Visiting USA, it was Thanksgiving & was asked how Australia celebrates Thanksgiving, said we don’t. The guy tells me we HAD to have Thanksgiving, how could we not celebrate? Told him we were short on Indians & pilgrims. Then he said we HAD to have the 4th of July, I assured him we did have the 4th of July, it prevents the 3rd & 5th from running into each other.
American tourist arguing in a coffee bar in Italy that "everybody knows what 'latte' means, and it's not milk". Lady, no. Latte LITERALLY means milk in Italian. And it's something you can order for kids at a coffee place. We are not going to change our dictionaries and our menus because Starbucks misuses a word they borrowed from another language.
This is why pretty much every other country uses "latte macchiato", instead of just calling it a latte. The fact they even act as if they're in the right in an ITALIAN COFFEE BAR. Just sip your milk and ask what the correct term is so you don't order the wrong thing next time, jeez
Actually macchiato in the Italian word for ‘stained’ ie your milk is stained with just a little dollop of milk - and is very different to a caffe latte / latte … albeit coffee terms differ so much - even from one state to another here in Australia. However here we call it a latte, the Italians have a caffe latte - and yes, once I forgot to say caffe latte and got a milk drink in Italy. I guess irrespective what you call something, normal people laugh at themselves, have fun telling the story and don’t be a d!ck about it like the person in the OP 😂😂😂
I'm a Brit who moved to the US as a teen. I was constantly asked by kids and TEACHERS things such as: "You speak English so well, how long did it take you to learn it?", "How long is the drive from England to America?", and "What language do they speak in England?". I also encountered the passport thing when trying to write a check to someone in a store. "Can I see your ID?", *pulls out passport*, "I can't accept this I need your driver's license", "this is my passport it's the most secure piece of ID you can own", "I'm sorry we just can't accept that here". The list of stupid stuff Americans say is endless.
I had a American woman shout at me about drinking while I was 18 bearing in mid we are in England I tried to explain to her it’s legal here to which she replied don’t be stupid I know the law now stop drinking before I take it from you I tried to remain calm but she was extremely rude so I finally lost my temper and told her to F off n that although I can’t hit you I’ll get my mrs over to knock her out safe to say she wasn’t pleased
@@ashiko7376 That would have stumped them even worse. As a Canadian, I've had times when American customer service people have told me that shipping to Canada is too expensive or complicated because Canada is "overseas." I asked which state this person was in, and when she told me, I told her that she could literally walk from her office to my home without crossing the ocean (though it would take a long time since we were over a thousand miles apart.
I was on a business trip in Switzerland last year and over drinks everyone was introducing themselves, a bit of their background and where they come from. After a few of us had done it this large black guy said he was African, from South Africa. The woman from USA said the correct terminology was African American. He said no, just African. She argued that that was racist and he should use African American.
Nothing has changed. About 50 years ago in Rome, I met a young American who had just arrived on his first trip to Europe. He asked me about various sights in Rome and elsewhere; when he asked me if the roads between the major cities in Europe were paved, I said that although they might not be where he came from, the Romans had invented paved roads 2000 years ago and ever since then, we had had them all over Europe ...
When I went to University in the UK, I'm English after all, we had a team of Harvard students turn up to play rugby against us. It was one game of American football, one game of rugby. They lost both. Apart from being really easy to get drunk, they had a list of things they could not understand or seriously questioned. 1. Wales, it's not a real place. It's made up. 2. We only drink tea (I've never drank tea in my life) 3. Did or did we not celebrate the 4th of July - although I have to say we contributed to that confusion because we told them that both England and America gained independence from France and mentioned William the Conqueror. That worked a treat. But my favourite was when a friend of ours from Newcastle started talking, they asked him what country he was from because they wouldn't accept he was English 😀 And just to remind you... they were FROM HARVARD.
So even in the Ivy League, their university level schooling is also whacked not even knowing that there’s an outside world besides their own immediate or enclosed backyard.
Tbf.....a geordie, scouser, welsh, brummie and london accent can be hard to differentiate for non-English citizens. Just like hearing a thick boston accent as well as a jersey accent differs from a texan drawl or alabama southern accent.
Absolutely true story. While visiting St. Paul's Cathedral in London I over heard an American tourist say to their companion how cool it was that the "Cathedral was built so close to the Subway!!" The Cathedral was built in the 1600s!!!!!!
@@lfcbproas much as distance has a different meaning to Europeans, as in the joke: Americans think 100 years is old. Europeans think 100 miles is far.
@@nellinightshade3358 The current cathedral was started in 1675 and completed in 1710. The previous cathedral was burnt down in 1666 during the Great Fire in London. Construction on that one started in 1087 and finished in 1240
As an Australian living in the US for 7 years we have a few but my favourite was when my wife was asked by my third grader's teacher to come to the school and do a presentation on Australia. My wife was attempting to find interesting but relatable things to talk to the kids about so she told them about having Christmas in summer. The teacher, who was proud of her master's degree in education, said - "so you have Christmas in July." My wife said - "No December, like everywhere else in the world." So the teacher asked her what she meant that we had Christmas in summer." My wife being somewhat bemused said, "well you know it is in the Southern Hemisphere." The teacher said, "yes...what has that got to do with it." I was in the States just three months ago and someone asked me: "How primitive is it in Australia?" I was not sure I had heard right or understood the question properly, so I asked for clarity. He asked - "well how primitive is it, like the houses are they primitive - do you even have houses?" I did not know how to respond, there was no way to answer that question without making him look as stupid as he was.
To the part about someone asking if there were houses in Australia, I'd have laughed at him and walked off (while still laughing) as a reply! HAHAHAHA! 🤭
@@catherineabellanosa2118 I would have loved the opportunity to confuse him even more and say that we live in little huts like Canadians live in igloos (obviously a lie but he might actually believe this).
Can I tell you my favourite? A Texan woman was taking a tourist bus around London England, when she heard a strange beeping sound at an intersection. "What's that noise?" she asked the guide. "That's the traffic lights indicating that the lights are red so that the blind people will know to wait to cross the road," he replied. "Wow!" she said, "In Texas, we don't even let' em drive!"
