Hey Pandas! What is something that is common knowledge to people in your country about your country that the rest of the world does not know about?

#1

That there actually are smart folk living in the US. You just can't usually hear them over all the loudmouths we have.

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#2

Canada. Not everyone says "eh" all the time. And sadly, no, we aren't always polite. But yes, the world does have it correct. We say "sorry" all the time.

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#3

Besides the fact that there are still a lot of people who have no idea this country exists, sadly, Lithuania's suicide rate is the highest in Europe and one of the highest worldwide.

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#4

We are not just a bunch of loud mafia gangsters that love to eat pizza and pasta (even if we are very proud of these last two products). Italy is much more complicated and diverse. Moving from a region to another could feel like moving abroad because of the great diversity we have internally. These differences are an enrichment, but also a big problem for our country (with the south side less advanced).
Also, tourists tend to visit only Venice, Florence (and the region of Tuscany), and Rome. Wonderful cities, but Italy has much more to offer, from the Dolomites in the North to the gorgeous beaches in the South. Great diversity of traditions, food (all delicious), history and landscapes.

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#5

In Mexico not everyone is involved in narco/drug dealing stuff. Thanks to TV series Mexico's now portrait as a lawless land filled with cartels (I mean, not so far from truth sadly), but there are plenty of honest hard working people, and plenty of really nice and friendly people as well.

Also, not every Mexican likes spicy food.

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#6

I'm from Finland, many people are surprised to hear that Finland isn't Scandinavian.

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#7

Canada. not even all Canadians know about this, but we are living on land stolen by the early settlers, who killed 18 million first nations by poisoning, torturing, and taking their essentials away from them.

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#8

That the East Coast of the United States has a vastly different culture from the West Coast. East Coast is more old school or traditional. West Coast is more new age and modern. Each state has their own bonuses and drawbacks. Don't judge everyone in the USA by what you experience in one state. It's a big place!

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#9

On the UK mainland, chattel slavery was banned by the Magna Carta 1215 and was never formally legalised after. There were free black people in Henry VIII's court and a free black performer even played at his coronation. Some people tried to bring slaves to the UK mainland and were shot down in court - in the 16th century, 17th, century, and 18th century - with their slaves immediately being freed at the conclusion of the cases as no law since the Magna Carta had legalised it there..

Note that I explicitly stated "UK mainland". This didn't apply to the Empire territories, but the strikedown once again in the 18th century started the ball rolling on banning slavery across the British Empire.

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#10

Germany: Probably our dialects that can be close to a different language. Can be really frustrating if you learn German and then realize it won't be easy to understand people.

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#11

Switzerland may be known for chocolate, mountains and banks, and it's not wrong.

But we also have mandatory military service for men. It's just 4 months long (if you don't rank) but still... So I'm a filmmaker but also I'm a trained sapper. And we get to keep our assault rifle home.

Have you ever heard of Switzerland involved in a modern conflict ? No. But we're still one of the most heavily armed countries in the world (relative to our size). Is it useful ? Meh...

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#12

Australia

Is not in Europe [ looking at you USA ]
There are no kangaroos hopping down the main streets
The Queen of England is our head of state
Drop Bears are real
Emus are vicious and should be avoided
We drive on the left
Vegemite is our secret weapon

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#13

Polish cryptologists were first people who deciphered Enigma code.

Also, Fryderyk Chopin and Maria Skłodowska-Curie were Poles. They both were born in Poland, were speaking Polish and emigrated to France.

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#14

I'm from Lithuania. We had the first Constitution in Europe in 1791. Little did it matter because the state collapsed anyways and was split between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

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#15

I don't know how much is that "not known" but Czech Republic has a big Vietnamese minority... we are like a European hot spot for Vietnamese immigrants... Germans have Turks, Brits have Pakistanis, we have Vietnamese... lots of foreigners I met here seemed to be surprised by that fact

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#16

Some people don't know this, but Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom is also queen of Canada. And Canadians were "British Subjects" until 1947.

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#17

Sweden may be cold but we still eat the most ice cream per person and year.

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#18

New Zealand.

Not many people know the irony that we are a nuclear free zone since the 1980s, but it was a New Zealander that first split the atom.

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#19

The oldest city in Europe is Plovdiv in Bulgaria. It has been continuously inhabited since 6th millennium BC.

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#20

In America, we have Jewish Space Lasers that we use to start fires in California. (*Sarcasm for those unaware)

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#21

Iceland

We have no army and have never had one.
There are no trains in the country.
And perhaps most surprising, its not that cold. This winter we barely got any snow at all.

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#22

Mine isn’t as good as the other ones but I went to Spain and nobody knew who Beyoncé was

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#23

The US still practices some religious-based limitations on the sale of alcohol. Because these are local laws, one county may ban the sale of alcohol, but the next county over (less than 30 minutes away typically) still sells alcohol. Yes, you can buy beer in a "wet" country and bring it back home to your "dry" county! There are also "moist" counties which have temporary limitations on the sale. For example, many counties mandate that you cannot buy alcohol before noon on a Sunday, originally reasoned so that you can be in church instead, and the church people can get home safely. Obviously this is religious favoritism, but the laws are still defended as "important for society." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moist_county

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#24

Rednecks and Hillbillies are not the same thing. Their cultures are similar and not all Hillbillies are in the Appalachian Mountains, but there are a lot of differences culturally than people realize.

