Another weird thing about the EEUU:
Prositution is illegal.
In Mexico it a legal high-paying career.
Prositution is illegal.
In Mexico it a legal high-paying career.
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The Official "Your country is weird" Thread
- Thread starter iGary
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South America - "¿Vas a cazar?" (Are you going hunting?) and "¿Te vas a casar?" (Are you getting married?) both "cazar" and "casar" sound alike.bousozoku said:
Spain - "cazar" pronounced phonetically (cathar) and "casar" (casar) show why they correctly make the "z" and "c" and "s" rule distinction.
im_to_hyper said:
Reminds me about those American made game/apps that had weird keyboard shortcuts I couldn't easily reach using my Norwegian keyboard (different layout and all that). Don't think it's much of a problem now though.
And I can make those dots easily
im_to_hyper said:
I'm tempted to base that on the more pessimistic view that since .5 liter bottles look like 20 oz. bottles, but have less (16.9 oz.) they can get away with selling less for the same price. Though on the plus side for metrics, I find a one liter bottle to be the perfect size...not too small, not too large. Now, if I can just find two bottles of Coke Light that taste the same...
pardon my stupidity but what is coke light? is that another of the millions of varieties of diet coke?Whyren said:
is it true that in the UK 10^9="one thousand million" and 10^10="one billion" whereas in the US where 10^9="one billion" and 10^10="one trillion"?
im_to_hyper said:
One of my teachers told the class that (I believe during the late 80's) America had a plan to switch to the metric system... and it didn't quite work...
It would be quite easy to switch, actually... start selling everything with BOTH the U.S. system and the metric system, and slowly remove the U.S. system from packaging - say, 10 years doing this. By then, everyone will know this...
Its stupid though - soda uses a mixtue of the two, in a rather confusing way: 6 Fl Oz, 12 Fl Oz, 20 Fl Oz, 1 Liter, 1.5 Liter, 2 Liter, 2.5 Liter...
What I thought was weird was that Canada always has the U.S. Dollar listed next to everything (even though this stops once you get a few hours away from the U.S.)...
A menu would be like...
Hamburger - $6/$4US
but in Buffalo, NY, RIGHT near canada:
Buffalo Wings - $10
whats up with that? AND the dollar symbol is the same... isn't this: $ - supposed to be an S with a U in the background, forming an S with two lines and a curve on the bottom (U+S=$) with the curve removed, and soon the 2nd line was removed to form the S with a line through it?
A menu would be like...
Hamburger - $6/$4US
but in Buffalo, NY, RIGHT near canada:
Buffalo Wings - $10
whats up with that? AND the dollar symbol is the same... isn't this: $ - supposed to be an S with a U in the background, forming an S with two lines and a curve on the bottom (U+S=$) with the curve removed, and soon the 2nd line was removed to form the S with a line through it?
homerjward said:
It's like that in Norway at least (though we have our own word for 10^9, we don't call it 'one thousand million').
It's something I often have to keep in mind when reading american stuff, else it gets very confusing
homerjward said:
Coke Light = European Diet Coke. Really doesn't taste like Diet Coke...more like, say C2 or Coke Zero...and every bottle of it I had while over there tasted different.
mac_head101 said:
you kinda left out 20,25 and 50 ..and of course dividing trough 200 etc... the big advantage is that you can divide or multiplay beyond the next unit very easily
mac_head101 said:
actually: not exactly: the pint is more than a pound (afaik.. the pound is around 450 something gramm and the pint is around 540 ml)
with metric it's 1 dm = 1 liter water = 1kg
dotdotdot said:
Haven't they had both on packaging for nearly that long anyway? I've not seen a product recently that didn't have the metric equivalent in parentheses.
American petrol stations quoting the price of petrol in fractions, I know you guys are still hanging onto the Imperial (heh, irony) system of measurements but seriously, you are allowed to use decimals.
Budweiser is in no way beer. Also, in response the the "top ten reasons for being Australian" I have to make a request to remove Fosters Lager from the list. It is one of the worst beers ever, nobody here drinks it, nobody sells it and they haven't since the 1980's.
Spelling "Tyre" "Tire." What is with that? "Tire" is what you do after a hard day's work, a "tyre" goes on your car.
4-way stop signs? So even if there's nobody around I legally have to stop? Qué?
US supermarkets have an entire aisle for "mexican" food but one rack for all asian foods (even then it consists of sweet and sour sauce and a few curry sauces).
Having to show ID to get alcohol despite looking well over 21, let alone the 18 age limit here. Also the incredibly harsh attitude to drinking - it leads to bad things, kids grow up indoctrinated with the attitude that "alcohol is bad m'kay so they eventually hit the right age and go absolutely nuts. You should see the American kids here, I used to work at a college (that's a residential hall for a university) that was about 25 - 30% US students, we'd take them down to the pub for a few quiet drinks when they'd arrive on the bus from the airport and so many of them, being 19 or 20 are suddenly legal and instead of having a mature attitude to grog they just go insane, especially on our beer which is a bit stronger than US beer.
And why is it illegal if I want to have a beer whilst walking to my friend's house? What am I going to do? Kill someone? Geeze, relax!
The prevalence of big 4WD's as family cars - most of you don't need all that bulk, the only reason for needing the better view is because someone has a bigger 4WD, so you need one even bigger to see around them, which means the people behind you need a bigger one.
All that processed food - blerch.
Budweiser is in no way beer. Also, in response the the "top ten reasons for being Australian" I have to make a request to remove Fosters Lager from the list. It is one of the worst beers ever, nobody here drinks it, nobody sells it and they haven't since the 1980's.
