Surprisingly Intercultural

The Mango Scandal

2010-04-26T20:04:00.000+02:00

I used to looove mango as a child. The sweet-sour orange fruitiness with a slight flavor of cedars, could there be any better fruit?! When my mom brought them home on summer days I didn't know where they came from. Today I do and as a consequence I don't buy them anymore.
I was skyping with one of my friends from one of the biggest mango-growing countries, India, just the other day. She is a very sweet girl from Pune. Two years ago when I visited her and her husband they told me about the mango season. The fresh Indian mango is nothing like the unripe green desaster we get in the supermarkets here. They were talking about the quality of their mango with dreamy eyes, in short, they absolutely made my mouth water.
But then they told me that the best mangoes never reach the Indian people. They are shipped to the international markets right away.
Now, two years later, things have gotten worse. It is mango season right now and my friend told me they've had a single mango and only because someone has given it to them. The price of mango is so high that she simply can't afford anymore - and she belongs to the Indian middle class. The wikipedia entry listing uses of mango in Indian and Pakistani cuisine stretches three paragraphs. How will that work when no one can afford them anymore?

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I told her that I don't buy mango in Germany, though I love them, as they are either unripe or brought by plane, which is environmentally insane. I didn't dare telling her how many mangoes I see rotting in our supermarkets until noone wants them anymore...
That's a downside of globalization.
What do you think? Can we make a change buy responsible shopping or are we helping the markets of the country of origin by buying tropic fruit? Which fruit are "exotic" in your country? Do you buy it?

Series: Cultural ambassadors: SINGAPORE (Cross-Culture Email Connection)

2010-04-21T16:01:00.000+02:00

Wow, our next cultural ambassador is from Singapore. We hardly get any news in Germany from this little country so I am super curious about getting a personal review about what living in Singapore means. And finally someone who doesn't eat the regular western breakfast of cereals or rolls...

Hi Everyone!

Singapore representative here! :)

A short description of your country and its position in the world,
including something you like about it and something you don't like
We are a tiny island in South East Asia, near the equator. We do not have the 4 seasons, the weather here is usually hot, wet, or hot, damp & wet. Yep, so I've always felt a mixture of envy and relief that we do not have snow, beautiful snow, and the scary devastating snowstorms and other natural disasters. Our greatest resource is our people! Or rather, the only resource... This is what I usually tell people when I have to introduce my country!

Like: We don't really have many homeless people sleeping on the streets... :)
I also like that English is the most common language here, I'm Chinese but I'm much more comfortable using English!

Dislike: Due to our lack of natural resources maybe, but since people are our only asset, the education system is crazily competitive! Luckily I managed to scrape by and still have a childhood. Kids nowadays are so overwhelmed with tuition, ballet, music, art and other random classes that I wonder if they really know what they are doing...

Now on to the Wiki facts:

Singapore is unique as it is the only country in Asia which has English as its first language. The population of Singapore is highly cosmopolitan and diverse. It includes many Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Caucasians and Asians of different origins.

Singapore has one of the highest percentage of foreigners in the world. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector in Singapore.

Singapore is the 5th wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita and 23rd wealthiest in terms of GDP (nominal) per capita. The city state is also the second most crowded country in the world after Monaco.

A description of what you eat for breakfast
Weekdays: I take breakfast in the staff canteen in my office building. The foods available in the mornings are usually Malay/Chinese cuisine. Some of my favourite Malay foods are Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice) & Mee Goreng (Fried Noodles) as pictured.
Weekends: I like to laze in bed and eat random foods! I usually wake up late and have brunch instead.

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A short description of a typical work day
My work day starts at about 8am after my breakfast with my colleagues. I work in an MNC as a business analyst of sorts. So I communicate frequently with my fellow colleagues in other worldwide subsidiaries. I try to reply to my emails as early in the day as possible, as some of the people I liaise with are in the USA, my morning is their evening, so there is only a short window of time where we are both available! The rest of the work day is filled with internal discussions, crunching numbers and churning out reports. Lunch is again at the staff canteen, but the variety of food is usually more exciting than at breakfast! Then a mad rush to reply to emails at the end of the work day, as I also liaise with people in Europe! My evening is their early morning, and again if I miss the opportunity to catch them I have to wait till the next day! The boredom of the work day is relieved with coffee breaks, toilet breaks, and random gossip with my colleagues. :)
Due to the fact that my office building is located in the Industrial sector, there is not much public transport available. Being a large company, my job perks include free company bus rides to and from work! There are various pick-up and drop-off points, I'm so lucky that one of them is near my house! So it's like primary school with the school bus. No need to squeeze in crowded trains/buses!

A description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)
I like staying home. Really! It amazes many people, including some of my close friends that I would rather sleep in and laze around with a good book rather than have a fun day out at Town! Most tourists who have been to Singapore would know about Orchard Road and its many shopping centres. I don't really like crowded places so I hardly ever drop by! I like to do my shopping at less crowded times. Besides, surfing swap-bot and packing swaps are fun activities for the weekend, right? :P

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A list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country
For the younger generation, English (or rather Singlish) is the most commonly used language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish

For my grandparents' (and older) generation though, many of them speak only dialects or Malay. Singapore used to have many kampungs where the Chinese and Malays lived, worked and played together! Thus my granduncle could speak fluent Malay, but could never pronounce "McDonald's"! :P My ancestors from my mother's and father's side of the family came from roughly the same region in China, but the Hokkien they speak is different! My younger brother and I thus have a unique mish-mash Hokkien dialect which sounds pretty funny coupled with our slightly English accent.

Description of some national specialties/products
(Please note that due to our population mix and culture, we don't really have "Singapore" anything. But these have been modified to suit our tastebuds, similar foods in their country of origin might taste very different!)

Ya Kun Kaya Toast http://www.yakun.com.sg/
I don't think it's all that great, but we have tourists buying bottled kaya and taking it back to their home countries!
Delicious over warmed toast and great coffee! Maybe it's the sit around, while away time allure of it all...

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Bubble Tea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea
Besides Coca Cola, this is my other favourite drink in the whole world!
It's crazy expensive in non-Asian countries I think, so I'm glad it's super cheap here! an average cup costs less than a third of a cuppa from Starbucks, and it's tastes so heavenly! :):):) OK I'm excited just thinking about it right now. Definitely not for calorie counters, there is ZERO nutritional value in any of its ingredients. But oh so lovely. I've tried this is Taiwan where it originated, and Hong Kong where it's super popular too. They all taste different, yet they have their own merits. Anyway just try it if you ever get the chance to! I order you to! :P

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A description of the role of men and women in your country
The guys like to complain that only they have to go for mandatory national service in the army for about 2.5 years! But they do get more pay as compensation for their delay in entering the workforce and for their contributions to national security. Until they can get guys pregnant, I believe national service is a small price to pay for being a "guy"!
As a girl I would say that gender equality is not perfect in Singapore, but it is much better in other countries. We don't get outright rejections for being female, but somehow when it comes to top management positions and politicians etc, females are still the very small minority. This could be partly due to the fact that many women still shun such positions as they believe (Asian values) that a woman's place is in the home. This is less evident in the younger generation, so maybe one day we can have a female Prime Minister or President!

A type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country)
Here's something we make for the Lunar New Year festivities! Fish sounds like "abundance" in the Chinese language, so it's featured prominently in Chinese culture for prosperity!
http://www.crafty-crafted.com/animal-crafts/red-packet-fish-tree-ornament/

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I hope you've enjoyed reading this! :)

I really did and I hope you liked it as well. I had some questions left unanswered in the end, though. Did any of you taste bubble tea and ya kun kaya toast? What does it taste like? Anything you could compare it to? And I wondered about the lack of homeless people in the streets. Is it like in Germany, that they are driven from the city centres by the police to create a nicer "appearance", or is it that there is such a great state support system that there simply aren't any? Or is it any other reason?

I hope I'll one day be able to visit Singapore properly, like on a stopover to Australia or something like that.

If you liked this, also check out the other contributions:

Brazil
USA II

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to contribute your own story (especially if your country isn't featured yet)

DISCLAYMER:

All umarked text in this post was supplied by a third party. The opinions expressed are not the same as those of the author of this blog. According to §§8 to 10 of the German Tele-Media Act, I am not obligated to monitor third party information provided or stored on my website. However, Ishall promptly remove any content upon becoming aware that it violates the law. My liability in such an instance shall commence at the time I become aware of the respective violation.

Series: Cultural Stereotype Buster: Western people are more hygienic - NOT!

2010-04-15T15:25:00.000+02:00

Western people are so much more hygienic. They don't eat with their hands, don't spit on the floor, have superclean flats and streets, don't blow their nose with their hands, you know what I'm talking about... When I encountered other cultures more intensely this world view that I had absorbed from my environment was suddenly challenged.
The first time was with an Italian friend of mine on my stay abroad in Ireland. A group of some of my international student friends was discussing hygiene and my Italian friend complained that there wasn't a bidet in any bathroom in Ireland. He asked how you are supposed to clean yourself after the toilet without a bidet. My Dutch friend and I told him that that was what the paper was for. He looked at us in disgust and said: "But that's not enough to clean yourself!"
You haven't seen a bidet yet? Neither had I when I went to Italy for the first time as a teen. This is what I discovered:

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As you can see, it's a very low washbasin. My first thought was that it looked like a men's toilet. My parents were so kind as to explain... Still, being told how to use it and being able to use it properly are two different things. If you ever come in need of using one, here's a description of how to handle the situation (believe me, a bidet is not self-explanatory, really).
In India I have seen heaps of trash on the street. People spit on the ground in public and had no (!) toilet paper. On the other hand, Indians keep the left hand off the food at all times. One hand is the one for the bathroom and the other for the food. I guess many Indians don't mind if us Europeans struggle to eat with only one hand and use both, but they'd never do it themselves. And if you've ever tried to rip some bread off a loaf with one hand you know a second hand comes in handy. If you're saying this is just a small exception to an otherwise less hygienic people let me tell you you are wrong. How do you drink straight from a bottle? Well, you surely put the bottle to your lips and - Not the Indians! They pour the water in their mouth without touching the bottle with their lips. They use their right hand to hold the bottle to keep it above the mouth and then pour the water. Unfortunately I don't think there is a video online showing how it is done. Drinking like that requires quite some practice. Lucky for me it is warm in India and it wasn't so bad that I spilled water all over my clothes...
Eating with only one hand and not drinking straight from the bottle are both measures that reduce the risk of infection by bacteria in the warm and humid Indian climate.
Other Asian countries also have hygiene habits that are stricter than Europe's. Whenever I see pictures of streets in Japan and Singapore I am amazed by the cleanliness of the streets. Not one piece of paper in any of the images. They must either be really disciplined photoshoppers or they just have much cleaner streets than us Europeans. I know the punishment for littering is quite high in Singapore and I'm not sure about Japan, but rules like that wouldn't work that well here.
How about you? Did you visit a country that had much stricter hygiene habits than your home country? How did you feel? Did you follow or stick to your own system?

