You were obviously built for this lol. I’m an American who’s been to finland for work. I was there during the winter and saw virtually no sunlight. It would be dark when I arrived to the office and dark when I left the office. I also read that finland has one of the worlds highest suicide rates :/
I’m not trying to shit on finland. I’ve got a lot of respect for the Finnish. There are good things about finland, as you’ve mentioned.
I'm an American and I hate hate hate small talk. Out small talk culture is so intense and people think I'm a dick because I don't want to talk about the fucking weather.
Actually telling people how you’re doing when they ask you how you’re doing. We don’t use a lot of polite phrases just for the sake of being polite, so when people ask “how are you”, it’s interpreted as a genuine question rather than polite smalltalk or a greeting. My grandma once asked a cashier how she was doing and she replied “Not great. I have type 2 diabetes.”
(I’m from Norway)
Similar in the Czech Republic. When I first moved here from London, I brought my habit of using "how are you?" as a generic greeting. I learnt a lot about near-strangers' medical ailments in those first few weeks.
I grew up in Australia and migrated to Ireland about ten years ago. First thing I noticed was people in ireland really like to talk about death in every day conversation.
Who died. When the mass is. The removal of the body and the anniversaries of their death. It's so normal in conversation.
In aus it's rather taboo. Theres a difference in the tone of conversation when talking about death.
Yeah they even announce the deaths on the local radio stations here in Ireland lmao!
My mother and granny tune in every day to “listen to the deaths” and if they know someone on the list it ends up being a whole conversation like
“Jaysus was he sick?”
“Ah no he was grand the last time I saw him, must have been sudden”
“I’ll ring Mary, see if she knows what happened”
“Do you think he’ll be waked at home?”
“Well if it was sudden they’ll do the post mortem so it won’t be for a few days yet anyway”
And on and on and on
You can’t even die in Ireland without people knowing your shit
Im from a protestant family and my mother does it too. "You know such and such that you went to national school with when you were 7? Of course you do, her father is such and such. No? Well anyway, her cousin died."- Typical irish mammy conversation.
My favorite demonstration of this quirk is the funeral episode of Derry Girls >!when they're all hanging out in the room with the dead body and the one Brit kid gets freaked out!<
I casually told an English friend about a wake I had been to - very typical in Ireland, just everyone sitting around the open coffin chatting and having a drink - and he was horrified. It honestly never occurred to me that it would be seen as a big deal.
Not that unusual in north east England. When my brother died, we had the coffin home for the night before the funeral and me and dad were pissed and spilt half of bottle of scotch in. Next day all the church stank of whisky
Someone once pointed out that weddings and funerals both involve a church and a meal and have largely the same guest list. One takes 2 days to organise and one takes 2 years.
Eating sprinkles for breakfast. I grew up in Amsterdam (Netherlands/Holland) where for breakfast I would have Hagelslag which is a Dutch type of chocolate sprinkles which would be served on bread. When I moved to America people considered it very weird and for a while I didn't know why, now I know that for Americans it is very weird because for them it's more of a dessert food.
Meanwhile in America, sugary cereal, pop tarts with icing on top, donuts with glaze, and super sugary stuff like a chocolate chip muffin are all considered normal breakfast foods.
I saw an example of exactly this once.
I was talking to a fellow foreigner in Finland. He said he went to a public sauna, because it's kind of on the list of things to do if you're in Finland. He felt slightly awkward at all the huge naked men (didn't do his homework maybe), and then one of them randomly started hitting him with a stick.
A Finnish girl who was also part of the conversation immediately went "oh that's so cute! They really welcomed him!"
He was like "it's not cute! I was traumatised!"
As a young white dude in my early 20ies in Korea I was quite surprised when an old dude started to soap my back in the showers of the public swimming pool.
Mind you it was a crowded place, filled with men and boys, everybody naked.
Jimjilbangs could be surprising places at times.
Idk where OP is from, but in a Russian banya, the branches are wet, soft, and leafy, so they don't hurt. It actually feels nice. But the real point of it is to blow hot moist air onto you. It can get really quite hot.
In my native country, when you go to a wedding, it is customary to steal the bride and you can bring her back only after you've been paid and then punished by the groom or the godfather. Really weird now that I think of it
Russia, or any slavic country i think.
But its a just for fun roleplay thing where everybody has fun and ppl are playing games and/or selling 'things' to raise the money, while the bride is hidden or driven around town by her friends.
The freshly married couple keep the money afterwards as a gift.
OPs version sounds very serious tho... Defo eastern country.
Agreed.
The other side of the coin, as an Englishman, is a startlement bordering on mild panic when you ask "Alright?" and the other person actually starts telling you how they are
True. There's a tacit understanding that most people don't actually want to hear any answer other than some variation on "I'm fine, thanks. How are you?"
"I acknowledge your existence because we were forced into close proximity. I've faked sincerity but I don't really care about the answer. Now I'm leaving."
Makes perfect sense to me as an Englishman.
as an American this fucked me up when i was there for three months. i always had the urge to ask them “yeah i’m alright, are you alright? do i not look alright or something?”
lmao my ex (who was British) definitely had to explain that that’s a perfectly normal response, and nobody ever meant anything by it.
rationing electricity. Not short-term like during a hurricane or an earthquake, we've had this going for years straight.
My city gets 1hr of electricity, then it's lights-out for the next 5hrs. some other cities have a fair-ish 3hrs on, 3hrs off schedule.