U.S. culture is a real thing despite what people say. Yes there is a ton of influence from the counties people immigrated from, but people seem to forget that no culture on Earth is singular and influences from other counties are apart of other cultures. Yes it happened a long time ago, but the U.S. is young as the entire world likes to point out. The culture in the U.S. is still evolving and traditions from where the immigrants came from is still present. My state has heavy German and Czechoslovakian, as well as other central european countries, that results in some pretty interesting festivals in the area. We honor the heritage we came from with a lot of the stuff we do. My state also honors the Native Americans and recognizes the massacres that happened. Memorials don't fix it but I learned more about Native American history in my state during school than is really thought nation wide.

Y'all don't comprehend how much conservation the U.S. does. My state in particular for the last 50 years has been trying to reintroduce native plants, trees, and habitats that almost went extinct. They give away free native tress year round and as many as want. Yes, we have fields and cattle, but the sheer number of parks nationwide that the government funds is insane when you look at it. Not to mention state run or private ran preserves. In the last 15 years we've seen an increase in bald eagles coming back to their old breeding grounds. Native wetlands are getting reintroduced and I'm not in swamp land.

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#25

I’d like other people to know that the capital of Australia is CANBERRA, not Sydney. Or Melbourne. CANBERRA. It’s in the Australian CAPITAL Territory for a reason.

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#26

Slovenia ist not East Europe. More west than Austria.

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#27

Germany.We are a high-tech industrial country and nobody wears lederhosen exc. for Oktoberfest.

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#28

in england, not everyone drinks way too much beer and there are very few posh gits except in some posh areas. But it is true that almost everyone has way too much caffiene every day.

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#29

There are, in fact, some cultured (nationally and internationally) Americans with common sense in the US. We just want to live peacefully and make an honest living.

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#30

The mainland and the mountains of Greece are as beautiful as its islands and greek salad has never ever lettuce in it or any dressing besides olive oil.

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#31

Amsterdam is not a country, the Netherlands is though.
It's The Netherlands and not Holland.

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#32

In Australia, Kangaroos kill more people thank snakes or sharks annually. Snakes mind their own business, and sharks won’t want to eat you if they know you’re human, but kangaroos may attack and kill unexpectedly.

Don’t go walking alone in rural areas unless you’re vigilant and a steady runner.

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#33

in america, there are different inflation rates for the different states. People who move from busier states to rural states with their old paychecks suddenly find themselves richer.

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#34

Czech Republic consistently ranks among the top 10 safest countries in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Quite an important but underappreciated fact imo.

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#35

I live in New Zealand, I don’t think that many people know that about 70 names are banned here.

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#36

UK: Yes, we are approximately 40 times smaller than North America. But no... we haven’t all met. And if we live in London, we DON’T know that friend you met while backpacking / online gaming / chatting in the queue at Disneyland.

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#37

We aren't all stupid, gun-loving, and fat.

-A smart, underweight, gun-fearing American

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#38

Puerto Rico. We Puerto Ricans are US citizens since 1917.

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#39

In Holland we don't eat our herring raw, it has actually been brined.

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#40

No one outside of Singapore seems to know where we are on the world map!

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#41

Southern U.S.-people use metaphors, similes, & euphemisms so much it's like a foreign language

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#42

I'm American, but am living in Azerbaijan as an expat. Something that people don't know is that 1) Azerbaijan exists, and 2) Armenia sucks. They took Karagagh, a region that belongs to Azerbaijan, killed and forced thousands of natives of Karabagh, and have had control over it for a long time till 2020. They went to war, and now native Azerbaijan's are finally back in their homeland.

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#43

UK. Think of how many castles we have. Times it by 200. That's how many castles we have.

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#44

Philippines: There is only one Jesus but we can choose worship either the infant, the child, the man, the god, the pre-crucified, the crucified or the risen. We also have a white, black and brown version with different names. Action figures sold separately.

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#45

France has about 95 times the population as the state of Alaska, but is about 1/3 the size.

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#46

I'm Irish. And no, America, we don't all live in thatched cottages in Mayo. Nobody says 'Top o' the mornin' to ye!'.
In fact, the most discerning thing about Ireland that I don't know if anyone talks about it, is 'Dublish'. Foil Arms and Hog did a skit about it on their Youtube channel (check it out, it's very funny.) Basically, it's how people talk in North Dublin. A lot of swearing.
For example:
'Here, Sean, willya buy me a donut?' [I wish I could put up a recording! 'Donut' would be pronounced 'doh-nuh'.]
'No, buy yer own f****n' donut!'
'I've got no money--here, PLEASE?'
'I will in me bleedin' hole!'
'Ah, go f**k yerself, ya f****n' t****r!'
Also, not potatoes. Crisp sandwiches.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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#47

We do not have Lions, Zebra's and Elephants roaming the streets in South Africa, unless they have escaped from a reserve (which has happened before). There are still people who think that we have wild animals living among us.

