Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Things that baffle you about another country

999 replies

Soubriquet · 31/01/2021 18:00

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave Grin

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
CleverCatty · 01/02/2021 17:01

@JaneJeffer

Ireland. One of the strangest and most religious countries I have ever been to. Was this in visit in the 1950's?!Nobody I know apart from my mother takes a blind bit of notice of the Catholic Church.
They do and they don't I find - stepgrandma did - or it was for outward appearances.

But they loved to gossip about it - and if the Bishop was in trouble for whatever mistress he had etc then they'd joke about it.

Betsybetty · 01/02/2021 17:03

Germany:
Washing dishes in dirty water rather than running water
Poo shelf (it's everywhere!) you need to courtesy flush often :D
Admire the water pressure though...

Annedunne181 · 01/02/2021 17:03

@CleverCatty I think that Ireland is very unusual in giving such total power to the Catholic church. I have been to other Catholic countries, and they weren't the same. The Catholic church did not have the same level of power and control as it did in Ireland.
I think that Ireland is very unusual in the total power it gave to the carholic Church, while the Catholic church was abusing people on so many levels-
Child abuse
Mother and baby homes - where the Catholic church locked women up for life in ireland for slave labour, and stole their babies.
I know a lot of women from ireland with very sad stories. Women who were forced to give their babies up for adoption etc. It is an unusual country in many regards

truthisalie · 01/02/2021 17:06

Least of all the Brits themselves, haven't we just spent the last 5 years learning that the Brits are very much not European?

There are different cultures in Europe but they're still European. We can't all be like each other. That's what makes us all special.

Annedunne181 · 01/02/2021 17:07

@JaneJeffer No my visit to Ireland was last year. I visit Ireland every year as I have relatives there. You are lying when you say nobody talks about the Catholic church in Ireland. The catholic church (the mother and baby home scandal - where the Catholic church kept women as slaves) was headline headline news in Ireland just last month. Did you not see the newspapers.? It was front page news.

LifeExperience · 01/02/2021 17:08

@Gwenhwyer If people with murderous intent don't have access to guns they will find other ways to kill. The overall homicide statistics bear witness to that.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:09

"Ireland. One of the strangest and most religious countries I have ever been to.

The sheer power and control that the people gave to the Catholic church."

The Irish people I've met (outside Ireland) are not particularly religious at all and I think you get devout Catholics in other countries such as Italy and Spain and probably even more in some developing countries.
They've just legalised abortion remember.

NoddyMcPintsAlot · 01/02/2021 17:10

**CleverCatty

Annedunne181
Ireland. One of the strangest and most religious countries I have ever been to.

The sheer power and control that the people gave to the Catholic church.

I thought it was very strange how people let the Catholic church have so much power and control over them. I have never seen such religious power. The catholic church had total power. The catholic church kept abusing people from every angle, and yet the population was still devoted to the church.

Also there is a place in Ireland where Catholics go on holiday to punish themselves. My friend's mother told me that she went on a weekend's holiday to thnis place called lough derg, where she was not allowed to have any food and she was not allowed to have any sleep. To purge her soul. It is very popular with Catholics in ireland. People go every year. You couldn't make it up!**
But surely that's expected?

When I've been there with DM and stepdad (he's Irish) you get the death notices read out on radio, Angelus bells ringing etc. Step-grandma assumed when we visited them when she was alive that because we flew into Sligo Airport we'd automatically be interested in visiting Knock (pilgrimage). No way...

They're also scared of the doctor or were - when I was there at 10 years old I was vomiting and having diarrhea and it took ages before my DM was allowed to take me to hospital (they wouldn't have a doctor in the house!) whereupon I was in isolation, on a drip and lost half a stone in weight as I had gastroenteritis. But that's down to paying for the doctor.

It used to be a privilege to go on The Louth Derg pilgrimage, my mother did it once and was told she was very lucky to have been selected to go. Baffling indeed. Now less than 50 a year do it.

The irish are certainly known for their quirkiness but being afraid to visit the doctor is certainly not one of them.

JaneJeffer · 01/02/2021 17:12

[quote Annedunne181]@JaneJeffer No my visit to Ireland was last year. I visit Ireland every year as I have relatives there. You are lying when you say nobody talks about the Catholic church in Ireland. The catholic church (the mother and baby home scandal - where the Catholic church kept women as slaves) was headline headline news in Ireland just last month. Did you not see the newspapers.? It was front page news.[/quote]
I didn't say they didn't talk about it. I said that most people are not religious whatsoever and the Church has no control over their life.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:12

@JaneJeffer

Ireland. One of the strangest and most religious countries I have ever been to. Was this in visit in the 1950's?!Nobody I know apart from my mother takes a blind bit of notice of the Catholic Church.
The post made me think of Angela's ashes. The boy's grandmother is so religious she gets mad when he vomits after his first communion claiming that he has thrown up God. Even the Priest seems to laugh at it. But this was based many decades ago!
Annedunne181 · 01/02/2021 17:13

My mother is Irish. I wasn't born in Ireland, but I have visited there many times.

