Random Culture Thread

This forum is to learn about foreign cultures and habits, because language skills are not everything you need as a world citizen...

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linguoboy
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2016-05-31, 16:04

Varislintu wrote:However, Hungarian cities absolutely feel like a total mix of Germanic and Italian to me. :D That is, smaller towns and cities, not Budapest.

They feel so Italic to South Asians that I once saw a Bollywood film where Budapest stood in for Rome. (And they might've gotten away with it, too, if not for the Schuhplattler.)
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-05-31, 18:57

Eh, Bollywood movies do a lot of stuff like that. "An Eeveniing in Paarriiiiiiiiiiiiis!!!" (<- sign in background clearly reads "HOLZSTEIN-BIER")

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-05-31, 21:58

Varislintu wrote:Heh, yeah, they do. :mrgreen: I recently watched the French documentary "Tomorrow", and it featured a school in Espoo, but they said "a school in Helsinki's suburbs". I had a mental chuckle at how that probably raised hackles among many Espoo'ians who saw it. :P However, Espoo and Vantaa were historically rather small settlements and their current official area is pretty much a structureless (or I mean, lacking one single focal point) suburbia with little local centres. They're administratively cities, but they don't really feel or look like it anymore.
Espoo is closer to Helsinki than Mississauga is to Toronto. I'm calling it a suburb.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Levike » 2016-05-31, 23:01

mōdgethanc wrote:Mississauga

Are these the same people who named Mississippi? :twisted:

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-05-31, 23:05

Actually, yes!
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Prowler » 2016-06-09, 0:33

Hungarian parliament is pretty cool looking.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Levike » 2016-06-09, 6:01

Prowler wrote:Hungarian parliament is pretty cool looking.

Have you been to Pest? :para:

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Prowler » 2016-06-09, 15:12

Levike wrote:
Prowler wrote:Hungarian parliament is pretty cool looking.

Have you been to Pest? :para:

No, I have never been to Hungary. I've seen pictures of the parliament from the outside and it's pretty cool looking, in my opinion.

What is it about Pest that you don't like?

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-09, 15:37

Prowler wrote:What is it about Pest that you don't like?

Relevant: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/03/travel/buda-v-pest/

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Levike » 2016-06-09, 16:04

Prowler wrote:What is it about Pest that you don't like?

No, I do like Pest, but for a moment I thought you actually went there. :yep:

But yeah, the parliament's building (Országháza) together with the bridge (Lánchíd) are like the Eiffel-tower or the Brandenburger Tor of the country.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Prowler » 2016-06-10, 18:25

vijayjohn wrote:
Prowler wrote:What is it about Pest that you don't like?

Relevant: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/03/travel/buda-v-pest/

I know about the division but not about the differences between both. Interesting.

Levike wrote:
Prowler wrote:What is it about Pest that you don't like?

No, I do like Pest, but for a moment I thought you actually went there. :yep:

But yeah, the parliament's building (Országháza) together with the bridge (Lánchíd) are like the Eiffel-tower or the Brandenburger Tor of the country.

Does Hungary have a lot of tourism?

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Levike » 2016-06-10, 19:08

Prowler wrote:Does Hungary have a lot of tourism?

Nope, if compared to Greece or Spain. :mrgreen:

But people coming to the country usually just visit Budapest, which I would say is a touristy place.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2016-06-13, 8:02

Johanna wrote:
Varislintu wrote:
Johanna wrote:
Varislintu wrote:But yeah, of course Helsinki inevitably becomes kind of "The City" because our population remains small. And therefore it's in a different league from all the rest in many aspects. The rest of Finland certainly seems to feel it gets way too much attention all the time. :P

Doesn't the metropolitan area (I think even the urban area?) hold three of Finland's four largest municipalities to boot?

Yeah, it's about 1.1 million people for Helsinki Region (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Grankulla).

Do the people living in those other three ever go "No! I do NOT live in Helsinki! on people from other parts of the country?

