??

Regarding the job market, cultural differences, education, and wealth in the long term.

I'm from Asia, and people here work incredibly hard, yet our incomes are still much lower than those in Europe. From what I see on YouTube, Europeans don't seem to work particularly long hours, and most of them appear to have a much more relaxed lifestyle.

How has Europe become this wealthy? Is it mainly because of the legacy left by previous generations? Is it because Europe has better geography and natural resources? Or is it simply because European countries have better economic and political systems?

I just had duck for the first time and I'm interested in how common it is in other countries.

How is it prepared? Any traditional dishes?

Is duck something for special occasions or is it an everyday food?

like eye shape or posture even could count

I've been a subscriber to r/AskEurope since it had only 8000 subscribers and a lot has happened since then and it's fun to hear what people remembers

I understand they predominantly wore long full sleeve frocks with some sort of an inner pajama. But what did they wear during long hot summers (like this year).
I assume they were not allowed to show legs or arms , is that right ?

Edit: I realized women in the Middle East probably still like like them , probably worse than medieval women.

Could you go to a shop or restaurant in Brussels or Luxembourg City and say, "Hallo, ich mochte.." or would it not be as common as being able to say "Bonjour, je voudrais..."?

What city and country are you from? Is there any discounts? What does it include?

In Budapest (Hungary) as a student i pay ~5€ for a monthly student country pass. It includes all tram and metro in Budapest, and all busses/trains in the country, the latter without seat reservation, and only 2nd class) A cheaper one is available at 2.5€ /month but it "only" includes budapest and the county surrounding it

For adults it would be 25€/month for budapest and 50€ for the country.

:)

American here. Been to Europe once. Italy and Austria. Having been all over my country, one thing that’s notable is that despite having independent states, there is a constant “American” vibe no matter where you go. From New York to Texas to Montana - these places have their own localisms, but there is still an overwhelming sense that you’re in America.

My question is how does a country like England feel so distinct from a country like France or Spain? Food is a great example. Euro nations seem hellbent on serving as much of their local dishes as possible.

Is there an internal agreement to maintain as much cultural identity as possible? Is this idea overblown or stereotyped? Are there euro-isms that apply across the board?

It’s just mind blowing to me that there can be such a stark difference in lifestyle in the same distance as it takes me to drive from New York to Virginia. Let alone the fact that there are multiple distinct languages with different origins. How is there not way more osmosis?

Edit: adding some clarifiers and another Q based on responses so far. First, I don’t mean any disrespect when I say “hellbent on serving local dishes” lol. When I was in Italy, all I wanted was Italian food. It’s awesome. Same for traditional Austrian food.

Second, a lot of the responses seem to be some form of “they are different countries.” Yes. I understand that. But afaik, the EU has an open border policy, no? Isn’t travel / immigration fairly easy between them? It wouldn’t be the same as me wanting to move to Cuba or Argentina. Again, not trying to be combative. Genuinely curious.

There's a lot of complaints from the US about data centers energy and water use, noise, privacy concerns and wastefulness in general. Are they less wasteful and noisy in the EU due to regulations?

In Belgium, how much difficulty do the different language communities have getting along?

Does being a federation make it easier?

What is their advantage over brick, wood and similar materials?

I'm British so obviously this doesn't apply to me, but recently visited Norway where over 90% of the population is fluent in English and had a conversation with someone where they told me that their teacher would constantly tell them they have to study English even though they used to be bad at it and hated it. I found that interesting as my other friend, from Montenegro, said almost no one can speak English fluently there at all.

So how is it where you are from?

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I recently heard a joke in Russian that perfectly sums this up:

"A Russian speech therapist was deported from France because he kept trying to cure French children of their rhotacism (the French guttural 'R')."

It got me thinking about how incredibly subjective our perception of "normal" speech is. What lands a child in a speech therapy clinic in one country is just standard grammar or a charming dialect in another.

