Questions about other countries than US

[4ever]

Can I share a little bit about New Zealand?

New Zealand is located about 2,000 km (1250 miles) southeast of Australia across the Tasman Sea and is made up of three main Islands. It is not part of Australia.
It has a total land area of 268,021 square kilometres (103,483 sq mi) which is just slightly less than Japan and Italy but more than the UK. This rather large area is home to a population of just 4.35million people, which is about the same as the population of Sydney Australia.
Wellington is the capitol city but Auckland is the largest city with 1/3 the population living here. It is also about the third largest city area wise in the world.

The climate differs greatly as it is such a long narrow country, from tropical conditions up north in the summer to a whole lot of snow down south in the winter. This diversity in climate and topography (as well as a good exchangerate for the US) has made it a popular filming location as well as tourist destination.

We have three official languages, Maori, English and NZ sign language.
New Zealand was first settled by Maori, maybe as long as 2000 years ago, but became a British colony and was settled by Brittish and other europen migrants from the 1840''s.

The New Zealand culture, from my experience, is a mixture of a variety of influences. The influence of Maori culture, the influence of Brittish culture from the European settlers and recently American culture because of the avalibility and dominance of American media. As a people New Zealanders are pretty chilled out with a "she''ll be right" attitude, which just means no wories, everything will work out ok.

I''m notsure what else to say except our small population and relitive remotness means we''re usually one of the last of the developed countires to get new technologys and products which can be a tad anoying. We STILL don''t have an Ikea!

lol

 

[Echidna]

Date: 1/24/2010 7:32:59 PM
Author: 4ever

I''m notsure what else to say except our small population and relitive remotness means we''re usually one of the last of the developed countires to get new technologys and products which can be a tad anoying. We STILL don''t have an Ikea!

lol

You may not have an Ikea yet, but you DO have one of the coolest accents ever to make up for it! Every time I see a tourism campaign for New Zealand I want to hurl myself on a plane immediately!

Sending big love from across the ditch

 

[noelwr]

Porridge - roundabouts are indeed confusing... even if you''re driving an automatic. I think I would really mess up driving in the UK. I don''t remember seeing many roundabouts in South Africa.

we only have one Starbucks in Holland and it is located at the airport. we do have IKEA. I love the Swedish meatballs there. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[radiantquest]

I am loving this thread! Thank you so much everyone. I also love the Australian accent. I like all accents. They should make accent CDs. You can get those Rosetta Stone CDs that teach you a new language, why can''t they make accent CDs. I would give DH and Australian accent. I think I would either chose Spanish, French or Italian and I would sound all sexy

 

[zoebartlett]

This is so interesting!

Hey Princesss, did you hear the term "road humps" before you moved down here, or were they just called "speed bumps?" I''ve always called them the latter, and I laughed hysterically when I heard someone refer to them as road humps. It''s so funny how the same things have several names.

 

[katebar]

As today January 26th is Australia Day and a national holiday I will chime in.
We definitely go to the left in supermarkets.
We call drinking and driving Drink Driving or DUI. Interestingly our legal limit is under 0.05 but I believe some states of the USA it is 0.08.
Just about every shop, doctors surgery really any public building has automatic doors. I was blown away when we went to the USA and you had to open the door to get into Saks, Macys etc.
In the capital city of my state Brisbane some crossing have 4 ways to cross up down and diagonal I don''t think anywhere else in Australia has this.
That''s it for now

 

[Porridge]

It was a good idea for a thread RQ!

Mrs Mitchell v cool that you're Scottish! You win the best accent, hands down. I had a blast at Hogmanay a few weeks ago!!

4ever - I have a friend from Hamilton, and she can't stand Aukland! A little green eyed monster I imagine

I'm trying to think of other bits of info...come up with some more questions RQ!! Oooh, here's one: Ireland has had a female president since 1990. Our presidential term is 7 years, and they can serve two terms. We're on our second female president.
Oh, and we're a neutral country. Our army does peacekeeping missions. And a lot more. It just doesn't partake in wars.

