I'm currently in a rabbit hole of "American reacts to European Stuff". While i was laughing at Americans for thinking Europe is countries and know nothing about the countrys here, i realied that i also know nothing about the countries in europe. Sure i know about my home country and a bit about our neighbours but for the rest of europe it becomes a bit difficult and i want to change it.
What should everyone know about your country to be person from Europa?
49 comments
That no one here has seen “The Sound of Muic”, it’s not a thing here and certainly people don’t live like that in Austria.
Honestly, everything else is a bonus. I don’t even expect people from another continent to know, we exist at all.
Our weather isn’t “bad” just because there isn’t blazing sunshine every day. It’s just a part of nature, and our country needs consistent humidity and rainfall to sustain its ecosystems and our way of life.
Having continental weather on this island is unrealistic from a geographic perspective, and would be a death sentence for our nature.
Although it’s practically legalized, smoking weed is not mainstream or commonplace.
At least, not in my experience / bubble.
România =/ Rromania, not all Romanians are Roma/romani and not all Roma/romani are Romanians, however all Romanians can be români.
Not confusing at all, i know.
There are at least 40 different, distinctive accents in the UK
Ireland is still partitioned and does not have full independence. But one day it will be
Very few people actually do weed and hookers.
We will get angry at you if you show up uninvited, late, or on the cycle path.
We did not “eat our Prime Minister because we were unhappy with him”.
No, a third of the country wouldn’t flood if there were no dikes.
Speaking of dikes, Hansje Brinker is an American invention and plugging a hole in a leaking dike would actually make the situation worse.
The fact that danishes aren’t from Denmark. They’re from Austria
There is a rainy part of Spain, and another part which is cold in the winter and have no beach.
Hi, Czech guy here.
So to make it points:
– we are in Central Europe, not Eastern…. very important
– we have our own currency, Czech Koruna (CZK)
– the country offers more than just Prague, Český Krumlov, Karlovy Vary and Kutná Hora
– you can use the car, but on main routes and in basically all metro areas is public transportation is a better option…also cheaper
– in Prague (probably in other cities too, but most people will experience it in Prague) you have to validate your ticket before the ride. You’ll buy it in the machine and then validate it in those small yellow boxes with an arrow. Or download the app PID Lítačka and buy tickets on your phone. The app also has timetables.
I’ll probably get more points in a couple hours, so I’ll edit my answer later.
we are not Huns or Mongols and nor were our ancestors.
We’re not a cold country. In winters we sadly don’t get a stable snow anymore because the temperature usually is between -5C and +5C and in summer it’s normal to see above 30C.
Also that Polish accent is not Russian accent.
We’re not rude, impolite, or cold. We just have different social cues and norms, and you don’t know how to read or understand them because you’re not used to them.
Few of us actually speak Russian and Russian isn’t mutually intelligible with Polish. Also, we use the Latin alphabet. Yes, I’ve been asked about that by multiple Europeans.
Russian is not our native language and majority of younger people does not speak it at all.
– “polish smile” is a thing but it’s just facade
– small talk is generally not a thing, stick to your thoughts
– w e a r e n o t R u s s i a n nor we desire to be
– PRL (1945-1989) is generaly considered bad times (for the majority) – this especially is adressed to all those young, western leftist
– do not, I repeat, DO NOT school us on our own history unless your name is Norman Davies
* While the Italian unification happened only recently, the Italian nation is centuries old an at least in my opinion the most interesting part of our history was the Medieval/early modern one, not the Roman or Fascist eras. There are still many differences from place to place though coming from centuries of divisions of course.
* Italy is known for a few stereotypical foods which are obviously great, but there’s much more if you’re interested on that argument (Lombardy for example, my region, has a great cuisine which is not really known to foreigners unless we’re talking about people from Ticino, Tirol, the Grisons and other close areas).
* Retaking from the previous point Italy is not the “pizza country”. We’ve had masters in the literature and science fields for ages, Italy’s manufacturing and precision industries are still very important and Italy has had many important inventors&scientists and inventions (Leonardo, Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, Meucci, Barsanti e Matteucci, Marconi, Ferrari so the telegraph, the internal combustion engine, the radio etc.).
* The regional/local languages are many and Italy has a lot of different cultures, although they’re slowly dying and they’ll almost be all gone by the end of the century. Oh and practically everyone outside of a few specific places speaks Italian, with various accents of course but I find the “nobody understands people from other regions” thing severly overblown.
