Differences between countries! the topic´s thread...

[Nacho]

About the bulls... I think that in Portugal they have a nice competition involving bulls... A group of guys, called "Forçados" (?) try to stop a run of a bull just with their strenght. I preffer it to the "Corridas".

Many young people dislike bullfights here. I don't like the even itself, but just because I don't like it. Many people say it's cruel, and I agree that the latest minutes of a bull for bullfights are horrible, but the life (And the death itself) is so much better than the life and the death of any other animal directed for meat.

But let's get no out of topic... Carlos I of Spain did also went into the Arena of a plaza for fighting a bull who wounded one of their nobleman... He killed it with a gun shot... A great show of the decadence of Spain in the XVIIth century

About Austrians... "They must be the smarter people on earth... They made the world believe that Hitler was German and Beethoven Austrian" -Billy Wilder. 

[Raggit]

Another interesting fact that goes along with what Darth said, is that girls (no matter what age) can dress like whores and then if guys check them out they're automatically perverts.

[Matt Brown]

America is a pretty big country...each little region has their own little sterotypes and whatnot...lemme think about what hasnt already been covered...
Yeah...a whole lot of Americans are fat. part of that is we dont walk. Our cities are built that there are few few places that you can get by foot or bike. Im lucky to live in one of those areas. That, and unlike a lot of my friends, Im active in sport, so Im not fat. Ton of americans are.
Americans are freakin crazy about football. not football (soccer), but american football, gridiron, whatever you folks want to call it. In smaller towns, (like where I live), the biggest community event is a high school football game. parents from rival schools in some of the more rurul areas have attacked kids. Im in the band, and I've had batteries thrown at me.
If you say Uni in America, nobody has any idea what you are talking about. its college.
College is really freakin expsensive
While we have a few xenophobic people, most americans really are pretty tolerant and friendly people. I think if you came here, you'd like it.

[Primus]

This topic will help separating myths from facts... Here we go:
Portugueses (Primus): Are most of the men called "Manuel" and "Joaquim" and the women "Maria"? Do you eat lots of "bacalhau" and have many bakeries (sp?)?

Hi, dear bro (NO, i'm not a monkey either!Ã,  , but Brasil (ok, without z, I didn't kown how you hated it with a z) is our bro country!Ã, 
What's that about monkeys anyway?! It's the very first time I heard or know about that... ?)

Yes, indeed codfish is one of the most eaten food by us (except me, I hate it except maybeÃ,  "punhetas de bacalhau" - when you stop laughing, pls keep reading on: it is the name for a cold codfish salad! . There isn't a single restaurant without at least a codfish recipe. Now, not all men are "Manuéis" or "Joaquims" and not women are "Marias". Indeed as many people have two or three christian names can have many people with those. Now the guilty for alotta different names were due to your "soaps", as many people put names got from Brasilian "telenovelas" to their kids. True!

Yes, we have alotta bakeries, they work all night to have fresh bread each early morning; for instance each hypermarket has its own: we love to eat fresh bread each day.

Farlander, yeah, that's true, and they are "forcados" (c, not ç); I admire them too; but the most spectacular are the ones on foot and just with a red cape: the specialists are Spanish ones. But we've a few too.
That old marquis (Marquis of Marialva) killed the bull which has killed his son (Conde of Arcos) the old way, on foot and with a sword.

This one is for "Os Ultimo Quão Queijo": Australia? Oh, due to your nickname I thought you were Brazilian (sorry for the "z", Felipe!) or Portuguese... So where did you come with that original nick, pls?

EDIT:
About that interesting hamburguer subject, I must admit we eat them two ways: "hamburguer no prato", in a dish (with salad, fries or chips, cheese slices, rice, etc, with a fork and knife - we don't eat rice with our hands anyway); and in a sandwich (with special hamburger bread), with our hands.
At home, we are educated to eat with a fork in our left hand, and a knife in our right one, and always use that in restaurants, as it's considered a lack of education eating in public places just with a fork in our (usually right) hand. In better restaurants we've three different sized glasses (water, white wine, red wine) and a pair of fork and knife for fish dishes and a different pair for meat ones. If we eat lobster or else we've several instruments for breaking it, for getting the food from it, a bowl with lemon and water for washing our hands at the end, etc. The right rules, postures, instruments, and so, depend also the kind of restaurant we enter.