I've noticed it a bit here by people in the Stockholm area, they're not that adamant about it if you're from a province or county sufficiently far away, although they may think you're ignorant, but if they talk to anyone in their own or from a neighbouring county they may make a huge point of being from for example Huddinge rather than Stockholm. At least in my experience.


Same in the Netherlands. I once met a girl and I thought she lived in Amsterdam, but when I mentioned that she was really shocked: 'No, I live in Duivendrecht!'
I was confused, because when you go by train from Utrecht to Amsterdam, you first have Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena, then Duivendrecht, then Amsterdam again...

But the city where I live just counts as 'the province' to most of the people in Amsterdam, no matter if it's in Utrecht, Gelderland or Overijssel...
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby IpseDixit » 2016-08-26, 12:52

I was wondering, in how many cultures there's the concept of fiance? Here in Italy we don't really make a distinction between fiance and boy/girlfriend, one is boy/girlfriend till they get married, at that point they become husband/wife/spouse. What about your culture?

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Levike » 2016-08-26, 13:00

Well, here you're boyfriend-girlfriend until he asks you to be his wife and gives you a ring and for that shorter period of time until you actually get married you're his fiancée.

So we do have the concept.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Osias » 2016-08-26, 13:16

Here when we got engaged (noivos) at a ceremony called noivado, we (both noivo and noiva) start to use a gold ring called aliança in the right hand until marriage, when we pass it to the left hand. Also, after the wedding, in the innermost side of the aliança it's written the name of your spouse and date of the wedding.

They also say that we you became noivo women start to flirt more with you somehow for some reason but I didn't notice anything. :whistle:
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-08-26, 13:59

In India, people use the term "fiancee" at least in English and pronounce it [fiˈjæːnsi]. :P Traditionally, "popping the question" Western-style isn't a thing AFAIK, but some Indian cultures do have engagement ceremonies. I don't think Malayalees traditionally have them, but at least some North Indians do. Their engagement ceremonies can be fairly elaborate and very public, kind of like a smaller version of a wedding ceremony.

When my brother and sister-in-law got engaged (in the Western sense), her mom wasn't satisfied with that, so she threw a party that was supposed to be the engagement ceremony and invited not only our family but also their family friends and ours. It involved lots of food, lots of dancing (the two people who were engaged were definitely required to dance. This is an extremely foreign concept to us South Indians), and IIRC also them feeding sweets to each other and her brother tying a small string, called [ˈɾakʰi] in Hindi, around his sister's wrist and then another around my brother's. (Usually, I think the fiancee's sister is the one who is supposed to do this, but my sister-in-law doesn't have a sister). In North Indian culture, this string symbolizes fraternity, so in this case, this was supposed to mean that her brother accepted my brother as a second sibling.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Johanna » 2016-09-24, 20:39

In Sweden the terminology is pretty much the same as in English: you've got a boyfriend (pojkvän), girlfriend (flickvän) or partner once you're in an established romantic relationship. This stage often lasts for years, if not decades or entire lives.

Some people decide to get engaged (förlovade) though. Who proposes isn't important, in fact, a lot of time neither does, instead the decision to get engaged is reached organically. This stage doesn't have to end in marriage either, there are plenty of engaged couples who never tie the knot, and there is definitely no expectations on an engaged couple to plan a wedding any time within the next five years or so, even when they've expressed a desire to get married as soon as possible.

An engagement ring is worn on the left ring finger by both parties, and it's usually a simple gold band. Pretty much like an Anglo wedding band.

Then there is of course marriage, and apart from what I've already told you, traditionally only the bride receives another ring and again on her left ring finger. A ring a little bit more ornate than the engagement one but not by much; and these days, the husband often gets one too.

Non straight couples and polyamorous people don't adhere to the usual script of course.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-09-24, 21:38

Why can't every Western country be as chill about marriage as Sweden.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-09-24, 22:03

So what does it mean in Swedish culture to be engaged? To me, being engaged means you're going to get married. (How soon you're going to get married is another issue, but I guess I thought it was supposed to seal the deal* or something).

*Nope my views of marriage aren't affected by Indian culture at all yaaaay :ohwell:


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