Bridging the Gap - The cultural exchange thread

[Kendotlibero]

I thought it could be a fun idea some good old cultural excange.
Ask any question you want to me or anybody else with a different nationality, and let's have fun.
I am Italian, so ask me anything about pizzaland. Where are you from?

[TomGuycott]

I'm from Jersey.

Yeah, we're all assholes.

Keep walkin' ya dummy.

[miyabi95_]

i grew up moving around a lot with my dad in the military. mom's side is from mexico and oceania, dad's side is all white

i don't really know what my culture is but i am eager to study more about japan.

[Gors]

I'm a japanese man living in brazil that knows english






kill me

[Kendotlibero]

I'm from Jersey.

Yeah, we're all assholes.

Keep walkin' ya dummy.

i've read your post with the tf2 scout voice, it fits him a lot

[Kosheh]

oh nice, this is a thread I've kinda wanted for awhile. I guess I'll ask some general questions (I probly know the answer to them anyway)

- How's the gaming scene in Italy? Is the console spec race a thing, or does the economy have more of a shift towards free-to-plays and the PC market?

- Is it true that Italians give wine to children during meals? In America this practice is considered child abuse and it's warned that it can cause brain damage. :V
(I assume you have like a non-alcoholic apertif like Beverly) (oh yeah, Americans don't have an apertif so if wine's used like that you might wanna explain that too)

- On that same note is Beverly actually liked by Italians?
(In America there's a "sodas of the world" at Epcot, and Beverly is showcased there. Most people who fill up a cup with it immediately spit it out and empty the cup because the taste is way too strong and tart for American taste buds, because we eat appetizers instead; apertifs are truly a foreign concept to us)

- What's the deal with the PS4 being $1800 in Brazil?! Can you just give a crash course for other users what the ridiculous taxes on gaming stuff entails?

- Similar question: As a result, what's the gaming scene like in Brazil? I've heard it described as a bizarro place where Sega won the 90's console wars...?? And the Sega Genesis was recently rereleased there?!

- I can easily imagine Italian cuisine coming from an Italian heritage family, hence why I didn't ask Ken a similar question - what are Brazilian meals like?

- What's the absolute worst Brazilian take on sushi you've seen?

- WHY DO YALL PUT CREAM CHEESE ON PIZZA??? SIGNED, A FAT AMERICAN WHO CONSUMES CHEESE REGULARLY

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now

- What's the weirdest "Americanized" food you've seen in your country? (Like a hamburger made with the assumption "This is what Americans eat in America", but it's very clearly a mindset in your country)

- Favorite regional-exclusive McDonald's item?

- Best local pizza topping?

[Gors]

- What's the deal with the PS4 being $1800 in Brazil?! Can you just give a crash course for other users what the ridiculous taxes on gaming stuff entails?
Long story short, Brazil considers games as "gambling", so that factors into the tax. Additionally, games are usually import goods and also electronic devices, which further raises the tax value. This, along with shit practices when dealing with foreign money and overall difficulty with industry support, caused Nintendo to leave the Brazilian market, which makes their products literally luxurious items 

- Similar question: As a result, what's the gaming scene like in Brazil? I've heard it described as a bizarro place where Sega won the 90's console wars...?? And the Sega Genesis was recently rereleased there?!
Yes, Brazil was amidst a Military Dictatorial government from 1960 to 1980's, which closed our market to anything foreign. This meant videogames in general, as they were foreign products. This caused the NES to be released only in 1995 in Brazil, way later than everywhere else in the world.
However, Sega saw potential in the Brazilian market and struck a deal with Brazilian toymaker "TECTOY" so that they could produce Sega products nationally - TECTOY even made graphic hacks of some games to include popular Brazilian characters, such as Mônica and Geraldinho. They even went as far as completely localizing Shining In The Darkness in Brazilian Portuguese, something unheard of at the time.
In this deal, TECTOY is able to sell refurbished Sega consoles - this is why the Master System is still sold, and as you said, the new Mega Drive is a thing.

