Fellow Latin Americans/Africans/Asians/Oceanians, what is something that Americans and/or Europeans have/do that makes no sense to you?
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I'll copy my comment from the other question:
I should preface my comment that community orientation, respect, and ethnicity/respect for your heritage are big parts of the area i'm from.
I’ve worked in Western Europe. I don’t know why but there seems to be a lot of taxes for everything. You have to get govt permission for everything. People seem to rely on the govt to provide things rather than have some agencies fill niches that aren’t filled by the govt (for example I saw signs like don’t help homeless people, the govt is helping them).
I’m from an Asian country, we don’t have much tax, we don’t rely on the govt for anything (we can’t), and we have many NGOs. I think it’s similar in America.
As an Asian, there are a few things I can note about Europeans.
Europeans seem to have lost their sense of traditions, to me as an Asian it doesn’t make sense since keeping our traditions and values is a huge part of our culture and society. Americans do this too but at least they seem to retain some notion of their ethnicity like they recognize their heritage is Irish or German or Chinese or Native or whatever.
Europeans also accept blame for bad things they did in the past (which is a good thing) but I think they can go overboard to compensate for that (to their detriment). I don’t think accepting blame for things in the past is a thing that’s done in Asia; we rewrite history instead. It would help if we acknowledged what we did and can have better relations with others moving forward.
Europeans identify more with nationality than ethnicity. For example, someone from Czech Republic moving to France is considered French. In North America I think they would be considered Czech-French. In Asia they would be considered to be a Czech expat living in France. Our ethnicity matters a lot.
In North America and Europe for some reason people refer to elders by their first name? We would never in 1000 years think of doing something like that, it's considered extremely rude. We either use their surname (like Mr.X) or Uncle/Auntie.
In terms of politics, both US and Europe seem quite extreme to me. Europe seems very liberal, you can do what you want, there doesn't seem to be any boundaries and people will tolerate anything. In the US people are extremely polarized with politics, both left and right. I've never heard of many other countries where there seem to be so many people per capita with conspiracy theories or violence with protests or lack of support for people (like old people or mental health issues, there's no community support, there's so much individualism). People seem to just accept things that seem unthinkable in a developed country (like texas not giving water to workers in heat).
In North America and Europe for some reason people refer to elders by their first name? We would never in 1000 years think of doing something like that, it’s considered extremely rude. We either use their surname (like Mr.X) or Uncle/Auntie.
In America at least, this is a change in the past 100 years for us, too. If you look at older American media--TV shows, books--you'll start to see depictions of children calling older people/neighbors "Mr. Lastname" or "Mrs. Lastname" and such. Like, if you watch some American black and white shows with kids in it, you'll see "appropriate child behavior" of that era modeled, and it's pretty heavily focused on kids being cute and obedient and chirping "Hello Mr. Smith!" or whatever at the mailman, and absolutely not using first names casually with adults or adults in authority. Heck, I think even older episodes of Sesame Street modeled it, and Mr. Rogers.
I realize there's no reason for non-Americans to be up to date with older American media, but there was absolutely a time within living memory when calling an older adult by their first name casually was pretty rude. I was born in the 1980s, and the shift away from being overly formal with older adults kinda happened somewhere around there because I remember both the "old" and the "new" being modeled around me.
I'm not sure all the cultural reasons behind the shift--there's probably a reason for it, I'm just not educated enough in that realm to know what it is for certain.
Or maybe I'm slightly too young. Perhaps someone from Gen X will understand what was going on there better, they would've been slightly older than me and have better memories of that period.
I may be misinterpreting their comment but I initially read elder as "elderly people" and not just "people older than them" and that the point was about how adults refer to them by first name unless it's in a professional environment (e.g. doctor or government title)
For kids at least formality still mostly applies, I'm Gen Z in northeast US and I grew up calling every adult by Mr./Ms. X, with the only exceptions being family. This could be different in other parts of the US though, I don't mean to generalize.
I’ve worked in Western Europe. I don’t know why but there seems to be a lot of taxes for everything. You have to get govt permission for everything.
Could you expand on "get govt permission for everything"? I'm from Germany, and I honestly can't remember when I last got "government permission", if ever. Maybe my driver's license?
Could you expand on “get govt permission for everything”? I’m from Germany, and I honestly can’t remember when I last got “government permission”, if ever. Maybe my driver’s license?
in the UK it seems there's a regulation for everything and/or you need to get a license for everything, i've even seem memes like "oi bruv have you got a loicense for that"
for example, tv license, getting a dog license, not selling ibuprofen in large quantities (regulation), not selling rubbing alcohol (regulation), the restriction on kitchen knives, butter knives being considered an "offensive weapon"
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1356162-count-dankulas-hate-speech-trial
Hm, I guess I can see some of that?
tv license
That is indeed strange. Here it's not a license, just a tax that's not really a tax.
getting a dog license
Only in Northern Ireland.
not selling ibuprofen in large quantities (regulation)
That's not a government license, it's a prescription. Don't most countries have something similar, where you can't just buy any medicine you want?
not selling rubbing alcohol (regulation)
I can go on Amazon.co.uk right now and buy some. Could you link the regulation preventing sales?
the restriction on kitchen knives
You mean not being allowed to carry them around in public for no reason? Or not selling them to people under 18?
butter knives being considered an "offensive weapon"
Okay, but what does that have to do with getting government permission?