I'm from Australia, but lived in Romania for a year with my Romanian wife. She took me to their Parliament building in Bucharest for a tour. This used to be the palace of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, but the Romanian people rose up against him and his family in the late 80's (he was killed by them eventually). While touring the building an American family was there also, about halfway through the tour the Mother of the family yells out really loudly to the tour guide " why aren't there any pictures of Ceaușescu?!? my kids want to see pictures of Ceaușescu". To say something like this to a Romanian is massively offensive. she fully expected that they would have pictures of the most hated man to ever rule and oppress the Romanian people hanging on the walls of their parliament building ...... because her kids wanted to see him. Insulting, offensive , insensitive and just plain dumb
@@anca6702 That was pretty much the comparison that sprung to my mind. I thought, "huh, I suppose they'd go to Germany and be upset that there aren't pictures of Hitler hung up everywhere." Perhaps we should visit the USA, go to the Sandy Hook Elementary School and loudly complain that there aren't any pictures of Adam Lanza hanging on the walls - "my *kids* want to see his picture, goddamnit!"
@@tanvirapu885 I actually wouldn't be surprised if they did. I know it wouldn't be a relatively respectful one, but I could see it being proudly placed somewhere as a testimony of their eventual victory over him.
An American once said to me when I said I was from England *"Wait so you guys speak English too, I thought you spoke just British?"* the anger and fustration was unimmaginable for me.
About 10 years ago a very dear friend of mine and I were talking about the war in the Middle East. I mentioned that one of my cousins is an officer in The Australian Army and was currently serving overseas. What she said next still blows my mind. I had to convince her that every country has their own defence force. She said “wait what? I thought America was the only defence force that wasn’t “the bad guys”.
First time I visited the USA I had 3 different people ask me if I drove over from Australia. I also met two girls on a bus in LA who didn't know we had different seasons and time. I told them here it's Saturday but back home it's Sunday and that's how we find out who won the Super Bowl before the US does , which they believed until someone behind them in the bus almost fell off their seat laughing
And you were actually wrong, because SuperBowl is played on a Sunday, so the Australians won’t know the result until it’s their Monday. Your logic would “work” if something happened in Australia early on a Sunday, because then the Americans would know about it on their Saturday.
@@nondesperadocome on, reading comprehension, man. You didn't understand his comment. That's why the guy at the back was dying from laughter, because he was tripping the LA girls. Are you American?
I taught school in Texas and the amount of people that asked me if I enjoyed sleeping on beds and indoor plumbing was shocking (I am from South Africa) and my favourite was someone complementing me on the fact that I could write since I was from Africa.... I was teaching her children MATH!! I was worried after that.
That's hilarious, in a weird way. Just as well you have a thick skin. Look at it this way, at least they're happy and blissfully unaware of how uneducated they are about the outside world 🌎 Sad though. Very sad.
The worst mistake in my life, was talking to a former religious American friend (floridian) about basic history. The amount of braincells I lost, can never be recovered
I live in The Philippines. Here, it is an accepted fact that in entering malls, banks, hotels, schools and restaurants to have your bags checked by a security guard. Naturally this causes a line to form. I was in line to enter a mall and I overheard this woman whom I assume was US American refuse to have her bag checked because by the guard saying 'it is against my rights given by the 4th amendment ". She actually thought your US Constitution applies to other countries.
I was in an immigration checkline, I think it was coming from France to England. There were 2 queues which were signed something like "European Citizens' and Non-European Citizens'. A family of Americans behind me were confused and loudly discussing where the line for Americans was.... and in the next breath started pondering whether they have a name for people who aren't American.
I am Ukrainian who lives in the USA for 4 years. I had a singular doctor's appointment and she asked me my height. I said "it is 1 meter 69 cm" and I said "I don't remember how to convert m to ft". And she said "Is that what you guys in Ukraine used to measure?" I said "No, that's what everybody in the world is used to measure except the US" :)
I can see how this would happen. American medical staff can convert centimeters but not meters. We are aware that centi is 100.. so yeah.. we know how many CM are in a meter. But we don’t use this convention every day. In short: if you said 169 cm they would understand
@@chankwaichoi1The US and one or two very small countries still use imperial measurements only. The rest of the world uses only metric OR metric as its official and common system. Here in Australia, metric is the official system, most Australians under 30 use only metric and those with grandparents/co-workers over 60 are used to hearing both used. For example, I know how tall I am in both centimetres and feet and inches and I went to just a very ordinary school.
@@felicitybywater8012 yep, felicity, u r right, i shouldve known that. i forgot australia, like the united states, was a british colony once. i was born n bred in Hong Kong which was a british colony until 1997. as much as i know HKers still use the imperial at least when we r talking about body height or weight etc cus i visit HK as least once a yr since i left for sydney in 1981, n ever since i ve been living here continuously. i gathered we r not of the same generation so i guess i can only speak for myself whatwith my oldtimers' disease, haha... cheerio n have a good one.
I've said this on another channel but I was talking to an American guy online years ago and he asked me if we had electricity in Australia.. No mate, I'm sitting here at my desk peddling my generator 🤦♀️
That's funny. (As is using the facepalm emoji after misspelling 'pedalling' lol. Unless you were illegally selling your generator, of course. Sorry, I couldn't resist! 😊)
I was in LA about 15 years ago. An American I met in a hotel lobby asked me where I was from. I said I was from Australia. He said my English was very good and did I have to study English a lot so I would he allowed to come to the USA. He then asked me to speak Australian in my native language. I said I only spoke English. He said no not English and said to speak in the language I spoke in my home with my family. I said I spoke basically the same language as him but we spelt some words a bit differently. like we put a 'u' in the word colour. He then asked me what the Australian word for colour was. I said it was colour. He then said "no what do you call color?" I said colour....He then said that he understood I had a language problem speaking to him but I had done very well for a foreign person trying to understand English. I then said back in Australia we have a saying for a person like him. I said it was a complementary saying that was "He must have a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock". I then smiled and walked away. He looked a bit perplexed and confused.
When an American woman found out I was from Australia she remarked “ oh you people speak Hungarian”. I say no we don’t - we speak English. She says “ no I am sure you speak Hungarian “. I say are you getting Australia and Austria mixed up? Austrians speak German but they are next door to Hungary. Outraged at this she yelled “what - do you think I am stupid!”
Yes, I think she's stupid. Not necessarily for not knowing geography (though my class knew these things at age ten), but for thinking she can correct someone else on what language theor country speaks
This is real conversation I had with an American.... American. Where are you from? Me. I'm from Australia American. Wow, how long did it take you to drive here? Me (thinking he's joking). A couple of days, I took a shortcut. American. I see. How much did it cost in gas? Me(realising he's serious) Coming over it costs alot, but driving back is cheaper because it's all downhill. American. That makes sense
Had an American woman from NY tell me my race wasn't real. I am Māori. From Aotearoa New Zealand. She then accused me of being racist towards Mexicans for denying my heritage. I have a kiwi accent, have never even met a Mexican person. This woman was adamant. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ No I do not believe she is a reflection of all Americans, having had wonderful interactions with a woman from California. She was awesome, shared some insight into America and asked me if I would share my culture with her. Miss her. RIP Christie. ❤
I am sorry that you had your Māori heritage denied like that. I'm not kiwi, but one of my great-grandparents was indigenous and it's sad to see how little recognition is given to indigenous groups. People are incredibly ignorant about the cultures, though I suppose there should be an exchange, as you cannot magically attain knowledge about a certain topic. There are natives who are incredibly guarded about their traditions, which is fair, but I'd like to know more myself and not everyone is willing to share. It's always good to be informed about the world, and sadly many historical records were written by settlers, or straight up erased. I feel like it's time to change that. Be proud of your ancestry, always.
