Shayna and I had a very interesting discussion regarding how countries refer to other countries. We found it strange that different place call the same location by different names. Why do we call a city Vienna, while Austrians call it Wien. Praha vs. Prague, Germany vs. Deutchland, Burgundy vs. Bourgogne. It seems so arbitrary and in our opinion, we think that there should be a single name that everyone in the world calls a given place.
Sometimes, a country translates a name for example how the French refer to the US:
The United States vs. Les Etas Unis
Sometimes, a name is just too hard to pronounce:
Hungarians refer to their country as Magyar Köztársaság
Let's be honest, Japan is a lot easier than 日本国
The problem is that when I tell my French friends that I went to Prague, they don't know what I am talking about.
Solution.....I have no idea....but in my opinion, its an interesting topic to think about
(I feel like Andy Roony could do a great piece on this)
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