EDIT 2:
A lot of boy teenagers (13-17) like to dress and act (walking,Ã,  gestures) as rappers: I think it's a provisional fashion, as many others before were.

[Sutebi]

Yeah, it's gross when girls dress like that. Funny story, I was at a mall once, looking for a gift when I passed a group of girls that ran into an older man. The girls were like "Hey Mr. Johnson" and one said, "Hi, dad." The man stood there for a moment then said, "Those aren't the clothes you left the house in." I believe a lot of girls do that, but I guess that's more of a general thing than something specific to a country.

On that note, maybe we should also bring up the general fashion for teenagers in countries now. A lot of teens I've seen in America wear the "preppy" look, which is a golf shirt, some sort of necklace made of clams, cargo shorts that are frayed at the ends, and flip-flops. Girls wear basically the same thing, except trade a jean skirt for the shorts. I see a lot of kids wearing that. There is also the "punk" look, but someone else can go into that.

[Sinitrena]

Hi,
I'm from Germany. First of all: we don't use fork and knive to eat hamburgers as someone said. I've never  seen someone doing that. How does it work ? We use our hands.

Myths:
No, not all germans are nazis. There are some but the majority isn't.
No, we don't eat sauerkraut all day.

Facts:
Yes, we really love football (soccer) here.

I can't think of anything else to mention now. I will add something later.

[Dart]

At my school in Canada, here are examples of what certain high school groups would (and do) wear:

Preppy Girls:
http://ae.speedera.net/Images/laydowns/front/5361_3570_624.jpg

Preppy Boys:
http://ae.speedera.net/Images/laydowns/front/5165_6626_811.jpg

Rich Ghettos:
http://www.seanjohn.com

Hip-Hop Girls:
http://ae.speedera.net/Images/laydowns/back/1316_1293_435.jpg

"Hard" Wannabe Rockers:
http://www.rastilho.com/Merchandising/Pics/T-shirts%20Rapaz/1129T-Slipknot.gif

Wannabe Girl Punkers:
http://www.jabba-wocky.com/images/es_areyoustrange.jpg

Skaters:
http://www.skatepro.com/blackdiamondsports/images/itemslarge/indyT1.jpg

What I Wear (Anything Legend of Zelda-y or Skater-y or stuff that's comfortable):
http://www.hottopic.com/Assets/product_images/lg/289161_lg.jpg

[Renal Shutdown]

England..

Yes, it rains a lot.
No, we don't all know the queen.
No, we don't have a good health care/education system.
Yes, we have a seperate hot tap and cold tap (faucet).
Yes, we take football (soccer) seriously enough to fight about it (altho i can't understand why).
No, we're not good at many sports (if any).
Yes, our language is far too complicated.
Yes, our language is based upon words borrowed from other languages.
Yes, we swear a lot.
No, the word c*nt isn't frowned upon as much as it should be.
Yes, our leader is a p3n1sh.
Yes, it rains a lot.

[Sutebi]

Ha, yeah, it does rain a lot, but I will admit that most of the English are damn nice when it rains. They always let you hide in their shop until it and such.

Also, I'm the one who said that Germans eat hamburgers with a knife and fork. The german friend who said this was rather old, so I might just be a traditional thing that died away. See, we're breaking stereotypes and becoming closer for it!

Also, I think it would be safe to say that America is home to the English that is very, well, full. I think English is probably the language with the most words in it, because so many words mean exactly the same thing. There is a lot of slang here. We also have a lot of dialects, like ebonics.

EDTI: Oh, and another dialect is leet speak.

[Blackthorne]

America is great.

13 year old girls dress like whores.

This is so disgustingly true - and this kind of behavior isn't just relegated to one part of the country or one ethnic type of group; it's affecting EVERYONE.... and it's scary.Ã,  Women role models in the country are just abhorrent.Ã,  It makes me sick.

Our most popular music is by low-life thugs glorifying violence & drugs or whore-sluts who lip-sync.