I was in an American History class while being an exchange student in the USA. A big part of the semester was about WW2. As a Belgian I am pretty aware of this part of History since it litterally concerns my country, my grand-parents and many places around my hometown. The teacher proceeded to lecture us from an american point of view (since it was an American History class, that made sens and I found that super interesting to make comparaisons... little did i know...). A whole classe was about the Battle of the Buldge, which he told us happened in the town of Bastogne... in Germany !!! Confused I said "Sir, Bastogne is in Belgium, I grew up 20 miles away from it", he replied something along the lines of "No, Belgium wasn't involved in the war, the battles couldn't happen there". I said I was pretty sure to be right on the one and that I am personnaly concerned (family, hometown...). He said he wouldn't believe me because I was only a teenager and that I was probably thinking about something else since the second world war was between Germany, France and the USA... YEP that man was a high school History teacher... Also, setting Bastogne in Germany would mean that the allies invaded Germany in 1944 and that would have changed the course of History quiet a bit.
No wonder so many Americans are uneducated when their teachers are unwilling to admit they made a mistake and learn from it. People are learning new things all the time. I for one had absolutely no idea, that WW2 was just between Germany, France and the USA. So all the stories my grandma told me about the war were fake since we're Czech? Oh boy. Or is it because for average American there are no other countries in the world besides these three? 🤔
@@moniqueriddle9339 Yup, honestly I think he knew better, he was just infuriated because I corrected him. But still, not wanting to admit such a big mistake and going deeper into the madness is quite a big sign of stupidity.
I'm a US citizen and a travel agent. I speak to a lot of culturally and geographically ignorant people. The worst, however, was a coworker, another travel agent. I was being sent to London for a few weeks to support a sister office struggling to service a new account. When word got around my home office I'd volunteered to go, a woman came up to me and asked me how I was going to be able to work there. I was confused and asked what she meant. She then asked what language they speak and if I spoke the same language. I was dumbfounded and snidely answered, "It's ENGLand, they speak ENGLish." She got all flustered and protested that she didn't know and scuttled off back to her desk.
I started studying to be a travel agent, and someone that dumb would never have been able to get a license to be a travel agent if they did not know what language was spoken in England.
I'm swedish. 20 years ago I went to the states on a tour with the choir i sang in. We got to stay in different families. One time we were asked if we had windows in our houses. My first thought was if they actually believed we live in igloos here...
While visiting the US I lost my passport. I then had to travel to LA to get a temporary one. At the airport I was asked for photo ID and only had my Australian drivers license which they wouldn’t accept. I did have an American Costco card with my photo and the accepted that over a Government issued license.
I was staying in a youth hostel in Munich, Germany sharing a room with a group of American girls who'd just returned from Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. They were sharing their thoughts about how evil the Germans had been and how "this sort of thing would never happen in America". Apparently they are unaware of the Japanese internment camps America set up during WWII.
“This would never happen in America”……Ummmmmm hello, has any American ever heard of “Indian Reservations”, and how they were given diseased (polio or smallpox I think it was) blankets ON PURPOSE.
Hitler actually got a lot of his ideas from the USoA (AKA "America"), including eugenics (racial purity) and the anti-semitic blame game - which were the foundation of his attrocities.
Also the Nazi got the ideas and practices from El Paso Texas racist major in 1917. This is why most racist don’t want CRT to be taught in college because it exposes the hypocrisy of the American legal system
I was in Italy (I'm Australian) and instead of eating the very plain Americanised food in our hotel, my sister and I went to a small local restaurant. The Italians running it knew one English sentence "no americanos, no like food". They stopped trying to make us leave when we said in Italian that we were Australian. They were still suspicious until they gave us the menus and we ordered with no difficulty (Australians use italian names for italian foods in Australia). It was the best food ever, they gave us free delicious dessert and we went there every night we stayed in the hotel while the US guests enjoyed their boring hotel burgers and fries. I shudder to think what experience these poor restaurant owners had had to shout No Americanos at potential customers.
This also happens in Japan, most restaurants with a lot of tourists don't let you in when you look like an american tourist. Also you better speak japanese you they won't service you because their english education is horrible, normal japanese people won't understand the simplest sentences.
I've never been to Italy, nor do I speak Italian, but from what I've seen and heard, I can imagine what happened to ban Americans from their restaurant.
I’ve not a few people who have worked at restaurants in various European countries. The stereotype is that they complain about everything. I’ve heard a few stories about Americans complaining that well done steaks weren’t burnt enough, portions are too small, no free drink refills, no ketchup, the fries and too thick. One friend told me an American man was getting irate at a waiter because the bacon he was served, wasn’t real bacon (in other words American bacon which is different from the rest of the world). Basically they complain when their food isn’t Americanised enough. Obviously not all Americans are like that, it’s just a loud minority that give the rest a bad name.
@@JarlGrimmToys there's that plus other cultural differences that makes Americans looks ridiculous for Italians. Like if you eat meat you drink red wine and if you eat fish you drink white whine and doing the opposite would make the waiter triggered and confused, so you can imagine their face when Americans order fish and a cappuccino, Italians get completely flabbergasted
What's really crazy about all these, is that they are REAL. I was (was) an English professor and a High School English teacher as well. I can't tell you how many times the American students in my class would say things that blew my mind both as an educator and as a human. I taught the 9th grade, and most of my students couldn't read past the 4th-grade level. It was both heartbreaking and upsetting. I subbed in a History class once and a student asked me if there really is a Europe or is what the Canadians call Americans. I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. The kid was 14 years old and didn't know there was a Europe. When I explained it to him and showed him a few countries in the EU, he wanted to know why Australia wasn't in the EU if they spoke English. This is only one kid out of how many millions?
An American once said to me, after asking where I was from, and I told him England, he said “oh so in Europe? Cool! I heard it’s a great country! By the way, you speak amazing English” and I just had to reply “I know, we invented that language, it’s English, from England… American English is a DIALECT of my country’s language.” Side-note: I admit I said invented but I'd had an awful day that day and wasn't thinking straight upon reflection of this scenario, so yes, one should have probably chosen a better word
"Invented" may be a bit misleading, but it's where the language developed for sure. "So if Americans are descendants of English people, why are there English people still there?" - that's what Hershel Walker should ask!
