Ah, yes..I know that.
Well, I don't use that transportation for ages.
Where do you live now?
Well, I don't use that transportation for ages.
Where do you live now?
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Share Your Culture (6 Viewers)
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++ [ originally posted by Erik ] ++
In HOLLAND (guarantee for weirdness), we:
In HOLLAND (guarantee for weirdness
), we:- Smoke marihuana legally
- Have legal prostitution
- Have laws on euthanasia
- Have gay marriages
- Live beneath sea-level
- Consider travelling 20 kilometers as "far" and prepare for it like we are going to travel around the world
- Look down on the rest of Europe
- Respect water and bring it into our cities, our lives in many forms
- Consider our "war against water" far more important than the "international war on terrorism", which only few people care about
- Have a life expectancy that is 4 years shorter than in the surrounding countries because of air pollution
- Have 487 people living on every square kilometer
- Have a population of which 93% is afraid of heights
- Have no mountains
- Do not celebrate any UN introduced days such as "Labour day"
- Celebrate Santa Claus' birthday twice, on December 6th and December 25th
- Have a population of which 94% has some form of degree in the English language
- Have a queen who cycles to work
- Respect the Germans for their endless list of achievements and hate them for it at the same time
Write the same about Italy, I'm curious
In ITALY:
Just off the top of my head and only personal observations which might very well change as time progresses for me in this country
- People blow up small problems to make their lives seem more dramatic
- The national kitchen is of high-standard despite being relatively one-sided
- Scooters are to the Italians what bicycles are to the Dutch
- There is no such thing as looking casual
- Public transportation doesn't qualify as transportation
- Pink clothes on men is considered cool
- Silence doesn't exist
- You should never have a heart attack as the ambulances struggle to get through traffic
- The national culture has been preserved much more so than in France despite the French trying much harder
- You will quickly find there is no such thing as Italy, only a mere loose federation of regions
- You cannot rely on the postal service
- You are most likely to become engaged in conversation with complete strangers than anywhere else in Europe
- It is not a problem whatsoever to throw money down from the fifth floor to street musicians despite nearly killing people
- Everything shuts down for the siesta, which has actually lost all purpose and people are just bored as a result
- The Church still has a strong influence
- Youngsters grow up more quickly than in the rest of Europe
- Feminism has lost the war
Just off the top of my head and only personal observations which might very well change as time progresses for me in this country
In Ireland:
Will edit in a minute.
- We hate the favourite and champion the underdog.
- Then we complain about the quality of whatever the underdog succeeded in.
- We don't go to mass any more, but still claim to believe in God.
- There was no racism problem before all these damned scrounging immigrants arrived.
- The same party has been in government for about 24 of the last 2 years. Six of their 1990 cabinate have faced corruption charges, but they still get more than half the vote.
- Speaking of voting, most people do so along civil war lines. Yes, the civil war was in 1922, but dad and his dad before him voted Fianna Fail, so we're damned if we're going to change.
- We're split on sporting grounds. Football is the most played game, but the Gaelic Athletics Association still gets more money and has a better infrastructure in place because their members basically shunned anyone who dared play football (Shay Given's dad used to be smuggled across the border to play keeper for a Northern Ireland side in order to avoid being banned from the GAA).
- We're a democracy, but when the Nice Treaty got beaten in a referendum, we held it again! When GAA delegates are told to vote to open their infrastructure for rental to "foreign games", they don't, but it doesn't matter because the former presidents had a veto on the whole thing anyway.
- Sinn Fein have an appreciable portion of the vote because people who adhere to a religion which aparantly has a commandment that goes "Thou shalt not kill, except for nationalist purposes". Except that that convenitently ignore the criminal end of that whole movement.
- People don't strike up conversations with random strangers. Ever.
- Everyone know's the neighbour's business.
- We're neutral, except when it suits us to let US warplanes use our airports to refuel on their way to a war not sactioned by the UN.
Will edit in a minute.
Germany (East) - former GDR
- we drive on the right side
- we think we manufacture the best cars and therefor we have a deep relationship with them
- we know that we brew the best beer worldwide (despite Czechia)
- we pay the highest duties for the European Union
- every quarter of an hour a firm becomes insolvent
- there were times when our social system was an example. these times are over.
- In eastern parts of Germany we have an unemployment rate of over 20%.
- We know that Dutch people always vacation in a camper.
- Soccer is the most popular sport.
- We love to win. Especially against the orange players.
- We started two world wars and still have big problems with our own patriotism.
- People fear the eastern neighbours where labour is much cheaper than in our country.
- Despite the unemployment most people wouldn't do the work which is done by immigrants.
- We moan about the high taxes on gasoline. (see our love to cars)
- We have the autobahn where you can fully perform your Merceds SLK.
- We have test drivers killing innocent mother and her child on the autobahn by speeding a Mercedes SLK to its limit.
- We have the Oktoberfest when people from almost every nation will visit Munich in order to drink a beer charged with 8 Euro.