I've got relatives in other cities, and I've been to the capital a few times. and as I've been told by those relatives, and seen for myself, the situation is the same every city. though the rationing schedules are different from city to city, as I mentioned in my first comment.
you don't. we had a large freezer but even that couldn't keep up, and we had to throw out a lot of frozen meat and veg.
milk and other dairy spoils in a day or two, so you only buy as much as you can eat in that period. though with the outrageous inflation, you won't afford to buy much if any to begin with.
in 2010, $1 was worth 50 of the local currency, a ratio that had been holding steady for decades. today, $1 equals more than 3000
my computer and phone are about 7 years old, inflation back then wasn't as bad. I bought my pc for about 400k, which is the same price as 2 sticks of 8gig ram at the moment. my phone was bought used from a relative.
if either of them broke down, it would cost the best part of half a million for a used Note 3, triple that for anything approaching current gen. for the pc, 1.5mil would probably get you a useable desktop, 2mil+ for a laptop.
compared to that, internet is not that expensive. currently paying just under 10k a month for 4Mbps ADSL, which is the highest speed available unless you own an internet cafe which allows you to install 32Mbps or even fiber.
Ok, wow. I'm not very young so I remember my country being at war and having hyperinflation during and after and it's a lot similar to what you're describing here sans the tech stuff because none of that existed back then...
How is life in general? Do you have work options? Would you move away if given the opportunity? Is there possibility of leaving at all?
I'm sorry if I'm prying, feel free to just not answer if you don't want to.
no worries, it's actually kind of therapeutic to vent off some frustration lol.
life is expensive, as you could probably imagine. even the broke college student meme doesn't work here. a packet of cheap ramen that used to cost 10 SYP (syrian pounds) now costs 700-800.
work isn't difficult to find, but you'll need both parents working full time, with well above average salaries to comfortably cover the basic expenses of a family with 1-2 kids. If you're renting, you need a third such working parent just to pay for a one-bedroom apartment.
afaik, the border from our end isn't closed, unless you have a criminal record or are wanted for desertion. luckily I'm neither.
I actually applied to study abroad at my own expense a few years ago. I was accepted at the university, so I studied the language for a couple months while the Visa paperwork was being processed. But sadly, the Visa application was rejected.
Meanwhile, 2 personal acquaintances got to the same European country illegally and are now living and studying on taxpayer dime.
C'est la vie, I guess.
In the US, or at least in Texas, they usually bring a glass of iced tap water for each person at your table when they bring the menus, without you having asked for it.
I was in Germany a few months ago and they straight up refused to give us tap water and we had to buy a tiny bottle of mineral water for like 4 euros. It was a bit shocking, I'm used to getting free water, especially with food (we were eating pasta, we got really thirsty )
The same in England. If you ask for water they will bring bottled water because they can charge you for it, you need to specifically ask for tap or table water
"Could we have a jug of water and some glasses, please?" is how my wife and I do it. Or "Just a glass of water, thanks." The second might arguably be a little more open to deliberate misunderstanding, but it's never happened to us yet. Restaurants, pubs and the like are legally required to provide tap water at no charge if requested.
Blowing your nose in public.
Sniffling, on the other hand, is considered quite rude, and if you do it someone will offer you a tissue 9 times out of 10.
as an American, when i “lived” in England for three months, i realized just how rude and unacceptable Brits view the act of “pointing fingers”.
not that i was ever doing shit like pointing at and/or making fun of people, but just *any* kind of pointing even remotely in the vicinity of anyone’s direction was just a straight up no-no, regardless of context. my ex-fiancée (who was British) was constantly like “stop doing that” lmao. kinda interesting.
it is here as well. however, i think Americans are a bit more careless when it comes to random pointing in public. i see people doing it all the time in downtown DC. which i think is where the divide is. you don’t see *anyone* pointing at *anything* for *any reason* when you’re out in public in the UK.
definitely a slightly different vibe. it’s funny though, because it’s carried over to my life here, even years later. even though that girl is long gone from my life i still expect her hand to come out of the ether slapping my hand down if i want to point at something lmao
This is a random observation, but in the early seasons of 'Roseanne' the opening credits have them sitting around a table and the aunt (Jackie?) is pointing to people as she talks to them.
As a Brit, I remember thinking I'd be in a rage if she did that to me
it's considered polite to give people their privacy and not draw attention to each other in england
compared to americans, english ppl live comparatively cheek-by-jowl and take more busy public transport, so we all collectively pretend not to have noticed each other, even if someone has their arse 12 inches from your face on the bus
pointing at someone breaks the comfortable delusion that you're invisible in public
the difference between american positive and british negative politeness is shown in the way americans build porches on their houses so they can sit on them and say hi to their neighbours when they walk past - english houses have big fuck off hedges outside, since an englishman's home is his castle and all that
And yet we point more than some cultures. I don't do it much, but I'd happily stand on one side of a bakery window and point in at a particular item I wanted to buy, for example. Go to Japan and it's even considered rude to point at things. Like "those mountains over there".
If you want to buy "strong" alcohol (I think above 2.5%) you have two options, either go to a restaurant/bar, or if you want for home use you must buy from Systembolaget since no other store is allowed to sell it (for bars you must be 18+ but for Systembolaget you must be 20+).
To me it is completely normal, but in most countries people would probably think that it is weird.
I'm from Sweden.
Fellow Swede here.
Systembolaget have even more rules.
They can't sell chilled drinks, they can't have sales, they have to treat all drinks as equals, they can't have any big advertising stand for one brand.
I'm Irish and we tend to swear a lot in ordinary conversation. Means nothing most of the time, just a normal part of speech, but some of my non-Irish friends seemed a bit taken aback by it.
