"All the world is the same country"

Tonight, while I was talking to an English speaking friend, I tried to explain to her the meaning of an Italian proverb: "tutto il mondo è paese". Because I realised that it is quite tough to translate it, I tried to explain the meaning of this sentence. In a few words, it means that people from different countries have some common features, behaviors and characteristics, or also that the same (generally bad) things happen all around the world. To give an example, someone could define Italian people as lazy or indolent, but this is a characteristic of a lot of people from most different countries. Similarly, I could do thousands of examples to demonstrate that this proverb tells the truth. Unfortunately, too often this truth is forgotten and this leads to two contradicting bad habits: to criticise continously one's own country thinking that other countries are always better, or conversely, to believe that one's people are superior. It is noteworthy to remind us how much the latter belief is dangerous!
To conclude, I can only say: always remember "tutto il mondo è paese"!

"All the world is the same country"

Tonight, while I was speaking to a friend, an English native speaker, I tried to explain her the meaning of an Italian proverb: "tutto il mondo è paese". I realized that it is quite tough to translate it and to explain the meaning of the sentence. In a few words, it means that people from different countries have some common characteristics and/or also that the same (generally bad) things happen all around the world. To give an example, someone could define Italian people as lazy or indolent but, this is a characteristic that a lot of people from different countries possessed. Moreover, I could list thousands of examples to demostrate that this proverb tells the truth but, unfortunately, too often this truth is forgotten which leads to two opposite bad habits: to critize continously its own country thinking that the other ones are always better, or conversely, to believe that its people are superior. However, it is noteworthy, to remind ourselves how much the latter belief is dangerous!
To conclude, I can only say, always remember that "tutto il mondo è paese"!

Molto brava Luci :)