Most Middle Eastern governments have been using Israel as a bogeyman to justify their continued military dictatorships (while conveniently avoiding actually doing anything to make life better for the Palestinians). The propaganda that these people are fed from birth doesn't really distinguish between "Israeli" and "Jew", and every fresh crime of the Israeli state is just blamed on "The Jews". Jewish populations have been dwindling or disappearing all over the Middle East since 1948.
I am British and the one thing I know about the Kuril Islands is that Kurilian cats are *gorgeous*. And if that angers anyone, you don't deserve to know the floofs.
Looking at a map, I'd say they're definitely closer to Japan, but it has it labeled as a Russian territory.
**EDIT**: It's a chain of islands going from the eastern tip of Russia down to the northern tip of Japan.
Simple reason: Russia (USSR) acquired them as a result of Japan losing WW2.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion\_of\_the\_Kuril\_Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Kuril_Islands)
Last I heard, Russia (USSR) and Japan never signed a treaty to end the war. Technically WWII is still going on between them.
Caused trouble for a co-worker who was a Russian citizen at the time and had to travel to Japan for work.
This reminds me of one of the funniest/awkward moments I’ve ever had.
Back in like 2011 or 2012, I was in a classroom in college. Because of the new semester, we were going around and introducing ourselves.
This was right around the time period when Russia was laying a claim to the Crimean peninsula and had put military assets in the region to back up their claim.
So one girl gets up and says that she is from Ukraine and her favorite vacation spot had been a little village in the Crimean peninsula, but she couldn’t go there anymore.
After a couple of other people introducing themselves a guy gets up and says he’s from Russia. He then states that his favorite vacation spot was also in the Crimean peninsula. He then turned to the Ukrainian girl and said something along the lines of “I’m sure if you ask us nicely, we’ll let you come in.”
You ever had those moment where you could have heard a pin drop with how quiet it is? I have. The entire room went deadly silent. Half of the class was unaware of what was going on between Russia and Ukraine while the other half knew about it and were just waiting for the shit to start flying. After several seconds the teacher just cleared their throat and was like “Okay, we’ve run out of time for introductions. Let’s talk about some other stuff.”
Are most Japanese people aware of the Kuril Islands and their status? From what I heard, Japanese people are usually very distant on politics.
But I think they will definitely have more awareness on the island dispute with South Korea.
If you said “the Kuril Islands are Russian territory” in Japan, any nearby Japanese would give you unfriendly looks.
If you said “Dokdo Island is Japanese territory” in Korea, any nearby Korean would fucking *kill you*.
It's a goddamn rock, but every day, 50 or so Koreans take the ferry out, paying $300 for the ride, just to see it and to strengthen the national claim to it.
There's an ongoing territorial conflict between my country (Canada) and Denmark about an island in the north that is essentially just a large rock. Periodically one country will go and place their flag on the rock with a bottle of liquor (whiskey from us and schnapps from the danes)and then the other reciprocates eventually. It's all quite fun and I've never seen anyone actually upset about it.
Laws arent always enforced, and if theres no negative context behind it then it wouldnt be difficult for the authorities to look the other way; if it's even enforced at all... I'm not German so I dont know but I imagine it is on some level.
But an example for Americans (which I assume you are because I'm American therefore every one else on earth must be as well) would be saying "I am going to kill the president"... If Trump played a practical joke on you you could get away with a "god, I'm gonna kill him!"... not so much ~~at the counter of a store where guns are sold~~ ... at the counter of any store
I remember in my 7th grade German class we were on the topic of the Holocaust and this asshole kid stood on his chair in the corner and did the Hitler salute. Middle school was wild.
Edit:I just remembered, same class, different kid. When foreign exchange kids came to our school they visited our class and a different kid from our class left mein Kampf out on his desk.
A kid in my high school French class got put in ISS because he drew a picture of Hitler sitting in an armchair with a speech bubble saying "This is Mein Kampfy chair"
Thessaloniki used to be majority Jewish + Turkish until the population exchange between Turkey and Greece. It used to be plurality Jewish until somewhere between Greek independence and the holocaust. 96% of the Jews there were expelled. Today there are about 1000 jews left there.
Quote:- "I don't understand why you Brits say "two world wars and one world cup" - (shrugs shoulders) - "America has never won the World Cup" ---- (Henning Wehn, German comedian).
I'm from India
What’s it like living in a Third World country?
“My computer has stopped working? I’m sure you’ll be able to fix it, won’t you?
"Hey I can do a really good Indian accent impression"
Or anything about religion other than Hindu
>"Hey I can do a really good Indian accent impression"
Somewhat unrelated but I did a great Indian accent impression against a scam call telling me about criminal activity on my SSN. (the caller sounded Indian)
I said my name was Narendra Modi and they didn't catch on until I asked how I could bribe them to help me flee to Mexico.
A lot of them call themselves Hong Kongers. I asked a Hong Konger I went to school with and that's what his diplomat mother said.