The biggest shock was when I was told at the checkout in the supermarket, in San Diego, that the next time I came in, It would be better if I had a better understanding of English. I am from Australia. The only language I know is English. I passed my schools exams at the highest level possible in English.
The RUDE ARROGANCE to rip into a customer for having an accent!!! It boggles the mind. You'd never get through a day in a major Australian city if that was your bugbear. We are a pretty diverse melting pot of cultures and backgrounds.
Not me but my son. On a tour of the Colisseum a strident American woman asked the tour guide if the Colisseum was based on the large stadiums in America. He said even the Americans in the group looked at her in amazement. My son is Australian.
@@paulm5443 We have a Tudor Manor House in Liverpool 'Speke Hall' completed in 1495. The tourist guide was asked by an American if it was built by Christopher Columbus. It is also next to the airport.
I am from the Czech Republic, in the days of Bill Clinton I met by a chance an American in Prague (from Texas if I remember correctly) who, although he was a supporter of the Republicans, approved the American military intervention against Yugoslavia and the subsequent aerial bombardment of Belgrade and the attack on a civilian train there, where there were also many dead. Because I did not agree with this, I told him that this matter is not a matter of the USA at all and that they should not interfere in this problem at all. He answered me this: "If you Europeans can't get your house in order, then the Americans have to come to and solve the problems for you." I then asked him what he knew about the beginning, progress and escalation of this Balkan problem, about the history of Yugoslavia, Serbia and . so that he could form his own opinion on the matter and take a position on it. He answered me literally: "I don't know anything about it and I don't even need to know, I don't care at all. I trust our democratically elected president and government and that's absolutely enough for me !" A country with so many stupid people and at the same time with so much weapons potential and power is a complete tragedy for the world.
There’s ignorant people everywhere, but Americans take it to a whole new level, don’t they? By the way, thank you for standing up for Serbia. Warm regards from Belgrade. 🇷🇸🇨🇿
Btw:My mom has never forgotten that when she was in Yugoslavia at the time (when the Soviet Union and others attacked us -in August 1968) you all treated her beautifully , supported her in every possible way and even offered her that if she wanted , so she can stay and not have to return back to Czechoslovakia. She eventually returned because she believed the Russians would leave soon. Later, many Czechs and Slovaks fled to the West (to Austria) via Yugoslavia. Respect to your people. Big nations will always oppress the small ones, but unfortunately only some of them will always be condemned for it.
@@marty6945 Thank you for your kind words. I wholeheartedly agree with everything that you wrote. Politics divides people, but we should never forget our history and our roots. Stories like yours need to be preserved and bequeathed to upcoming generations. All the best to you and your mother. She sounds like an amazing woman. Warm regards from Belgrade to Praha.
As someone who experienced a number of 'what the...?' moments in America with things that were said to me, I would say that Americans are not stupid. They are just ignorant because the education system and the media are so US-centric.
So many Americans are wilfully ignorant though. They don't question things and never bother to try and learn about things outside the US on their own. They aren't brainwashed North Koreans who have no access to non-propaganda, they have the global internet available at all times. I think what makes it worse is that when you correct those same people on something, they immediately reject the possibility they were wrong, instead of just being open to learning.
It is called Americocentricity. They invented WWW. They have Wikipedia. They have all forms of research material at their fingertips, but choose to believe that 'America is the greatest' .... while the rest of the world ... who DO some research, know that America is definitely NOT the greatest nation in the world by a long shot.
We were in a shop in Hawaii whilst on holidays and 2 women asked my Mother “did you learn how to speak English to come here from Australia?” My Mum was horrified and said “No, we speak English just like you!” This happened in 1981 and she still dines out on that story! After looking at some of these comments it appears the American education system still needs some work! 😳
I promise we are not all that stupid. I was in an Irish pub just the other night with my wife (we’ve been there before, it’s a very Irish pub, you’d think you were in Ireland). These 3 drunk guys were talking and laughing, I was trying to figure out what the hell was so funny. Drunk Irish accents do not translate well to my American ears… I still know it’s English.
When I was an engineer in France (I'm French) I was working in a big industrial company and sometimes we received people from all over the world to train them on tools or when they had a meeting at the HQ. One day an American arrived at Charles De Gaulle. I was his trainer, it was Sunday evening and I went to pick him up at the airport after a weekend with friends. it was a personal trip so I did not have the car from work He looked at me surprised: he thought that public transport didn't exist in Europe at the beginning in the RER he said that it was ugly and that it smelled like the subway in New York and that it was scary for the journey then we took the subway he almost pissed himself because there were no drivers in the subway and then he made a crisis because well the train it is a transport of poor one should have taken the plane or the car (to make 300km) in train one will not arrive before tomorrow morning I told him very seriously "we will take a TGV it is a high speed train 300km/h we have for 1h30 of journey" he answered me: "it is impossible no train can go at this speed anywhere in the world". I had to answer him sharply: "we are not in the USA here we don't piss on ourselves when we take an automatic metro, it's normal here now if your infrastructures are rotten it's not my fault" I had to reassure him by showing him videos of TGV during 20 mn while we were waiting because he was sure that it was dangerous to go so fast ah and the next day he asked me what was the strange statue in front of his hotel I explained to him that it was the monument of the French who died during WW2 he told me: "Stop lying France did not participate in WW2 you did not fight you did not have an army it is us who liberated you" I had to tell him that it was extremely insulting for my grandfather who fought at Dunkirk and spent 5 years in a prison camp feeding on rats and potatoes that fell on the ground he laughed and told me that it was funny because France has never been in a war
Unfortunately this is the degree of knowledge I have met as well when meeting Americans here in Sweden, when having been asked where we keep the polar bears...🙄
I have a friend who was an exchange student in the US (I don't remember which state) and she was called to the principal and called unpatriotic for not doing the pledge of allegiance. She was like ???? It is in fact very patriotic of me not to pledge allegiance to a foreign flag, thank you. Absolutely idiotic situation.
I also had to explain that to my home room teacher in Jnr and Snr high as did every other diplomatic 'brat' and Australian and New Zealand defence staff kids in my school just outside DC during the Vietnam war.
Mixed feelings about that one, you could plead alliegeance to a country that is not yours but hosts you and protects you temporarily. I also see no obstacle to pleading alliegeance to multiple countries for as long as they are friendlies.
@@rlstine4982 Do you now know what "allegiance" means? It's not "they're cool too, I guess". Also, for people in many other countries, the US pledge of allegiance looks cultish, bizarre and ultra-nationalistic.
