Cultural Exchange!

[Shining Silhouette]

So @Elf, @Robin Sedai, and I had a fun cultural exchange on a SU, and Elf suggested making a thread to share perspectives and discuss questions. So feel free to share your unique cultural backgrounds and something interesting about your heritage or culture and ask others about their own!

My great-great-great Grandfather was Swedish and he had his father's name, so his name was like this example Lars Larson. He was also a chef apparently and created a recipe for Swedish hotcakes (kind of like Crêpes) that my grandma still makes for me every time she visits.

[Medium]

*ahem*

Finnamishberman.

That's all I'm gonna say.

[SymphonianBookworm]

Why do people say, by the way? Just... By. The. Way. What is the way? It makes me think of Star Wars.

Also, when people say, What's up, the most common response is nothing. But that's impossible, isn't it? Not only is the sky and other things up, even if you are referring to emotion-wise, there's not way nothing is going on.

How's it going? How does one know what the it is referring to?

 If this isn't where I can ask these questions... Well, I don't know where else i'd ask questions.

[Robin Sedai]

I was born in Taiwan and live in China, but know bupkis about the culture of either. It's something I'm still resentful about.

[The Unknown Ajah]

2 hours ago, SymphonianBookworm said:

Why do people say, by the way? Just... By. The. Way. What is the way? It makes me think of Star Wars.

Also, when people say, What's up, the most common response is nothing. But that's impossible, isn't it? Not only is the sky and other things up, even if you are referring to emotion-wise, there's not way nothing is going on.

How's it going? How does one know what the it is referring to?

 If this isn't where I can ask these questions... Well, I don't know where else i'd ask questions.

For example, hey, by the path there's a rock, so it likely started out as informing people about traveling conditions, then turned out as informing people of any additional information. 

The actual typical response is nothing much, which is a way to say, not a lot, but it got shortened to nothin'.

People say how's your day/night/whatever going as well, so they just generalized it to it.

Edited August 10, 2022 by The Unknown Novel

[Lego Mistborn]

8 hours ago, Robin Sedai said:

I was born in Taiwan and live in China, but know bupkis about the culture of either. It's something I'm still resentful about.

Why not?

[Elf]

Did you know that I can speak my mother tongue but can neither read nor write it and that isn't that uncommon here

[Robin Sedai]

3 hours ago, Ta'veren Kaladin said:

Why not?

We don't celebrate any of the old traditions except for Chinese New Year. (And even that's limited to a big meal and red envelopes.) For reasons I don't want to go into here, my father is dead set on my going to college and eventually living in the US. Therefore we are homeschooled, speak English at home, and don't interact that much with other kids. So I don't really have anyone to talk to about these things. I could look it up on the Internet, but ah, it doesn't matter that much to me.

3 hours ago, Elf said:

Did you know that I can speak my mother tongue but can neither read nor write it and that isn't that uncommon here

Goodness, really? What's your mother tongue?

[Elf]

1 hour ago, Robin Sedai said:

Goodness, really? What's your mother tongue?

It's Gujurati 

Basically India is a land with many, many languages so i just learned my mother tongue cause i grew up around people who spoke it. I was never taught it.

[Lego Mistborn]

1 hour ago, Robin Sedai said:

For reasons I don't want to go into here, my father is dead set on my going to college and eventually living in the US.

I think I can guess. But that's besides the point.

38 minutes ago, Elf said:

It's Gujurati 

Basically India is a land with many, many languages so i just learned my mother tongue cause i grew up around people who spoke it. I was never taught it.

That's really cool. Knowing a language that is very localized is like knowing High Imperial, very impressive. Or should I say, Ising the knowing of the language of localized Ising the like of knowing the Imperial of High.

[Morningtide]

3 hours ago, Elf said:

It's Gujurati 

Basically India is a land with many, many languages so i just learned my mother tongue cause i grew up around people who spoke it. I was never taught it.

That's so cool! I'm trying to learn a second language right now (Spanish) but I'm very slow. 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

I have enough trouble with my first language, english.

[Ookla of Colors]

@Elf

Quote

No Mourners, No Funerals

What's this from? I know I've seen it before, but I don't remember where

[SymphonianBookworm]

4 hours ago, Tani said:

@Elf

What's this from? I know I've seen it before, but I don't remember where

You aren’t asking me, but I think it’s from Six of Crows. 

[Elf]

7 hours ago, Morningtide said:

That's so cool! I'm trying to learn a second language right now (Spanish) but I'm very slow. 