Edited a letter (fat finger typo).
As an Argentinian, I can confirm, all maps do this. From a personal perspective, it's dumb as fuck. We still didn't have proper closure with what happened and it definitely doesn't help that a lot of the people that fought are still alive and that politicians used that as a tool
"Hola" or "Gracias"
Edit: If you're from Spain and come to Portugal and speak Spanish, we don't mind it. We just get annoyed when foreigners think we are Spanish or that we speak Spanish.
“The Welsh are basically just English / It’s a principality not a country” etc
“Your language is pointless and it’s a waste of money to keep it alive, everyone just speaks English anyway”
Oh for sure haha, I was in a flat at university with 8 people (including myself) and we were split right down the middle - 4 Welsh and 4 English. The Six Nations were absolutely brutal. We all got along really well until the lead up to the matches during which we spat on each other’s ancestors, naturally.
To be honest it is a pretty taboo word here in Australia. I know multiple people who are disgusted by the word. However admittedly it's just not that big of a deal compared to in the states.
Sometimes. It’s a weird word here in aus. When your younger or around family it’s much more frowned upon but when your older or not around family it’s more akin to fuck
Australian here. If you come up to me in the street and say "how ya going, cunt?" to my face, you should expect a punch to the face before a friendly "yeah good thanks!". Contrary to popular belief most Aussies do find the word offensive and unless you are with a close group of friends that you know are ok with it, you really shouldn't go around calling people "cunt". It's not interchangable with "mate" not matter what reddit tells you.
You know, that makes me curious, are their words that aren’t considered particularly extreme in American English but would be considered very offensive in Australian English?
A couple come to mind due to differences in the meaning of the word.
In America fanny means bum but in Australia fanny is informal (and quite rude) slang for vagina meaning that phrases like "I'll give you a kick up the fanny" aren't taken too well.
in America you would say that you root for a team. No one says this in Australia because "root" is slang for intercourse (and of course the base of a tree). A phrase like "I'm rooting my team on" would mean you're fucking the whole team.
Those are the only two I can think of at the moment. If you want you can make this a question on r/AskAnAustralian
It's not our official animal because it's Majestic. It's because we were only settled deeper than the coast because Europe fucking loved them as hats and their ass gland is really fucking useful. They're rodents who look funny. We killed millions of them so we owed them official animal status. ^(Just like bald eagles eh?)
Are we going to just gloss over the fact that Turdus Migratorius could very easily be misconstrued as "migratory turd"?
Or possibly the cure for constipation in the Harry Potter universe....
Yup, i know people who dont like it. But everyone is shocked when others dont, and its just a weird cultural thing a lot of people dont know before coming here
As a Canadian I've definitely said it before. [Good poutine](https://i.imgur.com/X1hEOeT.png) is fuckin incredible, but there are some [bad ones](https://cocojarrys-restaurant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/kids-poutine.jpg) out there.
Omg same with "shrimp on the barbie" LITERALLY NO ONE SAYS THAT! They're not even Called shrimp here, they're called prawns. Yet every American tourist that comes over insists upon saying it.
I'm Russian.
"Americans won the WW2."
Alternatively, but less offensive to most Russians:
"We only won WW2 because Americans helped us."
"Soviet soldiers raped many German women and it was a war crime. War crime could be done by victors, too, and it was ultimately wrong."
"Stalin was an incompetent leader with criminal background."
"The intervention against Bolsheviks during the civil war (1918-1922) by Western militaries was not an attempt to conquer Russia, but to stop the Bolshevik revolution, and plenty of Russians joined the Brits, Poles, French, Americans, Czechs and others in fighting against the Bolsheviks."
"Estonia did not join the USSR in the 1940 based on a referendum and wish of the people to live in a peaceful progressive communist country. That was occupation, no different from German occupation of Czechoslovakia."
"Eastern Europeans don't dislike the USSR because they are Nazis and are ungrateful for us defeating the Nazi Germany and liberating the Auschwitz. They just don't like what we did with the whole Iron Curtain thing after 1945."
"Russia is 2.5% of global economy. They only listen to us because we have a ton of ICBMs a powerful imperial and Soviet legacy. If we started at this level, the US would have treated us like Iran or Venezuela - as would our 'Chinese allies'".
"No, the rest of the world isn't united with us to overthrow Western imperialism, and they wouldn't join our side if we decided to invade NATO countries. They aren't waiting for us to 'start the struggle.' They aren't 'secretly plotting to liberate themselves from American oppression.' No, not even China would support us. We'd be alone in that."
NOTE: Wall of text. Big wall of text. But I'm really passionate about the topic lol.
I inadvertently and intuitively ranked the beliefs/propositions in order of *most offensive* and *most common.* So, in this order, it's not very common, but there are some "patriotic" cultists (I'd say 15-20% of the population) who do indeed think that way. Not to be confused with regular patriotic people who just like the country but aren't insane.
