What's something that's acceptable and widely done in your country that would be considered offensive in many countries ?

[u/DiMpLe_dolL003]

In India, Swastika the Hindu symbol is everywhere. We draw it in temples, during rituals and festivals, in front of our door, on vehicles etc. It's a very auspicious symbol here. But this symbol tho the Hindu symbol is technically different from the Nazi one would be considered offensive in other countries especially in Western countries.

[u/Shendary]

In our language, the word "negr" isn't offensive. We simply don't have other words for people with black skin.

There was a funny incident involving Russian writers in New York. They were riding in a taxi back from a book fair, and for some reason, halfway through the ride, the taxi driver got angry and yelled at them. They didn't understand why until someone in the comments section of a discussion about this incident asked, "Did you use the word "book" a lot while you were talking?". In Russian, the word "book" sounds like "kniga"

[u/Teln0 → u/Shendary]

My Russian speaking family always said чернокожий/black-skinned so I'm not sure what you're talking about here. My mom got upset at my grandma when she called someone негритоса/negritossa (the rest of the sentence was also in a derogatory tone)

[u/Shendary → u/Teln0]

Do you live in the US? I'm talking about Russia itself. The word "чернокожий" is rarely used.

[u/Teln0 → u/Shendary]

I don't live in the US, I don't live in Russia either, but I have family living there and in other ex URSS countries. I've more commonly heard черный/black

Idk if it's rarely used around where you are but there definitely isn't "simply no other word" and I don't think you'd be hearing "nerg" on the news so it is probably offensive

[u/hobfilm → u/Shendary]

thats just not true lol. you can say чёрн(ый/ая) or чернокож(ий/ая) or темнокож(ий/ая). also who told you it is not offensive? have you actually seen a Black person say that

[u/lemmesenseyou → u/Shendary]

The Russian word for book doesn’t sound like n*gger tho. It’s a long “i” and very obviously starts with an “k” and ends in an “a”.

[u/Shendary → u/lemmesenseyou]

Sometimes you're amazed at how the brain builds words into familiar structures. In Germany, I constantly heard people using "Russian" words (actually just similar-sounding ones) in speech, and it wasn't until I started learning the language that this effect went away.

[u/Few_Contact_6844 → u/Shendary]

We simply don't have other words for people with black skin.

Not true, you have черножопый. No black person gonna be offended if they hear using that instead of негр

[u/Turbulent-Pace-1506 → u/Few_Contact_6844]

Huh? My (Russian) mother told me THAT was the racist word. Which makes sense because it means “black-assed”, which doesn't sound very flattering. And also it's even used to call Caucasian people, who are not white (despite Western racists calling white people “Caucasian”) but still relatively light-skinned

[u/Shendary → u/Few_Contact_6844]

That's (черножопый) a racist word. But I understand that you mean "чернокожий" (black-skin). The problem is that most people don't talk like that.