What's it Like in Small Countries?

[Deleted]

The US has no official language because of how many different languages are spoken in this country.

I didn't now that. I always just assumed that English was the national language.

[Tierbook]

heres a list of languages with more than 200k speakers

[Stir]

heres a list of languages with more than 200k speakers

I wonder what your point is. Is it that you have more people over there than we've got over here? Because if that's the case, may I again remind you of the fact that the Netherlands is about twice the size of New Jersey?
Size itself may not have much to do with it, which is more or less my argument, but proportion certainly does.

[atollon]

It appears you know nothing about the USA. Every state basically has it's own dialect. For example...what would you guys think I was asking if I asked you where the "bubbler" was?

It's a water fountain you drink out of

that's slang, and only 1 word at that. i don't think that really counts as a dialect or accent.

Plus, "bubbler" isn't even a state-wide slang term. The only place I've ever heard people use that are the middle to eastern part of Wisconsin. It doesn't seem as popular down in Milwaukee/Waukesha or up in the Rhinelander area. If you're not getting bubbler from there, I'd be very curious as to where else that's said.

[imabanana]

What is it like living in a small country? I can't imagine living in a culturally and geographically (relatively) homogenous place where you can drive border to border in under 10 hours. Here it takes several days to drive from coast to coast.

In a country with rich history & culture, nothing is homogenous, you can drive 50 miles and feel like you're in a totally different country. Geographically, it depends, but I saw lots of "small" countries that are all but homogenous (anything but Belgium in western Europe).

[Bolson13]

I am from the Netherlands. If we have to drive for more then 1 hour, we think it is pretty far away already.

In 15 minutes I can reach 1 border. In 30 minutes another one. In 8 hours I could possibly visit 8 countries though I have to race through Germany a bit .
My country is tiny and it is still not culturally homogenous. You need to realise that untill 100 years ago most people didn't leave their home town much. If you lived in a town you would know the people in your town and the people in the towns around you but not much more. Traveling back then was really for richer people. City people also usually stayed in their cities, it was already more diverse then the country side.

Furthermore, mass media has only set in since the radio. And how much "culture" can you experience from the radio alone? People still stick to customs, language etc. that were there for centuries. And new people moving in might find it strange (the first generation) but their kids will grow up in the local culture as well.

[The High Druid]

Once drove through 4 different countries in one day - I imagine it's not an uncommon thing for European truck drivers to do.

To be honest, other than the signs changing language driving through Europe is not much different from driving in the states. There is very little if any border control in most places. There are sometimes check points on the freeways/motorways, but they seem to be largely unmanned and there 'just in case'. When I moved to Finland we drove from the UK and the only times our passports were checked were for the channel tunnel and the Stockholm-Turku ferry.

[Deleted]

Living in a small country must feel awfully stifling for those people and groups that want and work for change.

Or just the opposite since effecting change in a country of 5 mill is a lot easier than a country of 400 mill.

[gunchix]

I live in Latvia, you can drive from 1 border to the other in maximum 5 hours. I couldn't stand living in a bigger country just for the long car drives.

[Deleted]

I live in Holland, ill try to explain it to you:

Geographical
Scale down the USA.
Scale down states aswell, that way you have provinces
Each province has its own "accent" of dutch.
Some got their own habits, certain food specialties, etc.
Everything is green (http://www.refdag.nl/polopoly_fs/201.../474316160.jpg).
Unless you are in the city ofc. (https://maps.google.nl/maps?q=ensche...,68.04,,0,4.67)
No dead wastes, or sand like in texas.
No mountains.
Seashore with beaches.
Diverse canalsystem.

Holland is below sealevel, therefore the soil is very furtile and green. However, this also makes us vulnerable for floods and stuff like that, hence the reason we use brick houses instead of wood.

People and social system
Imagine cultural diversity (A moske, cinagogue and church within 2 square miles of eachother)
Less fat people.
Better social security.
Little people like the ones you have in Jersey Shore.
No Wallmart or Bestbuy (people)
Everyone has insurance.
Criminals are not locked away for the rest of their lives, but re-educated.
Better logistics
Better infrastructure
Brick houses instead of wood.
We care for our elderly, handicapped and unemployed citizens

Like Denmark and some scandinavian countries, holland has one of the most eleborate social systems in the world. We pay 33%-52% taxes based on income (32% over the first 30k you make, then 42% on anything beyond that untill 60k ish, then 52% for anything above that). Why would we pay that u might ask? Because of the social benefits you get here.

When you get unemployed, you get 70% of your last paycheck each month for the first 2 years. After that you get cut to a budget of around 1k a month.
When you need treatment in a hospital, dentist, mental treatment, whatever; the government pays your hospital bill
When you are unfit to work, because of a handicap, be it mental or psychical, you get a monthly pay from the government.
When you have a handicapped kid, you get benefits.
For every kid you have, you get a small benefit to help parents supply.
And there's alot more like that.