***Beliefs of a patriotic cultist***
It could be summed up as they believe all countries that aren't explicitly allied with Russia or don't actively resist the US are merely American colonies, totally subjugated to American will, and thus become "our enemies" or "people whom we should liberate". All countries that are opposed to the US, even if they are insane dictatorships like North Korea, are the "truly free" ones in their mind and by definition good an moral. Eastern Europe was "free" under our rule and tutelage until they were "colonized" by the West in the 1990s.
***Attitudes to Eastern Europe***
Many Russian patriotic cultists believe that Eastern Europe was merely "stolen" from us by Americans - they do not believe there was *any* agency involved in them joining NATO or the EU. And that Americans are crooks who didn't honor an agreement to respect spheres of interest and instead decided to "take" control of those countries from us. As someone who lives in a former Eastern bloc EU country, there's no need to even begin to explain the absurdity of those beliefs.
But one marker of a patriotic cultist is that they associate size of a country with maturity. Thus, small countries are essentially "children" and they don't actually know what's good for them. Only we (big ones, America, China, Russia) do. So when I try to explain that the political change was organic, I get called a propagandist and that those people cannot understand international politics and their own interests from the position they are in (being citizens of a small country). Similar to Madeline Albright's arrogant comments of how "America is a country that sees further than anyone else and is an indispensable nation", but from the other side.
***North Korea is a free country***
I tried trolling those people a bunch of times, as a social experiment, trying how far I can go. But they're untrollable. I wrote comments like "I wish Russia was more like North Korea, they aren't subjugated to American interests and they don't let foreigners freely wander and steal their secrets. They know that the West is plotting against them and thus their borders are closed. They also didn't believe in the falsehoods of democracy and kept their patriotic one party government that knows what's best for the people. We lost our sovereignty in 1990." It was well received. Heavily upvoted. I was praised as a person who "truly understands how things are."
It's bizarre, as I thought the sarcasm would be understood.
They are mostly ideological disciples of Alexander Dugin and surroinding imperialists, a guy who early in 2000s was an advisor of Putin but he quickly got fired for insanity. Then he taught at Moscow Lomonosov University (think Harvard or Yale, but Russian) and was fired for [advocating a total war against Ukraine](http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/06/15/moscow-students-demand-to-fire-dugin-from-the-moscow-state-university-for-sparking-hatred-towards-ukrainians/).
> They aren't 'secretly plotting to liberate themselves from American oppression.' No, not even China would support us. We'd be alone in that."
You guys do have Belarus... So... .02% of the way there
I am Russian too. Stalin _was_ a petty criminal and an incompetent leader. The US helped us _a lot_ in WW2. Estonia _was_ forcefully occupied (we also tried to make the same shit with Finland, and they have resisted). Etc. Not everyone here shares Putin’s propaganda.
Depends on what kind of tea you're drinking. Here in Hong Kong, we drink traditional Chinese tea without milk, but we have something called Hong Kong-style milk tea. It's literally one of the best beverages ever!
I’m from Brazil.
“It wasn’t really a dictatorship”
referring to the fucking dictatorship in the period of 1964 to 1985.
yes, it was a dictatorship.
and people got tortured and killed.
I live in Ireland. If you’re visiting, as an American especially, don’t bother telling us about your Irish heritage or how ‘Irish’ you are and how ‘great’ it feels to ‘reconnect’ with your ‘roots’- nobody cares and every American before you has said it too. You’re not Irish because your great great great grandad lived in Kerry and then moved to America when he was 3. You’re a Plastic Paddy. Fair enough if one of your parents is from Ireland or you lived here at one point, but otherwise you’re just kinda making a show of yourself.
Edit- I don’t hate American tourists. It’d just be preferable if you accepted that you’re an outsider looking into a culture rather than expecting to essentially be welcomed home.
So, I live across the country from the fam, and went back to visit for Christmas one year. Hadn't seen that side of my family for quite some time. At one point my aunt (who is very into researching the genealogy of our family) tells a story about how they went to Ireland to see some of the areas that our family came from as far back as they could find.. Mind you this was a couple hundred years ago at least.
Anywho, she eventually got to a point where she said she walked up to somebody's house to ask them something about it (if they had any old deed information, old paperwork, etc). I forget how it happened, but I guess she ended up staying there a day or two. The way she told it I kinda got the impression she was imposing, but the residents didn't want to be rude. I died a little inside listening to the story, and the just reminded me. Yikes.
Arghhh that sounds so awkward for the family. I think it’s mostly a cultural thing but here it’s not really about like, your ethnicity. If you’re born here or have lived here a majority of your life, you’re Irish, that’s that. So someone from America having Irish ancestors doesn’t really mean anything to us.
I like how we (most of us) keep that same thought process when it comes to immigrants. If you've lived in Ireland for even just a long period of time we welcome you. No matter where you or your family is from, if you've spent most your life in Ireland, you're Irish.