Again, true.Ã,  If I read another article in some music magazine, glorifying some rapper that "used to sell crack" to survive, I'm gonna flip.Ã,  I mean, what the fuck?Ã,  We're gloryfying this kind of lifestyle! I mean, seriously!Ã,  Every dude I read about either used to sell drugs, or do them, and now it's not like they stopped even though they're rich now!Ã,  They don't take their money and make a better life at all!Ã,  It's horrid!

You also forget the whiny, angry white-boy rocks bands who are pissed at the world cause they grew up male-middle class-and white.Ã,  Seriously.Ã,  Get over your gel hairdo and tribal tatoo, and quick screaming and grumbling in a mike.Ã,  There are 8 whole tones in a diatonic scale.Ã,  Learn more than one.

Most of the youth have totally tuned out and only care about partying and having fun and those that haven't are greedy capitilist pigs.

Where's my bong..... I'm out of Labatt Blue.......

The government is hated around the globe.

Our government is hated here.Ã,  I've never seen a bigger den of hypocracy and lies than Washington.Ã,  Not to say there aren't some good guys out there, they're just so few now.

We're fat and over indulged.

Tell me about it.Ã,  I'm overweight, and I don't bitch because I know it's my own fault.Ã,  I hate my fat friends who blame everyone but themselves.Ã,  WITH POWER COMES RESPONSIBILTY.Ã,  Sometimes just because you can afford six cheeseburgers doesn't mean you should eat them.Ã, 

Oh and we're free.

Real free.Ã,  Did you just hear of the Supreme Court ruling that ruled that not identifying yourself to a police officer is a crime.Ã,  Woot!

- Americans (juncmodule and Darth Mandarb): Are all the "slim" on TV and all the others are fat? Is it THAT high the number of "couch potatoes"? Do your teachers show the Brazilian map without the Amazonian Forest stating it's an "International Area" (there were some mails stating this, but I want to know if it was just an hoax or that actually happens).

-Felipe-

Yeah, most of the people on TV are TOO slim.  We have an odd balance of body image in the country.  We're either too fat or too skinny.  We American's have trouble finding middle ground.

Yeah, I mean, COUCH POTATOES (people who sit on couchs, fondling the remote control and watching mindless amounts of TV) are quite common.  It's sadly not a rumour or a myth.  We watch a lot of TV, and lately it's been that horrid reality programming.

No, I was always presented maps of Brasil with the rainforest Amazon areas as a part of it.  There are groups that are concerned with the conservation of the forest, but they're not involved in the school system.  They are private, and funded by venture capitalists who want to make themselves feel better.  Unfortunately, they forget they don't own the rainforest.

Well, one could complain all day about their countries, or praise them all day - but the fact remains is "home is where you make it."  Yeah, America is imperfect, but I love my home, my family and where I am.  It's been good to me, cause I'm still alive. 


Bt

[Peter Thomas]

More about Australia:

-Yes, as OsUltimo said, you can see a Kangaroo if you go and look, but they don't hop down the city streets. There used to be a family of about 20 kangaroos that lived about 700 meters from my house, but only because our house was very new, and the rest of the area was undeveloped, so the 'roos all lived in the bush. It's not like you walk down the driveway and spot them hiding on your roof. Actually, a lot of aussies are afraid of kangaroos. Their hind legs are so powerful they can kick your bowels out in about 1.5 seconds. That would be most painful, I imagine.

- The most-played sport in Aus is soccer, although I don't believe it has the largest fan-club. Most people seem to know a lot more about football (yes, football, that game played with the brown, eliptical ball you throw at each other) than soccer, which is understandable, seeing as soccer is gay and crap and should be banned.

- 13 year old girls in GENERAL don't dress like whores. They are slowly becoming MORE whore-like (and I completely 100% blame America's media domination of Australia for this), but as I see it, the whore-age doesn't arrive until about 16/17. Of course, there are exceptions, and these exceptions are increasing by the day, as girls realise they can get away with shorter and shorter and shorter skirts and skimpier and skimpier tops. I want to shoot them (mainly because if you are going to wear sexy clothes, you must AT LEAST have breasts to show off in them, so you aren't pulling up the front of your shirt every 5 seconds! And I mean that seriously)

- We don't like beer as much as the Scottish. But yes, we DO like it.

- Women's Lib is undergoing a change in Aus. More and more women are reverting back to 'tradition' - that is, staying at home and being a housewife. Not by force, but completely by choice.

