# What are some things about your own culture you understand "foreigners" would find weird? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906 "2009-06-25T03:21:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/221 "2009-07-01T17:35:33Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Wait, is that all this is about now? Not intrinsic offensiveness, but just “It’s the wrong name”? Then this is downright stupid and the “zucchini/courgette” example is spot-on for illustrating why. I couldn’t even imagine someone being that anti-descriptivist as to fail to accept the legitimacy of mere variation in food names across countries; I assumed there must have been some extra element of “But that name is derogatory!” driving the hand-wringing. Never underestimate people’s ability to get angry over lack of recognition for their perceived ownership of something. And as a Philadelphian, let me just say that they’re called HOAGIES. We invented them. If you call them subs, we’ll come over there and kick your asses. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/222 "2009-07-01T17:48:08Z")
Bah! Heroes today, heroes tomorrow, heroes forever. North Jersey, what what! ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/223 "2009-07-01T17:56:21Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Never underestimate people’s ability to get angry over lack of recognition for their perceived ownership of something. Incidentally, I was just spurred to go looking at the edit history and discussion pages for the Wikipedia article on the “submarine sandwich” (aka, hoagie, hero, grinder, etc.), and, boy, oh boy, are you right… ---
**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/224 "2009-07-01T17:58:09Z")
It’s a SANDWICH. Why are you fancifying it up because you want a certain type of bread? It’s bread. It’s got stuff in it. Sandwich. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/225 "2009-07-01T18:03:20Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Incidentally, I was just spurred to go looking at the edit history and discussion pages for the Wikipedia article on the “submarine sandwich” (aka, hoagie, hero, grinder, etc.), and, boy, oh boy, are you right… That is, if you ignore the fact that baguettes have been served with meat and cheese in them in Europe for centuries… ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/226 "2009-07-01T18:11:35Z")
What’s the “that” in “That is, if you ignore”? I wasn’t saying **toadspittle** was right about the proper name (which I continue to mockingly maintain is “hero” [U-S-A! U-S-A!] and of course actually acknowledge can be any of a number of different regional terms); I was saying they were right about people getting angry over lack of recognition for their perceived cultural ownership of something, making needlessly hostile wars out of lexical variation, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/227 "2009-07-01T18:13:23Z")
_rechecks quoted text_ Oh. So you were. Boy, is my face red. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/228 "2009-07-01T19:23:48Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Or, horrors, if we used “Danish” to describe a pastry. Good point. From now on, I will ask for a “cheese Danish pastry.” Also, I will be sure to use the following full names at all times: French Kissing French vegetable slicing French bone exposing meat trimming technique (as opposed to Frenching, in all three cases) English billiard ball spin inducement Afghan knitted blanket Brazillian genital waxing procedure ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/229 "2009-07-01T19:35:58Z")
Actually Coyote is already used here for people. Coyotes are the folks who extort from illegal aliens to get them across the border. And much in the way Road apple and Prarie Pie are used, Coyote Fruit sounds to me like a shit from a smuggler in the middle of the desert. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/230 "2009-07-01T20:27:49Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Wait, is that all this is about now? Not intrinsic offensiveness, but just “It’s the wrong name”? Apparently so. The word “kiwi” is not considered offensive in other contexts, and several posters here have said they are only offended because non-New Zealanders stubbornly refuse to be corrected as to the “right” name for the fruit. > [@](#): > > \*Then this is downright stupid and the “zucchini/courgette” example is spot-on for illustrating why. I couldn’t even imagine someone being that anti-descriptivist as to fail to accept the legitimacy of mere variation in food names across countries; I assumed there must have been some extra element of “But that name is derogatory!” driving the hand-wringing. \*If “kiwi” were considered derogatory in other contexts then I’d be opposed to using it for the fruit myself. If some people took to calling the fruit formerly known as the Chinese gooseberry the “Chinaman gooseberry” or worse still the “Chink gooseberry” then I’d consider that offensive and would encourage the use of some name that didn’t include a racial slur. But “Kiwi” isn’t a slur, and if it were then sticking “-fruit” on the end wouldn’t seem like much of an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/231 "2009-07-01T21:47:44Z")
> [@Poor\_College\_Student](#): > > A few funny things from my foreign friends: > Germany: apparently “Why does a dog lick his balls?” is a common saying. That’s either a misunderstanding/mistranslation, or they were pulling your leg, because I’ve never heard that variant in Germany. Maybe they tried to translate the commonly used “Leck mich (am Arsch)” (lick my arse), which is similar to “fuck you/ bugger off”, but without the implied gratification to the other. Besides, it’s classical: it’s [a quote from Goethe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tz_von_Berlichingen#Goethe_and_the_famous_quote) in a historical play. (similar reputation and importance in German as Shakespeare for English) ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/232 "2009-07-01T21:57:17Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > [This is what Canadians call bacon.](http://blogchef.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/crispy_bacon_1.jpg) > > [This is what everyone else in the world calls Canadian bacon.](http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/canadianbacon.jpg) Only the english-speaking world, though: In German, these are Speck und Schinken, resprectevily. Though you get much more dishes with ham than with bacon - bacon roasted to a crisp is rare here. I also have a hard time understanding why Americans use the name of one Italian thing, [Peperoni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoncini) that means a vegetable bell pepper elsewhere, means a [kind of Salami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peperoni) instead, when Salamis already have their own name. I’ve been told that at least in the past, the great variety and popularity of “black” (what we call grey) bread in Germany (over 600 variants of bread!) is confusing to the French (and probably to most other people who only know that white-bread of the sponge-soft type.) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/233 "2009-07-01T22:05:51Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I don’t like to see kiwi juice when I visit the smoothy shop - I feel like asking where they got my blood from or whether the “juice” was squeezed from a live or dead kiwi. So that yellow stuff we put on hamburgers is made from real Americans!? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/234 "2009-07-01T22:19:54Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Eating Corn on the Cob. > > Zee German relations were a bit off-put by the fact we eat corn on the cob. ( Eating with your hands !!! it’s sooo very wrong!!!) and it is sweet corn. The few bits of corn I’ve had in german were blech. > > Corn is for the animals, apparently. Well, sweet corn = maize as vegetable hasn’t caught on much in Germany until recently. Among the older generation, it’s probably the bad experiences after WWII with the infamous mistranslation in BE/AE \*. The Italian dish of polenta is not widespread. So when farmers do grow corn, it’s a variant bred for lots of starch, either for feeding animals (high return) or lately for making plastic products (shopping bags, one-time-usable eating utensils) from the starch. Which means that the sweet variety is rare in the supermarket, therefore expensive, so few people buy it, which means there is little incentive for farmers to grow it etc. It has become a bit more popular as American custom for barbecuing, though, because it’s so easy. \*In case you don’t know the story: between 1945 and 1948, there was widespread hunger in Germany, and food had bought from abroad. So at one of the many conferences on what the Germans needed, the German representative said “Korn/Getreide”, meaning grain generally, to bake bread. The translator, thinking of BE, said “corn”. The British rep. thought of “wheat/grain generally” and nodded, because that made sense. The American rep. thought “corn=maize; we have already a surplus anyway, that the govt. bought from the farmers to help them, excellent!” and didn’t ask any questions. So the Germans hungry for bread … got chicken feed, golden corn that could be cooked for polenta, but not baked as bread, and which you got fed up with pretty quickly. > [@toadspittle](#): > > Really? Our (formerly East-)German friend was surprised that we COOKED sweet corn–she said that she and her mom generally just ate it raw. That must be a special East german custom, never heard of it. > [@](#): > > And she always laughed at the fact that we would look on in horror if she bought a piece of fruit from the market and started eating it on the spot, without first washing it. That sounds like a stereotypical joke about the East Germans - so desperate for any special food like veggies or fruits that they eat them raw and unwashed! I (West German) was always taught to wash fruits before eating, to remove the lead and manure and pesticides and wax and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![depocali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@depocali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/depocali)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/235 "2009-07-01T22:47:31Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > It’s annoying because we identify ourselves (by and large) as Kiwis. Kiwis are people. Fruit are not people. > > Somebody might say - “wow, Kiwis were cheap in the supermarket today” > So wow - now they are selling my compatriots from the local store? That’s not in the least annoying? > > And BTW - a fruit is “neutral” as you put it, but a people are not. What if I started calling molerats “ **Americans** ” - that wouldn’t be the least annoying to, ya know actual **Americans**? Well if we are going to argue about the sensitivities of 4 million Kiwis by hurting the sensiblilities of about 545 million people who are [Americans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_(word)) but not from the USA, well i guess there is a problem with your logic. (If you’re counting at home that is 360 million Latin Americans and about 185 million Brazilians). Martini, on the other hand has been very clear he is referring to US people and not Americans in general. So when you stop referring to the entire continent I’ll start calling it “la fruta del kiwi” or even better “grosella china”. ---
**Author:** ![depocali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@depocali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/depocali)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/236 "2009-07-01T22:53:34Z")
Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add my point, which is that language takes its own routes and not necessarily because of ignarance or malice. So although many in LatAm and Europe resent the term American referring to the US alone, reality is that it is the most common usage in English and very common in other languages, and so it is that a kiwifruit in most of the world (that is not NZ) is referred as a kiwi, you know what…shit happens. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/237 "2009-07-01T23:28:35Z")
That tears it. From here on out I’m going to start referring to all New Zealanders as [Kakapos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo). Just be thankful I passed on [Wetas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo) and [Tuataras](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuataras). ETA: Though if making a nasty epithet out of it, “filthy, sheep-chasing wetas” does flow better :p. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/238 "2009-07-01T23:37:14Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Only the english-speaking world, though: In German, these are Speck und Schinken, resprectevily. Though you get much more dishes with ham than with bacon - bacon roasted to a crisp is rare here. Not this part of the English speaking world. In the UK, Canadian bacon would be bacon that comes from Canada, nothing more complicated than that. That picture of ‘Canadian bacon’ looks like ham to me, and I doubt it’d be labelled bacon here. And the first picture is crispy bacon, which is only one way of cooking bacon - it’s not the definitive bacon, in the UK at least. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/239 "2009-07-02T00:42:43Z")
I just wanted to say that I don’t agree with **bengangmo** about the RoW use of ‘kiwi’ to mean the fruit. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906/240 "2009-07-02T01:09:20Z")
> [@depocali](#): > > Well if we are going to argue about the sensitivities of 4 million Kiwis by hurting the sensiblilities of about 545 million people who are [Americans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_(word)) but not from the USA, well i guess there is a problem with your logic. (If you’re counting at home that is 360 million Latin Americans and about 185 million Brazilians). Martini, on the other hand has been very clear he is referring to US people and not Americans in general. > > So when you stop referring to the entire continent I’ll start calling it “la fruta del kiwi” or even better “grosella china”. Seriously I feel your pain here, I almost brought up this self same argument that the term “American” was wrong to use for all sorts of reasons. Tell you what - When you give me a name to call United Statesians I will 100% use it. Because having been educated on this board I don’t like to use it due to its “sloppiness”. The little brown furry fruit with green innards however already has a perfectly cromulent name that somebody decided to shorten. It was / is Kiwifruit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-things-about-your-own-culture-you-understand-foreigners-would-find-weird/500906.md?page=13)