In honor of the Declaration of Independence, I will share these ridiculously hilarious pictures with you friends! These paintings were done by artist Jason Heuser AKA Sharpwriter http://sharpwriter.deviantart.com.
Since I’m living in Singapore and all, no fireworks for me 😦
Which is your favorite? American friends, how will you be celebrating?
JK I know what the World Cup is, mostly. And I even know it’s in Brazil, unlike 2/3 of other Americans lol. And I know this happened…
So we beat this tiny country in Africa. Yaaaay!!! I guess?
Irony…. I’m in a I forget what my British friends actually called it but I’ll call it a bracket but it’s wayyyyy simpler than that. Anyway, the teams I picked out of the hat were Germany (who are good, right?) and Ghana, who Murica just beat. Guess that ruins half my shot at winning fifty bucks. The bitter, bitter irony.
So obviously, the rest of the world is very excited. The US in general, meh. On my Facebook feed, I saw one mention of USA winning, and it was more like an ironic, go USA you managed to beat a developing country. Hope you’re proud. Way more posts about the Packers (obviously), Brewers, possibly even the Bucks basketball team (who are not very good, I guess). I kind of feel bad for our soccer/football team. All the rest of the teams, their home countries be all crazy about it. One stat I saw said that only 7% of the US planned to watch and cheer for Team USA. Though apparently there are plenty of excited people.
I’m contemplating being a total fairweather fan, buying a knock-off jersey while in Viet Nam (that would be the only thing with USA on it that I own), trying to find one of those scarf things like all the rest of the world’s fans appear to have, and start chanting USA all over the place. Everyone else in the world is excited, I guess I could be, too. It would help pass the time til football starts in the Fall, too. Go Pack Go! I will say soccer/football fans appear to have way more fun at their games with their songs and their chants and their scarf things. I wish the Packers had a song all the fans sang…..
Anyway….
Survey questions: should I care about the World Cup? American friends, do you care about the World Cup? Why don’t Americans care about it–is it not American enough, do we have enough of all our own sports, is it the sketchy penalty calling?
Back story: I’m working on writing a character who speaks the British English variety of English. And crap there are just so many differences, not only in vocabulary but syntax among other things. I sent my work to a professional editor in the UK (after having like 5 British English speakers read it) and I’m going through my feedback. I actually did shockingly well, but….
Gotten and block (as a distance)=Americanisms. Also chug, like chug a beer. Also snickered, that should be sniggered. I have a list of a gagillion other things, but I never would have guessed those…. Okay not a gagillion but a lot.
I ran a half marathon this weekend with a fellow American and two of my English friends. It was actually MORE than a half–my Map My Run app told me I ran 13.76 miles, so thanks thanks for that Sundown Singapore. I digress. Obviously at the race, they had plenty of these:
(By the way, this totally happens all the time in the U.S. :P)
I said to my English friends, “Hey, we’re going to meet Steph by the Porta-Potties.” They looked at me like a was a bit mad, then thought that was hilarious that I called it a Porta-Potty. I don’t think one of them believed that’s actually what I call it. “Why don’t you just call it a toilet?”Haha I don’t know, that’s just what we call it. My English friends were also surprised when I said ours don’t often have sinks in them. After that I was kind of like, eek maybe I’ll just call it a toilet then. I cannot say Porta-Loo, it sounds too funny when I say it lol.
Another side note: Singapore has nice Porta-Potties or Porta-Loos or Porta-Johns or toilets or whatever you want to call them.
What do you call a portable toilet made out of plastic, set up just for a special event?
Have you ever used a word that people from other cultures unexpectedly found hilarious?
(The awkward bro hug two tap on the back I’d be okay with. Kissing cheeks? Not so much)
Yesterday I was at a meeting with some of my fellow Singapore Writer’s Group (which is an amazing group of writers, seriously! But 505 members on Meet-Up is not exactly functional). Being Singapore, we are a fairly culturally diverse group. After serious discussions about our future as a group, we parted ways.
I actually was NOT the token Yank at the time. There was one other. Note this. It’s an important fact.
So the three English women and one French women started hugging and kissing each others’ cheeks. Then it was my turn. This is kind of what I wanted to do:
Obviously I went along with it but did not actually kiss. Also I didn’t start crying, don’t worry. I’ve been through this plenty of other times, but still it makes me feel a bit awkward, especially since I don’t know them super well.
“We’ll turn you into a European yet!” one of my writing friends said. We all had a bit of a laugh.
Me and the other American looked at each other and laughed. We just waved.
We definitely don’t do the hug and kiss each cheek thing in Wisconsin. I was thinking about it, and my friends and I back home at most would do an awkward side hug farewell but that’s about it. My English and Scottish friends here, apart from those at the SWG, don’t do that either.
(I’d put Wisconsin in this category as well haha)
Will I turn European before I leave Singapore? Only time will tell. I’ve been told I’m practically British so I guess I’m getting closer 😛
Have you encountered cultural differences in greetings that made you feel uncomfortable? What is your culture’s method of saying good bye? (Americans, we DO have our own culture, which I didn’t really realize until I left haha)
Sarah J. Carlson 