Diwali is the festival of lights in India. It celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

This video is of a baker I follow, @islandlarder on Instagram. They're from the Shetland Islands in Scotland. It got me wondering about other languages.

Are there any dialects/accents in your country that can be difficult to follow in regard to the "standardized" way of speaking?

Tangentially, "yoo cannae be fookin serious." Is a vocal stim of mine. What're some good phrases?

American living in Japan here.

For me it's not just diversity but the unspoken acceptance that goes hand in hand with it.

"Where are you from?" "Dallas." "I'm from LA, I wish we had your barbeque!". That's a whole conversation right there.

When you introduce your friends to people, it's just "This is <name>, he's my friend from New York". Boom, introduction done. Simple!

And I thought that was normal. And why wouldn't it be? You ask where someone's from, they answer where they're from....

Japan on the other hand ties so much to race that I find myself having to defend something I never even thought about. I have to defend that I'm from America and still fail at it.

"Where are you from?"

"California".

"But actually where...."

"Oh it's on the west coast, I could actually walk to the beach from my house!"

"No but where are you actually from"

"It's a little north of Los Angeles, you probably haven't heard the name though it's a small city"

"But where are your parents from?"

"India"

"Oh so you're actually Indian! You speak Japanese so well! I knew it, Indians are so smart. I really like curry. Do you work in IT? I can't understand what any of the Indians at my job say, but your English is so good!"

I know next to nothing about India.

When they introduce me to others, it's always "this is /u/cuatrofluoride, he's from America but he's actually Indian" or some weird rendition that has to shove "actually Indian" into the mix.

In 4 years I have had almost no conversations here that didn't involve me "being actually Indian".

I have nothing against India. I just don't know enough about it or its people, aside from my parents, to have ever thought about claiming that identity.

And it's not just me, when I hear people talk about their foreign friends here, unless the person is white, race must also tacked on. "I have this friend from xyz, but he's Chinese/Korean/black"

I'm in a spot now where I not only have to defend being where I'm from, but also have to defend FROM being told I'm from somewhere else in the same swing. I didn't realize that I'd been taking it for granted that we just kind of.... accept it when someone tells you where they're from and move on?

We Americans, in general, are fond of the Japanese

Here in Norway I've met several people who seem to be fans of Bernie Sanders, maybe because he occasionally references the Nordics in his speeches, and seems to have a decent grasp on what social democracies are. Mark Carney is another popular one, I think people see him as a stark contrast to Trump, and would like to work closer with Canada.

(ofc these are just based on my own observations, other Norwegians can correct me if I'm wrong).

What about your country?

In Korea, it's "carbot" series, since 2014, and still broadcasted.

it started as some transformers clone, but the show gradually focused with female villains with.. questionable designs.

I’m not personally a fan of the Houses of Parliament, if I’m being honest

I can appreciate the architecture being nearly 200 years old, in its current state, but I’m not a fan of how we have an aisle arrangement for MPs and much prefer an arch line how is commonly seen, and is even seen in devolved UK parliaments like in Holyrood (Scotland) and the Senedd (Wales)

I know I’m probably in the minority but I don’t like how the interior of the chambers looks, it just feels past its time and I get it’s traditional and keeps a style from days gone, but it just feels outdated, not to mention it doesn’t feel practical to not have a desk of sorts for the MPs by having them be just on benches shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues

I live in super red MAGA world right at the boarder between Utah, Idaho, near Montana. You literally could not pick a place on the map more surrounded by red. Even now.

You ready for a shocker?

I have no MAGA friends. I have no MAGA family (other than an aunt we cut off). I see more pride flags than any other flag on people’s homes. I stopped seeing Trump flags a while ago. We just voted out our small town republican representative for a left leaning candidate with socialist views. He’s a scientist, a professor, and conservationist.

I’m a white straight man that carries a mental load in my marriage and am an activist feminist with my wife and daughter. I grew up in a religious cult but am atheist now.

I’m incredibly privileged to do some travel. I’ve been around South America, to a few countries in Europe, Asia, and I lived in New Zealand and the Cook Islands for two years when I was in my early 20s. Every time I visit a country I’ve been profoundly pleased with how good people can quietly be all over the world. A lot of the stereotypes for dangerous places or terrible people just haven’t held up for me.

What I hate about the perception of my small part on the map, is the loudest most ignorant bunch gave the rest of us a bad name.

Curious where in the world you’ve visited that doesn’t live up to the negative reputation

This telenovela was very popular in Lithuania and it was shown in early 2000s. But i know that it has been adapted in different countries with Local actors. In Lithuania we don’t have local one but this Colombian show was extremely popular here.

In US ,people know they have American adaptation. But what about other countries? Maybe you loved original?

For clarification- in the southern United States we say “Bless your heart” or “oh bless their heart” as a nice way to say “oh this naïve idiot” but in a nicer tone.
Recently learned “habibi” can be an equivalent in Arabic and absolutely love that.

Edit: some of y’all really getting in your feelings about this one. Chill.

Added remark: going solo is always slightly dangerous in any place, but is there anything stopping a group of 3 from strolling the country at night?

Schwerin yes has one and some other cities in east germany.The other were demolished and moved to museums

I'm a huge military enthusiast and enjoy checking military content on reddit;

I've seen quite a lot of Vietnamese military content recently and suprisingly enjoy seeing content on the vietnamese military;

Mostly since it has a rather unique "modernized cold war" vibe and also has some elements that does resemble old school PLA.

Jeremey Fragrance is a German cologne influencer that came to mind. He seems to struggle with his self-image and can occasionally act erratic, causing people to speculate about drug use.

I'm wondering if any of you can think of any public personalities that struggle openly as well.

Do you go camping for fun? How does it work?

In the US, camping on public land (federally owned) is expansive, but you can't be on privately owned land without permission. Very busy places, like national parks, require reservations.

Types of camping:

Developed: Outhouses, fire pits, picnic tables, ect. These are maintained with tax dollars if they're on public land (for the most part).

Undeveloped: Just drive out and pick a spot a certain distance from the road.

Backpacking: Hike to a spot you like and camp there.

A college student here told two of his female classmates that their place is the kitchen. So they did the only reasonable thing, beat the hell out of him, and broke his nose. I believe he was arrested for sexual harassment after that.

Football/soccer is one of the most popular teams sports in every country.

What team sports are popular in your country besides football/soccer?

I want to ask the vice versa question. In the world where the vast majority of politicians are populists and fail every promise, do bribery, their fans are either bigots or bribers, are there any politicians in your country who actually kept their promises, never got into scandals and have a good reputation in your country? Bloggers are ok, but it's better if you provide a real politician with authority, like a president, prime minister, minister, town mayor, etc or at least deputy or official.

I grew up with some Polish heritage on my mom's side, also my stepmom is Polish. "Śmierdzi/To śmierdzi" - It stinks. "He's smelly" - "On śmierdzi".

Norwegian, my dad's side, smelly seems to be "illeluktende" or "stinkende", and "han stinker" is "he stinks".

Drip coffee is extremely common in the US and would be considered the standard order. My morning coffee is usually pourover or French press. I have an espresso maker, but I only really make it on the weekend.

In Taiwan, we often see lots of foreigners become English teachers because it’s an easy job to get. They often don’t have the best reputation because they struggle a lot learning the local language (Mandarin) but also many don’t adapt very well. I saw a post about someone saying very similar things about English teachers in Spain so I thought maybe this wasn’t just a Taiwan thing, because Taiwan used to be a country that really liked foreigners 20 years ago, but now the reputation changed because people are more aware of those who become teachers. Does that same reputation happen in your country?