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?

@KayakingOnDown

To continue the driving theme, in Belgium you give way to traffic coming from the right. So if you're driving along and there is a road ahead on the right hand side you have to slow down in case a car suddenly comes out in front of you.

That's not just Belgium, but all mainland Europe. And only if they are equal weights road or there is no other signage.

I've just started my morning by staring a Google images of square wombat poo.

The footballs someone mentioned are made in Sialkot. There make a lot of sports equipment there and are also known for surgical equipment. No idea how that came about.

In Germany it is illegal to wash your car on the street. This is due to runoff that could be toxic. You have to go to the car wash. You also can’t dispose of glass on a Sunday (too noisy) and various other tedious rules about noise. The noise of young children, however is legally not considered to be actual noise, but that never stops grumpy people from complaining.

@Duvetdweller

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

You also have to take a course to get a dog license

@Snorkelface

I've just started my morning by staring a Google images of square wombat poo.

@Snorkelface day off to a good start then? My DH has informed me it's actually 'cube-shaped' not square . Sp, I stand corrected.

Wales has more sheep than people.

The letters w and y are vowels in the Welsh alphabet.

In German there is a single word for the thumping sound you hear coming out of discos - 'discomumph'. (Having one word for a thing is called lexicalisation - I am a language geek.)

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.

It's bizarre, isn't it? Surely, instead of going to extremes to avoid the number 4 in all spheres of life - and it's such a low number that it must occur all the time (if, say, 82637 were considered unlucky, it would be far easier to avoid) - wouldn't it be much simpler to just change its name, so that it sounds like the Chinese word for 'happy', 'lovely' or 'cake' rather than 'death'?

10% of Finland is lake

LOL I read this as 'fake'

Now I have a mental image of Donald Trump in Finland screaming "This is lake news!!!"

In German there is a single word for the thumping sound you hear coming out of discos - 'discomumph'.

Excellent! German is such a wondefully expressive language. One of my all-time favourites has to be 'Backpfeifengesicht' - a face that is crying out for a slap

@Cattenberg

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!

I’m pretty sure potato crisps are a British invention. The earliest known recipe for them was written by an Englishman, William Kitchener.

Oh I think I know this - the potato crisp is not itself an Irish invention BUT the first flavoured potato crisps were invented in Ireland. Cheese and onion, I think.

Portugal has a village called Covide.

People will give you the British two finger salute to mean 2. After spending 15 years in England, I cringe when they do that.

We have the most western mainland place in Europe. Roca Cape.

Meaning he assumed that if he got to the roundabout first, he also had the right of way. He was always wondering why the other drivers seemed so pissed off..

It's been like that in Portugal for some years now. Cars in roundabouts have priority even without signs.

@Miggymoggymugwumps

Apologies for saying there are no roundabouts in the USA ... that'll teach me to check first!!!

No worries. This is but a tiny sliver of the massive amounts of misinformation about the US that circulates on MN.

Albania: The Albanian name for the country, "Shqipëria", means “Land of the Eagles”

There are 36 letters in the Albanian alphabet.

There are no McDonalds or Starbucks in Albania.

The hyperdermic syringe

Is this a recent invention?

I think you meant hypodermic.
And more the needle than the syringe.

Hypo means under or below. Not sure how hyper would work.

Denmark has some odd flag laws. It's illegal to fly any other flag than the Dannebrog, and if you want to, you must apply for permission. If it's granted, it must be flown with the dannebrog above it, and your flag must be smaller in size. I've heard of several people being reported to police by Danes for not following the rules. Eye roll

"Wild camels are only native to Australia."

Camels aren't native to Australia - they are a feral pest.

Scotland - Neighbours another country which refuses it the right to choose it's own future.

What revisionist shite is this?

Remember that wee referendum we had in 2014? In which the Scottish people voted for themselves in respect of whether we wanted to remain part of the U.K.?

Good grief!

In Denmark universities are free of charge and students receive payment while attending .

That Nepalese flag is lovely!

Malta is the only country in Europe which is in the EU and also a Commonwealth country

Sorry, incorrect.
Cyprus is in Europe, in the EU and is a Commonwealth country.

The Nobel peace prize is awarded in Norway, but the others are awarded in Sweden, home of Alfred Nobel the founder who bequeathed the funds. Nobody know why he chose Norway.

Parachute is a Slovak invention 🇸🇰

Rwanda was the first country to have a majority of women in parliament, because of the genocide.