Questions you have about other nationalities!

[WatermelonWaveclub]

Just for fun. DD and I were just watching a video where Americans were asking questions about the UK. What are your questions (can be for any nationality from any nationality)? And please feel free to answer other people's questions!

I'll start with some questions for Americans:

Are your grocery bags really those ones without handles? They look really awkward to carry!

Why do you not have electric kettles?

In High school films the English teacher for example always gives them some homework to do by the next day and says 'see you tomorrow' - do you have the same classes every day? We just had English twice a week or something!

On the sunscreen/make-up question, I live in a warm sunny climate and
I do wear sunscreen every day. Lots of history of skin cancer in my family.

As for make-up, when I wear it, I apply it in an air conditioned house, get into an air conditioned car, and drive to my air conditioned office. No issues with it running or melting in what is effectively a 72 F and fairly dry environment

So yes us non Dubs do not like Dublin. We have various derogatory names for Dubliners in which we imply they are all British/ English (makes sense in that we were colonised by the British just in case I upset anyone). They are seen as arrogant and look down on rest of us. In sports if Dublin are playing you never shout for them even if they are the underdogs. They call us culchies so it all evens out.

According to an interview I once heard the two/three day turn around in funerals predates Christianity arriving to Ireland. We kept/incorporated many of our old traditions when we converted to Catholicism.

I'm always struck on these threads about the similarities to funeral customs in the Southern US and Ireland. Funerals are always just a few days after the death; everyone comes, including people who may not have met the deceased, but are friends of some of the bereaved family; children are often present; the funeral has a strong socializing element, downright festive if the deceased is in their 90s after a well-lived life, etc.

France....what do the French actually eat, on TV it always seems to be a croissant with coffee or hot chocolate for breakfast, leisurely 2-3 course meal with wine for lunch and a 2 course meal for the evening meal. All beautifully prepared and presented with fresh bread on the table.

I really want to live in France if this is true!

That one's a bit of a myth although lots of people do get it. There are plenty of towns where there is no KFC, like the one I lived in. It's just a normal day for most people, although plenty of couples use it as an excuse to have a more romantic date night.

Kevin is not an English name of course but Irish. Perhaps ppl have forgotten though? How apt that the French pronounce it Quay-veen which is correct in Irish - Caoimhín. But why France ...we just have to live with the mystery!

When hear Ethan or Noah , I always picture a young lad on a skateboard 🛹 wearing a reversed baseball hat. Forever young.

yes the summer holiday begins before christmas and lasts 6 ish weeks.

The school academic year begins in late January-early February. I still find it hard to understand an academic year that begins in September.

we have easter holidays at easter. Christmas holidays at Christmas biut our seasons are different.

(I worked with someone once in the UK who somehow mixed things up so she thought that because we had Christmas in the summer we called it June 25th while the rest of the world said it was December 25th. It took a fair bit of explianing it was just the weather and seasons that were different, not the actual months).

Oh and on Indian food. I was brought up that our go to takeaway was chinese, thai or fish and chips. While my dad sometimes made a curry with banana and dessicated coconut on the side I had literally never had an Indian takeaway until I csme to the UK. I thought it was so exotic and wonderful! I had to ask DH what to order and he chose for me sag aloo and chicken passanda and these remain my absolute favourites. But I am from a fairly rural area and so people in the big cities like Melbourne and Sydney may have had this as a norm!

Not American but live in Texas with my Texan husband

Why are washing machines top-loaders and not front-loaders? And do people who live in apartments really share communal washing machines/dryers in the basement and not have their own ones in their flats?
You can get both but the top loaders are bigger (can fit a US king size duvet easily) and can be filled with water to pretreat clothes then just turned on with no water getting anywhere or having to use the sink/ a bucket. Some apts have communal laundry which are usually in my experience, others have in unit or sometimes hook ups and you bring your own.

Question for Americans - do you really have American flags by your front door or is that just in the films?
Yes, my in laws almost always have an American flag hanging on one side of their garage and the flag of whatever sports team/college is playing/Texas flag on the other side. Many of their neighbours do the same. They also love a yard sign.

In America are College and University names for the same thing or is College more for practical subjects ?

Irish person here, we are the same as America when it comes to College/Uni, you can use either word but College is the more commonly used one ime, they both mean what British people call University

Why are washing machines top-loaders and not front-loaders?

