Other cultures than American, for a change...

[Sandy]

I noticed that there is so many threads about USA, it's culture, customs, politics etc. that the others are getting very ignored. (no offence to our American members ;) )

So, this thread is for people to tell about what's going on in their countries, because it interests me, for one, and many others too, I think.

[B]Okay, I live in Finland, so let me tell some news from here.[/B]

The parliamental elections are approaching, and the present opposition (green party and "countryside"-party) is very likely to make it to the government, because the present government has screwn up few times too many.

The economical situation of the capital-area is very concerning: there are several fancy buildings rising to the central Helsinki, but at the same time people are getting fired in hundreds from healthcare. and education-sections. Really tough!

Unemployment is rather high here, especially in the south, and nobody does anything to it! You can say that the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.

Fall is falling after a looong hot summer, which is very awful, since I'm a summerchild.;) Can you believe that less than a month ago we had almost 25 degrees celcius, and now it's barely 10! Well, there has to be winter so summer can come again.


That's concludes the quick newsflash from Finland. I'd love to hear what's new in YOUR country, so do post!:D

[Rain]

[size=1][color=blue][b]News from Australia[/b]

Ok, lets see. Lots of talk about whether or not to go to war against Iraq with America.
Asylum (sp?) seekers keep on arriving here and complaining about how we treat them. Personally I think we must be treating them better than the country they came from but I don't want to start an argument or offend someone so I'll leave my opinions out of this. Umm...I can't really think of anything else, thats just the main stuff, someone else can fill in what I left out if they want.
Oh yeah, and it's spring here, we had kind of a dry winter (well we did in WA). They were worried about the water level in our dams and we might need water restrictions. So no more 15 minute showers for me:p
Well, thats all from me[/size][/color]

[Red]

[b]England: Weird weather, it's actually been quite warm over the past few weeks, for once..
Tony Blair just published his much criticised dossier on why England and America (along with other EU countries) should do something about "the terrible situation in Iraq".
This is about the biggest two sided debate England's leaders have had in a while..[/b]

[Kent]

Id like to hear some about germany. They have made a good number of people in the states listen up.

It seems their pm. (i think that is the head gov. postion there) won his recent election in a complete turn-around victory after using a harsh stance in support of the anti-war, anti-america crowd.

Has anyone else heard about the way things are in germany?
Is anyone on the boards from germany?

[Transtic Nerve]

Probably the reason we don't get talk about more cultures (ie: European, other than Britain, and the likes) is because we don't have any or many people from that area. Like, only a few of us talk abotu Japanese culture, but most of us are from America, England, or Aussie-ville. So yeah...

[Roxie Faye]

[color=indigo]I also think the reason most members are either American, English, or Australian, is that this board is an ENGLISH SPEAKING board. Yes, some members like Sage are very good at English and are from a non-English speaking country, but on these boards, that's a REALLY small percentage.[/color]

[Sui Generis]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]Probably the reason we don't get talk about more cultures (ie: European, other than Britain, and the likes) is because we don't have any or many people from that area. Like, only a few of us talk abotu Japanese culture, but most of us are from America, England, or Aussie-ville. So yeah... [/B][/QUOTE]


Speaking of Japan I wish someone would please talk about them...Whats going on in Japan I would love to hear about it.l. Oh well. Yeah I agree there are alot of people that live in America. I wish it was more culturaly diverse (no offense to my fellow Americans) but I am truly sick of listening about America too!

[Na'dou]

I wanna learn about Japan too...My digiobsession has made it where I want to learn the language Japanese, but sadly...there's no one to teach it...:bawl:

[zidane11]

I'm in usa so there isn't much to say but I do think that a lot of this is interesting.

You did make a point at the beginning, "I noticed that there is so many threads about USA, it's culture, customs, politics etc."
This is pretty much just another one of those threads and I'm about to stop reading them all together. There's to much polotics and stuff. At least you tried changing it for once.

[Guest SunRiZe]

This is how [B] New Zealand [/B] Culture works.

