What are the "only in X country" things of your countries?

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Hi. What are some things that only exist in your countries and nowhere else?
Let's start with mine. I'm from Azerbaijan, as you might already know.
Only in Azerbaijan
• The person who knocks at someone's door would answer the question "who's this" with "Me".xD
• Muslims eat pork, drink alcoholic drinks
• When your parents see you open the door and come in, they will ask "have you come?"
• People drink tea with jam
• No matter what your nationality is, if you are slant-eyed, you'll be classified as Chinese lol.
• Our entries for Eurovision Song Contest are written and composed by foriegners and not by Azerbaijanis, although Azerbaijani composers are much more talanted than those who they bought songs from. 'Cause we're cool like that, gotta spend much more money xD
• You can see West meeting East, new meeting old.
• "Donkey" (eşşək) is an animal, height, weight, aspect. (very informal way of speech) xD
Example:
- Eşşək boydasan - (lit. translation) You're as tall as a donkey.
Which means you're really tall.

That's all I can think of my country. What about yours?

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<a href="/en/translator/%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B3-%D0%BB" class="userpopupinfo" rel="user1330079">Олег Л. </a>
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• The person who knocks at someone's door would answer the question "who's this" with "Me".
• When your parents see you open the door and come in, they will ask "have you come?"
• People drink tea with jam

Not only in Azerbaijan. In Russia too

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<a href="/en/translator/igeethecat" class="userpopupinfo" rel="user1365086">Igeethecat </a>
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I second Oleg with an addiction of:
Muslims eat pork, drink alcoholic drinks

Maybe the things have changed, but back in our student days very long time ago, they ate ‘salo’ (pig fat) and drank vodka,
Not only in Azerbaijan :)

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<a href="/en/translator/radixice" class="userpopupinfo" rel="user1179431">RadixIce <div class="moderator_icon" title="Moderator" ></div></a>
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Azerbaijanis and Russians have been living together for so long. So that's understandable xD

@Igeethecat, Russia isn't a muslim majority country xD

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Okay, here we go.

Only in Israel
• People fight over an old wall.
• Every person must serve in the military; women for 2 years and men for 3 years. But when Gal Gadot does it, everyone thinks it's special.
• We call our teachers by their first names. There's no "Sir" or "Miss" here. At all.
• We have ONE EARTHQUAKE and everyone loses their minds.
• Summer, summer, one drop of rain, summer.
• The main racism here is between the Ashkenazi folk and the Mizrahi folk, and only THEN between the fair skinned and dark skinned.
• All directional road signs and street signs are written in 3 languages; Hebrew, Arabic and English.
• North - snow; South - desert.
• Whenever the train comes to its final stop, the prerecorded tape says "Thank you for choosing Israel Railways", as if we have ANY OTHER TRAIN CHOICES.
• Our weekend is Thursday-Friday-Saturday, while anywhere else it isn't.
• Wanna buy seafood or pork? Go for the darkest corners and sell your kidneys for it.
• Wanna be gay? Well, you can't get married and can't have kids.
• Memorial Day and Independence Day are literally back-to-back. You go from crying to partying veeeery fast.
• We celebrate both Valentine's Day and Tu B'Av (which is a holiday of love similar to Valentine's Day).
• We celebrate both New Year's Eve and Rosh Hashanah (which is the Jewish New Year).
• Kosher McDonald's.

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I wish I could write more about Russia, but it’s been too long, and only few things come to mind

Only in Russia
- we have Putin and don’t know how to get rid of him
- we have Oliver salad - different recipe in every single household (same might be true in most of the former Soviet states, but we take the blame for everything else, so, we should be allowed to take a glory for something)

Only in US
- weight is measured in pounds and ounces and short tons
- length is measured in inches, feet and miles
- temperature is measured in Fahrenheit 
- there’s AM and PM

Only in California
- brown is new green
- we are Golden State, let’s make our lawns golden
(California’s drought, saving water)

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Only in France
- we eat snails with garlic at breakfast, and frog legs with garlic the rest of the time (this is an outrageous fake, but so do the English think, so let them believe it)
- we call "Olivier salad" "Russian salad", although Olivier was Belgian
- we are very famous for using "oh là là !" on every possible tone, on any possible occasion. On special occasions : "Oh là là là là là là !" (the melody is very important, because it can mean lots of different things)
- we use to say "Oui oui non non" to express that we both agree to the interlocutor's opinion and disagree to the opinion of anybody who might raise an objection or restriction (well, that's the general meaning, but in fact it's more subtle than that)
- we don't have Putin but... oh, well...

