Getting embarrassed around women breast feeding in public is definitely not something all Americans do. I don't see a problem with it.

The only cultural issue (misunderstanding if you want to call it that) I have is why some people have such an aversion to soap?

Isn't it nicer to smell botanical (or whatever) than malodorous?

Absurd. Belief system "grounded" on Stereotypes by ethnicity with "culture".
Fact is we are all human with similar traits however in different locations.

From our big brother, the Big Cheeze.

cultural misunderstandings: If you say to a Hungarian, "your mother is a whore" he will kill you.

If you bump into him inadvertentl and quite innocently in a crowded bar, he will try to kill you.

If he mistakes you for his nemesis in the village pub, already slushed, you might as well go out and by yourself that wreath you've always wanted.

If you screw his wife, he takes the day off and goes out fishing.

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I did not wake up as a new immigrant soon enough that you can't call people "stupid" to their faces in Canada. In Hungary it's not an insult, it's rather a voiced disapproval of an action or decision, but it's not an insult.

If you correct someone's grammar in Hungary, in Germany, in the states of the former Yugoslavia, in the states of the former Chechoslovakia, or in the states of the former Soviet Union, then the person being corrected apologises for his mistake, and thanks you for correcting him. This is not a joke at all. This is how it is. There, and in Western Europe, to not know his own language perfectly by a citizen is a sign of limited patriotism, of failure in patriotic behaviour. Tons of hapless dyslexic boys and girls got the strap in their schooling,from grade one all the way up to the Ph.D. and post-graduate levels, if they put a LY instead of a J in writing. They were pronounced the same, otherwise Hungarian is a phonetically correct language. In America, if you correct someone's English, they look at you dirty, or call you an azzole and declare that spelling correctily is only for nobody, who cares.

In Europe, to be sure in some Eastern European countries, until recent times there were no laws against wife beating. The term "domestic violence" did not exist in the law books. When in the last ten-twenty years domestic rape and kid-beating became illegal, the stand-up comedians had a field day making fun of those laws. There used to be an old folk wisdom-like proverb, "money is good when you count it, wife is good when you beat her."

Local racial discrimination is rampant in Hungary to this day. Jews have a bad rep, but they are allowed to practice trade, academics, medicine, anything. Hating Jews in Hungary is a tradition, but it lost its bite. Now what's bad is hating Gypsys. It's worse right now in Hungary to be a Gypsy, in terms of being barred from opportunities that regular citizens get, than to be a black man in America. Jimi Hendrix therefore gave his last album the title "Band of Gyspys" spelled as such, as he felt great affinity for Hungarian Gypsies as an American Black. Most, almost all valid cases of immigration to Canada from Hungary and from similar types of countries is done by Gyspies, coz they can easily and successfully prove they are discriminated against. Gypsies are repped as thieves, but nobody knows if they indeed thieve more than the average magyar.

Theft was a complete disgrace in the culture, until communism came in in 1948, and then everything became the property of the state, except your clothes and your furniture, and then later your car. So to steal, meant to steal from the State, not from an individual, and that gave a huge moral and ethical green light to the birth of a thieving nation.

Magyar = Hungarian, jol = good, appropriate, "well behaved magy" (notice the short form) is "well hung".

Hungarians have no concept that their nationality's name is so close to the English word hunger, much like Mr. Lipshitz does not know what his name means in English, or Mr. Kant, or Mr. Farkass. "Fak" is simply a small wooded area. Shitt is the prison or jail in slang, and pee means pee. That word is universal in all languages, or aunt Pipi (pronounced pee-pee) used to say so, as she forbade us to call her on her nickname every time we visited.

I am fifty percent Jew, fifty percent Hungarian, and my thinking mode is mostly Hungarian, but I still hate them with a passion. They are an argumentative, arrogant bunch, I present as their rather very toned down equivalent. But I mostly hate them for their brutally bigoted and obnoxiously prejudiced values that they don't even think can be challenged. In my last trip home, we were walking down the street in Budapest, and the hubby of a very own cousin of mine all of a sudden started to publicly curse and debase a bunch of gypsys whom I did not even notice, because they were dressed regularly. It was a very stomach-churning experience, I wanted to die of embarrassment, and then I never again went back to that pispot country.

You have just illustrated how out of touch Americans are to the real world out there. This country is full of know it alls who don't.

I love it when Americans are in other countries and they declare "I am an American and I have rights." Well, it is true, you have the rights they afford to foreigners and not the rights afforded to Americans.

A friend of mine is Jamaican. He has a relative who is a police officer IN Jamaica. I asked him if Americans were indeed the rudest tourists out there. It turns out we are not. It turns out there at least we are the most ANNOYING! When an American screws up there the first thing they usually say is "I am an American, I have rights," and his reply to that is , "You are not in America and I suggest you shut up now before you learn that the hard way."

Americans have rights here, The right to go home, the same as any visitor.
I have never understood why anyone thinks they have a right to demand anything.
The only right anyone really has is to help themselves.

Geeze I haven't had the chance to travel out of the country yet, but I'm embarrassed people are out their smearing our reputation, I think French people are the rudest, not French Canadians regular French people. Why come here here if it is so drab and pitiful. Get the freak outta here then.

I know, I hate it when people come over here and whinge, if you are going someone enjoy the differences, otherwise stay home.

In australia where I live its hot and dry , or hot and wet, but everyone knows that before they get here. so why whinge, honestly.
I thought they came to see the differences.

You should hear the whining here in California! Lately our weather has been very much like Florida, VERY HOT, OPPRESSIVELY HUMID! Some of the worst days are partially cloudy and 100+ degrees Fahrenheit. BUT OH NO! "I thought it was supposed to be milder in California especially at the beaches!"

Well, some facts people are not aware of evidently, Southern California is mostly desert! Deserts are hot. While it is 80 degrees at the beach it is over 100 degrees within a half hour drive inland! And Palm Springs during the summer is over 110 every day!

I have been in Death Valley CA when it was 120 degrees and that night it got below 30 degrees. THAT IS THE DESERT!

People act like such WIMPS! Grab a damn bottle of water and find some shade or hang out in Walmart where they have AC for the masses!

People have an aversion to soap?

Sounds like home, although I do have to say that if it drops anywhere below about 75 in winter, we start whinging and pull out our jumpers trying to warm up

I don't know why, soap is tasty and cleanses the tongue and tonsils.

yep and makes you blow bubbles when you speak. Mum used to scrape it on our teeth if we swore, Yuck.

From wux:



How true.