In New Zealand, there are 2 main languages, European Engliash, and Maori. The Maori (maou-ree) are A very proud people. They have meeting houses which they call Marae's. (ma-ries) and the nation is split up into tribes, or Iwi (e-wee) Ngai Tahu, (nigh-tahoo) and Ngati Whatua (nartea-fartua) are the only ones I can think of at the moment, maybee some other NZ members can help with that.

Our native icon is the Endangered Kiwi (key-wee) It's a large, flightless bird with a very long beak and it is nocturnal.

Oh and over here we are absoulutely mad about the All Blacks, our national Rugby team, for those who don't know, rugby is a game similar to America Football (in a way). We're more recently congratulating our Basketball team for doing so well in the world champ's. we're quite a sporting Nation, you'll see that with our dedication to Rugby, Basketball, Cricket, and the America's cup, which we hold, sorry america :p .

I live in a province (state) called canterbury, and a city called Christchurch (named that because our city is built around a Anglican Cathedral) Other places of interes are capital city Wellington and our most populated city, Auckland. aslo the amazing deep south with Otago, our university city, with it's Out - spoken student's or "scarfies."

New zealand is fine! come chek us out sometime!

[Mnemolth]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by DuoGod of Death [/i]
[B]Speaking of Japan I wish someone would please talk about them...Whats going on in Japan I would love to hear about it.l. Oh well. Yeah I agree there are alot of people that live in America. I wish it was more culturaly diverse (no offense to my fellow Americans) but I am truly sick of listening about America too! [/B][/QUOTE]

Disclaimer: I vouch FOR NOTHING in the following opinion. Read at your own risk. :D

Well, Japan is an odd country.

The Japanese language is significantly influenced by Chinese. Though just don't mention this to any Japanese people. They'll chuck a huge ruckus. Many, many hundreds of years ago, Japan did have a language, but they had no scripts. So they adapted some of the characters from the Chinese language. I think they're called 'kanji' now. If you're fluent in Chinese you can make out plenty of words in Japanese writing.

The other Japanese character sets are Katakana and Hiragana. The Japanese also use the Roman alphabet to communicate with Westerners, this is the Romanji, its basically a phonetic construct of the Japanese language.

The Japanese are also an extremely insular and homogenous society. Much more so than say any of the countries most of us come from, the US, UK, Canada or even Australia. Something in the order of 95-98 per cent of Japanese are of the same 'ethnicity'. Its a monoculture society. But there are a group of 'indigenous' Japanese. I think they consist something like 2% of the population. These are the Ainu. They are now restricted to the north of Japan, Hokkaido. They are basically you're hunter gatherers. A lot like the Eskimos of America. Sometimes the Japanese refer to them as 'dojin'. Its not very nice but you get the idea.

The homogeneity of Japan is legendary. Its hard to find many countries where 95-98 per cent of the population share the same customs and culture.

This can create problems as well have its advantages. It means the Japanese have a very strong sense of identity. his helps them to do things like rebuild after WWII. It also means uniformity and lack of change as things have a tendency to remain the same, very people want to break the mould. In Japan, people don't really want to be different, they want to be the same.

It may also explain why its so tough to get Japanese citizenship. Unlike many countries in the world, in Japan, you basically have to be born there to gain citizenship. Its not enough that you may have been living there and working there for many many years. If you marry a Japanese girl and you two have a baby, the baby can get Japanese citizenship but you can't. ;) There are exceptions of course.

The Japanese economy today is a mess. Its been in recession for more than a decade. The stock market is now worth half as much as it was 10 years ago. Its still struggling to come to terms with the excesses of the 1980s when Japan almost looked like it would overcome the US economy.

The problem with the Japanese economy is many, the most pressing problem now is money. The banks have huge amounts of bad debts on their books they have yet to offload. The thing is Japan has a complicated and interelated industrial structure that makes change difficult. The banks are cosy with business which is cosy with the government, and it goes down to small medium size companies. It is a structure that worked well after WW2, it allowed long term planning, but it is now a structure in need of a revolution. And no one in Japan seems to know what to do. The Japanese political system is so full of patronage, there really aren't many leaders who could shake themselves from the influence of certain interests. A crunch is coming, and since Japan, even in its sick state, remains the biggest investor in South East Asia (its bigger than all the other economies in the area combined!), the reckoning that will come when Japan goes under will be devastating.

