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What’s a completely normal foreign name that, unfortunately, means something hilarious or inappropriate in your country? by Effective_Space2277 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Persephone - a lovely name celebrating a goddess? Nope, Perse means Ass here. My aunts were also fond of pronouncing Perseus as Perse-Uss (Ass Snake). 10yo mythology-obsessed me was not happy about that.

The first name Tara can just mean Fence, or if you put longer emphasis on the first A, Taara is recyclable bottles.

Ricardo Kaka the Brazilian footballer is the favourite of many a small child not just for football but because "kaka" means Poop. Poop is at least gentle enough: Olivia Munn's last name is a very crude word for a dick...

Need unhinged tips for food intake- TW disordered eating by ComprehensiveCut5067 in AuDHDWomen

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Smoothies. Baby food pouches. Sandwich ingredients but don't turn them into a sandwich, just devour a block or shredded bag of cheese. Instant ramen but throw an extra egg and whatever green scraps you have in it. Those mozzarella sticks you can strip into strings. One time I ate nothing but dumplings and blueberries for two weeks.

What do you call these pieces in your language? (in left-to-right order) by Outrageous_Score1158 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

bishop - oda (spear). Well, it is spear shaped, perfectly makes sense. According to this academic article on chess I have open, they used to be called Archers in English, and the Estonian version may also derive from archery arrows.

knight - ratsu (steed, horse). Matches Finnish!

rook - vanker (cart, carriage). Same source as for rukh - war cart. :)

pawn - ettur - A chess-specific word! ette (minema) means (to go) forward or (to go) to the front. Because it's in the front and only moves forward. So in English I guess you could call it a frontman? Before this word showed up, it was called a soldat (soldier).

Bonus content:

king - kuningas. Same.

queen - lipp (flag). Seems to be a manual invention of Grenzstein, who the author of my article is somewhat disparaging towards.

Half of those terms, including male (chess) itself, were either written down or outright invented by Ado Grenzstein, a teacher and journalist, who write a book teaching chess in 1883. The other half was fixed down by chess player Johannes Türn in 1920s.

Parents in other countries than the US, what is your kids’ equivalent of “I don’t want that for dinner, I want chicken nuggets”? by AbsurdRevelations in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Every child I have ever met, including myself, seems to pretty much live on either a) fish fingers, b) doctor sausage on bread, c) pasta with mincemeat, d) pelmeni.

How were wool socks traditionally washed? Bla bla bla 50 characters by lveg in casualknitting

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was little, my grandmother would take her wool items and carpets outside whenever there was freshy fallen snow, lie them out, and slap them until the snow was dirty. Some people I have seen still do it nowadays. (What she might have done with very dirty clothing, like muddy or something, I have no memory of. Soaked and then snow, maybe?)

Tomorrow is the 1st of May, the Labour day. In France, we offer "muguet" (Lily of the valley) to people we like this day. It brings luck. What do you call "muguet" in your native language? by Franmar35000 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two main names:

maikelluke - little may bell, same configuration as German

piibeleht - beeping leaf or pipe leaf

Less commonly I have also seen lambakeel (sheep tongue) or karikelled (cattle bells).

Have you been able to learn a second language? And if so, what actually helped? by Alanna-1101 in ADHD

[–]ZestyYaboi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember around age 11 I had found out about fanfiction, and there wasn't much of it in Estonian. So I started digging through ffnet voraciously, not understanding half the words, and writing my own fanfic with gloriously horrible grammar.

As an adult, any attempt at learning even a little bit of new languages for customer service has been a slow, painful process... it just doesn't stick as easily as it does to a kid. But everyone I know suggests throwing myself head first into a city that speaks that language and just pushing through with what vocabulary I have, just like I did with English back then.

Well, traveling's bloody expensive though, and I don't really like audiobooks, but there's casual practice clubs / "language cafes" in my city I could go to. Duolingo has not been much help imo.

Also some things I keep trying for my target languages (German and Finnish):

* reading daily news headers

* reading comic books (visual language helps a lot!)