Series: Cultural Ambassadors: ESTONIA (Cross-Culture Email Swap)

2010-04-12T08:05:00.001+02:00

Wow, our next cultural ambassador is from Estonia. I am amazed. I have never had the chance to meet anyone from Estonia and I am very happy to learn more about the country and its culture this way.

I tried to make some parts more easily understandable but only when I knew exactly what was the intended meaning. It was interesting to see that many of the grammar used in the text had the same structure as German grammar (which I see a lot in the English texts of my German students). There must be some kind of language relation. And not only language, we also eat black bread a lot. Many foreigners don't like it as it is quite hard, but it is soo savoury and delicious.
I am also happy that we get some great pictures to illustrate Estonia's culture for us.

a description of what you eat for breakfast
We eat usually sandwiches and drink coffee. We eat a lot of black bread.

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Sometimes we eat white bread too. Sometimes we toast our bread, but mostly we do not toast it. We put only butter on bread and cheese, sausage, ham, pate

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or fish.

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When my son went to school he ate porridge every morning and I know that many people do that. But I do not. Sometimes I eat muesli and yoghurt. I drink 2 cups of coffee every morning.

a short description of a typical work day
Typical work day is from 8 a.m to 5 p.m and lunch is 12 a.m to 1 p.m. from Monday to Friday. That's how I worked at most offices.Our workweek is 40 hours long. I worked too so many years, but now I work in a newsstand and I work from 7 a.m to 8 p.m. Mostly shops work from 9 or 10 a.m to 6 or 7 p.m. Big shopping centres and food shops open from 8 or 9 a.m to 9 or 10 p.m.

a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)
My favorite day off is at home with my computer or books. Sometimes we went out to walk or to some culture event. Sometimes I went to capital city for shopping or culture events. My favorite holiday is when I can go travel. We travel a lot in Estonia, as well. In the evenings most people watch TV, but I am not a big fan of TV.

a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like
Estonia is in the European Union. My country is again free after long occupation of USSR. The country is poor and needs time to arrive to same level of other European countries. Our prices will arrive soon, but our salaries will not. In 2011 they wish to go to euro. We have a lot of unemployed people now. Our economy is bad, but we hope that this will go better soon. In free Estonia life is better as it was in USSR.

a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country
We have only one official language and this is Estonian. My language have some dialects in South Estonia, but they all speak too correct Estonian language. In USSR time many russian or people from other nations of USSR came here . So here you can hear every day Russian language too. Many Russian will not study Estonian and say that Estonia tempts they. But with years it will go better. When I work I must use the Russian language every day too. In North-East Estonia we have cities, where mostly Russian speakers live. In Narva there are only 4 % Estonians. Narva is the border town of Russia.

a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are celebrated.
1.Christmas and New Years Eve. In USSR time Christmas was forbidden, but most Estonians celebrated that at home. I think that Estonians celebrate this like most other people. Some went to church, some not. We have a Christmas tree - a fir that we decorate. In the evening of the 24th of Dec Santa Claus comes and gives gifts. We eat pork, blood sausage and sauerkraut. In the evening of the 24th of Dec we have a beautiful tradition. All people go to graveyards and put candles. It's very beautiful in evening, when is dark and in graveyards are thousands of candles.
2. Jaanipäev - Midsummer, St.John's Day. 23. June: In the evening and at night there are big fires everywhere and people have parties outside.
3. Easter - we color eggs, made pasha and bring to home pussy willows:

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the role of religion in your country
Religion has not got a big role in Estonia. Most people do not go to church. In USSR time religion was illegal and so most younger people had no religion. The biggest church is the Lutherian church, but we have too many orthodox churches. These are most for russian people. On third place are Baptist Churches.

a description of the role of men and women in your country
Women do most housework and are at home with small kids, but in all other things they are like men. Both worked full time. Statistics say that men receive more salary, but they work more as bosses, too. They both have equal rights.

a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed
Russian, Ukrainian and other nationalities from the former USSR. They had their culture centers. In my town are many Finnish people. They will come to live here after retired. Here they have a cheaper life. They have their organisation for their own culture events.

description of some national specialties/products
Skype - this was Estonian at first, now they sell that. I do not know other products that very many people from foreign counties might know.

a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for
Arvo Pärt - classic music compositor. Neeme Järvi, Eri Klas - famous conductors in the world. Jaan Kross, Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Eduard Vilde - famous writers. Toomas Hendrik Ilves - our president. Lennart Meri - our first president of the second free Estonian Republic. We have many famous sportsmen: Erki Nool, Andrus Veerpalu, Kristina šmigun, Gert Kanter, Paul Keres, Kristjan Palusalu...

a type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country)
This craft is from my hometown - Haapsalu rätik (Haapsalu shawl). That was done by senior people and now this is again popular and girls study it in school.
Haapsalu shawl is a traditional rectangular size up to 100x100 150x150 cm. The towel is composed of three parts: the central part of the purl and the fine-woven and sewn into a separate lace. He doubled as a fine woven woolen yarn needles No. 3-4. Finished shawl is washed in a warm mild soap, with medium voltage and framed immediately. Was the most revered white shawl. The material used to be single or double wool yarn, preferably with lamb's wool. The right Haapsalu shawl was pulled through the ring.
http://www.needleartsbookshop.com/knitting_books/Haapsalu_Shawl.html

http://www.muuseum.haapsalu.ee/index.php?lk=10006&show=10073

Here is a little picture as an illustration of the pretty Haapsalu shawl:

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It is like the most delicate knitted lace. I've never seen anything like that, very sweet.
I also found the part about the different festivals very interesting. I like that Midsummer is celebrated with big fires. Here in Germany these fires and parties have shifted to the Christian context and are now on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. What time of the year and occasion does your country have bonfires?
The tradition of putting candles in the graveyards on Christmas Eve also sounds beautiful. What a serene atmosphere that must be.
Lastly, I found a picture and a recipe for Pasha, the Easter dish that is mentioned in the text. It can also be done completely vegan.

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I hope you enjoyed this interesting peek into Estonian culture as much as I did. If you are interested, check out the other countries as well:

USA I

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to contribute your own story (especially if your country isn't featured yet)
DISCLAYMER:

SERIES : Cultural ambassadors: USA (Cross-Culture Email Connection)

2010-04-08T08:18:00.000+02:00

I am happy to announce that we have a second contribution from the USA for our series of cultural ambassadors, this time from the great lake area in the north. Our lovely fellow swapper will give us another insightful view on a country with a young but rich history.

• a description of what you eat for breakfast
Usually, my breakfast is some fruit and some water or juice.
The "typical" American breakfasts include eggs, sausage or bacon, toast and hash browns or pancakes.
I do not eat animal products, so my breakfast is not typical of my country.
Some people stop at a fast food restaurant to grab a quick breakfast.
McDonald's seems to be one of these most frequented places.

• a short description of a typical work day
Most people drive to work or take the bus (public transportation.)
As for me, I am unemployed outside of my home - so my workday goes something like this:
wake up, log on to the pc, feed my husband when he wakes up, (if we have to go to the grocery, we go then), maintain the house, eat something, do my crafts, prep dinner (or sometimes we go out), sometimes in the evening my husband and I may watch a movie together.
When he is not here (I am a military wife), my day goes something like the above - but sometimes I will skip dinner.

• a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)
The weekends are pretty much lazy days around here.
When Jacob is not home, I sometimes take long walks and window shop.

• a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like
America is said to be the policemen of the world. I do not like this aspect, so much - but am proud of my husband for fighting for our country.

• a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country
English is the primary language.
Spanish is becoming more prevalent.

• a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed
Actually, Anglo-American people are quickly becoming the per capita minority.
Most of our neighborhoods around where I live are African-American and Latin immigrants.
In our areas, everyone seems to work toward getting along.
The biggest minorities that we have a problem with getting equal treatment lately are the disabled and the homosexual.

• a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are celebrated.
Most of the holidays celebrated around here are Christian based.
The two biggest being Christmas (the celebrated birth of Jesus) and Easter (the celebrated resurrection of Jesus).
Gifts and baskets are exchanged respectively.
On July 4th, we celebrate Independence Day with a big parade and fireworks.

• description of some national specialties/products
The United States exports from about $906 USD billion to $1.057 trillion USD worth of goods & services to the rest of the world annually.
Our main exports are:
agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%
industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%
capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%
consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%
Our main imports are:
agricultural products 4.9%
industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%)
capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery)
consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture, toys)

• a description of the role of men and women in your country
In our country, men and women are supposed to be equal under the law.
Both are potential house spouses; both are potential wage earners.
A woman does not have to be married to own property any longer, although that was so at one point in our history.
Still today, women generally make less than men at the same jobs (glass ceiling).
There is no specified role for men and women.

• a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for
An example of an American Artist from my country is Chris Isaak.
He is am American rock musician who was born in Stockton, California in 1956.

• a type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country)
Native American crafts include making dream catchers and peace pipes.
Sadly, the United States is one of the only countries who denies their Native heritage and culture for the most part.

• the role of religion in your country
Although the constitution was founded with Christian principles, our first amendment grants us the freedom to worship as we choose.
Religious freedoms are granted for every citizen.
There is no country religion.

Alright, for foreigners like me, I need to add some pics and videos for clarification. Hash browns?

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Ah, little patties from mashed potatoes.
Many countries have these with slight variations. The Irish are very proud of their "boxty", us Germans like our "Kartoffelpuffer" and in India I had some spicy "potato tikki" that I still drool over. Over here, however, we don't eat these patties for breakfast, we have them for lunch with apple sauce (boiled apples either puréed or with some big chunks left in). Many Kids love it. How about your country? What's your potato patty recipe and how and when do you eat them?

Chris Isaak might also need clarification. He calls for a video. There we go:

In 1991 people were still wearing these giant bold color suits and Elvis hair? Wow, I really forgot.

Dreamcatchers are also not necessarily well known outside the U.S. For those of you who haven't seen dream catchers before, it is a traditional talisman in some Native American tribes, such as the Lakota.

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The Native Americans create these delicate objects to prevent bad dreams. Depending on the legend, good dreams are let through the hole in the middle whereas the bad dreams are caught or the other way around. I had great fun creating a dream catcher in school when I was little. It is quite complex but yields a wonderful result. If you'd like to make one yourself here is a link to an original tutorial by a Native American. Or, for those who prefer video tutorials, here you go:

Something bad Germany and the US share is that apart from the above mentioned exports these two countries are also amongst the biggest arms dealers in the world. This is mostly hidden from the population. One of my friends works in a shipping company and one day told us in surprise that there was a shipment of 300 transport tanks to a middle eastern country. It was not in the news, not anywhere in the media. This creates in my opinion a very hypocritical diplomatic position. Sell weapons for peace...