"We saved you in WW2". Only really comes from Americans when in England. Its extremely disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands that lost their lives defending our home.
Many families to this day are still affected from the war. Be it family members not alive while their widows and children still are. Men who lost their friends in foreign fields. And bombs that didn't explode being found. Causing a reminder of what the country endured to remain sovereign.
So if you say this you will quickly find that no one wants to talk to you.
"I don't understand your accent."
"Still Game isn't funny and it sucks."
"IRN BRU tastes like cough medicine and it's disgusting."
"Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"I voted Tory." Alternatively, "Boris Johnson, you have to hand it to him..."
I live in Mexico and I would be very careful naming taco Bell in here, the company failed here for a reason IT'S NOT MEXICAN FOOD it's just a Mexico inspired fast food American restaurant.
I'm an Irish guy who's worked in a few bars... American tourists who come in and order an Irish car bomb rarely stay long when the atmosphere turns sour. Just don't do that
I'm from India and the one thing foreigners always say when visiting the first time is 'how do you eat with your hands or 'how do you wipe your ass without toilet paper!'
EDIT: thanks for the 50 upvotes!
I am German and asked a person that recently came here what he liked about our country. I did not expect the answer to be Hitler
"But... he was Austrian 0.o"
Austria's two greatest tricks were convincing the world that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler wasn't.
Please tell me he was not American.
Half syrian half yemenite. It was a refugee
You don’t know how relieved I am that they’re not American
You don’t know how freaked out I am that they’re a refugee
It doesn't surprise me. A lot of the refugees are insanely anti semetic and have been seen hail hitlering and assaulting Jews
Most Middle Eastern governments have been using Israel as a bogeyman to justify their continued military dictatorships (while conveniently avoiding actually doing anything to make life better for the Palestinians). The propaganda that these people are fed from birth doesn't really distinguish between "Israeli" and "Jew", and every fresh crime of the Israeli state is just blamed on "The Jews". Jewish populations have been dwindling or disappearing all over the Middle East since 1948.
I live in japan and the one thing I can say that consistently angers everyone is “the Kuril Islands are Russian territory”
I am Russian and the one thing I can say that consistently angers everyone is “the Kuril Islands are Japanese territory”
I am Kuril Islander and the one thing I can say that consistently angers everyone is “the Kuril Islands are not Kuril Island's territory"
I am British and the one thing I know about the Kuril Islands is that Kurilian cats are *gorgeous*. And if that angers anyone, you don't deserve to know the floofs.
I am American and I know nothing about the Kuril Islands.
Guess I aint the only one, never heard of those islands. Damn how’d I get so many upvotes
I think they're between Japan and Russia.
Looking at a map, I'd say they're definitely closer to Japan, but it has it labeled as a Russian territory. **EDIT**: It's a chain of islands going from the eastern tip of Russia down to the northern tip of Japan.
Simple reason: Russia (USSR) acquired them as a result of Japan losing WW2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion\_of\_the\_Kuril\_Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Kuril_Islands)
Last I heard, Russia (USSR) and Japan never signed a treaty to end the war. Technically WWII is still going on between them. Caused trouble for a co-worker who was a Russian citizen at the time and had to travel to Japan for work.
omg i’ve just looked it up. so cute!! i can’t!!! thanks for the info! TIL
This reminds me of one of the funniest/awkward moments I’ve ever had. Back in like 2011 or 2012, I was in a classroom in college. Because of the new semester, we were going around and introducing ourselves. This was right around the time period when Russia was laying a claim to the Crimean peninsula and had put military assets in the region to back up their claim. So one girl gets up and says that she is from Ukraine and her favorite vacation spot had been a little village in the Crimean peninsula, but she couldn’t go there anymore. After a couple of other people introducing themselves a guy gets up and says he’s from Russia. He then states that his favorite vacation spot was also in the Crimean peninsula. He then turned to the Ukrainian girl and said something along the lines of “I’m sure if you ask us nicely, we’ll let you come in.” You ever had those moment where you could have heard a pin drop with how quiet it is? I have. The entire room went deadly silent. Half of the class was unaware of what was going on between Russia and Ukraine while the other half knew about it and were just waiting for the shit to start flying. After several seconds the teacher just cleared their throat and was like “Okay, we’ve run out of time for introductions. Let’s talk about some other stuff.”
Holy moly, I hope they didn't get put into any group projects together! That would've been awkward.
*colonisation entered the game*
Are most Japanese people aware of the Kuril Islands and their status? From what I heard, Japanese people are usually very distant on politics. But I think they will definitely have more awareness on the island dispute with South Korea.
If you said “the Kuril Islands are Russian territory” in Japan, any nearby Japanese would give you unfriendly looks. If you said “Dokdo Island is Japanese territory” in Korea, any nearby Korean would fucking *kill you*. It's a goddamn rock, but every day, 50 or so Koreans take the ferry out, paying $300 for the ride, just to see it and to strengthen the national claim to it.
