public transit, culture, healthcare, no mass shootings or very little
In Japan I like how everyone keeps left on escalators so folks have a path to walk up on the right if they want to. Also Japanese drivers were the most careful and patient out of like 6 countries I ever got to visit. Italian drivers were at the other end of the spectrum.
Hospitality in the middle east
Punjabi drinking. Party hard or don’t party at all, I say!
Yerba mate and dulce de leche (though not together)
I don’t remember what it’s called, but in Japan there is a tendency to repair things rather than replace them; and further than that, a repair made properly can be see as enhancing the beauty of an object. I like that.
The Spanish got it figured out with their siestas.
Unsure if it’s the reason for it in Spain, but in parts of Argentina (and surely other places in LatAm too) it’s simply too hot to do anything in the afternoon, so life happens earlier in the morning and later at night
Also starting each question with the upside down question mark so you know how to read it out loud properly.
I’m working on a conlang.
Thanks for that tip.Do they do that informally too? In formal English language writing, the majority of interrogative sentences can be correctly interpreted by their starting with “question words” or helping verbs. This breaks down in informal writing e.g. “you up?” vs ”Are you up?" In the little Spanish I know, I’d say “¿Estas despierto?” (I know I’m missing accents but I speak Spanish way more than I can read it.) Would I still text it to someone that way even though extra characters are what is typically taken off in informal writing? In the English example, the helping verb is removed. In the Spanish version, would the upside down question mark be removed?
Not used at all. It’s even weird to see anyone do it outside of formal texts.
Oh fuck yes!
Came here to say this
The French widely mistrust their politicians.
I was also coming in to say I envy the French tendency to fuck shit up when their politicians act like scumbags. In the US we just drool and watch fox news tell us it’s actually for our benefit that we sacrifice our lives for billionaires.
Not enough, apparently.
Japanese not wearing shoes indoors / providing slippers for guest’s and picking up after yourself or just making sure the space is clean before you leave. Also bath house culture.
We don’t do the slippers thing but here in Canada we don’t wear shoes indoors either. I shake my head when I see people in American TV shows laying on a bed with their shoes on lol.
It’s one of the very few major cultural divergences between the two. As in one severe enough it could cause a misunderstanding. Maybe the only one, IDK.
In Turkish they* say
it jumped out of my hand 🤷♀️😎
instead of
I dropped it 😬
kinda like how we say accident instead of crash
*the folks I knew at least
I’m not a big fan of India, but their cuisine and especially its focus on vegetables instead of meat is something I always thought was great
I’m not vegetarian or anti-meat or anything like that, but eating more vegetables and less meat is good not only for your health, but also the planet IMHO
In general I’m jealous of countries where the norm is for them to eat healthier food. I grew up eating the typical crap 'Murican diet and it’s left me very unhealthy. I’ve been trying desperately to change that, but it’s such a slow process to change what you’re used to. I get repulsed by things that people in other countries just look at as at worst a normal part of their diet or sometimes they even actively like it. I wish I had grown up being socialized on that before things got so out of hand.
Post soviet and balkan countries are similar, because meat consumption (and being fat in general) used to be a status symbol, especially pork, which is particularly unhealthy compared to e.g. chicken
Luckily this started drying up in the early 2010s, but you can still find (or rather, accidentally run into) restaurants by the thousands where the whole point is that they put a truckwagonload of food on your plate for you to “enjoy” and nothing else (food that’s typically mediocre at best, and sub-mediocre and unhealthy at the usual)
You can also find people, typically older or rural folks who, if asked how a particular restaurant or meal was, 95% of their answer would be about the portion itself, and rarely about the quality of ingredients, preparation/serving style, atmosphere, etc.
So overall food has started becoming much better over the last decade and half, but most restaurants are still very much afraid of putting smaller portions of higher quality food on your plate because of potential backlash or criticism
Tipping culture, the lack of it everywhere but the US seemingly. Tips as a substitute for wages is awful. In the US servers are paid inadequately without tipping and so a culture of tipping is the norm.
Meh, lots of that exists in Canada and mexico as well, unfortunately
It’s not quite the same in Canada, though. Even when we used to have a different minimum wage for tipped workers, it was only a couple dollars per hour less than regular minimum wage. As far as I know, servers are now paid the same minimum wage as everyone else here. I’ve seen people say that server minimum wage in the US can be like $2 an hour.
Peru - super fresh, locally grown food; incredibly hard working people who are super friendly
Ireland - craic
New Zealand - respect of the environment, freedom camping
France - long luxurious meals with family/friends; delicious pastries; willing to burn shit down when political leaders forget who they work for
The food culture in France. Eating lunch for 2-3 hours (not every day naturally), enjoying tasty, well-prepared food and enjoying fine company.
Im a US American, how much time do you have? There is almost no aspect of my culture I wouldn’t trade for another. Music I’ll keep but everything else… meh
Travelers from elsewhere report Americans are unusually friendly and kind to strangers; very approachable. There’s much more of a guarded or even competitive vibe, elsewhere. Anglo North America is also a very smiley culture (as in polite smiles). You can like or dislike that, but Thailand is as well, and they advertise it as a selling point.
All the things people like about developed countries in general apply - it’s hard being gay in, say, Africa. Obviously the trends in the US aren’t great, but there’s a long way to go down.
I quite often feel americans show a lot of interest in new people they meet. If I tell something about myself usually they think its ‘amazing’ or ‘wonderful’, ask questions, not often steer the conversation to themselves. I think thats a quite nice cultural thing you have.
