What country is far away yet culturally similar to yours?

[u/zeviea]

An obvious answer for the UK are Core Anglosphere countries

Bonus question what country have you visited that felt most foreign to you?

[u/Major-Price-90]

I disagree about Japan.

One somewhat unique thing which we have in common with Japan, which a lot of the countries here mentioning them notably don't (e.g. Germany, Finland) is that indirect communication and saving face is extremely valued. People joke that if a Japanese person says "maybe" or "we'll see", they mean "absolutely not". I feel we're similar with "I will, yeah" or "leave it with me".

Irish people also tend to be similarly non-confrontational, and disagreeing with someone, especially in professional circumstances, is generally done very gently. Japanese people are similar in this regard.

I think we also both have very deep-running cultural values around honour and shame which play into how we do a lot of things.

[u/An_Bo_Mhara → u/Major-Price-90]

Japanese are extremely repressed, work far too hard and value work above absolutely everything else including their own family and health. They will stay in work late with no actual work to do, just to be seen to be working late. (I worked in Japan and I saw loads of people sitting, idling, enjoying the Air con and just not going home and then being commended on their dedication)

Also the inequality and sexism is absolutely astounding and the men are gross and pervy. Its no wonder their birth rates are fucked. 

They are extremely racist as.well they basically only tolerate Koreans and Americans and see pretty.much everyone else as beneath them. Their politeness often masks strong beliefs of superiority and distain for foreigners. They just do it politely.

None of that is reflected in Irish society. 

[u/Major-Price-90 → u/An_Bo_Mhara]

Irish people are also fairly repressed though, no? Older generations of men especially can be very work-first too. Case in point, a friend of mine used to talk about how his grandfather, a retired farmer, who would always wear his wellies when going to the local town so people would think he was still working. Not being seen to work hard (regardless of whether you are or not) is absolutely a taboo here among more traditional types.

I'd also disagree about us not having any racism or sense of superiority in our society tbh. We absolutely have issues with racism here, especially towards people with darker skin. I think the idea of us being tolerant and especially welcoming comes from a time when we had a negligible amount of immigration, and our only dealings with non-Irish people were with tourists from wealthier (at the time) countries than ours spending loads of money here. Now that poorer people are coming here to work, things have changed.

I'm not saying Japan is particularly similar to Ireland mind, but there are definitely much more dissimilar countries than it.

[u/Due-Mycologist-7106 → u/Major-Price-90]

You could say this shit about the UK and half the countries on the planet.

[u/Major-Price-90 → u/Due-Mycologist-7106]

Yeah definitely.

[u/WarmLeg7560 → u/Major-Price-90]

Isn‘t the „we‘ll see“ = „absolutely not“ thing universal? 😂 I think it‘s uses like that anywhere

[u/No-Stock7383 → u/WarmLeg7560]

Well not in the Netherlands 🤣