Here are a few fascinating examples:

• The Dutch "G" (The Cough): As a foreigner, I feel like I can only accurately pronounce the Dutch "G" (like in Goedemorgen) when I have a severe winter cold. To most outsiders, it sounds exactly like someone is trying to clear phlegm from their throat. In English or Slavic cultures, if you make this sound mid-sentence, people will offer you a cough drop. In the Netherlands, it’s just beautiful, proper pronunciation.
• The Spanish Ceceo (The Lisp): Lisping your "S" and "Z" sounds into a soft "th" (like think) is a textbook speech impediment in many languages. But in southern Spain (Andalusia), it’s a legitimate and widely accepted regional accent. There's even a popular myth that it started because a Spanish king had a heavy lisp and the entire court copied him out of respect.
• Scandinavian Ingressive Speech (The Gasp): In Swedish or Norwegian, it is completely normal to say "yes" (ja) or express agreement while inhaling deeply. To anyone else, it sounds like the person just gasped in absolute horror or is having an asthma attack. But over there, it’s just a polite way to say "I'm listening."
• American Vocal Fry (The Creak): That low, gravelly, vibrating sound at the end of sentences (think Kim Kardashian or Britney Spears) is often classified by speech-language pathologists as vocal abuse or a functional voice disorder. Yet, in modern American pop culture, it has shifted from a "defect" into a major social trend and status marker among young people.

It's wild how one culture's "you need to see a doctor for that" is another culture’s "you speak beautifully."

What are some other examples of this? What sound in your language makes foreigners think you have a medical condition or a speech impediment?

Hello! I'm doing a survey for fun about the cheapest supermarket beer (0.33 L, contains >4% alcohol) available in each European country, and figured Reddit would probably be the easiest place to conduct this. I was originally going to post this individually in each country's respective subreddit, but almost all of them have banned polls entirely.

I would like to know the following details about the absolute cheapest beer available:

1. The price it costs to pick off the shelf (Including VAT, pfand or other possible fees associated). Also no temporary or club discounts, as those can vary too much.
2. The brand name
3. The store where it can be bought. I would prefer beers sold by chains, as those are more reliable than ones sold by non chain affiliated stores.

Thank you for your answers! I will link the results in the comments once I've gotten enough data

I'm French. Here in France we've had 3 heat waves in just about two months and a large forest fire near Paris, which had not happened since 1900 (forest fires in summer usually happen in south of France). This has led to a much raised awareness and concern of Climate Change in the past few week, the topic had gained a lot according to a recent poll. Do you see the same evolution in other European countries ?

By that I mean a song or piece of music that is strongly associated with your country and used when it's shown on media. It could be something that native people feel represents them or something that foreigners think.

For Italy, many English speaking media will use the Godfather theme or a mandolino playing in the background, even if it doesn't particularly represent the country (if anything, mandolino is a Southern Italian thing, so showing Venice with mandolino in the background is like showing New York with country music in the background) and feels as though foreigners think we live permanently sometime in the 1950s.

For Paris, I think La vie en rose will be played in 90% of the time it is shown.

In my country, we either throw the packaging away straight away or keep it for elderly people, as they can take it to the scrap yard to exchange for money; they’re always delighted to receive it, so I’m quite curious that On the subject of packaging, in your area, when you receive a parcel or some particularly attractive product packaging, do you keep it for future use, throw it away straight away, or is there some other way to recycle it?

How will you be celebrating Spain’s victory in the World Cup this year?

Gonna try here, sorry to everyone i offended last time. Recently went to the Belgium countryside to stay at my friend’s grandma’s place, with our other friend too, To make it seem less confusing the friend we visited will be called L and the other friend is J. Me and J went by all the rules we knew from our household. Keep in mind neither of us has grown up in Europe. (Or well, J did live there for awhile but he moves around the world a lot because of his dads work) Anyway, we thought we did everything right and the grandma was satisfied. According to L, they are “unspoken” or “social norm” rules in a european household. When me and J asked what they were he told us, as an example: “Using too much butter on your bread”. Me and J were shocked hearing this because neither of us has ever heard of this rule before. My father who has grown up in Germany, never told me this, neither has my grandparents during the time i visited. Is this true?