This doesn't mean that Nintendo was completely inexistant in Brazil. The Phantom system and Dynavision were NES clones that were quite popular at the time, and when the SNES was launched, many people would play on rental stores, much like how an internet café works - you pay for a couple hours and then you leave. If you could afford to buy a console, you could rent carts, too.

- I can easily imagine Italian cuisine coming from an Italian heritage family, hence why I didn't ask Ken a similar question - what are Brazilian meals like?
Brazilian meals are basically rice, bean stew, beef steak, salad and some other accompainment. Bean and rice is a combination that is ubiquitous in Brazil, due to its nutritional value and ease of produce.

- What's the absolute worst Brazilian take on sushi you've seen?
strawberry and nutella roll. why did this need to exist

- WHY DO YALL PUT CREAM CHEESE ON PIZZA??? SIGNED, A FAT AMERICAN WHO CONSUMES CHEESE REGULARLY
You are wrong, it's not cream cheese, it's catupiry cheese, a genuinely Brazilian kind of cheese, invented by Italian immigrant Mario Silvestrini in the state of Minas Gerais. It's a popular topping on snacks like chicken croquets (coxinha) and pastries.

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now
B O M B A P A T C H 1 0 0 % A T U A L I Z A D O

- What's the weirdest "Americanized" food you've seen in your country? (Like a hamburger made with the assumption "This is what Americans eat in America", but it's very clearly a mindset in your country)
America already produces weird americanized products, no need to do anything about it

- Favorite regional-exclusive McDonald's item?
I prefer Burger King

- Best local pizza topping?
chicken heart pizza

[Kosheh]

- Favorite regional-exclusive McDonald's item?
I prefer Burger King

um im gonna call u out here because even burger king has its regional menu items





actually the more i look at this the more brazilian it gets. the only thing that could make it more brazilian is a turma da monica cross promo

[Gors]

Now hold the Frick up, you asked me about fave Mc donalds food, not burger King. You didn't ask me if there were burger King here either

[Kendotlibero]

- How's the gaming scene in Italy? Is the console spec race a thing, or does the economy have more of a shift towards free-to-plays and the PC market?

If we don't count mobile gaming, videogames aren't really a big thing here, almost nobody buys a console since the ps2 and wii, but xbox 360 were pretty common too.
Most videogame players plays f2p pc games, like metin2 and leaugue of legends.
- Is it true that Italians give wine to children during meals? In America this practice is considered child abuse and it's warned that it can cause brain damage. :V
(I assume you have like a non-alcoholic apertif like Beverly) (oh yeah, Americans don't have an apertif so if wine's used like that you might wanna explain that too)
yeah, kinda:
curiosity is pretty common between children, and wine on the Sunday family meeting too. So some parents make children drink a sip of wine if they ask, but they usually don't like then and don't ask again (no, they don't give a 10 year old a glass of wine)
underage drinking and smoking between teenagers is pretty common, tho...

- On that same note is Beverly actually liked by Italians?
(In America there's a "sodas of the world" at Epcot, and Beverly is showcased there. Most people who fill up a cup with it immediately spit it out and empty the cup because the taste is way too strong and tart for American taste buds, because we eat appetizers instead; apertifs are truly a foreign concept to us)

I don't see it very often. In Northen Italy is pretty common the Aperol Sprits for aperitif, a beverage name with Prosecco and Aperol. If you want something without the booze Crodino is usually the way to go.

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now
Well, they usually didn't told you that they're selling an hacked fifa/pes cd back in the ps2 days,when the official game wasn't out yet. I don't really know if it was concious or not. My fav is a winning eleven hack with the "Allenatore del Pallone" skin (famous italian movie about soccer) with "Napoli Classico". Diego Armando Maradona was a monster with 99 points in every stat, even in defence.
anyway there isn't a "fanmade" update patch like in Brasil here, everybody kinda lost interest in gaming
- What's the weirdest "Americanized" food you've seen in your country? (Like a hamburger made with the assumption "This is what Americans eat in America", but it's very clearly a mindset in your country)
Big Mac... I think? American food isn't really well recived here because "They don't know how to eat with all those mcdonalds and  calorie-heavy food" is a pretty common way to see american cooking...
- Favorite regional-exclusive McDonald's item?
They exists? Anyway when i go there i usually take some vertigo chips
oh, apparently mcdonald's italian menu is completaly different, take a look http://www.mcdonalds.it/ http://www.burgerking.it/
- Best local pizza topping?
it's pretty hard to choose, since every pizzeria does different toppings in different ways, but my all time favorite is made with walnuts, caciocavallo (a kind of cheese) and bacon, kinda weird but i love it