@@rlstine4982 "pleading alliegeance to multiple countries" but only the US does that... and some dictatorships like China and Russia. In a FREE country you shouldn't force people to plead their alliegeance, they should have a choice to do it or not.
I was at the Roman Baths in Bath UK and I overheard some US tourists talking. There was a map of the Roman Empire (so essentially the Mediterranean and up through France to the UK) with a few key cities labeled. One of the Americans asked the other if they knew where we were on the map and he correctly pointed to the UK. The others were all amazed by his vast knowledge of knowing what country he was currently in. They were all adults. Fine if you don’t know the details of all the countries of some other distant part of the world, but you should really know what part of the world the country you are currently in, is.
Larger islands especially are easy to spot aswell, like, a small country on a large continent, I could forgive you if you couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but islands and archapelagos like britain, Japan, New Zealand, Madagascar, Jamaica, Indonesia, Cyprus... if you can't pinpoint thos when your on them, the I'm concerned.
@@jacklow9611 They see a bewildering array of land that isn't theirs, and have no clue where they are among all those other countries. If American maps would just show Alaska and Hawaii where they really are, that would be a start to solving this mindblowing ignorance.
@@Shan_Dalamani: What would really cause many Americans to know where in the world they are is if they remember what they've seen on a map, as well as on a world globe, which I'm sure most people have seen. That, and actually recognize what they've seen on each and consolidate the different images seen by using their brains to actually think.
I got told by a friend that he couldn't believe I "knew so much stuff", yet had never been to university. I can converse on a broad range of subjects because I read, take in knowledge and generally am curious about the world. I didn't know whether to be insulted or to be saddened for him that his fellow citizens were so fucking dumb.
It's not your fault for not knowing stuff. But it is your fault for not changing that. Everybody can educate themselves if they want to. Always great to see people who are willing to learn.
Yeah, college students seem to think the only way to learn anything is to go into MASSIVE debt, and come out "educated". I've seen the results of some of these college "educations", and I'd gladly pay NOT to get one. independent study is a MUCH better option. You can study on YOUR schedule, and CHOOSE your studies rather than having to take certain subjects you don't WANT to just to get your degree. I took a year of technical school and they gave us a placement test to be sure we could all read and do math on at LEAST a 5th grade level. Though we were all highschool grads, I was the ONLY one that tested out immediately without having to bone up. I tested out at as though I had a master's degree in MOST subjects, and a bachelor's degree in math and spelling. (I have dyslexia so math and spelling can be problematic). And all from informal personal study of things that interested me. The bad thing is that MOST people have the POTENTIAL to be MUCH smarter than they appear. They've simply been "dumbed down" by classes geared to the lowest common denominator. And by teachers that teach them WHAT to think instead of HOW to think. Like teaching a lot of dry math facts, rather than how to calculate answers on their OWN. When presented with problems that weren't COVERED, they have no CLUE how to SOLVE them, because they were never TAUGHT how.🤷
Americans stop reading anything after the late 1940s! You repeatedly see how since 1970s Americans ardently support stupidity and viciously fight against being 'Woke'⁉️ Uhm who ever wants their brain to be asleep⁉️ So feel extremely sad for all Americans, please do🙏
I am Australian and I once had an American chap ask me: “Isn’t it a coincidence that the Queen of Canada had the same name as the Queen of Australia?” 😂
The interesting thing is, both countries have their own rules of succession, they just happen to be identical to the ones in the UK. But they could change them if they wanted.
You could drive him to suicide if you told him that had 3 more sister ,they were born all together ,all names of them was "Liz" and each one been selected to be Queens of UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand
My brother still laughs about the American tourist in Venice who seriously asked the tour guide when they flooded the roads there to make the canals....
I lived in Edinburgh - Scotland - & I got into a conversation with an American couple who were visiting during the Edinburgh Festival. Edinburgh is a beauutiful city with a Castle built on an volcanic hill in the centre of the city .During the festival there is a wonderfull Military Tatoo held on the Castle Esplanade - this couple asked me if the Castle was put up every year for the Tatoo - I kid you not! The Castle originates from 1103 - jeez Disney has a lot to answer for!!
I used to work in tourism in South Africa and was once standing with one of my American guests, admiring the view of Table Mountain in Cape Town. She wondered how hard it must have been to build it. When I told her the mountain was entirely natural, she looked at me in total surprise and said “What? You mean it grew like that?” 🤦♀️
I went to America years ago, from Australia and I was asked if we had houses, roads, taxis (years before Uber was around), hospitals and the usual 'do kangaroos hop down the roads everywhere, there?', but the best was....airports!! 'Really? So you flew here?' It took most of my strength to not say 'well, I didn't friggin' swim'!!!😂😂😂🇭🇲
American expat here- In 2005, I went on vacation with my german husband to the states for 3 weeks. Thought I´d do the whole tourist thing with him. Went on a cruise from FL to the Bahamas. Made friends with a young scottish couple and a middle aged american couple. After introductions, the american lady asked where we came from. We answered "Germany". She flat out asked on which side of the wall we live- east or west. The scottish couple looked as uncomfortable as my husband. Lol. I really don´t expect the whole world to know about every country´s history, but I´m pretty sure the fall of the wall made global headlines. Middle aged american couple had been definitely old enough to have caught that little nugget back in 1989.
Americans are also willing to let/make themselves look stupid for the sake of small talk; any small talk. Being intelligent isn't "cool" here. Humiliation is a powerful motivator, and my fellow Americans don't revere it enough.
Some don't know Germany has been reunified for (then) 16 years, some don't know that ´ is not an apostrophe but an accent and is not to be used an apostrophe.
I know a lot of Americans think us Brits are smart and well educated but let me tell you, we have some pretty stupid people here too. However, whilst in Florida I was asked if we have refrigerators in the UK, so I answered "no, it's so cold we don't need them". 😂✌️♥️🇬🇧
I was vacationing in southern usa from canada years ago, early 1990's and stopped for gas. Was going to pay with Canadian travellers cheques. Clerk had never heard of Canada, so I said it was the country north of hers. She got really huffy and said there is no country north of ours. Her manager heard her voice tone and came to see what was up. She told him I was trying to pay with travellers cheques from a fake country. I showed him, he rolled his eyes and apologized, telling her that there was a country north of the usa. Let her pay and get out of here. When I went back out, my husband asked what took so long. I said before I explain I have to do a palm to the forehead and say WTF. We laughed about this for years.
Yeah, in case you feel too good about being Canadian… I had a Canadian explain to me that $22 that he paid for the set of spanners in the US wasn't the same as the $22 in Canada. In short, he took a few minutes to explain the concept of currencies.
