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06.05.2011, 16:41
|  | Junior Member | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: zurich
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | And a Austria friend of mine often got "I didn't know they spoke German in Australia."  | | | | | i like this one : DDDDD | Quote: | |  | | | I think people are just trying to be friendly. They don't KNOW that they don't know what they are talking about. | | | | | maybe .. i didnt get to meet a lot of friendly swiss people around since i moved into zurich tho v_v~
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06.05.2011, 16:46
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Zurich
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | i like this one : DDDDD
maybe .. i didnt get to meet a lot of friendly swiss people around since i moved into zurich tho v_v~ | | | | |
You'll find that many Swiss are being friendly (in their eyes), and will be totally convinced that they are super friendly, but it doesn't always seem or come out that way. They just have a different definition of what friendly is.
Although I notice this trend very often when different cultures mix. Simple questions, or comments intended to be friendly or even inviting, can come across as rude, ignorant or offensive. It goes without saying that you need a tough skin when mixing culture, but I lose it sometimes when I'm in a bad mood and someone asks me why I'm brown.
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06.05.2011, 16:51
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | but there is more than half of the population there are black yeh? | | | | | Yes, but a significant proportion of the population in South Africa is not black and their wide-eyed reaction implies that they believe that everyone in Africa is black. Have they never heard of apartheid? Or Colonialism? Guess not. And also, although there are many African countries where French is spoken there are plenty of countries where it is not spoken and countless languages more. And on that topic, how do they think Africans learnt French in the first place?
But anyway, point is, not everyone knows everything about every land.
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06.05.2011, 17:01
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P
Years ago, buying gas in Italy, the attendant sees my Ticino plate, and starts speaking to me in bad German. He was shocked to learn that parts of Switzerland are Italian speaking!
Another time in Italy, I was speaking with some Italians (and my Italian was really bad at that time), and one of them asked which part of Italy I was from. (I guess he/she, can't recall which, figured I was from one of the non-Italian speaking regions, as surely they couldn't think that Italian was my mother tongue!)
Tom
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06.05.2011, 17:12
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | Most of them speak Singlish la, you can not can? | | | | | Who say I cannot? You never hear me speak only.
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06.05.2011, 17:13
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P
What is a Hong Kong? Is it related to King Kong?
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06.05.2011, 17:40
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: canada
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | i like this one : DDDDD
maybe .. i didnt get to meet a lot of friendly swiss people around since i moved into zurich tho v_v~ | | | | | Iiiihhhh now you complainig! What about the one in Hardbrueck-BH  and what about bevor you moved to zuerich? | 
06.05.2011, 17:53
|  | Junior Member | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: zurich
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | Iiiihhhh now you complainig! What about the one in Hardbrueck-BH and what about bevor you moved to zuerich? | | | | | sine he was asking me about the opening hours of the swiss post office .. i dont think hes Swiss .. unless he is =P .. or unless it was like #7 said that he was just trying to be flirtatious ._.
I love-D Switzerland so much before moving to Zurich  i was in Neuchatel. and since I graduated and moved to Zurich last June, i cried so many times because of rude people all around ME (maybe just around ME) and had thoughts of going back to Hong Kong because I started hating the people around  Zurich is just a different land than what I have had in my impression of Switzerland...
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06.05.2011, 18:35
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | sine he was asking me about the opening hours of the swiss post office .. i dont think hes Swiss .. unless he is =P .. or unless it was like #7 said that he was just trying to be flirtatious ._.
I love-D Switzerland so much before moving to Zurich i was in Neuchatel. and since I graduated and moved to Zurich last June, i cried so many times because of rude people all around ME (maybe just around ME) and had thoughts of going back to Hong Kong because I started hating the people around Zurich is just a different land than what I have had in my impression of Switzerland... | | | | | I am from Zürich , and I am a nice guy  Just ignore the bad rude S.O.B.`s and concentrate on the nice ones  Think of the rude ones , there from Paris | 
06.05.2011, 19:04
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | Brazilian portuguese >> portugal's portuguese ; FACT. | | | | | I'm bad at math. What does two of these ">" mean...? Be careful what you answer! | Quote: | |  | | | Stranger 1: " so ouchboy, where are you from?"
