It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionNational/local weirdness(16 posts)(16 posts)
(16 posts)
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
ZFR: In Ireland you almost always get two separate taps in a sink. One for hot and one for cold water. No idea why.
It doesn't help that the water in one is scorching hot and in the other freezing cold.
This is more a thing with older houses and apartments though (i.e. any built before the boom) as new ones generally have the one tap. Probably due to early water systems having the water come from two different sources, hot from the immersion/tank in the attic, cold straight from the mains.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by B0SC0
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
B0SC0: Probably due to early water systems having the water come from two different sources, hot from the immersion/tank in the attic, cold straight from the mains.
avatar
ZFR: But that's the case with all water systems everywhere. Hot and cold from different sources. Why not combine into one tap.
Here lad, you know better than to try and explain our logic! It's like that old anecdote:

"One story tells of the two clocks in Padraic Pearse Station, Dublin, which, of course, being Irish clocks always disagree. An Englishman, this story claims, once commented loudly and angrily on how “typically Irish“ it was to have two clocks in a train station that gave different times. “Ah, sure,” a Dublin man replied, “if they agreed, one of them would be superfluous.”"
Posted September 22, 2015
In Poland. shaking someone's hand without taking a glove off is considered offensive. Yes, this means you have to take your glove off in winter before shaking someone's hand.
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
JudasIscariot: In Poland. shaking someone's hand without taking a glove off is considered offensive. Yes, this means you have to take your glove off in winter before shaking someone's hand.
avatar
tinyE: Isn't it also rude to refuse to help the other two guys screw the light bulb in? *rimshot*
Only if they are helping to turn the house :P
Another bit of weirdness that some people might not know about :)

If you see someone in Poland standing near a bus stop and waving their arm in front of them, they aren't crazy, they are simply telling the bus driver to stop there and pick them up as the bus stop may be a "by request" (na żądanie) stop and if the passenger DOESN'T do this the bus will just drive right on by :)
Post edited September 22, 2015 by JudasIscariot
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
ZFR: In Ireland you almost always get two separate taps in a sink. One for hot and one for cold water. No idea why.
It doesn't help that the water in one is scorching hot and in the other freezing cold.
avatar
Gede: I see that only in old houses. I think you are supposed to mix the hot water with the cold water in the sink, like you would do before plumbing was common. Old habits, I suppose... Plus, it is easier to connect the taps that way.
avatar
blotunga: In Germany tap water is actually good btw. Also many people don't drink plain water, they instead prefer the bubbling variant.
avatar
Gede: I was told that Germans only drink mineral bottled water. Probably a bit of an over generalization.
What I said :D

And nope - it's not a generalisation. In restaurants, if you ask for water, they will serve mineral water and Most people will also buy crates of mineral water and will serve this to you rather than offering you tap water. One interesting thing I liked about Germany was the practice of charging for bottles and cans - there's like a 15/25c charge on every bottle you buy, but this is refundable at most stores. You return the bottle and get a receipt that you can use towards a new purchase. Not only does this encourage recycling, but it also gives homeless people a means of income, so if you see people digging in rubbish bins and pulling out bottles, you'll now think better of them... Or not.
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
B0SC0: One interesting thing I liked about Germany was the practice of charging for bottles and cans - there's like a 15/25c charge on every bottle you buy, but this is refundable at most stores. You return the bottle and get a receipt that you can use towards a new purchase.
The returning of bottles happens here but so far I've only seen it with beer bottles >.>
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
B0SC0: One interesting thing I liked about Germany was the practice of charging for bottles and cans - there's like a 15/25c charge on every bottle you buy, but this is refundable at most stores. You return the bottle and get a receipt that you can use towards a new purchase.
avatar
JudasIscariot: The returning of bottles happens here but so far I've only seen it with beer bottles >.>
I wondered about that since I see people digging through trash all the time >.>... I've also seen some other "interesting" homeless behaviours I'd rather unsee. Where can you return them though? I've never seen a machine in any of the shops I've visited, though shops in Germany would have machines at the entrance that handle the recycling
Posted September 22, 2015
avatar
JudasIscariot: The returning of bottles happens here but so far I've only seen it with beer bottles >.>
avatar
B0SC0: I wondered about that since I see people digging through trash all the time >.>... I've also seen some other "interesting" homeless behaviours I'd rather unsee. Where can you return them though? I've never seen a machine in any of the shops I've visited, though shops in Germany would have machines at the entrance that handle the recycling
You can go to a local store that will take them. Most of the mom-and-pop sized stores AKA "warzywniak" will take certain beer bottles back as a "kaucja" but not all brands, though.

