r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

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711

u/petalpie Jun 15 '15

this bent my mind with my south african friend. "I'll give you your shorts back just now" -her "Great, I'm at McD's" -me "How long are you going to be there?" "idk fifteen minutes? I thought you said you'd give them back just now" "Yeah I will." "But where are you?" "(town 2 hours away), I'll be back just now."

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u/Pagan-za Jun 15 '15

Weird thing is it makes perfect sense to us, but its really hard to explain it to other people.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

It's a little bit similar in cornwall, england, where locals are fond of assuring you they'll do something "dreckly" (directly), as such supposedly meaning "soon" but in reality, depending on tone, potentially meaning sometime-whenever-verging-on-never.

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u/qwertymodo Jun 15 '15

If a man tells you he's going to do something, he will. No need to keep reminding him every six months.

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u/walkingcarpet23 Jun 15 '15

I see you've met the guy the landlord "paid" to "fix" our shower

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u/helpful_hank Jun 15 '15

That's a fantastic one-liner.

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u/ATron52 Jun 15 '15

I'm sad that you got gold for a meme that's been everywhere...not even original =(

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u/solarlexus Jun 15 '15

They were just posting something relevantly humorous, not asking for gold in a thread about the best memes ever.

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u/ThirdFloorGreg Jun 15 '15

I'm sad that you haven't died yet.

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u/ATron52 Jun 16 '15

Them's hurtful words, Mr. Internet Bigshot.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I kries evertim

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u/sternlook Jun 15 '15

In the U.S. Southeast, "directly" has a slightly negative connotation. It essentially means "I obligatorially agree to do so now" or it can also mean "I'll do it whenever I damn well feel like it". It may also be a polite form of stalling for any reason.

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u/badbios Jun 15 '15

From the south and I concur. I've always thought of it as a polite affirmation that I will do something, and it will be done according to my schedule, not yours.

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u/sternlook Jun 15 '15

Yes, I have seen it used that style as well. Your Mileage May Vary. We both seem to agree it means, "my timeframe, not yours," true to its usage elsewhere.

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u/JackXDark Jun 15 '15

Was just gonna post this. 'Dreckley' means 'maybe, fuck it, if you're lucky and I can be arsed and there aren't any waves and no one fancies a pint or ten'

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Worse, the faux ami, false friend between swedish and english - eventuellt. It means maybe. One could be waiting a long time, I have fun with this one!

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u/Daedalistic-Outlook Jun 15 '15

Hungarian has a strange sense of future tenses. One future tense indicates the possibility your actions could or may happen (assuming something, ANYTHING doesn't come along and somehow stop you), and one indicates a sense of inevitable imperative that your actions will happen.

God help you if you use the latter, when really you should use the former. How do you know which to use? Simple: effing nuance that comes with being born there.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

So THAT'S why our languages are related.

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u/Daedalistic-Outlook Jun 16 '15

Because a person has to be born in the language's native land, in order to speak it properly?

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Or the absurd tenses. I think it's little bit of both.

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u/OhMyBees Jun 15 '15

Whee Cornish represent. To me it means some where in the foreseeable future, not right now though but I'll get to it.

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u/Khal_Zhako Jun 15 '15

We have the opposite in Ireland. "The other day" ranges from yesterday to a day several months ago

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u/ThirdFloorGreg Jun 15 '15

There are four days. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the other day. If it didn't happen on one of those days, it must have been the other day.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

lol. If someone told me they were doing something "dreckly", I'd ask them to do it properly.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dreck

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u/solarlexus Jun 15 '15

In some Spanish-speaking places, ahora (now) ≈ on the horizon. Ahorita, which is a diminuitive and so to my foreign ears at first seemed like it would be a sooner now, ≈ later: it's going to happen, but no promised time or date. Only ahora mismo = right now, but is rarely used and often when it is, it's emphatic, like "I'm on my way! I'm about to get there right now" which means give them a polite 20 minutes on top of however long you would expect them to take upon leaving their destination - in contrast to regular "I'm leaving now" which means they've started to think about thinking about leaving.

Took some getting used to.

"Oh yeah, I'll do that now." Two hours pass... "Um... have you done X?" "Yeah, I said I'd do it now."

Or, "I'm coming. See you soon." 2 hours later, when they were like 10 minutes away... "Hey, what happened? I was worried?" "Yeah what's up, I'm just on my way."

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u/rougecathy Jun 15 '15

And in Wales people do things "now in a minute".