- Some of our delicacies include Kangaroo/Platapus/Wombat meat, as well as Dingo Steak.

- We wear clothes.

[Moox]

I wish America would go commie

[Al_Ninio]

Fun facts:
- No, Not everyone in Israel is religious.
- Yes, both the financial situation and the safety situation are terrible. It is a common joke to say "...it's because of the situation." about something that goes wrong, at least that's how it seems to me.. I've pretty much lost interest in listening to the news.
- Most present israeli music (eastern music it's also called) is, in my opinion, bad, to say the least, but for some reason a lot of people here like it. If I had to listen to israeli music, I'd prefer older music, it was much better IMO.
- As far as I know (as I said, I don't follow news with too much care) there hasn't been a terrorist act in some time, but I still can't say our country is safe.
- Here too almost everyone owns a cellular phone, even kids at the age of 8. I've had one since I was 12.
- Also, there've been a lot of talks about drugs in our school lately, so I'm guessing that aspect isn't in a good state either.

- We don't ride camels*
- We don't get shot/blown up/kidnapped every time we go out of the house.

EDIT:
To Felipe (didn't see your post earlier): No.


*...all of the time.

[Kinoko]

Well, here's my experience of Australia, and since 've never been anywhere else, it won't be tainted ^_-

-Yes, as OsUltimo said, you can see a Kangaroo if you go and look, but they don't hop down the city streets. There used to be a family of about 20 kangaroos that lived about 700 meters from my house, but only because our house was very new, and the rest of the area was undeveloped, so the 'roos all lived in the bush.

Hmm, the only time I've ever seen a kangaroo is in the zoo, and once or twice in the bush (when I lived in a country town in WA). The others have all been dead along the highways I've driven down. If you drive along a highway, it's pretty hard not to see at least one or two dead roos. My dad's hit two within the last year and believe me, they fuck your car up. It's expensive to hit one ^_^ You'll never see one outside of a zoo if you live in a major city, at least in the inner city areas. I think that's a good thing, they're much safer away from people. Ah, and yes, they are scary. they're kindof impressive/interesting from afar but close up, a large kangaroo is a scary thing. Joeys (baby kangaroos) are gorgeous though.

- The most-played sport in Aus is soccer, although I don't believe it has the largest fan-club. Most people seem to know a lot more about football (yes, football, that game played with the brown, eliptical ball you throw at each other) than soccer, which is understandable, seeing as soccer is gay and crap and should be banned.

Yep, it was just recently announced that the most played sport is soccer, but like Peter said, that's not by far the most popular sport. That figure I imagine comes from children's weekend sport. The sport of the average person is AFL (Australia Football League) and quite frankly, kicks soccers ass ^_^ It's called "footy" everywhere and if you say "football", AFL is what you mean - EXCEPT in Queensland, where I live. Here, the major sport is Rugby League and that's what "footy" means.

- 13 year old girls in GENERAL don't dress like whores. They are slowly becoming MORE whore-like (and I completely 100% blame America's media domination of Australia for this), but as I see it, the whore-age doesn't arrive until about 16/17. Of course, there are exceptions, and these exceptions are increasing by the day, as girls realise they can get away with shorter and shorter and shorter skirts and skimpier and skimpier tops. I want to shoot them (mainly because if you are going to wear sexy clothes, you must AT LEAST have breasts to show off in them, so you aren't pulling up the front of your shirt every 5 seconds! And I mean that seriously)

Hear hear! ^_^ Yeah, young kids dressing like prostitutes isn't such a big problem here, but the one thing I can't STAND that is EVERYWHERE is hipster jeans. BUTTCRACKS! Am I the only one that finds this sort of thing just plain obscene in public? It also really pisses me off because it makes it SO hard for me to find a decent pair of pants that come above the waist (and pubic area). Girls these days know nothing about leaving things to the imagination.

- Women's Lib is undergoing a change in Aus. More and more women are reverting back to 'tradition' - that is, staying at home and being a housewife. Not by force, but completely by choice.

Really? o_O I haven't really noticed... it isn't a big trend yet. It'll be good when it is though, I'm sick of women thinking they NEED to take liberties just because they can.