Oh, and Japan is one of the few countries in the world with an actual communist party that's not a complete joke (I think they consistently poll around 10%).

But enough with the politics and economics. :rolleyes:

Culture wise, the national religion is Shintoism. Its the religion of the royal family. Under this religion, the Emperor is deemed to be divine. But that was changed after WW2. About 26 young American lawyers, under the supervision of McCarthur, wrote the Japanese constitution. Embedded in this constitution was a VERY strong protection of the right to freedom o religion (this was made cos it was thought that it would help weaken the Emperor to a figurehead). It has the side-effect today of delaying action against 'cults' as they claim themselves to be religions.

The popularity of cults in Japan is also a by-product of a very uniform society under significant stress, and with many of the young spiritually devoid.

In Japan, many of the youth, like elsewhere in the world I guess but probably more so, don't believe in anything. They will celebrate Xmas and such (Xmas is actually a 'romantic' kinda holiday for young Japanese couples, go figure), and they'll have white weddings, but they're not Christians. They just like the ceremony. The Japanese LOVE ceremony.

About Japanese youth...

They have a coming-of-age ceremony at 20. That's the legal age in Japan. Its not 18 or 21, its 20.

In Japan is REALLY REALLY hard to get into university, or at least a decent university. That's why many of them have private tuition in high school. The top university in Japan is probably Tokyo University (not to be confused with Tokyo Metropolitan Unversity). But once you're in Uni, the courses are a LOT easier.

The young in Japan are shrinking. With better medicine and care, people are living elsewhere, and people are having fewer children, this is happening everywhere in the developed world, but in Japan is almost getting to a crises stage.

Few young people = Less working people = less tax revenue for government => but more old people means government needs MORE money...crunch!

Which is why so many people in Japan are saving, cos they are afraid of losing their jobs and also for retirement. Only problem is since so much is put in savings and no one is spending, it just makes the economy even more sick!

Tid bits about Japanese girls:

- They like cute things. I've never meet a bigger bunch of people so obssessed with cuteness.

- They like 'fun'. Love is really only an idea. Esp if the girl is young (less than 20). A BF is more of a status symbol than a relationship. Its about presents and being treated like a princess, etc, etc. Yes this applies to most people, just seems to me more so to J-girls.

- many of the'older' J-girls now are refusing to marry and often stay at home. They are referred to as 'Single Parasites'.

About manga and anime...

Its a 'relatively' new phenomenon. Its really only about 50 years or so old. It really only took off after WW2. Unlike the idea of comics in the West, to the Japanese comics is just another medium to express themselves, they don't see it as a child's preoccupation. In fact, many government pamphlets and brochures about the law, or any civil matter, have comics in it to show as an example. You'd be hard to press to find it as common in the UK, US, or Australia (there are some of course, esp those targeted as kids but on the general no, its thought of as childish and immature)

Most Japanese girls can draw a cartoon or two.

What else?

The Japanese have a tendency to be fatalistic in nature. It may be due to the fact that their island is prone to major disasters, but many of them have an outlook on life far from rosy, but that doesn't stop them from BEING rosy! ;)

Oh, and in case many of you aren't aware, the sexual appetite of the Japanese is large and diverse....erm....that's all I'm gonna say about that...:)

The Japanese LOVE baths. Esp the old. Its like a tradition. Steam baths and bath houses are very popular. It can be a bit of a problem. Studies have suggested there's some link from hot baths and sudden deaths. May have something to do with the large differential in temperature from winter japan outside and the hot steaming water inside.

Hm....what else?

Gah...I've been rambling too long...so I'll quit now. :D

And no I've never ever set foot in Japan. So if anyone feels obliged to correct any of the above, please feel free to do so. :)

[Roxie Faye]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mnemolth [/i]
[B]Disclaimer: I vouch FOR NOTHING in the following opinion. Read at your own risk. :D

The Japanese economy today is a mess. Its been in recession for more than a decade. The stock market is now worth half as much as it was 10 years ago. Its still struggling to come to terms with the excesses of the 1980s when Japan almost looked like it would overcome the US economy.

