Cultural diversityis a beautiful thing, and learning about traditions in other countries is always an enriching, eye-opening experience.
However, some acceptable customs in some areas of the world may be peculiar and nonsensical in others. AQuora threadtackled this, asking, “What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?”
People from all over the globe chimed in, from Iceland to Uzbekistan, the UK, and Egypt, among many others. Discussions touched on mundane matters such aswinter attireand more serious topics like arranged marriages and the blurred lines between patriotism and nationalism.
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The Netherlands here.When we greet someone, we give each other three kisses on the cheek.Normally, we have a calender with people’s birthdays in our bathroom.We actually celebrate second Easter day and second Christmas day, and we’re working on the third.On work and school days we bring our own lunch with us from home. Usually a slice of bread with cheese, or Nutella, or peanutbutter or chocolate sprinkles. A slice of bread with peanutbutter AND chocolate sprinkles is also an acceptable lunch.We cycle everywhere.When it’s about 15 degrees Celsius outside, we’ll wear shorts.When we celebrate our birthday with the family, we sit in a circle.We eat dinner at 6 o’clock.In the summer we flee to foreign countries to escape our shitty weather. The locals go out, the tourists come in.We’re mad about iceskating. We try to skate on, for example, the canals and the lakes every winter, even if the ice is still too thin and there’s a real chance we’ll fall through and die.Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands we made ourselves. It used to be sea.The Netherlands is so flat the Gods can use it as a pool table.When someone has their birthday, we don’t only congratulate them, but also all their friends and family.…Don’t get me started on Sinterklaas, the absolute weirdest thing we Dutchies do.Apart from partying on the canals in orange on the king’s birthday.We’re very tall, and we even have the tallest average height of the world! Dutch guys are 183 centimeters on average, and Dutch women 169. I am 1.80m myself (5′11″ I believe). I don’t notice this much back home, but in other countries I’m a literal giant.We’re bicycle crazy. We have about 22.5 million bicycles for 17 million people. My family is especially bicycle mad. We have 10 bicycles for 4 people. My dad has a station bike, a short distance bike, a mountainbike and a race bike; my mum has a bike you can fold, a short distance bike and a long distance bike; my sister has a bike in Amsterdam and a bike at home, and I just have my one bike. We put kids on bikes when they’re about 3 years old.The nieuwjaarsduik (the new year’s dive): In the morning of the first day of January, the Dutch join each other on the beach and run into the sea to greet the new year. I have to be honest, I’ve never even been on the beach on January first, let alone in the sea. It’s just too cold. Thousands of people do this though and a lot of people I know do too.Our houses usually have very big windows, but we rarely close the curtains. It is rude to stare or peek in though, however tempting it may be.
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Normally we think of poverty as correlated to hunger and being skinny. In America, because unhealthy food is so cheap, poverty is actually strongly correlated to obesity. Obesity isn’t uncommon in other classes either. The obesity epidemic is seen as a scourge of prosperity. It’s really, really, easy to get fat here if you aren’t disciplined.
My country is Ukraine, and even though it is located in the center of Europe(geographically), we have lots of customs similar to the middle east, I will describe something what is common in my city, Lviv and in the west of Ukraine.We have lots of phrases, which actually have different meaning. F.e. if guests are in the house, and you want them to leave, just suggest them a coffee of tea (that means that celebration come to the end), BUT when guests are leaving we usually play the game “oh, you are leaving so soon, stay for some longer time”.We always invite someone for coffee, and that doesn’t means the you will drink coffee. Basically that is invitation to meet up. Also it works as invitation for a date. A girl would not agree to meet up for a drink, but will happily go for coffee, even if they will drink beer.We complain a lot about our country/city/village, but still love it to the moon and back.We do big weddings to show off among relatives. For the same reason we repair the apartments with the best furniture.We never swear near to older relatives, and it is not good to do something against parents, so first of all we need to prove that we are right, receive approval and only than we an act.If lady goes to wedding, or any other family celebrations, with her boyfriend (or a guy with girlfriend) that means that their wedding is coming soon.We play a game of the good family, on the celebrations, even if that is not true.We cook too much food for different holidays, And I mean it TOO Much (Below is standard Ukrainian celebration) Probably that is related to big famine (Holodomor in 1932-1933)Since you are 16, your relatives will ask you, when will you get married. If your are older than 25, they will pray for you to get married and have children :DThere are a lot of beautiful girls (I know that beauty is different for everyone, but still), girls always make up, and dress up beautifully before leaving the house, even if they go to the shop. And we used to wear high heels, we can dance all night long on the high heels and stay gorgeous.We never drink alcohol without food, if someone does - he is alcohol addicted.We still sing national songs, dance national dances and wear national clothes (embroider shirts) for holidays.If I go on with the list, it will be endless :) Hope you found out something new from my writing.
