I haven’t been to many but i enjoyed Ireland quite a bit! The travel there was great and everyone was kind.

Hi there!

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The British Prime Minister meets the King every week. How often does the prime minister of your country meet the head of state? Where do they usually meet? What do they usually talk about?

Hello! Just want to ask if in Europe the main Mathod of payment is sepa direct debit? Recently searched the way that Europeans pay and discovered that a lot of Europeans doesn’t even own a credit card! And mostly use sepa direct debit it is truly fascinating that in other countries people use bank transactions in every day transactions unlike my country

That it want to hear your thought thx for everybody that answers!!!

Not sure if this type of question is allowed, but I’m interested in hearing the perspectives of other Europeans about my country! The UK feels so cut off culturally and psychologically from the rest of Europe since Brexit. It’s quite unfortunate so this should be an insightful discussion.

Where did you go and what were your first impressions? Would you return?

Happy to give any advice too!

I was wondering what are babies first words in your countries where English isn’t the main language. I saw an article that said in English it’s usually “mama” or “dada”, because of how easy it is just to say those words for a baby. It doesn’t take much for the tongue to make these sounds in English.

But for example in Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Romania or wherever you’re from. Are these usually the babies first words too?

Edit: I further individually googled mom and dad, for many different languages and I guess mom and dad is the same in almost all languages. Even in Asia and Africa, for the most part in the countries there, is mama and dada. I searched which word between mama and dada is said more usually. Couldn’t find any stats on languages other than English and Chinese. Here’s a snippet I found below.

“Cross cultural research on baby’s first words shows that the clear winner is Dada. Tardif and colleagues found in over 900 babies, age 8 to 16 months from English, Cantonese, and Mandarin speaking homes, Dada was the most common first person identified. Mama is not far behind but it does lead to questions as to why in mixed gender homes, Dada seems to come first?”

I just voted for the parliamentary elections in Romania from abroad and when it comes to people I had no clue who they were however I voted based on the party, but being more specific, I voted for the party to which the politician I like belongs to, even if the party or those specific politicians may not share the same views, at least no completely, as him.

Had this question in mind, because Latvia arguably had the most disappointing year in recent memory.

We fell flat in football getting last in our Nations League C group behing the FAROE ISLANDS.

We crashed out in the group stage in the hockey world cup despite getting bronze last year.

Our basketball team failed to qualify for the Olympics AGAIN by losing to Brazil which we beat last year in the World Cup in which we got 5th place.

Not a SINGLE MEDAL in the Olympics.

On a more positive note, Kristaps Porzingis became the first Baltic NBA champion and we did very well in the Paralympics.

I know Thanksgiving isn't a thing in Europe, but I am just curious as even if some don't celebrate Thanksgiving if stores, brands etc will still have sales this time around?

I'm was thinking either French, Dutch or italian but I'm open to suggestions

A recent thread here asked for the three most beautiful cities, but people that live in them always say ya but wait till you go to the outskirts. Many city centers are beautiful of course, but where keeps it's outskirts beautiful too? Not the next cute town over, but the outskirts of the decently sized city.

And are there any organizations that deals with language affairs. For example trying to "purify" the language by getting rid of foreing words or trying to unify the language of the country or accepting a new writing system getting rid of the older one?

Is it "wisdom teeth" everywhere?

In Ukraine it is direct translation.

And how are they connected to Christmas?

It is a bit weird to me seeing people fleeing/moving to an EU country to work for a min wage only to move again to another country with a higher minimum wage.

It also funnels all of the population to a handful of countries and cities

I'm curious what people will come up with. What are your top three cities in Europe to look at and why?

To make this a bit more of a interesting question we will ignore idilic villages or towns. Population of the place has to be over 50,000 people.

Today is the first of advent and in germany many traditional things starting today. Like lighting the first candle on our advent wreath or opening the first door on our adent calender.

What are your traditions during christmas/advent time? What kind of food do you eat (cookies, cakes or bread etc.)? Do you "celebrate" advent time? Do you have special decoration or a advent calender or wreath?

In the US, iPhones are by far the most common mobile phones, what about your country?

Assuming the Parliament ends up with mostly local seats from little PR districts of around 10-20 seats.