I was in America on a scholarship and went to open a bank account at which point, upon learning I was Australian, the teller asked me 'how long I'd been speaking English'... she seemed so impressed with my fluency I was reluctant to reply, 'since birth.' Hilarious!
I am unfortunately an American with an accredited BA in international Relations from Poland and a Masters from St Andrews, Scotland. Returned to USA 5 months ago after 7 years living abroad in 5 countries, and - after 87 interviews in those 5 months - I am not "qualified" for a job because Poland and Scotland "are not real countries". I live in Seattle, and Live Life Fabulously is my life's motto!
Yup when I visited US prior to emigrating to Australia, and had been born and lived my whole life in the UK, and the amount of Americans that were shocked I knew how to speak English, but found it cute that I didn’t know how to say some words in correct English.
I've got dual citizenship Australia and New Zealand. When I went to Europe in my 20's New Zealand was still home, with family. I was sitting on a bus in Rome and got chatting with an American lady. She asked me what part of England I was from. (They can't tell the difference between English, Australian, New Zealand or Sth African accents). I said to this lady "I'm not from England, I'm from New Zealand". She just stared at me, cocked her head on one side like a puppy and asked "is that anywhere near San Francisco?" Ahhh - no. When I explained that NZ is a group of 3 islands about 2000km or so off the east coast of Australia, like in the southern hemisphere! She was shocked that I was "so far from home and travelling around". I tell ya there's a lot to be said for living in the antipodes! We had good geography lessons too. God bless Australia and NZ.
Yes, american are often surprised. A while ago I talked to Americans when visiting Mexico, I told them that I am from Germany in Europe and they were shocked that I had the idea to travel so far. They couldn't stop telling their son that I am from very very far away...again and again.
mate i'm from the UK and i once had a yank try to prove to me that Australia and New Zealand are the Channel Islands. apparently New Zealand is St. Anne and Jersey and Guernsey are Australia. when i tried to point out that Australia and New Zealand are in the southern hemisphere. i half expected the guy to tell me the world flat.
I worked in Denver years ago and a patient asked me if I'd ever been to a city as big as Denver. I explained that I was from Sydney which has a population of about 5 million. Denver at the time had a population of about 1 million and would be considered a small city by Australian standards. I was also asked in a line at an American airport whether I get island fever living on such a small island. I explained that Australia is about the same size as the contiguous United states. She looked very puzzled!
3:46 I am afraid that wasn´t a joke at all. I'm from Germany (Europe), never been to America, but a while back I met an american girll in Ireland. We had a nice talk, and when she asked me where I was from I responded "Germany". She instantly responded "Oh, that's in Maryland, I never guessed you're an American too". But there is no Germany in Maryland, just a villlage called Germantown. Maybe you already guessed that, in the end of the day, we didn't go along very well.
As a Czech, I am always shocked from that amount of US tourists who arrive here in Prague, but they don't know they are in Czechia, they know only they are in Prague and they think it's the name of country. 😀
@@Pidalin They are always like "I have no idea where I am, how it's called here and where it is on map. I'm just surprised the small shop over there doesn't accept dollars in cash."🥲 And yet they are so surprised why american tourists are so hated.
@@tess7418 To be honest, some British people or even some Germans (which is really surprise for me) don't really have better knowledge of my country, which is ridiculous when we had common history and emperor of Holy Roman Empire was literally ruling from Prague. BTW, we don't hate US tourists, they bring money here and they are mostly pensioners who really want to see something, not some drinking parties like people from UK, Denmark and others....
@@Pidalin "some Germans (which is really surprise for me) don't really have better knowledge of my country" As a German, this is not really surprising at all. We focus about 80% of our history classes on ww1&2 and some bits about French history. We learn about most neighboring countries where they're located and what their capitals are called (primary school). It's annoying af, but it basically means if you come across a German that knows more about your country they learned it outside of school.
This one stuck with me…. An American female said if Obama won again(which he did) she was going to move to Australia as they have a male Christian president and she was corrected because at the time had an unwedded atheist female prime minister. Needless to say her comment went viral.
Not only an unwedded atheist, but Gillard lived in sin with her boyfriend. And was (to quote Bill Heffernan), "deliberately barren". Not fulfilling a woman's only role on earth, to have children. Atrocity upon atrocity.
Many years ago I was working as a waitress in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I served a well spoken spoken gentleman and his family. As I would when asked by tourists, I directed them to several places of interest that they might be interested in taking in. Just before they left the gentleman asked "So when we leave Victoria is there anything else worth seeing in Canada?" I took a moment and then replied by asking if they knew how big the USA was. Of course the reply was yes. Well, I informed this gentleman, Canada is larger. There could perhaps be one or two more things to see somewhere.
Canada 🇨🇦 🍁!! Woop woop. I'm from, and still living in Vic, BC. Did u see the "gardens" when u were here? Museum? Soooo much to see, just on the island; never mind the rest of the country 😅
I seriously had the you can't buy wine without an American ID thing when I first returned from Europe after working overseas for a few years. Because I only had my passport. I was in my freaking 40's!
Mate, I visited the Midwest (i.e Michigan and Illinois in particular) many times for work a few years ago and the following experiences didn't happen in large cities, like Chicago, but in more rural areas. I lost count of the number of times I was complimented on my English standard when asked where I came from (Australia). First couple of times, I thought it was just my Aussie accent but then one person mentioned that "yes, you speak German in Australia". I twigged then - these people confused Australia with Austria. One woman in particular was convinced my first language was German, so you know what? I thanked her for her assistance and wished her a pleasant day, IN GERMAN, so she was quite happy with that. I didn't have the same experience on the west coast because there are lots of Aussies there. And mate, don't start about the absence of knowledge about geography....I could bore you witless with hours of stories. I like your channel - great content. Tolle Arbeit und beste Grüße aus Australien, mate.
Yes I had the same experience as you concerning Australia Austria. I believe the primary reason Americans are so ignorant is because they don't get the chance to visit other countries, like we do. Only the very rich get a chance to holiday outside of the US.
I lived in Germany for about two months (I had also learned it throughout both primary and secondary so was - ok at best). I decided to pop over to France and found myself the shittest/cheapest backpackers ever. I went up to the front desk and stated, "Wie gehts, sprechen sie Deutsch?" He looked at me and very slowly and quizzically affirmed, "NOooo, I speak English". There was an awkward pause and I was like, well that's fair cop. He didn't like me after that. What the hell was an Australian doing pretending to speak Deutsch in France when English was obviously my first language. Germans would also often ask me to prove I was Australian because they thought I was an American pretending to be an Australian.