Men holding hands / placing your hand over someone’s shoulder! In India, it is common to see men hold hands. These are seen as gestures of affection, care and friendship. However, in North America and Canada , these gestures are “gay”. They mean you’re in love with “him”… Talk about a confusing world, eh?
Let’s say you got invited to a Mongolian herder’s family. You arrive and meet the hosts and see a sheep outside. You play with it, take pictures and go inside the ger. While inside, the hosts prepare milk tea and some dry curds. After a while you go outside and see this: The cute sheep that was tied to outside the ger was your lunch. It was killed in your honor and you are about to eat it…. I have seen many times the shocked expression on the faces of the foreigners when they see that….
Greece here!!Being Greek is like harboring a very powerful virus. Once you get it, it’s yours forever and it inhabits all you do. When my family first saw “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” when it came out in theaters, no one laughed. Every so often, in the dark of the theater, my grandmother would reach across the back of the seats and smack my father before he had the chance to laugh at whatever was happening on-screen. It was funny, but not uproariously so because it’s mostly all true. If you’re Greek, you know that it’s all that matters. And you also know the following.1. You’re skinny. At least you are when Yiayia (grandma) hasn’t seen you in approx. 7 days. Forty minutes into being at her house, once you’ve eaten homemade bread, spanakopita, cookies, ice cream, potatoes, etc., maybe you’re not so skinny since the last time she saw you.2. You’re fat. Much more of a certainty than number one. “You look like you’ve put on a little weight… have you put on weight? Are you still doing the exercise? Oh popo…” or if you’re lucky, “Your father looks like he’s gained weight. Don’t you think he’s gained some weight? Tsk tsk. He needs to quit eating so much.”3. If you’re not married, you might as well be dead. This seems harsh, but I actually feel like I am being pretty gentle. The disappointment in my grandmother’s face every time she remembers/knows/inquires as to the fact that my am 26 years old brother is not married, well, it never lessens. She is very good at looking like she feels a new hurt all over.4. Your Yiayia/Papou (grandma/grandpa) is already dead, even if they’re alive. “Yiayia, I love your dress,” is a grave mistake. It’s answered, without a beat, with “Oh, you can have it when I die!”. Grandma’s often knit and make many, MANY embroided table clothes, actual clothes ..etc and all that is considered your “preka" which is basically homemade stuff you’ll get once you get married or your grandma or mom dies and then you’ll pass it on to your children and they to theirs.5. Your significant other is dead to your family if they don’t go to church. First question, right off the bat every time I have ever started dating anyone is “Does he go to church? Does his family go to church?” Don’t even bother saying no.6. If YOU don’t go to church, oh my god. See #4. “I pray for you every day, koukla (dear). Who’s going to pray for you when I die??”7. If you don’t want to have children, see #4. There is no excuse that will satisfy Yiayia. Oh, you just got a full professorship? You’re a doctor? Don’t care. Make the babies!8. You need to know how to cook. The entire Greek arsenal cookbook. And cook it well. Men need to know how to cook the meat, and women need to know how to cook essentially everything else. How will you survive if you don’t?9. You need to know all (and I mean ALL) of your Greek relatives. Including your third cousins who still live in Greece. Go see them! Before they die!10. Your name only counts if it’s a saint’s name. My cousin’s first name is Lauren, but not to anyone on my Greek side of the family. My great-grandmother refused to even pronounce the name Lauren. Her name, in all holy rights, is Elizabeth. My sister is Maria. My father is John (Yianni), my grandmother is Katherine (Katarina), on and on. If Jesus wouldn’t call you it, it’s not your name!11. Real Easter is not everyone else’s ‘Easter.’ Greek Easter is almost always on a different Sunday than normal Easter, and god help us if these American schools don’t recognize it. My cousin once got a test postponed for her entire science class because the professor asked if anyone was Orthodox, making a joke. My cousin is Orthodox. Test postponed.12. Easter eggs only get dyed red. Because Jesus said so!13. If you get the quarter in the Vasilopita (a pie we eat at New year’s Eve) you’re golden. But chances are, you won’t. However I get it almost every year and I still carry that Seran-wrapped quarter around in my wallet cause it is considered to bring good luck.14. If you don’t say ‘Christos Anesti’ first thing as your head pops up off the pillow on Greek Easter morning, you’re in deep shit.15. You don’t revere the actual Greeks who live in Greece right now. As Yiayia will readily yell at you, “What have the Greeks done in 2000 years?!”16. Italians and Jewish people are your kindred spirits. Who else can yell so loud, eat so much, and scold so fiercely? No one. But don’t tell Yiayia. She thinks we are special.17. You grew up thinking everyone toasted at holidays saying “Skinnyasses". “Stin igia mas” is Greek for “cheers”.18. People who don’t like feta (Greek cheese) are too weird for words.19. No matter what Yiayia is lecturing you about, she is 100% right and you are 100% wrong.20. There is no set measuring system in Greek cooking. It’s a handful of this and a dash of that. But it better come out perfectly or you are shaming your Greek ancestors!21. You will eat a huge breakfast at 10:30 AM and better be ready for the holiday meal at 12:30pm. Koukla (dear), you need to eat. Eat!22. You don’t want any dessert? Here, have some baklava.23. There is no pleasing Yiayia. There’s an old joke about a Greek son whose mother gets him two ties for Christmas. He comes down dressed for Christmas mass wearing one of the ties, and the Greek mother says “What’s the matter, you didn’t like the other tie?” (The original joke is actually about a Jewish mother, but don’t tell Yiayia.)24. You are never hungry. Even if you want to be.25. You are never alone. Even if you want to be.26. You are never without guilt. You think Catholic guilt is a thing? That is some pansy stuff compared to Greek guilt.27. Catholics think Orthodox are Catholics, too. Orthodox don’t think Catholics are Catholic.28. As you age, you get Greeker and Greeker. For better or worse. Before you know it, you’ll be that Yiayia.29. When you set out on a road trip, you say “ ke ipanayia mazi mas”. You basically ask for the blessing of Holy Mary so that your trip will be safe. It’s kinda like “Lord be with us”.30. You see people make the sign of the cross and in your head, you hear yourself saying, “You’re doing it wrong!” Those damn Greeks.
In Canada, specifically Ontario and I think Quebec, we buy our milk in bags. Funny thing is, I’m 32 and never knew this was an odd way of storing milk until just a couple years ago. Makes sense why I always saw big plastic jugs in the movies. Ha!
As an American, something normal here, but (almost) nowhere else has to be The Imperial System.So, while the majority of the civilized world is using simple, universal measurements based off of 10, us Americans (and Liberians) just use inches, feet, yards, and other things that don’t make sense and are outdated.When watching the weather forecast, we Americans see the 32 Degrees Fahrenheit and are like “Yay snow!”All while the Canadians up North (Or East for Alaska) will say, “32 is such a random number. What’s wrong with 0 Degrees Celsius? Well, Americans.”There was a time that a $327 million space program designed to orbit Mars was destroyed just because the scientists were using because its altitude-control system used imperial units but its navigation software used metric units.I feel bad for when people from other countries have to convert the Metric system to a far less optimal measurement system just because us Americans can be too stubborn to round to 10.If the British invented the Imperial system, but later switched to the Metric system - why can’t we (Americans) do so too?It’s just one of the myriad reasons other countries think we’re weird.
