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!

I do. I was very happy when you decided to stay with us and I’ll be very sad if you decide to leave. England’s issues are just so ridiculous and so out of control, we’d go mad if we only thought about them all the time. Plus, as much as it’s not reciprocated, I think we’re proud to be linked with, and quite fond of, all the countries in our union. We’d all cheer for your team if ours wasn’t playing.

I have a question for Brits in America, or Americans in the UK, who have tasted both and so can compare. What’s going on with the mashed potatoes there? Every time I see them on tv or in a photo, they look almost grey. Where’s the fluffiness? Do they taste different?

Also, a general question. Do you think the Brits live up to our stereotypes?

It's becoming more popular here in Sweden. 15 years ago you would have to hunt high and low for an Indian restaurant but now they are popping up every where. Was about 8 years ago I remember being so excited as one opened up in the city an hour away, previously the closest was 2 hours away. Now we have one in the next town, just half an hour up the road!!!!

But there are Thai restaurants on every corner. Even the smallest of villages will have a Thai restaurant and a pizzeria with the weirdest pizzas you'll ever come across.

Interestingly, I had the best ever butter chicken in Sydney!
I loved living in Australia for the range of foods I didn't get to have at home (Scotland). When I was there Vietnamese and Thai food weren't that common.
There is a big history of Italian immigration to Scotland so lots of great Italian food - haggis pizza anyone?

The poster didn't say everyone could have a gun, just that it's easier than getting an abortion in some states.

How 'free to travel to other states' is a woman who may be not well-off, not well-informed, have learning disabilities, be in a controlling/abusive relationship?

Just because a state overall is very conservative does not mean someone who lives there might not need and decide she has to seek one.

Why did you specify 'feels that abortion up to the 40th week should be allowed'? The poster didn't say anything about that.

Can i ask the Americans why the preface their name.
Like African American.
Or come to Ireland and claim to be from there.

A question for French women. How is it that French women are always so stylish? Is it part of your culture?

I live in a place where there is a sizeable minority of French people. My observation is that the women are always stylish even in regular day to day life dealing with their children etc. One neighbour used to look fabulous early on a Sunday morning at the playpark.

I always thought they look like those Smash Instant potatoes that were big in the 80's (possibly earlier too but that's what I remember) 😂

I have a question for Brits in America, or Americans in the UK, who have tasted both and so can compare. What’s going on with the mashed potatoes there? Every time I see them on tv or in a photo, they look almost grey. Where’s the fluffiness? Do they taste different?

Mashed potatoes in the US tend to be smooth rather than fluffy, think more the texture of frozen mashed potatoes or the one you get at Nando's. They also add a lot more ingredients to mashed potato such as sour cream / cream cheese so it has a much looser consistency. Use a different, waxier potato too.

@Goldfishmountainclimber
I am English and work in Paris frequently. I have only met one stylish dresser in the whole company. I was very disappointed as I wanted a shopping buddy.
Could be the season as very hot. Lots of jeans and t shirts.

😂😂

Oh come on that's an easy one to understand, surely?

I'm Irish and I can certainly see why Irish Americans are interested in their heritage, so many Irish people emigrated there, a lot with no choice during the "famine" /Great Hunger in Ireland, there's a whole of history there. Similarly for African Americans I'd imagine, I would imagine their ancestors stories would be harrowing and deserve to be kept alive

I would bung a chicken in the oven and roast some veg in with it. Make a yoghurt and herb sauce and cook some rice/quinoa.

That's a 'nice roast' as far as I'm concerned, and really not much trouble.

Rice/quinoa with a Sunday roast? Sorry but you need an intervention!

wrt saag aloo etc saag just means spinach. so saag aloo is spinach and potatoes

That sounds like a delicious meal but only distantly related to a Sunday roast. Like a cousins’s handsome stepbrother or something. Would definitely eat (and am adding to my dinner ideas list!) but it’s not a roast dinner – and I’m not generally a “roast dinner as religion” person.

I get what @princesscacao means: I was on a bunfight roast thread once about whether they were a faff. Team faff marinaded and basted the meat, did Nigella potatoes with parboiling and semolina crust, homemade stuffing, etc etc. Team non-faff were like “meat in oven til overcooked, boil all veg in same saucepan til
limp, Paxo stuffing, Bisto gravy, Aunt Bessie potatoes and Yorkshires, what’s hard?” 🤢

I think that US mashed potatoes look gloopy. And then I saw a clip where the chef mashed the potatoes using an electric whisk 😏. In my mind that makes it all glutenous, and with that shine to it maybe the difference is the tool used to make the mash?

Calendars start on Sunday because it's the first day of the week! Strictly speaking the Americans are right on this one and "weekend" is a bit of a misnomer. "And on the seventh day God rested"--Saturday. Christians changed the Sabbath to Sunday.

Yellow school buses are the best part of school in the US 😁Here it's a mile for elementary and 2 for secondary; where we used to live it was half that distance. If your child has an IEP (=EHCP, roughly) it can specify door to door transportation. I was gobsmacked to find how many people in California don't have bus service; apparently they don't fund it properly. I love not doing the school run.

Nobody who is just visiting Ireland claims to be from there! That's not what being Irish American means.

I would have thought it was obvious why people from the US are often aware and proud of where their ancestors came from, in a way that Brits aren't. Are you being deliberately dense?

I think the federal rule is that school buses have to be provided if you're more that 2 miles from the school. Some school districts might have lower limits of course.

I think that US mashed potatoes look gloopy. And then I saw a clip where the chef mashed the potatoes using an electric whisk 😏. In my mind that makes it all glutenous, and with that shine to it maybe the difference is the tool used to make the mash?

You're not wrong in that mashing with a whisk would do that to potatoes but that is NOT an American thing. Potato mashers and regular prayers to the goddess Anoia are the norm.

I'm originally from the west of Ireland and they still do that in small family-run shops.

Yes exactly that! If I do a roast I'm doing a basted, marinated joint of meat, proper roast potatoes with duck or goose fat, Cheesy greens with home made cheese sauce, home made stuffing, honey Roasted carrots etc. Hence it is a massive faff so I do a roast once in a blue moon.

Doing feta and tomato orzo today. Takes 15 minutes in one pot. No contest really.

Question for the Brits especially the English.

As you colonised many parts of the world what were you taught about colonisation? Was it something to be proud of or have attitudes changed over the years? Interested because I'm Aussie and of course we got the white European history shoved down our throats when I was a kid with barely a mention of our Indigenous people. Thank goodness it's changed a lot now but I've always wondered about the British perspective on it.

As you colonised many parts of the world what were you taught about colonisation? Was it something to be proud of or have attitudes changed over the years? Interested because I'm Aussie and of course we got the white European history shoved down our throats when I was a kid with barely a mention of our Indigenous people. Thank goodness it's changed a lot now but I've always wondered about the British perspective on it.

I finished my A levels in 2007 (took GCSE history but not A level) and never once heard a whisper about colonisation from either a positive or a negative perspective.

I find this strange and I was raised in England. I didn’t really know it happened until I was older as all funerals I’d ever gone to were Irish as both sides of my family are Irish and very big Irish community where I grew up, also lots of funeral directors around. When my DF died he was was buried within the week for us it was because my mum couldn’t stand the thought of him in the morgue she wanted him home and to get on with his funeral. The first time I encountered this was with a relative from my DHs family, it took about 8 weeks to bury her because the funeral directors were so busy (pre covid), we were told this was normal. They lived in a different place to where I grew up.