Working at a tourist information centre in a small outback town in Australia, in came a woman from NYC. Apparently she'd never been out of NYC until this journey. Got on the plane in NY, flew to LA, flew to Sydney, flew to my town, never looked out the window. Got a taxi to the tourist centre, didn't look out the window. When she asked for a map of the town I gave it to her, it was free, a single sheet of paper. She demanded the map book for the town and insisted on paying for it. There isn't one. She got quite upset as if I couldn't understand her. Eventually it came out that she genuinely didn't believe that country towns were a real thing, she believed the whole world was nothing but big crowded cities and ocean, and small towns were fantasy things in movies and books about how we'd like to live. Poor woman was culture shocked to the bone. I tried to imagine being her, finding out that small towns are real only after you've landed in a small remote town in outback Australia!
As an American from California.......what!?!? Lol 🤣did she not believe the south exists? What did she think Texans were ? I'm ....... Just wow 😲 Poor girl ...... 🤦🏾♀️
That's the mentality of the people of NYC, friend. I'm from Upstate NY, about 161 kms directly north of NYC. We have no use for NYC people. They come up to towns like mine, destroy the local economies, then leave when all the businesses and service people leave for areas with more work...
One time, I was talking with a girl at our lunch table. I told her that I was British (Because my dad is British and I was born there) and she straight up told me I wasn't. I asked her what she meant and she said that because I have citizenship in America, I am American and not British. The way she said this to me with the utmost confidence and attitude like I was stupid for not knowing this made me really wanna just-
A friend of mine was chatting to a guy in New York and mentioned he was from London the guy says " I have a friend who lives in London, maybe you know him" my friend says "its very unlikely as the population of London is bigger than the population of New York" needless to say the guy didn't think this was possible.
"You need to have an American ID to buy alcohol in America. Everybody knows that" has got to be one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard in my life, and that's without considering the fact that they were rejecting the lady's freaking American passport as valid ID.
Well, the stupidest part seems to be the very end. When she says she can show her a passport and the lady connects passport-must be a foreigner "where are you from?"
My favorite passport was a man from Hong Kong who was working in the USA and wanted to adopt a dog with his American Girlfriend. We had to ID for adoptions and he was so worried we wouldn’t accept his ID.😅
In 2003 I was in the Canadian army serving in Bosnia. An American soldier came up to me and looked at the flag on my shoulder and after thinking for a minute asked me if Canada was a country. When I said that it was she then asked me if it was anywhere near New Zealand. I just shook my head and walked away ......
the Egyptian one brought me back to when I was in high school and there was a girl who argued with the class about what type of food Oranges were because she couldn't believe they came from a tree and she dead ass said "I thought you plucked them up from the ground, you know, like chickens" so the whole class just went silent trying to figure out what the hell she meant and she demonstrated picking up a chicken by its legs out of the ground.. I knew then that the school system in America is shit 🤣
Should have told her they come from towns called Orange. And in Africa, in the Orange Free State, you can pick as many as you want from the ground...for free.
Did she think a chicken was a type of vegetable? You might pick a chicken up FROM the ground, but you don't pick them OUT of the ground like you would a carrot.
I was on a bus tour and we went and saw the Snowy Mountain Hydro system in New South Wales, Australia. I am from Western Australia and the tour guide was explaining how the melting snow rushes down the mountain and turns the turbines which creates the electricity. There were four people from America on this tour and they wanted to know how they then got the electricity out of the water without getting electrocuted.
I was once asked by an American who just spent 12 months living in Australia if Australia is a dictatorship. Obviously I said no, it's a democracy. So then she asked why Tony Abbott (the Prime Minister at the time) was in the news all the time if he's not the dictator. I've also been asked if we ride kangaroos to school.
Had a similar question asked to me about kangaroos but it was the whole "do you have kangaroos bouncing around in your streets". I said no not really then followed up with "most kangaroos I see are dead ones on the side of roads. He was completely shocked when I said that.
I lived in the US for 13 years. I went for part of my school years and university there. When I was looking at colleges, I remember going to Franklin and Marshall to check out the campus. My mom, who was from Chile, and my brother took me there. We spoke Spanish with one another, and at one point, the campus guide asked us what language we were speaking in. We told her. Then she asked where we were from, but the moment we did, she mentioned how cool that was because there were many people from Africa there. Let's just say I did not go to that college. That's one of the dumbest things that I will never forget.
I have a couple of funny stories but I'll tell you one. I am Brazillian and I spent 7 months in the US in Tallahassee FL, between 2000 and 2001. I attended Belle Vue MIddle school during this time. In Geography we got 4 tests along the time I spent there: Test one: Memorize all the US States. Test two: Memorize all the US State's Abbreviations. Test three: Memorize each state's capital. Test 4: General world knowledge. I was kind of optimistic cause by default I knew it would be easy. One of the questions asked us to name 4 non english speaking countries and the language spoken in them. Well ... easy enough. Spain: SPANISH/Russia: RUSSIAN/France: FRENCH/Brazil: PORTUGUESE. For my surprise This was incorrect appearently. So I decided to confront the teacher who told me people speak SPANISH in Brazil. I Argued that I was FROM Brazil and knew no spanish at all. To which he replied " Oh I see what's happening" A glimpse of hope he is going to admit to his mistake. No ... he doubled down. " You must live in a small region of Brazil where portuguese is spoken, but if you travel around your country you will see that most of it speaks spanish". and THAT was the geography teacher. Out of curiosity I checked google some time ago and the school closed after 2013 I think. If you check bell vue way 2214 in Talahasse florida today in Google maps the building has become an art gallery. BUT if you go into google street view and check a 2011 pic you can see the board in fornt of the school that proudly display " Congratulations! School grade C" ... no wonder it closed shortly after.
Wenn schon die Lehrer so intelligent (😜) sind, muss man sich größte Sorgen, was dumm gebliebene Eltern dort im Homeschooling ihren Kiddies vermitteln. Eine Rolltreppe abwärts.
Mas q merda, hein? Quer dizer, os nossos dialetos tendem a diferir bastante ao longo do território, mas não o suficiente pra um jumento desses pensar que a gente fala espanhol
I'm from London, I went to CA and attended a community college. A student asked me where I was from, I said England, she corrected me saying New England, I said no, "old England" she asked how long I had been in CA, I replied five weeks. She was so amazed that I had learned to speak English in such a short time!
I am African and had gone to visit family and friends, and I have been often asked how I came to the USA. I was tempted to say on an elephant. Seriously, aren't people aware of international flights? Dont feel bad though, laugh at yourself and make an effort to learn with every mistake. None of us is born knowing what we do. It's all learnt.
