Are we lazy fuckers? Are we causing your country's economic crisis? Never heard of us?

Obviously, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece would dominate any conversation about Europe's best cuisine.

What's the best of the rest?

For countries without a jury system, how are criminal court cases done? Due to British and US media, this is the system many people are aware of. How is it done in your country?

This year, every even slightly fancy place that offers burgers and fries suddenly added sweet potato fries to their menu, sometimes replacing regular potato fries outright is they are not a dedicated burger joint.

Has anything similar been going on in your country?

A lot of people recommend that you should visit rural areas of a country if you really wanna pick up their native language since that's the best way to guarantee there won't be a bunch of English/English speakers as there are in cities. But for Europeans, especially those with a high English speaking population (the Netherlands, the Nordics, etc.), will they just speak to you in English like they do in the cities? Will you be able to better use and understand their native language?

Basically a scale of:

1 (Finland): Dont talk to me, dont look at me, dont sit within six feet of my bubble

10 (Australian): Mate, Im gonna hug you and talk to you for hours about absolutely nothing and at the same time everything.

Hello there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

Enjoying the small talk? We have a Discord server too! We'd love to have more of you over there. Do both of us a favour and use this link to join the fun.

The mod-team wishes you a nice day!

In the UK in the 2000s there was a sudden massive freesheet war, with papers like metro and 20minutes distributing free copies at tube and train stations. eventually there were probably half a dozen competing rivals, and train carriages were full of discarded copies. These days we just have metro and the evening standard left in London, they seem quite dull, and don't really seem to be particularly popular with commuters.

I recall in Paris it was much more calm, they weren't allowed to just leave them in distributers, they had to physically hand them out. In Germany it was never permitted. presumably it created too much mess, or the traditional newspapers objected.

Just wondering what it's like these days. Obviously newspapers generally have declined in popularity.

I'm curious how common everyday cycling is across Europe.

I use my bike fairly regularly in Madrid for short trips like getting to the Metro station, going to the supermarket, the shopping centre, the library, etc. It's not my main mode of transport, but for certain journeys it's by far the most convenient option.

How about you? How often do you use a bike, and what do you typically use it for?

Hi! Desirably something recent, but you can mention classics if you want. Being from Russia, I'm kind of curious what short film gems there are around Europe. Also desirably not something profane or philosophically heavy

In Italian, the correct name for the vehicle would be automobile, abbreviated to auto, but it is commonly referred to as macchina, literally ‘machine’ (less common, but still used, is vettura).

In Spain, I’d say Macron and Meloni are the only ones well known by everybody

If I want a good illustration of the adversarial legal system we use in the United States, there are approximately one billion clips from films and television shows that I can use. But I struggle to find solid examples from countries (e.g., France, Germany, Netherlands) that use an inquisitorial system, where the judge plays an active role. It may be that my searching is going awry because of both geographic and language localization.

Can anyone from an inquisitorial-system country recommend a good video clip (either real or fictional) that illustrates the major differences in courtroom arrangement and the roles of the parties?

Question in title.

The British have a tendency to use "Europe" to refer to the mainland, and in the Nordics, at least Finland, there's a tendency to use "Europe" for the part of the continent that is south of the Baltic Sea, which kind of separates the Nordic countries from that "mainland." I've also heard of Greeks using the term "Europeans" to refer to more or less the rest of Europe excluding Greece or the Balkans, perhaps owing to Greece's shared history with the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

What's it like where you live? Are there similar collqial uses of the term "Europe"? Do you feel this makes your country "less European"?

Voluntarily as not obliged in school.

In your country 179-180cm is considered tall, above average or average?

I know it's really good with languages that have a huge amount of content on the Internet like French, Spanish, German, Russian, but how does it handle smaller languages? With both translating and writing.

I'd been rewatching those lately, and had this thought that it'd be really interesting to see a good European comedy on the premise of 30-something friend group. French, Scandinavian, Polish, whichever - just thought it'd be really cool to see different variantions on this from our varied European cultures. so if you've got recommendations, please do share :) cheers

I don’t know if this is useful information in the slightest or not but for context, I have Autism and ADHD and so Ive always struggled with understanding social cues and proper etiquette with things. So people constantly think I’m trying to be rude or mean when it’s just a screw up on my end.

