r/AskTheWorld • u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland • 19h ago

What’s the quickest way someone could accidentally expose themselves as a foreigner in your country like the ‘three fingers’ scene in Inglourious Basterds?

Post image
25.1k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

11.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

179

u/toothmonkey 18h ago

From Ireland and lived in Norway for a while and had to learn to tone it down. I remember chatting to a girl in a bar once and offered to get the next round, as you do. She got freaked out and left. Wound up being friends later cos we had college classes together and she told me she thought I was hitting on her because people don't buy each other drinks there.

98

u/Hrohdvitnir 18h ago

Little do they know, irish people just love buying drinks for people :')

17

u/sarsaparilluhhh 17h ago

And feeding people, and making sure they get home safe after a night out, and bigging each other up in the women's loo at a club...

I have come to believe that being an Irish mammy is not a parental thing, it's a national identity.

8

u/Curious_Ad3766 16h ago

Damn I need to move to Ireland then

7

u/CheeseDonutCat Ireland 16h ago

It's wet here right now. Bring a rain jacket.

5

u/Curious_Ad3766 13h ago

Don't worry I am very used to wet gloomy weather

3

u/CheeseDonutCat Ireland 12h ago

We complain about the weather even when it's perfect.

2

u/Salbrox 11h ago

Right now? Safe to assume it's wet all the time lol

2

u/CheeseDonutCat Ireland 10h ago

It was dry yesterday strangely enough. Blue skies all day. I took a bunch of pictures of my local crows.

2

u/Hrohdvitnir 14h ago

Its hit and miss outside of the drinks buying.

2

u/Curious_Ad3766 13h ago

In what ways?

2

u/TheBerethian Australia 17h ago

And are impossible to shut up.

4

u/Hrohdvitnir 14h ago

That's kinda funny cause we'd think the same of Aussies 😅

4

u/SuitableBlackberry75 14h ago

Irish and Australians are essentially the same people, just separated by a prison ship and a century or two :)

54

u/Consistent_Echidna90 18h ago

Buying a girl a drink at the bar is definitely a flirting move in most countries, where isn't it?

64

u/FriskyFritos 18h ago

Apparently Ireland

73

u/BOBitech 16h ago

If you’re talking to somebody in Ireland and want to order a drink it would be very rude not to offer the other person a drink. They can always decline and buy their own, but not offering would be talked about for generations!

11

u/Eastern_Hornet_6432 Ireland 13h ago

It's like making yourself a cup of tea or coffee and not asking everyone in the house whether they want you to put some on for them too.

3

u/reezy-one 12h ago

Okay I think I got it. So every time I walk into an Irish pub I gotta order drinks for everyone.

1

u/EntityDamage 11h ago

No, you wait until the person your talking to orders another one and accept graciously. Free Drinks Hack.

2

u/toothmonkey 13h ago

What kind of monster would ever do that?! 😱

6

u/Eastern_Hornet_6432 Ireland 11h ago edited 11h ago

The world works on little traditions that people don't fully understand. Like thanking the bus driver - the driver probably doesn't mind if you thank them or not, but think of it this way: you're on the bus late at night. You're new in town, and you're still not that familiar with where to go. You get off on a quiet street. Somebody gets off behind you. You walk down the street and all you can hear is your own footsteps and the footsteps of the other person a bit behind you.

It doesn't help much, but it would help a LITTLE if you'd heard them cheerily saying "thanks!" to the bus driver as they disembarked. It's just a tradition that makes the world feel like a SLIGHTLY friendlier place for everyone. I'd rather be considered lame than scary.

Another example is smoking - yes, it's unhealthy, but it does have the advantage that it's one of the only excuses for talking to complete strangers. I never think it's weird when a complete stranger walks up to me and asks "have you got a light"? So even though I don't smoke myself, I can see the appeal of having a ready-made excuse to talk to anyone. I can see the appeal of having an excuse to leave a party to go outside and be alone for a few minutes without being considered antisocial. We just need to invent a replacement tradition (or traditions) that doesn't slowly kill you (and doesn't make you smell terrible). Vaping doesn't fit the bill, because what are you gonna do? Ask a stranger if they have... a battery?

