AIBU to ask for you to pick any country and share an interesting fun fact about it?

[1person100names]

I love learning about countries around the world, i am unable to explore physically due to covid so I would love to learn more fun interesting facts that you would kindly share!

Heres mine!

In Vietnam it is offensive to cross your fingers in a certain way, it is seen as an obscene gesture, akin to raising your middle finger and saying“F* You! It is also used to call people a derogatory name! Photo attached !

I will add more shortly =)

Whats yours?

Until December 2019 restaurants in Saudi Arabia were required to have separate entrance doors for men and women.

@Shayisgreat

There are only 18 letters in the Irish language. It doesn't have have J K Q V W X Y or Z. The vowels can be accented to elongate the sound.

I am completely shocked by this I started learning Irish at 10, got an A in it in my LC and never realised this!

Switzerland:

2. Hamsters and Guinea pigs must legally kept in pairs.

Surely not adult Syrian hamsters? But great news for guinea-pigs, though.

China is the world's fourth biggest country, but it has only had one official time zone since 1949; it had five different time zones before that. This means that in some places the sun doesn't rise until after 10am, and doesn't set until after midnight.

We're the 'biggest' country in the UN, as far as letters are concerned, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the longest of all the names when written in English.

There are no roundabouts on roads in the USA

I believe we've come across a few but they are very few and far between.

Australia is the only continent with monotremes ie egg laying mammals. There's only 2 - the platypus and echidna.

There's a part of remote Canada (Newfoundland?) where people speak in a distinctly Irish accent.

There is no V in the Irish alphabet and they use bh or mh instead. This is why names like Siobhan and Niamh look strange.

This is fascinating! I am in New Zealand and desperately trying to think!

New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote.

I’m gutted someone has said the Switzerland Guinea pig fact before me - I love it

Single guinea pigs are illegal and they have a fostering service so they aren’t on their own

Lough Neagh is the biggest lake in the British Isles and means that Northern Ireland is effectively a donut 😁

Colombia doesn't have seasons in the way we have although the temperatures are different all over the country. E.g The average temperature in Bogotá is mid teens degrees all year, Cartagena's temperature is low 30's all year. All due to the proximity to the equator.

The UK has more land dedicated to golf courses than housing

Panama - the east entrance to the Panama Canal is more westerly than the west entrance

Mexico: Home to the biggest pyramid in the world.

USA: Home to the world's tallest mountain.

South Africa: The only country in the world to have more than two capital cities.

Switzerland & Nauru: The only two countries to officially have no capital city.

Netherlands: Has a national anthem that pays homage to the King of Spain.

Japan: The name of the current capital city is an anagram of the previous one.

This is a fantastic thread!

@TaxTheRatFarms

I am at these facts! Amazing! *@TwelvetyOClock* Who adopts these Japanese men? What for? Why? So many questions!

My fact is that one of the languages spoken in Patagonia is Welsh.

Welsh people migrated there in the late 1800s to protect their language and culture, which was being threatened by the English at that time. It also lead to Patagonian Welsh which is fascinating. It’s ended up with constructions like

“Mynd i baseando” = go for a walk in Patagonian Welsh.

(Mix of the Welsh “Mynd am dro” and (Patagonian area) Spanish “ir paseando”

#linguisticsnerd

It's a way for families without sons to carry on a patrilineal line, AFAIK. I'm guessing that the men being adopted do actually have parents of their own (it seems very cruel to wait until a child in care is an adult before adopting them but who knows). Apparently it's on the increase.

Botswana’s flag has blue to represent water, black and white bands denote racial harmony.

They also discovered diamonds about two years after the Brits left ( it was a protectorate not a colony)

In Ethiopia they still follow the old Julian calendar. Christmas is celebrated on January 7th.

Very much not a 'fun' fact:

Which of these countries is the odd one out: North Korea, Iran, USA, China, Russia, Iraq, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua?

Answer: The USA - none of the others (or indeed any other country in the world) has ever deployed nuclear weapons in combat.

There are more people of Italian ancestry in Sao Paulo, Brazil than there are in any region of Italy!

The first woman elected to the British House of Commons in 1918 was Irish.
Countess Markieviez ( her husband was a Polish count ) but she did not take her seat. She was in Holloway Prison at the time.

Scotland - Neighbours another country which refuses it the right to choose it's own future. Apparently it's 'too wee, too poor, too stupid'.

Both Australia and New Zealand have higher rates of obesity than the UK. (not that much of a fun fact, granted).

The national animal of Scotland is a unicorn 🦄