To end with something nice, pictures of a 4th of July parade are on the first contribution from the USA, check the "ambassador" of the north east of the US, quite interesting. Comparing the two is also very insightful.

I am very thankful for this great personal review of our fellow swapper.

Also check out the other contributions if you are interested:
Brazil
Norway
Italy
Netherlands

Easter and Update

2010-04-06T08:34:00.001+02:00

All of you who celebrate Easter, I hope you had a nice one.

So, what do we do in Germany? My family used to have a big Easter breakfast (without guests, just my sister and my parents). After that the kids would search eggs in the garden, or, if the weather was bad, inside the house. Today my future hubbie's parents and my mom were visiting our grandparents and my sis was on holiday, so we organized the breakfast for whoever was left (not much, let me tell you...) I did some last minute watercolor egg painting and we had rolls and a walnut ciabatta I had prepared and eggs, different kinds of cheeses, sausages, smoked salmon, jam and a lot more. In the picture you can see our dining room table after the breakfast. All the books you see there are cook books... I have a little obsession.

So, what else is planned after one month of this blog? We have a few more contributions of the cultural ambassador series (cross culture email swap) which I am working on right now. I have worked a little on the layout as well and will have to start thinking about a header soon. I am also preparing my second tutorial, still something Japanese, I can tell you. And then there are all the little topics that come to my mind. Oh, and some travelling experience. If there's anything specific you'd like to see or contribute, don't hesitate to let me know.
Thanks to all my readers for your interest and comments, I hope you'll enjoy future contributions as much as I do.

Yours,

Charlotte

The best skin color in the world - tanning, whitening, or what?

2010-04-05T09:15:00.003+02:00

In Germany and many western countries a healthy tan (not the overdone "coin-mallorca" one) is regarded as quite attractive. I guess the reason is that it means you have the money to go on holiday to a nice and sunny destination. Historically, being tanned was often not regarded attractive because it signified that you belonged to a lower class. Only farmers and street merchants had to work outside where their skin would get darker from the sun. To appear more "noble", people even practised skin whitening by applying (often lead-based) powders.
Today, on the other hand, there is a whole tanning industry at work providing us with a more or less fake tan. Tanning spray, self-tanning lotion, showers, tanning beds... I know there are also people out there who tan for health reasons and I'm not talking about that.

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The text under "self tan" says "wonderfully even tan without sun".
When I was in India, the situation was absurdly reversed. Darker people were regarded much less attractive. My pretty bland skin color over here was suddenly regarded very nice. This shows also when you look at posters of Bollywood stars: with some you can hardly tell they are not white.

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There is no difference for Indian men or women. I was quite surprised when I heard that Sharukh Khan was promoting skin whitening cream for guys. The mechanism is simple but effective: dark = unpopular and stupid, fair = popular and smart. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad, have a look:

So, cappucino/very light brown is the answer for everybody? Nope, that'd be too easy. Here's an ad for snow white. Not as funny, but interesting:

It might have been a coincidence but on my tour through the north of India my driver was of a very dark shade, his sister with a university degree as a teacher on the other hand was a lot lighter. My driver and I had trouble communicating as he barely spoke English and I almost no Hindi. I understood, however, that he repeatedly talked apologetically about his own dark complexion and told me about his pretty sister.
I wonder how much of that is coming naturally as a desire for what is rare or has a certain luxury connotation (being able to afford holidays or belonging to the ruling class) and how much is industry, getting us to feel bad so we buy stuff we wouldn't otherwise.
After all this I enjoyed hearing about the operation beautiful campaign where you leave affirmative messages in public. I found one of the handwritten "you are beautiful" notes once and it really made my day. Have a try; I will start taking some post-it notes with me from now on, so I can add a touch of feel-good here and there (as a teacher having post-its is always handy anyway).
I also like this charity project that helps young black girls explore beauty through photography. I think there needs to be a bigger effort to counteract the influence of advertising.
My reader "Onelovelygurl" was so kind as to remind me of the Dove campaign to show more natural women in advertising. Of course, these were also digitally manipulated, but it is a step in the right direction.

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One of our most famous women magazines, BRIGITTE, now only uses "real people" as models. Many of them are still almost as thin as models, but it looks a bit more healthy on the whole. Some people complained that no one wanted to see "ugly" people showing off fashion (they were still really pretty and had makeup and all, they were just not skinny size). What do you think?

Do you know about any campaigns that make a change by supporting inner beauty ?

SERIES: Unravelling Foreign Craftiness: KIRIGAMI

2010-04-05T00:14:00.000+02:00

Oh, I get the "being a noob"-feeling smacked in the face so often since I've started blogging a month ago. Now I have accidentally deleted one of my best posts (as I thought I was just deleting duplicate copies). I have a backup, but all your lovely comments are lost. I am soo sorry and sad. You're probably not going to make this mistake, but let me tell you, always check which version you are actually deleting. I also have to redo all the links :-( So here is the recovered version:

Part one of uncovering foreign craftiness will feature Japan. Some of you might know Kirigami already. I'll give you a little portrait about the craft, some resources to get started and my own experience when I tried my luck. I used to do kirigami a little as a kid (cutting snowflakes...) but apart from that I didn't have a lot of experience. Then one of my swap-partners and first blog followers was so sweet to send me a kirigami starter kit. Also see the next post for a tutorial of a kirigami window hanging.

Craft

Kirigami

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History and Role in the Country
As you could have guessed, the first part of the name "kirigami" means "to cut" and the second "paper". Cutting the paper is often combined with folding the paper.
I couldn't find a lot about the history and role of kirigami. Several sites mention that kirigami goes back a long time and was used to create offerings for the gods in temples. It later became recognized as an art form. Today many primary school children learn it by cutting snowflakes or making paper doll chains.
Artists on the other hand create amazingly complex designs as you can see on this page (that is also a good starting place for information about kirigami).

How it is done
There are millions of ways to do kirigami. You can fold the paper first and then cut away shapes to create symmetry or even fold in between. It completely depends which project you'd like to do. Have a look at what you get when you search for kirigami in flickr. Amazing variety, isn't it?!

The snowflake is a good place to start as the complexity is only determined by your skill, it doesn't take too long (not like an altered book project), the ingredients are cheap and the results are very interesting designs. And you won't necessarily end up with a snowflake as my how-to shows...

Here's a tutorial of how to create the basic snowflake:

Here's a more complex one (although the background music makes is quite annoying after this long winter...). As you can see, there are different folding techniques.

Ok, but what do you do with all the snowflakes you created? This designer's site has some awesome and stylish products made from kirigami designs. He makes them from fabric or uses the designs as stencils.
Aren't these coasters nice:

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If you are in a place that has internet but no paper, this site has a game that lets you cut snowflake designs (with straight lines). It is also nice practice at times.

Here's a video that shows you how to do a three dimensional christmas tree with star on top by combining folding and cutting. Not really in season, but it's lovely.

Beginner's review
Difficulty:
Totally flexible. When you start with the snowflake even kids can do it and at the same time there is no upper limit. The complexity of the design will reflect your skill. If you aim higher and attempt some pop-up shapes or architecture, the difficulty increases significantly. Beware as you can become frustrated if you aim too high.

Equipment:
You only need good paper scissors and paper. My scissors had a round point which was helpful as it didn't get caught in the details I had already cut. A sharp point is probably better for details though. Use thin paper for snowflakes so the multiple folds don't get too bulky. I used thin origami paper. You can use different colors so you'll get more than just white snowflakes.

Fun factor:
High. It was fun to do something I've done as a child but now on a more advanced level. Also, cutting snowflakes doesn't take long and the end result is always a nice surprise. So five stars for fun factor!

How to make your own chai

2010-04-02T16:24:00.004+02:00

Ek cup chai krapya. That's how you order chai in India, not "one chai latte elephant vanilla decaf, please". True, the sweet, made-from-concentrate chai you can get at coffee shops and the like taste nice and when I'm shopping I also sometimes get one on the go. But that's not the real deal. Also you can't get it when you are at home with some close friends and need something to accompany a great conversation or soothe the mind.

I will share my tried and true recipe with you, but first some clarification.

Chai is a wonderful word that is used in different cultures for "tea". I know of Iran and India, but there are more, I am sure. In Germany we use the word "Tee", like the English word. What we mean by it is simply tea leaves brewed or boiled in hot water. In the Middle East and parts of Asia tea is often combined with milk and spices. During my time in India I fell in love with Indian chai. It was the most common drink apart from water, I'd say. Every time my driver stopped somewhere, he offered me a small glass/plastic cup (about 100ml) of the sweet hot chai. It is in essence black tea brewed with milk and water and added spices. The combination of spices is what influences the quality of the chai. It is very difficult to get the combination just right so that neither ginger, cinnamon nor cloves are too dominant. Whenever I drink a cup of a perfectly harmoneous blend, what comes to my mind is the word "serenity". Good chai never fails to calm me down.

You need:

So, here we go:

Homemade Masala Chai

Black tea (Nice quality and/or organic preferred. First or second flush are good) no tea bags!

Milk (anyone tried soy?)

Same amount of water

Ginger, sliced (about one small thumb size, like 3 cm/1 inch)

2 Cloves

A cinnamon stick

4-6 cardamom pods (slightly crushed so the tea can get inside)

1. Fill a medium sized pot (mine fits about 1.5 liters) half with water and half with milk.

2. Fill a tea egg/sock/filter with 2 tablespoons (not heaped) of the black tea. Add the spices (you can also put them straight in the water, they are easy to pick out). Add to the pot.

3. Heat and simmer for about 1.5 hours, tasting occasionally whether the spices are getting too sharp.

4. Add some sugar to taste and enjoy.

Too much effort? Believe me, it's worth it.

Funnily enough the recipe is from my favorite Indian restaurant over here in Bremen. The people here are super friendly and the atmosphere is very relaxing. Check here for some local interculturality, if you want. You can see the owner on the website, who I've known for quite a while now and who was so sweet as to share his recipe with me. Although the restaurant is called Bombay he is not from Mumbai. Not all Italian restaurant owners can be from Venetia either, right?! So much for cultural stereotypes.

Bringing home recipes from your holidays can be so great or such a disappointment. My family often brought home wine and cheese (Pecorino) from our holidays in Italy only to discover that they had tasted soo much better under the Italian sun. Other recipes become family favorites and remind everybody of the wonderful time everybody had. Here are two really nice examples by prominent bloggers:

"Yes and Yes" has a wonderful collection of her favorite recipes from her travels around the world.