- Some of our delicacies include Kangaroo/Platapus/Wombat meat, as well as Dingo Steak.

...Though, we never eat them. Tourists eat them. You'll have to go to a pretty weird place, or an expensive restaurant to get this sort of thing. I've never had them, but I hear kangaroo meat is awful. I've actually never heard of people eating platypus or wombat.

Some other facts

- We're a very Americanised nation (though who isn't?) but we seem to do what the US does in a small way.
- Burger King is called Hungry Jacks here. I remember seeing American tv when I was a kid and thinking "Hey, Burger King has the same logo as Hungry Jacks!". The suck as much here as they do anywhere else though. Blech.
- Noone but farmers in the country wear those big, brown, wide-brim hats and hardly ANYONE would wear them with the corks hanging from the brim. Again, you can buy them in tourist shops.
- We use PAL here ^_^ Not NTSC.
- We do ride camels. In Broome, a tropical tourist town in the north west. My parents got a ride on a camel along the beach. I don't think anywhere else though.
- Our capital cities are small on a global scale, though Sydney is as ugly as any of the big ones. Brisbane is beautiful ^_-
- We have the best chocolate in the world - Cadbury. As I understand it, In the US you only have chocolate bars? You don't have large chocolate blocks split up into little pieces or anything? Of course, I love overseas chocolate too, but I think Cadbury is the best all-around, normal chocolate you'll ever get.
- We eat beef all the time. The impression I get from tv is that in the US, steak is considered a bit of a ... not a delicacy, but a special meal? Not at all here, though we love it. We just have it often enough that it's nothing special. I think in America you tend to eat a lot of pork, right? Australia is definitely a beef country (though nowadays, chicken probably takes over).
- Uggboots belong to us, you stupid foreign company trying to own the name. Fuckers! (sorry, it just gets me mad...)
- Sydney likes to give the impression overseas that they're a big harbour based city but again... for the tourists, really. Whenever I see Sydney portrayed on overseas shows, I'm like "All they -ever- show is the harbour!".
- There may be a lot of spiders and stuff in the outback but you hardly ever see them in a city environment. My biggest problem this year is ants.

Hmm, I'm sure I'm missing heaps of stuff I'd like to say but that'll do for now.

[shbaz]

Different parts of America are like entirely different countries, sometimes even on a state-by-state basis. I live in eastern Oklahoma, an expanse of land with many manmade lakes, rivers, hills, forests, plains, and even mountains. Once I almost ran over a bald eagle because it had killed something in the road and I drove up on it over a hill. Luckily (it's a felony to kill one) I didn't hit it, but it was directly in front of my car and its wingspan was much wider than my hood.. an amazing creature.

Do you really make that "parties" in the funerals, american guys?

A lot of people request that up-beat music be played at their funerals, so that their death isn't so much mournful as it is a celebration of the time that they were here. Funerals are social events.. but not really parties by any means.

Do you really shake the hand of the girls?

Yes, and I don't consider it sexist or weird, it's a business tradition. You can hardly hug or kiss a man whom you expect to take you seriously as a business person, why a woman?

Do you really know guys who carry guns to school?

No. People around here respect weapons, they grew up with them and were taught the dangers. Many people hunt here, as wolves were killed out long ago and the deer/turkey/etc population gets out of hand if there isn't any hunting. One time there was a gun in my school during hours.. our Agriculture teacher had been teaching a safety course the night before and forgot to bring it home. There was a big scandal over it for a bit and a newspaper story, but soon everyone realized the idiocy of being upset because of a gun being in school for a gun safety course. A kid in Fort Gibson Oklahoma once brought a gun to school and shot it off, with no deaths. He was the son of a local Pastor. These are usually depressed kids who hate how stupid Americans can be sometimes.

One of my teachers would always ask the class to raise their hand if they had a gun in the house to freak out foreign exchange students.. then he'd ask them to put their hands down if they had less than three.. then five.. and as the hands mostly stayed up the foreign kids would shift in their seats more and more. It's more a perceived danger than an actual one, unless kids aren't taught about guns, only told to stay away from them (and fostering the want to know a secret).

