General Chat / Subtle Cultural Variety

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    During the last few years I've spent quite a lot of time around foreign people. Especially during the last nine months, when I had a sort-of girlfriend from the States. I'm naturally very curious about trivial shit, and I love to observe and try to understand everyday social processes. Maybe that's my social scientist DNA. Anyway, there are things I've noticed, subtle cultural differences, and they fascinate me. What subtle cultural differences do you know of? I'll list some of the things I've seen below.

    - People from Southern Europe do not lock the door to the bathroom at home when they're peeing or whatever.
    - American people always have a lot of lights on. During a casual evening get together, they would sit around with bright lights everywhere. What I prefer and am used to, is to make things more dimly lit. Not dark, just dusky. That's the cool thing about social events in the evening. They're more atmospheric. Except for if you turn all the lights on.
    - For Americans, cereal isn't necessarily breakfast. You can eat it at any point during the day. Over here it's quite explicitly a breakfast thing.
    - Nutella and the likes are desserts for Americans. In fact, a lot of sweet things are apparantly considered desserts. Even cereal, again...
    - Americans are quite indirect in their speech. If I ask you if you want tea, just say "Yes please" or "No thank you", not "Well, to be honest, I think I'm actually like okay for now". As soon as you say the word "actually" there's a 90% chance the answer is going to be 'no'.
    - Oral sex doesn't count as sex for Americans.
    - If Spanish girls smoke, they roll shag. Which is considered a masculine thing over here. Not over there.
    - Americans prefer cocaine over XTC and MDMA and all that crap.
    - When Dutch people meet someone new, they will often state their own name while handshaking. Like "Hi, I'm Liam". We just often leave out the "I am" part. This is apparantly weird for some people.

    Well known things about the Dutch and things I did not notice myself:
    - Congratulations is what you tell someone on their birthday.
    - On birthday parties, you actually congratulate everyone or at least the family. As if it's a shared event, which it kinda is.
    - If it's a Dutch person's birthday, he will buy the guests a round of drinks. Not the other way around. The other way around definitely makes sense and it's not like you have to do everything yourself on your birthday at all, but if you host or organising a party you are actually hosting.

    Discuss and add!
  • G Force%s's Photo

    I'm not sure anyone eats cereal for dessert, that's a bit bizarre.  But people do eat it for lunch or dinner, however rarely.  

     

    The indirect speech point makes sense, people usually don't bother giving their true opinion on things when it comes to simple questions.  If you do most people will consider it rude I guess.

  • YoloSweggLord%s's Photo

    "Oral sex doesn't count as sex for Americans"

    I'm American and I'd consider it sex.

  • Tolsimir%s's Photo

    As I'm living in Spain in the moment I can deliver some observations more about Spanish people:

     

    -Spanish people don't know how to use public transport. they don't let people leave the train/bus first, nor do they move through the middle of the train when there's a lot of people.

     

    -Bread with fries/all kind of potatoes

     

    -Drinking beer in the uni during lunch is totally normal

     

     

     

     

    On the self reflecting side:

    -Germans very rarely ask "how are you?" when meeting people/strangers. I very often see/saw myself in the position being asked this and not really knowing how to answer (in Spain but also in the US). I mean you answer in most cases "Im fine" despite of your actual constitution, so I think because of effectivness Germans don't ask this (we do ask this when meeting close friends/family members after not seeing them for a long time where the stress lies on the latter).

  • Tolsimir%s's Photo

    - People from Southern Europe do not lock the door to the bathroom at home when they're peeing or whatever.

    ....
    - For Americans, cereal isn't necessarily breakfast. You can eat it at any point during the day. Over here it's quite explicitly a breakfast thing.

     

    First thing I can recall. Lots of toilet doors don't even have a lock. Second one, in Germany having cereal for lunch/dinner is also quite common (more for lunch than for dinner though).

  • chorkiel%s's Photo

    The past three and a half years I've done an international study and noticed some fun things as well. Some bigger than others.

    - (particularly British) people are confused by the Dutch saying 'ho' when we bump into someone

    - Dutch people are actually often considered rude in the sense that we are really direct. It's maybe less an American thing to be indirect because British people are about as bad.