 

[Delster]

Porridge already answered all the questions for good ol'' Ireland but I can answer one more:

YES if you drive on the left you instinctively walk on the left, and instinctively overtake other pedestrians on the right! I used to work in a big US company that had a canteen block separate from the offices and I was constantly bashing into people on the walk to and from. Used to crack my colleagues up!!!

 

[Porridge]

Date: 1/25/2010 6:03:28 PM
Author: Delster
and instinctively overtake other pedestrians on the right!

Haha oh yeah, whatever about roundabouts, overtaking in countries that drive on the right is TERRIFYING!

 

[yssie]

I used to live in Wellington

When we first moved to US the first thing I noticed on the way home from the airport was how many trucks there are on the roads here! A few years we went back to NZ and everything seemed so small - the roads (which are always banked extrememly well, something US roads could take note of!) the scale of buildings... and I learnt that I've gotten very used to everything being open on Sundays.

 

[princesss]

Date: 1/24/2010 6:46:59 PM
Author: Porridge

Date: 1/24/2010 4:15:28 PM

Author: elrohwen

Porridge, I think I''ve found the answer to the color/colour dilemma.



The British adopted the -our spelling from the French (during the Norman conquest) - it had been -or or -ur before that, from Latin. They also began using -re for words like centre because of French influence. In America, Noah Webster believed that creating a unified language for the new country would help bring it together, so he took it upon himself to change spellings and make them more simple and phonetic. He changed colour to color, centre to center, gaol to jail, and many other things (some stuck, some didn''t).



As for -ise vs -ize, it seems that both are correct in British English and Oxford English actually prefers the -ize ending. However, Webster chose the -ize ending for American English and the British move to mostly -ise may have been a counter-reaction to the new popularity of American English spelling. It seems that, originally, -ize was associated with words of a Greek origin while -ise was associated with words of a Latin or French origin.



I love linguistics

That''s so interesting Elrohwen! I did notice the centre/center thing before, but never made the connection. I wonder will English spelling unify at some point, or will they continue to simplify spellings with the rising popularity of text messaging etc.


Probably doesn''t matter all that much as we''ll more than likely all be speaking Chinese by then anyway

Wait, so is "gaol" pronounced the same way "jail" is? I''ve been struggling with that for YEARS!

 

[TheDoctor]

Date: 1/24/2010 6:18:19 AM
Author: noelwr
regarding driving on the right in the U.S., seems like they would haul farm products on horse-pulled wagons that allowed drivers to sit either on the left or right. they sat on the left, and thus preferred other wagons (on-coming) to pass on the left. but it also sounds like that in different part of the States, people were driving on different sides of the road. also, cars had the wheel on the right until the 1900s.

has anyone ever driven stick-shift on the other side? I''ve always rented an automatic in SA, Australia, etc, because it seems difficult enough trying to change gears with my left hand and keeping up with traffic in another country. so now the main problem I have is remembering the wipers and indicators are reversed.

Porridge - not only Napoleon, what about Hitler? all countries united under a common currency?

Probably the most frightening thing I have ever done is driving a rental car I picked up on a whim while touring around Birmingham, U.K.
Only car on the lot ready to go. Standard transmission, but other side of the car, stick on the left.
Getting out of the lot was the acid test.
The main road was obscured, on a tight curve, by brick walls and planters on both sides.
Couldn''t see anything but straight ahead across the curved road, cars screaming in both directions. Close the eyes, drop the clutch, and speak softly to Jesus while crossing the right lane blindly to the left lane, negotiating the shift with the wrong hand. Heartrate soared to near fatal BPM.

Oh, did I mention the roundabouts? We have them where I live but they are huge. In England, there is one every 500 yards and they are button-sized. O.k., I exaggerate, but they are button sized.
I lived to tell the tale. I''m fairly sure that the rental car company received a stack of photo radar tix due to me not slowing properly at the entry to the vast number of small villages I blazed through in the middle of the night, the only time I felt safe driving.
Better accomplished on a motorcycle, where the operational differences don''t exiist...sit centre, shift left foot, clutch on the left handlebar, etc...

