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 hope this isn't offensive, given that it's coming from my (British and basic) understanding of the Civil War, but why would being called a Yankee be offensive, as opposed to just historically inaccurate? Would you rather be called a Confederate?

It's more analogous to being called an Essex girl when you're actually from Liverpool.

There's a Swedish book called Utvandrarna (The Emigrants) which I think gives a pretty good basis for why they think the way they do. It's wasn't like emmigration today where a person moves abroad to another established community and integrates into that culture. Whole villages moved together and built entirely new villages together when they got there. The prevailing culture and identity of the emmigrants and their decendants was that of their home country. They weren't living in a new country, they were living in the old country but in a new place.

Someone asked are English people taught about English colonisation in school.

But should they be? Should young teenagers be taught about their own country's gory and gruesome history, when they are at a very young age? Should we all be taught about our country's wrongdoings at a young age?

I grew up in Ireland. Ireland hasn't done anything bad to any other country, but it has certainly done alot of bad to its own women in the past. Should that be taught on Irish schools?

When I was a teenager, I don't think I'd have been mentally able for a class about all the wrongdoings that happened in Ireland - eg women Locked up as slaves by the Catholic church, women's babies being stolen. You know we had a dark history.

So should English teenagers really have to go to school and sit through classes about English colonisation. Which was bloody and brutal? I don't know?

Should any teenager have to sit and listen about their country's wrongdoings in the past. I don't think so really. I think we should learn about it as adults

I'm not French but live in France.

Croissants aren't an everyday thing, unlike bread which is a major obsession! I have a lot of Parisian neighbours and when I eat at their houses they spend the entire meal talking about the provenance of the food. They're very big on seasonal, local produce, which means I get to eat a lot of melon!

They seem very regimented about the time they eat and round here everything stops for 2.5 hours at lunchtime.

I really miss spice.... they'll often tell you they're having curry but it's not obvious from the taste.

Vegetables seem to be either part of a starter, eg crudités, and I've had many main courses with no veg at all. It's frequently served up on one plate so you have no choice in portion sizes.

Salad is served with the cheese course. You only serve yourself once to a couple of small slivers, they forgive my greed because I'm British! I love the way they tell you the age of the cheese!

Desserts are often bought from a patisserie, they are impressed we make our own. One neighbour was even amazed I roast my own chicken

Wine glasses are small and the wine is way superior to what I have at home. They're generally very disciplined about portion sizes.

Another one for the Americans - is it a regional thing to pronounce the ‘A’ sound as an ‘O,’ such as posta instead of pasta, Holloween instead of Halloween, or is it pretty universal?

The flat British A of pasta is pronounced eh in many American accents.

You really don't hear the flat A.

Vowels shift. They have shifted in British English over the years too, and from one region to the other in the UK.

I completely disagree. As both a Briton and an American. Kids need to learn proper history. They don't need to learn gory details at 7, but certainly, at GCSE/high school level, they do.

We have yellow school buses in Ireland too to make the Irish Americans feel at home.

But its okay for them to learn about the slave trade and world war 2 from a prospective of the UK being heros, which is historically incorrect.

I waited tables through college. Paid for a 3 month trip to Europe. Paid for much of my tuition.

I thought it was fantastic.

My employer would have had to make up the difference between my tips and minimum wage, if it ever came to that. It never did. I always made great money and at least $15/ hour when minimum wage was around 4.25.

I don’t mind tipping; it’s normal to me. I don’t think there are many other jobs where someone could have the flexibility it provides. But I also don’t serving to be a job for someone that needs to support themselves full time or long term. It’s great as a side job to earn extra income or for a student.

@knitnerd90 but why

Teenagers need to learn skills that prepare them for the job market.

Why learn about a gory history that happened long ago.

I am also of the opinion that teenagers in England now - bear no responsibility for things that were done by English people long ago.

I don't think they should have to learn about colonisation by some English people on history, when they could be learning far more useful things to help them get jobs.

Did history GCSE, A-Level and degree and never covered British colonialism. I do know a lot about the industrial revolution though!

We read Heart of Darkness for GCSE Eng Lit but didn't spend a huge amount of time on it.

Roasts are really easy to make, it's juat the washing up after!

Totally disagree with all of this.

question for americans - why does the school day start ridiculously early?

question for south africans - do all white people have to live in gated communities with security and guns etc? How far has equality improved?

question for canadians - why is canada's population so much lower than the USAs (I don't think its just because of the very north areas)?

I think not teaching about colonization must have been a relatively recent thing, people certainly learned about it in the first half of the 20th century.

It is mainly about being in the North.

If you look at the population of Canada, it's very much concentrated in the south, especially along the border, around the Great Lakes, and along the coastal areas further to the South.

Population density quickly becomes much less dense as you get more northern, and the vast majority of Canada's land mass is northern. The problems of transportation and infrastructure are increasingly more expensive the more north you go as well, both due to climate and the lack of services and people. Once you get to the North plenty of communities are fly-in only, or they only have ice-roads in the winter so no roads in the summer.

When an American says they are Irish, it is short for Irish-American.

@Mooshamoo
German here - our past is taught at school, including the Russian film about the liberation of Auschwitz (year 9) and visits to concentration camps. Of course this, and Hiroshima, colonisation, genocides in different parts of the world, use of agent orange, distruction of African and Asian cultures etc. should be taught to our children - descendants of perpetrators and descendants of victims alike. Not to do so is pure hypocrisy.

Think it might be regional. Especially in winter, most do where I live.

I went school in the late 70s and 80s and we didn't get taught about colonialism at all. And also we didn't get taught about Irish history either and the U.K. relation to it other than very limited references to it around the time of WWI. Although, obviously I'm only referring to the exam board I did for later years. Extraordinary when you think of the things that were often directly affecting people like in the U.K. at the time. I think it was deemed to be too political rather than historical. I'm still trying to fill in the gaps.

Teenagers need to learn skills that prepare them for the job market.

They also need to learn subjects that help make them enlightened citizens who understand the contexts in which all societies function; history is a very large part of that.

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

Yes I did know that Germany teach their teenagers in depth about World war two.

And I know, on the whole, that English schools do not teach English teenagers about colonisation.

I do think it is good that people know about their history, but I personally dont think that the teenage years are the right time to do it.

At that sensitive age, I think it is too much for them.

@knitnerd90
"There's no federal rule on busing except for students with disabilities. States can mandate it."

I stand corrected. I thought it was a federal thing. I'm sure someone told me that at some point. Maybe it's just a state law.

Does the school day start ridiculously early? I could ask you why your school day starts ridiculously late.

Canada is huge but most of it would be uninhabitable in winter.

@Hopefullysoon2022

I find it very hard to believe that you've literally heard an American say "I am from Ireland" when they're not. I think it's more likely that you've misinterpreted someone who has said "I'm Irish".

"I'm Irish" is shorthand for "I'm Irish American". All Americans would understand that. It might sound odd for someone from Ireland. But I can assure you that to an American "I'm Irish" does not mean "I am from Ireland".