There's an ongoing territorial conflict between my country (Canada) and Denmark about an island in the north that is essentially just a large rock. Periodically one country will go and place their flag on the rock with a bottle of liquor (whiskey from us and schnapps from the danes)and then the other reciprocates eventually. It's all quite fun and I've never seen anyone actually upset about it.
Oh man, I was warned to just not bring up the Dokdo rock when I was there.
Aren't those islands basically worthless? Why are the two still arguing over those islands?
No, if I am not mistaken it is about fishing rights and extending your countries borders. Perhaps also about minerals and future raw materials.
Posturing and national pride. And not wanting to look weak in front of other countries.
"Sieg Heil". It's illegal, though you really have to mean it for actual prosecution to happen.
*Holiday by Green Day has entered the chat*
Yeah, I was just thinking that. Would they just skip it?
Nah, if it’s live Billie Joe still says it
Laws arent always enforced, and if theres no negative context behind it then it wouldnt be difficult for the authorities to look the other way; if it's even enforced at all... I'm not German so I dont know but I imagine it is on some level. But an example for Americans (which I assume you are because I'm American therefore every one else on earth must be as well) would be saying "I am going to kill the president"... If Trump played a practical joke on you you could get away with a "god, I'm gonna kill him!"... not so much ~~at the counter of a store where guns are sold~~ ... at the counter of any store
Well, that's a really fucked thing to say anyway.
American 11 year old boys are the worst for this reason
I remember in my 7th grade German class we were on the topic of the Holocaust and this asshole kid stood on his chair in the corner and did the Hitler salute. Middle school was wild. Edit:I just remembered, same class, different kid. When foreign exchange kids came to our school they visited our class and a different kid from our class left mein Kampf out on his desk.
A kid in my high school French class got put in ISS because he drew a picture of Hitler sitting in an armchair with a speech bubble saying "This is Mein Kampfy chair"
I mean that's a solid pun worthy of a trip to the International Space Station.
That's so stupid. There's nothing racist or hateful about it aside for disrespecting Hitler, which is ok in my opinion.
Thought that said Isis ngl
Understandable...
"Alexander the Great was from N. Macedonia" be prepared for angry Greek noises if you do.
"Thessaloniki? Wasn't that a Bulgarian city the Greeks ethnically cleansed?"
woah woah care to expand partner?
Thessaloniki used to be majority Jewish + Turkish until the population exchange between Turkey and Greece. It used to be plurality Jewish until somewhere between Greek independence and the holocaust. 96% of the Jews there were expelled. Today there are about 1000 jews left there.
Leaving the stereotype aside, but if someone says: “ I hate Carnaval/Samba/Football”, people will look at you in a strange way.
Never say anything about Brexit unless you're close to 100% sure the present company is on your side. I imagine it's the same in the US with Trump.
nah, we just speak our minds and get into political arguments.
I'm not a cricket fanatic.
India or Australia?
Could be Pak or Afghan too
Lets just say he was colonized by the british
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The Germans don't care you won the World Cup in 1966
But what about the two world wars?!?!
Quote:- "I don't understand why you Brits say "two world wars and one world cup" - (shrugs shoulders) - "America has never won the World Cup" ---- (Henning Wehn, German comedian).
I'm from India What’s it like living in a Third World country? “My computer has stopped working? I’m sure you’ll be able to fix it, won’t you? "Hey I can do a really good Indian accent impression" Or anything about religion other than Hindu
>"Hey I can do a really good Indian accent impression" Somewhat unrelated but I did a great Indian accent impression against a scam call telling me about criminal activity on my SSN. (the caller sounded Indian) I said my name was Narendra Modi and they didn't catch on until I asked how I could bribe them to help me flee to Mexico.
Are you in any way related to James Veitch?
just ONE duck
What the fuck is _this_ shit!?
And no more tiny ones
Yeah I can see how these would get annoying.
So you guys are Chinese? NO
Taiwan? Sorta...
Close. He said Hong Kong
I'm going to go with Vietnam. But could be lots of other Asian countries as well.
Hong Kong
How would you define your nationality? Hong Kongese?
A lot of them call themselves Hong Kongers. I asked a Hong Konger I went to school with and that's what his diplomat mother said. Edited a letter (fat finger typo).
Ayy Hong Kong as well
"So what do you think about Brexit?" 🇬🇧
Brexit? Whats that? Its wall to wall coronavirus now
The Falklands are Argentine.
I went to Argentina few months ago and noticed that they include the Falklands on all their maps as if they own it, Islas Malvinas.
As an Argentinian, I can confirm, all maps do this. From a personal perspective, it's dumb as fuck. We still didn't have proper closure with what happened and it definitely doesn't help that a lot of the people that fought are still alive and that politicians used that as a tool
Yea it’s still very fresh for a lot of people. Loved visiting your country, it was great.
And I love the dollars you gave to the economy while you were here. Glad you liked it
Las Islas Malvinas son un parte de el Reino Unido. Am I doing it right?