 

[AGBF]

Date: 1/21/2010 3:37:38 PM
Author: Lanie

Did you know that in Spanish (and possibly other romance languages), there is a complete verb tense that we don't have in English? It talks about things that might happen, but there's no concrete evidence of it. Things like 'I hope he calls me' (snip) In English we just use the present tense for it, but in Spanish, it's called the subjunctive. It's really actually interesting if any of you are grammar nerds.

Hi, Lanie-

Actually, the subjunctive does exist in English. If one says, "I wish I were going to the ball" he is using the subjunctive. It is just more likely nowadays that an American will speak colloquially and say, "I wish I was going to the ball", therefore failing to use the subjunctive when he had an opportunity to do so.

AGBF

 

[4ever]

Date: 1/25/2010 12:50:55 AM
Author: Echidna

Date: 1/24/2010 7:32:59 PM
Author: 4ever

I'm notsure what else to say except our small population and relitive remotness means we're usually one of the last of the developed countires to get new technologys and products which can be a tad anoying. We STILL don't have an Ikea!

lol

You may not have an Ikea yet, but you DO have one of the coolest accents ever to make up for it! Every time I see a tourism campaign for New Zealand I want to hurl myself on a plane immediately!

Sending big love from across the ditch

I always find it funny that people like the kiwi accent, I think a strong kiwi accent is really harsh sounding! My BF likes my accent, he's from the UK and thinks it's "cute".

Sending some love back

 

[4ever]

Date: 1/25/2010 6:00:39 PM
Author: Porridge
It was a good idea for a thread RQ!

Mrs Mitchell v cool that you''re Scottish! You win the best accent, hands down. I had a blast at Hogmanay a few weeks ago!!

4ever - I have a friend from Hamilton, and she can''t stand Aukland! A little green eyed monster I imagine

I''m trying to think of other bits of info...come up with some more questions RQ!! Oooh, here''s one: Ireland has had a female president since 1990. Our presidential term is 7 years, and they can serve two terms. We''re on our second female president.
Oh, and we''re a neutral country. Our army does peacekeeping missions. And a lot more. It just doesn''t partake in wars.

Everyone in NZ that''s not from Auckland hates us Aucklanders. lol.

Us big city people with our fancy cars and clothing

Hamilton is the clamidia capital of NZ

 

[4ever]

Date: 1/25/2010 6:10:04 PM
Author: yssie
I used to live in Wellington

When we first moved to US the first thing I noticed on the way home from the airport was how many trucks there are on the roads here! A few years we went back to NZ and everything seemed so small - the roads (which are always banked extrememly well, something US roads could take note of!) the scale of buildings... and I learnt that I''ve gotten very used to everything being open on Sundays.

In Auckland pretty much everything is open on Sundays expect a couple of one-off shops in the little villages. I still find it weird when I go to a shop and it''s closed on Sunday, where as when I was in the UK alot of things were closed on Sundays like banks and the post office!

Ok I have another fact: New Zealand was the first country to allow women to vote.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 1/25/2010 6:58:21 PM
Author: princesss
Wait, so is ''gaol'' pronounced the same way ''jail'' is? I''ve been struggling with that for YEARS!

Yep, gaol = jail in pronunciation. Took me forever to figure that out too.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 1/24/2010 4:15:28 PM
Author: elrohwen

The British adopted the -our spelling from the French (during the Norman conquest) - it had been -or or -ur before that, from Latin. They also began using -re for words like centre because of French influence. In America, Noah Webster believed that creating a unified language for the new country would help bring it together, so he took it upon himself to change spellings and make them more simple and phonetic. He changed colour to color, centre to center, gaol to jail, and many other things (some stuck, some didn't).

I, also, am enjoying this thread a great deal. Thank you for all your contributions, elrohwen.

After thinking about what you wrote above I realized that French, also, derived from the Latin. So the French "our" brought to the British Isles by the Normans was not any more or less Anglo-Saxon than the "or" or "ur" from Latin that had apparently been used in England. In other words, if Noah Webster chose the "or" over the "our", it must simply have been supposedly for the sake of simplicity and a unified language (which he was actually causing to split by changing the American English from the British English) not for the sake of pride in an Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Do you agree?