We’re a polte bunch, unless you walk or stand on a bike path.
That we take our weather warnings very seriously. Closed off roads, weather alerts on the news means don’t travel. Even if you think you’ve experienced it all because you live in Canada/Norway/northern US states etc.
If you think of sterotypical German stuff, there’s a good chance you are thinking of Bavaria. The rest of Germany isn’t like that.
Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore… please😭
Like I genuinely had people correcting me when I told them that I’m from Czechia… I get that we’re a small country but still.
I talked with this French guy and when I told him that I’m from the Czech Republic he answered with: “Do you mean Czechoslovakia?”
I just gave up on him…
I have been quite shocked that there is the odd fellow European that thinks we are part of the United Kingdom.
And this is American specific:
I have come across the odd American that believes they are Irish based upon a genetic test showing 5% Irish result. These people are the same people that tell black Irish people that they are not Irish.
They are also the same people that misrepresent Irish history by saying that we were slaves during the Atlantic slave trade period, that we got over it so black people should get over it too.
Serbia isn’t evil and we never wanted any of the shit that happened in the last 35 years. We “hate” the west because they turned our backs on us and left no alternatives nor help against the dictators (yes two)
I don’t particularly care what Jerry from Springfield Illinois does or doesn’t know about the Netherlands, but if he wants to go here on holiday he should at least know to stay off the bike lanes
– We are not just the Mediterranean with warm weather all year around. We have cold winters, yes cold.
– Flamenco is not a common nor popular thing in a lot of places. Regional identities and folklore are important.
– Shops are not closed between 14:00 – 16:00 because we are all sleeping (Siesta means a nap that’s all there is). It’s our lunch time, we are having lunch. Businesses use part-schedule to reduce costs and not having to hire more people and have the shops closed later.
While Greece and many Greek facts are well known globally, there are some basic things that tend to elude tourists or visitors — especially during the spring and summer months.
The heat in Greece, particularly in Athens, can be relentless and even dangerous. Don’t underestimate it while visiting, and always pay close attention to weather alerts, especially on hot summer days.
Greece has never had a strong culture of nature walks or hiking, unlike countries like Germany or Switzerland — unless, of course, there was a great taverna waiting at the top of the mountain.Our terrain is also quite challenging. Avoid hiking alone or venturing off the beaten path unless you’re fully prepared. Trust me, it probably won’t end well.
The rest of the country doesn’t look like Mykonos & Santorini. I’ve heard stories about foreign tourists being utterly disappointed when they discovered that Athens looks very different from the Greek Islands 😭.
Also, Ancient Greeks ≠ Modern Greeks, enough said.
No we are not about to split up.
No, we don’t want to join the Netherlands or France.
Our national dish is Fries, not waffles.
* We don’t worship Zeus.
* Syrtaki was made for a movie, there are more popular dances.
* We don’t wear togas, which was a Roman thing anyway.
* Stealing our rocks is frowned upon.
Berlin is so hilariously mismanaged that the entire state cost Germany more money than it generates
If you’d delete Berlin from the map Germany would be slightly richer
Most of us don’t hate Germans, they’re more often seen as rivals rather than enemies
Echoing some of the things that other neighbours also mentioned for their countries:
– We are not Russians or some kind of ’breakaway Russians’ who wanted to adopt a ’new’ identity; Estonian is a very distinct language (even further from Russian than Persian is from English), very distinct ethnic group, and our nation existed before the Soviet Union.
– Our country is not sketchy or unsafe to visit, on the contrary it is actually the [safest country in Europe](https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2025®ion=150) excluding microstates. The unfair reputation may come from how there was a brief period of relative lawlessness or ’wild west’ when we had very high crime rates, obviously after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when the newly re-established Estonian state didn’t yet have any grip, however things improved very fast since the mid-1990s.
– We are not cold, distant, impolite or rude people. We have different cultural norms that you don’t understand because you’re not used to them, and in part we can be reserved due to how being unnecessarily open and oversharing with strangers in the past could have lead to deportation to Siberia for you and your family by oppressing powers. It becomes ingrained to the collective national mindset to be cautious.
The Netherlands isn’t as rainy as people tend to say. In fact it’s at position [#111](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_precipitation) on the list of countries by annual precipitation.
– We don’t really have a thing with waffles. Yes, we have various kinds and we eat them, and they’re different than abroad, but it’s just, you know, food. We don’t consider a part of our identity.