 

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<a href="/en/translator/ljl" class="userpopupinfo" rel="user1316108">LjL </a>
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Apart from the religion-related stuff, I'm afraid I have to object that most of the things you say don't apply "only in Israel"... unfortunately for the places they also apply to.

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Similar to Igeethecat's having not been to her homeland Russia in a long time, I have not visited Puerto Rico--land of my grandparents--in almost thirty years. Though I still have many vivid and colorful memories of my trip there, and I know a few facts about the island. One that is unique to Puerto Rico is they are the only US citizens who cannot vote in federal elections (in other words, they cannot vote directly for the president). One upside residents have is, since the island is considered a territory and not a state, they pay no federal taxes.

Other only-in-Puerto Rico facts:

  • Puerto Ricans celebrate "El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos" (The Day of the Three Magic Kings), a holiday that would be the Carribean version of Christmas
  • The spoken language is peppered with Anglicisms. Some I can now think of are: "janguiar"--to hang out; "lonchar"--to lunch; "parquear"--to park
  • The drinking age is 18 (as opposed to the rest of the nation's 21)

Humorous/Fun:

  • All Puerto Ricans have boxes of Sazón--a seasoning salt--at home
  • All Puerto Ricans have a "pilón"--similar to a pistle--to make dishes such as mofongo
  • If you speak Spanish and are from New York, you're Puerto Rican

Actually, these last two aren't necessarily true, though it is true that in almost every household you'll find at least one box of the above spice, and there are millions of Puerto Ricans who call New York City home.

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RadixIce a écrit :

Hi. What are some things that only exist in your countries and nowhere else?
Let's start with mine. I'm from Azerbaijan, as you might already know.
Only in Azerbaijan
• The person who knocks at someone's door would answer the question "who's this" with "Me".xD

If the person is a relative or friend (i.e. someone the inhabitants can recognize by voice) that would also happen here in Germany.

Citation :

• No matter what your nationality is, if you are slant-eyed, you'll be classified as Chinese lol.

I guess that happens in every country outside the far east...

Huh, only in Germany...
well, we do have some food that is rare in other countries (sauerkraut, hundreds of types of bread, ...) but at least some of the neighboring countries might have those as well.

I haven't been to other countries enough to know for sure which things are that special. The things my foreign co-workers tend to point out as strange often turn out to not be a specific characteristic of Germany but only of e.g. the restaurant we are at or our employer.

In any case, not wanting to get too political, but one thing that is certainly a bit special about Germany is that being proud of the country is kinda a social taboo - unless it's in the context of soccer or similar.

Oh, and one other thing: Politicians are almost the only people here who claim to be religious. Might have to do with my social environment but practicing religion is something no one here seems to talk about, and still the ruling party (which even has "Christian" in its name) can't seem to stop mentioning how much of a Christian nation we are.

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Jadis a écrit :

Only in France
- we eat snails with garlic at breakfast, and frog legs with garlic the rest of the time (this is an outrageous fake, but so do the English think, so let them believe it)
- we call "Olivier salad" "Russian salad", although Olivier was Belgian
- we are very famous for using "oh là là !" on every possible tone, on any possible occasion. On special occasions : "Oh là là là là là là !" (the melody is very important, because it can mean lots of different things)
- we use to say "Oui oui non non" to express that we both agree to the interlocutor's opinion and disagree to the opinion of anybody who might raise an objection or restriction (well, that's the general meaning, but in fact it's more subtle than that)
- we don't have Putin but... oh, well...

 

Kudos for Russian salad
About the breakfast thing— Gimme a recipe, I want to do it, natural way to get rid of snails
But I will need a lot of garlic to kill a creature

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Mmm... Interesting thread...
¡Mi turno!