Title

I was looking at job advertisements in UK and it was strange to me that salaries are provided per year and most probably gross. It is super weird to me and I worked in 3 EU countries and salaries are always discussed as net amount per month. It was always logical to me because why would I have to do the math each time I look for new job. And how could a foreigner know how much tax is in another country. How is it in your country?

In America, the money that you spend to attend college is one of the biggest expenses you will make in your life (maybe #2, with house at #1 and car at #3). Naturally, there is a lot of scrutiny around this, because it is such an important life decision. If things go wrong, you can be left financially worse off than if you had never attended college in the first place.

Here in the Netherlands, and generally in Europe, I don't see college expenses or even college and going to University as a big talking point. I know that it is state-subsidized to a large extent, but someone would have raised the point that taxpayers are funding college while many graduates struggle to land jobs. I am also aware that the Netherlands has this system of University and applied sciences universities, and the later is not seen as inferior but different, unlike community colleges in the US. I also know that in some countries like Germany, it is easy to get into college but hard to survive the course. Many students drop out after Year 1. In the US, it is not really hard to graduate.

So, why is college not a big deal in so many European countries? Why is the expense towards college - whether private or through the taxpayer - not scrutinized the same way as in the US?

Hi there!

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

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

Enjoying the small talk? We have a Discord server too! We'd love to have more of you over there. Do both of us a favour and use this link to join the fun.

The mod-team wishes you a nice day!

For example, use "joueur-animateur en direct" instead of "streamer"

I ask this because today in Scotland is St Andrew's Day, the day of our patron saint. The story of St Andrew is that one day before a battle between Gaels/Picts and the Anglo-Saxons, our king Óengus II saw the image of a white saltire in the blue sky in the shape of the cross that St Andrew was crucified on (hint hint 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿). He and his men took this as a sign that he was blessing them with luck on the battlefield. The battle went on, but by the very end of it, Óengus and his men won. This tale would then go on to be considered the very moment the Picts and Gaels would unite together as a nation and forge the modern nation of Scotland we know today.

Does your country have anything similar to this?

What is that moment in history that, in your opinion, is the best demonstration of European unity? This could be a moment of political union such as the Carolingian empire, or a battle where European nations faced a common enemy, such as the battle of Lepanto.

So what is that moment in history that reunites us all?

Hi, I'm not entirely sure if this is appropriate for this sub, I apologise if not.

I am New Zealand-Dutch, my wife is Swiss-Dutch. We've lived our lives together in Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, and France. But life has taken an unexpected turn: a company I applied for has given me the choice between Estonia or Slovenia. I've never been to either country (although we've discussed it in the past) and have little-to-no knowledge of either.

I am doing my own research now, and we're discussing taking two little fortnight trips to each country just to get a "vibes" based impression. But I was wondering if people who live/have lived in either country (or it's nearest neighbours) and have impressions or info I should know could pitch in. What're they like? Is it a reserved or social country? What should I be aware of?

Things I know.. Some I'm not entirely too sure about, they're just things I've heard but have yet to look into.

Estonia

• Cold, dark winters
• Finnish-related language, very different to Western European languages
• Very tech innovative & friendly, lots of e-initiatives
• Neighbours Russia
• Big book owning culture
• Talinn is the commercial, capital, tech hub
• Tartu is a big University city
• Flat, forested, lots of bogs and the like
• Small
• Even smaller population

Slovenia

• Mountainous in parts, low-lands in others
• Mix of alpine, Mediterranean beach, and forested regions
• Former Yugoslavia
• Wealthiest of the Balkan states (?)
• Small
• Bigger population than Estonia?
• South Slavic language, but different from Serbo-Croatian (?)
• Ljubljana is the capital & main hub
• Bled is where the lake with the castle in the middle that is literally all over the internet is

I have a few months to make my decision because of Xmas/New Years, so I'm definitely going to do some thorough reading, asking around, and even a visit. But input from those in or around the area would be greatly appreciated :) It's uncharted territory for us! We've never visited east of Graz in Austria.

Any advice appreciated

How would you react if your country banned social media for kids and teens? Do you think it is a good idea?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89vjj0lxx9o

In Romanian we say "Let the neighbor's goat die too." / "Să moară și capra vecinului".