For example, I’m a white Jewish guy but I’ve adopted the Japanese practice of keeping dedicated house slippers at the front door.
I’m British and I say y’all fairly often. It just rolls off the tongue.
I’m a redneck American who says y’all, and calls people cunts a lot. We have so much to share
Thank you for that gift, cunt
Happy to have more of the y’all in English English, but personally I’d like an uptake in youse.
As someone who has lived both in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, y’all just sounds and feels better than youse.
Is youse a thing I’m Pennsylvania and/or Kentucky? I was thinking a la the land of the free, home of the brave (Scotland)
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I’m trying to recreate this and my brain just won’t let it happen.
Try it with Tom Hardy’s cockney accent. 🙃
It’s like “yawl”.
Now yer talkin’!
It probably has some root in a region of England anyway.
I set all my digital clocks to 24hr mode, something I picked up after living in Europe. Would never go back.
One of us! Now shift to metric!
I actually use some metric when measuring around the house for projects, especially for anything shorter than an inch. I can’t be bothered to figure out 1/16 of an inch…it’s easier in mm.
Likewise. I just found it much easier when trying to schedule my day. Not having to account for the switch from 12-1 makes the math simpler.
I’ve learned from the Japanese phrase ‘itadakimasu,’ which is said before eating as a way to thank the person that prepared the food. I think in the west, a lot of us grew up learning to say things like grace before a meal, but that is too religious for me and gives God credit for peoples’ hard work instead. I love the idea of ritualistically thanking the people who actually made the food. It was one of the things I appreciated while studying there that has stuck with me.
In my culture its common courtesy to thank a person after the meal, either the one who made it, brought it, or paid for it. But only if they’re present. It ain’t a ritual. Same-ish thing.
いただきます literally translates to “I humbly receive”.
American, here. Got a bidet, and I am never going back. The fact that this isn’t standard in American households is disgusting.
Bidet life is best life
Yes. Bidets should be opt-out at this point.
Oh so true! Before I visited Japan for the first time I thought having shit left on my ass is just a normal thing. But later I also visited Morocco and they have a bucket of water on the toilet so you can wash yourself. It seems it’s only in Europe/America where people don’t wash themselves after pooping.
There are bidets in many countries in Europe too. In Spain, most houses have them, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing in France and Italy.
Separate bidets are a thing, but only in older houses.
I was a week in Italy and never seen them. But it’s good to hear that it’s getting better.
They have been disappearing in France, sadly, because people couldn’t afford the space…
I’m adding integrated bidets to all our toilets in our oncoming renovation though.I like the integrated ones much more anyway. I got one for our second toilet from my fiance for my birthday, she’s a keeper :D
I got one just around the time that toilet paper was getting yanked off shelves at lightning speed, and it has ruined me for public toilets.
Peasant toilets. Hideous.
Love my bidet. I feel so clean and it’s so nice.
I got a bidet but then I read you have to turn it off at the connection to the water (at the bottom/back of toilet) every time or eventually the gasket can wear out and it will explode and the water will just go and go and go. If that happened at night or when noone is home you’d have major water damage!! I thought you could just use it with the trigger. Do people really actually fully stop the water every time? I uninstalled mine because I don’t think I can reliably remember to do that.
The T-adapter? That’s not mechanically complex and should literally last forever if made out of the correct materials and isn’t touched all the time. It should be no more fault prone than the connection to the toilet.
A misaligned thread or a washer not fitting quite right might be an issue from a bad install. That’s an easy fix though and you should see a leak before things go catastrophic.
If your really looking for piece of mind I’m sure there are t adapters that can close themselves down in certain failure states.
I would LOVE the house slipper bit. I’ve suggested it so many times. Wife and kids just won’t go for it. Wife says it’s rude to ask a guest to take off their shoes. I disagree but she just can’t see my point or view. If you want to enter my house, show respect and take off your shoes to keep my house clean.
What’s rude is bringing disgusting bacteria (E Coli, etc) and potentially-toxic chemicals into somebody else’s house by not taking your shoes off. There’s just an objectively-right and wrong answer to this one.
I just don’t get it lol. Whenever I enter someone’s house for the first time I ask “would you like me to take my shoes off?”.
It’s not that hard, and especially obvious if they have light colored carpet
My wife is from a shoes off in the home culture so our home is like that. Before I met her I could go either way on it.
One time when she was away I put my shoes on our bed and sent her a picture of it just to tease her. Hehe
I have multiple guests slippers at the door with internal shoe cleaner also to hand, but that’s mostly for show as we clean them anyway. Regular guests eventually get to choose there slippers and we’ll get what ever they want.
I’m sorry, what do you mean by “internal shoe cleaner”? My wife and I have “inside shoes” (not really slippers) with a small shoe rack / bench next to the door, but we’re trying also to get slippers for the guests because so many of them usually ask if they should remove their shoes when they see us doing it. I’m having issues choosing the right slippers because I don’t want that using a slipper that many other people have used becomes a hygiene issue. I know that in most cases it’s not, but I don’t want guest to “feel” like it may be. How do you deal with that?
Anti bacterial shoe shoe spray, like they use in ice rinks or bowling alleys.
Before I quit drinking I believe I was following Russian culture with my vodka intake.
