Historical, Cultural, Linguistic Research

[hetalia_pen]

Need to know which countries eat bagels for breakfast? How the Defenestration of Prague really happened? Or how to say "I like to play tennis with my cousin at the beach" in Spanish? You can ask and tell about it here!

Comments

[kecen]

I am in the planning stages of a Japan/China fic. China will be a woman in this fanfiction, and the time period is ~1860-1931.

My question; should I give my Chun Yan bound feet, or shouldn't I? The current situation has her taking on a man's role until the end of the First Sino-Japanese war.

So, advice? Would China's boss make her have tiny feet, or would she be resistant to that?

[lonym82]

Since foot binding greatly limits one's mobility, I vote no. Also, I feel her boss would be pretty foolish to do that to his 'military force'
Goodluck with your fic ^^

[kecen]

Given how the foot binding process starts when the girl is still in her early childhood, I'd say that it would be highly unlikely for a character as old as China to have bound feet.

Names for Parents in Poland, Lithuania, Russia

[anonymous]

Google translate tells me that "mom" comes out as Mama in each of Polish, Lithuanian and Russian. My question is - would a modern-day adult from each of those countries who is not speaking overly formally call his mother Mama, or is that babyish (equivalent to "mommy" in English)?

For Lithuanian, I'd also like to know how one would refer to his grandmother, especially if there's a formal/informal distinction. Google translate gave me "bobutė" and "senelė" - is either of those something that a Lithuanian would call his grandmother?

Re: Names for Parents in Poland, Lithuania, Russia

[anonymous]

Most non-anglophone Europeans I know do use Mama. I've lived in France and Germany, but a lot of my friends in Germany were other exchange students from Eastern Europe. I know Dmitri talked to his 'mama' on the phone a lot, and I heard it thrown around when the Polish kids were being little stinkers and not speaking German with the rest of us. lol. My Czech friends also call their mothers Mama.

I couldn't help you with the Lithuanian though...sorry :/ I know my Polish grandmother is Busha, Grandpa is Jaja, it could be pretty similar given the historical/linguistic closeness ??

Good luck with your fic!

Modern day relations

[hikari_kaitou]

Does anyone happen to know what modern day relations are like between Austria and Finland, and Austria and Sweden? I don't need to know any too in-depth; a simple generally positive, neutral or generally negative will suffice.