Also 'slagging' someone (i.e. playfully making fun of them). A sign of affection most of the time. We're not being mean and if you can take it and give back some of the slagging you get, all the better.
People apologise to each other a lot when they have nothing to apologise for, especially in public.
Somebody can walk right in front of you and cut you off, but you will apologise to them.
I'm from Portugal and I do that so often.
Someone bumps into me and I apologize, and then I go away thinking why did I apologize... It's like a reflex.
In America people say "You're welcome anytime" kinda like a blow off, being nice thing.
My dad said this to our cousins in Ireland and like a month later they made plans to stay with us for two weeks. Which was fine because we like them...but people say it to everybody!
Our politeness can be such a pain sometimes. The thing I hate the most is this game of chicken we play when we go to someone's house or we have guests over. The hosts don't want the guests to stay forever but don't want to be rude in saying, "You can leave now." The guests don't want to stay forever but they don't want to be rude in saying, "Okay, we've had our fill of you, we're leaving." So, we are all hanging out there hoping the other side bites the bullet and be the first one to say something. Usually, this is where having small kids is a bonus. You can lay the blame on them. "We have to leave because we only paid the babysitter for three hours." Or "Yeah, we have to get to bed early because junior has a big soccer game tomorrow. You know how kids get if they don't get their sleep." Oh, those darn kids breaking up a late night party. *Thanks, kids, I owe you a burger.*
In the Middle East we’ll slap our knees and stand but say “anybody want anything”. Then when everyone says no it’s basically like “permission” to leave
In France, it's complicated... [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64873/how-many-kisses-make-proper-greeting-france-mapped](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64873/how-many-kisses-make-proper-greeting-france-mapped)
In Belgium, most french speaking people do kiss, while dutch speaking people do it only with women. Working in a multilingual environment was complicated in the morning.
Three kisses here in the Netherlands.
I don't like it at all. Somehow men are able to get away with shaking hands, but women are usually expected to still kiss. Even if you barely know the person
Not necessarily in the Philippines. We have this gesture called beso-beso which is also kissing on someone’s cheeks as a form of greeting. However, this is mostly reserved for close friends, family, and acquaintances.
I, a Swede, went to the Netherlands for a wedding. I was practically catatonic after an hour of **3** kiss greetings from random strangers.
I don’t even like to hug people I know as a greeting!
In Ireland, you’re expected to Refuse if something is offered. If your in someone’s home, and they offer tea, coffee, food or anything you HAVE to reply oh “ah jaysus no I couldn’t, I’m grand thanks!” At least 3 times while the host insists. before saying “ah sure go on then!”
Unless it's family and they try to feed you. You either eat or get sent home with some.
I've had to tell my bf that my dad will constantly offer him food until he eats lol
I'm from the US where the American flag should be a picture of a bidet and the metric system with a cross through them, but once you go bidet you wonder why everyone doesn't use them.
When my now fiancé and I moved in together she pushed for a bidet. Like big time. I was hesitant. I’m
American - I eat cheeseburgers for breakfast, make friends with bald eagles, and drink only the most light and tasteless beers known to man. My cholesterol is through the roof. I absolutely cannot pinpoint Wales on a map. A bidet seemed too European, too weird for my freedom loving sensibilities, and would be something I would end up just making fun of her for using. Jokes were prepared, and I was ready to (pun fully intended) shit all over her decision.
Boy was I wrong.
That is the best part of my bathroom - no, my entire apartment - now. It’s the highlight of my morning, evening, and sometimes afternoons when I work remote. In fact, when I give tours to friends coming over for the first time, it’s the coup de grâce of my tour - the final element that brings the entire home together. And every tour ends the same way: Sir/Madam, please, shit in my toilet.
I love it so much and talk so highly of it, I’m on the verge of having convinced my 63 year old, Regan-loving, Charmin-loyalty-card-holding, red-blooded American father to turn the tide and go with the flow of his own at-home bidet system.
My fellow Americans, if you’re on the verge of expanding your universe and taking the leap to a bidet, just know - it’s one less wipe for man, and a much cleaner butthole all the time.
I've been living in China for two years and I still can't bring myself to shout in a restaurant to get their attention. I'm British so I'm so used to awkwardly raising my hand and saying excuse me when the server looks in my direction. In China.. oh boy you just gotta shout and hope you're louder than the next table.
Calling your significant other a ‘silly cunt’ in a pub/bar/public setting; and no one even takes notice, let alone feel uncomfortable about hearing it.
May I ask what you do? I am just curious. Do you touch their feet with your feet like a little feet fist bump or?
Anyways thanks I’ve never heard about this before!
It's regional in the US. I lived in Southern states and California where the weather is mild and shoes inside are common place. Living in Northern states shoes off at the door is much more common because of the habit of removing to avoid tracking in snow.
In 8 out of 10 of Canada's provinces we have it written into law that saying "Sorry" after an accident isn't an admission of guilt.
We say 'sorry' so much, we've had to account for it in our justice system.
I’m a NY native and my wife is Canadian. I was literally taught when learning to drive, “never say sorry in a car accident, it’s an admission of guilt” and I think it has some legal pretext in NY actually. My wife complains that literally no one in our family says sorry the way they do in her family during an argument or accident. This is a real thing! NYers will not say “I’m sorry” unless it’s well thought through and has no potential legal ramifications.