If you see them looking through the trash bins they're either looking for cans or unfinished cigarettes.
Posted September 22, 2015
TIL - Cheers Judas *^_^*

avatar
Fever_Discordia: http://www.tickld.com/x/30-problems-only-british-people-will-understand
What's with the author and hairdressers... We call 'em Zebra crossings in Ireland... For non-British/Irish natives, is there any other nation where J-walking is a national past-time, rather than an enforceable crime at 4 in the morning, when there' NO TRAFFIC AROUND?
Posted September 23, 2015
avatar
Fever_Discordia: Stuff about my country is literally a click-bait meme!
Speaking of which I can related to almost all of these but can I ask whether it's REALLY just a British thing or if people from other countries worry about leaving shops without purchase or job across Zebra crossings? (does anyone else even CALL them 'zebra crossings'?)
http://www.tickld.com/x/30-problems-only-british-people-will-understand
Number 5 is a quite common feeling here in Poland, at least for me, as the stores have only ONE particular exit that you can go through before you leave the store and there is usually a security guard scowling at you as you leave. I make sure to look as non-threatening and hope to God that nothing in my inventory sets the alarm off for some unknown reason :D

Number 7 I know I do myself when crossing "zebra crossings" (we call them "pasy" or "stripes" here) that are NOT in front of a traffic light. I consider it a kind gesture towards the driver because I know they have to be someplace as well so why hold them up?

Number 11 seems to be a British thing as some of the CVs we've seen were a wee bit on the opposite side of modest :D

Number 12 i\would be a common occurrence here as no one eats crunchy foods at their desk as a snack :)

Number 19...oh man, I suffer that one a lot myself, not sure about other people in the office :) Do I use a smiley in this email three times or can I just leave it as-is? Oh the suffering of the written word...

Number 22...depends on how close I am to the person in question as I'm near-sighted and I would hate to have an awkward conversation with someone about how they look like someone I know :D


As for the rest, Poles seem to be a bit opposite of Brits :) They'll happily tell their hairdresser/barber that the water is too hot and they can rattle off a succession of "dzięki!" (thanks!) when it comes to having a succession of doors held open for them :)
Posted September 23, 2015
avatar
B0SC0: TIL - Cheers Judas *^_^*

What's with the author and hairdressers... We call 'em Zebra crossings in Ireland... For non-British/Irish natives, is there any other nation where J-walking is a national past-time, rather than an enforceable crime at 4 in the morning, when there' NO TRAFFIC AROUND?
avatar
Maighstir: Here, you're perfectly allowed to walk at red light, as long as you're not disturbing the traffic. Not that people care much, as they frequently cross the street regardless of whether or not there are cars passing by, or whether or not there's even a crosswalk there at all - there might very well be one five metres to either side, or even both sides.
Jaywalking will get you ticketed here...even if you are crossing the street at 4 AM and the city guard happens to catch you doing so :)
Posted September 23, 2015
avatar
babark: There are loads of such weirdnesses here, especially for someone who is not Pakistani. Some examples:
This idea of their being "hot" and "cold" foods. Not in terms of temperature or spiciness, but in terms of...something- maybe suitability to outside weather? Like eggs or rabbit is a "hot" food. Potato is a "cold" food. Not sure of the logic behind it, just occasionally get irritated by people telling me "Don't eat eggs for breakfast today, it is the middle of summer!"

Related to that is this idea of certain foods you shouldn't drink water after, because...something. Your stomach will explode and you'll die, maybe. Since I'm a pretty heavy water drinker, it can lead to some fairly strange exchanges (often between me and my friends' mothers or grandmothers). Why SHOULDN'T I drink water after having some milk food or toast and jam?