Only in Venezuela (Sólo en Venezuela)
 

  • We use idiom such as:
  1. ¡Na' guará!1
  2. ¡Marico/marica!2
  3. Pana3
  4. Chévere4

See more here → Common words

  • We eat Arepa at (almost) each meal, Hallaca and Pan de jamón (Ham bread) in Christmas season and 'Cuajao' (A pie made with eggs and fish meat) in Holy Week.
  • The drinking and driving age is 18.
  • The party/celebrations doesn't start until after midnight.
  • There are two seasons: the dry season (Summer), from December to April, and the rain season (Winter), from May to November. (Although, that is unpredictable because here, the weather comes and goes when it feels like it.)
  • We have a donkey as president and don’t know how to get rid of him. (HEEELP!) XD
  • BTW, "Donkey" (Burro/a) is an animal and an insult.
    Example: "Nuestro presidente es un burro" (lit. translation: Our president is a donkey)
    Which means (Our president is a fool, stupid, illiterate).
  • In our daily life, we take each situation (both good and bad... Mmm, well... more bad than good) as a "chalequeo5" .
  • 1. It mean "Oh, my God!"
  • 2. Which literally means "fag"; but in conversations, it means "boy / girl" (in a non-derogatory sense)
  • 3. Friend
  • 4. excellent
  • 5. joke
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I believe ‘pana’ is used in other Spanish-speaking countries
In regards to jack ass presidents, Trump gets the first place :D

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I think that in Colombia they also say it, but I'm not sure. But it is expanding due to Venezuelan diaspora.

And if we talk about jack ass presidents, I think "Maburro" (Maduro) and Trump share the first place. XD

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Seems like we all have presidents we don't know how get rid of 'em lol. Interesting :D

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Ha-ha, ja-ja
Can we have a poll to vote whose president is the worse(st)?

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We don't have polls at LT, but you may share your opinions I think. xD

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Jadis a écrit :

- we eat snails with garlic at breakfast, and frog legs with garlic the rest of the time (this is an outrageous fake, but so do the English think, so let them believe it)

Ayant vécu avec une famille française pendant une année, j'étais genre "quoi? Mais c'est pas vrai...". Je ne connaissais pas ce stéréotype.

 

RadixIce a écrit :

• The person who knocks at someone's door would answer the question "who's this" with "Me".xD

Actually that happens in Italy as well (I feel stupid when I do that).

And speaking of... Only in Italy:
▪ Italians like to complain. A lot. More than any other people I've ever met. There's basically always someone to blame (the government, the society, gypsies, immigrants and so on). Notwithstanding, they do nothing to change things, also because many times the blame is only on themselves but can't admit it.
▪ Don't even try to mention to any good Italian about Hawaiian pizza or fettuccine Alfredo (is that how they're called?) or any foreign adaptation of Italian food for that matter.
▪ Italians will never show their national pride. Actually, they would never talk in a good way about the country and they would always make examples of other countries as a good model to follow. However, they turn into the most nationalistic people when there's a good reason to (a football match, important people like Leonardo Da Vinci, etc.).
▪ People don't speak Italian (or at least not a good Italian). They would speak "dialetto" (which are linguistically considered different languages, though still related to Italian) or through gestures.
▪ Italian food is the best. Don't even try to argue about it.
▪ Italy is the whole world. Outside of it, there's a whole universe Italians aren't even interested about.
▪ A special disease called "racism" is spreading more and more.

Only in Sardinia:
▪ Because of the linguistic, cultural, historical and geographical isolation, many wouldn't consider themselves Italians. It's not unusual to hear a Sardinian calling "stranger" someone from the mainland.
▪ The beaches are the best. Don't even try to argue about it.
▪ Sardinia is the most beautiful place on Earth. The rest of the world is seen as a jungle with hostile people and dangerous animals and climate.
▪ Sardinians love their food, even the strangest.
▪ Corsica is the sibling they've been separated from and it's the only inhabitable place on Earth outside of Sardinia.
▪ Sardinians hate Germans. Socks and sandals are an illegal match (actually this might suit Italy as well).

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DarkJoshua a écrit :

And speaking of... Only in Italy:
▪ Italians like to complain. A lot. More than any other people I've ever met. There's basically always someone to blame (the government, the society, gypsies, immigrants and so on). Notwithstanding, they do nothing to change things, also because many times the blame is only on themselves but can't admit it.

