The Awkward Silence

1:01 PM

in fact, one little fact, we are taking a huge percentage of refugees, so are we racist, meh... I guess taking the refugees makes us neutral

Tinkeringbell

The story I grew up with is that their black face is caused by soot from going through chimneys to put presents in your shoe (bit like the sock you hang on the hearth at chrismas). But some people are saying it's blackface and a remnant of slavery (which is almost certainly where the tradition evolved from, not denying that). So we're basically trying to tone things down: No more entirely black faces, bright red lips or golden earrings..

Termatinator

@Tinkeringbell did you know sinterklaas was actually born in turkey, he really existed

Tinkeringbell

@Termatinator yes, I knew. :)

Jarko Dubbeldam

@Termatinator You can't un-racist by being anti-racist though

Tinkeringbell

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas (Greek: Ἅγιος Νικόλαος, Hágios Nikólaos, Latin: Sanctus Nicolaus); (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker (Νικόλαος ὁ Θαυματουργός, Nikólaos ho Thaumaturgós). His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through...

dhein

1:04 PM

sinter means saint?

Tinkeringbell

sint means saint

klaas is nicholas

don't know where the 'er' comes from :P

dhein

haha in germany he is Der Nikolaus

:D

Tinkeringbell

Ah, than the 'er' might stem from 'der' :P

dhein

rarely heard him being called "Der heilige Nikolaus"

Termatinator

we were the first to adapt him in a holiday, the americans stole santa from our holiday

santa claus

LinuxBlanket

1:06 PM

@Termatinator was it already dressed in red in your tradition?

I heard somewhere it was green before Coca-Cola...

Termatinator

@LinuxBlanket right now, yes. I don't know if he was another color before thoug

Jarko Dubbeldam

the coat looks somewhat familiar

LinuxBlanket

Saint Nicolas was a ... she? :P

Jarko Dubbeldam

image from a while ago

Also dressed in red

@LinuxBlanket I don't think that girl is Saint Nicholas, but the coat looks familiar

Termatinator

@LinuxBlanket saint nicholas was never a women to my knowledge

Jarko Dubbeldam

1:11 PM

even older

LinuxBlanket

@JarkoDubbeldam I'm so relieved that I was wrong and that Coca-Cola had nothing to do with the tradition...

Jarko Dubbeldam

Eh, they adapted it to their own, and were definitely trendsetter in NA

You're not off the hook that easily ;)

Termatinator

one little fact, new york was once owned by the netherlands

Jarko Dubbeldam

And sold for a habbekrats

dhein

true, smooking weed becomes slowly a thing in the states aswell xD

Jarko Dubbeldam

1:15 PM

Well, the netherlands is going to start a pilot with government licensed weed

LinuxBlanket

historic plot twist: imagine NY was never sold, not even for a thousand habbekrats (whatever that means)

Tinkeringbell

@LinuxBlanket a thousand habbekrats... I'm going to keep that one alive ;-)

I don't know an English word/proverb that means the same... the definition of habbekrats translates as : a very small amount of money.

dhein

hahaha beautyful :)

Jarko Dubbeldam

nl.bab.la/woordenboek/nederlands-engels/voor-een-habbekrats

for change, let's keep it at that

LinuxBlanket

@Tinkeringbell ah, that could be like selling something for a plate of lentils?

Jarko Dubbeldam

1:23 PM

@LinuxBlanket Yeah, unlikely they would be able to hold NY, so instead the british mightve just conquered it

@LinuxBlanket Dictionary says "for a trifle"

Termatinator

We did get suriname for it (i think)

we also had sri lanka for a while

we discovered about 2/3 of the coast of australia

we had indonesia

Catija

@dhein Users who have 10k total network reputation are trusted with chat moderation tools. As do diamond moderators (we have more). I encourage skipping anything that isn't a language you speak.

Termatinator

we had a bit of south africa (they are still speaking a daughter language of dutch)

Catija

The blue dot indicates a chat flag.

Tinkeringbell

@LinuxBlanket I think @JarkoDubbeldam was right with his 'for a trifle'

Termatinator

1:31 PM

LinuxBlanket

@Tinkeringbell @JarkoDubbeldam yes, apparently that one online dictionary is not always reliable -_-"

Jarko Dubbeldam

@LinuxBlanket Ah it was top google result. And google translate translated it also to trifle

Extroverted Main Man

1:49 PM

0

Q: Why do people run on the pedestrian crossing?

Legally in Belgium, you must stop at a pedestrian crossing with no light if someone shows they want to cross. So when I stop driving to allow people to just walk over I expect them to just walk over to the other side of the road. However more often than not I see that people crossing the road st...

Jarko Dubbeldam

oh wow, this is gold: thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-ITAPPMONROBOT

Tinkeringbell

@HDE226868 you might find this interpersonal.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1848/… useful?

HDE 226868

@Tinkeringbell Ah, right, thanks.

Yeah, I hated the question mentioned at the top of that meta question, but I kinda liked the others.