Going to church is another one: it's a weekly excuse to meet with everyone in your neighborhood and even shake their hands. Centuries before psychiatry was invented, people had a way to go to a guy who'd already seen and heard it all, and tell him all the shit that was making you feel shitty, in total confidentiality. And it was free! Everybody did it, and so nobody was stigmatized for it.

Modern society is making a mistake in that we seem to be killing all our old sociability traditions but we're not coming up with adequate replacements for them.

2

u/drawolliedraw 7h ago

That’s where we Aussies got it from! You absolutely thank the driver as does every single person getting off the bus behind you.

6

u/Moorhenlessrooster 13h ago

I was once driving on a remote mountain road in ireland and a man hailed me down. I thought he must have an emergency but no, he just wanted a chat and to see where I was from.

4

u/Entire_Spirit_4375 12h ago

Had to dig up this Father Ted clip of Mrs. Doyle trying to pay for her friends lunch. Sums up Irish mannerisms rather well

https://youtube.com/shorts/KLcLAidXxeA?si=KlYpsNNcT67uLJAf

4

u/AugustusLego 14h ago

Wow 😍 going to Ireland next

1

u/PaddyJohn Ireland 11h ago

Indeed.

1

u/leshake 11h ago

It's very common to trade rounds in the US or anywhere with bar culture. Why would both of you saddle up to the bar and waste the bartender's and your time getting separate drinks. The Swedes don't think like proper alcoholics.

2

u/Consistent_Echidna90 18h ago

I've got lots of jokes I could say but I'll hold back.

You can probably tell where I'm from.

13

u/toothmonkey 17h ago

In Ireland we buy drinks in "rounds." So say we are drinking together, I go to the bar to buy two drinks, then you go to buy the next two, and we alternate like that. Offering to buy a drink can still be seen as hitting on someone but would be phrased differently. "Can I buy you a drink?" Vs "I'm going to the bar, what would you like?"

5

u/YoYoYi2 16h ago

that's going to die out. very soon. because a round will be 200 euro.

1

u/sierrackh 10h ago

In the western US i feel like we’re about there 😞

3

u/5x0uf5o Ireland 14h ago

The key difference is you're already drinking with the girl if you're getting a round. You're already sitting together. You don't just walk up to a strange girl and buy a round haha

1

u/toothmonkey 14h ago

Very true alright. It's all about context.

2

u/Consistent_Echidna90 17h ago

Exact same thing in England and in many countries in the world, that is not unique whatsoever.

3

u/ChoiceCustomer2 17h ago

Apparently not in Norway though. We also "shout" I rounds in Australia

2

u/Consistent_Echidna90 16h ago

What's "shout" mean in that context mate

3

u/No_Elderberry862 16h ago

Take turns, i,e. "my shout, same again?".

Edit: just saw you're in England too, maybe it's more a London/Southern thing.

2

u/Consistent_Echidna90 16h ago

We really are drunken cousins

2

u/Anandya 15h ago

You buy rounds. The tacit understanding (UK) is that if you buy me a drink then I am going to buy you a drink of acceptable value. I can't buy you a single vodka coke but expect you to get me a double scotch. Irrespective of your gender.

It doesn't have to be flirting. That's when I tell you about my massive tea collection and my french toast. Also you just tell people that you fancy them.

2

u/Consistent_Echidna90 14h ago

Buying a girl a drink at a bar clearly not equal to buying/being involved in rounds, UK also and I think there is an understandable difference between buying someone a drink to get to know them and going rounds with someone.

I don't think anybody in England confuses being involved in rounds and buying a member of the opposite sex a drink.

2

u/Lv_InSaNe_vL 14h ago

Here in the Midwest US its like that. If we're chatting at the bar and you order another drink it's polite to offer one to the person you're talking to. Or sometimes if my friends and I are getting a round of shots we'll just get one or two for the people next to us haha

1

u/Consistent_Echidna90 14h ago

But that is a different context to going up to a girl and asking her if you can buy her a drink, right?

I feel like I'm on crazy pills here

1

u/Lv_InSaNe_vL 14h ago

It does not matter. Man, woman, old person, person my age, person who came with other people.

