Another Euro - USA thread...

[grandvizier1006]

@grandvizier1006

All those birds of prey look rather familiar, I think we have either the same birds, or some species which are very close. For example we don't have the bald eagle (it's name in Finnish translates literally "white headed sea-eagle"), but there are sea eagles, which is more or less the same bird, just without the white color in the head.

There is a classic fisherman's story which everyone's friends friend has heard about Ospreys, that someone was fishing and caught something. When they were pulling the fish up, first thing they saw coming from under the water was large wings and they got so scared they let it go. Supposedly, it was an Ospreys which had struck it's claws in the back of a too big fish, and was drowned with it, being still stuck in the fishes back. I have no idea have this ever actually happened, but I've heard it sometimes.

I didn't know the bald eagle is the US national bird, but now that you said it, I realize I've seen pictures of the bird many times in some military related things. Eagles are the coolest bird ever, it's a very cool symbol.

Finland's national bird is the whooper swan:

Spoiler

North American and European birds often resemble each other--in some cases they are the exact same species adapted to a different environment or imported from another continent.

 

[Jack of Spades]

Oh, good! Glad it didn't actually destroy your day. Yeah, sometimes they can make some funny associations. I think this child thinks every woman is a Mom.

What's the way little kids refer to every unknown, adult women/men in the US?

In Finland they use "aunt" or "uncle" (täti/setä). Like f.e. "the aunt of the store (female cashier) gave me this candy". It doesn't mean relative in that context, but it's the same word.

 

[Travelers.Soul]

What's the way little kids refer to every unknown, adult women/men in the US?

In Finland they use "aunt" or "uncle" (täti/setä). Like f.e. "the aunt of the store (female cashier) gave me this candy". It doesn't mean relative in that context, but it's the same word.

How a child addresses an unknown adult varies based upon what section of the country he/she calls home. In the South, generally, a child would refer to an unknown adult as Ma'am or Sir. In other places it might be Miss or Mister. I am sure there may be other ways to address an unknown adult but I am too sleepy to think of any.

 

[Jack of Spades]

How a child addresses an unknown adult varies based upon what section of the country he/she calls home. In the South, generally, a child would refer to an unknown adult as Ma'am or Sir. In other places it might be Miss or Mister. I am sure there may be other ways to address an unknown adult but I am too sleepy to think of any.

Sounds like you're much more polite people than we are!

The Finnish equivalents for Sir/Ma'am, Herra/Rouva, are used only in military and in very ceremonial occasions, like f.e. when the president is being addressed. If I addressed my boss as Sir or Herra, he would most likely think I'm being sarcastic. Think of you addressing your boss with "your majesty" and you get the idea.

 

[Travelers.Soul]

Sounds like you're much more polite people than we are!

The Finnish equivalents for Sir/Ma'am, Herra/Rouva, are used only in military and in very ceremonial occasions, like f.e. when the president is being addressed. If I addressed my boss as Sir or Herra, he would most likely think I'm being sarcastic. Think of you addressing your boss with "your majesty" and you get the idea.

I don't know if we are really that polite but we have our moments. That is interesting. I can see how that could potentially get you into trouble.

 

[Jack of Spades]

Was one of those defectors Dennis Rodman? That's the thing about the US, 325 million people - you're bound to have quite a few fruit loops, some of whom might think Kim Jong-un "has some pretty good ideas".

I don't think it was him. I watched a documentary (I'm a history-geek, I watch loads of documentaries) about the cases few years ago. Only one I can recall was someone who served in the US military in S.Korea and defected from there, chances are the guy is already dead due to age, it happened long time ago. For some reason I can't quite fathom, defecting to that particular country doesn't happen very often, so there aren't too many cases in recent memory...

I can't recall the exact reasons but I have a vague idea of it being a mix of anti-government fanaticism, mixed in with communist sympathies.

But yeah, that's what I keep telling to my fellow countrymen who often think that Americans are expectionally prone to being nuts. It's just the size of the sample. If you have some special type of out-thereness that exist in 1/100 million, you'll find zero of those in Scandinavia and 3 of those in America. No more or less crazies, just more people. Since media is pretty good at finding the most bizarre cases and ignoring the normal people, it twists the media impression given to favoring smaller countries.