I’ve been fascinated by history ever since I was 9 years old. I mostly studied American history because it was what I was the most exposed to as a child but later I discovered how fascinating and much more in depth European history was and how much farther back it goes. And I realized just how young America is. (I mean technically Native American history goes back just as far but you know what I mean.)

And because of this, I got interested in my own family history. I read a bunch of records of my ancestors and learned about the lives they lived. And the places they traveled. And I learned about the countries they were from and became interested in their cultures and traditions. I also learned about how different these cultures are from how they’re portrayed in stereotypical media like braveheart or whatever. I took a 23andme test. I feel like I even connect with some European cultural elements on a small level. It honestly really changed how I view the world. And how diverse, yet connected humans really are as a species.

For example, since I was a kid, I’ve unironically listened to stuff like bagpipe music or Swedish Nyckelharpa music and old medieval toreador music from the 12th century. Not just because I felt “spiritually connected to it” or anything. It’s because I genuinely like it and unironically think it sounds awesome. (It also got me interested in studying music history)

This is actually the reason I started studying cultural anthropology and am currently majoring in it for college. I learned about so many other cultures that were just as fascinating all around the world.

I’m still fascinated by my ancestors’ country’s history and also the wide range of regions they came from.
Since America is a tossed salad of various ethnicities.

But I noticed that a lot of Europeans online get mad when Americans talk about their heritage. And to be fair, it’s usually for stuff that also annoy me. Like saying you’re “Irish” and get a Celtic cross tattoo when you’re not from Ireland or culturally Irish influenced in any way. And you don’t bother to learn about the true culture or history that you claim to embrace and know all about outside of stereotypes. That stuff kind of bothers me too. I personally would never say I AM English or Swedish or Spanish or whatever. I’d say I’m American or just ETHNICALLY European if I wanted to be more specific.

But I started thinking if I’m really that much better for telling people what countries my ancestors come from (when it comes up in conversation of course). And I don’t know what the line is for acceptability.

When I tell my European friends that stuff, I’m kind of just trying to connect with them on a surface level or start conversations about their experiences as a European. I never try to act like I AM European culturally. I’d never act like I know what being English is like just as much as an actual English person from Nottingham.

I’m fully aware of my American origins. And I’m aware that most of my ancestors left Europe over a century ago. And some left over 300 years ago.

American culture has ultimately shaped how I perceive the world around me. Even if I’m not really proud of it or relate to it fully. That’s just how upbringing works.

I just find European history so interesting and I think my European roots are fascinating to learn about and learning about my surprisingly diverse ancestry kind of makes me feel a bit more special than I actually am.

To be honest, I think part of the subconscious reason I learn about my European roots is because I was always very depressed and lonely and like I never really belonged anywhere. I never fully related to most American cultural aspects and viewed a lot of it as artificial and not as genuine or historic. And so learning about my ethnic roots made me feel like there was somewhere I belong and could connect with. Especially since I feel like I relate to some European cultural values more than some American ones. I don’t know.

Is this unreasonable? Is there a way to embrace and connect with my roots and genetic origins without coming across like I’m appropriating it or claiming some kind of citizenship?

I’m sorry if this is a weird question.

In Belgium there are two theories:

1. babies are delivered by storks
2. babies are found in cabbages

Do you have similar birth myths?

I used to tell my little brother he had been found in a garbage bin but, for my defense, he was a really annoying kid.

Do you...

• Pause the conversation, let them pour your drinks, thank them, then resume the conversation when they leave?

• Keep talking but make an aside "Thank you" at an appropriate time?

• Keep talking without acknowledging the waiter

• None of the above

Hello there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

Enjoying the small talk? We have a Discord server too! We'd love to have more of you over there. Do both of us a favour and use this link to join the fun.

The mod-team wishes you a nice day!