Drinking cheapest vodka possible chasing it with cheapest bear possible, then fight, sing, fight again, vomit all over the place, and fall asleep face down in a bowl of salad?
Russian bear fight YOU
no such thing as half a bottle of vodka
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I’ve always used high beams as a thank you/I’m letting you pass/bro, your headlights are off, depending on the context.
Here in Germany it’s common to quickly flash your hazards when you’re on the highway and enter a traffic jam to signal the person behind you “Watch out, I’m slowing down and won’t accelerate again”
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We started doing so here in Singapore. Even our public busses flash hazard lights twice to convey a thank you sometimes now. In the context of someone giving way to you.
But on a highway when there’s a sudden slowdown in front, we turn on the hazard lights to convey “dude slow down the dude in front is being weird”. Especially useful when there’s torrential downpours.
Isn’t that automatic in some vehicles now, to flash on heavy braking?
Not sure, haven’t been in any that I’ve driven so far. Our cars always have some lag between the latest tech and what’s actually being sold for some reason (tho arguably it’s getting better).
Single flash of hazards to thank someone is common in Brussels traffic, there are a lot of very selfish drivers on the road who never let anyone merge in. Haven’t seen it outside of here, maybe because people are usually a bit more polite or zipper merging works as it should.
Common in all of Belgium to put hazards on to warn people behind you that there is a traffic jam up ahead. I really like that passing the baton system.
Also single flash of high beams to notify someone you’ve seen them and they can cross or pass where they’d otherwise not have right of way. While you should always be as predictable as possible, sometimes doing it wrong resolves the situation faster for everyone.
I also always raise my hand as a thanks when someone stops to let me use a crossing (I have the right of way as a pedestrian but I still feel like sending people a thank you for observing the rules correctly). Did that when walking in Brussels this morning out of sheer habit, realized that is probably actually pretty unusual for a big city. My small town habits are betraying me.
I cross my sevens like a German.
I adopted this years ago so I could tell the difference between a 1 and a 7 😁
This is a German thing? I know tons of people here in Canada who do it.
It’s done all over Europe. They also have a fancy 1 that’s nice because it doesn’t look like a lower case l. I’m not positive that the 1 is used outside France though but it’s the standard in France. https://ielanguages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/davidsno.jpg
Yep, we do that too. It’s called a Serif, though it being a French word I’d guess you know that.
I thought it was a Spanish speaking country thing only until this comment
When you indicate the number 3 with your hand, which fingers do you hold up?
Thumb, index, middle fingers?
Middle, ring, pinky (small finger) fingers?
Index, middle, ring fingers?
I heard Germans do it one of these ways, English does it another, and Americans does it yet another way. Don’t know if it’s true, but I think I saw that in some movie. Maybe Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino?
I am European and I don’t cross them, or any other character (except ‘t’ and ‘f’)
I cross the lowercase z (I write it without a loop).
I’ve lived in Japan for a long time. I make a lot of Japanese noises now.
All according to keikaku I guess
All I can think is you saying YAMETE KURASAI Onichan!!! at random places
I was raised in an extremely conservative Southern Baptist Christian tradition, but I often recite the Hail Mary and/or the first line of the Shema (in admittedly very poor Hebrew) when I pray. There’s something about knowing that the same prayer has been prayed by millions and millions of humans through history that makes me feel more connected.
I don’t get the hail mary. The our father would be baptist acceptable and should have been recited for longer given its in the bible specificallly.
I wear a mask unless I need my mouth for something.
I love wearing a mask it makes me feel like a ninja
Same here. I’m immune compromised and masks are a blessing.
I used to get sick once a month and now I’ve not been sick since before covid.
With a mask on, I’m 50% better looking!
I am not Jewish, but I have adopted the practice of placing stones/pebbles on my parents’ gravestone each time I visit.
Is that cleaned up or are there a pile there after a while?
It stays. It looks like a purposeful embellishment. For my own family’s purpose, it acts as a physical record of me visiting often (because extended family is judgemental and believes that I am not visiting at all).
Pro tip, leave a whole pile of rocks, enough to last for years
Same with the shoes here. I take them off at my doorstep and carry them inside to the shoe rack. My floors stay spotless now as it’s surprising how much dirt they track inside.
I know some Asian cultures don’t even bring them in, leaving all the household’s shoes on the porch. I wish we did that in NA. Seems like a smart idea.
I got a bidet recently, and it’s been a life changer. I guess they are becoming more popular now in America, but nobody had one growing up.
which one did you get? which features are essential? what to avoid?
I bought the Tushy. It’s nothing crazy fancy, but works amazingly. It’s one piece that you install between the water line and the tank of the toilet. Very quick install. For new users, I’d suggest keeping the water pressure low (the little knob you turn to activate it) that way you’re not getting water up your butt when you’re not expecting it. It’s a weird sensation at first, but you quickly get used to it. Now I swear by having a bidet.
Weird as in I’m going to come from Poseidon tickling my butthole? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Sleeping on a thin futon laid out on the floor (Japan / Korea). And riding a bike or e-bike everywhere (Netherlands), even though US cities and infrastructure are hostile to humans
oh man. im so the opposite. I got a higher bedframe so getting up and down is even easier.
a raised bed helps to keep pests off. whats the benefit of a ground bed?
Also better for bending over, standing beside, hanging off of and various other things… man I’d hate to just have a mat on the floor. How tragic.