Same for Azerbaijanis xD Blame on everyone/everything except for themselves.

DarkJoshua a écrit :

▪ Italians will never show their national pride. Actually, they would never talk in a good way about the country and they would always make examples of other countries as a good model to follow. However, they turn into the most nationalistic people when there's a good reason to

The same for Azerbaijanis as well xD

Seems like Italians and Azerbaijanis are fond of complaining and so lol.

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This comes as a surprise to me. I've lived with a Cypriot Turk for a while and from what I could understand, Turks in general are very proud of their country and culture. I can't picture an ethnic Turk being against their own country as Italians do (although I saw a minority going against Erdoğan's policies...). Italians are more like: "I wish I was never born in this country".

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Well, I'm pretty sure some of the things I've mentioned below may be seen in other contries as well, so… :D From what I read here, I see that Bulgarians share more or less the same mentality with Italians (from what Joshua said above, and from what I've noticed myself).

Anyway, 12 things in total came to my mind now, but trust me, there are many, many more if I were to go into detail. These are maybe the most common ones:

  • We have separate dumpsters for plastic, glass, and paper, and along with them, next to them, we also have the throw-anything-inside dumpsters. The stupid thing is that in the end, when the garbage truck comes to empty them in the morning (yep, not by night, but early in the morning), all the garbage ends up piled up at the same place and not distributed separately.
  • "Going to a café" means to go there, sit there for at least two hours, while having a drink or two (or three, or four, or more) in between chit-chat and gossip. More simply put, it basically means wasting your time. This is regularly practised by pretty much everyone: from high-school students to adults leading normal life. I, though, dislike this kind of wasting my time, so I'm out of it. I despise anything related to wasting time.
  • TV and billboard ads on the main road are 90% about food and mostly about medicaments of any kind: from problems with your stomach or pain in the legs, to problems with men's prostate, women's period, or even diarrhea… yep. Anything concerning your lower part of the body or your digestive tract, really. There also used to be an extremely repulsive ad about a toothpaste, showing two bathroom sinks and comparing them by someone who spits in them after having brushed their teeth. The spit to the left is clean, but the one to the right is mingled with blood, ugh. Trust me, it's a horrendous view, especially while you're eating, but we've gotten more or less used to it by time, although we really shouldn't.
  • Hearing someone's car alarm activating itself for 5 minutes straight at night (or during no matter what hour of the day, actually) and driving you crazy is not uncommon at all.
  • Being waked up by someone in the building you live in, who has decided to make a major renovation of their apartment at 8 o'clock in the morning, and drills like crazy – of course, it drives us all mad, but what can you do – is not uncommon nor unusual at all either.
  • Seeing a wooden cart driven by a horse with a flower on its head, with a bunch of gypsies in the back, in the middle of the car traffic, on the main road in the capital, is not an unusual sight either (click here to see). Not being racist, just realistic.
  • We often refer to Bulgaria as "Absurdistan" (a coined name of "absurd" and the suffix -stan, as in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc.; pretty much meaning Absurdland), because it truly is the land of absurd. Nothing's impossible here. Like, really, nothing, thus the absurd-thing.
  • Seeing mentally instable people in public is not an uncommon sight, because, as I like to say, "there are no unaffected people left [by the nation-wide wave of madness during the last 30 years of post-communism period]".
  • This one is very common. I've heard foreigners often say that we nod our heads the wrong way:
    – we nod from left to right repeatedly to agree;
    – and nod up and down repeatedly to disagree.
    However, I disagree to a certain point with it, because, speaking for myself, I do it the "right way". Even if I do it, without thinking, the "wrong way", it's from my facial expression that you'll tell what I mean. Yet, it's still true as something which foreigners have noticed.
  • This one is very popular too. This type of "sandwich" (couldn't think of a better word) in Burgas (where I live) is called "strandžanka" (lit. 'a girl/woman from Strandža' – a mountain range in southeastern Bulgaria, southern of Burgas), and this sandwich is what we call (or at least I know) a "princess". The great division comes in the Sofia region, where they call them the opposite way. So, who's right, who's wrong? Well, each region thinks they're right, so you get what I mean…
  • When the news start, the news anchors greet you with, for example, "A heavy car accident has taken the life of at least 10 people", and only after that they say "Good morning/afternoon/evening, you're watching [insert media name here]". And yes, the same goes for the news following: at least 60% of them are about murdered people, people who have died in a car accident etc. It's sad, really, but what can you do.
  • "Bulgaria's Got Talent" does show us all kinds of talents, but in the end it's always a singer who wins it. As if we don't have "The Voice of Bulgaria" and "The X Factor" each and every year already, gee, give me a break.

