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!

Thanks for your reply. Arboretum! Very grand! 😀
But I wonder why yard is the default term?

I love a roast but its the washing up is a pain.

If i fancy a roast i buy 2 cooked chickens and just do mash and veg.

If i want a proper one ill do lamb or roast beef.Oh i would love one but its been too warm lately.

Question to the Americans among us. Forgive me if this is stupid / just for TV…

I have always been fascinated by the amount of food served at the breakfast / dinner table in family homes. In firms and TV of course.

The kids and parents eat a bite or two, take a sip from a big glass of juice and then leave the table. Leaving enough waffles, pancakes, bacon and juice on the table for four more meals!!

It is such a common scene in films and TV that it genuinely made me wonder if Americans really do throw away such vast amounts of food every day!

Maybe this is like the ending a telephone call post. Never noticed that though, only the food!

Strangely, I’ll feel quite disappointed if this is not really how it is - even though I hate wasting food!

A yard in the US is what a garden is in the UK. I have a front yard and a back yard.

We use the term "garden" in the US, but it usually means (at least where I live) a vegetable garden. So someone might say, "Are you going to plant a garden this year?"

@MdNdD that reminds me of breaking bad, and Walter white junior who seemed to spend half his time at th e breakfast table!

So do people grow flowers in their yard?

They do have them! My sister had one as do my relatives on the east coast.

What are ‘wing tips’?

So what could they say to a woman, for example, that would be unacceptable here? Surely women aer very outspoken too and would answer back?

In the winter, I'd make one at least every other week but in the summer, it's too hot to have a full on roast every week!

PestoPasghetti · 18/07/2022 23:16
German peeps - is it normal to talk about children's poo as 'großes geschäft' or is that a weird translation?

yes it is normal

Yes. We have azaleas and roses. The roses are a challenge in our climate, though.

I knew it would be Verruckt from your previous post. This happened long after I left but this is the part of the country I'm from and basically if you drew a line on the map from this waterpark to the roadside zoo in Tiger King, you would draw a line over my childhood home. (Which was wooden frame and had dodgy electrics, so that tracks!)

It wasn't a coincidence that they opened the park on the Kansas side of the state line (it was in a city that sits across two states) because the other side has way more regulations. The significant regional theme parks are on the other side, and there was a tragic accident there when I was young that led to stricter rules. The state to federal balance of the rules means each state has their own laws and regulations rather than one national policy (so we don't have the equivalent of the British Health and Safety in the Workplace poster!) and some states are way more hands off. Kansas is very much hands off. It's a farm state with the mentality of just getting on with your work and not over-regulating. So they chose the location with the fewest regulations, which was also the place that no tourists would visit, etc, so they just built something off the scale to try to bring people out.

It was ridiculous and dodgy as can be and I will never understand how all the charges were dropped. Usually this is the American way of maintaining a safe space: you'll get sued when someone gets hurt.

At any rate, it's not a typical thing and though I did grow up there I didn't grow up terrified. As it goes I now live in a wooden framed house in the UK and when we started reworking some things, we found wiring that was melting, so I think these specific items may be more international than you might think.

I am very much okay with roadside zoos not being a thing here in the UK though. They are one of the things I look back on and think HOW did I ever consider that to be normal? Come on kids, let's go see the tigers living in dog runs! It's fine!

Australians also say front yard and backyard.

It is exactly the same as a British garden. In an Australian backyard, you’ll typically find grass, flower beds, a barbie, pergola or other sheltered seating area, some fruit trees, swimming pool and a clothes line!

No idea why it’s called a backyard, just is!

i think Australians think of a garden as a space that is dedicated to flowers. Whereas an Australian backyard is considered almost another living space / another room, as you spend so much time there - eating, reading, playing, socialising.

I was sat there rather than I was sitting there.

I'm sure you can figure out why a black american might want to claim some of their heritage or why it might be useful to see how various segments of society are faring vis a vis the white/european descended majority.

When people say they are Irish they don't believe it literally (even in Boston :) ) it is a short hand and people often have nice memories of grandparents and stories from great grandparent. They are proud of where those people came from. I can never figure out why so many Irish (not saying you Hopefully) love to sneer at Irish Americans - the people who gave them a huge leg up in green cards with Morrissey and Donnelly visas.

Somebody mentioned americans not using "fortnight". I was in a meeting once in the US where we were working on a big tender in a country that used British English. There was a bit about "every fortnight" and the guy faciliating the meeting said "where did that come from anyway". His mind was blown when I told him it was a contraction of fourteen nights.

The British class system does really elude me - as an Irish person and an American. It seems terribly important and terribly immutable.

Yes and no. We grow things in the yard, in the garden. We would say, I'm going out to the front yard to plant flowers in the garden. The garden is the brown patch of soil you plant things in, while the yard is the outside that you own.

Ahaa! I get it now! Thanks!

A style of dress shoes. Usually a leather oxford, and the wingtip style has a bit of ornate detail in a rounded w shape. Definitely available here in the UK - my son has a pair he deems his fanciest shoes.

This could be a whole thread!

I started calling it the garden because it makes more sense. We have a lawn, but also areas with flowering plants and flowers. We also have lovely trees.

But typically the yard is the entire area around the house. The garden is the area where vegetables and/or flowers are grown.

I don’t know anyone with a yard and no flowers.

Thanks - I understand now. It's puzzled me for ages!

Has anyone answered why public toilets in the US (I guess you would call them restrooms) have toilet stalls with big slits down the side so that people can see in.

I visited my company's US offices. One wrong eye move and I would have seen my colleague in all her glory. Why?

It's a TV/movie thing, but for a funny reason. If you just have one thing on each plate and you shoot the scene several times, the editing gets so difficult because the food and the juice and whatever will keep obviously disappearing and reappearing. If you set the scene with a ridiculous amount of food, most people won't spot if a bite of scrambled egg comes and goes with each shot.

Not that food wastage isn't a thing at all - just that I think it's more on a house by house basis and you either grow up with a family who are big on not wasting food or you don't.

I’ve never considered this before! Perhaps that’s why because it would read “July 19th 1984” if read aloud which does actually make sense. Interesting!

Thanks. I was confused because to me "yard" means no plants, no soil, hard ground, just somewhere to keep things like a bike or a rubbish bin etc.