Check "Sweet Paul" for a wonderful travel story and a hearted recipe. (Hello Paul, I just bought Ricotta yesterday and am going to prepare your dish right now. Thanks so much!)

Let me know if you try the chai recipe yourself or if you have any questions. What is "tea" in your language?

Featured on one pretty thing!

2010-04-02T11:28:00.001+02:00

Wahoo! I am so happy that Rachel of "One Pretty Thing" has linked my tutorial on her site.

This is sooo amazing. I have followed her blog for weeks everyday. It is like a giant craft book for free. And she posts every day. Twice. How amazin is that?! Check it out.

SERIES: Unravelling Foreign Craftiness: KIRIGAMI tutorial

2010-04-01T10:24:00.002+02:00

Kirigami Window Hanging

When the spring cleaning is done and the windows are nice and shiny again, it is time for spring window hangings. I'll use my recently unravelled kirigami skills for this little project. It only takes about 30 min. plus a little extra for petting the cat if you have one.

1. Fold the paper along the guidelines in the videos of my previous post. Draw the design on your folded piece of paper if you want to. As you can see I used a very basic square folding technique and still the end result is quite nice. If you want to have a window hanging that is pretty from both sides you have to be really careful with pre-drawing on the paper. That's why I didn't do it.

2. If you don't draw the design on the paper, have some style elements in mind. I was thinking vintage floral tapestry for spring, which gave me enough inspiration to cut away. Just start somewhere. Leave some of the folded diagonals standing, otherwise your design will fall apart. You can cut away much more than I did, though. If you don't cut away the upper left corner, you'll get a less-snowflaky and more square design.
My first tip: Don't do sharp u-turns with your scissors, it will leave marks on your pretty paper. Rather move at tight corners from two sides. And always hold together the layers of the paper close to where you're cutting.

3. Now my second tip: Immediately cut away a little outside every shape you cut. You can see in the picture above that I cut about 1,5 mm / 1/9th of an inch around every leaf and blossom. This is a huge help as it will prevent shapes touching, which looks bad. It also keeps the distance between shapes roughly equal which helps you to create a lacy quality in your design. The width of this margin will determine the intricacy of your design.
Some recommend not moving the scissors but only the paper. I never manage to stick to rules and it also didn't work when I got to the inner parts of my design. I held my paper like this, carefully bending away parts to be able to access the others.

Now my future hubbie let in the neighbor's cat and since I'm a complete slave to cats I didn't move anymore and had to shoot pics from where I sat.

What happens when the paper shifts? Try to align the layers again. If you are in a tight spot continue first and correct the mistake somewhere else.

4. Cats always pick the spot that is the center of attention, don't they?! At least it is hiding a huge pile of paper und it.
Time for unfolding, carefully as not to raise the attention of the cat with its potentially devestating claws. Press the folds flat with your fingers. I was too much of a sissy to iron my design.

5. Now for the last step just run the whole thing through the laminating machine and cut around it. You can stick it to the window as I did or punch a hole and hang it. Please don't mind the ugly winter gardens... Nice spring project instead of the ole' snowflake.

SERIES Cultural ambassadors: USA (Cross-culture email connection)

2010-03-29T10:02:00.001+02:00

Today we'll get a personal insight into life in the US aside from the popular media. This contribution is from the north east of the USA. I again added some pics as illustration in the end.

Hey! I'm a 19 year old college student in the United States. I hope you enjoy reading my answers!

a description of what you eat for breakfast

I’m not very in to breakfast- when I eat it it’s usually a bagel on the run. When I’m home my mom will sometimes make a big breakfast for my family. We’ll have biscuits, eggs easy over, and bacon. My dad usually makes orange juice, but I’ll always have a glass of Cranberry Pomegranate juice (slightly addicted…) Either that or my father will make pancakes. Depending on the season he’ll put blueberries inside of them, or we’ll make a peach topping for them. So fantastic!

a short description of a typical work day

I’m a full time student. I will, however, describe my most stressful day of the week- Monday. I wake up at 8am to get ready for my 9am Psychology class. After class I walk to a nearby elementary school to do observations for my Education class. Straight after that I walk back to campus to grab lunch with my friends. At 2pm I have my Gothic Literature class- it’s great because I have two friends in the class with me, but the teacher has no concept of the work load she’s giving us! At 3pm I have lab for my Geography class, and then about a half hour break before my Education class. Because that class is only once a week it is 2 hours 15 minutes long. During break during class I usually grab something to eat for dinner later. I tend to hang out in the building in which my class is located for another hour to do some homework. I’m usually back in my room by 9:30/10pm. Longest day of the week!

a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)

My favorite holiday is Christmas- it’s one of the only days that all of my family gets together. My grandparents come over Christmas morning to see us open some of our presents, and then we head out to West Virginia where a lot of my family lives. I get to hang out with my cousins for hours, and we always have a ton of fun just messing around. We sleep over that night, and the day after Christmas the entire family goes out for breakfast.

a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like

I live in the US, in Maryland. In case you didn’t know, Maryland is on the East Coast, and I live about half way between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. It’s hard to think of things I like and don’t like about the US. For a long time there has been a lot of problems in the United States, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us. It’s funny that what I love and hate about the US are the same things. I love the diversity and acceptance there is here. I grew up in an area with people of all types, and everyone was so accepting of everyone else. When I left for college I realized how intolerant people in the US can be, something I really hate about the United States. I was used to being friends with so many different people, but at my college there seems to be a huge gap between people who aren’t the same. At home I had many Jewish friends, and thought nothing of it. It was just part of who they were, and it wasn’t a big deal. One of my friends at school is Jewish, and I’ve realized that people treat her a whole lot differently than they would had we been in my hometown. She’ll tell me how some people are extremely anti-Semitic, supporting unfounded stereotypes.

a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

As a self-proclaimed “mixing bowl” of many societies, there are many languages spoken here. English and Spanish are the most commonly spoken languages, although we have no ‘official language’. In my area there are a lot of Chinese speakers as well.

a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed

The most common ethnic minority is probably Mexicans. There is a mostly negative view, and a huge push to further restrict immigration. This is sort of one of those unsolvable issues, although if our economy continues to suck there will be no reason for Mexicans to come here. As an education major, I am most interested in the effect of immigration on children. A lot of students who are here illegally may have lived here for most of their lives. These children are still not considered Americans, and can be shipped out whenever the US decides they aren’t wanted anymore. These children see the US as their home (it is, after all, the only country they’ve really known) but do not have the chances at education that others do. It’s a hard thing to figure out…

a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are celebrated. (NOTE: I could only think of 2 that are celebrated by pretty much every American with any sort of importance).

-4^th of July- When the US declared its independence from England! And a day of BBQs and fireworks! We usually visit our family in Michigan (state in the Northern part of the US, touching Canada). It’s a good 10hr drive, and we usually spend the week. On the fourth of July we’ll watch a parade in the morning, go to all the sidewalk sales in the downtown area, have my family over to our vacation house for burgers and hot dogs, then go to Lake Michigan to check out the fireworks!

-Thanksgiving- we give thanks for everything we have. The first Thanksgiving was supposedly celebrated between the Pilgrims and Native Americans, although I highly doubt it would have happened. But it makes for a nice holiday. Most families get together for the day and eat. For Thanksgiving it is usually just my immediate family. Because none of us like turkey (and because there are only four of us) we usually have chicken. We’ll also make stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon (yum!), cranberry sauce, sauerkraut, and rolls. For dessert I make a pumpkin pie. The next day a lot of stores have pretty extreme sales (it’s called ‘Black Friday’), and a lot of people go out to do some extreme shopping. I’ve only braved the stores once- it’s just way too crowded!

a description of the role of men and women in your country

Men and women have a pretty equal role in the US. Women can and do everything men do, and encouraged to do so. There is, of course, still a lot of inequality. Women performing the same job as men are usually paid less, and it is less likely for a woman to be promoted than a man. Roles in the household are more equal than they used to be, but women on a whole still spend more time doing household chores than men. But women have gone a long way since way back when- I’m sure that in my lifetime I’ll even see a woman president (we came close in the last election)!

the role of religion in your country

Religion has a weird role in the US. Technically it doesn’t have any say in our government, although governmental officials are more than happy to pull the Bible card to gain support. Honestly, I think the role of religion depends a lot on where you live. In my hometown religion isn’t a biggie. A few of my friends went to Church often, but we never really talked about our own religious ideas. In the community in which I go to college, religion seems to have a larger role in people’s lives. The largest club on my campus is a Christian one, and most people I know go to some sort of bible study every week. It’s weird because I’m so used to not caring about religion, but it’s now being sort of thrusted upon me. Most of my friends see religion as more of a problem than anything else, and tend to be suspicious of any overly-religious person. We’ve all had that experience of someone trying to ‘save’ us, and it gets really tiring.

For those of you who haven't seen a bagel before:

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Wikipedia says bagels have a Jewish background. The round buns have a hole so they could be transported on the Shabbat day without being touched by stacking them on a wooden pole. Also, they were prepared a day in advance. That way they could be finished after sunset on Shabbat day so you'd quickly have something ready as soon as you were allowed to prepare them again.

I liked the description of U.S. festivals. I would love to be in the US for the Fourth of July (Independence Day) just once. It's my birthday and I'd really like to see the fireworks and parades.

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When it comes to food I'd like to mention that American pancakes are different from German ones. German pancakes are bigger, softer and less fluffy than their American counterparts. They are often filled with fruit or eaten with nutella or the like. Many people also drop apples slices into the dough in the pan. German pankaces look like this:

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If you want to try making your own true American pancakes, here's a picture and a link to a good recipe (from the BBC with conversions, although every American family probably has its own recipe and many moms will do completely without one).

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Here's another U.S. contribution to this series by a girl from Florida, in the south of the USA. She put her description up on her blog. Also don't forget to check out the other countries if you haven't already. So far we've got cultural ambassadors for

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to contribute your own story (especially if your country isn't featured yet).

DISCLAYMER:

SERIES: Cultural ambassadors: BRAZIL (Cross-culture email connection)

2010-03-26T10:01:00.002+01:00

Next in our series is fancy Brazil. This should be interesting as we rarely hear anything about Brazil apart from football. That's why I'm very curious about my fellow swapper's portrait of his home country.

A little about Brazil

Breakfast

Well, i'm not used to eat breakfast. When i do, it´s chocolate milk. But when i eat a biiiig breakfast, it's bread, with butter or cream cheese, a juice, a piece of cake (corn or orange cake). Sometimes we have something that i call "cheese bread" (translating exactly as we say in portuguese), but is also known as "cheese roll", and it´s delicious. I included a recipe here, so everyone can try it. Is really common here, eveywhere you can find them frozen or just recently off the furnace.