Now i know you are American and will probably go: OMG WTF, WHY WOULD U PAY FOR OTHER PEOPLE!?
Because they do the same for me, in case i get terribly ill or handicapped. Everyone does it, and therefor it works.
The people that earn the most pay the most, as it should be. We spread the costs this way. No-one but a few can caugh up 20k for a operation. In America you sell your house. Here, others pay for you untill one day, you eventually pay them back.

I'ts basicly Obama Care, without greedy republican interference if you will.

Weather
Sun from May till august.
Rain from september till december.
Snow from december till februari.
Rain from march till april.
Max temperature: 32 degrees
Min temperature: -15 degrees

[Kurioxan]

What is it like living in a small country? I can't imagine living in a culturally and geographically (relatively) homogenous place where you can drive border to border in under 10 hours. Here it takes several days to drive from coast to coast.

What exactly do you want to know anyway?

Its not that different from a big country really, it just has less big cities and with that comes less social problems, also a more homogenized society is in general more harmonious and safer.
A bit less job opportunities depending on government policies and so forth... lived in both and prefer small countries.
But big countries have its benefits ofc

[Gamdwelf]

I wonder what your point is. Is it that you have more people over there than we've got over here? Because if that's the case, may I again remind you of the fact that the Netherlands is about twice the size of New Jersey?
Size itself may not have much to do with it, which is more or less my argument, but proportion certainly does.

The point is that many people are saying that a small country is more diverse in its languages, etc than the USA. And he provided a counter example showing that 25 different languages have over 200,000 people that speak them in the US.

[Deleted]

The point is that many people are saying that a small country is more diverse in its languages, etc than the USA. And he provided a counter example showing that 25 different languages have over 200,000 people that speak them in the US.

The major difference is that people are talking about native languages. And when they refer to any given language in particular, to the fact that there's a bigger disparity between the different topolects of any dialect continuum. If we were to include non-native languages into the equation, the variety is just as big in many countries as in the US (the 200,000 figure is just an arbitrary number).

[GreatOak]

The major difference is that people are talking about native languages. And when they refer to any given language in particular, to the fact that there's a bigger disparity between the different topolects of any dialect continuum. If we were to include non-native languages into the equation, the variety is just as big in many countries as in the US (the 200,000 figure is just an arbitrary number).

It's a bit hard to argue what constitutes a native language here, considering out history and lack of an official language. It wasn't as simple as the English coming over and killing the native Americans.

[Gamdwelf]

The major difference is that people are talking about native languages. And when they refer to any given language in particular, to the fact that there's a bigger disparity between the different topolects of any dialect continuum. If we were to include non-native languages into the equation, the variety is just as big in many countries as in the US (the 200,000 figure is just an arbitrary number).

Ok well native languages are not even listed on that list as they have less than 200,000 speakers for those languages.

---------- Post added 2013-02-25 at 06:07 PM ----------

I guess by "native" he means a language that appears in a large area of the country for a long time already. Which means everything except the languages of people who immigrated into the big cities in the last few decades.

You could say English and Spanish are among the "native" languages of the US, of course along the thousands of various Native American languages.

Then you would also have to include french and german people speaking those languages have been here as long as the english.

[XDurionX]

Everything is much smaller/less crowded.
I've been to NY a couple of times (~10) and tbh i like my little village in austria much more.
Just some fact: Population Austria ~8.4 million. my village ~3k

Well, my "small country" has 20 times the population density of the US, so "less crowded" is a very subjective term.

[GreatOak]

By that time most of the people living in America had renounced their heritage and were essentially traitors, I doubt if the English were fully in charge a mass genocide would have occured.

False. 90% of the natives were already dead when the English arrived due to Spanish disease, and we were English up until 1776. Contrary to popular belief, many of the encounters with natives after that were small skirmishes/battles and not genocide. The genocide (most of it) happened when we weren't a country yet, since we needed resources and didn't yet have a fully functioning slave market. I also don't get how you come to the conclusion that the English weren't genocidal conquerors at the time.

[Gamdwelf]

False. 90% of the natives were already dead when the English arrived due to Spanish disease, and we were English up until 1776. Contrary to popular belief, many of the encounters with natives after that we're small skirmishes/battles and not genocide. The genocide (most of it) happened when we weren't a country yet, since we needed resources and didn't yet have a fully functioning slave market.

Maybe in the east but there were many problems with Indians as the US moved west.

[GreatOak]

Maybe in the east but there were many problems with Indians as the US moved west.

Those were territorial disputes, and not genocide like we had in the east.

[Deleted]

Then there's accents, one sentence is usually enough to tell where the person comes from, and it is an unspoken rule that one has to find funny and mock an accent from another region xD

It seems to be the same everywhere, in Belgium (arguably one of the smallest countries in the world) you know where someone comes from just by hearing his/her accent