Phew, that resulted to be quite long. But yeah, this is only a small part of anything which you may notice while being or living in Bulgaria.

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nicholas.ovaloff a écrit :

This one is very common. I've heard foreigners often say that we nod our heads the wrong way:
– we nod from left to right repeatedly to agree;
– and nod up and down repeatedly to disagree.

Wow... didn't expect this xD

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DarkJoshua a écrit :

This comes as a surprise to me. I've lived with a Cypriot Turk for a while and from what I could understand, Turks in general are very proud of their country and culture. I can't picture an ethnic Turk being against their own country as Italians do (although I saw a minority going against Erdoğan's policies...). Italians are more like: "I wish I was never born in this country".

Of course as all turks, we're proud of our nationality, but we are never satisfied and we always find something to complain of our country, culture, government. Every single thing xD

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RadixIce a écrit :
DarkJoshua a écrit :

And speaking of... Only in Italy:
▪ Italians like to complain. A lot. More than any other people I've ever met. There's basically always someone to blame (the government, the society, gypsies, immigrants and so on). Notwithstanding, they do nothing to change things, also because many times the blame is only on themselves but can't admit it.

Same for Azerbaijanis xD Blame on everyone/everything except for themselves.

DarkJoshua a écrit :

▪ Italians will never show their national pride. Actually, they would never talk in a good way about the country and they would always make examples of other countries as a good model to follow. However, they turn into the most nationalistic people when there's a good reason to

The same for Azerbaijanis as well xD

Seems like Italians and Azerbaijanis are fond of complaining and so lol.

I don’t want to start another conflict here, but I should say Ukrainians are the same
They paint fences in blue and yellow (colors of their flag), change street names, graffiti ‘Putin is {bad word}’, but do nothing to fix the roads (for example)

But their president is very sweet :)

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DarkJoshua][quote=Jadis a écrit :

Only in Sardinia:
▪ Sardinians love their food, even the strangest.

I tried some brother cheese in Corsica, while having a picnic in the "maquis". As my teeth began receding while tears flew from my eyes and my throat emitted a faint squeak, I took the whole thing with gloves and threw it as far as possible from me. The "maquis" immediately went on fire and the gloves were spoilt (OK, exaggerating just a little bit).

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nicholas.ovaloff a écrit :

Phew, that resulted to be quite long. But yeah, this is only a small part of anything which you may notice while being or living in Bulgaria.

My experience of Bulgaria is an old one (1973 !), but for sure, that's the only country which I had to cross entirely in a convoy of about 60-70 vehicles, from the Turkish to the Yugoslavian border, about 300 km, with a Bulgarian police car ahead and another one following (I was sitting in a Turkish bus). When the moment came, the first police car hooted, everybody stopped and had a piss along the road, then it hooted again and we drove further. (But the Bulgarian people I had met before in Sofia were nice, even if they all wanted to buy my jeans).

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This is great and so much fun! I enjoyed reading all your comments. It just shows how unique we're all. We’re all the same and yet so different. Ah, and Italian food is the best in the world and if you don’t agree with me you just have to admit it’s one of the best.

Only in Germany
- We use animals to insult each other (cow, pig, goat, dog)
- We try to use nice words for dirty words like “Scheibenkleister” instead of “Scheiße” (Shit). (While being in kindergarten my children just loved to say “catch me if you can egghole”.)
- We answer the question “where do you go on vacation?” not with “we’ll stay at home”, no we’ll say “Balkonien” (balcony-a) or “Verandistan” (porch-land) meaning “staycation”.
- Almost every town got its own dialect – sometimes you’ve really got a hard time understanding someone from another county or even don’t understand a thing at all.

I know, that’s not the topic, but - only in Augsburg:
- We’re not Bavarians or Swabians (though both is true), we’re “Blitzschwaben”
- We got our own cake and nicknamed the town after it: “Datschiburg”.
- We’ve got more holidays than the rest of the world.
- No matter where you go on vacation, you’ll always are going to meet somebody from Augsburg or one of the towns next to it.