Only one of those things is kind of a "government permission". Everything else is not regulation for which you need government permission.
Think you need a dog license in Germany too iirc. To be fair, they have the best behaved dogs I’ve met while traveling as a result though.
It depends on the state. There is no general "dog license", but some states require you to take a test in order to own more dangerous breeds.
ibuprofen is not a prescription medicine, it's over the counter. you can get 2 packs x 500 in costco in the US. (source)
rubbing alcohol (when i was there at least) was not readily available, i think the govt regulated it because they didn't want people to get drunk or something.
ibuprofen is not a prescription medicine, it's over the counter. you can get 2 packs x 500 in costco in the US. (source)
I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it's prescription in the US?
rubbing alcohol (when i was there at least) was not readily available, i think the govt regulated it because they didn't want people to get drunk or something.
I'd need to see a source, this seems like wild speculation. Seems pretty unlikely that they banned it and lifted the ban without this being front and centre when looking it up. Couldn't it have been the whole COVID craze which just meant it was sold out?
I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it’s prescription in the US?
the question is asking what's something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can't get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens't make sense to me
it wasn't COVID, this was before COVID
It's because people try to kill themselves by taking lots of ibuprofen and it's both a bad way to go and a bad way to survive. Making it harder to access large amounts has been shown to reduce the amount of suicide attempts (as often actual attempts are somewhat impulsive.)
well sure, lots of people commit suicide by hanging themself but that doesn't stop us planting trees or building bridges, i consider the uk way to be overly cautious, for the majority of people ibuprofen is not a problem and i think it's frustrating to just get little amounts
I do t understand why you'd need easy access to buy 500 at a time of something you shouldn't take more than 8 a day or for more than three days at a time without consulting a Dr and now I just realised what this is about...
In the UK we just see the Dr if we're in pain for more than three days because our system isn't evil.
? because you always need ibuprofen for something, it's cheaper to buy in bulk, and it's more conveneint to have it laying around already than having to go and get some when you need it already
the question is asking what's something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can't get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens't make sense to me
There's multiple reasons:
But is anything stopping you from getting multiple smaller packs?
it wasn't COVID, this was before COVID
As I said, I'd need to see some kind of source.
It's called bureaucracy and Europe is known for being bureaucratic.
Disclaimer: I got an Italian citizenship last year and I still can't get my ID card because of misunderstandings between my Comune and the Embassy.
It's called bureaucracy and Europe is known for being bureaucratic.
Sure, it's known for that, but that doesn't mean it's true. That's why I asked for examples.
Could you elaborate on the lost sense of traditions?
Also I don't agree with you about the 'nationality not ethnicity' thing, but that really may vary, and I don't think it would be possible to debate that, as we'd first have to define the difference between nat. and eth., they seem to be ~the same thing to me.
Ethnicity generally includes your skin colour in the description whilst nationality has none of that.
Though I don't agree that someone who just simply moves to another country changes nationality, it's a tricky definition as it can be confused with citizenship but it's more to do with long you stay there and if you embrace the culture.
Could you elaborate on the lost sense of traditions?
i mean the things that are associated with their home culture is lost, like an associated religion, wedding traditions, etc.
Oh, thank you.
ethnicity and nationality is not the same btw
"Ethnic membership tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language, dialect, religion, mythology, folklore, ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, or physical appearance. Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with many groups having mixed genetic ancestry."
nationality is just where you live, you might not have heritage to that place
we'd first have to define the difference between nat. and eth., they seem to be ~the same thing to me
Nationality is the nation you are a citizen of. Ethnicity is the ethnic group(s) you identify with.
In Europe, these are largely the same. The only multi-ethnic countries I can think of are Russia, the UK and Spain.
But in most parts of the world, one country would have multiple ethnic groups, and one ethnic group may be spread across multiple countries. For example, China has Han people, Mongols, Muslims, Tibetans and so on. Of these, the Mongols also live in Mongolia and Russia, the Tibetans also in India and Nepal, and so on.
Again, in Europe it seems to be common for people to identify primarily with their nation (except Catalans, Scots, etc.) But elsewhere, since the borders were often drawn by outsiders, people often identify more with their ethnic group. This unfortunately leads to a lot of conflict.