Culture exchange

[DarkXtecy]

lol Fenix dosent believe my innocence...when have i ever done something really naughty lol...and yes its real milk *reminds me of some pics shared in "space for show yourself" thread concerning milf..milk*

[Emmie]

And now I give the next person a chance to share about his or her culture without feeling guilty of interupting you guys, cause I'll do it instead. ^^ I'm happy we all get along so well, but I'd love to see more people adding culture here.

[Tanja-DK]

I'm from denmark and now i share some things and facts about Denmark and us danes    

But its not all Danes that are like this  

 

Denmark’s national flag, the Dannebrog (the flag of the Danes), is the oldest flag in the world still in use by an independent nation, having been acknowledged in 1219. According to legend, the Dannebrog fell from the sky during an early 13th century battle, and the Danish king caught it before it touched the ground, which rallied the Danish troops to victory. In actuality, the Dannebrog may have derived from a Crusader banner or ensign.

We are about 5.7 million Danes and is 16,624 square miles (43.095 square kilometers) 
Copenhagen, home of the Little Mermaid, is the capital of Denmark





If you visits denmark you will realize how important gratitude plays into life and conversation here. Every day after dinner, most kids are expected to give ‘thanks’ (tak for mad) to their parents for making and providing dinner. We, expresses gratitude several times a day, in a very natural and authentic way – to the bus driver, to her teachers, to  classmates, customer service and so on.



H.C. Andersen

Probably everyone at some point has been told the fairy tale of the ugly duckling who grew into a beautiful swan. Undoubtedly, Hans Christian Andersen is the most famous Dane of all time, thanks to his magical fairy tales, which are loved by children and adults around the world. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages worldwide.


Alcohol.


In Denmark, you are allowed to consume and buy alcohol from the supermarkets (not at bars and restaurants) by the age of 16. Most Danes have their first alcohol experience in their early teens and it is a natural part of their social life and party culture.
Some foreigners are surprised by the Danish youth's use of alcohol and that they really do party on until morning.
Do not ever feel obligated to drink more than you wish to!
Most folk high schools have an alcohol policy and some schools forbid the use of alcohol during weekdays.
However the minimum age to buy tobacco is 18 years and to drive a car and get a vailddriving license is 18 years or older.
 



Hygge(Cosy) 

 'Hygge' is an important element of the Danish culture. The word is difficult to translate, but those seeking to grasp its meaning will quickly realize that it is closely associated with having a good time together with friends or family and with eating and drinking.
 
Humor
 
Humor is another essential element. To many Danes, humor and irony are closely linked. Understanding this irony is an important part of understanding the Danish mentality.You might sometimes find that it is easy to misunderstand Danes during a conversation due to the excessive use of irony. In those situations, you should not be afraid to ask.Self-irony is also a big part of the Danish mentality, so if you feel that a Danish person might be trying to make fun of you, it is most likely not the case at all. In these situations, you also should not be afraid to ask either, and hopefully, you will be able to laugh at the situation.


Denmark took the top spot on the United Nation's World Happiness Report, 2013 & 2014 & 2016 and came in third in the 2015 report
27 Reasons why denmark are the happiest people on earth

Here comes the funny reason



There is even a coca cola Denmark flag commercial you can search for, if you want to see it 

There is more about Denmark and us Danes,  but i will stop now hehe.

[EroticUdyr]

Hey!
I'm from Norway!
I want to start of by saying we're probably some of the worst people in existence! ^^
Here's why:

#1. Oil - The money we gained from finding oil in Nordsjøen spoiled us. Now that the oil is pretty much redundant, we're struggling with finding new ways of supporting our immense resource consumption. Also all this money has pretty much gone to our heads and the idea of having a lot of money has stuck as some sort of privilege to a lot of us, and of course we're not privileged!

#2. Cold hearted - While the nation is very divided on this topic, I'd still say we're pretty cold hearted. Especially towards immigrants, this is of course also related to our mentioned "privilege". Though, I don't want to shame us all - there are a lot of kindhearted norwegians as well. You're just gonna have to lure them out.... with some really smelly fish or something, I dunno.

#3. "Russen" - This is the graduating class of highschool in Norway. These kids are awful! Of course not everywhere, but since it's worse in the bigger cities - you can pretty much expect them to be a fucking menace. I was "russ" myself ofc (if you want to hear about that shit, feel free to ask. I got a few stories to tell). Thing is, these kids get their parents to fund their buses. That's not the worst though, but when the buses cost up to 3 million NOK, I'd say it's pretty crazy. Especially when these kids don't get their buses insured and it goes up in flames.

I'm pretty sure I have more more things to mention to make you hate every single one of us. ^^

But! I have also some fun cultural stuff to mention besides the negative ones.
For example, we like to see our nation as the "younger sibling" of both Denmark and Sweden.
This is basically because after the black plague (which wiped half of us out at that time) Sweden and Denmark pretty much took our lands as their own. We're still kinda salty about that, therefore we like to celebrate every single time we beat them... in basically anything.
This feud is mostly directed towards Sweden, since that's the only country of those two who's given us any attention back related to this.
Though, I really doubt they give as many fucks about it as we do. Cus we're known givers of fucks about this.

I am not sure if this is known or not outside of Scandinavia, but we norwegians swear and curse a lot. This isn't something I've given much thought, since I've been this way my whole fucking life. But! When I noticed how rarely my non-norwegian friends cursed, it sort of occured to me. Ofc, not everyone is like me (du-uh), but you can look at it this way: The further north in Norway = More swearing and cursing.
At the top of Norway, you can basically forget trying to translate the swearing because it won't make any sense in your language (and that's for certain). 