Maybe this exists in other countries, too. Oh well, I guess I just wanted to be updated on this thread.

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Flopsi a écrit :

Only in Germany
- We use animals to insult each other (cow, pig, goat, dog)

"Pig" and "cow" are quite common insults in England, too. ;)

Flopsi a écrit :

- We try to use nice words for dirty words like “Scheibenkleister” instead of “Scheiße” (Shit). (While being in kindergarten my children just loved to say “catch me if you can egghole”.)

Minced oaths exist in many languages. One of my favourite TV shows - "The Good Place" - shows what happens when you try to "curse in heaven": the result is words coming out like "holy motherforking shirtballs". :D

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magicmulder][quote=Flopsi a écrit :

Minced oaths exist in many languages.

Sure, like "блин" for бл... in Russian, or "nom d'une pipe !" for "nom de Dieu !" in French (or "mince !" for "m... !")

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dmls a écrit :

When someone is coming to a visit, we clean our entire houses just for the visitors, but, when they arrive, we say "Não repara na bagunça, nem deu tempo de arrumar.", which means: "Please, don't mind, my house is mess, I didn't have time to clean it."

I found it's quite typical German to clean your house meticulously when a visitor you will never meet again is expected (like a plumber) but not when friends or family are expected. This can be generalized to "It's very important to make a good impression on strangers; on friends and family, not so much".

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I could read all of your comments all day long. I just love each and every one of it.

Yeah, the English - I'm all about the U.S. My big sis (she lives in Missouri) told me so, that's why I put those animal insults on my list.

Cleaning houses for visitors - I remember my mom complaining about Germany: "Gosh, you can't just drop by. No, you have to ask for a visit so they can clean their house, like anyone would care."

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My take on "(almost) only in Germany":

* We are very careful about displaying any kind of patriotism (except during international sports championships) since that is usually frowned upon (because of our "Deutschland über alles" history, anything that could be understood as nationalism is often considered borderline neo-Nazism/fascism). Sort of the polar opposite of the USA.

* We have a love-hate relationship with Austria (many Germans love to travel there but don't like the people, and vice versa) and mock the Dutch (tongue-in-cheek) for their national color orange (which is what our street sweepers wear).

* Despite being known for our knack for punctuality, we still widely use the academic quarter (see: Berkeley time) at our universities.

* We have four different ways of addressing people (in English, there's only two). Apart from the informal first name basis ("Hey, du, Hans") and the formal last name basis ("Hey, Sie, Herr Meier") we also have two mix-ups thereof - "Hey, Sie, Hans" which is often used by teachers towards adult pupils, and "Hey, du, Herr Meier" which is used in some states by colleagues among each other.

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MagicMulder a écrit :

"Hey, du, Herr Meier" which is used in some states by colleagues among each other.

Yes, the ladies who work at the supermarkets always address each other this way:
e.g. "Hey, Frau Maier, weißt du die Nummer vom Grünkohl?"

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Probably only in Germany
we have (at least) four different types of garbage bins outside the houses.
A yellow one which is exclusively for plastic/aluminum etc. packaging waste and tin cans
A blue one which is exclusively for paper and cardboard waste
A brown one which is exclusively for biological waste (food left overs, vegetable waste, cut garden leaves etc.)
and a grey or black one for all the waste which doesn't belong to the other classifications.

We are not supposed to dispose glass into the black garbage bin.
Glass we have to bring to extra containers which usually are located a couple of blocks away from where your house is.
There you find three different containers:
One for green glass
One for brown glass
and one for clear glass.

One of the first things they teach to asylum seekers from Africa or the Near East
in so called "integration classes" is how to dispose garbage in Germany.
When they have conprehended that (and not died of laughing attacs) they know where they are,
and are called an successfully integrated asylum seeker and are a great achievement for politicians.

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Hansi K_Lauer a écrit :

Glass we have to bring to extra containers which usually are located a couple of blocks away from where your house is.

Also it's forbidden to throw in anything between like 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. as to not disturb the neighbours with the noise.