Then there's also this thing called "takaluf". Not sure how I'd translate it..."formality", maybe? I'm pretty sure it is a thing in the rest of the Subcontinent and Iran as well: When someone offers you something, like a cup of tea or biscuits or food, you're supposed to thank them and refuse, and then only accept after they've insisted for a while. If the host actually takes your word for it and thinks you really don't want the thing, and doesn't give you any, then they end up being a bad host or something. Really problematic for me, because like some weird alien or something here, I don't like drinking tea. So when someone asks if I want some, and I refuse, they think I'm doing takaluf and start insisting. It ends up that I say "If you have some green tea or jasmine tea, I'd prefer that", but then if they don't have that, it puts them in an awkward position, so I usually just ask if they have some cold water.
Can't you just say "Look, let's forget the takaluf!" or something to let the host know you aren't doing takaluf so that they don't get put in an awkward position?
Posted September 23, 2015
avatar
JudasIscariot: Jaywalking will get you ticketed here...even if you are crossing the street at 4 AM and the city guard happens to catch you doing so :)
avatar
Fever_Discordia: Wait, 'city guard'? Is that part of the police, or the equivalent of a traffic warden or a bunch of dudes in plate-mail complaining that they once took an arrow to the knee :-D
It's these guys...

I say "city guard" because that's the best term I can think of. They aren't police but they are treated as functionaries of the law.
Posted September 23, 2015
How many of you alter or take off the price tag on a gift to someone? For example, you have a Christmas gift and you'll take a black marker across the price to conceal it if the taking the tag off would damage the original packaging.
Posted September 26, 2015
avatar
skeletonbow: Nope, I've had the "aboot" discussion a million times with Americans and finally figured it out. There are 3 pronunciations. The southern US pronunciation where the "ou" in "about" is pronounced like "ow" in "owl", the east coast "aboot" where "oo" is pronounced as in "moot", "toot", soundling like "ewt", and the way 99% of Canada pronounces it which is like "ouch" or "couch". When Americans mock us by saying things like "oot and aboot" they actually say it the way the east coasters say it, which is exactly correct. The rest of us never say it like that though so the joke isn't terribly funny. Might be if it were accurate, but it isn't. :) Kind of the same way that "Canadian bacon" in the US is completely a US thing that presumably hopes to emulate our peameal bacon or back bacon. Most Americans I've talked to say it's just ham, and I've had the US version and it is quite ham like so I can see what would give them the false impression. Peameal bacon and back bacon made here are quite a different thing though and not close to ham at all (or we would just buy ham). Then again Americans think we travel to work all year round with snowshoes on riding a moose too so... :)

I dunno, but I've seen people just hang up when they're done talking and it just seems so rude. It's not like saying "goodbye" is superfluous, it has the purpose of informing the other party you are ending the conversation and hanging up through a closing 2 or 3 (or more) way handshake so all parties agree to it and terminate convo. I always wonder if the other person was about to say something else when they're suddenly hung up on though. This way of getting off the phone is pretty much universal on all American movies and television shows, but I've seen it first hand myself also, and had other people defend the practice. Doesn't matter to me much though other than as an observation of culture as nobody I personally talk to these days does that. :)
avatar
Crewdroog: I was just teasing you about the "about" thing ;) And I KNEW canadian bacon couldn't be real canadian bacon! All these years i've lived a lie, and it tastes like ham as you said. But now I want to try back bacon. It sounds awesome. 'cause bacon :)

You know, I never realized it, but you are totally right, in movies they do just hang up on someone! In the US we really don't do that. I guess in the movies they don't want unnecessary dialogue? I dunno. Actually, I think that here when you say you are gonna go on the phone, that means you have at least another 5 mins of conversation before anyone actually hangs up. Or maybe that's a girl thing?
BACK BACON, or Rashers as we call them, ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the only things I miss from back home is the wonderful gift from Cuchulainn himself known as a breakfast roll. Eggs, sausage, rashers, black and white pudding, mushrooms, stuffed into a buttered baguette and smothered with Ketchup (only Heinz of course ;))... The greatest hangover cure known to man and a great way to start the day....

With a cuppa of course to wash it all down
Post edited September 26, 2015 by B0SC0
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionNational/local weirdness(16 posts)(16 posts)
(16 posts)