Spelling "Tyre" "Tire." What is with that? "Tire" is what you do after a hard day's work, a "tyre" goes on your car.
4-way stop signs? So even if there's nobody around I legally have to stop? Qué?
US supermarkets have an entire aisle for "mexican" food but one rack for all asian foods (even then it consists of sweet and sour sauce and a few curry sauces).
Having to show ID to get alcohol despite looking well over 21, let alone the 18 age limit here. Also the incredibly harsh attitude to drinking - it leads to bad things, kids grow up indoctrinated with the attitude that "alcohol is bad m'kay so they eventually hit the right age and go absolutely nuts. You should see the American kids here, I used to work at a college (that's a residential hall for a university) that was about 25 - 30% US students, we'd take them down to the pub for a few quiet drinks when they'd arrive on the bus from the airport and so many of them, being 19 or 20 are suddenly legal and instead of having a mature attitude to grog they just go insane, especially on our beer which is a bit stronger than US beer.
And why is it illegal if I want to have a beer whilst walking to my friend's house? What am I going to do? Kill someone? Geeze, relax!
The prevalence of big 4WD's as family cars - most of you don't need all that bulk, the only reason for needing the better view is because someone has a bigger 4WD, so you need one even bigger to see around them, which means the people behind you need a bigger one.
All that processed food - blerch.
I agree with much you have to say. I live in the US but have traveled to Mexico several times, and each time I do, I learn to hate my culture more and more. Not that I don't like it, but I realize that there are a lot of bigots here. You hit home especially with the pop culture....BLEHChacala_Nayarit said:
Oh, BTW, pancakes are the best! breakfast lunch or dinner, but especially for breakfast!
Chip NoVaMac said:
Or the Michigan Left. Travel down a road with 3-7 lanes going in each direction, and a huge median between. Come to a traffic light and want to make a left... To Bad. You have to drive 1/4 Mile ahead, in the left lane, make a U-Turn on a connector, and slide over to the right lane to make a right. It saves on wait times at intersections, but is so hard for the non-native to understand.
BC (British Columbia) - Has flashing Green Traffic Signals at cross walks, with roads intersecting at the same location, but the side streets have stop signs. The lights are ONLY for pedestrians.
Indiana - No Left Turn on Red on to a Left-going one way street.
Maritimes of Canada (NB, NS, PEI) - Flashing green light at an intersection means you can go either straight, or make a left. Once is goes solid, left turns must yield, as the other direction can now go.
The whole left turn on red onto a left-going one way street comes in quite handy. If you are at a traffic light at the entrance to a freeway (expressway/motorway) and the light is red, you can turn onto the ramp, yielding to other traffic, but only in a traditional Diamond interchange or another interchange where both directions are not on the same side.
(True in: WA, OR, ID, MT, IL, MI, and many more) Unfortunately most people don't know this.
TEG
Chip NoVaMac said:
Yes! Which is why I have a house in semi-rural Australia, and escape there quite frequently from crowded UK.
Yes! Talking to locals and finding out about those things first hand are - for me - two of the three joys of travel (for me the other is photography).Chip NoVaMac said:
dotdotdot said:
Must be a Hamilton Thing. In BC it is all in CND, but you can still pay in USD and get more CND in change. Same for Nova Scotia, New Bruswick, and PEI.
As for the $. It is actually the symbol for the old Spanish Peso. More Info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%24
TEG
I wanted to show a Japanese student at uni what Australian outback was like. I took him to the River Murray (our major river) and he started crying. I asked why and he replied in pretty broken English that he'd never seen the horizon over the land before.
I can't imagine being in a cramped country. Give me my happy couple per square kilometre. Talking of which, why doesn't everyone use the metric system? And people think I'm mad!
Oh yeah, an it seems like I'm the only person who turns left when I wanna go left too...
I can't imagine being in a cramped country. Give me my happy couple per square kilometre. Talking of which, why doesn't everyone use the metric system? And people think I'm mad!
Oh yeah, an it seems like I'm the only person who turns left when I wanna go left too...
XIII said:We do have traffic lights.. and roundabouts.
Also, pancakes for breakfast.. THAT is screwed up.
Here in Arcata, CA, we have four or five roundabouts. I love them, they're so much more efficient than stop lights and stop signs.
Speaking of stop signs, we have a crazy number of those too. There's a funny cartoon about the infamous Arcata stop sign standoff. I'll try to scan it and post it here someday. Locally, Arcata is famous for its drivers who will almost always seem to converge on a four way stop at exactly the same time and wait for the person to their right to move.....days can go with no one moving!
iGary said:Norwich, Great Britain.
I was driving the company car and since the Brist like parking half way on the road and half way on the sidewalk, I had trouble judging the distance and sidewiped about four cars.
Hahaha... Niice.
Do you guys not do the park half on the pavement half on the road thing then? It is a great compromise.. block less of the road and the pavement. We have to do it, because our roads aren't as big as yours, so there is no room to just park on the road.Also, just noticed from your quote.. sidewalk.. hehe *laughs*
im_to_hyper said:
Except that in the UK, we 'capitalise' and 'cannibalise' so no 'zed's in there. And I've never heard an American say 'capititalizee', to be fair, it's more of a short 'zzzzz' noise rather than a z or a zed.
Try Jersey, home to the 11inch foot.cantthinkofone said:
We also have Perche = 22feet, Perche carré = 484sq.ft., 40Perche carré = 1vergée.
We've also got the best milk in the world.
And as for the 'Canadian' 'eh' not being Canadian, I think you'll find it's 'ais' as in the ending to many French words.
Don't forget the wonderful "metric foot" (=300mm).mpw said:
To be fair, you did infect us with perches, too.
Very good.