– We get annoyed when we get confused/lumped in with the Dutch. People mistakenly locating Antwerp in the Netherlands, or calling Bruegel a ‘Dutch Master’ for example.
– Belgium is bilingual (with the addition of German since after WWI), and we have built a rather complex government structure around that over the past 60 years or so. It’s complicated, don’t make snarky comments about how we should ‘just do X’ or whatever after you’ve been in the country for a week.
We’ve been a country for solid 30ish years. Sounds dumb to point it out but those same american videos makes me feel like I have to lol
The UK is made up of four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England is not the same thing as Britain or the UK, and referring to the whole country as “England” or all the people from the UK as “English” is not correct. There is also no such office as “King of England”, and hasn’t been for more than three centuries now.
We Germans ALL wear leather trousers , green hats and speak bavarian German language . We drink beer all day and we all live In tiny wooden houses around a castle . We are all proud of Hitler and sad we lost WW2. Anything else to know ?
That we do not all speak French like a lot of British/Americans seem to think.
People get confused on what they’re allowed to call Scottish people (in terms of nationality), there’s a hierarchy on what the most okay is and what is blasphemy.
“Scottish”- Is okay with like 95% of the population, the safest option.
“British”- While legally correct, some people might not like being referred to as such for political reasons, so get permission first.
“The E word”- 0% of the population is okay with being referred to as this, as it is a slur here. You will get killed.
Many people believe that English speakers automatically fit into society in Norway. The truth is that language skills and cultural understanding matter in work and social situations and it can take time to find your place.
The majority of Croats don’t live in the coastal part of the country, and the coast doesn’t represent the whole of Croatia.
We don’t speak Russian, and our language isn’t really that similar to it (especially the pronunciation is quite different). We also don’t use the Cyrillic alphabet (but many people can read it, especially the generations that grew up in Yugoslavia).
And one thing that, in my experience, is true for all former Yugoslav countries: we don’t all hate each other. In fact, most people are friendly, many have family and friends across the borders and we visit often, the same music is popular in all these countries, the “pop culture” etc.
4 languages/regions.
The scenic mountains that remind you of Heidi? That’s the German part.
Luxury watches and diplomacy (United Nations)? That’s the French part.
The part you don’t know anything about? That’s the Italian/Romansch part.
The rules of the road. If you’re trying to take a selfie while biking or otherwise fucking around, you will die. Also walking on bike paths, same outcome.
We are not lazy, and only children and elderly people take naps in the middle of the day. At least in the parts of the country where I’ve lived… I’ve had Andalusians on Reddit tell me that taking siestas is widespread down there but I’ve also had Andalusians get super offended because I said they take siestas, so idk about that.
Working hours are fucking long. Even in white collar jobs it’s common to have to take an unpaid 1-2 hour lunch break so your 9-17 turns into 9-19, and in hospitality and retail they often have split shifts working from morning to night with a break in the middle. As an example, as a waitress I used to work 12-16 and then 19-1am or 2am on the weekends, with only a day and a half off. Retail closes 14-17 because people are eating instead of buying stuff, and restaurants close ~16-19 because no one’s eating and they need to rest sometimes.
We are not French and Dutch people put together. Historically, the irony is: today’s Wallonia has more in common history with Germany and the Netherlands, while Flanders has more common yhistory with France.
Regardless, sharing languages doesn’t mean sharing the same culture.
When saying “thank you” in Portugal don’t say it in spanish (gracias).
If you ask a question, you’ll get an answer. Straight, no false smiles, no sugarcoating. It’s not harsh, it’s honest and effective
In Norway, you don’t speak to random people on the bus, in the supermarket or on the street. Doing so you will be considered weird or even creepy. But as soon as you’re in the mountains or in the woods, it is quite impolite to not say hi to people you pass.
Germany is a federal republic, consisting of 16 states, each with their own constitution, education system and state police.
It was only unified in 1871, people who have been hostile to each other for centuries were suddenly one country. This lead to the current federal set up of Germany, meaning Germans can be very different depending on state and even region within that state.
Maybe I should also mention that 5 and a half of those states were actually a different “socialist” Germany for more than 40 years. That might have had an impact on those people as well.
Oh, also: Around 30% of the population of Germany has a [Migration background](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_background), half of them still only have a foreign passport. Asking those about WWII might produce unexpected results.
Essentially, at least half of the questions and rants on r/AskAGerman or r/germany would make “the average German” cringe.