The problem with the Japanese economy is many, the most pressing problem now is money. The banks have huge amounts of bad debts on their books they have yet to offload. The thing is Japan has a complicated and interelated industrial structure that makes change difficult. The banks are cosy with business which is cosy with the government, and it goes down to small medium size companies. It is a structure that worked well after WW2, it allowed long term planning, but it is now a structure in need of a revolution. And no one in Japan seems to know what to do. The Japanese political system is so full of patronage, there really aren't many leaders who could shake themselves from the influence of certain interests. A crunch is coming, and since Japan, even in its sick state, remains the biggest investor in South East Asia (its bigger than all the other economies in the area combined!), the reckoning that will come when Japan goes under will be devastating.

Oh, and Japan is one of the few countries in the world with an actual communist party that's not a complete joke (I think they consistently poll around 10%).

But enough with the politics and economics. :rolleyes:
[/B][/QUOTE]

[color=indigo]True. I'm not quite sure, but maybe some of this has to do, still, with the poor economy, and basically the Asian "crash" in '97-98, that, I know, at least, affected South Eastern Asia and China. I'm not sure if it affected Japan, but I think so. My dad lost his job then, partially 'cuz of the "crash" and because of his age.

You see, in the Thai government, there is no insurance, or anything for when you get older and your retired. In the Thai culture, when a parent grows old, the children must care for the parent. Now, I'm not saying that they live with their parents, but every month, when a pay check comes, they send some of that money to their parents. So, naturally, usually, when people get old, like around 50, they get fired from their job, or retire or whatever.

The Thai language is a very tonal one. They have words in which you hold it longer, and others where you make the words shorter. There is a normal, middle, voice, a lower voice, and a higher voice. There is also a falling tone and a rising tone. I have an entire book(it's got 242 pages in it and it's 8.25 in. wide, 11.75 in. in height, and 1.2 in. thick) on the Thai language, but I'll save you to boring stuff. ;)

The first thing you hear in Thailand may be, "pai nai?"( pai is said with the middle tone, and short. Nai is rising short) which, literally means "go-where?" or, gramatically correct, Where are you going?

Most Thai people have a one-sylable nick name. My Stepmom's, for instance, is Ouan(rising short), which means, "fat". Oddly enough, she's not fat in the slightest. More underweight than anything. She's also a professional make-up artist. I dunno about the rest of Asia, but I know that Japan and Thailand, many, many girls want to be professional make-up artists. My sister has a friend, who's from Japan, and she just graduated from college last year, so she's back in Japan, probably working as a make-up artist(since that's what she studied. Though, how would going to Vassar help you with that? Don't answer that).

The eight most commonly used words in Thai are dee(mid long), sa(mid short)-nook(low short)(the full word is sa-nook), a(mid short)-roi(low long)(a-roi is the full word), suay(rising long), phaeng(mid long), ao(mid short), mee(mid long), and chawp(falling long). Respectively, those words mean: good, fun, delicious, beautiful, expensive, to want, to have, to like. Make your own judgments by this. ^_~

Well, that's enough ranting for today. Gosh, now I sound like Siebold. AH!!!!!!![/color]

[Rain]

[size=1][color=blue]Gee Mnemolth, you love long posts don't you?:p Nah, I'm just kidding you. Long posts are better than one word posts (or no posts at all).

Anyway, to get back on topic...
Just thought I'd tell everyone that the AFL (Australian Football League) grand final was today (I had a post about this a few days ago but I thought it would be relevant to post it in here) and the Brisbane Lions won:D! They beat Collingwood by nine points. Thats good cause I wanted Brissy to win. I'd rather the West Coast Eagles had won but they weren't in it...ANYWAY, thats all from me.

BTW, I just thought I'd add that Aussie football isn't the same as American football...I'd explain it to you but I don't know to much about the rules of the game, I only know which teams I like and don't like:p...so, yeah.[/size][/color]

[Duo Maxwell]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mnemolth [/i]
[B]The Japanese language is significantly influenced by Chinese. Though just don't mention this to any Japanese people. They'll chuck a huge ruckus. Many, many hundreds of years ago, Japan did have a language, but they had no scripts. So they adapted some of the characters from the Chinese language. I think they're called 'kanji' now. If you're fluent in Chinese you can make out plenty of words in Japanese writing.
[/B][/QUOTE]

This is true, my chinese teacher had a conversation with a japanese boy by just writing (this is in their own language).