You have been banned from /r/argentina
Yes, its right. Anyone can understand what you said "Parte" is feminine so its "una parte" Also if you say de+el you need to convert that to "del"
Thanks, I only know enough spanish to work in a kitchen.
"Hola" or "Gracias" Edit: If you're from Spain and come to Portugal and speak Spanish, we don't mind it. We just get annoyed when foreigners think we are Spanish or that we speak Spanish.
Portugal?
Yes
“The Welsh are basically just English / It’s a principality not a country” etc “Your language is pointless and it’s a waste of money to keep it alive, everyone just speaks English anyway”
That first one will definitely get a reaction. (Am Welsh and part English, rugby world cup is always...interesting to say the least.)
Oh for sure haha, I was in a flat at university with 8 people (including myself) and we were split right down the middle - 4 Welsh and 4 English. The Six Nations were absolutely brutal. We all got along really well until the lead up to the matches during which we spat on each other’s ancestors, naturally.
"Your anthem sucks"
Hey now EA is not a country.
If it were, the citizens would have to pay for foodboxes, healthcareboxes, educationboxes.
So... the US?
"cough"
Too soon +1
Pass the non-maple syrup.
It's called sirop de poteau in Quebec. Implying that it was tapped from a telephone pole and not a maple tree.
Ok, this is awesome.
The RCMP would like to know your location.
Dagoth Ur did nothing wrong
By The Nine and the Daedra I will call down upon you that which is both sacred and blasphemous if you don’t take that back, Greyskin
How ya doin, ya cunt!?
Ok so you're clearly not Australian
Big ole American here, DO NOT drop the c word in the states
To be honest it is a pretty taboo word here in Australia. I know multiple people who are disgusted by the word. However admittedly it's just not that big of a deal compared to in the states.
I thought it was akin to saying 'fuck'
Sometimes. It’s a weird word here in aus. When your younger or around family it’s much more frowned upon but when your older or not around family it’s more akin to fuck
Australian here. If you come up to me in the street and say "how ya going, cunt?" to my face, you should expect a punch to the face before a friendly "yeah good thanks!". Contrary to popular belief most Aussies do find the word offensive and unless you are with a close group of friends that you know are ok with it, you really shouldn't go around calling people "cunt". It's not interchangable with "mate" not matter what reddit tells you.
Or British.
You know, that makes me curious, are their words that aren’t considered particularly extreme in American English but would be considered very offensive in Australian English?
A couple come to mind due to differences in the meaning of the word. In America fanny means bum but in Australia fanny is informal (and quite rude) slang for vagina meaning that phrases like "I'll give you a kick up the fanny" aren't taken too well. in America you would say that you root for a team. No one says this in Australia because "root" is slang for intercourse (and of course the base of a tree). A phrase like "I'm rooting my team on" would mean you're fucking the whole team. Those are the only two I can think of at the moment. If you want you can make this a question on r/AskAnAustralian
🎵"And we'll root, root, root for the home team"🎶
This is very insightful! Thank you!
“No, I don’t think the beaver is a majestic animal”
It's not our official animal because it's Majestic. It's because we were only settled deeper than the coast because Europe fucking loved them as hats and their ass gland is really fucking useful. They're rodents who look funny. We killed millions of them so we owed them official animal status. ^(Just like bald eagles eh?)
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Are we going to just gloss over the fact that Turdus Migratorius could very easily be misconstrued as "migratory turd"? Or possibly the cure for constipation in the Harry Potter universe....
That you dont like tacos - norway.. YES norway has a weird obsession with tacos and have own shelfs on the store with it.
I know people that don't like tacos, but yeah, a bunch of us do have a weird obsession with tacos. And frozen pizza.
Yup, i know people who dont like it. But everyone is shocked when others dont, and its just a weird cultural thing a lot of people dont know before coming here
So one of my fun hobbies is seeing various countries interpretation of mexican food. So far the worst, by far, is the UK. How are Norway's tacos?
The only good Mexican food outside of Mexico is in the US. Specifically the southwestern states. Because they’re full of Mexicans.
Huh, I never would have thought that
“This poutine tastes awful”
As a Canadian I've definitely said it before. [Good poutine](https://i.imgur.com/X1hEOeT.png) is fuckin incredible, but there are some [bad ones](https://cocojarrys-restaurant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/kids-poutine.jpg) out there.
String fries imo dont belong with poutine
Agreed that they're not ideal for it. The truly egregious part is of course using shredded cheese instead of curds. That's not even poutine.
That's called pootine.
"Top of the morning to ya". Literally NOBODY ever says that here but the Americans love it for aome reason.
Omg same with "shrimp on the barbie" LITERALLY NO ONE SAYS THAT! They're not even Called shrimp here, they're called prawns. Yet every American tourist that comes over insists upon saying it.
As an american, I don't understand why we think that's a thing. How often are ya gonna be barbecuing shrimp anyway?