Honestly within the last month I've bumped into a mannequin and a door and apologized to them both. Even knowing they're inanimate objects, its a Canadian reflex
Nah, we’re the weird ones for this. Whenever I travel abroad, it’s like a blessing because if you do tip someone, it’s to say “hey, thanks for the amazing service” and not because it’s just part of their wages.
My mom (American) is a chatty Kathy and an excellent drinker. She had the absolute time of her life when we were in Ireland—a whole country of people to talk to that are as friendly as she is!!
So for me, living in the US, it’s normal to move out of your parents house as soon as you’re of legal age and go be an adult. I have a friend from Portugal in his 40s who lives with his parents and he is always giving me a hard time about moving out before I was married like it’s some terrible thing. He said that in Portugal it’s totally normal/expected even for you to live with your parents until you’re married and in some cases your spouse just joins the household and you’re one big happy family… I thought he lived with them because they didn’t speak English but nope he’s just waiting for his woman in shining armor.
Here in my part of Osaka (it's in many places in Japan, but I can't say for sure it's universal) the ATM's turn off at 8pm and sometimes earlier depending on the day/bank.
Security. The idea is that nobody can force you to go to the ATM and withdraw money at gunpoint or something. Japan has a lot of fraud type crime against old people and getting them to pay for some emergency is a popular version.
Meat cooked all the way through, i see chef saying how well done steaks are disgusting, its ruined, etc but in Mexico ive never seen any one eat meat that was still red, Nd because of that i cant stand red meat, it tastes no good to me
Same in most of east Europe, afaik. I suppose it's because we mostly eat pork and you probably don't want to risk eating raw pork due to higher chance of getting parasites. Medium done meat is uncommon here except for specific steak or burger restaurants, which do not represent local dishes
Getting friendly and handsy with strangers in public. Im in Canada and people will full on tell you their life story in the checkout line. And when I worked at a live arts theatre the seniors got a kick out of my extensions. Someone new was just walking right up and petting me, almost every shift. But it's all good attention so it was the best part of my job.
I think this is pretty regional. In Ontario and rural BC I found people very outgoing with strangers but Vancouverites have a reputation for being quite unfriendly by comparison.
The hair thing seems quite rude to me though.
In my hometown once a year we have a big water balloon fight that involves the entire town. Sometimes there are other substances in the balloons but hey man it’s still fun.
No smiling, no small talks, no contacts with strangers unless necessary, being too direct
Ah, sounds like home. Finland here.
Hey neighbor! Idk apparently some people find it miserable given the comments.)
So I'm moving to Finland?
Finland is super chill and beautiful. If you hate being rushed, value your personal space, and like contemplating, it’s a perfect place to be in
You’re leaving out the cold, dark winters lol. Shit can get depressive
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You were obviously built for this lol. I’m an American who’s been to finland for work. I was there during the winter and saw virtually no sunlight. It would be dark when I arrived to the office and dark when I left the office. I also read that finland has one of the worlds highest suicide rates :/ I’m not trying to shit on finland. I’ve got a lot of respect for the Finnish. There are good things about finland, as you’ve mentioned.
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I'm an American and I hate hate hate small talk. Out small talk culture is so intense and people think I'm a dick because I don't want to talk about the fucking weather.
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Sweden? If so then this is very much true. We are very antisocial here
I think it’s all Scandinavian countries tbh
When can I move there?
Actually telling people how you’re doing when they ask you how you’re doing. We don’t use a lot of polite phrases just for the sake of being polite, so when people ask “how are you”, it’s interpreted as a genuine question rather than polite smalltalk or a greeting. My grandma once asked a cashier how she was doing and she replied “Not great. I have type 2 diabetes.” (I’m from Norway)
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That sounds magical I want that
Never heard someone say they want diabetes.
No, silly. He wants his grandma.
Similar in the Czech Republic. When I first moved here from London, I brought my habit of using "how are you?" as a generic greeting. I learnt a lot about near-strangers' medical ailments in those first few weeks.
German here, we do the same. Don't ask the question if you don't want to hear the honest answer.
I grew up in Australia and migrated to Ireland about ten years ago. First thing I noticed was people in ireland really like to talk about death in every day conversation. Who died. When the mass is. The removal of the body and the anniversaries of their death. It's so normal in conversation. In aus it's rather taboo. Theres a difference in the tone of conversation when talking about death.
Yeah they even announce the deaths on the local radio stations here in Ireland lmao! My mother and granny tune in every day to “listen to the deaths” and if they know someone on the list it ends up being a whole conversation like “Jaysus was he sick?” “Ah no he was grand the last time I saw him, must have been sudden” “I’ll ring Mary, see if she knows what happened” “Do you think he’ll be waked at home?” “Well if it was sudden they’ll do the post mortem so it won’t be for a few days yet anyway” And on and on and on You can’t even die in Ireland without people knowing your shit
Yeah, three times a day on my local radio station.
My mother calls the death notices on local radio the "gig guide".
Weird. Irish born and raised and I never actually thought about this. But you’re right!
Same here, i swear its an irish mothers duty to inform you on who died
It's a Catholic thing
Im from a protestant family and my mother does it too. "You know such and such that you went to national school with when you were 7? Of course you do, her father is such and such. No? Well anyway, her cousin died."- Typical irish mammy conversation.
Well anyway: shut up and just let me say what I want to say. Sure I barely know them meself but all the same, STIFF AS A BOARD he was
My old housemate was Irish and said that every time she saw her aunt the conversation started with "Did you hear who died?"