(I should note I'd fail any integration class that is based on the recycling rules; fortunately, my apartment complex only has two garbage bins, blue and black. But then again they say most US-born people wouldn't pass the citizenship test they make naturalized citizens-to-be take.)

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magicmulder a écrit :

I found it's quite typical German to clean your house meticulously when a visitor you will never meet again is expected (like a plumber) but not when friends or family are expected. This can be generalized to "It's very important to make a good impression on strangers; on friends and family, not so much".

Well, in 2013 I was in a Student Exchange Program in Germany (which was my first time being there, BEAUTIFUL country), and I went to a German student's house and it was so clean and spotless I was afraid to use their bathroom.

I just assumed all German houses are this clean, so was I wrong?

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We are cleanly; I was referring to the act of being especially concerned with what a plumber thinks of your cleanliness compared to a family member.
For example, if there are unopened letters lying on the table next to the door, you'd remove them if the plumber comes but not necessarily when family vitis.

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Not all German houses are that clean. I realized you can only keep a house this clean if you don't have a lot of stuff - and I've got too much books, games & records. My house had been just perfect for me when I first moved in - but now I've got three kids and just don't know where to put anything. Ah, one more waste-stuff - at least we've got Sperrmüll (bulky waste - had to look that up) to get rid of all that stuff nobody needs anyway.
And Hansi, you forgot to mention the containers for second hand clothes.

Magicmulder wrote:

Also it's forbidden to throw in anything between like 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. as to not disturb the neighbours with the noise.

In Bavaria the time is from 8 p.m. til 7 a.m. and sundays.

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Well, let me give it a try:

Only in Mexico:

  • Eating food at breakfast that is considered "dinner" like rice/beans/tortillas/tamales and salsa 
  • You have to pay to use public restrooms and for the toilet paper! (you'll often see someone working in the bathrooms who will charge you for pretty much anything)
  • People put hot sauce and lime on pretty much everything, even rice. 
  • Hot sauce flavored everything, even candy and alcohol shaped lollipops.
  • "No tengo cambio, no tendras....?" no matter where you go (even your grandmother will tell you this), no one ever seems to have change. 
  • People go to church to pray for their favotire team to win.
  • Who could forget? Day of the Dead where a parade is held every year and people spend the night in cemeteries with the graves of their dead loved ones (they offer up food, alcholic drinks, sweets, flowers etc.) or build altars in their homes (some people even bury their dead in their homes, but I think that's in more remote areas)
  • People getting kidnapped or shot in broad daylight and there are never any witnesses, no one sees or hears nothing (out of fear or they've simply become used to it). 
  • The police will "ask" for "coperachas" (cooperation from a community) to do their jobs and patrol the community for any criminal activity (drugs, theft etc.)
  • Cops are very easily purchased for the "right price", they will often ask you for the "drink fee" (they call it "para el refresco") which means "give me something and I'll look the other way". 
  • 3-4 generations living in the same household, you could be living with your great-grandparents and all 20 of your cousins. Most people buy land and build their houses, with time they'll expand it or build up floors as more family members are born.
  • There's no real schedule for garbage collectors, so it's not uncommon to see people running home to get the trash out or running after the garbage men down a couple of blocks.
  • Parks are almost never closed like they do in the US, some don't even have fences or any form of protection. It's not uncommon for thieves to steal swings, the playground mats or anything that isn't nailed down to the floor.
  • Graffiti on almost every wall with announcements for shops, entertainment or concerts, the police don't care about that and there's no real funding to clean up the streets.
  • Depending on your license plate or car year, some cars are not allowed (you need a permit or insurance to be able to drive all 7 days of the week and it's very expensive) to drive on certain days in an effort to reduce pollution (you are fined if you get caught or worse). 
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Olé, olé, olé...
But, really, is it safe to travel to Mexico? I really wanted to go there, but now I am kinda scared :(

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phantasmagoria a écrit :

Only in Mexico:
You have to pay to use public restrooms and for the toilet paper! (you'll often see someone working in the bathrooms who will charge you for pretty much anything)

Same in Germany. In many places it's "optional", but there's always a cleaning woman sitting right next to the entrance with a plate with a few coins in front of her like a beggar, so you're kind of passive-aggressively shamed into paying (the workers in Germany don't depend on tips like in other countries).

