Im a US American, how much time do you have? There is almost no aspect of my culture I wouldn’t trade for another. Music I’ll keep but everything else… meh
I don’t remember what it’s called, but in Japan there is a tendency to repair things rather than replace them; and further than that, a repair made properly can be see as enhancing the beauty of an object. I like that.
Tipping culture, the lack of it everywhere but the US seemingly. Tips as a substitute for wages is awful. In the US servers are paid inadequately without tipping and so a culture of tipping is the norm.
Meh, lots of that exists in Canada and mexico as well, unfortunately
In Turkish they* say
it jumped out of my hand 🤷♀️😎
instead of
I dropped it 😬
kinda like how we say accident instead of crash
*the folks I knew at least
I hang out with drunk Chinese people for work and there is no friendlier bunch around. I also admire the Chinese cultural focus on gardening and growing plants
I have always found saris really exquisite. But as a white lady from the Midwest USA, and no people in my life at all from cultures that wear them, it would be weird to have or wear one. I’d never want to wear it like a costume but they are so beautiful.
Similarly, bunad here in Norway where I live now. I didn’t grow up here and I only skate by on languages most of the time, I’m not tied to the culture by marriage or children. I just love it here. But because I’m just an immigrant, I’d feel strange wearing one. But one of my absolute favorite parts of 17 May celebrations (Constitution Day) is going out in the city and seeing all of the various bunad from different regions of Norway. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel Norwegian enough to wear one without feeling like an impostor/appropriator.
Totally agree on the sari, was at a friend’s wedding and the bridesmaids were all wearing them, many of them white but the bride was Indian. Was so jealous that they had the opportunity to wear them, and not just wear but get fully dressed up for the event.
Really petty but I’m jealous of Norways football crowd activity where everyone pretends to row a boat.
Oh yeah, that was awesome!
The Spanish got it figured out with their siestas.
Also starting each question with the upside down question mark so you know how to read it out loud properly.
I’m working on a conlang.
Thanks for that tip.Do they do that informally too? In formal English language writing, the majority of interrogative sentences can be correctly interpreted by their starting with “question words” or helping verbs. This breaks down in informal writing e.g. “you up?” vs ”Are you up?" In the little Spanish I know, I’d say “¿Estas despierto?” (I know I’m missing accents but I speak Spanish way more than I can read it.) Would I still text it to someone that way even though extra characters are what is typically taken off in informal writing? In the English example, the helping verb is removed. In the Spanish version, would the upside down question mark be removed?
Oh fuck yes!
Came here to say this
Japanese not wearing shoes indoors / providing slippers for guest’s and picking up after yourself or just making sure the space is clean before you leave. Also bath house culture.
We don’t do the slippers thing but here in Canada we don’t wear shoes indoors either. I shake my head when I see people in American TV shows laying on a bed with their shoes on lol.
The French widely mistrust their politicians.
I was also coming in to say I envy the French tendency to fuck shit up when their politicians act like scumbags. In the US we just drool and watch fox news tell us it’s actually for our benefit that we sacrifice our lives for billionaires.
Not enough, apparently.
Peru - super fresh, locally grown food; incredibly hard working people who are super friendly
Ireland - craic
New Zealand - respect of the environment, freedom camping
France - long luxurious meals with family/friends; delicious pastries; willing to burn shit down when political leaders forget who they work for
I’m not a big fan of India, but their cuisine and especially its focus on vegetables instead of meat is something I always thought was great
I’m not vegetarian or anti-meat or anything like that, but eating more vegetables and less meat is good not only for your health, but also the planet IMHO
In general I’m jealous of countries where the norm is for them to eat healthier food. I grew up eating the typical crap 'Murican diet and it’s left me very unhealthy. I’ve been trying desperately to change that, but it’s such a slow process to change what you’re used to. I get repulsed by things that people in other countries just look at as at worst a normal part of their diet or sometimes they even actively like it. I wish I had grown up being socialized on that before things got so out of hand.
Post soviet and balkan countries are similar, because meat consumption (and being fat in general) used to be a status symbol, especially pork, which is particularly unhealthy compared to e.g. chicken
Luckily this started drying up in the early 2010s, but you can still find (or rather, accidentally run into) restaurants by the thousands where the whole point is that they put a truckwagonload of food on your plate for you to “enjoy” and nothing else (food that’s typically mediocre at best, and sub-mediocre and unhealthy at the usual)
You can also find people, typically older or rural folks who, if asked how a particular restaurant or meal was, 95% of their answer would be about the portion itself, and rarely about the quality of ingredients, preparation/serving style, atmosphere, etc.
So overall food has started becoming much better over the last decade and half, but most restaurants are still very much afraid of putting smaller portions of higher quality food on your plate because of potential backlash or criticism
The food culture in France. Eating lunch for 2-3 hours (not every day naturally), enjoying tasty, well-prepared food and enjoying fine company.
Vietnamese: The absolute bonkers way they combine a turbocapitalistic hustle culture with slow living / enjoying life
They all have something. It’s like just statistically inevitable, since none of them were really designed.
Pretty much every culture other than progressive Western has stronger extended families, which is nice. Squatting is a great way to sit if you start young. Both eating everything with four legs except a table, and being vegetarian are more logically consistent dietary preferences. Toilet paper is dumb.
Languages are pretty similar. English has some nice features, but having a word for the day before yesterday would be handy, for example.
Norwegian have forgårs which means the day before yesterday. It’s used a lot, it’s surprising English does not have a word for this. Is the most common way: 2 days ago?
Позавчера (pozavchyera) in Russian. Pretty sure French has something as well.
Usually you do just say “the day before yesterday/last”, and it’s super awkward. Nothing else is guaranteed to be understood (people are being creative with new words in this thread). It’s the same for “the day after tomorrow”. Two days ago might also work, but that could mean different things, depending on if you’re counting the present day or not.
you mean ereyesterday? it hangs out with overmorrow.
Yesterday eve