Country music is more popular here than any other kind, and after that any kind of Christian music. In fact, if you want to hear a live band within 30 miles of me it is going to be a Christian band or a Country band (more likely Christian). This is the heart of the Bible belt and nearly everyone attends church and calls me a satanist.

America is often seen as an advanced civilization with paved roads everywhere and tall buildings.. however, I live in a more .. undeveloped part. The main roads are paved, and so are city streets, but everywhere else is a huge network of dirt/gravel roads. The first picture is the road I lived on and the second is the highway I took when I drove 3 hours back to my home from Oklahoma State University.

http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/CamPic52.jpg
http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/v96/shbazjinkens/CamPic27.jpg

It rarely snows. (2-3 times a year, very light)

Oklahoma was the last large Native American territory.. I live in Tahlequah, the Cherokee Capitol and one of the five civilized tribes to be sent across America on the Trail of tears (use google ) Recently they issued the first gay marriage in Oklahoma, they are able to do this because they are a nation within a nation and many of their laws supercede US law. Unfortunately (IMO) they won't be doing it again, it only happened because of a loophole and they are patching it.

Things I hate about Oklahoma are similar to what others hate about America, but less urbanized.. the cowboy culture is generally one of people who are arrogant, rude, and aggressive in my eyes. They don't tolerate people who don't worship God and they don't change their minds about anything unless the Bible proves them wrong (and most of the time they will ignore that, unless it allows them to demonize a minority).

[Nacho]

I didn't realised of one of Felipe's questions: We do not eat at 16:00, but most of the people eat very late for some foreign standards. I do it at 14:00, and I supper at 20:00, but the usual is to do it all one hour later, eating at 15:00 and dinning at 21:00. That should be related with the sunlight hours, probably, we make it all more later if compared with center of Europe!

Another fact: People in Spain gets married more later each time, and we go home at 30 or more. I think in some places like in Germany people is just desiring to be 18 to "fly away of the nest", is that correct?

[Kinoko]

Ah, one more thing I forgot, though this is more a difference between Australia and America. In Australia, when we say "pie", we generally mean (in fact, probably all the time) a meat pie... meaning beef. In America, pies are generally sweet pies, right? Like, as a dessert. This is a pretty strange concept to most Australians, I think. We don't have much of a culture for it over here. I've always wanted to try pumpkin pie though, just because it seems like such a odd thing yet Americans -always- seem to like it.

My family occasionally bought these mini berry pies you can get in the freezer section of the supermarket and we'd have them with icecream, and apple pie has always been around over here (as far as I know) as a fairly common thing for desserts, but that's as far as I think it goes.

[DGMacphee]

- We wear clothes.

Speak for yourself! 

[Ben]

Yep, in America, "pie" usually means something with fruit in it. We don't really have meat pies here, except with chicken.

When I was little, I used to thing pumpkin pie was odd too-- mostly because I had only seen them carved for Halloween. I didn't know you could eat them  . But pumpkin pie is very good if you try it..

Country music is more popular here than any other kind, and after that any kind of Christian music. In fact, if you want to hear a live band within 30 miles of me it is going to be a Christian band or a Country band (more likely Christian). This is the heart of the Bible belt and nearly everyone attends church and calls me a satanist.

Heh.. I live in Maine, and nearly everyone under the age of 30 hates country music. And I've only met one girl who like Christian music. Punk rock and emo are popular around here. So is rap, which is odd, since most of the people I know who listen to rap also seem to hate black people. THAT'S AMERICA 

[Isegrim]

Hi, I'm from Germany, too, more exactly from Bavaria.
Bavaria is a state in the southeast of Germany, and about everything Kl4uz has said about Austria is true for Bavaria, too (but we do not have so many mountains), but what Sinitrena said about Germany is of course true, too.

Some things I'd like to add:

Myths:
-We have the best beer
-Everybody speaks a strange dialect
-Everybody wears Lederhosen
-We only eat "Schweinebraten mit Knödel und Kraut" (Roast Pig)

Facts:
-We do have the best beer!
-Some people speak a rather nasty dialect which sounds rather... like... Orcs?
-Few people wear Lederhosen (I have several leather pants myself, but they are of the motorcycle-style )
-I like Schweinebraten!
-Castle Neuschwanstein (the one that looks like out of a Disney-film) is the most well known Photo-Motive