AGBF

 

[Deelight]

Date: 1/21/2010 1:40:54 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 1/21/2010 1:29:20 PM

Author: janinegirly

Date: 1/21/2010 1:24:23 PM

Author:radiantquest

I truly hope that I do not offend anyone, but I have questions and know that there are people from all over the world here.


First, in the US we drive on the right side of the road. I have noticed when shopping that we walk through malls and stores that way too. Do others walk the same way they drive?


There was post earlier where there was a symbol before a money amount that looked like a C with an equal sign in the middle. Where is that from? What does it mean? My keyboard has no such symbol which makes me wonder what the posters keyboard looked like and I would love to see a pic of said keyboard.


I am also curious as to what the climate is in say, China. Does it snow there? I would think that it does since it is in the nothern hemishpere, but I have never seen pictures or heard about Nor''easters there or anywhere but the US for that matter.

kind of random questions-but interesting nonetheless.


I''m not sure if people walk as they drive but my inclination is to say yes? However as I recall people still stood on right on escalators in England even though they drive on the left.


The symbol you describe is Euro''s.


It most certainly does snow in China, I believe this year they''ve been hit pretty hard.


Not sure if you are looking for more specifics.

In Oz, they drive on the left and walk on the left from what I can see.

Yup - I got confused when OS I was in everyones way

 

[noelwr]

Date: 1/25/2010 5:55:34 PM
Author: katebar
As today January 26th is Australia Day and a national holiday I will chime in.
We definitely go to the left in supermarkets.
We call drinking and driving Drink Driving or DUI. Interestingly our legal limit is under 0.05 but I believe some states of the USA it is 0.08.
Just about every shop, doctors surgery really any public building has automatic doors. I was blown away when we went to the USA and you had to open the door to get into Saks, Macys etc.
In the capital city of my state Brisbane some crossing have 4 ways to cross up down and diagonal I don't think anywhere else in Australia has this.
That's it for now

talking about "Drink Driving" in Australia... I actually got pulled over in Australia to take a breathalizer test. and it was 2 pm! apparently many people drink during lunch time. and I'm not sure if I remember it correctly, but I think we had to take extra insurance in case we hit a kangaroo or other animal with the rental car.

oh, and I had to take a breathalizer test at 8am when I went to our office in Johannesburg! I work for a mining company, and apparently a lot of the miners show up to work drunk and they have to take tests, so they thought why not make it a standard and also get tested in the regualr office? not everyone gets tested. you pick a ball out of a box, and if you happen to pick out the one white ball (which I did), you have to take the test.

 

[noelwr]

by the way, I also have to say that we have beautiful highways in Holland. not the scenery, but the actual roads are good quality, no potholes, well-lit, signs all kept neat. the first time DH visited the States, we came out of Newark airport and headed to NY, and he thought we were in a 3rd world country. it was like the highway was built in the 80s and no one had touched it since then. driving around Houston I also encountered a lot of potholes.

by the way, do they still use pay-phones that take coins in the States? we haven''t had that in Holland since the 90s. you use phone cards or your credit card, though of course most people have mobile phones (which is what we call cell phones).

and also checks. I remember I had a check book when living in New York in the late 90s and used it to pay my bills. we haven''t used checks in Holland since the early 90s.

 

[noelwr]

I just thought of a common mistake that visitors to Europe make.

the "autobahn" is not one particular highway in Germany where you can drive as fast as you like. all highways in Germany are referred to as the "autobahn".
the advised speed limit is 130 km/hour, but you are allowed to drive faster if you wish, unless a specific speed limit is posted.

 

[radiantquest]

Another question that this brought to mind was they sayings that come from other places and the different slang words. I read a lot of what I think is brittish comedy books, and I wonder if the stuff they say is really said.

Fag for cigarette
loo for bathroom
bloddy hell for whatever
get on for get along
flat for house

Are these used in everyday speaking?

Surely there are others from other countries so please chime in.


And also a question about the fast traveling autobaun. If everyone is flying on this thing how does anyone get on? I can just imagine someone pulling onto the road from like a side street and trying to get up to speed and being somewhere around 70 and then someone going 150 flies up behind you. How does one enter the autobaun?

