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?

its own future*

Chinese like to drink Red wine because they think the colour red is good luck.

United Kingdom: Comes up trumps in the consumption of tins of baked beans, consuming more than the rest of the World combined

Portugal: Produces more cork than the rest of the World combined.

Canada: Home to the World’s largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island.

Egypt & Sudan: Surround an unclaimed piece of land which both refuse to accept as part of their country.

There is an island off the Mauritian coast which is purely full of animals and humans aren't allowed.

Vanuatu: Has a tribe that worships Prince Philip (the DUke of Edinburgh) as a god.

Tuvalu: A tiny Pacific island with a population of approx. 11,000 people, which obtains 1/12th of its annual gross national income from leasing its national top-level internet domain to huge wealthy countries such as the USA.

In the U.S., groundhogs try to eat all of your tomatoes, but opossums eat all the bad things, like slugs and bugs you don't want in your garden.

The submarine
The stethoscope
The ejector dear
The torpedo
Colour photography
Cream crackers
The hyperdermic syringe
Potato crisps
Sparkling water

They are all Irish inventions!

The ejector seat not dear

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

Not wanting to derail a fantastic thread, but didn't 55% of Scotland's own residents actually make that decision?

USA: interstate junctions are numbered by mile marker, not 1,2,3,4. So you can have junctions 72, 83, 84, 87,etc. They also begin again from zero when you cross state lines.

There are roundabouts, though not many. They’re even called roundabouts in some areas.

It snows somewhere in the mountain regions every day of the year.

There are towns which have dogs as their elected. Mayor.

Does the U.S. really have the tallest mountain? What about the Himalaya mountains, aren't they taller?

China: The number 8 is considered an extremely lucky number, as its pronunciation in Chinese sounds similar to the Chinese word meaning 'to make a fortune'. This is why the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony deliberately began at 8:08pm on 8/8/08.

United Kingdom: It is statistically more likely to snow on Easter Sunday than on Christmas Day.

@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.

It didn't used to have H either, but when they modernised the alphabet (in the 60s?) they dropped the traditional floating dots which indicated the urú and séimhiú and adopted a H instead. So you sometimes see old names spelled Sad'b' (Sadhbh).

@TwelvetyOClock that used to be a giveaway of a nation that doesn't have gay marriage, wasn't it? Adoption was the only way your male partner could inherit. I wonder if that is part of it? As well as traditionally favouring a male heir, of course.

Does the U.S. really have the tallest mountain? What about the Himalaya mountains, aren't they taller?

Everest is only the highest when measured above sea-level.

Incidentally, it was named collonially (other more local names are available) after Sir George Everest, so if you refer to the mountain by that name, you should pronounce it 'Mount EVE-rist', which is how Sir George pronounced his surname.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea

Wales: Has the longest town name in Europe, with 51 letters - (not 58, as commonly falsely believed by most non-Welsh-speakers, including Richard Osman on his House of Games!).

@Miggymoggymugwumps

There are no roundabouts on roads in the USA

Lots of places in the US have roundabouts. Nobody knows how to drive around them though. There were angry petitions when they installed some near me because they were 'causing accidents'. Probably people should be told during drivers ed that they're not meant to stop right in the middle of them.

Love this thread.

America and Canada share the longest undefended border in the world (for now).

Costa Rica has no standing army. Apocryphally, when threatened they said they would send their boy scouts out. The other country decided that was too much terrible PR.

Don't step on or over money in Thailand, the king's face is on it and they take a dim view. Even insulting the king's dog resulted in a charge for someone.

America has never won a war on it's own. The White House was burned down by the Canadians (then a British colony) in 1812.

@Longdistance

There are 44 letters in the Hungarian alphabet. These include gy, sz, cs, and the vowels with various accents on them. I impressed my dh with that fact when I first met him

You misses the weirdest ones: dzs, ly (used in a handful of words only and is pronounced same as "j") :)

Roundabouts are called traffic circles here and we have lots of them.

Following on from what @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll said about the number 8 being lucky in China: conversely, the number 4 is considered extremely unlucky. It's very common for high-rise buildings to omit any floor numbers ending in a 4, so it'll go straight from the third to the fifth and from the 13th to the 15th, etc, in the same way that some streets in the UK used to have no house no.13. Chinese mobile phone companies really struggle with people not wanting phone numbers with 4 in them (especially multiple 4's) and will try to offload these onto foreign users or sell them off cheaply. The birth rate drops in years ending in 4. The association with bad luck even extends to words which look or sound similar. It's a really big deal.

Wales: Has the longest town name in Europe, with 51 letters

I used my time wisely at the beginning of lock down to learn how to say it (not to spell it though so ... won't be writing it out here). Now I can say it, I can't work out how I ever thought it was difficult. Doesn't even seem that long...

My fun fact - Italy has a staircase in Rome which if you climb it on your knees it is said you will win the lottery.
It also has a staircase which you have to climb on your knees - because they are the steps Jesus climbed on his way into Pontius Pilate's house.*

*allegedly.

Liam Dutton killing the place name...

Most footballs in the world are made in Pakistan, around 55%

And in one town specifically but I forget the name.

@MrsTerryPratchett - that clip was one of my tutors! But it must be stated that Liam is a local boy to St. Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazels near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tsyllio of the red cave... so he has a bit of a head start.