Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

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

Found it on a site

"It has been well established, and widely reportedd_, that David Cameron is a direct descendant of William IV. Now Mr Steerpike, with the help of professional genealogist Richard Carruthers, has traced that lineage even further. William’s grandfather ‘Poor Fred’ (or Frederick Louis) Prince of Wales, who was the heir apparent to the British throne from 1727 until his death in 1751, was the father of George III, and a second cousin of Catherine the Great."

loving the differences in all of our countries and missing them all too.
looking forward to one day enjoying them all again .

@dreamingbohemian

Tipping is not hard to figure out, I mean seriously.

If you can book flights and hotels, fill out the ESTA, navigate your way through airports and unfamiliar transport and all the rest, you can remember to tip your server 15%. It's not rocket science.

But surely much easier if restaurants etc just billed you the amount they wanted you to pay - sufficient to cover decent wages for the staff.

You could then choose to pay a tip on top if you really wanted to, to reward excellent service. That’s what a tip should be - not a certain percentage you’re expected to add on top as a matter of course - regardless how good/crap the service was.

Americans eat fewer boiled eggs than the British. Very nice people have proper eggcups and eat with a spoons.

As an American, I will say we have poor table manners generally. Eating in front of the television and not eating as a family are the main causes. My family eats much faster than average, but Mom hated dawdling.

"Tipping is not hard to figure out, I mean seriously."

But don't you have to tip for drinks as well? So you'd be constantly getting your calculator out!

@Ericaequites

In the United States, building codes often prevent installing clothes washers in the kitchen, but putting them in a bathroom is permissible. Many zoning codes prohibit clotheslines outside, as they are considered unattractive. It doesn’t bother me, as it’s a sign of cleanliness and good order.

What's unclean and disorganised about a washing line?

@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.

I saw on Twitter the other day that the Irish constitution still says that a woman's place is in the home (or is it kitchen?)

Is that actually true? It's quite shocking, if so.

In virtually all of these mass shootings the perpetrators were known to law enforcement. IOW, they were known to be unstable, in many cases had made open threats and nothing was done. Getting over 500 million guns out of the hands of law abiding Americans isn't going to solve that. Criminal justice reform is needed.

That’s what a tip should be
There can be a bit of an assumption that the way that your country does something is the right way.
Rather than accepting there are other equally valid ways of organizing things.

Tipping at 10% because that is the norm in your country, or refusing to tip at all are examples of this.
If you travel to other countries accepting their norms about things like tipping would seem appropriate.

[quote Annedunne181]@Gwenhwyfar I lived in Spain for a long time, (I am not from Spain originally - I have been a teacher in many countries in Europe), and I never heard one person talk about class. The only people I have ever heard talk about class - are English people.[/quote]
It's not class, it's about how much money you have. The US goes on about not having a class system - yeah but try running for president without a LOT of money.

If you're rich in any country you have a very different lifestyle to others.

But in some countries like Denmark there is far less inequality, so I guess the issue of class never arises or not to the same degree.

@LifeExperience

In virtually all of these mass shootings the perpetrators were known to law enforcement. IOW, they were known to be unstable, in many cases had made open threats and nothing was done. Getting over 500 million guns out of the hands of law abiding Americans isn't going to solve that. Criminal justice reform is needed.

No, gun control is needed.

If those people had no access to guns in the first place, they wouldn't have been able to carry out mass shootings in school. I find it quite unbelievable how Americans defend gun ownership when so many innocent children are killed by them each year.

@birthingball

Japan

Why is your age of consent 13?

That’s appalling, why aren’t they protecting their children

@truthisalie

Wasn't David Cameron related to Katherine the Great of Russia Catherine was German. Does he have German ancestry?

Yes I read he has German ancestry, including a Jewish German convert in the 17th or 18th century.

@whataboutbob

Spain, how do you manage to have supper at 11pm and still get up and go to work the next day. And how come your kids aren’t murdering each other by 9pm out of sheer hunger driven anger? ( respect, by the way).

Yes I would love to know this too! I am in bed by 10pm each day - a bit later at the moment as I don't have to get up as early with WFH but I could never cope with the Spanish late evenings.