As mentioned earlier, northerners curse more than southerners. This is because northerners are fundamentaly more angry and a LOT more grumpy. Though this is also were you'll most likely find the more kindhearted norwegians. Southerners don't have time to be angry and grumpy. They're busy counting their money, being condescending and pretentious. A stereotype is that they like acting posh, when they're not actually wealthier than anyone else, in any way.

We have another "form" of norwegian as well, called "Nynorsk" which translates to "new-norwegian". It sucks, it's confusing and it's a fucking headache. People who speak this language have ordered a one-way ticket to hell. This "language" mostly originates from the southwestern parts of Norway.

Norwegians don't like norwegians!
We have tons of jokes about danes and swedes (none about Icelanders, we love them too much) because we like swedes and we mostly like danes, even though we don't understand shit of what they're saying.
BUT! If you hear a norwegian trashtalk about other norwegians, he/she ain't fucking joking. Nope, we don't joke around when it comes to our hatred towards our fellow countrymen.

There are few positive things to say about my people, but the country itself is beautiful.
Here have some pictures. 

 

Sorry for the giant post! I'm pretty sure I have more stuff to mention, but this'll do for now.
Don't be afraid of asking though, if you wish. ^^

[Cath]

Damn! It would have helped me back in high school!

[Vrook]

ROMANIA

Seeing all the beautiful posts regarding the multitude of cultures present on this forum, I thought that is nice to share something about my country too. Hoping that you'll enjoy my little rant, there it begins.

First of all: Short history, and how Romania came to be

At first, in the space bordered by the Black Sea in South-East, the future Russian Empire at the North, the plain known as Panonia at West and the Danube river at the South, were the Daccians. Our ancestors, which arised the curiosity of the Roman Empire, which was in full expansion.

So, as how the Romanians came to be.

During the Roman Emperor Traian reign, there were two wars which led to the birth of Romanian people.

The first war, between 101-102

As Decebal, the leader of the Daccians, became a threat for the Roman Empire, Traian decided to declare war against Daccians. After a hard battle, with many casualties, a peace treaty was signed between Decebal and Traian, with the purpose to fortify the Daccians against further Northern invasions. But as Decebal used this oportunity to strenghten the people against the Roman, the second war, and the one that concluded the birth of Romanian people, emerged.

The second war, between 105-106

After the peace treaty failed, the Romans marched once again against the Daccians, this time for the final time. Following the heavy battles, and the fall of the Dacia capital, Sarmisegetuza, Decebal fled to the mountains, where he commited suicide, rather than to be captured by the Roman pursuers. 

Following this war, Dacia became a Roman province, lead by the Emperor, through a local governor.

Sarmisegetuza, the Dacian capital before the fall against the Roman Empire

But enough with the ancient history, let's go to some more appropiate times. Somewhere in the XV century.
And talk about a common language around Romania, and in the world also.

Yes, you guessed it. I'm talking about Dracula. Or Vlad Tepes, meaning the impaler.

Vlad Tepes, or Dracul, as he was borned, meaning the Dragon, was a Romanian leader, who ruled over Wallachia during XV century. 

Were did he took the name "Tepes" would you ask?

Well, during his ruling time, he was known as a honest lord, who didn't accepted the existence of thieves, beggars or corrupt officials, knew as "Boieri". So, the usual punishment for those crimes, were the cutting of the hand which commited the crime. And based on the severity of other crimes, punishment would have gone as further as the dismemberment of the guilty one.

But his favorite punishment, and the one that got his name, was impaling. Usually the one receiving this punishment were the so-called "Boieri" and the enemies.

And so, inspired by Vlad Tepes bloodthirst, and cruel punishments, Bram Stoker wrote the famous novel Dracula, which became a legend all over the world.

Ok, so we've talked about Dracula. What should I talk about next. Hmm. I know.

Nadia Comaneci

She was the Romanian gymnast, which, at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, obtained the first perfect Ten (10.00) in the history of Gymnastics.

But I'm sure she's well known already.

And people. How are we? How do we act? Hmm, let me think.

We Romanians are kind people, ready to help others when needed. But of course, there are people and people, like in all the countries.

But for most of the time, someone will be ready to help you if there is the need for it.

And in the country-side especially, the people are kind and ready to welcome everyone.

As for traditions. There are the usual Easter and Christmas ones, but during the year there are a lot of other ocassions in which the family gather for celebrating. Like Labor day, on 1st of May. At this moments, there will be a lot of eating and drinking, since we like this stuff.

But overall, we are kind and ready to welcome any new one to discover something about our land.

And there are a lot of things, which I will let you discover about Romania.

And now, I'll show you some pictures of our land.

    

I really hope you enjoyed this little story, and I'll be more than happy if you'll learn something about Romania.

Thank you for your time!

P.S. And yes, we also have one of the best roads in the world. The Transfagarasan!

[Hana]

Hey Vrookieee! Coming over for a visit... Would you give me a tour of Dracula's?

[Bansai]

I'm starting to get the Wikipedia vibes of these thread, so informative, so many pics

[Vrook]

(05-04-2016, 06:52 AM)Hana Wrote: Hey Vrookieee! Coming over for a visit... Would you give me a tour of Dracula's?

Sure thing! ; And also, I think I will make an edit of the post, forgot to mention the main purpose of the post, culture and tradition.

[Simple Tania]

OHHHH WOOWWW the transfagarasan road.... ohh god, amazing, all that curves to drift, it looks like a circuit, really astonishing...