Day at work

I´ll describe how my day was today, march 24. I went to work by car, my mom drove me because i´m getting my driver´s license just now. As i´m a journalist, i write at a local newspaper, and at the same place runs a tv channel (only cable, but still) and we try at most to do the same news for both. I got there and as i get 1pm, i have to listen to everything the other reporters already did and write it down. So, today we had a non-profit organization group called Amor-Exigente (Toughlove), with two interviews about their work in Teresópolis, where i live. Then, a community manifesto about the bad maintenance of a street, also with an interview.

I went to my lunch break and payed the first tax to get my driver´s license, R$174, about U$90.

Back at work, i started writing the texts. While at the Toughlove story, i had to stop and listen to another and more important interview about city´s health problems - really political and problematic story, but there we go.

In the meantime, some crazy old man showed up in the reception asking about an article that he insisted was not on the air or in the newspaper. Crazy because it was, two days ago, but he insisted that it wasn't and started yelling and stuff....Big mess. The reporter who was responsable for that article went downstairs to talk to him, and came back crying. With this situation, the guys went there and explained, for the 468768418th time, that it was broadcasted, and he "understood" and went away.

Then i was only writing, i also ate some cookies and laughed a little with my co-workers, but that was it.

By 6pm, my editor went to college - he´s into biology - and i finished the articles and waited for my boss - and the person who design the newspaper - to start mounting the first page.

As we had some difficult articles, i had to wait until one of the reporters finished it so we could send the first page to print. And by 7:30 i was getting a cab and going home.

- what a "SHORT" description, huh?

Day off

Here in Brazil we have a loooooot of holidays, but since i started working at the newspaper (since july, 2009), i don't have much options than the weekends. When it´s a Friday, most likely i´ll have it as day off. But any other day, i´ll have to work...Carnival in Brazil means at least three days off - i had none and worked more than normal days.

In weekends, i like to stay at home watching tv series, sleeping and playing games. But i also go out, at night, to bars or to friend´s houses. Sundays means sleep and crafts day for me, but my boyfriend/fiancee/hub (well, nine years together!) doesn't get really excited when it comes to crafts, so...Sometimes i have to craft another day.

About Brazil

My country is in a really good position now. Except for the fact that it´s still considered "third world". From the outside, people get a totally wrong and different view of Brazil. No, we are not just forest, we do not live with monkeys, we have malls, cars, food...The metropolises are well developed, slightly different from NY or any other - so people say, i haven't been outside Brazil.

The current president, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, is getting great publicity and the leaders are starting to trust Brazil and invest, believe and help. Brazil sent more money than most countries, getting close to USA help.

From the inside, we have lots of rotten situations, in politics and society. The police is, in most cases, corrupted and able to take bribes. This happens for cultural reasons, as we call "jeitinho brasileiro" - brazilian way of life. I had to study about brazilian culture in college, and i am pretty aware of this kind of behavior. A friend of mine was in Canada for Winter Olympics for OBS, and we were talking last weekend about the subway. In Vancouver, people only have to pay for a ticket and get in. Here, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to implement a system like that - because of this brazilian way of life: everyone would find a way to cheat. If you are a tourist, you must pay attention when you get a cab, cause even the taxi drivers take longer routes, charges way more, this kind of stuff.

Internally, Brazil is a good place to live, but you have to be at the "middle class". You have to get private health services, private schools. The public colleges are well seen but not really the better option. The public bus is not great either and, specially in Teresópolis, is way too expensive.

In politics, we´re in an election year. We will vote for president, senator, and something that we call "deputado", but i could't really find how to translate that. It´s a representative politic between state and federation, below senators. We have to vote for a federal and one for the state. It´s like this: city council (10 in Teresópolis) -> mayor -> deputado for the state (70) -> governor -> federal deputado (513) -> senators (81) -> president. This way, you can understand what a mess this is: so many politics, so much MONEY they spent that i wonder if this is the case in any other country.

But in general Brazilians are ignorant. A big part of the whole population doesn't know why or how to vote, and sells it for food, cement, anything. Now this is starting to change - here in Teresópolis, the mayor won the election showing a big change in society´s perception. But it hardly happens in other small towns like mine, and...We keep placing these bad people who steal from the government.

Everyone wants to get a public position to work. The contests for a public position - from almost analphabet people to the most graduated ones - are really competitive, and the salaries are that great. The ones who have more money can study better, and these people are better prepared to get these jobs - and this circle goes on and on. I was thinking about having some tests, trying to get a public job, cause is really stable and pays well, but at the same time i dont think it´s truly fair.

I think it´s enough, i´m talking and talking and i guess it was not supposed to be that big!!!! xD

Language

We only speak PORTUGUESE! Most movies that talks about Brazilians puts us talking spanish, but it's totally wrong - all the other countries from Latin America speak Spanish in other dialects. I don´t even know how to say "the book is on the table" in spanish. We do have some natives that keep their languages, but this population is really small.

What we do have is accents: each state has their own way to speak, and it´s really funny. From north to south, we have different slangs and words with different meanings - the portuguese is so rich that learning english gets easy!!

Minorities

Well, the minorities here i could say it's the native people. But everyone around here is a victim. We have programs for womens, black people, yellow people, white people, blind people, deaf people...I think most of these groups puts themselves in such a victim situation that they become a minority, and it´s bad for everyone.

As we´re such a mixed up race, racial problems are really rare. My grand grand parents were native, portuguese, spanish, european...I have light skin, light brown hair and brown eyes. My boyfriend has the same history in family when it comes to ancients, and he looks much more like a mexican or bolivian person than me. We all look pretty different and all the same - and i think this is how we are supposed to be. No race, just human beings. I have cousins with curly hair, african hair, blond hair...Most people here are this mixed.

But, in the historical roots, the black people were sacrified and still lives in bad condition, as they were also slaves for a long time around here. A big part of slum's population are dark or black people, sadly, with a few natives. We also have a lot of migration, people of northern states coming to the south states like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and even lower states. These people are often discriminated.

Holidays

The most known are Carnival, easter and christmas. In Carnival, we say that the year does´t start until this holiday. Big party, lot of glitter, party, music. I´m not really into it, i don't have patience anymore.

Easter is chocolate. At the Friday before Easter just fish - as a good and mostly christian country. At Easter Sunday, lots of chocolate! We have our easter eggs totally different: it´s chocolate egg, of all sizes and tastes. Really good, specially if you wanna get fatter!!!

National stuff

We have a looooooooot of national things that other countries does not. Fruits are the top one, but breads, sweets, even our barbecue is different! The "cheese bread" is an example, but we have A LOT more.

Guaraná, as an example, competes with COCA COLA over here. Is great, really delicious, and rare around the world. Sweets made with pumpkin, milk, coconut, jellies of all sorts...

Rice, beans, meat, french fries and fried egg is one of the most popular plate, but not that typical. In each state we have dishes. In Rio, gust (by google translator of "rabanada"), steak with garlic and lentil soup with sausage are the most common dishes- and delicious!

For products, i can´t really say, as i don´t have much idea of what´s available elsewhere and what´s not. As those huge multinational companies are here too, lots of what i might think is peculiar maybe is sold in any other country. But i surely know that Guaraná is not!! Lol.

Boys and girls

Well, men and women are no big difference here. We do have people of different religions - from jews to muslims going thru african traditions - but the role of each one is sustained as in United States or Europe.

Women have total freedom, and in Rio the feminist movement is really strong. No, no men in command or telling us what to do! Lol.

As i see, we´re almost equal, except by the fact that jobs use to pay better to men than women. It´s still a social discrimination, but we´re fighting against these situations.

Famous one

I think Gisele Bundchen is one of the most famous brazilian. Top model married to Tom Brady, and stuff...Lots of money.

Crafts

Well, we have LOTS of crafts. Scrapbooking is not a regular thing, but knitting, crochetting, cross stitch and embroideries are easily found.

Religion

We are about 75% catholic. I don´t have a religion, but we have SO MANY options! Buddhism, jewish, catholic, spiritualism, and afro-descendent religions as Candomblé, Quimbanda, Umbanda, and others.

Pão de Queijo!

Ingredients:
1 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
6 tablespoons plain yogurt, nonfat or regular
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Put tapioca starch in a metal bowl. Mix oil, water and salt in a pan. Bring to a boil. Pour the sputtering mixture onto the tapioca starch carefully to protect yourself from hot spatters. Mix together with a wooden spoon. Dough will be stiff. When cool enough to touch, add egg and mix well. Blend in yogurt. When well mixed, stir in cheese. Rub hands with oil and form batter into balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake 25_30 minutes, or until done. The rolls puff up during baking, but become flattened when cool

I found a picture for the recipe, looks delicious, right?!

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Another thing that is probably not that commonly known. While Brazil's biggest city is Sao Paulo, the actual capital is Brasília.
I found a nice pic of Sao Paulo by an expat American:

source

If the post made you cuious about Brazil and you'd like to learn more be sure to check out this expat's blog. He has a lot of personal expertise and the intercultural background to be able to give outsiders a comprehensible image. Check his tags on the side for special themes such as the big cities, cost of living or politics.

When you hear a description about a different country that you don't know very well, you always connect it to your own experience from your home country or other countries you've visited. This way you create new representations in your brain by evaluating similarities and differences. Let me share a few of my thoughts and feel free to comment your own reactions in the comments. I shamefully have to admit I also thought Brazilians speak Spanish. Won't make that mistake again. Getting the driver's license, for example, seems to be cheaper in Brazil. I start getting the feeling it is cheaper and easier in any other country. In Germany it costs about 2000 Dollars and many many hours...

I also found interesting that German and Brazilian Easter customs are so much the same. We have chocolate eggs as well and there is Good Friday before Easter Sunday when people usually eat fish. See the power of the Christian religion. The situation about men and women is also pretty similar here. I think it is the same in many countries that have gone through a strong period of emancipation. Women have the same rights as men, can vote and choose any job they want but are still not paid the same as men and don't reach top positions as easily.

When researching Brazil I found another nice pic:

source

Does this look like Germany to you? It does, but it is Blumenau in Brazil, where there used to be strong German influence through immigrants. There were even German schools. After a nationalization campaign and WW2 that became less and less and today these villages speak Portugese as well.

Finally, here's another great reason to visit Brazil: The waterfalls at Iguazu, which are shared by Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

source

Thanks to our fellow swapper for the great description.
I hope you enjoyed this. Also check out the other entries if you haven't yet or leave comments below.

DISCLAYMER:

SERIES Cultural ambassadors: ITALY (Cross-culture email connection)

2010-03-25T18:50:00.010+01:00

Third in the series will be Italy, holiday destination #1 for Germans. Thanks to our fellow swapper for a great portrayal of this lovely country.

