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?

Alberta, Canada, has no rats.

In Korea, a baby is one year old on the day it's born.

In Saudi Arabia, people commonly believe in both witches and genies. Witches can be executed.

The Icelandic name facts are slightly inaccurate.

It's actually the father's (or sometimes mother's) name in the genitive case + son or dóttir. With a name like Jón this follows the pattern stated (Jónsson, Jónsdóttir) but with a name like Bjarni it doesn't (Bjarnason, Bjarnadóttir), neither with a female name like María (Maríuson, Maríudóttir) or Guðrún (Guðrúnarson, Guðrúnardóttir). You really have to have a basic understanding of Icelandic grammar to get this one ;)

Also some Icelanders have actual surnames (e.g. Bríem, Zöega).

And you don't have to pick a name off the official list. You have to pick a legal name that meets certain criteria and there is a list of names that have already been checked off as meeting those criteria. If you want a different name and you think it meets the criteria, you can apply to have that and if you are correct, it will be approved and added to the list. Babies with one foreign parent can have just one 'legal' name and babies with two foreign parents don't have to bother with the whole rigmarole.

Tórshavn, capital of the Faroe Islands, is the cloudiest inhabited place in the world (or so I was led to believe!).

In France it is possible to marry a dead person. (The living person must be able to prove that the deceased had intended to marry him/her before dying)

In Malta they make small triangular pastries (similar to samosas) and the name translates as something that represents 'vagina'. Unless it was a wind up by the person who lived there told me at the time.... 😎

One of the Hawaiian Islands was bought in the 1860s by a Scottish Woman for $10k in gold from the Kingdom of Hawaii. It is still owned by her family and is forbidden to go there without the owners specific permission. Known as the Forbidden Isle. It has no telephone or paved roads.

In Iceland a traditional festive beverage is orange soda mixed with a malt extract drink. It's really weird!

Australia is a real country/continent. Contrary to what many Americans say.

Poland has the lowest consumption (per head) of fish in EU, but the highest of raw vegetables (what is deemed to be the healthiest way of having your 5 a day).

Poland has (almost) no regional accents, only formal and informal language.

@BonosSigh

The longest place name in the world is

TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUOTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKI-MAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITNATAHU

It is a hill on the North Island of New Zealand named after Tamatea, a Maori explorer. Literally translated it means “the summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.”

When sufficiently pissed I can say the whole thing with fairly credible pronunciation

It was also the intro for Quantum Jump’s Lone Ranger.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=hchOYs_d_Bw

Montenegro doesn't have it's own currency.
They use the euro but aren't in the EU and don't have permission from the EU to use it.

I love this.

EU - you can't use the Euro

Montenegro - ooooh you're 'ard.

EU - No really, you can't use it.

Montenegro - Well that's strange cos I think I just did. Whaddareya gonna go about it?

EU - Erm...

Poland has (almost) no regional accents, only formal and informal language.

Apparently Russia has no regional accents at all, its the same accent everywhere - I find that unbelievable! Especially coming from Britain where the accent could differ between service stations on the A1!!!

@SoManyActivities

Poland has (almost) no regional accents, only formal and informal language.

Apparently Russia has no regional accents at all, its the same accent everywhere - I find that unbelievable! Especially coming from Britain where the accent could differ between service stations on the A1!!!

Especially when you consider that Russia covers 11 time zones.

^In the Netherlands they have the 13th month.
Most companies pay double pay in May to enable their employees to book a summer holiday.^

This is fairly common in parts of Germany and Austria, where employers pay 13 months wages - usually in the form of a double payment for one month.

@Havanananana

^In the Netherlands they have the 13th month. Most companies pay double pay in May to enable their employees to book a summer holiday.^

This is fairly common in parts of Germany and Austria, where employers pay 13 months wages - usually in the form of a double payment for one month.

In Italy it’s the same, but the 13th month is in December, so you have extra at Xmas. Depending on the industry and the collective contract you can have more instalments. For my industry it’s 14 months so the 14th payment is in June, in time for the summer holidays. Some industries (usually banks and financial institutions) can have up to 18 instalments.

@Havanananana

^In the Netherlands they have the 13th month. Most companies pay double pay in May to enable their employees to book a summer holiday.^

This is fairly common in parts of Germany and Austria, where employers pay 13 months wages - usually in the form of a double payment for one month.

Switzerland too, you normally get double salary at the end of November to help with Xmas I guess.

I presume that, for countries that do this, it just means that your salary is split over 13 or 14 'months', so that you get less each time than you would for just 12? Or is it a lovely bonus on top of that?!

In parts of Switzerland you get a massive tax bill at the end of the year , rather than paying monthly tax on your earnings. You’re supposed to save the tax yourself and then pay the bill.

No squirrels in New Zealand.

In Germany adult children can be forced to pay for parents care homes. Although I think this changed recently to only apply to higher earners.

In the USA, I had to pay not only when I made a call , but when people called me. So scammers could use your whole balance by calling many times.

I presume that, for countries that do this, it just means that your salary is split over 13 or 14 'months', so that you get less each time than you would for just 12? Or is it a lovely bonus on top of that?!

How it is done depends on the contract and the custom and practice in each industry.

Quite often it is an additional month's salary - so someone on 2,000 a month gets 26,000. This might for example be (11 x 2,000 plus 1 x 4,000) or it might be (10 x 2,000 and 2 x 3,000 - June and December, as Melassa describes above).

Clearly a job advertised at 26,000 a year still only pays 26,000 - but many jobs are advertised at the monthly rate. It also means that people budget on the 2,000 a month figure and then treat the extra payments as a bonus.

It’s the gross divided by the number of instalments, so if your gross is 48k and your contract specifies 14 instalments it’ll be 48k divided by 14, with double salary at December and June.

I used to think this was pointless and why not just pay us more in the 12 months, but now I think the cash boost twice a year when often you most need it is really quite handy.

I’m in a country that does this too Melassa. I find it pretty patronizing. Just pay me my actual salary, don’t withhold bits of it for times of year deemed to be expensive.., I’m not five

Ah - thanks for clarifying that, folks.

I'm inclined to agree with DNA, though - I'm sure it's well-meaning, but what if you don't celebrate Christmas and/or take your holiday out of season - or want/need to spend the money on something other than a holiday?

You might be a Muslim family with quadruplets born in November, but you have to wait until the following month until you get the extra - too late to buy them birthday presents - just in time to splash out and celebrate a festival that means absolutely nothing to you.

Your worn out old sofa could collapse in May and you then have to spend a month sitting in camping chairs in your living room before getting the money you need to replace it - just in time for the holidays that you've had to cancel plans for, because you need the money for a new sofa.

I suppose you could wing it if you have an available credit card, but you'll still end up paying interest on it if what you need to buy comes two months before bonus pay day - and not everybody has access to sufficient free credit anyway. I'd much rather just be paid a 12th of my annual salary every month.

Ha webuilt, they closely resembles a rant I had to my German DH on the subject

I may be wrong here, but I'm guessing that, if it's a widespread enough national tradition that everybody gets paid twice as much just before the peak Summer holiday season, prices charged by holiday providers and tourism industries rise to take account of everybody having more money available to pay a higher price. If that is the case, everybody actually ends up losing out overall. Even if the privileged/wise ones don't fall for it, enough people would to make hiked rip-off prices a viable proposition.