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!

Why is American grammar so odd?

Like when you read a news article and it goes like this:

Tuesday July 19th there was a disagreement in the supermarket parking lot over grocery bags between two customers.

When it should read:

There was a disagreement between two customers in the supermarket parking lot, over grocery bags, yesterday, 19th July.

The kettle thing is replicated in France, though it's not a voltage problem there. We bought a kettle and it worked fine. But Heavens! Let's make a cup of tea, ok I'll put a pan on the gas. A pan! It makes the tea all frothy!
In currys here you can browse 50 models of kettle and maybe 5 coffee makers. In France you've got about 59 coffee makers and maybe 1 kettle if you're lucky.

Regarding the usa, why aren't your power cables underground?

Ooh newspapers in the USA. Why Is Every Word Capitalised In Titles, It's Really Bizarre To Read And We Aren't Speaking German After All.

Their way works better in computer code and databases, though not by design.

”I’ve never heard a British person say July 19th - always the 19th of July. Not sure if I misread your post though…”

@AbsoluteShambles my post autocorrected, I did type “July the 19th” not “July 19th”, I definitely don’t always hear “the 19th of July”. Probably more the latter, but not by a huge margin.

e.g. “On July the 19th, we saw the hottest day of the year” or “the PTA Summer Faye’s will take place of July the 19th.”

It’s just a script writing shortcut for pacing. Everyone in my family and everyone I grew up with would think I was being very rude if I hung up without saying goodbye.

That said, we don’t tend to have the ‘I really must be thinking about making a move’ way of making an in-person goodbye take an hour. 20+ years here and I still giggle inside when someone says that then ends up having another entire hot beverage before they’ve left.

Australian Christmas cuisine (as per a previous pp) is not homogenous across the country. There are many who still do a traditional British roast, but it's a multicultural country and people follow many different traditions. That said, unless you're first/second generation Aussie you're far more likely to have a cold meal and for it to include seafood. This is not new -- we did it in the 70s when I was a child and it goes back further than that.

I was in the UK for a decade and though the turkey thing was fairly prevalent it certainly wasn't the case that everyone had it -- there's a strong popular perception about it though.

This is how the Australian government sold Australia to the Brits in terms of Christmas in the late 1950s

@Dic I live quite a long way inland, about 6 hours from the nearest beach but at least half my friends own a lake house or beach house.
Those with lake houses tend to go there every weekend in the season, usually about a 2 hour drive away. My friends with beach houses go for weeks, sometimes months at a time, some are retired but many are just able to work remotely now.
Hoping to get my own beach house next year and split my time at least 50/50!

Americans call is a 'fanny pack', but to you, what is a fanny???

In the UK its called a bum bag. Fanny is either a very old school girls name, or a vulva/vagina!!!!

My friend worked at camp America years ago and one of the kids sat on a wet chair and was shouting she had a wet fanny...my friend couldn't stop laughing cos it has a totally different meaning here but obviously wasn't going to explain that to the children in her care.

My question would be to Americans - how they feel about gun laws.

My friend lives on IOM, whenever they travel Mainland or elsewhere, it’s referred to as off island

Yes if I remember right it is. Geschäft I assume in this case would translate more to business rather than shop. We used to just say "gross" or "klein". (Big or small).

In Germany you also call pasta noodles. I'm not sure if it is shape dependent. Definitely spaghetti and fusilli are called noodles I think.

Our Christmas in Australia starts with prawns. Then we have a funny mix of hot turkey, roast potatoes and lots of salads. For dessert we have Christmas pudding, which the younger generation complain about, with lots of fresh strawberries, raspberries brandy butter, cream and ice cream. Sometimes a pavlova as well.
Our family is very influenced by UK roots but others are completely different.

My DC are very clear that when they 'have control of Christmas ' there will be no plum pudding. They are in their 20s so they are welcome to take over anytime.

.... or in the more explicitly variety, "pipi" and "kaka". But yes, most people do use the euphemism, for instance "musst du gross or klein?"

Why do Americans say 'I could care less'? Surely that means they do actually care? In the UK we say 'I couldn't care less' which makes sense I think.

Noodles: we have a chain restaurant called Noodles & Co that sells all types of noodle dishes, regardless of cuisine: https://www.noodles.com. It's very odd to be able to order Mac & cheese and spicy Japanese noodles in the same restaurant .

We have a kettle. It doesn't take too long to boil, but it is slower than in the UK. I think most Americans don't have kettles in their homes because they don't drink tea.

i'm in canada but us school subject same as here. you do do 10, 5 in the first half of the year the other 5 in the second half. 45 minute classes, two in the am and 3 in the pm which rotate so different am class each day.
extra credit if your bright or transferred from elsewhere you may have completed all your math requirement (example) and rather than have an empty block take physics. when you then apply for college or uni it may be of help. fully bilingual people are not forced to sit in beginner classed they are bumped ahead end up finishing the requirement sooner take up an extra block say sewing or have an empty block (show up later in the am when that is the first subject or go home earlier if the last one of the day).

Some of these questions have been answered. It's hilarious to say we don't have kettles because of voltage! We don't have kettles because we don't drink tea. If we did drink tea, and used kettles, the kettle would take longer to boil than in Europe, but that wouldn't matter.

Extra credit -- you can do extra work and the grade gets averaged in with your other work to bring up the overall grade.

Noodles are a starch dough boiled in water. Nine years living in London and I didn't notice that you don't call pasta "noodles!" What, exactly, is the difference between noodles and pasta for you? To me, pasta refers to Italian noodles. Historically, I would imagine we use the word noodle more generally because we had so much German immigration ("Nudeln").

"Fanny" is bottom, although very old-fashioned. It's a word you'd use with a child.

Brit on the East Coast of US here so..
Kettles do exist (we have 2) but the Americans much prefer filter coffee to instant and tend to drink (shudder 🙈) iced tea
It's pretty common to have a beach house or at least aspire to have one. My in-laws did until last year and plan to buy another. For us it's a 1.5 hour drive to the beach, but people here think nothing of long road trips.. DH suggested driving 10 hours each way for a weekend at a friend's place

Our Australian Christmas lunch is oysters, massive prawns and potato salad, Christmas pudding and brandy custard or blackcurrant sorbet.

As said upthread, Christmas lunches are very varied.

About kettles. I don't use an electric one, I have a rather lovely Le Creuset hob kettle, and imagine American do something similar.

It’s true! Well, not everyone, but it’s the tradition for families to have some sort of fried chicken on Christmas Eve
there are other options than KFC (supermarkets often do Xmas offers!)
Xmas eve is also date night for young couples so they might go for a fancier meal.
xmas cake is strawberry cream cake with a Santa on top

Grocery bags vary by State and to some extent shop, they recently banned single use bags in Delaware, some places have paper, some have nothing! You load up your trolley and load it in the boot because outside of the cities its hard to walk anywhere. If we drive 15 minutes to a shop in Pennsylvania we get bag for life type things free, but you then pay sales tax.