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 » 2020-06-29, 17:32

OldBoring wrote:Then he said "near the apartments", but not all laundries are near apartments, for example many are inside shopping malls or near offices.

Here, that's unusual. Most people don't like to transport their laundry very far. If you own a car, you probably also have a building (either an apartment or a house) with its own laundry machine(s).

Recently, I have seen a new kind of drop-off laundry appear. It's really just an unstaffed room with storage lockers. You put your clothes into a locker and then come back in a day or two to pick them up again. For these to succeed, you need the right combination of residents nearby who don't have access to their own facilities and are willing to pay to have their laundry washed for them.They just opened one on one of the main commercial streets right next to the university campus where I (technically) work. (Of course, this was shortly before Coronavirus drove nearly everyone off campus, so I have no idea if it's still a going concern.)
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Gormur » 2020-06-29, 19:04

I think I've heard of that before, a place where like they take police uniforms and wash them. I think it's just a laundry service without a specific name. I could be wrong though because I really don't know

There's also something else called a dry cleaning service, but you obviously know about that :)
Eigi gegnir þat at segja at bók nøkkur er hreinferðug eðr ønnur spelluð því at vandliga ok dáliga eru bœkr ritnar ok annat kunnum vér eigi um þœr at dœma

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Gormur » 2020-06-29, 20:53

This has left me mystified. You know the Natives who used to live off the land in the deserts of Utah and Arizona. How did they do it?

Like the area I went to in Utah is full of cave artifacts, but the lake there, Lake Powell is man-made. I can accept that there may have been water there at one time. I tend to think it was even before the stone carvings

If in fact these peoples lived on rain water wouldn't they die out from disease? At least nowadays there's a decent amount of pollution in rain water besides dirt. Maybe they had a purifying system though. That seems possible

I just wonder if anyone knows for sure and maybe has a timeline of all of this. From what I know, it's like solving a mystery :hmm:
Eigi gegnir þat at segja at bók nøkkur er hreinferðug eðr ønnur spelluð því at vandliga ok dáliga eru bœkr ritnar ok annat kunnum vér eigi um þœr at dœma

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby aaakknu » 2020-07-26, 20:51

What do you use to listen to music?
I used YouTube until now, but since they increased advertising, I started looking for something else (I don't think YouTube is that good anyway, even without advertising).
I downloaded Spotify, but after a week of using it, I am frustrated with it. Some of my most favourite songs aren't there; the recommendations are very limited and often irrelevant; the app aims to promote mainstream music, so it is very difficult to discover less popular music.

Edit: What about radio?
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2020-10-01, 13:24

I still use YouTube.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Osias » 2020-10-01, 15:23

YouTube and sometimes RadioGarden.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2020-10-01, 16:53

I'd never even heard of RadioGarden until now, tbh.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Aurinĭa » 2020-10-01, 20:39

aaakknu wrote:What do you use to listen to music?
I used YouTube until now, but since they increased advertising, I started looking for something else (I don't think YouTube is that good anyway, even without advertising).

Get yourself an adblocker. :whistle: I use uBlock Origin and I keep forgetting YouTube ads exist.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Osias » 2020-10-01, 23:35

vijayjohn wrote:I'd never even heard of RadioGarden until now, tbh.


I love the app as a concept, the maps, the feeling of traveling the world through all those radios...

In the practice, though, I don't open it to listen to music as much as I wanted.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2020-10-29, 3:29

Ever since I got Spotify, I've only used YouTube for music videos and for songs that aren't available on it (which isn't many). Well worth the ~$100 a year given that I sometimes listen to hundreds of songs in a given month.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2020-10-31, 20:17

I still believe that the imposition of Western music on the rest of the world is a product of cultural imperialism just like the imposition of the languages, food, clothing, transportation systems, etc. of the West was and that it should be denounced, not to mention the cultural appropriation inherent in much of modern Western music. Pretending this is only a matter of personal preferences is as absurd as pretending that colonial powers didn't impose their own dress codes on their colonial subjects just because I like shorts.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2020-12-08, 10:31

