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Topic: Your Country

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Late

This is the place to show your love for your country and tell others how it differs from other countries. You can also talk about your state, province, city, etc. if you want to be a bit more specific.

I'm from Finland and I have lot to discuss but I'll start with the language and come back later if this thread gains any traction.

Finnish is known for being a hard language to learn for English speakers. The grammar is difficult and similar looking words often have entirely different meanings. Unlike English where at times you have to guess how to pronounce a word you've never heard before, the same doesn't apply in Finnish. You can compare it to Japanese (a language I'm sure many here are familiar with) where each letter has just one pronunciation and you just basically string those sounds together to form a word.

And to end this off, I've chosen couple of pictures to showcase how weird Finnish can be.

Word
Salmon + Snake = ?
Kuusi palaa
Inflection is fun

Edited on by Late

It's its, not it's.

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HappyAxiom

I'm from Belgium.
We've got the best beers in the world.
We're really unremarkable otherwise.
We also got Brussel sprouts. So yeah, there's that.

Edited on by HappyAxiom

HappyAxiom

19Robb92

Sweden .

A small export-driven country with a fantastic social safety-net ("free" education, healthcare etc. etc.). A few Swedish inventions/products/brands include: IKEA, EA DICE (i.e. Battlefield devs), King (i.e. Candy Crush devs), Spotify, Minecraft, Bluetooth, the Nobel Price etc..

Looking forward to: No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again

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Late

@19Robb92 Gotta say I'm a bit jealous because Sweden has so many great video game companies. I guess Finland has had some hit games like Alan Wake, Trine, Cities: Skylines and Angry Birds but it's nothing compared to Sweden's offerings.

It's its, not it's.

Switch Friend Code: SW-8287-7444-2602 | Nintendo Network ID: LateXD

19Robb92

@Late
I don't know, Angry Birds is preeeetty darn big. But yeah, it's pretty cool that some big companies are situated/founded over here.

By the way, do you guys still get taught Swedish in school or is that long gone?

Looking forward to: No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again

3DS Friend Code: 3007-8070-6318 | Nintendo Network ID: 19Robb92

HappyAxiom

@19Robb92 @Late
I had to look this up, but apparently Belgium has 1 fairly big game company: Larian Studios. They made the Divinity series, which is quite popular.
I'm also very proud of Child Focus, which operates throughout Europe.

HappyAxiom

Anti-Matter

I'm from Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia.
Surabaya is well known as the 2nd Big City in Indonesia after Jakarta. Surabaya name itself from two words: Sura (Shark) & Baya (Alligator). Also, Surabaya is called as Heroes City for remembrance of Epic Battle between Surabaya against British on 10 November 1945.

Surabaya has so many Malls to visit, though not as many as Jakarta.
Our well known dish from Surabaya such as Semanggi (Boiled Clover leaves dressed with Peanut sauce and Yellow Cracker), Sate Ayam Ponorogo (Chicken BBQ with peanut sauce), Tahu Tek (Deep fried Tofu, potato, and piece of rice cakes served with mixture of peanut sauce and shrimp paste, added with cracker as garnish).

Indonesian language is the 3rd hardest language to learn due to the pronounce. Our language heavily influenced from Dutch during Dutch colony for more than 350 years on Indonesia. Also, our language was developed from Malay language due to similarity. This is how to say in Indonesia.
"Halo, nama saya David. Saya berasal dari Surabaya."
"Hi, my name is David. I'm from Surabaya."

If you want to visit Surabaya, make sure you visit Super Mall Surabaya (located on West Surabaya, near of Citraland City that well known as the Singapore of Indonesia) to find a lot of restaurants with different cuisines, Some Hobby collector shops for Rare toys and video games, Giant Theater XXI for Cinemas, TimeZone & Amazone to play Arcade video games. Oh, if you meet a guy with blue outfits, dancing around on Dance Dance Revolution X2 or MAX 2 machine, that was me.

Edited on by Anti-Matter

Anti-Matter

Late

@19Robb92 It was big. I don't hear anyone talking about it anymore. And it's a small scale mobile game, not something like Battlefield, Just Cause, Wolfenstein (the new games), Payday or Europe Universalis.

Yes. Swedish is still taught in schools as a mandatory subject. For those who don't know, Swedish is the second official language in Finland. I can't say I remember much of the language. It's not like I use it every day like English. I think I can remember German better. Swedish might come in handy someday, though. I tried to get to Image & Form for my internship but it didn't work out. I never got an answer back. I might try again one day.

It's its, not it's.

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LuckyLand

I'm from Italy. My country is famous for being the one where the immortal vampire Kars got banished from our planet. Some people from my country have become famous world wide, for example Caesar Zeppeli and Tonio Trussardi just to name a few. In my country often people are named after dishes.

Disclaimer: some of the information above may be rather inaccurate and/or unreliable. Maybe even all of them actually.

I used to be a ripple user like you, then I took The Arrow in the knee

Eel

I'm from Mexico.

Yes, we have cactuses. Also corn, bubble gum, cocoa, vanilla and other popular things have their origins here.

Our foods consist mostly of corn, oil and chili. Also salt. Not exactly healthy.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

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Late

Untitled
As you may have heard, Donald Duck is very popular in Finland. The magazine has been going from 1951. It started out as a monthly magazine but soon became a weekly thing. We also have Donald Duck pocket books which come out every month. The newest one is #462 and they have ~250 pages if I remember correctly. We also have a service much like Spotify and Netflix, where you can read every Donald Duck comic released in Finnish digitally for 6€/month.