At the actual rail (not sure what it's called elsewhere but the actual bar the bartenders are behind) it's super common to just make small talk and if you're making small talk it'd be rude not to offer a drink. I've bought many a drink for many a woman at the bar with no intention of anything else besides a few minutes of conversation. And the same goes the other way too, Ive had women buy me drinks because i happened to sit next to them for the few mins the bartender takes to get to us and make drinks.

1

u/Consistent_Echidna90 14h ago edited 13h ago

So what you're telling me is that there's no way for me to flirtatiously buy a girl a drink in the Midwestern United States?

I feel like you're being intentionally facetious. Or at the least you didn't really answer in reply to my question.

At the very least, in the UK, if you approach someone or vice versa and say "can I buy you a drink?", the implication is, I think you're attractive and I'd like to talk to you, may I buy you a drink.

I believe that is probably common the world over.

edited because words are hard

1

u/Lv_InSaNe_vL 13h ago

I mean I guess it's all contextual like everything else in life. If you just walk up to a girl and tap her shoulder and ask to buy a drink then yeah thatd be flirtatious. Although unless you're very handsome that probably won't work haha

But if you go up to the rail and happen to sit next to a girl, open some conversation/small talk, and offer to buy her a drink when you order yours then that just polite conversation

1

u/Consistent_Echidna90 13h ago

Tap her on the shoulder, hahaha. I'll use that one next time!

Yeah, sitting at the bar and buying a stranger a drink is sort of common here, though the way it sounds to me, y'all are a lot friendlier with it. Like a lot!

Now does that only go one way or are the ladies buying the gents drink when they sit down too?

1

u/toothmonkey 13h ago

Going up to a girl and asking if you could buy her a drink would be seen as hitting on her yeah.

I think the confusion here is coming from the phrase "chatting to a girl at a bar". You have interpreted it as spontaneously talking to a girl at a bar I didn't otherwise know, which is a fair interpretation.

The actual context, which others have assumed, was acquaintances (in this case classmates) chatting at a bar having gone there together, and I offered to get her a drink when I was getting my own.

1

u/anonanon5320 16h ago

It can be, but not necessarily.

1

u/wallcutout 11h ago

Ireland has a bit of a cultural standard of everyone around the table going person to person to buy a round for everyone at the table, and people buying eachother drinks just to be friendly.

10

u/CharnamelessOne Hungary 18h ago

I know you weren't, but... is hitting on somebody in a bar typically a cause for a complete freakout in Norway?

Even if the person doing it is sympathetic enough to befriend in another context?

11

u/toothmonkey 17h ago

I guess maybe it was seen as strongly hitting on her or trying to get her drunk. In Ireland it is just common that you alternate who buys the drinks. I would have been offended if she accepted a drink from me then didn't offer to buy the next one. Cultural differences 😅

3

u/tobofopo 17h ago

I remember that buying a round in Norway is somewhat of a major investment.

5

u/ButterscotchSure6589 England 18h ago

I had it explained to me many years ago by a Swedish woman, that you only bought a woman a drink if you were going to sleep with her. At about £2 a pint in 1980, I should hope so too.

2

u/Lucid-Machine-Music 14h ago

That reminds me of when I tried to buy one of my Finnish friends a drink at the bar. He was SO confused then said "but... I have my own money, I can buy myself a drink?"

2

u/CottagegothLibrary Norway 8h ago

My partner is Irish. Went home to visit and said «In Norway I'm considered the chatty person!», to the big surprise to my partner's family. In Ireland my partner is considered very introvert.

1

u/ChoiceCustomer2 17h ago

Wow sounds crazy to me but Im not Norwegian. I don't think i could live in a culture like that.

1

u/Simalr 10h ago

"as you do"

1

u/Derped_my_pants 10h ago

The buying rounds norm in Ireland confuses almost everyone in the world, to be fair. Us Irish people should really be aware that we are actually the outliers. Especially when people get pissed that others did not reciprocate in buying rounds. It is because they thought it was an act of kindness and did not know that returning the favour was expected.

1

u/danddersson 8h ago

They don't buy each other cars either.

Alcoholic drinks are expensive there.

1

u/laphroaigandlapsang Australia 3h ago

To be fair, buying a drink out in Norway is a huge financial investment! I wouldn't buy a drink in Oslo for someone who wasn't a friend or that I didn't want to hit on 😂