Until what age do children generally believe in Santa Claus, I was wondering? I mean, the whole story seems quite unlikely doesn't it, with the flying sleigh and the elves, so I thought maybe children will believe shorter than children in the Netherlands generally believe in Sinterklaas?
I do think children generally believe shorter in Sinterklaas then we used to because they totally have an overkill of Sinterklaas on television and in school so they're more likely to find out inconsistencies, plus nowadays there are more children with different backgrounds that don't believe anyway and will try to convince their schoolmates. So I think the age when children find out first was 9 or so and now 7. What's it like in other countries?
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby awrui » 2020-12-08, 13:32

I think I was like 7/8 or so? Early primary school. It had a lot to do with that I never got the things I wished for. If you first decide to lie to your children, at least bother to do it properly :roll:
I also think the Santa overkill contributes. We had the baby Jesus on christmas and that saint guy on 6th, but If that 'murican Santa is not real, why should baby J and the guy with the funny hat be? Somehow if those things are real or not was never a topic to talk about in school. I guess children often just don't care as long as they get presents.
I think the brutality also contributed for me. Like an angel poking out your eyes with a needle? The hat guy puting you into his sack and beating you if your name is not in "the golden book of nice children"? Who actually wants to believe in stuff like that??
In Norway, most people are honest to their children. Often one child gets to dress up as Santa and distribute the packages. I think it's much more important to be honest to your children than making them believe in lies with purpose. Convincing children that Santa/whatever is real is just a form of gaslighting.

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2020-12-09, 8:29

awrui wrote:In Norway, most people are honest to their children. Often one child gets to dress up as Santa and distribute the packages. I think it's much more important to be honest to your children than making them believe in lies with purpose. Convincing children that Santa/whatever is real is just a form of gaslighting.


I used to think like that, but hey, cultural pressure going on, and children want to believe, so they just do. And I do think it makes it more magical, tickles the imagination, then if we're totally being honest. But I don't really lie to her, I just ask her what she thinks and speak in general terms.

Where are you from? Because there's not much brutality left here, all that's left is the nice things to believe in: Sinterklaas and his horse that can ride on the houses, this boat full of presents, the Pieten who make funny jokes :)
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Varislintu » 2021-01-29, 13:42

I found this colorized, de-oldified video clip from Viipuri/Vyborg from the 1930s, and I'm quite astonished at it, really. Both at how nice it is to see restored footage and how nice the city looks. Look how tidy everything is!

This city at this time was part of Finland, but was soon to be lost to Stalin, and is nowadays Russian. I think losing Viipuri temporarily made us, as a country, more backwards, because it was a very international and vibrant (and beautiful) city. Do those people already have an inkling of what is coming? And what is the medieval parade starting at around 11:00?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOPNuXlXm0

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Rí.na.dTeangacha » 2021-01-29, 16:44

Varislintu wrote:de-oldified


Best word. Congrats :)
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Varislintu » 2021-02-08, 11:54

Rí.na.dTeangacha wrote:
Varislintu wrote:de-oldified


Best word. Congrats :)


Oh, I can't take credit for that! It seems to be the name of some kind of software that can be used to make old video footage look more modern (colour, speed, etc).

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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Rí.na.dTeangacha » 2021-03-02, 23:56

Russo-Brazilians living like the Amish in the middle of Brazil (and still speaking Russian):

https://youtu.be/jb-oEKBhH6c
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby md0 » 2021-03-09, 18:22

This European (Dutch/German?) custom of the invitees bringing the food and drinks to a birthday party never ceases to surprise me.
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Re: Random Culture Thread

Postby Rí.na.dTeangacha » 2021-03-09, 19:08

md0 wrote:This European (Dutch/German?) custom of the invitees bringing the food and drinks to a birthday party never ceases to surprise me.


It's normal here that you might bring some alcohol, usually a bottle of wine, it depends on the age group/class of the people involved. It's not unusual that you might bring some kind of food, like a cake or a quiche or something as well. The guests are certainly not expected to be the main suppliers of food and drink at a birthday party, but turning up totally empty-handed might be viewed as rude (again, possibly depending on age and social class).
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