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In Uzbekistan:1. It is normal to lift your hand and any car becomes a taxi.In fact, most of the people prefer this. Because $1 can get you a 10–20 km ride.2. I think we eat too much bread.People eat bread with anything. You name it. Rice with bread. Tea with bread. Dumplings with bread. Bread with bread. As a child I used to eat bread with coke ( like you do Oreos with milk). I quit eating bread but my family still buys 5 loaves of bread a day.3. If it is too hot outside and you want to cool down. Drink hot tea.It’s a tradition, if there is no tea on the table, then none will enjoy their food. Morning - Drink Tea, Afternoon - Drink Tea, You met your friend? Drink Tea, You have a headache? Drink Tea, You want to drink cold stuff? Drink Leftover Tea. Basically, the Uzbek body has more tea than blood. Indians need chilli(or spices), Uzbeks need tea. Oh I almost forgot, some old women gift tea packs when they visit someone.4. You need to rent limos for your wedding.A bus too, if you want to impress. If you can’t afford, then take a loan. One car should cost you around $100. Your salary? Maybe $200–300. But hey, you get married once (maybe twice, the third time you don’t need these), you and your wife can repay the debts after the wedding.5. You want to get married but you’re shy to tell your parents to find a girl for you? No, problemo. We have the perfect solution.We still have the culture of arrange marriage. Suppose, I am not in a relationship and want to get married through an arrange marriage. Then I will put the carrot in my father’s shoe, this will mean that it’s time for his son to get married. Or “yo father, I need a wife, please tell mom to find one”.This was a common thing in the past because people couldn’t open up to their parents(controlling parents or dictator parents) as much as we can today.6. Guys carry purse-like-wallets.If you dont have one of this, you’re not the cool guy. I guess I will never be :(7. 90+ percent singers lip sync in their concert shows. Even their banners have this disclaimer: Fonogramma Orqali Ijro Etiladi.It means: The singer will lip sync throughout the concert. Maybe once in a while they may shout “ahha” “ohho”, “everyone together”, “I can’t hear you all” but nothing more than that.I don’t understand why people go to such concerts. Is it fun to watch someone lip syncing? Worst part - everyone will be sitting as if they were watching a movie.
Yes, I must admit that we do have some strange habits.#1 Priorities.Most Norwegians don’t mind spending 2 minutes sending an sms to bid for an apartment 300.000 NOK (about 35.000 USD) over the tagged price, but they will drive several hundred kilometers in a day to Sweden in order to buy a bottle of wine 50 NOK (about 6 USD) cheaper than what it would have costed in their own country.#2 Janteloven (Law of Jante).Whatever achievement you managed to make yourself proud of (dived at 12 meters deep, skied for more than 10 km, swam 3 km) there will always be a Norwegian around to let you know he/she did double or triple that “achievement”, and repeats it every week. Janteloven says they can’t say they are better than everyone else so they find other ways to do exactly that: tell you how much better they are than you.#3 Honesty.Unlike in the rest of the world, Norwegians will leave you the keys to a remote little wooden hut and expect you to be honest, write down your name to receive the bill for the nights you stayed there and clean behind you for the next people coming. This is, I believe, the most marvellous strange thing Norwegians do.#4 Party hard for a month…just before your exams.Foreign fans of the SKAM cult tv-series may have caught on to the fact that Norwegian high-school students are crazy about buses. In (rich areas of) the larger cities a graduation tradition has emerged where students group together to buy—buy—a bus, bling it up in the year leading up to graduation, and drive around and party in it during graduation celebrations. This period of celebrations—true of many Norwegian high-school students who partake—takes place throughout the month before exams begin.Apparently, the decision to put the celebration a month before exams is quite rational: this allows students to get back to studying with enough time to do well. However, with the whole month now dedicated to drinking for many, it’s fair to say that that idea isn’t what was originally envisioned.Also, students wear the same pair of red dungarees during the entire month and are not supposed to wash them. The whole thing climaxes on the National Day, where the red russe-students often walk in the parade looking suspiciously worn out.
In my country,If I see a girl younger than meI call her bahini(younger sister),If i see a girl elder than me I call her didi (elder sister)If I see a guy younger than meI call him bhai(younger brother)If I see a guy elder than meI call him dai (elder brother) Unless I have crush on him,If I see a woman of her ageI call her aunt.If I see a man of his ageI call him uncleIf I see an old woman like herI call her hajuraaama( Grandmom)If I see an old man like himI call him hajurbuwa (Grandfather)I call all people either brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, aunt or uncle irrespective of whether I have any kind of relationship with them or they are complete stranger to me instead of sir, madam,mr., mrs. etc.You see, that’s what normal in my country but not so normal in other countries except India .ANDVenerate and beatify the dogs as god maybe?
