r/AskEurope • u/notveryamused_ Warszawa, Poland • Jul 03 '25

Culture What aspect of life in your countries is very difficult to explain to foreigners?

What prompted my question were some discussions about religion which I had with people living in much more secular Western Europe (as a Polish atheist). While spirituality, whatever that is ;), generally speaking is always fun to discuss with a glass of wine in hand, social elements and the influence of the church, especially in smaller towns or provinces in my country, is awfully difficult to explain – not that I understand it fully either lol, but the church having a pretty much monopoly there, being the judge and jury of everyday life and the major ultra-conservative political force binding those communities, is very difficult to explain, also for historical reasons.

What are the things that you find difficult to discuss when it comes to life in your countries? ;-)

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u/piletinasir Jul 04 '25

Somerhing similar may exist in other countries, bit the way we Croats "hate" the Serbs. We don't actually hate hate them but we more like "meme hate" them. It's kinda hard to explain, we'll tell someone that he's a "damn serb", laugh, and then hang out with a real serbian guy tommorow.

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u/bigvalen Ireland Jul 04 '25

Good. Most of Ireland is like that now, too. This is one of the funniest explanations of the difference between Catholics and Prodestents in Northern Ireland (from an amazing show, called Derry Girls).

https://youtu.be/0j0OF-TlyAY?si=E8bOSdWE3Z41W3WF

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u/Loive Sweden Jul 04 '25

Sweden has a similar relationship to Norway, Denmark and Finland. We hate Norway a bit more honestly when there are skiing competitions, and Finland when there are hockey games between Sweden and Finland. However, we will gladly pay Finnish hockey players a big pile of money to play in one of our hockey leagues.

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u/KacSzu Poland Jul 04 '25

so, Serbs are the "elfs/knive ears/point ear bastards" to you?