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Unfortunately, many cultures don't see honesty as a value on its own. In Polish there's a word "frajer" which is an offensive term for someone who got cheated o

Unfortunately, many cultures don't see honesty as a value on its own. In Polish there's a word "frajer" which is an offensive term for someone who got cheated or didn't take advantage of a situation. The logic is that, if the society as a whole is dishonest, then it doesn't make sense to be a martyr recognized by no-one, and it's better to make sure you take care of yourself first.

nsajko 2y ago
Fun fact: that's actually a Yiddish word: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frajer https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frajer English translation: dope, sucker. As in there's a sucker born every minute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_...
- alex-korr 2y ago
  The word is widely used in Russian as well.
- eigenket 2y ago
  Fun fact: according to the etymology I could find online it's actually originally a German word (meaning client of a prostitute) that was borrowed by Yiddish, then borrowed in turn by Polish from Yiddish and also ended up in a couple of other European languages.
  - tokai 2y ago
    Yiddish is a German language.
    - eigenket 2y ago
      Not exclusively. It has elements from Hebrew and Aramaic (of course) as well as from various Slavic languages. A big chunk of it derives from High German but not all.
      - gumby 2y ago
        What tokai said was OK: English is also classified as a Germanic language even though it includes a lot of French words, not to mention Hindi etc. For that matter, a German word like „Dolmetsch“ doesn’t make German a Turkic language.
        eigenket 2y ago
        I think calling something a Germanic language is a bit different to calling it a German language. I completely agree with your point about a "Germanic language" but I disagree about "a German language".
        tokai 2y ago
        It developed from High German with elements of Aramaic and Hebrew, in the area we would now call west Germany. The only way it's not a German language is if you deny the historic and linguistic roots of the language.
        eigenket 2y ago
        It did not develop exclusively from high German, as I wrote before and it was geographically widespread enough for clear Eastern vs Western dialects to emerge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_dialects#Eastern_Yiddish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_dialects#Eastern_Yiddi... Rather than existing "in the area we would now call west Germany" as you would like to believe for some reason. Eastern Yiddish in particular is much more than "a German language" (unless you want to call Polish a German language as well).
- phreeza 2y ago
  Similar word also exists in standard German, where it originally meant "f*cker" but now just means a man who buys services from a prostitute.
  - rurban 2y ago
    Freier is not F*cker, just someone who needs to pay for sex, and is more independent then
    - phreeza 2y ago
      No it more likely comes from archaic "freien", which still is used for "to marry" but used to mean something slightly different ;)
      - fransje26 2y ago
        They still use a variant of that word in Dutch: vrijen. With the old meaning.. ;)
        actionfromafar 2y ago
        The even older meaning is "courter".
- verisimi 2y ago
  Also, 'chutzpah' which has a sense of being proud of trying to get away with it, unashamed.
ggambetta 2y ago
Unfortunately very similar to Uruguay, where I grew up. One of the many reasons I haven't lived there for a while now :(
- piva00 2y ago
  To pile on top: also pretty similar to Brazilian culture where following the rules will be looked down as being stupid (since everyone else isn't abiding by them, you doing it is considered as self-handicapping). One of my least favourite features of Brazil and definitely in the top 3 reasons why I left the country more than a decade ago.
samaltmanfried 2y ago
[dead]
azherebtsov 2y ago
Reminds me about covid time math competition. It had to be taken online. Usually maximum score can be reached by less than a dozen of students, but when competition was online there were over 3000 math geniuses https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/koronawirus-gigantyczne-rozbieznosci-w-wynikach-konkursu-matematycznego/yt3tgyh https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/koronawirus-gigantyczne-rozb...
fransje26 2y ago
In Czech Republic, under communism, they used to say: "If you are not stealing from the state, you are stealing from your own family."

nsajko 2y ago

Fun fact: that's actually a Yiddish word: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frajer https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frajer English translation: dope, sucker. As in there's a sucker born every minute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_...

alex-korr 2y ago
The word is widely used in Russian as well.
eigenket 2y ago
Fun fact: according to the etymology I could find online it's actually originally a German word (meaning client of a prostitute) that was borrowed by Yiddish, then borrowed in turn by Polish from Yiddish and also ended up in a couple of other European languages.
- tokai 2y ago
  Yiddish is a German language.
  - eigenket 2y ago
    Not exclusively. It has elements from Hebrew and Aramaic (of course) as well as from various Slavic languages. A big chunk of it derives from High German but not all.
    - gumby 2y ago
      What tokai said was OK: English is also classified as a Germanic language even though it includes a lot of French words, not to mention Hindi etc. For that matter, a German word like „Dolmetsch“ doesn’t make German a Turkic language.
      - eigenket 2y ago
        I think calling something a Germanic language is a bit different to calling it a German language. I completely agree with your point about a "Germanic language" but I disagree about "a German language".
        tokai 2y ago
        It developed from High German with elements of Aramaic and Hebrew, in the area we would now call west Germany. The only way it's not a German language is if you deny the historic and linguistic roots of the language.
        eigenket 2y ago
        It did not develop exclusively from high German, as I wrote before and it was geographically widespread enough for clear Eastern vs Western dialects to emerge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_dialects#Eastern_Yiddish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_dialects#Eastern_Yiddi... Rather than existing "in the area we would now call west Germany" as you would like to believe for some reason. Eastern Yiddish in particular is much more than "a German language" (unless you want to call Polish a German language as well).
phreeza 2y ago
Similar word also exists in standard German, where it originally meant "f*cker" but now just means a man who buys services from a prostitute.
- rurban 2y ago
  Freier is not F*cker, just someone who needs to pay for sex, and is more independent then
  - phreeza 2y ago
    No it more likely comes from archaic "freien", which still is used for "to marry" but used to mean something slightly different ;)
    - fransje26 2y ago
      They still use a variant of that word in Dutch: vrijen. With the old meaning.. ;)
      - actionfromafar 2y ago
        The even older meaning is "courter".
verisimi 2y ago
Also, 'chutzpah' which has a sense of being proud of trying to get away with it, unashamed.

ggambetta 2y ago

Unfortunately very similar to Uruguay, where I grew up. One of the many reasons I haven't lived there for a while now :(

piva00 2y ago
To pile on top: also pretty similar to Brazilian culture where following the rules will be looked down as being stupid (since everyone else isn't abiding by them, you doing it is considered as self-handicapping). One of my least favourite features of Brazil and definitely in the top 3 reasons why I left the country more than a decade ago.

samaltmanfried 2y ago

[dead]

azherebtsov 2y ago

Reminds me about covid time math competition. It had to be taken online. Usually maximum score can be reached by less than a dozen of students, but when competition was online there were over 3000 math geniuses https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/koronawirus-gigantyczne-rozbieznosci-w-wynikach-konkursu-matematycznego/yt3tgyh https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/koronawirus-gigantyczne-rozb...

fransje26 2y ago

In Czech Republic, under communism, they used to say: "If you are not stealing from the state, you are stealing from your own family."