In Switzerland, every young man has to go to do Military service. You often see guys like that in trains, with their guns on the seat next to them. It’s the most normal thing here. The guys usually travel back to their families and have to bring all their things. It actually is very dangerous, because some leave their guns unattended when they go to the bathroom, but I don’t think anything ever happened.
Staying with your parents throughout your life!In India, it is perfectly normal for a male to stay with parents throughout his life- it is, infact, appreciated and indicate that the son is ‘fulfilling responsibilities of being a good son’As parents take care of children when they are young, children are expected to reciprocate these actions when parents are old. As such, the system of ‘joint families’, wherein parents stay with their sons, daughters in law and grand children in quite common in India, more so in the villages. The tacit understanding is- “I take care of you now, and you will take care of me later.”In the Indian joint-family household, the grandparents are very involved in raising the grandchildren. Families take decisions as a whole- Grandads and Grandmoms stay with the grankids and raise (spoil:)) them like they raised their own. Men and women can go to work without worrying about day care because of ‘elders’ at home.Indians live in a ‘Collective society’ as opposed to an ‘Individual society’ prevalent in the west. Hence, money is also generally taken to be in a collective bank account, rather an individual’s personal bank account. As such, parents pay for their children’s education (even college and post graduation) and their weddings. On the other hand, as parents get older, children spend for their medical expenses (On a sidenote, the penetration of medical insurance is dismal in India. Indians pay for medical expenses out of their pockets)However, you will rarely see a daughter live at her parents’ home after marriage with her husband as in the Indian culture doing so is quite taboo - they even have a term for it “ghar jamai” or house guest son-in-law.
In Australia, the word ct is “totally normal. ” It can be used as both a cuss and a term of endearment. If an Australian refers to you as a “ fg sick ct,” that means you’re a really cool bloke. In how many other countries can you refer to a police-officer as a c*t and get away with it?
Eating food with hands. Roaming in the house without using slippers. Starting the day with a cup of tea. We love spicy. High traffic density. High percentage of vegetarians in our country. Democracy. Touching the feet of elders.
In Singapore, people love Durian.Now, let me be clear, there are only two teams in this, either you love it, or you don’t. But most Singaporeans I know love this. Heck we even have a building designed to look like this.But take this fruit outside of South East Asia? God have mercy on you, as the wrath of everyone staring daggers at you. Not just for the looks (I mean, what’s up with that guy carrying this weird green spiky ball everywhere), but also the smell. Oh god that smell, it’s like something large died inside that bag, a smell so bad that if your nose could, it would vacate its position on your face and run screaming in the opposite direction of this pungent fruit.The smell is so infamous , even the countries which love it bans its presence on public transport. But anyway, I digress. Most foreigners who come here would give a strange look to you if you started eating this fruit in front of them. But hey, their loss right?
Pickup trucks are very popular in the US. So is watching American football and grilling food. One thing people in the US do that the rest of the world finds weird is combining things like these together. Welcome to the wonderful world of college football tailgating. Why wait until you get into the stadium to eat your burger when you can have it right in the parking lot? Even better when your truck has an attached grill! Sure, other countries have tailgating, but they don’t do it like this. The country that once brought you peanut butter and jelly in the same jar now gives you the full tailgating experience in one convenient package. Because of course we needed this! Who doesn’t need a grill attached to the back of their truck? Dragging a grill from the back of the truck is so old fashioned! Americans, mor…
There was a news related to Japan that Japan keeps a train running just for a girl. This headlines attracted the attention of media and social media of many countries. This thing was weird for the world, because it shows that how Japan as a nation, serious about its children and their future. People are praising Japan authorities for making education a top priority.But if I talk about my country India, then it is a normal thing. Japan runs a train for a kid only, but in India, we are running a political party for a kid to make him a Prime Minister.Though no media house of world talking about it because such things are normal in our country.
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