Hi,

I'm an Italian student who lives in the North East of Italy, not far from Venice. I added some pics of my town, Este, which is quite small, but also quite nice.

I study at University of Padua, which is one of the oldest of Europe (1222 a.C.); I study Modern Languages for Communication and Translation: English, Russian and Romanian.

I like both Padua and Este, what I don't like is Italy in general, LOL! Well, I just don't like the way it's ruled and the division between North and South; I wish Italians could be more united, but we are too much different to get on well, LOL. For example, we don't speak only Italian, but each region, each province and even each town has got its own dialect. If you move from Este to Monselice, which is 7 km from Este, you will hear a different accent; Padua's dialect is different from Este's one, and so on.

And, as I said, the greatest division is between North and South, and not only for dialects. To me, South is a completely different world! They're more open-minded and extroverted, they talk loud all the time, while in the North we are more suspicious and introverted. I'd rather get on well with an English than with a Southern Italian!

It would take MONTHS to talk about what I like and what I don't like about Italy... sometimes I feel proud of being Italian and sometimes I feel so embarassed and shameful, especially when Berlusconi says something stupid in front of the cameras of the whole world...

Our political situation is... aaarrrrgh, don't let me talk about that! It's a mess!

So here are some informations about my everyday life =)

- For breakfast, I usually eat what I find at home, like milk and Cheerios or tea with cookies, but when I get my salary I start spending it every morning at the coffee bar, with a cappuccino and a croissant! And for cappuccino I mean a REAL cappuccino with REAL coffee, not that colored water they drink in the USA! I see in movies that they always drink liters of that stuff, while you could just take a little cup of well-done-coffee and feel full of energy for the whole day! (I hope I didn't offend any American coffee lover =)

- In a typical work day I would get up at 7.30 (on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays) or at 6 (on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), take the train and go to Padua, drag some friends to a coffee bar before the lessons start; spend the free hours studying at the University library or going shopping to Zara and Benetton or Accessorize, go to the cafeteria or just eat a sandwich. I usually go home at 7 pm (on Mondays and Tuesdays) at 5 on Wednesdays and at 1 am on Thursdays and Fridays.

If I get home early, I usually have lunch at home with pasta (when my French friend visited me was shocked because we eat pasta every day, LOL!), then I spend some time at the pc and then I go to the library or to the gym. I usually have dinner at 8-8.30 with meat/fish and vegetables and then I watch television with my mom, my sister and her parasitic boyfriend (they always talk while I want to listen to the television!).

Sometimes I go out with my friends because I work on Saturdays and Sundays.

- A day off: on Sunday, my mom usually cook something special and she buys little cakes. On this day I usually relax or go out with some friends.

- Some of the most important holidays in Italy:

1) June, 2nd, Republic Day The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government, following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism. With 12,717,923 votes for a republic and 10,719,284 for the monarchy, the male descendants of the House of Savoy were sent into exile (and now they sing at San Remo Festival, d'oh!).
To commemorate it, a grand military parade is held in central Rome, presided by the President of the Republic in the role of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The Prime Minister and other authorities attend too. Prior to the foundation of the Republic, the Italian national day was the first Sunday in June, anniversary of the granting of the Statuto Albertino.
2) August, 15th, Ferragosto
Originally, it was related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. In time, Roman Catholicism adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence, however, this holiday was celebrated in the Roman Empire to honor the gods—in particular Diana—and the cycle of fertility and ripening. In fact, the present Italian name of the holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Festivals [Holidays] of the Emperor Augustus")
Almost the entire month of August was taken as a holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day.
In present days, Ferragosto is mainly a short holiday when Italians take brief vacations.
3) Each city has its own Saint patron and they celebrate him/her one day of the year. Este's patron is Santa Tecla and she's celebrated on September, 23.

- I think I don't need to say that Italy is famous for pasta and pizza, so I will list some dishes that are typical of my own region, Veneto:
Baccalà con polenta (Stockfish with cornmeal porridge)

Musso with polenta (Mule with cornmeal porridge)
I know that mule could sound disgusting, but it's really yummy! Sorry to vegetarians =(

Lasagne alla bolognese or Pasticcio (meat pie)

Fritole (Italian: Frittelle) (Fritters)

Torta sbrisolona (I can't find any translation, LOL)

Spritz - the most drank cocktail of North Italy, really cool at this moment

When it's time to eat, I'm really proud of being Italian!
I hope you had fun reading my email!

Oh Italy,

the news we get about Berlusconi are really negative. I only partly understand why so many Italians vote for him again and again, despite having seen some background stories on his public appeal.

I had to laugh out loud when I saw the description of the south and the north. I'm from the north of Germany as well and could have said exactly the same thing about the nature of people. Northerners here are just as reserved, but honest and make true friends. It can't be about the weather as the south of Germany is rather similar to the north of Italy. It can't be economics either. In Germany the north is poorer, in Italy it's more the south. If anybody has a clue what could be the reason just comment below :-)

DISCLAYMER:

Visit to the Netherlands - part 2

2010-03-24T19:31:00.000+01:00

As my fellow swapper in the cross-cultural email connection swap explained here, there are some current developments in the Netherlands that are quite worrisome. The "party of freedom" (how ironical) and their party leader Geert Wilders are on a roll against minorities in the country, abusing the economic crisis and rising tensions for their own twisted rhetorics. He even dares talking about deportation. Unfortunately Wilders is a very intelligent character with great debating skills. We've seen that strategy before...
Due to our German history much of this happens under cover here, whereas in neighboring countries it is discussed publicly (see Switzerland for the minaret ban proposal). I am not saying this is better or worse. Just in general it seems a common theme that the old mechanism of difficult economic and political times and the search for easy scapegoats along with xenophobia is starting once more. For me it was especially hard to believe that the age of the 60s had left so little effect in Germany. I mean the people in power right now were part of the movement that demanded prosecution of WW3 crimes and attacked their parents for tabooing everything that had happened.
My Dutch friend told me he really loved de Hague, but he couldn't warm up to it as so many people voted for Wilders. I wonder if the situation will get worse once more or people will realize sooner where this might be going.

The Netherlands used to have a very multicultural, tolerant image in the past, which they are slowly losing. The problems of integration are boiling up just as they are in Germany and other countries.
This picture very much reminded me of the USA. On this square kids from Africa and the Middle East were playing together. On the next it was the Asian kids...

We have large city areas with majorities of Turkish people. It is natural that these areas develop (think China Town for another example) but still, the trend to ghettoization is quite sad. Mosques are often actually doing quite a bit of work opening the communities and creating dialogue with German neighbors. Multiculturalism really is nothing to be proud of, interculturalism is.

Hmm. Naming similarities is more difficult than finding differences. How typical :-(
Well, the Netherlands and Germany share a good deal of media, education, economic, political and religious

factors. In consequence it is quite easy for my friend and me to converse without much need for explanations.
Another thing that the Netherlands and Germany share, for example, is that they have three layers of governing: federal, provincial (in Germany it is state level) and communal. You can see the flags of all Dutch provinces here (the one of Holland with the hearts and diagonal blue stripes is best known, I think):

The middle layer of government, so to say, doesn't have as much power in the Netherlands as it does in Germany. That means over here you might get in trouble if you change from one federal state to the next as a high-school-student (and a few of them are only city-size), because the school systems are completely different. It makes a lot of things very complicated, as you can imagine.

Ok, enough of the complicated things. We had great weather and the architecture of the city is very interesting, a blend of historic houses and (mostly) well-designed skyscrapers, where most things are in walking distance.

And finally, just for fun, this picture made me laugh. I am getting the idea this hotel tower is never going to be finished... (if you don't get the joke, check the name of the hotel)

SERIES: Cultural ambassadors: NORWAY (Cross-culture email connection)

2010-03-24T09:40:00.009+01:00

The second part of the series is coming to us from Norway. Thanks for the more satirical insight to one of our northern European countries.

Hello everyone =)
This is the Cross-culture Email Connection from Norway!

a description of what you eat for breakfast:
Well, I don't eat breakfast. I'm from a family that has been growling
at each others over bowls of cereal for ages, and, well, it's no use.
I can't find any appetite unless I've been up and about for a while.
But most people in Norway eat slices of bread with some kind of
disgusting stuff on it. Seriously, jam and cheese are OK, but fish in
tomato sauce, some mushed up stuff from liver and other parts of
animals you don't want to know what is... is that a way to start the
day? Not in my world. Some eat cereal, but no one cooks in the morning
here. No egg and bacon, no waffles, hardly any toast, no scrambled
eggs. If you can't make it all with a knife it's not breakfast.

a short description of a typical work day:

Well, for Norwegians it's mostly "management". People here are so damn
spoiled, and eastern European people flock into our country to do the
work that no one here wants to do. If it's not fun and well paid it's
hardly worth doing. And even though Norwegians are winning cooking
competitions all the time we would just starve to death without
Asians. The work hours are 8 hours a day including a 30 minutes paid
lunch, and it's not hard work. I have no idea how we came from Vikings
to this lazy ass shit.

a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday):
I have nothing else than days off... But I'm not normal. Most
Norwegian has busy weekends. People that have moved to Norway often
comment about our strange habit of going to "hytta" most weekends. And
yes, it's strange. Norwegians often have at least one "hytte" in the
family, a cabin or second home, either in the mountains or by the sea
(or both). When I grew up we had both a sea and a mountain hytte, one
on either side of the family. It's usually owned by the grandparents
and either sold or inherited when they die. My soon-to-be-in-laws have
a mountain hytte, and me and my boyfriend often go there. Most folks
go there and stay the whole weekend, but we just go after work on
Friday, bring hot dogs to heat in the fireplace and watch all the good
stuff on TV (almost every single good show is running back to back on
Fridays), and just hang out. It's nice to get away from everything,
there is hardly any phone signals up there, the computers stay home,
and there is not any visible neighbors there either. We go back home
again on Saturday morning so that we can do something useful during
the weekend too. Like fix our house, cars, chop wood and things that
take time and has to be done.
But what I want to do over the weekend, when I don't want to get away
or paint something with a big brush is Geocaching. It's not a huge
sport, but there is a lot of caches in Norway, and if the weather is
nice there is nothing better than to get out and see something new. I
prefer caching in cities, mostly because my boyfriend is such a whiner
when it comes to bushes and shrubs. He is scared of bugs, and it's so
funny, because I grew up SO close to the city, and he grew up in the
countryside, and I'm the one that has no problems with nature. I also
like traveling, but a weekend is too short time to see much. We have
been to every single county in Norway, so we need more time to travel.

a short description of your country and its position in the world,
including something you like about it and something you don't like:

Oh boy... Norway is a very very small country, with a very very VERY
big ego. Yes, I know, we are rated as the best country to live in in
the world, every single year by the UN, but we are not important. Ok,
so we contribute with a lot of stuff, Norway is a rich country that
can throw a lot of money at things like earthquakes and tsunamis, and
our doctors seem to want to travel a lot and help out, but we really
don't matter. 4,5 million people can't make a huge impression on the
world. We win in winter sports that hardly anyone watches, we haven't
had a world known politician or musicians since the 80ties, and the
only thing people seem to mention about Norway when I get postcrossing
cards is Eurovision (witch we won last year and hosting this year) and
that they have some relatives that came from Norway. It seems like our
biggest export is people, especially to the US.
I like that we can help out with stuff, and actually be a good example
that it's possible to get over a war (WW2) and come out on top like we
have done. We are lucky to have oil, and we know it. I like the fact
that we stand up to our neighbors in the north with no fear. The
Russians don't seem to get used to being treated like everyone else,
and it's fun to see how they react!

a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

OH BOY! Seriously. I could talk about it all day. I'll try to keep it short.
We have 3 official languages in Norway. It's Bokmål (regular
Norwegian), Nynorsk (new Norwegian) and Samisk. Samisk is spoken by
the Sami people that live in the area around the common borders of
Norway, Sweden and Finland. If you speak Samisk to someone that is not
a Sami it will get you nowhere. It's a VERY strange language, and you
don't learn it in regular school. Nynorsk is something very strange.
It's a written language, but no one really speaks it! It's a written
version of a lot of dialects, and there is a LOT of dialects in
Norway. It's quite hard to understand people from many places, and I
feel really sorry for all the people moving to Norway that are not
from Sweden or Denmark, because we have soooo many dialects and
strange words from strange places. If you are an expert in dialects in
Norway you can pinpoint where people are from just by listening to
them talk for a while, but it seems like every little town has it's
own words. Just the strange words and dialect from around where I live
has it's own book now. And many of the words make -no- sense. Words
that mean one thing in one part of the country means something very
different somewhere else.
Bokmål is not really spoken either, but close. It's the language that
is most common around our capital Oslo, and it's the language most
kids learn in school. But all kids have classes in both Bokmål and
Nynorsk. The languages are not very different, but most of the grammar
needs to be learned. I really don't think learning Swedish or Danish
would be any harder than Nynorsk or Bokmål. Most Norwegian speak
Swedish quite well if they just dare to try, because we have watched a
lot of Swedish television programs on TV, and nothing is dubbed here.
That also means we speak English very well here, and we actually start
learning English before we learn our second Norwegian language.

description of the role of men and women in your country:

Norway is the country of social inequality. We pride ourselves on the
fact that anyone can be anything in Norway, no matter if they are
rich, poor, man or woman. Education is free and available to everyone.
Men in Norway has to take their part in everything that goes on in the
house, like cooking, cleaning and watching kids. There is absolutely
no rules or regulations that differ men and women in Norway. Still,
women usually earn less than men, and there is more men that are
mechanics and more women in the kindergartens, but it's not because of
any thing other than peoples own choices. We even have high government
officials that only work with equality. Discriminating is frowned upon
from all angles.

a type of craft that is typical for your country
We have something called Bunad. It is a traditional costume, made both
for men and women. They vary from place to place, over 200 versions
are known, and it's a very old tradition. It's kinda hard to explain
how it looks, but it's VERY time consuming to make, and it's way too
hot to wear in the summer. Usually it's worn on our national day (17th
May), weddings and such.
I don't have a Bunad. Mostly because the one made where I grew up is
so damned ugly, and the tradition is that you get the one from where
you came from. But also it's so expensive and they are so heavy to
wear, and sooo much work putting them on. On 16th of May you really
should not call any females, because they are probably angry as hell
as they try to get their Bunad ready, ironing the shirt and polishing
the silver stuff.

[I added links to some pictures for better understanding:
girls wearing bunad
fashion photo of women with bonnets ]

a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how
they are cebrated:

We REALLY do Christmas. Not in the "buy as much as you can and eat
until you drop"-Christmas, there is a lot of gifts, but it's also very
much about the traditions, family, cards, friends, advent calendars
and that the sun is turning and we can look forward to seeing it
again! Much of Norway has what we call Mørketid, Dark Times, when the
sun is not seen for months, or just a tiny bit in the middle of the
day. It is a big deal that it's coming back, and our Christmas
celebration has way more to do with the old Norse mythology, the one
the Vikings believed in. They also celebrated what they called Yule,
that is pronounced much like what we call Christmas now; Jul. It is
believed that Christmas was put to the 24th of December (not 25th like
in the US) because of Yule, witch was celebrated on the 22th, because
we would never give it up anyway and the Christians had to make it
their own. Norwegians are not a religious people at all, so Christmas
is more tradition than anything else. I guess we would celebrate it
the same way if Christianity had never arrived. We also insist that
Santa comes from Norway, and if a letter is sent to "Santa, North
Pole" it ends up in Norway. Someone in the town of Drøbak opens every
single letter.

So that was Christmas. We also have Easter, witch is spent at the
hytte, or if you are a geek, in the worlds biggest LAN party in the
Olympic stadium Vikingskipet. I've been there for the whole easter 5
times, but since I live just 30 minutes away I can meet people that
visit anyway, and I don't have too sleep on the floor and get a
headache from the noise in there. When 5500 geeks are in the same room
it's not quiet! It's very much fun if you know a lot of people that
are there though, and I had a blast, but most of the people I know
that are there are arranging it, and have no time to goof off. Some
people go south for the easter, but it's not very hot yet in the
southern parts of Europe.

Those are the two most important ones, we also have a winter and
autumn-week off, also spent at the hytte (*giggle), and we have time
off on some more Christian days of importance in the spring, and 1th
of May (workers day, most people fix their gardens this day, but it's
supposed to be a day for protest) and 17th of May, witch is The
National Day, spent in Bunad with too much ice cream, walking in
parades with marching bands and waving with flags. It's such a day of
nationalism... But it's fun for the kids, and usually it's a great day
to spend outside.

Hope I didn't bore you to death ;P

How much I'd like a hytte where no one can reach you through modern technology... Preferably this one, oh and the inside, soo nice.

DISCLAYMER:

SERIES: Cultural ambassadors: NETHERLANDS (Cross-Culture Email Connection)

2010-03-23T09:38:00.007+01:00

We will start the series off with the Netherlands, as I was just there to visit. I thank the fellow swapper for the great portrayal of his country. After an hour of formatting, here you go:

Hello swap partners & swap coordinator,

here is the Cross Culture e-mail connection SWAP from the Netherlands (or Holland, Hollanda, Pays Bas, der Niederlande etc.etc.)

As it is the second day of spring today I need to be carefull not to write a too sunny picture of our little country, the little bit of sun we allready got is making me very excited, but I will do my best :-).

A description of what we eat for breakfast:

We tend to eat slices of bread with butter and cheese, ham or chocolate sprinkles or .....anything. The bread is mostly accompanied with a glass of milk, buttermilk or tea.

a short description of a typical work day:

A typical work day .... that is a difficult question, it depends of course of your type of work.
A full time working week is 40 hours, but quite a lot of people work part time, certainly the women.
At my own family, both my husband and myself work 32 hours, so 4 days per week. Our 3 kids go to school & afterwards from 3 onwards to a post-school group where they play & sport.
I work as an industrial engineer at a big food company and next to that I have 2 websites with home-made product & a blog to maintain (see links below), so after a working day at the office & when the kids went to bed at 20:00 my next working day starts sewing & painting :-), but I love it all!!

a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday):

We wake up normal time around 7:00, do some games in our pyama, have a good breakfast & take the bicycle to cycle around the village, to the forrest, to a playground. We will have lunch in the village and cycle back to our country-side house. The afternoon we will spend in the garden, doing some light chores, playing with the animals, snoozing in the sun and finish with a BBQ with friends who will have arrived at our place during the afternoon. The evening is spend chatting, relaxing with a sweater next to the fire on the terrace.

a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like:

The Netherlands is a very wealthy little country in Europe (green circle in red square), next to the North Sea. Most of the country is below sea-level and protected by dikes & mills. There are 16mio inhabitants.
I really like that people are quite direct and straight forward, they would tend to be honest and not make things nicer or pretter then they are.
I do not like the fact that there is a political party which is becoming more popular at the moment who is very harsh on other cultures and totally not tolerant. This is not fitting our cultural history, our openess and certainly not fitting to my ideas!!

a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country:

In the Netherlands we speak Dutch. There are of course a few dialects and there is even one dialect which is now recognised as a language: Frysian, but that last one is only spoken in one of the provinces.

As the country is really small, the most people will speak at least one or two or three other languages, mostly English, German and French which we all learn at high school, but also spanish is becoming very popular and of course at university many other languages.

a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are cebrated:

This is a nice subject. Of course there are the Christian holidays like christmas and Easter which are big but quite common in Europe.
The two most special though are:

1- Carnaval. Celebrated in February only in the southern part of the Netherlands and a bit like the Brazilian carnaval. But where in Brazil it is sunny and people dress beatifully and dance beatifully, carnaval in NL is more about dressing fun, making jokes, drinking beer & having a parade with also fun cars, trucks etc. It lasts from saturday until tuesday and the people who are really in for it, they will really party 4 day long and will be busy preparing anything from 11-11 (11th of November) onwards when the new prince carnaval is elected (one prince per village)

2- Sinterklaas. Every year mid novembre Sinterklaas arrives from Spain with his helpers, the "zwarte pieten" (black Pete's) and one the 5th of December all kids will get presents from Sinterklaas and he goes back. Pls find a ppt attached to explain more about this tradition and for those who might have worries: there is no racisme related to this story & as it is such a long tradition nobody has issues with it here. Sinterklaas is pronounced approximately the same as SantaClaus, but remember for the future, the story is very different, the person is not the same & in NL we do not have Santa Claus (allthough the shops will try to introduce)
There are a few other countries who also have a version of Sinterklaas, like in Slovenia, Zwitserland etc. a list of that can be found on slide 9 of the ppt too!!!!

description of some national specialties/products:

Of course we are famous for cheese, mills, wooden shoes, Delfts blauw porcelain !!

* Wooden shoes are the traditional farmer shoes, warm in winter, cold in summer. It is still worn by some people during their work-day but then often in a version with a leather top.

* Mills & dikes, those are of course absolutely necessary to keep the water out. Not much more to tell about that. The traditional versions of windmills (see picture at the next subject) are still operated but often only for hobby, tourism or to make some flower for bread. The real milling to keep our feet dry is done by electrical big pumps.