 

[Porridge]

Date: 1/27/2010 11:06:03 AM
Author: radiantquest
Fag for cigarette

loo for bathroom

bloddy hell for whatever

get on for get along

flat for house


Are these used in everyday speaking?

These are right, except flat doesn''t mean house it means apartment, and bloody hell doesn''t mean whatever, it''s more of an exclamation like "oh christ" or something like that. Yes they are used in everyday speak. Some more are:
footpath or pavement for sidewalk
rubbish for trash
boot for trunk
jam for jelly
jelly for jello

I''m sure there are tons more but those are some.

And also a question about the fast traveling autobaun. If everyone is flying on this thing how does anyone get on? I can just imagine someone pulling onto the road from like a side street and trying to get up to speed and being somewhere around 70 and then someone going 150 flies up behind you. How does one enter the autobaun?

You don''t enter the autobahn from a sidestreet. It''s like the freeway system where there are slip roads and a number of lanes, slow on the outside and fast on the inside.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Hi Everyone,

I have to say, I love this thread too! Keep the comments coming!

Noel,

I can answer some of your questions. Pay phones in general are less and less available. Pay phones that accept coins are even less likely to be around. The last time I tried to use one was during a huge snowstorm. My cell phone (we call them cell phones too) was not charged, and I wanted to call home. I muddled through a huge snowdrift to get to one, and I think I had to put in .75 for a call (back in the day, it was .10). Anyway, it was a coin operated phone, but it would not accept my coins!!!! I was very frustrated and cold and wet and never was able to call home to say I would be 4 hours late due to traffic!! Anyway, most people have cell phones. I believe it is no longer profitable for the phone companies to maintain the phones, so they are scarcely available.

Regarding the roads, I would imagine the roads from Newark to NYC are very bad. Even though there is often construction on these roads, I think it is very difficult to maintain these highways in a very efficient manner because of the volume of traffic that would have to be redirected to do the work. Traffic is insanely bad as it is. The highways here in CT are very nice! Did you drive while you were in NYC? Just curious. I would think taking a train in from the airport would be a lot easier. Oh, and there must be beautiful scenery along the highways in Holland, too, right?

Most people use debit or credit cards for puchases. Sometimes if you go grocery shopping, especially if you are in a rush, a nice older woman in front of you will pull out her check book and slowly write out a check. I'd guess 10-15% of Americans still write out checks for purchases, and probably more write out checks for bill payments.

 

[radiantquest]

Date: 1/27/2010 1:16:00 PM
Author: Porridge

Date: 1/27/2010 11:06:03 AM
Author: radiantquest
Fag for cigarette

loo for bathroom

bloddy hell for whatever

get on for get along

flat for house


Are these used in everyday speaking?

These are right, except flat doesn''t mean house it means apartment, and bloody hell doesn''t mean whatever, it''s more of an exclamation like ''oh christ'' or something like that. Yes they are used in everyday speak. Some more are:
footpath or pavement for sidewalk
rubbish for trash
boot for trunk
jam for jelly
jelly for jello

I''m sure there are tons more but those are some.

And also a question about the fast traveling autobaun. If everyone is flying on this thing how does anyone get on? I can just imagine someone pulling onto the road from like a side street and trying to get up to speed and being somewhere around 70 and then someone going 150 flies up behind you. How does one enter the autobaun?

You don''t enter the autobahn from a sidestreet. It''s like the freeway system where there are slip roads and a number of lanes, slow on the outside and fast on the inside.

I knew that bloody hell didnt mean whatever I meant that you can use it wherever.

I watch the BBC channel and I like to watch Gordon Ramsey and he is always talking about prawns. Are prawns shrimps?

Really boot for trunk. Like "Get your crap out of my boot so I can fit my shopping bags."?

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Date: 1/27/2010 1:16:00 PM
Author: Porridge

Date: 1/27/2010 11:06:03 AM
Author: radiantquest
Fag for cigarette

loo for bathroom

bloddy hell for whatever

get on for get along

flat for house


Are these used in everyday speaking?