Untitled
As for Finnish cartoons, Moomin is the biggest one.
Created by Tove Jansson, Moomin started out as a book series and has appeared in many forms but it is nowadays best known for the cartoon "Muumilaakson tarinoita" which was animated in Japan. Fun fact: Hayao Miyazaki (Co-founder of Studio Ghibli) was working on Moomin cartoons for a while and he thought it would be nice to have a tank in one of the episodes. That didn't end up happening in the end.
Here's the first episode for those who are interested. Link
Ended up watching it myself too. Have to say it was weird watching it in English. The characters sound so different. Even weirder than watching it in Japanese which I've also done before.

Untitled
Also something that's a bit more up-to-date. Here's Pasila which ran from 2007 to 2013. The subtitles are made by a fan and the quality is not that good but it's still watchable. It's geared towards adults so keep that in mind. Has bad language and all that stuff. Link

Edited on by Late

It's its, not it's.

Switch Friend Code: SW-8287-7444-2602 | Nintendo Network ID: LateXD

Buizel

I'm from the UK, which isn't particularly exciting on this site. But I'm in London which I argue is quite different from the rest of the country, in part because it is very multicultural - in fact the majority of people that I work with are not from the UK (including a few from Finland!), and I'm half French myself.

Edited on by Buizel

At least 2'8".

Late

@NaviAndMii I can say I'm happy at least. Probably wouldn't have started this thread otherwise.

It's its, not it's.

Switch Friend Code: SW-8287-7444-2602 | Nintendo Network ID: LateXD

Eel

I have vague memories of watching the Moomin anime when I was a little kid. Like, as fuzzy and vague as my memories of Heidi and Toribio (Ox Tales). Two other similarly Japanese-but-not-really shows.

About famous Mexican shows, "El Chavo del 8" is very popular around the world, or so I've heard.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

Kimyonaakuma

I'm from Scotland, which is famous for kilts, bagpipes, whisky and some weird organ-related foods. I live in Glasgow, which is less grass and mountains and more..... drugs and stabbing I guess?
Where I live is a mix of many cultures so it's not as traditionally Scottish as further up north.

Other than that I wouldn't say that there is much that is exciting about Scotland, but I live here so it will all seem normal to me.
It's not the worst but not the best.

Kimyonaakuma

spizzamarozzi

@Meowpheel weird, I have vague memories of watching, or at least reading Moomin as a child too but still, I'm not entirely sure I ever watched it or read it. Or perhaps I'm mixing that up with Babar the Elephant - who knows? On the other hand, I can remember Ox Tales like the back of my hand. As a matter of fact, I would sit and watch Ox Tales all day, if I could.

The cartoon character from my country that is most popular abroad would probably be Calimero the black chick. Disney-wise, Paperinik (Superpato/Taikaviitta/Stål-Kalle) was also our own creation. We've had some of the best Disney authors in the world, especially in the duck universe - the only universe that matters.

Top-10 games I played in 2017: The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild (WiiU) - Rogue Legacy (PS3) - Fallout 3 (PS3) - Red Dead Redemption (PS3) - Guns of Boom (MP) - Sky Force Reloaded (MP) - ...

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ilikeike

I'm from the US, which I know isn't terribly exciting or exotic.

However, I've recently taken a few long roadtrips across the country, and that's given me great appreciation for my country.

The natural scenery is beyond gorgeous. Last summer we drove down Highway 101 from Port Angeles, Washington, down the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, and it was easily the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced. Not to mention the lush forests of the Northwest, the solitary beauty of the Plains, and the damp attraction of the Bayou--all in one country!

Then there's the diversity of people and cultures. Yes, there's a predominant white Christian culture here, but if you travel around the country you'll see an incredible variety. There's all the minorities and their cultures, as well as the unique cultures of the cities themselves. From the laid-back vibes of Seattle to the constant parties of New Orleans, the US is a land of variety.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that my country has a boatload of social and political problems right now. However, beneath all those issues (which I'm sure you're more than well aware of!) is a country of remarkable natural beauty that is home to countless different cultures and people.

Edited on by ilikeike

Mario Galaxy is ten years old, and now I feel old.

RR529

From the US here too, northwest Missouri, north of Kansas City.

Corn to the north, corn to the west, corn... well, you get the idea. Apparently the meth/opiod epidemic is hitting the area pretty hard, and gang activity is migrating in from KC, so my city is in a bit of a decline (we even had a shooting at the Wal-Mart a few nights ago). Still, the worst parts are mostly contained to a certain part of the city, so it's mostly nice otherwise.

Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)

Tyranexx

ilikeike wrote:

I'll be the first to acknowledge that my country has a boatload of social and political problems right now. However, beneath all those issues (which I'm sure you're more than well aware of!) is a country of remarkable natural beauty that is home to countless different cultures and people.

I second this. I couldn't have put it better myself, actually.

A lot of the natural areas in the U.S., both large and small, are worth seeing. While I haven't been all over the country, it definitely has an abundance of areas where photographs don't do them justice. I hope to get to the Northeast at some point in my lifetime to see the beautiful fall colors up there. Same with the Northwest and all of its natural greenery.

Different cultures definitely abound here, though way more in some areas than others. I've especially always had a fascination with Native American cultures and find their myths and traditions interesting. Probably the most culturally diverse place that I've been to is New Orleans. It was interesting learning and seeing the different cultural influences found in a city that predates the founding of the U.S..

I live in the Midwest, more specifically southern Illinois. I've only been to our state's most famous city and its surroundings roughly four times (three if we aren't counting layovers); St. Louis is a lot closer. I'm surrounded by corn, soybeans, wheat, and some wooded areas stuffed full of deer now and again. XD I'm not fond of the politics and financial drama in my state, but I do appreciate the simple beauty and friendly people that abound in it.

...I still need to get down to Metropolis at some point, though.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

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