiting a foreign country.
...
Why not defend yourself (legally of course) and keep all your money, while teaching an outlaw a lesson? |
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If you are the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, knock yourself out.
If you aren't the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, you might just get yourself knocked out instead.
You try teaching the wrong guy a lesson and you'll find that you're the pupil, and you're way back in first grade.... |
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You don't have to be the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy to win a fight. Just have some brains and some brawn, and preferably a weapon, and you have an advantage over the attacker. |
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No. You can guess how much brawn the attacker/s has/have. You can try to figure out if he/they are armed, and if so, how. You're probably not going to correctly guess the amount of brains, experience, and training he/they have unless you're a specialist. The person defending certainly does not have an advantage by default, even if s/he has weapons.
Assuming you get through a fight with weapons, in an unfamiliar area, you then need to hope that the guy doesn't bear a grudge, that he doesn't have friends who are more than eager to revenge him, and that the local justice system doesn't consider you to be in the wrong. Carrying a knife being legal doesn't imply that everything you do with it in self-defense is in a particular area; you're not realistically going to learn every local ordinance of every town you take a day trip to. Staying barely within the law also doesn't guarantee that you won't be held in a prison and denied legal aid and translators; that's not a pleasant situation - nor is it a hypothetical one.
Keeping your money is way less important than keeping your life, freedom, and right to re-enter a country. All three of these are often lost.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 46 of 59 22 March 2010 at 5:52am | IP Logged |
Volte wrote:
Johntm wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
Johntm wrote:
A knife, if it's legal, would be better than nothing when visiting a foreign country.
...
Why not defend yourself (legally of course) and keep all your money, while teaching an outlaw a lesson? |
|
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If you are the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, knock yourself out.
If you aren't the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy, you might just get yourself knocked out instead.
You try teaching the wrong guy a lesson and you'll find that you're the pupil, and you're way back in first grade.... |
|
|
You don't have to be the single most "kick-ass" kung fu superspy to win a fight. Just have some brains and some brawn, and preferably a weapon, and you have an advantage over the attacker. |
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No. You can guess how much brawn the attacker/s has/have. You can try to figure out if he/they are armed, and if so, how. You're probably not going to correctly guess the amount of brains, experience, and training he/they have unless you're a specialist. The person defending certainly does not have an advantage by default, even if s/he has weapons.
Assuming you get through a fight with weapons, in an unfamiliar area, you then need to hope that the guy doesn't bear a grudge, that he doesn't have friends who are more than eager to revenge him, and that the local justice system doesn't consider you to be in the wrong. Carrying a knife being legal doesn't imply that everything you do with it in self-defense is in a particular area; you're not realistically going to learn every local ordinance of every town you take a day trip to. Staying barely within the law also doesn't guarantee that you won't be held in a prison and denied legal aid and translators; that's not a pleasant situation - nor is it a hypothetical one.
Keeping your money is way less important than keeping your life, freedom, and right to re-enter a country. All three of these are often lost.
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Well, if someone is mugging you, you can most likely assume (and you'll most like be correct) that they are not that bright. If they were bright, they'd either: a) not be a criminal or b) be doing an international bank heist.
Of course one must know the laws regarding self-defense and protection of personal property, if it's illegal to defend oneself then obviously hand over the goods and move on. But if you can defend yourself legally, there's no reason not to.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6439 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 47 of 59 22 March 2010 at 6:18am | IP Logged |
Johntm wrote:
Well, if someone is mugging you, you can most likely assume (and you'll most like be correct) that they are not that bright. If they were bright, they'd either: a) not be a criminal or b) be doing an international bank heist.
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You underestimate what desperation drives people to at times.
Johntm wrote:
Of course one must know the laws regarding self-defense and protection of personal property, if it's illegal to defend oneself then obviously hand over the goods and move on. But if you can defend yourself legally, there's no reason not to. |
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We clearly have different ideas about the value of our own lives, then. I don't consider trying to defend a few tens or hundreds of euros or dollars to be worth increasing the odds that I get stabbed to death.
Edit: we seem to have rather different premises. I work on the assumption that assuming an attacker is alone is stupid, and that most attacks are preventable. Hence, if I'm in a position to "kick the attacker's ass", I'd also have been very likely to have observed enough of the environment to avoid the confrontation in the first place. If that's not the case, my certainty that I'll prevail would be seriously lowered, making escalation stupid.
Also, while it's easy to think of a lone, stupid mugger, that's not how it always works. The most recent mugging I can think of involving two people I know was in Prague, and involved three guys dressed up as police offers. A fourth guy came up, asked the target for directions, then the three guys came up and claimed that they suspected a drug transaction and that they needed to inspect the targets' wallets; they then managed to palm some money unnoticed. I dearly hope no one is stupid enough to draw a knife in a situation like this.
Edited by Volte on 22 March 2010 at 6:42am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Ajijic10
Diglot
Senior Member
Mexico
Joined 6915 days ago
161 posts - 210 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 48 of 59 22 March 2010 at 6:38pm | IP Logged |
Now everyone not from the U.S. can understand how G.W. Bush got elected not once, but twice.
2 persons have voted this message useful
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