What's your favorite cultural quirk?

[Naheal]

As an American, I've noticed we LOVE accents. We find them sexy and fun. But apparently, in other countries, they expect you to speak without your native accent and try to adopt the one there when you speak their language.
I find this very interesting.

To be fair, we only have a few accents that sound hot, and only on some people. However, other countries are much more lucky.

Another American cultural quirk (well, kink) is Asians. We really like asians.

The quirk could actually be that we like foreigners[footnote]So long as we're not members of the Tea Party and you're not Arabic in any way[/footnote] in general.

Ok, but you can't deny the fact that straight male Americans (and lesbians, I think) have a... special interest in asian women.

I wouldn't say that it's just Asian women, though. You take an average American guy and show them an Arabic woman and he'll be after her in a heartbeat.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

I'm from a mostly German family all around (heritage wise) and some of them still speak German often. I must say that you can leave it to a German to say things that truly stab,twist and pour salt on the open wound emotionally, and in a linguistically clever and clear cut way XD

 

[RanX3roX]

You know its funny reading these posts... you guys have a rich heritage to draw from... I am not complaining by any means. But I am about as American as you can get. In the sense that I am part... Dutch, German, Polish, English, Irish and Scottish, My family has been in the states since the 1730s and the other side since the 1840s. So my cultural heritage is well... American and I love other cultures that I know nothing about... their food and especially their women. I love women with accents and dark hair and passionate dispositions.

 

[Nomanslander]

Whether its your own culture or another's, every society has its own little nuances that lends to its awesomeness uniqueness.


For me, it's the way some Armenian's refer to something that is cute. For example, if my sister sees a litter of puppies or kittens, she doesn't say that it is "cute" in an Armenian equivalent. She says, "Oodem Kezee," which means, "I want to eat it/them."

She wants. To eat. Puppies.

Aren't you thinking about "Jigarit oodem" which is a term of endearment that literally means "I'm going to eat your liver........with some lima beans and a nice" well you get the message...=P

Oh and nice to see I'm not the only Armo here....meeting other Armenians has become a pretty rare occasion on my part.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Contrary to popular belief, we[footnote]Australians[/footnote] don't eat shrimp. Ever.

We eat Prawns.

YOURE LYING!!!! :O but Soccer is soccer but people in like Europe call it football

 

[Free Thinker]

Michigan. Rednecks of the Northern US! (Except Detroit.)

 

[the_bearpelt]

As an American, I've noticed we LOVE accents. We find them sexy and fun. But apparently, in other countries, they expect you to speak without your native accent and try to adopt the one there when you speak their language.
I find this very interesting.

To be fair, we only have a few accents that sound hot, and only on some people. However, other countries are much more lucky.

Another American cultural quirk (well, kink) is Asians. We really like asians.

What do you mean, other countries are much more lucky? I don't really follow.

Alot of counties have universally hot accents. We don't.

I wouldn't say universally. Specifically because other countries don't usually like accents AT ALL. We're the only ones, so far as I can tell.

 

[StBishop]

Contrary to popular belief, we[footnote]Australians[/footnote] don't eat shrimp. Ever.

We eat Prawns.

You are missing out greatly my friend.

In America most of our stereotypes of other people are either terribly off or terribly exaggerated.
That can lead to hilariousness a lot of the time.

Yeah see the thing is alot of Americans expect Aussies to say "Chucka nutha shrimp on tha barrrrrbeeeee, ... Mayte!"

We call them prawns. I only recently discovered that in the US, Shrimp aren't tiny. When someone ordered a "Shrimp Cocktail" on a TV show and was severd prawns in a glass.

If you say shrimp here we think like..... sea monkeys, tiny krill like animals. We call them prawns, no one says chuck a shrimp on the barbie, they say chuck a prawn on the barbie.

So what you call shrimp, yeah, we eat. But in our mind we don't eat shrimp.

 

[guess who]

I've heard it said that Canadians smoke more pot than any other nation, even the ones where it's legal. I have yet to be firmly unconvinced of the truth of that statement.

 

[Yeager942]

Whether its your own culture or another's, every society has its own little nuances that lends to its awesomeness uniqueness.


For me, it's the way some Armenian's refer to something that is cute. For example, if my sister sees a litter of puppies or kittens, she doesn't say that it is "cute" in an Armenian equivalent. She says, "Oodem Kezee," which means, "I want to eat it/them."

She wants. To eat. Puppies.

Aren't you thinking about "Jigarit oodem" which is a term of endearment that literally means "I'm going to eat your liver........with some lima beans and a nice" well you get the message...=P

Oh and nice to see I'm not the only Armo here....meeting other Armenians has become a pretty rare occasion on my part.

Damn it, I've been rooted out. True, but she likes to shorten it to "I want to eat you." I guess its a spin on it.

 

[quantum mechanic]

I'm from Utah. A list of Utah's cultural quirks would fill the page.

Here's one: a town in southern Utah declared itself a "U.N.-free" zone. The ordinance that stated this also required UN supporters to post signs in their windows and pay unspecified fees.

 

[Nomanslander]

As an American, I've noticed we LOVE accents. We find them sexy and fun. But apparently, in other countries, they expect you to speak without your native accent and try to adopt the one there when you speak their language.
I find this very interesting.

To be fair, we only have a few accents that sound hot, and only on some people. However, other countries are much more lucky.

Another American cultural quirk (well, kink) is Asians. We really like asians.

What do you mean, other countries are much more lucky? I don't really follow.

Alot of counties have universally hot accents. We don't.

I wouldn't say universally. Specifically because other countries don't usually like accents AT ALL. We're the only ones, so far as I can tell.

Umm, I think you also have to remember that what may seem mundane for one group will seem exotic to another.

For instance I find southern (American) accents in women to be sexy, and I'm just from the west coast...=P

But when you have a certain nationality that had to learn more than one language to get by, they're also being exposed to more accents that will end up sounding mundane to them in the end.

In America we pretty much have a melting pot where everyone has learned one language, and we live in a large enough nation to where we don't have much of a chance to see or hear much else (interestingly enough since America is a nation made of foreigners), so for us we tend to find the stuff coming from else where to be a lot more exotic.

So I guess my question is how do you know whether or not somebody on the other side of the world wouldn't find your American accent to be....well....sexy...=P