That's very nice! No matter if your progress is slow, it's always good to learn something new. 

5 hours ago, Tani said:

@Elf

What's this from? I know I've seen it before, but I don't remember where

Bookworm is right. It's from six of crows

[Morningtide]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH SIX OF CROWS. 

There. Sorry. I just finished it for the second time, and it has graduated to my favorite book. I just did an art piece with one of my favorite quotes. 

 

Also thank you Elf! I'm having a lot of fun with the language. It's rules make so much more sense than the rules of English!

Edited August 13, 2022 by Morningtide

[SymphonianBookworm]

On 8/12/2022 at 8:28 PM, Morningtide said:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH SIX OF CROWS. 

There. Sorry. I just finished it for the second time, and it has graduated to my favorite book. I just did an art piece with one of my favorite quotes. 

 

Also thank you Elf! I'm having a lot of fun with the language. It's rules make so much more sense than the rules of English!

YES SIX OF CROWS IS ABSOLUTELY LEGENDARY! Kaz Brekker is Awsome, and the author didn’t massacre and good character like some others do! SUCH A GOOD BOOK. Honestly, I think SoC is better than Shadow and Bone. By a lot. Though... Morningtide, are you saying that Six of Crows is better than a Brandon Sanderson book? 

[AonDoor]

Spoiler

♫O say, can you see

By the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,

Through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched,

Were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare,

The bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

This is my contribution. We have the best national anthem, in my opinion.

[Ookla of Colors]

I really like folklore

[Treamayne]

Hello all. I'm technically a Seminole Irish German American (just American for short) who has lived in Korea and Japan and also travelled to about a dozen countries. I try to learn at least the greetings for each place I visit, as well as some food recipes for each country (Kabulli Palau. . . Mmmm). I've formally studied Spanish and Korean, self-studied Japanese, Tagalog and German (and some Tangential Chinese - but just reading and writing and mostly as Hanja and Kanji).

On 8/9/2022 at 9:23 PM, SymphonianBookworm said:

Why do people say, by the way? Just... By. The. Way. What is the way? It makes me think of Star Wars.

On 8/9/2022 at 11:19 PM, Ookla the Unknown said:

For example, hey, by the path there's a rock, so it likely started out as informing people about traveling conditions, then turned out as informing people of any additional information. 

From Wiktionary:

Quote

by the way

First appeared in the 10th century with literal meaning "by the side of the road", from Old English weġ (which became "way") meaning "road". Soon afterward (circa 1000) it came to mean "during one's journey". The figurative meaning developed in the mid-16th century, with the first instance of the modern meaning being from 1614.[1]

Prepositional phrase: (conjunctive, idiomatic) Incidentally; used in referencing a parenthetical statement not timely, central, or crucial to the topic at hand; foregone, passed by, something that has already happened

Good call OtU. 

I'm a big fan of Garner's  and other resources (like Wiktionary, Omniglot, and Ethnologue (before the paywall)) with connotative distinctions of synonyms, etymology and other linguistic nonsense. One of my prizes is an "Asian Super-dictionary" I purchased at Kyobomungo in Seoul, Korea in '99(ish). It's organized like a traditional Chinese dictionary (Radical and stroke count), but for each entry it has:

• Chinese Long Form
• Chinese Short Form 
• Japanese/Korean forms if different than the above
• Bopomofo
• Pinyin
• Korean (Hangul)
• Japanese (Hiragana)
• English

The definition is, of course, in Korean (so I often need my Kor-Eng dictionary to read this dictionary)

On 8/9/2022 at 9:23 PM, SymphonianBookworm said:

Also, when people say, What's up, the most common response is nothing. But that's impossible, isn't it? Not only is the sky and other things up, even if you are referring to emotion-wise, there's not way nothing is going on.

Depending on mood, I most often just look up and name the first thing I see (sky, light fixture, airvent, ceiling tile, roof, etc.)

On 8/9/2022 at 9:23 PM, SymphonianBookworm said:

How's it going? How does one know what the it is referring to?

Pronouns without antecedants are annoying, at best; but I think that gives the Listener license to interpret it how they want. I usually just think of a random McGuffin, then state it's means of locomotion as an aswer - if they didn't want to be understood, then I don't have to be either. . . 

Spoiler

Example:

• How's it going?
• JP8
• What?
• Oh, you didn't say what "it" was so I guessed you meant passenger jetliners. They use JP8 - it's an aviation fuel
• <stunned silence>