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!

Nope, it's a great solution if you want roast chicken and potatoes but aren't into gravy, like me.
Actually I don't really know why I said rice; I'd only do that if I didn't have quinoa or bulgur.
And it's not 'distantly related to a Sunday roast, as another poster says. It's a slightly different take on a Sunday roast, that's all. It still features meat and potatoes roasted together. I think you need help if you find that a bizarre or difficult concept

You don't always see this. Lots of people are mixed, and some don't like things like "African-American".

But when you do see it I think it's because you have so many cultural groups that moved here, and they will have different backgrounds and traditions.

So for example my Mennonite friend who is from western Canada has Ukrainian and Russian ancestors, and that's reflected in things her family eats, the fact that she attended a Mennonite school which was very religious, their holiday traditions, her grandparents had English as a second language.

I'm from another part of the country and there are many people of German descent here, most of whom were farmers but many became Anglican, they have certain food traditions and so on. Or blacks in my province mostly have Black Loyalist ancestry and settled in areas where they were given land grants after the War of Independence.

It's the same in the US, it's a real mix of people so cultural traditions are often tied to your ancestral nationality.

I did history GCSE many years ago but DD of a friend of mine took History A level around 2010/2011 and said exactly the same as you.

Quite shameful that this wasn't included in the syllabus when I was younger or in later years.

@ArAryaStarkWolf yes!

Yep and they do it in Spain a lot as well

I did mine in the 80s and not a peep about colonisation either. Nothing beyond the Tudors and the Stuarts.

Obviously you have never met an American tourist in Dublin.

And no im not dense,thanks for asking.

@Hopefullysoon2022 seriously) your post is rude.

I could ask why are some Irish people so snobby and rude, about who is Irish and who is not! And why do a lot of Irish people make fun of Americans that come to Ireland and sneer at them for being interested in their history.

I'm Irish. I don't like when other Irish people do it, and I have to say I have seen many Irish people sneer and laugh at Americans that come to ireland.

I just had an argument with my colleague about this last week. He said he was talking to an American man, and the American man said that he was Irish. And my colleague was laughing and sneering about it. He said "he said he was Irish, when he was born in Chicago".

I think it's lovely when Americans come to Ireland and trace their heritage.

The actual question might be why do some Irish people sneer at and look down on Americans coming to Ireland. Why do they laugh at Americans calling themselves Irish. I have seen this happen many times In ireland

I missed the 'no gravy' bit. I'm going to have to have a lie down about that.

In NZ the school year starts in early Feb. Summer holidays start the week before Christmas and go until the end of Jan. School holidays are two weeks at Easter, two in July, two in Sept-Oct.

I've met plenty of Americans in Ireland and they might say "I'm Irish" but they don't literally mean that fgs, they just mean they have Irish heritage (unless they're from Boston and then they literally think Boston is the 33rd County :p )

@isthismylifenow
Yes, chicken passanda and sag aloo are completely normal dishes in an Indian restaurant in the UK . I’d be surprised if restaurant didn’t have them. I’m not entirely sure what butter chicken is, though. I’ll look it up. Perhaps it has a different name.

You have to ask, would people like this sneer at someone born in Ireland but whose parents or grandparents were born in India said he was Indian? Or say someone Cree, which isn't a nationality (in quite the same way) but is certainly an ethnicity.

Ethnicity and citizenship aren't the same thing, but some terms apply to both.

Wow that's really interesting. Do you think it's deliberate that it's not taught? Or is it more that they don't have room in the curriculum for it?

I think its lovely as well,but they are not Irish.

I only asked as no other country prefaces it like the Americans.

I just find it weird.

Butter chicken is murgh makhani.

Butter chicken = murgh makhani. Similar to tikka masala but not quite.

There's no federal rule on busing except for students with disabilities. States can mandate it.

Re mashed potatoes, there's multiple styles in the US. There's chunky ones made with red (waxy) potatoes, and then there's smooth and silky ones that are usually with floury potatoes like Russets, which is how I make it. I put the potatoes through a mouli to make them smooth. I've never seen them grey unless they were instant. People make mash all sorts of ways here though--people add buttermilk, or sour cream, or what have you.

Canadians do this, a bit. It's a consequence of mass immigration.

Indian food isn't as widespread as the UK but it is definitely becoming a lot more common. We also have more South Indian places as a lot of Indian-Americans come from the south.

"Imagine it the other way round “Why is English grammar so bad?” or “Why do Poms whine so much?” Not so inoffensive now, is it?"

As a born and bred Englishwoman of course that's not offensive!!

Re food from other nationalities I believe, at least some parts of India, have Hakka Chinese food. I've eaten this in London and, if it's authentic, it's a delicious menu of Chinese dishes but with an Indian flavours overtone.

Btw I think posters are giving Centre Parcs a bad rap here, especially the poster who hasn't actually been to one 🤷🏻‍♀️. They are expensive it's true but they're pretty good otherwise.

@Hopefullysoon2022

They ARE Irish. They are what ever they want to call themselves.

Have you been to the USA? The USA is very big and was populated by a lot of people from Europe.

Lots of people there still identify with their European roots. They will tell you that they are Irish, Italian whatever.
For example I went to New York, and many people told me that they were Italian, even though they lived in New York all their lives. I totally understood. Their heritage was important to them.

I wouldn't dream of telling someone that they can't call themselves Irish/Italian whatever . It is their choice

Nudeln is a coverall term for all types of 'Teigwaren' and then you specify according to origin, grain used, egg vs. no egg etc.

Thank you for that explanation, @Prokupatuscrakedatus

I live in a part of the US that was heavily settled by central European, Northern European, and Scandinavian settlers, as well as Italians, all of whom brought their various pasta and noodle traditions with them (the Irish came here in huge numbers too, but without any noodle tradition).

I suspect the differentiation between nudeln and pasta became very blurred as enthic groups intermarried and passed down and adapted culinary traditions.

There are parts of the US where immigrants tended to be Anglo-Scot or from other culinary traditions that did not feature nudeln or pasta, and these are the places where you don't find the word noodles used to describe pasta.

We don’t!

No idea. Our school had O/A-levels and GCSEs from various examination boards, which the school chose based on their curriculum. But I don't know the motivation for their choices. This was at a home counties public school.

Ethnically Pakistani, but educated in England, completed GCSE history in 2004. Absolutely nothing, when we studied world war two there wasn’t even anything about the war outside of Europe, not a hint of Burma etc.

As a Pakistani, a lot of Non-Asian Brits have heard of partition, but have no idea what it was apart from the creation of Pakistan and later Bangladesh.

Americans - why don't you use a knife and fork properly?
Why the value judgement?

Do you think British people are stuck up because we are more reserved?
Americans don't really compute 'stuck up'. It's not really a cultural reference here. They can detect rudeness though, and put downs. They may not let you know all the time that they are on to you.

Do you think baseball caps are infantile?
Do you?