Hey man, I'm on your side.  Just wanted to suggest a change of venue.  I know when I went through school we were taught U.S. History, and World (read European) History.  I don't remember studying geography after grade school either.  Point is, just about everything I've learned regarding other cultures and their history (outside of studying German in high school) has been as a result of frustration at my own ignorance.  I sincerely hope kids these days are learning more about eastern cultures, especially given the world they are on the road to inheriting.  I have a 6 month old nephew and I joke with my sister about when she's getting him enrolled in Mandarin classes...well, half joke anyway.

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So...how'd everybody like the wall to wall art in this episode?  Did it help anyone outside of Region 1 stay is sync?  That Luc Besson's something, hu?  I love Ian Holm.  Isn't Milla Jovovich talented? Gary Oldman's got such range.  I prefer Bruce Willis with hair, but I grew up on Die Hard.

I'm pretty sure whoever said "somethingese schoolgirls" wasn't me.

Unless they're wearing a kilt and carrying bagpipes. Then I think it's justifiable to go "Hey, it's a Scottish guy."

By the same token, which Asian culture is most closely associated, stereotypically, with schoolgirls?

My grade school, high school, and college all had a big Asian population and the majority of my best friends throughout my life have been Asian. I don't say that in the "some of my best friends are Asian" way of exonerating myself from racism, I say that to mention that I've spent a lot of time in my life among many people of varying Asian descent, but to this day, if you showed me a picture of an Asian person I don't know -- without a cultural cue of some kind, just looking at the person's face -- I couldn't tell what their heritage was if my life depended on it.

I'm sure if I, for example, lived in Japan for several years, I'd get a better frame of reference on the differences and with daily exposure they would be apparent to me at a glance. But I haven't, so they aren't.

Which I don't think is particularly unique to Asians, despite the stereotype. I also couldn't tell an Ethiopian African from a Liberian African, nor could I distinguish a Brazilian from an Ecuadorian. I also couldn't tell a Welsh Caucasian from a Dutch Caucasian from a Canadian Caucasian. Unless I was familiar with their culture and they did something culturally significant, or I spent a lot of time there and began to see patterns in hereditary traits.

In the case of this film, we have a cluster of Asian girls in schoolgirl outfits as background extras in a gay French comic book future. The only cultural reference we have is the schoolgirl thing, and even that isn't particularly reliable given the aforementioned gayFrenchcomicbookness. So for lack of expertise in the nuances of the epicanthic fold, and trying to judge with Ruby Rhod all up in my grill, I don't think it was an unreasonably "culturally insensitive" comment to make in passing.

I didn't say all Scottish people do. But I'm saying if a white person IS wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes, it's probably a safe assumption that he IS Scottish, or meant to invoke the association.

If I call the guy Scottish and you go "Hey asshole, that's an Irish tartan and he's playing Uilleann Pipes! DUH!" then, well, I can't be expected to fucking know that at a glance because I don't live there, and just because it's obvious to you because you do live there doesn't mean it isn't actually a subtle thing.

To my ear, the Korean and Japanese languages sound totally identical. I can only pick out Korean when I hear enough of it to realize I haven't understood a single word.

But the various Chinese dialects couldn't sound more different. For starters, Chinese is a tonal language; Japanese is not. That alone is enough to make them sound completely different, even though the share a lot of the same phonemes.

But recognizing somebody on sight? That's tricky. There's more variation between individuals than there is between aggregate populations of closely related racial subgroups. Sometimes Japanese and Chinese people look really Japanese or Chinese, respectively. Sometimes it's much harder to tell at a glance.

And those are the easy ones. If I show you a Han person, a Tibetan person, a Mongol person and a Kyrgyzian person and ask you to pick who's who … well, good luck.

I am, however, reasonably sure that within the past 24 hours you've eaten at least three fried things.

wow mcdonalds is still going to be around in the distant future.

i wonder if they will still have the McGangeBang?

What about the French? They make some pretty bad ass Die Hard flicks, from the future.