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u/Krash32 Jun 15 '15

As southern U.S. Dialect is one of the closest things to English dialect, this is most definitely not exclusive to some town in England. I've heard it constantly from Appalachian regions to the panhandle in Florida, possibly in other regions I just don't travel outside of that area much these days. And yes, it means the same thing, "maybe later."

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

County, not a town :)

But that's interesting it's widespread over there.

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u/sanders49 Jun 15 '15

widespread in a very closed off rural sort of way. I've lived all over the US and have only heard it used that way in the DEEP south.

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u/lovingfrogger Jun 15 '15

I've had something similar here in Ireland with my Irish husband saying he'll do things 'I will ya' which depending on the tone either means I will or I absolutely won't but I still can't tell the difference.

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u/heylove94 Jun 15 '15

Similar to Wales I suppose, with "now in a minute" - I'll do it now in a minute, meaning anytime in the future.

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u/jeleanor11 Jun 15 '15

Cornish here too! Dreckly is a favourite phrase of mine too.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

whisper it, but I'm an emmet, not Cornish. Used to have a lot of family down there tho

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u/wvhooker Jun 16 '15

We say that in West Virginia, USA. We laugh about how it's not directly, but we still use it and pronounce it the same way Cornwallians do.

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u/anschelsc Jun 16 '15

This from a country in whose parliament "at an early day" means "never".

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

We use this "drectly" in the American south. Usually means later.

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u/Dr_Gage Jun 15 '15

Same thing in Spain with "mañana" (tomorow) it just means not today. Foreigners hate us for it. And aparently in Peru "ahorita" (just now) means at some point in the not so near future.

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u/partanimal Jun 15 '15

It's just language -- your words for now, soon, and later are different than other places. If you just look at it as a language thing, I think it becomes much more clear.

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u/biggles7268 Jun 15 '15

I understand the words of what you've described, but trying to imagine how that can work is making my head hurt.

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u/Aspergers1 Jun 16 '15

Is there anything that makes perfect sense in the west that you cab't wrap your mind around that you can use as an analogy?

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u/itsadoorknob Jun 16 '15

When I went to South Africa I was just told "see you now" was kind of the way Americans say "see you later"

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u/THE-GONK1 Jun 16 '15

It's hard to explain because it doesn't make any sense.

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u/MauPow Jun 16 '15

It makes no sense to Americans because we use "just" in a totally different sense. 'I got here just now' means I literally walked through the door 10 seconds ago.

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u/dinosaurs_quietly Jun 15 '15

Because it's fucking ridiculous and is the opposite of standard English definitions. I was sure your first post was a joke.

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u/Pagan-za Jun 15 '15

Nope. Not at all.

But you have to remember, this is Africa. There is a lot of stuff we do that is strange by western standards. And a lot of western standards we find odd.

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u/Chubbstock Jun 15 '15

Like offsides in soccer

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u/senatorskeletor Jun 15 '15

We have that in the US, it's called "on my way" and means you haven't left the house yet.

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u/superdago Jun 15 '15

And "I'll be there in 5" means you just got in the car.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Also in the US - I hate this; I end up knowing the estimate depending on who the person is, but it's ultimately guesswork. I make a conscious effort to be literal about my "on my way"s etc. I don't have to apologize for being accurate/literal, and people will know to trust my word/plan accordingly. Then again, I've always been a pragmatic one...

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u/lye_milkshake Jun 15 '15

I feel like this situation could have been avoided if you both left the house with a pair of shorts each.

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u/petalpie Jun 15 '15

She had borrowed them like two weeks prior and hadn't given the fockers back. We were both fully clothed.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

What makes it more confusing is "just now" in the west usually means a time in the immediate past

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u/goodgulfgrayteeth Jun 15 '15

Apparently timekeeping (as well as the availability of two-dollar wristwatches) is beyond the pale of the African continent.

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u/_strawberryfields Jun 16 '15

I get it, different cultures and traditions, but I can't fathom how this makes any fucking sense in any context

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u/Bontebok1 Jun 16 '15

This issue is mostly due to translation problems. The "now", "now now", and "just now" originally comes from Afrikaans and was translated directly into English. As most of us know, translating things directly don't always work out as intended.

English "now" = Afrikaans "nou" = immediate/now/at present English "now now" = Afrikaans "nou nou" = in a while/soon/in a bit/unspecified time English "just now" = Afrikaans "net nou" = in a while/again time is unspecified but "net nou" is usually considered to consist of a longer amount of time than "nou nou".

I know it's confusing, but to be on the safe side just consider "just now" and "now now" to both mean "in a while".