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#48

That Poland was once a huge country and then later dissappeared from the map for 123 years, having been divided between it's neighbours. In that time we were well organised "underground", running schools for instance, to ensure Polish language and history were taught and our identity survived and thrived.

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#49

St Nicolas of Myra is celebrated in allot of different countries. But I expect every Dutchy (and Dutchies alone) to recognize the treat belonging with Sinterklaas*, just by tasting it, namely kruidnoten.**
*Santa Claus is based on Sinterklaas, but Sinterklaas and Christmas are 2 unrelated holidays in the Netherlands.
** Kruidnoten are commonly misnamed but also known as pepernoten.

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#50

The UK is constitutionally complex. We have 3 semi-autonomous regions each with different levels of power. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different criminal codes. In Scotland juries can return "Not proven" as well as guilty or not guilty. Drink driving thresholds are lower in Scotland. Scottish MPs can vote on laws that apply only to England, but not the other way round. Northern Ireland has a special constitution to share power between unionists (who want NI to be in Union with Great Britain) and nationalists (who want to reunite Ireland). Because of the peace treaty which ended the Northern Irish civil war (the troubles) which was signed by the UK and Irish governments the border in Ireland has to be kept open so we have an internal border between Britain and Northern Ireland because of Brexit.

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#51

Russia. Beer is not considered soft drink here and legal drinking age is 21. And no, we don’t keep bears as pets

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#52

We wash our a$$ with water! toilet paper is a BIG NO NO! (doesnt it feels scratchy??) . India

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#53

The word "kurwa" does not amuse educated Poles. It is a very heavy curse. For example, if a child in Poland at school said so, parents might have problems with social welfare. Educated people try to avoid this word and when you shout "kurwa" when you hear that someone is from Poland, it offends us, but we do not let it show. It is especially offensive to women, because the word "kurwa" means a prostitute.

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#54

That we only have one state runned store that sells alcohol (over 3,5% alcohol) and it’s only open between 10-19 (10-15 on Saturdays, Sundays closed). It’s a non profit business so the damage of alcohol is kept to a minimum. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass sometimes but 80% of us think it’s worth it to help others with a drinking problem. Also, the store has a huuuuuge selection to choose from and the people working there have extensive training and they can answer all your questions (‘What goes best with a strawberry cake?’).

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#55

The U.S. Believe it or not, not all of us are trigger happy, trump loving, overweight, country people. And Texas, Florida, and California aren't the only states. There are other states like Minnesota, Idaho, the Dakotas, etc.(Basically, the midwest needs to be remembered).

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#56

I’m surprised barely anyone has mentioned food-
Holy s**t, food in the UK is amazing
Everyone outside the UK is very much missing out... especially on Irn-Bru and Tunnocks.
(Lol, just a warning, I cannot guarantee people outside the UK do not have these foods-)
Irn-Bru - Typically seen as a Scottish drink... a very Scottish drink. I literally don’t know how to describe it, but it’s orange lol. And amazing.
Tunnocks Teacakes - S**t, these are awesome. It’s a biscuit, right, and there’s marshmallow on top. Then it’s all dipped in milk chocolate... Heaven
Just the Tunnocks brand - DELICIOUS
Oh god, the Cadbury over here is THE BEST. I’m pretty sure they have it in other countries, but nothing is as good as UK Cadbury. I’ve tried some from the USA and it was s**t compared to the UK one... sorry.

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#57

The Australian kangaroo population sits at anywhere between 15 and 50 million individuals. The human population is around 25 million.
Some think the obvious solution to overthrowing our kangaroo overlords is to eat them. I'm sure the dingoes agree...

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#58

That actually Brazil was who invented airplanes. Santos Dumont was the one who made airplanes, deposite some people thinking it was the wright brothers (or something like that) technically, América wouldn’t be able to go to the moon if santos dumont didn’t invent airplanes.

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#59

In the United States, many US citizens don't know it but the White House (President's residence) was built by slaves.

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#60

Not every American is the same as every other American. Not every part of America is the same as every other part.

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#61

We have at least 40 different dialects in germany - some of them even differs in the region they're spoken. 🙃

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#62

Where i live

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#63

Canada - not everyone in Canada likes Butter Tarts

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#64

India. We eat with hands..no spoon..no forks! we use spoons and all occasionally!

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#65

we're not all dumb. also for some reason us in California say "freeway" to refer to the highways and pretty much no one else does. but to us saying highway sounds ridiculous (you're not up high! and on the freeway you're free to go at a crazy high speed!)

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#66

New Zealand.
The electrical system that basically the whole world uses is called the "single wire earth return system".
It was invented by a New Zealander. LLoyd Mondano.

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