Tinkeringbell

Yeah... I'm just confused since 'why people do X' without any personal interaction involved doesn't seem very interpersonal..

I can imagina a 'why do people do X' as a sort of 'why do they react like this, how can I prevent it'.... but traffic rules/etiquette... hmmm...

I'll be writing a meta ;-) Might take me a few hour to look for previous questions and such, but it will be up tonight..

HDE 226868

Olivier's is borderline, in that sense. But I agree that a meta discussion would be helpful.

Jarko Dubbeldam

2:01 PM

@HDE226868 Yeah, like he mentioned in the comments, he could reword the entire question to sound like IPS, but that wouldn't make it a better fit for the site

Extroverted Main Man

2:18 PM

0

Q: How to deal with someone that likes to pigeonhole others?

A close relative was recently engaged to this very sweet and friendly woman (aged 24) who happens to have a rather bad trait. She's very quick to pigeonhole people. Meaning she places people in categories without fully getting to know them or acknowledging all their qualities. And then proceeds t...

conflict-aversion family relationships switzerland

Tinkeringbell

2:50 PM

@HDE226868 Have you already found any better questions/examples? I'd like one or two for my meta list of 'good' examples ;)

HDE 226868

@Tinkeringbell Sorry about that; I asked a question on Worldbuilding and I've been discussing some of the answers.

Tinkeringbell

@HDE226868 No big deal, then I'll take a dive into archives myself ;)

More of a lazy question than an "I'm not able to do it myself, please help?" :P

HDE 226868

Ah, here's a question I had been thinking of:

14

Q: Why do men shake hands with each other but hug women?

I've noticed an oddly confusing greeting mismatch in the US that I wanted to understand. Unless men are very close friends or family, they tend to shake hands in greeting. When greeting a woman - even one they don't know well or just met - they often hug instead... or try to, which can lead to aw...

united-states greetings

Tinkeringbell

3:06 PM

Oh thank you :) I'm certainly going to use that one :P I've also picked your question about dangerous roads... Looks like I'm not going to be a mods favourite any time soon :P

HDE 226868

@Tinkeringbell Heh, I'm cool with that. :-)

Tinkeringbell

@HDE226868, what do you think of these: interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/5352/… and interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/3297/…

HDE 226868

@Tinkeringbell My acid test for those is whether or not the behavior is widespread. If it is, then maybe there's a common reason. If not, it becomes a person-by-person case, and perhaps Too Broad.

I feel like the second one is more convincing of that than the first.

Tinkeringbell

@HDE226868 Oh, that's a good one. But you can keep that for your answer? ;)

HDE 226868

@Tinkeringbell Wait, were you asking about whether they'd be good examples for you?

Tinkeringbell

3:21 PM

Oh yeah, that as well.. but I also think it's a good standard to judge an 'Why do X' question by --> If it's widespread behaviour, it's likely that people can answer it with an educated guess....

I'll just write it down in the Q... Don't worry, it's going to be a little masterpiece :P

NVZ

3:41 PM

@ChristopherRyan oh, hey there

welcome.

Tinkeringbell

@HDE226868 Sneak preview:

0

Q: How do we handle questions like this?

Why do people run on the pedestrian crossing? This was asked today, and I voted to close it as off-topic initially because, in my opinion, it doesn't involve any interpersonal skills. Working from the premise that an interpersonal skill is the ability to communicate or interact well with other p...

discussion

I'm not the most creative person when it comes to the title department

@NVZ what were we discussing yesterday? I put you on my meta list, but I forgot what for :)

Introverted Meta Man.

4:44 PM

0

Q: How do we handle questions like this?

Why do people run on the pedestrian crossing? This was asked today, and I voted to close it as off-topic initially because, in my opinion, it doesn't involve any interpersonal skills. Working from the premise that an interpersonal skill is the ability to communicate or interact well with other p...

discussion

Extroverted Main Man

5:33 PM

0

Q: How to grow, learn, evolve emotional intelligence?

I am involved in engineering and mathematics. Most of my time at work involves deep focused thought. Little of my daily time at work involves communication. What course, or training, or degree is recommended when one's field naturally limits human interaction to learn "emotional intelligence? i.e...

self-improvement self-esteem

Extroverted Main Man

8:39 PM

0

Q: How—and when—to best approach a stranger about a “wardrobe malfunction?”

So a “wardrobe malfunction” can basically mean someone’s fly being open or someone’s dress, skirt getting bunched up in a weird way in their underpants. If I am dealing with friends, acquaintances, co-workers or someone I have some basic familiarity with, I can easily just come up to them and sa...

united-states politeness public-issues courtesy

Extroverted Main Man

9:22 PM

1

Q: How and when to tell somone they have food in their teeth

I'm in America and every once in a while I come across a someone with food stuck in their teeth. Recently it happened with a coworker I feel friendly towards. I first noticed while we were having a 1:1 chat but there was another person in the room. I felt like I should give them a heads up but ...

united-states etiquette personal-hygiene

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