I way prefer using a top loader (I'm not American but lived there for a bit when i was younger) and much preferred them. As well as what a pp said you don't have to bend down to use them.

I have a front loader though as that's pretty much what we get here in Ireland same as you

😋

Yes our school year runs from January until November (or Dec depending on the years school calendar) so the 6 week break is during summer holdiays of December and January.

Then a two week break at Easter, 3 weeks during winter (June/July) and one week in October. Most schools run on a 4 term year. The dates aren't the same each year, the school calendar predicts the actual holidays.

So every new school year starts in a new year in summer. I found starting a new school year half way through the year very odd.

@Crocsandshocks I'm from Spain, but haven't lived there in over a decade (I live in the UK now). That's an interesting question about friendships. If I think about it, I had a mixture of friends from Spain and other European countries there. In my experience, my European friends would open up quicker and you could become close friends sooner than I have done with my friends in the UK. However, I'd say true friendships are just as authentic and fun no matter the nationality. I did find it a lot easier to make friends in Spain, in my town at least, there was a much bigger sense of community than I've experienced here, and people went out of their way to talk to each other more.

It was definitely more focused on family and friendships than material possessions. I can't count how many dinners I went to at friends' houses where there would also be aunts and uncles from a nearby town, other friends, a cousin twice removed... I lived on my own when I went to university and my lovely elderly neighbours occasionally brought me some food in a tupperware to heat up for dinner - no specific reason, they just didn't want me to be without something to eat and thought it would be nice to not have to cook that night. I guess you'll always have materialistic people, but on the whole I'd say it's not a big issue.

I am in Canada and it is quite common to have British style pubs, but you also sometimes get British themed eateries of other kinds. The town next to me has a sort of cafe that serves various traditional British foods, or there is a stall at the farmer's market that sells British baked goods and pies.

Fish and chip shops also often have a British theme.

Why do Americans pronounce the name Graham as Gram?

Gosh I have never heard of either of these two dishes. Are they something normal that would be on a menu?

A menu here would be something like Korma, Vindaloo, Rogan Josh or the very popular Butter Chicken. With a side of naan or roti.

I am pretty sure funerals used to be that quick almost everywhere, my Nana grew up in the south of England and they always had funerals within a week at most. Because they didn't embalm them, and they were generally held in the home.

I wonder if maybe the older traditions persisted longer where there was less money or they were not as likely to have refrigeration and professional funeral directors and such.

or Bernerd and Ber-naaard

The other side of this is that there is a lot more class division in the US than many Americans realize. And most people marry within their class.

Yes, I am from the very middle of the country and it is very different from
the coasts. Pasta and tacos were considered international foods growing up (I am a 70s baby / 80s child so of course some things have changed since). Interestingly, immigration to the middle of the country is quite different to the stories of those arriving at Ellis Island or anything like that. The Midwest was populated by homesteading initiatives where your family would be paid a sum if you agreed to live there, build your house, and farm the land. There are some pockets where this made for small towns with a shared background, and the town where I went to uni had been homesteaded by Swedish families and still celebrated this in local festivals. But the vast majority of homesteaders were already living in America elsewhere and just given a random tract of land, so the cultural traditions weren’t shared and largely died out. Also… homesteading in the Midwest was ridiculously hard work and the attitude of just trying to keep everyone alive took its toll on nice things like cooking and celebrating.

My actual home town had one pizza place, one diner, and one barbecue restaurant. The bigger cities and suburbs would have things like Chinese buffet and this was deemed very super special and cultural. Small town Midwest life is… interesting!

I'm not sure where you're from @isthismylifenow , I've only just found this thread recently, but those 2 dishes are also popular in the UK, I usually get saag aloo or saag paneer, they are nice! Chicken pasanda I've seen on menus, but never eaten.

Here in Canada we say that everyone hates Toronto except the people who live there, who believe that the world revolves around the CN tower.

People seem to be less poorly disposed to Ottawa which is the actual capital city.

Here on the east coast you sometimes here Ontario as a whole referred to, not in a nice way, as "Upper Canada". Which is what it was called before Confederation. The implication is that they think they are all that.

I don't know saag anything tbh. I will have to ask an Indian friend as I have never heard of these dishes. I am in South Africa, and we have a large Indian community so maybe I have just not noticed them. Definitely not all that popular if they are available.

I feel like I need to brush up on Indian cuisine now. If I asked you what a Bunny is (as in a meal, not the animal) would you know what I was referring to? And an AK47? 😀