* stroopwafels, a very nice type of cookie with syrup in between the layers, this a link to the recipe in english:
http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/694/Recipe.cfm

* A city in the West is very famous for its blue painted porcelain, allthough very old of course and for long only still popular for tourists, this kind of grahics is going through a true revival and it is an absolute trend to have products with these prints, sometimes made more modern and always use in a different way then in the past.

The old stuff:

The new trendy stuff using the old graphics:
Want to see more: look at this page.

a description of the role of men and women in your country:

there used to be a saying that the only right of women is to keep the kitchen clean, but times luckily have changed in the meantime.
In my generation it is now very common that men and women are equal & often both work 4 days per week only to also share more of the caring for the kids. We are not quite there yet, not 100% equal yet, but I think NL is pretty advanced in emancipation.

a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for:

Of course there are plenty of famous Dutch people :-), but I will introduce to you MC Escher, not so many people know he is from NL

http://www.mcescher.nl/indexuk.htm

Of Course MC Escher is famous for his mathematical prints, but he also made more wonderful art during his lifetime.

a type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country):

NL has a lot of tradition in textile making and one very old art is called "kantklossen", as you can see on the picture, you make a kind of lace but with wooden threadholders and using amazing complex patterns.

the role of religion in your country:

The Christian religion used to be most common in NL, split between catholics, protestants and some smaller Christian religions. But of course the islam, hinduism and many other religions are becoming more and more popular.
Religion is absolutely free in NL and is not present in eg. politics and also not so much on schools (with a few exceptions), everybody is free to practice or not to practice.

I hope you enjoyed reading more about the Netherlands and who knows you might be visiting it some day
rgds

I couldn't upload the Sinterclaas presentation. If anyone tells me how to do it, I will add it immediately. I think you really get a great picture of the Netherlands (and Holland is by the way just a province of the whole country). Here in Germany we often eat Dutch cheese, although we grossly misspronounce it ;-) We pronounce Gouda "Ghauda" while it is actually something like "Choouda" with a very guttural "ch"... The syrup waffles I loved as a child and still eat them from time to time. With regard to the festivals I was stunned when my Dutch friend told me their "big-exchanging-presents-festival" is Sinterclaas, not Christmas. Hope you all enjoyed the first part of the series.

DISCLAYMER:
All umarked text in this post was supplied by a third party. The opinions expressed are not the same as those of the author of this blog. According to §§8 to 10 of the German Tele-Media Act, I am not obligated to monitor third party information provided or stored on my website. However, Ishall promptly remove any content upon becoming aware that it violates the law. My liability in such an instance shall commence at the time I become aware of the respective violation.

SERIES Cultural ambassadors (Cross-culture email connection)

2010-03-23T08:35:00.001+01:00

I have initiated a swap on swap-bot that might help to increase intercultural knowledge and understanding and broaden our horizons. Every participant will be an ambassador for his country and give his own subjective view on a number of issues. Some questions are optional, some are mandatory. During the next two weeks I will publish their stories anonymously.

Here the swap-rules for everybody again:

Swap requirements:

There will only be one swapper from each country (post your country in the comments). You will send the same email to 6 people that contains:

a description of what you eat for breakfast
a short description of a typical work day
a description of your favorite day off (weekend or holiday)
a short description of your country and its position in the world, including something you like about it and something you don't like
a list of languages (optional: dialects) that are spoken in your country

Also please pick three or more of these:

a description of the most common ethnic minorities in your country and how they are viewed
a list of the three most important holidays of your country and how they are cebrated.
description of some national specialties/products
a description of the role of men and women in your country
a famous person from your country and what she/he is famous for
a type of craft that is typical for your country (doesn't have to be typical ONLY for your country)
the role of religion in your country

Tell me if you think I've forgotten interesting aspects in the comments.

Important:

This is a swap for cultural understanding. That means please don't sign up if you are a) easily offended or b) like to piss people off ;-) Be mindful about other perspectives and remember that you might be paired with somebody from a country that is at war with yours or has a high level of state propaganda and censorship (and don't assume yours hasn't...). This is why I would discourage any further contact between participants apart from purely positive friendship or penpal request. Don't go spamming someone because you didn't like their country or their answers (or there will be consequences)!

Visit to the Netherlands - part 1

2010-03-22T14:56:00.002+01:00

I just returned from a weekend trip to visit a Dutch friend of mine in Den Haag. The first day was pouring rain, the Sunday on the other hand was the first real nice and warm day of 2010. People were sitting outside enjoying themselves. We took a walk around the city and buried ourselves in bookshops (it was the end of the National Book Week).
My friend used to live in Groningen, which is just 2 h drive from my home town. Nevertheless, the differences due to each country's language and government are striking.

I noticed differences in the small things that you see:
- more bicycles & bike lanes (even in the middle of the street)
- different colors or form for certain signs, for mailboxes, traffic light posts, trams, taxis, road markings, supermarkets
- red brick houses (which we have in the North as well) with white trimming:

- an outdoor pissoir you'd never see in Germany (as far as I know)
- more smaller shops than big chains, also in bookshops
- many people are quite tall and skinny (even taller than Germans)

But I could also see differences in the big things. My friend is moving into a house with his girlfriend, for example. She owns the flat and she is about 27. My reaction was "Wow, she made it. She must earn an incredible amount of money to be able to afford a house at this age." My friend was surprised and asked when we would finally decide to buy a house. Then we realized the cultural misunderstanding. In Germany getting mortgage and a house is difficult and expensive. In the Netherlands on the other hand it is much easier and common for people who just started working. This means the whole order of achievements for people who attended university is different with regard to their personal phases in life.

In Germany the order often is:

Moving out
Studies
Car
Work
Marriage
House, Kids (depends which is first)

In the Netherlands it is often:

Moving out
Studies
Work
House
Car
Marriage
Kids

There are plenty of exceptions, of course. Still, my fiancé and I are not planning to buy a house soon even though we are getting married, whereas my Dutch friend's relationship is still quite new and he will soon be sharing the cost of paying for a house. Student loans are also much easier to get in the Netherlands than in Germany.
And all that even though the Dutch border is just 1.5 hours drive from my place... Luckily my friend and I feel very connected on a personal level...

Next time I will talk about the things that were quite similar in both countries.

What's the regular order of life phases in your country? And is it hard for young people to own a house? Do you like it that way?

Very British

2010-03-17T19:44:00.003+01:00

Playing with stereotypes is often very funny. Especially when it is done by stereotyped people themselves. When in London for the first time I found this awesome ad on the wall of the underground. Harrods really did a great job with this one.

Funkhaus Europa - Listen to the world

2010-03-15T19:30:00.002+01:00

I am very happy to live in a part of Germany that has an intercultural radio station. They are broadcasting in Berlin, Bremen and parts of the area around Cologne. All their hosts have an international background of some kind. Their topics also focus on international news and issues of interest to "people with migrational backgrounds" as they are called politically correct in Germany now. What I enjoy most is that they play songs from different countries in a wild mix. And they have playlists. Another feature is that they offer shows in the native languages of different ethnic groups. Lucky for me these are around the less frequented times early in the morning and in the evening. There is half an hour of BBC world, Radio France, Radiopolis (Greek), Café Alaturka (Turkish), Balkanizer as well as Gospels on Sunday morning and many more. They also support world music acts and concerts in Germany.
I really like this diversity, even though that means that I can't always tune in to my favorite radio station (as I don't speak Greek, for example).
Have a look here or even stream if you understand German. Here are some songs that are amongst their most played:
Amadou and Mariam: Mbife (A couple of blind musicians from Mali, Africa's most important musical region. The song is really powerful)
Carla Bruni: Quelqu'un ma dit (Mrs. President of France so to say... Very sexy voice)
R-wan: a-pic (Nice french mix with gypsy violins)

Let me know how you like the songs. Do you also have radio stations that feature native language programs?

Wine or Olive Oil or what

2010-03-12T10:50:00.001+01:00

Yesterday my future father in law invited me to one of his seminars on olive oil tasting. I didn't know, but bitter, spicy (as in hot) and fruity are the three only "desired" tastes of olive oil. The smell of pickled olives was supposed to be bad, just as obvious things such as musty, sour and rancid. I usually have 2-3 olive oils on hand as I love to cook so it was really interesting.
My future hubbie's father is also into wine (he owns a small wine cellar), which is quite normal in many countries. On the whole, however, it seems that it it is very different for each country which food/drink we concentrate on or even obsess over. In Germany people have tons of different kinds of bread and beer. I've heard a few people in the US recite all 100 or something flavors of the big ice cream companies. I also realized that I've got no clue which things are popular in countries that are a bit further off the beaten track. Asia? Middle East? Africa? Can you contribute any experience when it comes to other countries?

letter size

2010-03-10T15:37:00.004+01:00

Most of you will know that the paper sizes in different countries are completely different. When using swap-bot there was a European swapper who suggested using A5 paper, which is A4 paper folded exactly half. A discussion ensued with some Americans who had no idea what size that was. I tried explaining by using half a letter format, and giving the side measures. However, one of the swappers thought that I meant quarter A4 paper as that's what you get when you take half of BOTH side measures, which I understand. I was taken aback that something so simple as paper size could be so complicated. In Europe I've only ever seen DIN-format paper (mostly A5,A4 and A3) and now I've received US letter format for the first time. Here's a good article on wikipedia about the different sizes. I have also included a photo of both pages side by side, to illustrate the difference.
The one with the book on it is the US letter size. Having different sized paper feels significant, or am I blowing it up? I'd like to have the letter format for creative processes as it seems less portrait-kind. For letter writing and text documents I like A4 as the lines are shorter. I wonder what you think.

Full Metal Village

2010-03-09T08:13:00.003+01:00

I just watched a very sweet documentary by a Korean Woman who portrays a tiny German village that hosts a huge heavy metal festival once a year. Here's the link to imdb (not very detailed).Is that intercultural? It sure is. Living in a city I had no clue what living in the country means. Director Cho shows not only how the village is affected by the festival, but also just simply what is important to the villagers, what they want from life and love. She talks to couples who have been married over 25 years and the local teenagers who sometimes feel alienated and controlled by the older generations. One of the older ladies goes on holiday each time the festival comes around. She is worried of the devil-worshipping, chicken-slaughtering metalheads, whereas other senior citizens help the festivalgoers reach their parking space, or supply food, souvenirs or even alcohol. It is not mentioned in the movie, but the local grocery store makes as much profit during the Wacken festival as it makes during the rest of the year...
So generational, cultural and religious viewpoints make a really interesting intercultural movie that is quite funny at times as well.

I'll get started...

2010-03-08T12:02:00.001+01:00

This is my first blog and I hope I'll not make too many beginners' mistakes. I am planning on writing about intercultural aspects of my daily life, including work at a multiethnic school, travelling and swap-botting (if you don't know this, check here. It is an international exchange site for handmade goods, snail mail and email).