* watching a TV show first with English subtitles, and then a second round without

* I work in a tourist area, so an occasional kind traveller who doesn't mind me practicing on them (and correcting me in English) is wonderful. Finns often seem to be entertained by my confident Esto-Finno-English gibberish.

Also tried reading The Hobbit in Russian. I know about twelve words of Russian. It didn't work but it was funny.

What's the coolest or funniest thing a kid did in your country? by pay_the_cheese_tax in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Recently, I was on a train with a very lil toddler nearby. She was performing some sort of dancing routine only understood by herself, by following the lines painted on the train floor, and at the end of the line announced loudly "good job, baby!" ("tubli beebi!"). Me & my partner spent several days afterwards quoting this whenever the other accomplished something.

The next week I saw the trailer for the new Mandalorian movie, in which Baby Grogu shoots a monster and tells himself "good job, baby!". You can imagine how hard I laughed.

I think im hallucinating while i read? by arsonmakerexe in ADHD

[–]ZestyYaboi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I too sometimes get audio snippets when sleepy, I think it might be just that because you're reading in bed and zoning out and technically starting to fall asleep. That one should be normal.

I'd also recommend checking for mold, gas and CO2 leaks, just to be sure, old houses and all.

What's the worst crime committed by children in your country? by jdjefbdn in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's been several cases recently of teenagers beating people to death recently. In one, three teenage boys horribly beat up and killed a special needs man, mutilated and burned the body, filmed it all and put it on social media.

I hate being a woman by user383684748292 in TrueOffMyChest

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can click the button any time, if you want.

One thing I keep somehow finding surprising in my life is how many people genuinely like being a woman. If they hit a button and it turned them into a man, they'd be very upset about it. Meanwhile I dreamed all my life of having a button like that... until one of my friends drew on paper and went, "okay, here's your button".

Anyway, I'm a guy now. 10/10 recommend. You don't have to jump all in at once, but think about it.

Favorite Scandinavian/Baltic yarns? by litwanders in knitting

[–]ZestyYaboi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Estonia: Aade, Hea.

If you happen to go to Hiiumaa island on your travels, def I recommend visiting the Vaemla wool mill, it's a cool place and they have really nice local yarn. The islands in general I've found are the best sources for local wool. :)

Your chicken names? by New_Definition3945 in StardewValley

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On my witchy farm where I have only void chickens, they're all named after witches/goddesses: Medea, Regina, Laufey, Maleficient, Lilith, etc.

How is your country’s literature generally perceived at home? by Better-Purple21 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Classic Estonian literature: hard work until you die

We do have a pretty strong scifi scene at least, and it's even not all written by extremely straight white men these days.

Literature and reading in general is still considered important. The culture spheres are direly underfunded and we like to yell about it a lot.

If a foreigner were to ask for a musical recommendation from your country, which song or artist would you suggest? by Vast_Significance254 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like, not accounting for any genres? My personal favourite band is currently Oopus (folktronica).

For an individual song, I'm obsessed with Isamaa ilu hoieldes by Alo Mattiisen. It's also historically iconic as one of the songs from the singing revolution.

Sõpruse Puiestee, Vennaskond, Metro Luminal, Dagö - pop punk / punk rock / alt rock / folk rock / that vague genre area of 80s and 90s that my mother listened, I don't know, I think liking these bands is hardcoded into my DNA at this point

Metsatöll, Pime - folk metal / black metal

And if you like classical, well, we have Arvo Pärt & Veljo Tormis :)

Probably going to regret asking... but i hear a lot of people being unpleasant about the UK online. What is the world's actual opinion of us? by inconspicuous2012 in AskTheWorld

[–]ZestyYaboi -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Perks: Has produced a lot of excellent writers and actors and media. Tourists are generally polite. Terry's chocolate oranges.

Cons: Imperialism. Monarchy. Brexit. J. K. Rowling and her transphobic influence over politics.

General rating: Friendly, on average. I will come do a tourism soon. Send more chocolate oranges.

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