---

my turn now

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now
B O M B A P A T C H 1 0 0 % A T U A L I Z A D O

does it update brazilian league only or every cup?

Are there some "national singers"? i mean pop songs that are pretty known in brazil but not outside of it?

[PatientZero]

Heck, I'll chip in, I'm British and Jewish.
I don't drink tea and I love bacon, so I'm basically the epitome of both.

Don't know if anyone will have any questions, but feel free to ask me about crumpets, the queen, and all those things nobody wants to ask in case they sound anti-semitic and lose all their Youtube subscribers.

[Kendotlibero]

what Jews think will happen in the afterlife, since according to your religion Jesus doesn't came so it doesn't exist the concept of resurrection?

[Kriven]

Gors, your life sounds crazy. How did you end up living Brazil?

I'm a white kid from New Hampshire, so my culture is nothing-but-also-better-than-yours at the same time (just ask anybody from New Hampshire if they're better than anybody else from anywhere else) so I probably won't have a whole lot to add to this conversation, but uh... feel free to ask anyway, I guess.

I think the only important question I would get from other US citizens is about taxes, so let me just skip right ahead: hey, it feels pretty good to look at a price tag and say to myself "Yeah, those are the same numbers that will show up at the register."

[PatientZero]

what Jews think will happen in the afterlife, since according to your religion Jesus doesn't came so it doesn't exist the concept of resurrection?

That actually depends who you ask, traditional Judaism does believe that we continue on after death, but there's no specific answer to what that means. but it's important to bare in mind that there is no "Jewish Hell" or "Jewish Heaven", and that we're always taught to focus on the immediate, physical world around us, rather than a hypothetical afterlife.

So I guess aside from each individual Jew, the answer is that we don't really know and we don't really worry about it.

Although, for clarity, there is belief in the coming of the messiah, but that isn't Jesus, he's considered one of the many false messiahs throughout history. That's less of an insult than you might think, there were a lot of them, and in order to be "the messiah" by messianic standards someone literally has to end all suffering in the world forever. And y'know, that sounds hard to do.

(And also they have to take us back home to Israel? Like, I've never been there myself, but I guess that's home for some reason?)

[Gors]

my turn now

- ok I'll cut the shit are FIFA hacks like the most popular thing among normies right now
B O M B A P A T C H 1 0 0 % A T U A L I Z A D O

does it update brazilian league only or every cup?

It updates Brazilian league, Conmebol league, European league and world cup squads.

Are there some "national singers"? i mean pop songs that are pretty known in brazil but not outside of it?

It's good to know that what people know the most about brazilian music (that is, "bossa nova" and "samba") are actually very niche music in Brazil. Yes, of course, we do have Carnaval every february and it's got all those naked women and colorful stuff here and there, but most people listen to Sertanejo Universitário, Pagode and Funk casually.

Sertanejo Universitário (University Country Music) is a "modernized take" on old-fashioned "sertanejo" country music, featuring acoustic guitars with rock band accompainments. It's popular because it often talks about drinking alcohol, sex, skipping university - you know, things that college students do.

Pagode is a more mellow and popular variety of samba and deals with love and relationships, also enjoyed by quite a bit of people.

Brazilian Funk is a misnomer - it actually takes a lot of influence from rap and dirty house electro music, but is so named due to replacing actual Funk music in the parties. It's evolved to be controversial, with references to drugs, abuse, explicit sex and even strong crimes such as killing. It's popular in the favelas and lower-class people.