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!

EXACTLY this.
my original point was that it is very unFrench to ask for meat well done. Even pregnant women in France don’t.

@Fladdermus we were in Sweden about 5 yrs ago and realised we were spoilt in UK with Indian and Chinese takeaways everywhere. We did have some interesting pizzas 😁 All the tourist guides say to eat more cheaply, eat main meal at lunch but we spent our days travelling or hiking so not really practical.

Really interesting about the spiders! The cellar spider Pholcus phalangioides aka daddy long legs isn't native to the UK - it's from warmer climes (including Australia?) So only in our buildings in UK. Before it really spread "daddy long legs" meant craneflies or possibly harvestmen. Now it's confusing!

I forgot my question😁

Countries with big/lots of lakes - Sweden, Finland, Canada, US bits of - do you have issues with young people going a bit mad in hot weather and drinking, littering, and sadly, some drowning?

What do other nationalities think of the British on holiday?

I'm a New Yorker, so I've seen and met many Brits who come here on holiday. Most are lovely, but tipping can be a problem. Some follow local customs and are fine, but a few don't tip, either out of ignorance or tightness. Many restaurants here share tips between servers and the rest of the staff based on a percentage of the server's sales. So if a server has to share out 7% of sales and gets no tip at all, he or she loses money on that table. The issue is not unique to British tourists but seems to be most prevalent with them.

My most memorable encounter with a group of British tourists was on a flight from New York to Los Angeles with a hen party. Excessive alcohol, silly T-shirts and hats and some rude behavior were involved. The first officer was forced to warn them that failing to follow the instructions of the crew could result in their arrest when the plane landed. Things improved after that.

@MissConductUS what about Irish Tourists?

Fascinating thread… but anyone else tiring of the British Francophile sneering at all the Brits and their ways 🤷‍♀️?

Does every American household have one of these? Whenever anyone on a sitcom bumps their head they use one immediately!

@AryaStarkWolf, we don't get a huge number of Irish Tourists compared to others, and we have such a large population of Irish immigrants in NYC that I think the tourists don't always stand out from them. I am of Irish ancestry, so my strong assumption is that the Irish tourists are uniformly lovely, generous, and well-behaved. 😊

Not sneering but just explaining the reality. I think you will find that most of us commenting on how things are in France are actually French.

Oh, and I am British too, just for the record. So forgive me for knowing the ‘ways’ of both places…

I have not personally inspected every American household, but I assume most do. I have a set of them in different sizes, and you can buy them in most supermarkets.

I'll take that! I think you probably do get a lot of Irish tourists in NYC though!

This is highly geography dependent. Where I live, teens get their learner’s permit at 14. They are legal to drive themselves to school or work at 15, but can’t drive any other minors. Almost every child at my DD’s school gets a car for their 15th birthday because it’s just so necessary for kids to be able to take over driving themselves. It’s not uncommon for school to be 30-50 miles away and high school kids have all sorts of extracurriculars that have them back and forth at odd times that make using the school bus impossible. I am going to get at least 90 minutes of my day back on a basic day when she starts driving, more on busy days.

@Angelil
Why do you assume I mean you? 😂

But, since you’re here, you did say this, I think:

I am French by marriage so can comment a bit on this.

which would suggest you’re not French, but married someone French?

And you also said this:

Why would you need to order it well done for your kids though? My son has been eating his meat à point since he started to eat 🤷‍♀️ and he’s still not even 4 yet. So maybe that was the giveaway. Speaking French does not equal ‘being’ French culturally.

Pretentious, moi? 😂

I'll take that! I think you probably do get a lot of Irish tourists in NYC though!

That could easily be true. Perhaps they are better at remaining inconspicuous than other groups. We do get loads of French, German, and Japanese tourists who tend to stand out more.

maybe so 😁 November/early December seems to be a popular time to go for a lot of the people I know who visit NYC, shopping before Christmas and not too hot

I am French! 😉

Well for French posters.... is going to paris in the last week of August a completely ridiculous idea? It's shaping up to be the only time we could go away and everyone I mention it to here scoffs and says it will be hot empty and everything with be shut.

(Thanks in advance).

Angelil and yet you you have been sneery to anyone who would dare ask for meat to well done. Not every has to like red undercooked meat.

Everyone swims in the lakes in the summer but its mainly middle aged or older men that get drunk and drown, especially at midsummer (in Finland anyway)

There's some problems with young people littering but not on the scale it is in the UK. Bottles and cans never litter the place because even if a drunk person leaves their empties lying around an old lady or kids will be along soon enough to pick them up and return to the supermarket for the deposit.

Opening outward is so much better though, its been annoying me so much while I'm in the UK that toilet cubicle doors open inwards, making it hard to squeeze in, especially if you have a small child with you.

The opening outward is for safety reasons - if there's a fire or something and you have a crowd surging towards the door to get out, having it open outwards makes it easier for everyone to get out, especially if panicking, as otherwise you have to get the crowd to go back towards the danger in order to have room to open the doors (I think the triggering event was a fire in a church with massive old doors opening inwards and people died because they couldn't get out)

@Mooshamoo
Sorry, I disagree with you. Are people of Caribbean heritage not supposed to know that their ancestors were enslaved because it might be upsetting? Young people are much more resilient than you seem to think, and understanding your past helps to put current affairs into perspective, rather than thinking that the past was all 'wonderful Britain'. Read 'Empireland' - makes a very cogent argument for why we would all (as in all people living in the UK from whatever background) benefit from learning about our colonial history properly.
@Sagealicious
It is appallingly taught, sadly. It doesn't form part of GCSE or A-level curricula (set by the government) and when attempts are made by organisations (eg museums) to tell the story in a more balanced/nuanced way, and to recognise better the contributions of colonised peoples to the history of the UK, there is an outcry among reactionaries that these are attempts to 'rewrite' history. I'm sure (I am optimistic) that it will change over time, but it's a slow process. We should salute more the way the Germans have tackled this head on regarding (mostly) much more recent historical events that current generations' grandparents and great-grandparents were actually involved in. (I say mostly because Britain needs to acknowledge the terrible things that happened especially in the Indian subcontinent this century.)

I always assumed it’s because there’s more burials than cremations in Ireland so easier to organise. My friends granny recently passed and I was shocked that the funeral was a week after she’d died but it was because it was a cremation and they couldn’t get a slot before then.

Pretty much everywhere does a cheap buffet lunch menu. I guess it's a cultural extension of having proper free school dinners for every child throughout school. When people start working they still expect to be fed a cooked meal at lunch time and not be bankrupted for it.