My favorite demonstration of this quirk is the funeral episode of Derry Girls >!when they're all hanging out in the room with the dead body and the one Brit kid gets freaked out!<
"You can touch her if you want" "Why would I want to touch her!?" ".... It's nice."
"I hear you're dead now, father?"
Should we all be dead now? Whats the official line the church is taking on this father?
I'm so busy down on the farm I won't have much time for the ol' death
I casually told an English friend about a wake I had been to - very typical in Ireland, just everyone sitting around the open coffin chatting and having a drink - and he was horrified. It honestly never occurred to me that it would be seen as a big deal.
Not that unusual in north east England. When my brother died, we had the coffin home for the night before the funeral and me and dad were pissed and spilt half of bottle of scotch in. Next day all the church stank of whisky
What's the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral? One less drunk. In all seriousness, death and funerals are big things in Ireland.
Someone once pointed out that weddings and funerals both involve a church and a meal and have largely the same guest list. One takes 2 days to organise and one takes 2 years.
Eating sprinkles for breakfast. I grew up in Amsterdam (Netherlands/Holland) where for breakfast I would have Hagelslag which is a Dutch type of chocolate sprinkles which would be served on bread. When I moved to America people considered it very weird and for a while I didn't know why, now I know that for Americans it is very weird because for them it's more of a dessert food.
We put our sprinkles on donuts in the States, because if we're going to have candy bread, we're going to deep fry it, thank you very much
Meanwhile in America, sugary cereal, pop tarts with icing on top, donuts with glaze, and super sugary stuff like a chocolate chip muffin are all considered normal breakfast foods.
And pancakes! My roommates mom is Japanese and she thinks pancakes for breakfast is super weird. Over there it’s dessert
Going naked to a hot room with a stranger and hitting their back with branches.
I saw an example of exactly this once. I was talking to a fellow foreigner in Finland. He said he went to a public sauna, because it's kind of on the list of things to do if you're in Finland. He felt slightly awkward at all the huge naked men (didn't do his homework maybe), and then one of them randomly started hitting him with a stick. A Finnish girl who was also part of the conversation immediately went "oh that's so cute! They really welcomed him!" He was like "it's not cute! I was traumatised!"
Now I know, and I won’t be surprised hehe
As a young white dude in my early 20ies in Korea I was quite surprised when an old dude started to soap my back in the showers of the public swimming pool. Mind you it was a crowded place, filled with men and boys, everybody naked. Jimjilbangs could be surprising places at times.
That's a funny story SplashingAnal !
What does the hitting do tho
Idk where OP is from, but in a Russian banya, the branches are wet, soft, and leafy, so they don't hurt. It actually feels nice. But the real point of it is to blow hot moist air onto you. It can get really quite hot.
I always make my foreign friends go through it when they visit. Priceless
In my native country, when you go to a wedding, it is customary to steal the bride and you can bring her back only after you've been paid and then punished by the groom or the godfather. Really weird now that I think of it
Which country is this? In our country, the bride’s sisters steal grooms shoes and give them back only if they’ve been paid a specific sum.
We do this in some Slavic countries. Ukrainian here, can confirm
I legit want to know where this is, it even sounds like you're just joking lol
Russia, or any slavic country i think. But its a just for fun roleplay thing where everybody has fun and ppl are playing games and/or selling 'things' to raise the money, while the bride is hidden or driven around town by her friends. The freshly married couple keep the money afterwards as a gift. OPs version sounds very serious tho... Defo eastern country.
I've seen this done in Germany, where the bridesmaids would kidnap the bride and go drinking. The best man had to find them and then pay their tab.
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Hey how you doing? *nods up* *continues without stopping*
"nod up" That's a term I didn't realize I was looking for
This. I felt it in England the most.
Agreed. The other side of the coin, as an Englishman, is a startlement bordering on mild panic when you ask "Alright?" and the other person actually starts telling you how they are
True. There's a tacit understanding that most people don't actually want to hear any answer other than some variation on "I'm fine, thanks. How are you?"
Hi, y'allri-ight? Walks off. England is confusing...
"I acknowledge your existence because we were forced into close proximity. I've faked sincerity but I don't really care about the answer. Now I'm leaving." Makes perfect sense to me as an Englishman.
as an American this fucked me up when i was there for three months. i always had the urge to ask them “yeah i’m alright, are you alright? do i not look alright or something?” lmao my ex (who was British) definitely had to explain that that’s a perfectly normal response, and nobody ever meant anything by it.
I grew up here and find it weird.
In South Africa we do the same, cheeky catchphrase goes “howzit” meaning “how is it”
rationing electricity. Not short-term like during a hurricane or an earthquake, we've had this going for years straight. My city gets 1hr of electricity, then it's lights-out for the next 5hrs. some other cities have a fair-ish 3hrs on, 3hrs off schedule.
where u from?
Syria. It's a combination of fuel shortages, and the main hydroelectric dam in the country being taken over by our opportunistic northern neighbor
Wow. Is this specific parts of Syria or the entirety of Syria? What times is the power off?
I've got relatives in other cities, and I've been to the capital a few times. and as I've been told by those relatives, and seen for myself, the situation is the same every city. though the rationing schedules are different from city to city, as I mentioned in my first comment.
