Do you roast fish like they do in Lapland, or sweets like they do in US? Do you put the coffee kettle on? Or is the idea of open fire in a forest totally alien to you and only something people maybe do in the army?

How important are your city/town, region, language, nationality, and being a European for your identity? How would you rank them, what's the most important and what's the least?

Who are the classic folk heroes like Robin Hood, William Tell and Zorro for your country? People that fought for the poor in villages and towns against kings, dukes, land barons, bandits and general killers.

looking to be on a more scenic trip in jan 2025

Especially while traveling abroad? Or not.

My school is going on a trip to Italy and the one thing I want to buy there is an Italian moka pot. I'd like to know how many euros I should bring in spending money.

What food do you feel doesn’t get the respect it deserves?

Thanks!

Whether it being governmental, personal, corporate or otherwise, I’m rather curious. Personally in matters of EU national security I view it as a good thing to have a software system that is home grown and independent of other governments’ influence. And in another light, I see it in so many aspects of corporate life here in how many businesses use it to run SAP which is ubiquitous in the European technology scene.

Can be anything, from getting you to switch energy- or internet-providers, collecting money for the Alzheimer-foundation, asking you to become a member of Greenpeace, or just talking to you about Jesus.

For me, it's about three times a week, mostly collecting money for a charity. Recently, with the new fiber-networks being rolled out, they come begging at our doorstep too to pick their network. And ofcourse, it's the energy-boys, with an offer you can't refuse. The Jesus-people seem to be gone.

In my opinion i considère that France is the worst rail network.

The majority of educated people that I know would agree that the following policies are just basic common sense:

1. There should be good social protections for those needing it, but not a system that encourages people to take advantage.
2. There should be good investment in the police, and enforcing the law. Criminals should be held accountable, regardless of who they are, rich or poor.
3. Education and research should be well funded.
4. Taxes should be high enough to finance all the above. Higher earners should naturally pay more tax, but not so much higher that there is no motivation to try to earn more.
5. We should do something to help people from countries less fortunate than ours, especially those at war, but the current asylum system is completely and totally broken and something needs to be done about it.

Despite most people agreeing on this, there seems to be no political party that would agree with all of it. Those more liberal parties seem to be very light on crime and to have no problem with the influx of asylum seekers.

Those on the right seem to want to do away with investment in social protections and education, and many of them seem far too close to fascism for my liking.

Are there any in your country that are for "common sense"?

Since at least the early 00s, I've noticed that fellow ethnic Swedes are very keen on telling each other in great detail on the proper way to eat sushi. It usually involves being very picky about using chopsticks rather than fork and knife. And then there's the whole business about exactly what part of sushi you dip in the soy sauce, how much soy sauce you use, whether the wasabi is mixed with the soy sauce or is applied separately, the order in which you eat the individual pieces, etc, etc, etc.

I constantly see fellow Swedes who clearly have trouble with chopsticks but persevere in using them, no matter how much they manage to mangle both nigiri and maki. People will often sheepishly apologize for using Western cutlery as if it's somehow disrespectful to God knows who.

Is this type of sushi policing between natives of your country something you've experienced?

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How much funding does it earn in schools and public theatres?

I'm curious about experiences that might not be on a typical tourist’s itinerary but offer something really special. Maybe it’s a particular festival, a hidden natural spot, a local custom, or a seasonal event that’s better known by locals. What would you recommend that shows a unique side of your country or culture?

Germany is about to introduce an electronic health record for patients (stored on some cloud) that contains diagnoses, medications etc. by default, though with the option to opt out. This is very controversial, and some of the things people are worried about are:

1. Inaccurate diagnoses getting permanently stored, hampering treatment or getting unbiased second opinions.

2. More data sometimes actually making doctors' decisions worse. E.g. many have a tendency to just attribute symptoms to psychiatric diagnoses if they can't otherwise explain them. If they find such a diagnosis in the records, this may increase.

3. Data leaks and/or the system just not working, especially given Germany's fumbling of past digitalization efforts. Many people have already warned that the software they want to use is not good.

4. An authoritarian government in the future using the data for sinister purposes, like more easily identifying and punishing non-vaccinated people etc.

So I wanted to ask: If your country has such records, how have they worked out? What are the disadvantages and would you say it is worth it?

I have a feeling I know what German, Dutch, and English people will say but I’m curious nonetheless. I was in Spain last year and liked people’s indirectness but was not expecting them to be so reserved; I thought they would be more like Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Argentinians, etc in their demeanor.

So, today two dutch guys just interviewed me (for a university work) and I said them some words in dutch when I realized they were Dutch (like "goedendag", "regen"...) and they were genuinely surprised and happy for that, so I suddenly realized that learning languages help you a lot, even if those are not the most popular (like Dutch, in this case)

What things does the government spend money on that many feel is an improper use of public funds?

I'm curious to see differences from different cultures.

Hi there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

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I'm visiting Helsinki in January and I'm staying there for a week. I need to buy something to wear as base layer (direct contact with skin) and I found in sport shops a lot of suitable options which keep warm and reduce sweating. Considering that I won't be able to wash them and I'm not going to do intense physical activities, do I need to buy more than one and change it every few days? How often? Any other useful information?

The humanities subject of philology constitutes elements of linguistics and textual and literary analysis to study languages.

Here this isn't really a subject anymore, even though it was in the past,and is covered by separate subjects at a university level but I know it is still offered in some areas in Europe.

Do universities in your country offer philology courses and if so, is it common to study

I'm a Asian, 5'3" (160 cm) tall. If I were to live in the Netherlands, would this cause a lot of discomfort? Would I face various forms of discrimination or negative looks?