    - People from Eastern Europe are very cautious as to not start a controversial or personal topic

    - The Dutch are quite informal with teachers. For example, we often call teachers by their first name while Germans don't seem to do that, at all.

     

    Also, I used to eat cereal as an evening snack when I was a kid.

  • Lilith%s's Photo
    - For Americans, cereal isn't necessarily breakfast. You can eat it at any point during the day. Over here it's quite explicitly a breakfast thing.

    Totally true and I love it. Cereal can be a meal or a snack at any time of the day.

    Ive never left the country but something I've noticed within America, in black neighborhoods it's rude to respond with 'what' when you didn't hear someone. You say 'I'm sorry', 'I didn't hear you', anything without 'what'. I had never heard of that growing up.
  • Sephiroth%s's Photo

    This video's from the early 90's, and about a half hour long. But, it does do a good job highlighting some subtleties in a satirical way, so I think you might enjoy it Liam. :)

     

    How to Talk Minnesotan

  • Xeccah%s's Photo

    if we started counting blowies as losing your virginity then we'd have our middle schools filled with 12 year olds fellating in the halls.... thats why it cant be sex

  • RWE%s's Photo

    - Chinese people can't say "No" to something. They're always smiling and looking for excuses. If you ask them how they are, they will always say that everything is fine.

    - Breakfast in China is a  warm meal.

    - Wenn you go to to a restaurant and want to split the bill between everyone, in Germany everyone will just pay for what they've eaten, in Spain though, you split it into equal values.

    - When you've finished your meal in a german restaurant, you won't go immediately, but you'll stay a little bit, have some drinks and chat. I've seen it quite different in other countries.

    - Germans are really afraid to talk to strangers/persons they haven't met yet.

    - Germans also leave out the "I am" part, when meet someone new, and just say their name, like liam said how dutch people do it.

    - No German Breakfast without Nutella!

    - No beer before four ("Kein Bier vor vier!") is a quite common social rule in Germany.

    - In Mongolia (and also a bit in China) you always take your shoes off, when going in someone else's house, while in Germany, when the host doesn't say something else, you leave them on.

  • chorkiel%s's Photo


    - No beer before four ("Kein Bier vor vier!") is a quite common social rule in Germany.

    You're missing out. Daytime drinking is the best drinking.

    - In Mongolia (and also a bit in China) you always take your shoes off, when going in someone else's house, while in Germany, when the host doesn't say something else, you leave them on.
    This is the same here. People here will probably look at you weird if you take your shoes off at someone else's house in most occasions.
  • posix%s's Photo

    - Germans are really afraid to talk to strangers/persons they haven't met yet.

     

    So awfully true. Having seen lots of places and living abroad, it's become ever more obvious to me how Germans have much higher walls between them than other people. It's quite bad really. The other side of the coin though is that Germans are very true friends once you get to that level. There's thankfully low tolerance for social superficiality, which a lot of foreigners mistake for cliché German sober seriousness.

  • ][ntamin22%s's Photo

    My girlfriend's family (of Dutch descent) got me some Rumbonen for Christmas and holy shit

     

    I demand an apology from the Netherlands
    I don't know who thought these were a good idea but they are the nastiest thing good lord

  • Faas%s's Photo
    They are disgusting, like a lot of typical Dutch food.
  • SSSammy%s's Photo


     The other side of the coin though is that Germans are very true friends once you get to that level. There's thankfully low tolerance for social superficiality, which a lot of foreigners mistake for cliché German sober seriousness.

     

     

    respect

  • SensualEthiopianPolice%s's Photo

    The dutch put mayo on fries which is why they can't get into heaven

  • FredD%s's Photo


    The dutch put mayo on fries which is why they can't get into heaven

     

    I also rather have my mayo not on my fries, but in the USA I saw they did molten cheese on the fries! What an abomination of our Belgian proud cuisine...  

  • chorkiel%s's Photo

    Don't Americans mostly eat french fries?

     

    Cheese on fries is great, as is mayo. Just don't put large gobs of cheddar on fries. Or anything for that matter.

  • FredD%s's Photo

    Fries are Belgian, not fucking French. 

  • RWE%s's Photo
    I've heard somewhere they were invented by a german guy, who learned cooking in Paris, but vended them in Lüttich.

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