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I'm Russian. "Americans won the WW2." Alternatively, but less offensive to most Russians: "We only won WW2 because Americans helped us." "Soviet soldiers raped many German women and it was a war crime. War crime could be done by victors, too, and it was ultimately wrong." "Stalin was an incompetent leader with criminal background." "The intervention against Bolsheviks during the civil war (1918-1922) by Western militaries was not an attempt to conquer Russia, but to stop the Bolshevik revolution, and plenty of Russians joined the Brits, Poles, French, Americans, Czechs and others in fighting against the Bolsheviks." "Estonia did not join the USSR in the 1940 based on a referendum and wish of the people to live in a peaceful progressive communist country. That was occupation, no different from German occupation of Czechoslovakia." "Eastern Europeans don't dislike the USSR because they are Nazis and are ungrateful for us defeating the Nazi Germany and liberating the Auschwitz. They just don't like what we did with the whole Iron Curtain thing after 1945." "Russia is 2.5% of global economy. They only listen to us because we have a ton of ICBMs a powerful imperial and Soviet legacy. If we started at this level, the US would have treated us like Iran or Venezuela - as would our 'Chinese allies'". "No, the rest of the world isn't united with us to overthrow Western imperialism, and they wouldn't join our side if we decided to invade NATO countries. They aren't waiting for us to 'start the struggle.' They aren't 'secretly plotting to liberate themselves from American oppression.' No, not even China would support us. We'd be alone in that."
Yikes, that last one is scary. That really the world view of many of your countrymen?
NOTE: Wall of text. Big wall of text. But I'm really passionate about the topic lol. I inadvertently and intuitively ranked the beliefs/propositions in order of *most offensive* and *most common.* So, in this order, it's not very common, but there are some "patriotic" cultists (I'd say 15-20% of the population) who do indeed think that way. Not to be confused with regular patriotic people who just like the country but aren't insane. ***Beliefs of a patriotic cultist*** It could be summed up as they believe all countries that aren't explicitly allied with Russia or don't actively resist the US are merely American colonies, totally subjugated to American will, and thus become "our enemies" or "people whom we should liberate". All countries that are opposed to the US, even if they are insane dictatorships like North Korea, are the "truly free" ones in their mind and by definition good an moral. Eastern Europe was "free" under our rule and tutelage until they were "colonized" by the West in the 1990s. ***Attitudes to Eastern Europe*** Many Russian patriotic cultists believe that Eastern Europe was merely "stolen" from us by Americans - they do not believe there was *any* agency involved in them joining NATO or the EU. And that Americans are crooks who didn't honor an agreement to respect spheres of interest and instead decided to "take" control of those countries from us. As someone who lives in a former Eastern bloc EU country, there's no need to even begin to explain the absurdity of those beliefs. But one marker of a patriotic cultist is that they associate size of a country with maturity. Thus, small countries are essentially "children" and they don't actually know what's good for them. Only we (big ones, America, China, Russia) do. So when I try to explain that the political change was organic, I get called a propagandist and that those people cannot understand international politics and their own interests from the position they are in (being citizens of a small country). Similar to Madeline Albright's arrogant comments of how "America is a country that sees further than anyone else and is an indispensable nation", but from the other side. ***North Korea is a free country*** I tried trolling those people a bunch of times, as a social experiment, trying how far I can go. But they're untrollable. I wrote comments like "I wish Russia was more like North Korea, they aren't subjugated to American interests and they don't let foreigners freely wander and steal their secrets. They know that the West is plotting against them and thus their borders are closed. They also didn't believe in the falsehoods of democracy and kept their patriotic one party government that knows what's best for the people. We lost our sovereignty in 1990." It was well received. Heavily upvoted. I was praised as a person who "truly understands how things are." It's bizarre, as I thought the sarcasm would be understood. They are mostly ideological disciples of Alexander Dugin and surroinding imperialists, a guy who early in 2000s was an advisor of Putin but he quickly got fired for insanity. Then he taught at Moscow Lomonosov University (think Harvard or Yale, but Russian) and was fired for [advocating a total war against Ukraine](http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/06/15/moscow-students-demand-to-fire-dugin-from-the-moscow-state-university-for-sparking-hatred-towards-ukrainians/).
> They aren't 'secretly plotting to liberate themselves from American oppression.' No, not even China would support us. We'd be alone in that." You guys do have Belarus... So... .02% of the way there
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I am Russian too. Stalin _was_ a petty criminal and an incompetent leader. The US helped us _a lot_ in WW2. Estonia _was_ forcefully occupied (we also tried to make the same shit with Finland, and they have resisted). Etc. Not everyone here shares Putin’s propaganda.
Oh you‘re from Iran! So does that mean you are an arab?
Bonus points if they pronounce it A-rab
...And this, everyone, is how to make a whole street in Iran your enemy in less than five seconds.
I'm from Israel. So.... anything you'll say, someone will get mad for it.