Ouchboy: " Mexico"
Stranger 2: " Right on, I love tex-mex"
Ouchboy" ....." | | | | | Me too! LOVE tex-mex food & 2 for one margaritas!!! | 
06.05.2011, 19:13
|  | Junior Member | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: zurich
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | I am from Zürich , and I am a nice guy Just ignore the bad rude S.O.B.`s and concentrate on the nice ones Think of the rude ones , there from Paris | | | | | I actually just stopped starting conversation with people : ) especially women or female products, they seem more "cool" , like the same people i see them in dance classes almost everyday, they dont even like to say Grüzi/Hey or to use whatever other terms in any languages to say hi or bye
i started going to this dance place since last September and I have so far made TWO cute friends, because we all couldnt understand Swiss-German in class  ..
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06.05.2011, 19:15
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | Me too! LOVE tex-mex food & 2 for one margaritas!!!  | | | | | tex-mex, not so much, but 2for1 margaritas | 
06.05.2011, 19:36
| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | When I tell Swiss people that I am from South Africa some typical reactions are: "but don't Africans speak French?", and / or: "but you're not black!?"  | | | | | I get the same
Also, the OP really messed the guy up with the Vietnamese reference, he's never going to get Geography now - he left thinking that Hong Kong is the capital of Japan and that they speak Vietnamese there.
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06.05.2011, 20:17
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| | | Quote: | |  | | | he left thinking that Hong Kong is the capital of Japan and that they speak Vietnamese there. | | | | | I was thinking about that too, hes gonna share to his friends as well...
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06.05.2011, 20:36
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P
being Swedish in Switzerland is not the easiest either...
(it should be considering it is the same country to most people  )
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06.05.2011, 20:54
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | So, few days ago in Hardbrücke Bahnhof.. a guy who was wearing a London T-shirt was asking me in a non-English-speaker accent about was the Post still open at that time (around 8PM..). I answered.
and he asked me the almost one of the most boring question to try getting a conversation start -----> 'where are you from?'
I answered, 'Hong Kong.'
He said to me, 'OWuuwooO!!! Kon ni chi wa!!!'
I said to him, 'hm, actually i speak Vietnamese '
but he seemed so serious and said to me, 'ohhh!!im so sorry!! im really sorry!! so.. you guys speak Vietnamese in Japan?'
Apparently he was like, convinced that Hong Kong IS IN Japan .... im curious, why so? there must be one reason or more,
just that its not the first 1,2,3,4,5 times I got this "Hong Kong is in Japan" thing..
there was other people said something like 'oh hongkong, cool!! the capital of Japan' , and 'so you speak japanese?' , or sth like, 'oh~i love Japan !!'
oh yeh, i do speak some japanese, but its not related to anything about where do i come from ..... P.S. .. I do not speak Vietnamese   
C. | | | | | I would say that most people know that Hongkong is in China for sure. But some people are of course exceedingly dull and in geography lessons in school accidentally were sitting behind that big pillar in the room and their atlas had a coffee scar right where Hongkong is | 
06.05.2011, 21:00
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | being Swedish in Switzerland is not the easiest either...
(it should be considering it is the same country to most people ) | | | | | Yeah. Those are easy to confuse in Portuguese & Spanish. People down here & in Portugal ask if I speak Swedish (sueco/sueco) when I tell them I moved here from Switzerland (Suiza/Suíça).
Switzerland: Suíça (PT), Suiza (SP)
Swiss language: (aha! caught you!!)
Sweden: Suécia (PT), Suecia (SP)
Swedish language: sueco (PT), sueco (SP)
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06.05.2011, 21:14
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | Based on that, is France part of Germany?
Also entertaining, mentioning to someone (of whom I'll shield the citizenship to avoid bashing) that I've been to Greece, I've been asked if it is in UK.  | | | | |
well, if you wish, here you go | 
06.05.2011, 21:24
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P
You should have offered a glass of Blue Nun to go with it.
Cheers,
Nick | Quote: | |  | | | English guy at my stall last year, asked if I had any Danish Blue...." er no, I only sell British cheese".
"Yeah.... so no Danish Blue?"
"er no, I think Danish Blue is made in Denmark"
"really? But it's in all the UK supermarkets!" | | | | | | 
06.05.2011, 21:25
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| | Re: anyone did not know that Hong Kong is not in Japan? =P | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | The whole North including Paris was defacto-part of Greater Germany between 1940 and 1944 ! Elsass-Lothringen was German from the times of Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne) until 1648, then became increasingly, step-by-step French and as a result of the French Revolution had to adopt French as official language. It was taken back by the Germans in 1871 but lost again in WW-I .
-> history at its worst
Last edited by Wollishofener; 06.05.2011 at 22:20.
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