I think it is one of the cruellest countries I have ever been in. They treat women like dirt. My aunty (who was raped) was forced by the Catholic Church to give up her baby for adoption. The women that these things happened to are all still alive. It wasn't that long ago. There are so many terrible stories like this in Ireland. I have heard awful, awful things there.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:15

[quote LifeExperience]@Gwenhwyer If people with murderous intent don't have access to guns they will find other ways to kill. The overall homicide statistics bear witness to that.[/quote]
I don't think that's true. Just having a gun means it can be used and then there are the accidents.

JaneJeffer · 01/02/2021 17:16

I think it is one of the cruellest countries I have ever been in. They treat women like dirt.
What are you basing this on?

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:17

And abortion has just been criminalised in a different Catholic country, not Ireland.

NoddyMcPintsAlot · 01/02/2021 17:18

@Annedunne181

My mother is Irish. I wasn't born in Ireland, but I have visited there many times.

I think it is one of the cruellest countries I have ever been in. They treat women like dirt. My aunty (who was raped) was forced by the Catholic Church to give up her baby for adoption. The women that these things happened to are all still alive. It wasn't that long ago. There are so many terrible stories like this in Ireland. I have heard awful, awful things there.

It certainly is not the Ireland of today but yes it had a cruel and evil past all perpetuated by the Catholic Church and its control over the state which thankfully is fastly dwindling.
SushiSoozie · 01/02/2021 17:18

I wondered how long it would be until we got very offensive posts about Ireland. Took longer than I thought but they were more offensive than ever Hmm

Fuck me do you know nothing at all about Ireland!

IAmPolish · 01/02/2021 17:18

@Gwenhwyfar

" I imagine it's for practical reasons - you undress before getting into the shower/bath and put your clothes directly into the washing machine."

Eh? It's because there's water access there, surely?

That too. But then again, you can have it in your kitchen like the rest of the world.
Pinkblueberry · 01/02/2021 17:19

If people with murderous intent don't have access to guns they will find other ways to kill. The overall homicide statistics bear witness to that.

What about mass shootings and school shootings though? I think the point many try to make is that you can’t kill that many people at once and so calculated a manner so easily in ‘other ways’.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:20

@SushiSoozie

I wondered how long it would be until we got very offensive posts about Ireland. Took longer than I thought but they were more offensive than ever Hmm

Fuck me do you know nothing at all about Ireland!

Yeah, well I suppose the washing machine and washing up bowl discussions have run their course, or they would have done if people read the thread.
PinkyParrot · 01/02/2021 17:20

Anything under about 33 and you can cool the place down by opening the windows. We just don't need aircon.
Absolutely wrong - there's no air in the Thames valley much of the time. Opening the windows let's the hot air in!
I lived in a west facing new build in S England - it was roasting at night, the heat came from the walls. I wouldn't have spent£700 on an ac if I didn't have to!

whataboutbob · 01/02/2021 17:21

@Annedunne181 I am sorry for your relatives’ experiences in Ireland. They are in no way excusable, however Ireland is at least examining its past.
I am English, I grew up in North Africa and have held back from listing the many things in the particular country I grew up in which would be termed weird and much worse. The word misogyny doesn’t even cover it. Any debate about the level of violence towards women e is difficult as the traditionalists ( islamists) will try and close it down.
There is a tacit rule in these threads that’s it’s ok to go at it if the foreign country you’re discussing is ethnically similar to yours, otherwise you soon get flamed for being islamophobic/ racist etc. For understandable reasons, but it does rather limit the debate.

PinkyParrot · 01/02/2021 17:23

I don't think the class system will go because of public (private fee paying) schools. If you pay 30,000 a year in fees you will expect some privilege for that.
Though Unis are changing that a bit.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:25

@PinkyParrot

Anything under about 33 and you can cool the place down by opening the windows. We just don't need aircon. Absolutely wrong - there's no air in the Thames valley much of the time. Opening the windows let's the hot air in! I lived in a west facing new build in S England - it was roasting at night, the heat came from the walls. I wouldn't have spent£700 on an ac if I didn't have to!
I didn't know about the special Thames Valley, but most places do have air so you can cool the place down by opening the window, if only at night and very early in the morning, then closing the curtains as soon as it's sunny.
dreamingbohemian · 01/02/2021 17:25

[quote LifeExperience]@Gwenhwyer If people with murderous intent don't have access to guns they will find other ways to kill. The overall homicide statistics bear witness to that.[/quote]
Please explain how the Las Vegas shooter could have killed/wounded 500 people without a gun.

Last year there were more than 200 accidental gun shootings by children.

Easy availability of guns means more people die every year, intentionally or not. You can't get around that.

Gwenhwyfar · 01/02/2021 17:27

"There is a tacit rule in these threads that’s it’s ok to go at it if the foreign country you’re discussing is ethnically similar to yours, otherwise you soon get flamed for being islamophobic/ racist etc. For understandable reasons, but it does rather limit the debate."

Well, yes, but I think also it's supposed to be lighthearted so if we want the thread not to get closed down, we're probably better off talking about different styles of houses, etc.