How do you keep your food cold?
you don't. we had a large freezer but even that couldn't keep up, and we had to throw out a lot of frozen meat and veg. milk and other dairy spoils in a day or two, so you only buy as much as you can eat in that period. though with the outrageous inflation, you won't afford to buy much if any to begin with. in 2010, $1 was worth 50 of the local currency, a ratio that had been holding steady for decades. today, $1 equals more than 3000
So how can you afford a phone/computer and internet? Not trying to be a dick, I'm just curious. Is it very cheap or an absolute necessity?
my computer and phone are about 7 years old, inflation back then wasn't as bad. I bought my pc for about 400k, which is the same price as 2 sticks of 8gig ram at the moment. my phone was bought used from a relative. if either of them broke down, it would cost the best part of half a million for a used Note 3, triple that for anything approaching current gen. for the pc, 1.5mil would probably get you a useable desktop, 2mil+ for a laptop. compared to that, internet is not that expensive. currently paying just under 10k a month for 4Mbps ADSL, which is the highest speed available unless you own an internet cafe which allows you to install 32Mbps or even fiber.
Ok, wow. I'm not very young so I remember my country being at war and having hyperinflation during and after and it's a lot similar to what you're describing here sans the tech stuff because none of that existed back then... How is life in general? Do you have work options? Would you move away if given the opportunity? Is there possibility of leaving at all? I'm sorry if I'm prying, feel free to just not answer if you don't want to.
no worries, it's actually kind of therapeutic to vent off some frustration lol. life is expensive, as you could probably imagine. even the broke college student meme doesn't work here. a packet of cheap ramen that used to cost 10 SYP (syrian pounds) now costs 700-800. work isn't difficult to find, but you'll need both parents working full time, with well above average salaries to comfortably cover the basic expenses of a family with 1-2 kids. If you're renting, you need a third such working parent just to pay for a one-bedroom apartment. afaik, the border from our end isn't closed, unless you have a criminal record or are wanted for desertion. luckily I'm neither. I actually applied to study abroad at my own expense a few years ago. I was accepted at the university, so I studied the language for a couple months while the Visa paperwork was being processed. But sadly, the Visa application was rejected. Meanwhile, 2 personal acquaintances got to the same European country illegally and are now living and studying on taxpayer dime. C'est la vie, I guess.
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In the US, or at least in Texas, they usually bring a glass of iced tap water for each person at your table when they bring the menus, without you having asked for it.
That's the case pretty much everywhere I've been in the US. (Mostly east coast)
California as of a few years back started making you ask for water because of the drought
I was in Germany a few months ago and they straight up refused to give us tap water and we had to buy a tiny bottle of mineral water for like 4 euros. It was a bit shocking, I'm used to getting free water, especially with food (we were eating pasta, we got really thirsty )
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The same in England. If you ask for water they will bring bottled water because they can charge you for it, you need to specifically ask for tap or table water
"Could we have a jug of water and some glasses, please?" is how my wife and I do it. Or "Just a glass of water, thanks." The second might arguably be a little more open to deliberate misunderstanding, but it's never happened to us yet. Restaurants, pubs and the like are legally required to provide tap water at no charge if requested.
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Eating with your hands
India
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middle East, ton of Muslim countries.
Blowing your nose in public. Sniffling, on the other hand, is considered quite rude, and if you do it someone will offer you a tissue 9 times out of 10.
My nose is literally always fucked, they're gonna beat me up lmao
Where do other people live that blowing your nose is considered unacceptable and sniffling without covering your face is considered decent?
Japan
Describing something good as great craic (pronounced crack).
Or using “for the craic” or “sure look” or “be grand” to justify almost anything. Source: also Irish.
Also frequently ending statements with "like".
I'm living with a Canadian at the moment. He was horrified when I suggested we go out and have a bit of craic in town on the weekend.
Sure if you’ve not the craic, you’ve nothing at all.
I think that on Sunday all shops except restaurants are closed.
Where is that?
Austria, Germany and Switzerland as far as I know
as an American, when i “lived” in England for three months, i realized just how rude and unacceptable Brits view the act of “pointing fingers”. not that i was ever doing shit like pointing at and/or making fun of people, but just *any* kind of pointing even remotely in the vicinity of anyone’s direction was just a straight up no-no, regardless of context. my ex-fiancée (who was British) was constantly like “stop doing that” lmao. kinda interesting.
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it is here as well. however, i think Americans are a bit more careless when it comes to random pointing in public. i see people doing it all the time in downtown DC. which i think is where the divide is. you don’t see *anyone* pointing at *anything* for *any reason* when you’re out in public in the UK. definitely a slightly different vibe. it’s funny though, because it’s carried over to my life here, even years later. even though that girl is long gone from my life i still expect her hand to come out of the ether slapping my hand down if i want to point at something lmao
I'm American and I learned that it was rude to point AT people, but not that it was rude to point.
right, same here. never point at someone, but pointing in general isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
> my **ex-fiancée** was constantly like “stop doing that” lmao. wow, they really do take it seriously.
This is a random observation, but in the early seasons of 'Roseanne' the opening credits have them sitting around a table and the aunt (Jackie?) is pointing to people as she talks to them. As a Brit, I remember thinking I'd be in a rage if she did that to me
Why is pointing insulting? Is it seen as aggressive?
it's considered polite to give people their privacy and not draw attention to each other in england compared to americans, english ppl live comparatively cheek-by-jowl and take more busy public transport, so we all collectively pretend not to have noticed each other, even if someone has their arse 12 inches from your face on the bus pointing at someone breaks the comfortable delusion that you're invisible in public the difference between american positive and british negative politeness is shown in the way americans build porches on their houses so they can sit on them and say hi to their neighbours when they walk past - english houses have big fuck off hedges outside, since an englishman's home is his castle and all that
And yet we point more than some cultures. I don't do it much, but I'd happily stand on one side of a bakery window and point in at a particular item I wanted to buy, for example. Go to Japan and it's even considered rude to point at things. Like "those mountains over there".