Article 41.2 of the Irish constitution written in 1937 states:

'“by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”.

“shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in their home”.

There will most likely be a referendum on its removal in the next couple of years.

About America and class- they might not have a rigid class system, but in my experience they are acutely status conscious. Your income, your neighbourhood, your clothes, the college your kids go to etc are just as coded over there as they are here.
The French certainly are class conscious. Read the excellent Distinction- a social critique of taste by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. It’s rather crushing. Apparently nothing in life is an individual choice, everything is affected if not determined by your origins.

@SushiSoozie @dreamingbohemian

Sushi you said "fuck me, you know nothing about Ireland" and @dreamingbohemian you said you agree.

Are you serious? I have said that my mother is Irish, and I have visited Ireland every year since I was 5. I have four aunties who live in Ireland.

Yet you say I know nothing about Ireland? Are you serious?
Tell me anything that I said about Ireland that isn't true.

I said that women were locked up by the Catholic church and used as slave labour? Are you saying that isn't true?
I said that babies were stolen from women and given up for adoption. Are you saying that isn't true? It happened to my aunty. My aunty was also kept for slave labour by nuns for two years. She told me about all the devastation and pain that she went through. She just recently met her daughter, who is now an adult, that she was forced to give up for adoption . I know her story very well. It was very sad for all of us

Don't you DARE say to me that I know fuck all about Ireland.

@LifeExperience but it’s not great compared to other countries. Why do you accept large numbers of unnecessary deaths in your female population?

I have never met anyone in the US who didn’t think hanging laundry outside to dry was low-class. It was associated with housing projects and redneck shacks. Hanging your laundry outside indicates you can’t afford a dryer and is perceived as undignified. For better or worse. It is what it is.

Maybe it’s a throwback to a more prudish time when you would be mortified to have your neighbours see your underwear. I don’t know.

"But in some countries like Denmark there is far less inequality, so I guess the issue of class never arises or not to the same degree."

Never seen Borgen or any Danish TV programme then? They have classes there too despite their best efforts.

I've never even been to America, but I still don't believe it's just money over there.

Annedunne18, maybe next year go somewhere sunny that you don't hate quite so much. Why put yourself through the misery of holidaying somewhere you clearly hate.

What a way to live,

Americans are so weird about washing lines. I suspect it stems from a terror that someone might suspect they didn't have a dryer and had thus FAILED in their pursuit of the American Dream.

Yet you say I know nothing about Ireland? Are you serious?Tell me anything that I said about Ireland that isn't true

Yes I'm serious. You're talking about decades ago, not now, yet you use the present tense.
You wouldn't start talking about Spain and say its a terrible cruel country, they had a facist government and a long running scandalous practice of stealing babies from poor republican woman, telling them they were dead and selling/giving them for adoption to the rich?

Don't you dare talk as if a countries past says anything at all about what that country is like now. IF you want to do that, start with your own country, you can find as many terrible scandals and practices there as anywhere else.

That and bruschetta (pronounced bruh-sketta, not bru-shetta

It's supposed to be brusketta? It's one of those words I avoid saying (along with croissant) because I don't know how to pronounce it!

I think bidets are a brilliant idea and wish they were a common thing in the UK. When/if I ever get my own place, I'm getting a bidet installed! For now, unless I can time it with a shower, I hover over the bath and have a quick wash after I go. I just don't feel clean otherwise.

What's weird to me about other countries... Lack of crisp flavours! The UK may eat too many crisps, but we do the best flavours. Also, I'm always scared of police abroad. It doesn't matter what country I'm in. If I'm outside of the UK, I'm convinced I'll be shot and get all tense whenever I see anyone who resembles the police. I'm sure they don't all carry guns but it's like an inbuilt fear.

@Gwenhwyfar

"Tipping is not hard to figure out, I mean seriously."

But don't you have to tip for drinks as well? So you'd be constantly getting your calculator out!

You mean if you just get a drink at the bar? You can also tip $1-2 per drink (if they're normal-priced drinks, not like a $100 bottle of wine!)

I don't think it's hard to figure out 15%, you take 10% of the bill (easy), then add half of that again. Though I admit we are used to it.