It’s a berry isn’t it?
Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers… and, of course, mangetout.
Vegetable is a culinary classification, not a botanical one.
In Czech, ice hockey (or “lední hokej”) is frequently referred to in conversation as simply “hokej.”
It even varies a lot from an area to another within the same country. I was brought up in a region where hunting is big, and popular. But in others, even in areas famous for their game, hunting is a rather upscale and costly hobby.
France has a peculiarity that helps understanding the difference. In part of the country, game is the property of the land-owner, like in the UK, and to hunt (on a specific land), you must pay high yearly fees. As a result, few people hunt, those who do are people with a rather high income and/or with a family tradition of hunting, and for a large part not even locals. In other regions, traditionnally, and even legally until 3-4 years ago, anybody can hunt on anybody’s land. There’s no way in practice (and, as I mentionned, even in law until recently) to prevent someone from killing game on your land. In these areas, hunting stayed a very popular activity, and everybody (at least everybody not living in a town) knows the first day of the hunt season, or boar season, etc…
So, since the french peculiarity of having diferent hunting laws for different regions is probably an oddity, I suspect that the popularity of this sport is highly dependant on the local laws in each country, hence of the affordability and practicality of hunting. I would note also another important an obvious factor : hunting requires tracks of uninhabited land. And western Europe has a very high population density. In this regard, the fact that France is mentionned as the country with the most hunters in your link isn’t surprising, since it has one of the lowest population density in Europe. So, the situation can’t be compared with the USA. The land to hunt on (and the game) just isn’t there in most of Europe.
On an unrelated issue, comments about things like litterature, talk-shows, sports, etc… made me think that a difference should probably be made in this thread between english-speaking and non-english speaking countries, since in the latter, people are much less likely to be familiar with, or even aware of american “cultural stuff” (ranging from famous authors to TV show hosts).
A last thing, already mentioned by a poster, since I’ve been many time tempted to ask about this in “cafe society” : comics. Even though the american-style comics (Marvel or such) can be found here, they aren’t popular (mangas way more so), while on the other hand what a frenchman thinks of when you refer to comics (or what I have on my bookshelves) seems to be unheard of in the USA (I’m not refering to specific titles, but to the kind of comics, what it looks like, what it talks about, what public it is intended for, etc). Or a least, I never ever see something similar discussed about in “cafe society”, and it’s the reason why I envisionned asking in CS if the concept even existed in the USA.
Danes are quite famous for displaying their flag everywhere. I’m not sure if it’s the same in any other european country (with the exception of international soccer games, during which flags seem to come out of nowhere by the dozens).
I was in Aruba last month, and was surprised to see the number of cars flying tiny Aruban flags. Perhaps its their way of saying “I’m not a tourist! Don’t hit me!”
Over here, maple syrup is completely associated with Canada. I suspect that only three things are well known here about Canada : the country produces snow, maple syrup and Quebecois.
I don’t think anybody would even suspect that american people eat it.
Note that though the stuff is famous, it’s essentially never consumed here, and difficult to find.
You can, but in the USA cheese made with non-pasteurized milk must be aged for a certain duration (several months, I think), which of course restrict the sales to some categories of cheese (you couldn’t sell the crude milk equivalenty of a camembert, for instance).
The same in Poland. If you say simply “hokej” it’s understood as “hokej na lodzie” (ice hockey). If you mean the other kind you need to specify that it’s “hokej na trawie”. I remember when I was a wee puppy middle-schooler and our P.E. teacher made us play field hockey once. Reaction of most of us (me included) was “you can play it without ice?!?”. Most of us never even heard about it. It was decade and a half ago. Meanwhile field hockey had some publicity, and nowadays it’s more popular, but ice hockey still gets priority.
I believe graphic novels exist in the US, and enjoy a certain amount of popularity, though smaller than the superhero comics you mention, and the comic strips that are published in newspapers (Peanuts, Garfield, and the like). This is probably due to the different way the comic publishing industry developed in the US compared to France and Belgium. Still, as far as I know most of the famous European bandes dessinées first appeared either in newspapers or in specialized comic journals, which doesn’t strike me as essentially different from the way comics are published in the US. Maybe you should start this thread; I’d be very interested to hear explanations for this difference.
It is both.
A vegetable is any edible part of a plant, such as a root (potato), a stem (celery), a leaf (lettuce), a flower (broccoli), a seed (kidney bean), or a fruit (apple).
On the other hand, in common parlance, we make a distinction between those things we call “vegetables,” and those we call by other names, such as fruits, herbs, beans, etc.
So all fruits are vegetables, and some fruits are generally called “fruits” and some are generally called “vegetables.”
Oh yes, I do. I also believed the fortune is null and void if you don’t eat the cookie. that can be a good thing because some cookies just screw with you (“Your funeral will be well attended”).
100% true story: My wife, young daughter and I went to a Chinese buffet a little less than 3 years ago. My wife’s fortune cookie said “You can expect a new addition to your life.” After dinner, we stopped by the closest drug store and bought a pregnancy test. It turned out positive but my wife was only a few weeks along. Little Olivia will turn two in six weeks.