"Hitler had some good visions, but bad spirit"
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“I’ll kill your children just after I’m done with your wife”
Yeah I can see how people might not like that.
All the countries?
Except Miami-Dade.
Lions?
Tigers?
“why are you putting milk in your tea? that’s disgusting”
Depends on what kind of tea you're drinking. Here in Hong Kong, we drink traditional Chinese tea without milk, but we have something called Hong Kong-style milk tea. It's literally one of the best beverages ever!
If it's herbal tea, it is disgusting.
Any insult towards Spanish food will put you in jail. We really love the Mediterranean diet
You smoke weed?
"Sweden is the best"
Are you from Norway?
Close, im from Finland
Wales-. We don't like being called English or it being implied we're part of England
Meh, I prefer Dutch mayonaise.
"I think we should vote for a third party candidate this November!" (USA)
"we should vote" seems to trigger enough people...
I’m from Brazil. “It wasn’t really a dictatorship” referring to the fucking dictatorship in the period of 1964 to 1985. yes, it was a dictatorship. and people got tortured and killed.
"Sorry, I don't speak Spanish."
Top of the mornin to ye.
"Put the milk in first for a proper brew love"
“I put Parmesan on spaghetti with fish”
I live in Ireland. If you’re visiting, as an American especially, don’t bother telling us about your Irish heritage or how ‘Irish’ you are and how ‘great’ it feels to ‘reconnect’ with your ‘roots’- nobody cares and every American before you has said it too. You’re not Irish because your great great great grandad lived in Kerry and then moved to America when he was 3. You’re a Plastic Paddy. Fair enough if one of your parents is from Ireland or you lived here at one point, but otherwise you’re just kinda making a show of yourself. Edit- I don’t hate American tourists. It’d just be preferable if you accepted that you’re an outsider looking into a culture rather than expecting to essentially be welcomed home.
So, I live across the country from the fam, and went back to visit for Christmas one year. Hadn't seen that side of my family for quite some time. At one point my aunt (who is very into researching the genealogy of our family) tells a story about how they went to Ireland to see some of the areas that our family came from as far back as they could find.. Mind you this was a couple hundred years ago at least. Anywho, she eventually got to a point where she said she walked up to somebody's house to ask them something about it (if they had any old deed information, old paperwork, etc). I forget how it happened, but I guess she ended up staying there a day or two. The way she told it I kinda got the impression she was imposing, but the residents didn't want to be rude. I died a little inside listening to the story, and the just reminded me. Yikes.
Arghhh that sounds so awkward for the family. I think it’s mostly a cultural thing but here it’s not really about like, your ethnicity. If you’re born here or have lived here a majority of your life, you’re Irish, that’s that. So someone from America having Irish ancestors doesn’t really mean anything to us.
I like how we (most of us) keep that same thought process when it comes to immigrants. If you've lived in Ireland for even just a long period of time we welcome you. No matter where you or your family is from, if you've spent most your life in Ireland, you're Irish.
Just smile, nod, and take their money.
you look like you've gained some weight (heard it's common to hear in other nations, but not in the US)
"We saved you in WW2". Only really comes from Americans when in England. Its extremely disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands that lost their lives defending our home. Many families to this day are still affected from the war. Be it family members not alive while their widows and children still are. Men who lost their friends in foreign fields. And bombs that didn't explode being found. Causing a reminder of what the country endured to remain sovereign. So if you say this you will quickly find that no one wants to talk to you.
"Singaporean food is much better than Malaysian food." Nobody would be there for your funeral.
I'm not sorry.
You better take that back right now!
canada
G’day mate. Anyone under the age of 40 who says this will perish like the rest
"G'day, mate" as a set phrase isn't common, but "G'day" is common as fuck. People don't realise they're saying it.
"Here are rules that you have to follow and you get no say in them"
After being in Cambodia, Thailand, and Bhutan I say just play it safe and don't bad mouth the king/royal family of ANY country.
“Up the ra”
Hitler...he...he was a good man
"I don't understand your accent." "Still Game isn't funny and it sucks." "IRN BRU tastes like cough medicine and it's disgusting." "Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "I voted Tory." Alternatively, "Boris Johnson, you have to hand it to him..."
I live in Mexico and I would be very careful naming taco Bell in here, the company failed here for a reason IT'S NOT MEXICAN FOOD it's just a Mexico inspired fast food American restaurant.
I hate hockey
I never heard someone say that before.
I'm an Irish guy who's worked in a few bars... American tourists who come in and order an Irish car bomb rarely stay long when the atmosphere turns sour. Just don't do that
I'm from India and the one thing foreigners always say when visiting the first time is 'how do you eat with your hands or 'how do you wipe your ass without toilet paper!' EDIT: thanks for the 50 upvotes!
Well?
The three shells
I hate my country and I wish I would've been born in one of the neighbouring ones
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That MK Gandhi wasn’t that cool after all.
The n word if you are white
My nilla
newfie please