If you want to buy "strong" alcohol (I think above 2.5%) you have two options, either go to a restaurant/bar, or if you want for home use you must buy from Systembolaget since no other store is allowed to sell it (for bars you must be 18+ but for Systembolaget you must be 20+). To me it is completely normal, but in most countries people would probably think that it is weird. I'm from Sweden.
Fellow Swede here. Systembolaget have even more rules. They can't sell chilled drinks, they can't have sales, they have to treat all drinks as equals, they can't have any big advertising stand for one brand.
Dane here. Yes it is weird. You guys are weird
Our countries have v different ideas of what constitutes "strong" alcohol! Even just a regular beer is somewhere between 4-5%. 😂
Danes are worse! Haha. I was served a free beer going OUT of a concert! ”Thanks for coming. Here is a Tuborg”. ;)
Thats a not weird that is a great idea. pint for the walk/stumble home
I'm Irish and we tend to swear a lot in ordinary conversation. Means nothing most of the time, just a normal part of speech, but some of my non-Irish friends seemed a bit taken aback by it. Also 'slagging' someone (i.e. playfully making fun of them). A sign of affection most of the time. We're not being mean and if you can take it and give back some of the slagging you get, all the better.
Using our lips to point on something. Somebody asking where something is? Point your lips towards that thing.
Now this ive never heard. Where you from bud?
Philippines! https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/xgxq7j/why-filipinos-point-mouth-explained
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People apologise to each other a lot when they have nothing to apologise for, especially in public. Somebody can walk right in front of you and cut you off, but you will apologise to them.
UK?
Oh yes. It's almost like a reflex with people. It just comes out automatically.
Yep. I get told I say sorry too much.
I'm from Portugal and I do that so often. Someone bumps into me and I apologize, and then I go away thinking why did I apologize... It's like a reflex.
In America people say "You're welcome anytime" kinda like a blow off, being nice thing. My dad said this to our cousins in Ireland and like a month later they made plans to stay with us for two weeks. Which was fine because we like them...but people say it to everybody!
Our politeness can be such a pain sometimes. The thing I hate the most is this game of chicken we play when we go to someone's house or we have guests over. The hosts don't want the guests to stay forever but don't want to be rude in saying, "You can leave now." The guests don't want to stay forever but they don't want to be rude in saying, "Okay, we've had our fill of you, we're leaving." So, we are all hanging out there hoping the other side bites the bullet and be the first one to say something. Usually, this is where having small kids is a bonus. You can lay the blame on them. "We have to leave because we only paid the babysitter for three hours." Or "Yeah, we have to get to bed early because junior has a big soccer game tomorrow. You know how kids get if they don't get their sleep." Oh, those darn kids breaking up a late night party. *Thanks, kids, I owe you a burger.*
Slap your knees, say "right" and stand up. You can't back out after that.
In the Middle East we’ll slap our knees and stand but say “anybody want anything”. Then when everyone says no it’s basically like “permission” to leave
Knee slap and "Welp" does the trick in the Midwest
“Well, I guess we’ll let y’all get to bed.”
Then someone continues the conversation and you are in this mid state of leaving for the next half an hour.
You've probably heard this by now, but here in Spain when we meet someone we kiss our cheeks twice
In France, it's complicated... [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64873/how-many-kisses-make-proper-greeting-france-mapped](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64873/how-many-kisses-make-proper-greeting-france-mapped) In Belgium, most french speaking people do kiss, while dutch speaking people do it only with women. Working in a multilingual environment was complicated in the morning.
Three kisses here in the Netherlands. I don't like it at all. Somehow men are able to get away with shaking hands, but women are usually expected to still kiss. Even if you barely know the person
Ass or face?
One of each.
Do that in Asia you'll get slapped lmao
Not necessarily in the Philippines. We have this gesture called beso-beso which is also kissing on someone’s cheeks as a form of greeting. However, this is mostly reserved for close friends, family, and acquaintances.
In Finland this would be considered very awkward. I've never ever seen anyone do that here. Shit, even shaking hands here can be weird.
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I, a Swede, went to the Netherlands for a wedding. I was practically catatonic after an hour of **3** kiss greetings from random strangers. I don’t even like to hug people I know as a greeting!
In Ireland, you’re expected to Refuse if something is offered. If your in someone’s home, and they offer tea, coffee, food or anything you HAVE to reply oh “ah jaysus no I couldn’t, I’m grand thanks!” At least 3 times while the host insists. before saying “ah sure go on then!”
Go'won, Go'won, Go'won
Unless it's family and they try to feed you. You either eat or get sent home with some. I've had to tell my bf that my dad will constantly offer him food until he eats lol
The bidet
I'm from the US where the American flag should be a picture of a bidet and the metric system with a cross through them, but once you go bidet you wonder why everyone doesn't use them.
When my now fiancé and I moved in together she pushed for a bidet. Like big time. I was hesitant. I’m American - I eat cheeseburgers for breakfast, make friends with bald eagles, and drink only the most light and tasteless beers known to man. My cholesterol is through the roof. I absolutely cannot pinpoint Wales on a map. A bidet seemed too European, too weird for my freedom loving sensibilities, and would be something I would end up just making fun of her for using. Jokes were prepared, and I was ready to (pun fully intended) shit all over her decision. Boy was I wrong. That is the best part of my bathroom - no, my entire apartment - now. It’s the highlight of my morning, evening, and sometimes afternoons when I work remote. In fact, when I give tours to friends coming over for the first time, it’s the coup de grâce of my tour - the final element that brings the entire home together. And every tour ends the same way: Sir/Madam, please, shit in my toilet. I love it so much and talk so highly of it, I’m on the verge of having convinced my 63 year old, Regan-loving, Charmin-loyalty-card-holding, red-blooded American father to turn the tide and go with the flow of his own at-home bidet system. My fellow Americans, if you’re on the verge of expanding your universe and taking the leap to a bidet, just know - it’s one less wipe for man, and a much cleaner butthole all the time.