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Citation :

Only in Mexico:
You have to pay to use public restrooms and for the toilet paper! (you'll often see someone working in the bathrooms who will charge you for pretty much anything)

Sad to say, but the same is in Ukraine.

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Phanstasmagoria a écrit :
  • The police will "ask" for "coperachas" (cooperation from a community) to do their jobs and patrol the community for any criminal activity (drugs, theft etc.)
  • Cops are very easily purchased for the "right price", they will often ask you for the "drink fee" (they call it "para el refresco") which means "give me something and I'll look the other way". 

The same is in Venezuela and even worse... :/

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Enjovher a écrit :
Phanstasmagoria a écrit :
  • The police will "ask" for "coperachas" (cooperation from a community) to do their jobs and patrol the community for any criminal activity (drugs, theft etc.)
  • Cops are very easily purchased for the "right price", they will often ask you for the "drink fee" (they call it "para el refresco") which means "give me something and I'll look the other way". 

The same is in Venezuela and even worse... :/

From what I heard it's the same in Brazil... really glad to live at a place where I don't need to worry about these things...

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<a href="/en/translator/mete-ero%C4%9Flu" class="userpopupinfo" rel="user1302246">Mete Eroğlu </a>
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Yes, please mods!

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DarkJoshua a écrit :

This comes as a surprise to me. I've lived with a Cypriot Turk for a while and from what I could understand, Turks in general are very proud of their country and culture. I can't picture an ethnic Turk being against their own country as Italians do (although I saw a minority going against Erdoğan's policies...). Italians are more like: "I wish I was never born in this country".

It's definitely not a minority. I can hardly find an Erdoğan supporter near me. Erdoğan has nothing to do with the country and culture. It's mainly just bigotry and the limitation of freedom he involves into the government. You can definitely hear many ethnic Turks being against their own country inside but they may not reflect that directly. Turkish lira has devalued over dollar too quickly in a month than would ever be. Nobody could expect it. If you say "At least there is the culture and the sense of freedom in the country"; I doubt that's what a Turk experiences. By now, you are discriminated of any reason except if you adopt Muslim or Arabic cultures and oppose people's freedom. Freedom of speech, having opinions, being one's self, supporting equality... Just saying.

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Igeethecat a écrit :

Olé, olé, olé...
But, really, is it safe to travel to Mexico? I really wanted to go there, but now I am kinda scared :(

It's safe to travel, I'm there half of the year anyway. I do advice you to stay away from the northern states and anywhere near the border, some states that are absolutely a no-no are Michoacan, Guerrero, Sonora and Sinaloa. Most tourists come to either the eastern coast or down to Yucatan, they also come to Mexico City where it is fairly safer than the northern states. If you truly want to go somewhere historic that is rich in culture and has many sights to see, I'd recommend the state of Guanajuato (crime is so low there, it's almost non-existent) and it's absolutely beautiful.

Always take precautions that should be common sense to anyone:
- Don't wear flashy clothes/jewelry '
- Keep your money safe and mobile devices out of sight until you get to your destination
- Only carry the amount of money you think you'll be spending and be careful where you take your money when you're in sketchy parts of Mexico.

Other than that, have fun and enjoy! I've thankfully never been kidnapped, mugged or robbed at gun point, a lot of the stories you'll hear are from people that didn't take these precautions seriously.

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phantasmagoria][quote=Igeethecat a écrit :

Always take precautions that should be common sense to anyone:
- Don't wear flashy clothes/jewelry '
- Keep your money safe and mobile devices out of sight until you get to your destination
- Only carry the amount of money you think you'll be spending and be careful where you take your money when you're in sketchy parts of Mexico.

Other than that, have fun and enjoy! I've thankfully never been kidnapped, mugged or robbed at gun point, a lot of the stories you'll hear are from people that didn't take these precautions seriously.

What about credit cards? :)
Is it safe to wear a backpack on the streets without a risk of being robbed or secretly stolen?

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Олег Л. a écrit :

• The person who knocks at someone's door would answer the question "who's this" with "Me".
• When your parents see you open the door and come in, they will ask "have you come?"
• People drink tea with jam

Not only in Azerbaijan. In Russia too

I think these are features of the most of the ex-USSR countries ;)

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