In South Astralia its been pretty cold, and we've had plenty of rain. I'm dreading The Ashes, (no offence to you cricket fans but the only time cricket is fun is when your playng it) Bathurst is soon isn't it? its about the only motor sport I'll watch.
but Sayian_Monkey has already covered any major issues that I can think of. . . wait this just in bushwhacked is a stupid movie

[Delian]

Well here's more news from Australia

It's not even Summer yet and bush fires have already started. We already have fire bans, and soon we'll be having to watch the news to see if we are allowed to have a barbeque or not, not to mention having to restrict our water use. This is just in NSW. Great, when Summer comes, so will the ashes and smoke blowing into our backyards.

Otherwise, Summer in Sydney is just great!!!

[sailor stardust]

we have exchange students from Hong Kong and Egypt at my school, but ya know, I can't talk to them,I only speak english and a bit of german

Hallo,mine name ist lauren

[James]

[color=royalblue]Hard to tell that you speak English by that post. lol

Please clean up your spelling/punctuation etc etc...

Speack? o_O;;[/color]

[Mnemolth]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Saiyan_monkey [/i]
[B][size=1][color=blue]Gee Mnemolth, you love long posts don't you?:p Nah, I'm just kidding you. Long posts are better than one word posts (or no posts at all).

Anyway, to get back on topic...
Just thought I'd tell everyone that the AFL (Australian Football League) grand final was today (I had a post about this a few days ago but I thought it would be relevant to post it in here) and the Brisbane Lions won:D! They beat Collingwood by nine points. Thats good cause I wanted Brissy to win. I'd rather the West Coast Eagles had won but they weren't in it...ANYWAY, thats all from me.

BTW, I just thought I'd add that Aussie football isn't the same as American football...I'd explain it to you but I don't know to much about the rules of the game, I only know which teams I like and don't like:p...so, yeah.[/size][/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

Well you know what they say, the older you get the longer you tend to crap on....;)

I usually don't post as often as I have lately. I normally go through an entire year with less than 100 posts, but you've all been fortunate enough to have caught me in an active period. ;)

As for Aussie Rules, bah humbug, WHAT RULES?? :D :D :D

But its great for chicks to watch. Big, strong atheletic hunks in tight shorts and sleeveless shirts, running about like some gladiators and flying through the air like Jordan. Plenty of swoon material....not exactly bishie type...hey, you can't have everything! :)

[Duo Maxwell]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mnemolth [/i]
[B]But its great for chicks to watch. Big, strong atheletic hunks in tight shorts and sleeveless shirts, running about like some gladiators and flying through the air like Jordan. Plenty of swoon material....not exactly bishie type...hey, you can't have everything! :) [/B][/QUOTE]

hunks? they're all like how old? you can't say you don't watch it for the half-time show, most og those dancing chicks are pretty, but still HUNKS? never in my life will I have a crush on a footy player

[Rain]

[color=blue][size=1]Very true, Duo. I too will never have a crush on a footy player. I prefer animated guys:D...uh, I'm going off topic a bit aren't I?[/size][/color]

[Duo Maxwell]

yeah, but animated guy's are really cute so I hear where your coming from.
another thing in australia, phychotic fangirl goes on a rampage and shashes computeres everywhere cause she hates pop-ups! okay so that didn't really happen. . .

[Rain]

[color=blue][size=1]Dang. That would have been funny if it really happened. Oh yeah, Aussie kids get school holidays for 2 weeks!:D But then they go and have a long weekend during the school holidays. What a waste. I'd like to find the person who organised that[/color][/size]

[Juu]

[color=deeppink] [size=1]^^ I thought I might as well drop in some news on Korea as well...

[b]Korea:[/b] Flooding is starting to clear, but leaving some farmlands severely damaged. Dwontown seoul is recovering from the storm, although they are still facing some unusual weather..

Blah... I forgot all the news my dad told me... I'll edit this post in a lil bit when he gets home... ^^'[/color] [/size]