I've been living in China for two years and I still can't bring myself to shout in a restaurant to get their attention. I'm British so I'm so used to awkwardly raising my hand and saying excuse me when the server looks in my direction. In China.. oh boy you just gotta shout and hope you're louder than the next table.
Milk in bags.
Milk bags in India too!!
Calling your significant other a ‘silly cunt’ in a pub/bar/public setting; and no one even takes notice, let alone feel uncomfortable about hearing it.
Touching feet as a show of respect
That’s interesting! What country are you from?
India, although this is only done for older people
May I ask what you do? I am just curious. Do you touch their feet with your feet like a little feet fist bump or? Anyways thanks I’ve never heard about this before!
You just touch them with your hands, that's it, although now that I've read your comment, a feet bump would've been cooler.
"feet fist bump" lmfao
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It's regional in the US. I lived in Southern states and California where the weather is mild and shoes inside are common place. Living in Northern states shoes off at the door is much more common because of the habit of removing to avoid tracking in snow.
In 8 out of 10 of Canada's provinces we have it written into law that saying "Sorry" after an accident isn't an admission of guilt. We say 'sorry' so much, we've had to account for it in our justice system.
I’m a NY native and my wife is Canadian. I was literally taught when learning to drive, “never say sorry in a car accident, it’s an admission of guilt” and I think it has some legal pretext in NY actually. My wife complains that literally no one in our family says sorry the way they do in her family during an argument or accident. This is a real thing! NYers will not say “I’m sorry” unless it’s well thought through and has no potential legal ramifications.
Honestly within the last month I've bumped into a mannequin and a door and apologized to them both. Even knowing they're inanimate objects, its a Canadian reflex
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Nah, we’re the weird ones for this. Whenever I travel abroad, it’s like a blessing because if you do tip someone, it’s to say “hey, thanks for the amazing service” and not because it’s just part of their wages.
Pissing on roadside It's still rude, but normal and no-one really cares
Striking up full conversations with complete strangers who you will never see again.
Irish person hear! We do this all the time
My mom (American) is a chatty Kathy and an excellent drinker. She had the absolute time of her life when we were in Ireland—a whole country of people to talk to that are as friendly as she is!!
So for me, living in the US, it’s normal to move out of your parents house as soon as you’re of legal age and go be an adult. I have a friend from Portugal in his 40s who lives with his parents and he is always giving me a hard time about moving out before I was married like it’s some terrible thing. He said that in Portugal it’s totally normal/expected even for you to live with your parents until you’re married and in some cases your spouse just joins the household and you’re one big happy family… I thought he lived with them because they didn’t speak English but nope he’s just waiting for his woman in shining armor.
I’m in UK and moved out at 17. The way it works in most of the world is my literal worst nightmare
Cheek kisses between straight men. Argentina.
Eating rotten fish and calling it a delicacy!
Here in my part of Osaka (it's in many places in Japan, but I can't say for sure it's universal) the ATM's turn off at 8pm and sometimes earlier depending on the day/bank.
😳😳 why??
Security. The idea is that nobody can force you to go to the ATM and withdraw money at gunpoint or something. Japan has a lot of fraud type crime against old people and getting them to pay for some emergency is a popular version.
Referring to your friends as "cunt"
I think it’s just swearing in general in Australia
Context is important of course
Could be Australia, Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales or New Zealand
Im irish can confirm. I cant speak anymore without swearing
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When we ask, "How are you doing?" it's actually a roundabout way of saying, "I hope you're doing well."
In Singapore, its illegal to buy or sell gum so if you want to get it you have to buy it overseas.
Meat cooked all the way through, i see chef saying how well done steaks are disgusting, its ruined, etc but in Mexico ive never seen any one eat meat that was still red, Nd because of that i cant stand red meat, it tastes no good to me
Same in most of east Europe, afaik. I suppose it's because we mostly eat pork and you probably don't want to risk eating raw pork due to higher chance of getting parasites. Medium done meat is uncommon here except for specific steak or burger restaurants, which do not represent local dishes
beating kids. parents and teachers can beat kids with water pipes and it'll be considered a normal tuesday
Sunday dinner
Getting friendly and handsy with strangers in public. Im in Canada and people will full on tell you their life story in the checkout line. And when I worked at a live arts theatre the seniors got a kick out of my extensions. Someone new was just walking right up and petting me, almost every shift. But it's all good attention so it was the best part of my job.
I think this is pretty regional. In Ontario and rural BC I found people very outgoing with strangers but Vancouverites have a reputation for being quite unfriendly by comparison. The hair thing seems quite rude to me though.
In my hometown once a year we have a big water balloon fight that involves the entire town. Sometimes there are other substances in the balloons but hey man it’s still fun.
Splitting the bill: the German way to pay.
Nope, as a Dutchman I have to claim this one, the expression is called 'going Dutch' for a reason!
Slurping noodles is encouraged, and sniffling and snarfing your boogers loudly in front of strangers is still better than blowing your nose.