Unexpected adoptions

[Ah-eh-ioh-uh]

Hi. Does your nation have a trend that's rather unusual for it given the local culture? My nation is a Japanese themed empire but for example has this weird thing about yodeling that it adopted later in its history cuz the locals thought it sounded really nice.

Do your nations have things that foreign cultures have introduced it to that seem rather or out of place given theme of your nation? (If for instance your african themed nation had contact with Latin American and all of a sudden every local and their grandma won't stop singing 'despacito'). What things have other nations introduced that became super popular once it was introduced?

[Shamsiyya]

Hi. Due to a long history of intense contact with foreign nations and cultures, there is quite a number of things which would seem out of place in the Federal Republic of Shamsiyya, given its predominantly Oriental cultural makeup. These include, but aren't limited to:

• the popularity of German-language songs (particularly Shanties),
• the popularity of German as a foreign language in general,
• Western fashion trends,
• the adoption of foreign alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, beer, and tropical fruit cocktails into the otherwise rather Raki- and wine-based Shamsiyyan drinking culture,
• the popularity of new foreign sports such as Tankery/Sensha-Do,
• "Western" architecture in some places, as opposed to the normal, rather very traditional style,
• Latin characters on Shamsiyyan license plates (adopted for the purpose of international intelligibility),
• Cyrillic characters on some buildings (from the early years of Socialist Shamsiyya),
• the increasing popularity of food items such as sushi and pork meat, or other dishes that don't really have a tradition in Shamsiyya.

[Pacomia]

Planet III first learned about Earth in the late 1800s from a galactic trade alliance representative who told them about a normal-sized planet on the other side of the galaxy which is relatively technologically advanced, but somehow hadn’t been (successfully) contacted by any other planets yet. The people of Planet III (some of them, at least) thought Earth was the coolest thing ever and adopted a lot of Earth’s culture and technology. They have continued to keep replicating Earth’s culture ever since, and the non-traditionalist parts of Planet III seem to be a lot like Earth in terms of culture, politics, technology, etc.. The first extraterrestrial life showed up on Earth in 1940.

[Purpelia]

Purpelia is very unusual to outsiders in many ways ranging from the benign (public facilities such as toilets, changing rooms etc. are not gender segregated) to the strange (family reputation and honor is a big deal and no man is an island unless he has no family in which case people look at him as if he were scum), the outright bizarre (all drugs are legal but regulated by the state) and offensive (pedophilia is not just legal but considered a good wholesome practice). So yea.

[The Eternal Kawaii]

Kawaiians were largely an isolated culture before the Diaspora forced us from our homeland and scattered the various Kawaiian tribes among other nations. Needless to say, the sudden exposure to foreign cultures has been a major source of stress among Kawaiians, as we have uncompromising religious beliefs that aren't always compatible with our neighbors' customs.

One of the ways Kawaiians cope with this is to take some of the surrounding culture and adapt it to Kawaiian custom. This can result in some amusing hybrids. For example, Kawaiians traditionally drink tea and have elaborate tea ceremonies, but those tribes finding themselves among coffee-drinking nations have reworked the tea ceremony and made it a "coffee ceremony".

Likewise, Kawaiians have strict dietary laws, which makes some foreign dishes impossible for us without considerable alteration. You would think it would be impossible to make pancakes without milk, butter and eggs (all of which are forbidden under Kawaiian dietary law), but somehow Kawaiian chefs are able to come up with something using tofu, flour and coconut milk that...well, it's not QUITE a pancake, but it's very close.