These are right, except flat doesn''t mean house it means apartment, and bloody hell doesn''t mean whatever, it''s more of an exclamation like ''oh christ'' or something like that. Yes they are used in everyday speak. Some more are:
footpath or pavement for sidewalk
rubbish for trash
boot for trunk
jam for jelly
jelly for jello

I''m sure there are tons more but those are some.

And also a question about the fast traveling autobaun. If everyone is flying on this thing how does anyone get on? I can just imagine someone pulling onto the road from like a side street and trying to get up to speed and being somewhere around 70 and then someone going 150 flies up behind you. How does one enter the autobaun?

You don''t enter the autobahn from a sidestreet. It''s like the freeway system where there are slip roads and a number of lanes, slow on the outside and fast on the inside.

Except, I''d put it this way:
sidewalk for pavement
trash for rubbish
trunk for boot
jelly for jam
jello for jelly
apartment for flat.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 1/26/2010 9:38:08 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 1/24/2010 4:15:28 PM
Author: elrohwen

The British adopted the -our spelling from the French (during the Norman conquest) - it had been -or or -ur before that, from Latin. They also began using -re for words like centre because of French influence. In America, Noah Webster believed that creating a unified language for the new country would help bring it together, so he took it upon himself to change spellings and make them more simple and phonetic. He changed colour to color, centre to center, gaol to jail, and many other things (some stuck, some didn't).

I, also, am enjoying this thread a great deal. Thank you for all your contributions, elrohwen.

After thinking about what you wrote above I realized that French, also, derived from the Latin. So the French 'our' brought to the British Isles by the Normans was not any more or less Anglo-Saxon than the 'or' or 'ur' from Latin that had apparently been used in England. In other words, if Noah Webster chose the 'or' over the 'our', it must simply have been supposedly for the sake of simplicity and a unified language (which he was actually causing to split by changing the American English from the British English) not for the sake of pride in an Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Do you agree?

AGBF

Yes, I absolutely agree. English is a very strange combination of many languages (which is why we have so many odd spellings sometimes). Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language not derived from Latin) is pretty far removed from modern English in many ways. The Latin influence (mostly through the Church and Roman invaders) came before the French (though I guess there was some Old French in there) and most of the words had the -or endings. During the Norman Conquest, I think it was considered fashionable to speak French and be French, so many words were actually changed to have the -our ending (and I'm sure some were added to the vocabulary with -our already on them). It's really kind of all over the place and arbitrary, which much of English really is because of having so many influences (I didn't even mention the Vikings or the Celts!). Sometimes I just like looking up the etymologies of words and figuring out how the heck we got them

I took a class in college on English before 1300AD that was absolutely awesome and part of our homework was actually looking up etymologies. The American Heritage Dictionary online is perfect for this.

I believe Webster only picked -or because it was simple and more phonetic (of course, amour, etc kept the -our because the u is actually sounded out). I haven't read that he chose it based on how proper it was or pride in Anglo-Saxon - more that Americans would benefit from a language that made a little more sense (ie making spelling simpler). I find it fascinating that one person could have such a big impact on how we use our language, but it kind of makes sense that a sweeping change had to be made all at once or people would've continued to spell the way they did in England.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 1/27/2010 10:33:47 AM
Author: noelwr
by the way, I also have to say that we have beautiful highways in Holland. not the scenery, but the actual roads are good quality, no potholes, well-lit, signs all kept neat. the first time DH visited the States, we came out of Newark airport and headed to NY, and he thought we were in a 3rd world country. it was like the highway was built in the 80s and no one had touched it since then. driving around Houston I also encountered a lot of potholes.

Hahaha, the highways around NYC are some of the worst I''ve ever experienced. I definitely know what you''re talking about there! Especially on the smaller highways in the area, I''m always afraid I''m going to blow a tire on some gigantic pothole or miss an exit because the sign is engulfed in a tree that no one has ever trimmed.

 

[Porridge]

Nope, prawns and shrimp are similar, but not the exact same thing.

Yep, that''s how we use the term boot!!

loves vintage Holland is many wonderful things...but (for the most part) scenic ain''t one of them