- We love our capital. (If you are not from Hamburg or Munich.)
- People out of the eastern parts miss the easygoing life under the GDR regime.
- Our political opposition is a joke.
- Most of our media is biased.
- Berlin has the highest amount of radio stations per area (worldwide).
- Strangers often visit Black Forest or Berlin and think that they know Germany.
- If you are untimely at the wrong place it can happen that you find yourself in a pack of skinheads.
- Germans are a majority at www.hospitalityclub.org
- Indeed, our public transport rocks.
- We are against dictoraial regimes.
- The poison used by S. Hussein to kill innocent Kurds was produced by German companies.
- We will hold the Fifa Worldcup 2006.
- Michael Schuhmacher is a German.
- Despite our beloved cars he used to win in an Italian one.
- We are against whaling.
- Our churches are empty.
- We applied for more patents in biological engineering than any other nation. Nevertheless our laws will prevent to use them/ to make cash with them.
- Hamburg has got more bridges than Venice.
well I think government partly failed to level both parts in economic matters. former chancellor Helmut Kohl promised "blooming landscapes". though here in the former GDR a lot of changed. new telephone networks, new roads and infrastructure in general. almost every town here has a renovated city center. lots of families built their own houses in green suburbs outside the city.
but the problem is that people's income sources died. huge industrial areas broke down. I think the development from GDR to now was way too fast. you cant change people's behavior/ attitudes during 15 years. every now and then circumstances are compared with the GDR. of course there are also differences between people in east and west. but that is more a stereotype IMO...it's the same with north and south.
tourist, if not in direct contact with inhabitants, wont recognize the difference (cuz of instructural assimilation). You'll find the wall in history books and as monument in Berlin. By crossing the old border on the autobahn (highway) you can see it - but you have to know it. former customsi are gas stations and so on. but if you don't mind to talk with people, to learn some fact about Germany's history and to walk through with "open eyes" you can still see "both states".
but the problem is that people's income sources died. huge industrial areas broke down. I think the development from GDR to now was way too fast. you cant change people's behavior/ attitudes during 15 years. every now and then circumstances are compared with the GDR. of course there are also differences between people in east and west. but that is more a stereotype IMO...it's the same with north and south.
tourist, if not in direct contact with inhabitants, wont recognize the difference (cuz of instructural assimilation). You'll find the wall in history books and as monument in Berlin. By crossing the old border on the autobahn (highway) you can see it - but you have to know it. former customsi are gas stations and so on. but if you don't mind to talk with people, to learn some fact about Germany's history and to walk through with "open eyes" you can still see "both states".
How long do you think it will take for both sides to become totally equal? This year it will be 20th anniversary since Gorbachev came to power and the whole "warm-up" started. That is one generation right there.
I look at the people in the Former Soviet Union- it is extremely difficult to change. Especially for those who are 30 and above.
I look at the people in the Former Soviet Union- it is extremely difficult to change. Especially for those who are 30 and above.
++ [ originally posted by Erik ] ++
In ITALY:
Just off the top of my head and only personal observations which might very well change as time progresses for me in this country
In ITALY:
- People blow up small problems to make their lives seem more dramatic
- The national kitchen is of high-standard despite being relatively one-sided
- Scooters are to the Italians what bicycles are to the Dutch
- There is no such thing as looking casual
- Public transportation doesn't qualify as transportation
- Pink clothes on men is considered cool
- Silence doesn't exist
- You should never have a heart attack as the ambulances struggle to get through traffic
- The national culture has been preserved much more so than in France despite the French trying much harder
- You will quickly find there is no such thing as Italy, only a mere loose federation of regions
- You cannot rely on the postal service
- You are most likely to become engaged in conversation with complete strangers than anywhere else in Europe
- It is not a problem whatsoever to throw money down from the fifth floor to street musicians despite nearly killing people
- Everything shuts down for the siesta, which has actually lost all purpose and people are just bored as a result
- The Church still has a strong influence
- Youngsters grow up more quickly than in the rest of Europe
- Feminism has lost the war
Just off the top of my head and only personal observations which might very well change as time progresses for me in this country
Since when are you in Salerno, Enrico?
My mom would say: "never". My cousin who is some years older than me still decides between east and west. I started with school when the wall came down so I saw GDR only with child's eyes which is a huge different to adults (I had a great childhood despite the fact that there wasn't Playmobil or Lego
). I don't have any problems with West-Germany and GDR, I don't devide people into parts but I know people in west who speak snidely of GDR (of course it is also the other way round). Then I take side and defend it (not at all costs). There is a kind of allegiance given by the fact that most of my relationship lived and loved in the GDR. My cousin is 16 years old and she knows but doesn't know how it is to "feel" a divorced Germany (not even as a child) I guess her children won't care about as then GDR will be a dusty chapter in their books between WWII and The beginning of the European Union.wait 1-2 generations..then the wall will even be down in minds