I think they believe you were living in a mud hut somewhere. And could not fathom that Africa could have any modern infrastructure such as an airport with aeroplanes.
I've seen a lot of these being reacted to, and I do feel for you. You have my sympathy. :) It is rather alarming that so many people in the US are so woefully, and willfully. ignorant, but what disturbs me more is their absolute confidence in assuming they are right. Not good.
In venice an American in front of me was upset, I asked her what was wrong, the ATM had national flags you touched on the screen to select language, there wasn't a US option, I said try the British flag and she said. I didn't know that british people spoke american! she tried it and was very happy when she got her cash!!
I would have expected more likely that an average ignorant cannot recognise the Britih flag rather than she doesn't know the language they speak in Britain.
My favourite example is walking around Canary Wharf around the end of spring 2022. An American who seemed completely lost and new to the country and was around the right age for an intern turned to talk to his colleague and loudly said something to the effect of "I was watching the BBC last night at my airbnb and there was this speech by the Queen, she speaks very good English but her accent needs a little work". Everybody within earshot burst out laughing at that and this guy was just standing there looking confused why people were laughing at the notion of an early 20s American critiquing The Queen's English.
I SWEAR on both my beloved grandmother's graves this is a true story. In 2001 I was at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Anybody who's been there knows it's VERY hot and humid. Parched, I approached a woman selling drinks from basically a large bath tub filled with ice, in which the bottles were wedged. Walt Disney World only sells Coke products and this stand only had a very limited range (important to note). There was standard Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite and water. Not a MASSIVE range for the person to get confused over, right? Wrong. Me approaching: "Hello, could I please have a Coke." Woman looking at me quizzically: "Sorry?" Me (unsure if I may have asked for the wrong thing by accident) : "Uuuummm .... could I have a Coke please." Woman: "You want a cake???" Me (getting a bit ruffled): "NO - I'd like a COKE, PLEASE." And I SWEAR this next part happened; Woman: "You want a COCK???" Me: "Yes - I've flown from Perth, Western Australia, literally to the other side of the planet to visit Disney World to purchase a COCK." I use the term "wilfull ignorance" a lot when it comes to Americans. From her point of view, she's selling only FIVE items. Remove the vowels and you have items that sound like C-k, Spr-t and w-tr. The word "Coke" is very clipped and distinctive and EVEN if she thought she's heard "cake", shouldn't SOMETHING in her mind have concluded, "Perhaps he wants a COKE?" What made this double infuriating is that this was Disney World and the Magic Kingdom at that point had been open for THIRTY years - SURELY I cannot have been THE FIRST international tourist to ever visit? It's just mind bending to me.
It's mind boggling reading stuff like this. I was watching a video where the question was, "if you were born 13 years ago, how old will you be today?" And they kept subtracting their age by 13! ZERO critical thought
@@siddharthakvr5154 I saw that video too and yes, it was mind boggling. It hurt my head watching it. I'm glad I smoke pot; it makes life so much easier.
As a Swede i've heard it all. One time this guy asked me (on an internet forum) how it was possible for me to use the internet. He thought we lived in igloos and that there were polar bears everywhere. No joke! Another favorite of mine is when Americans (yes a few people have asked me this) don't understand that my country, Sweden, isn’t called that in my language. We say Sverige. That's just two of like a million weird questions i've got over the years. From Americans. Cheers from Sweden!
@@Arltratlo wait what? i am like genuinely curious? is it like a historical contextual reason or more like a German language word for it? I was reading wikipedia, i think it had do some from reason historically
Americans think Scotland where I am from and live, is like the old Hollywood film “Brigadoon” where we wash the clothes at the river, collect peat for the fire, and hunt haggis!🤦♀️
Went on a boat sightseeing tour around the islands of Stockholm seeing the sights from the water and the recorded guiding was in several languages starting with Swedish then English, German and French if I remenber correctly. A couple from the US loudly complained about this, especially the Swedish part because why would any Swede take the tour when they live there? Also a few years back I lived and worked in Brazil for a couple of years, flew in from Sao Paulo to Orlando (FL) and while on the shuttle up to the Villages to visit family I had a conversation with a couple of snow birds fron NY city, it turned out that it was incomprehensible that I currently lived in Brazil even to the point that Brazil was an unknown to entity to them. Its not out of supidity, or being dumb, it's the lack of interest or curiosity of the rest of the world, wilfully ignorant is the expression I would use.
Somebody hadn't realised that not all Swedish speakers lived in Stockholm 😄 I'm from Finland, but I would probably listen to the recording in Swedish, to keep up the Swedish I learned at school.
@@laulutar Exactly. Not all Swedish speakers of Sweden live in Stockholm either. Stockholm is sort of a tourist trap for much of Sweden too. And the Stockholm archipelago certainly isn't where most people in Stockholm live either.
"why would any Swede take the tour when they live there?" that's a good point, these things have mostly prices meant for tourists, not for locals, but Sweden is a rich country, so maybe Sweds go there too
People from New York City go to see the sights there in the city where they live, so why wouldn't a Swede not want to see a Swedish site, too? Just because you (or anyone) might live near a site where there's something interesting doesn't mean you (or they) won't want to visit it someday.
I'm Australian and met a lady from the US in Portugal. During the conversation, in all seriousness, she asked me, What came first, English in Australia or English in England! Being a teacher, l just had to give her a short history lesson
As a 30 years old German I would've been honored to get taught by the elf lady Galadriel herself... (Real Talk though, I have Seen so many wonders in the World already that I came to the conclusion that literally nothing is Impossible, so I wouldn't be surprised at all, If you would really be the Galadriel mentioned by Tolkien)
I was in a chat room many years ago and some of us were comparing the time difference between Australia (me) and USA (them) - One guy (American) piped up saying it was impossible for Australia to be ahead in time. After reminding him the world is round so when the sun is up in Australia it's night time in America, he paused for a minute then launched into a tirade, attacking me because Australia "should have warned us before 911 happened"!! Yeah nah mate, in Australia, it happened at midnight!
Our Australian daughter was in the RAAF in South Australia She met her American husband who had transferred over for a year. Married and went to America. She was a medical assistant and was given a translator. People thought she didn’t speak American
A Qantas Flight Attendant I know was working on a flight from the US to Sydney. There was a middle aged US couple in Business class. She got to talking to them and they told her that they were on a walking tour of Australia. She did know quite what to say to the when one asked " How long do you think it will take us to walk around the Island?" Meaning the island Continent of Australia. She could only answer, "how long do you have in Australia?"....."Oh..Two weeks!"
Many years ago we went to the USA for holidays. From Australia. We took the kids to a McDonalds or Hungry Jacks for breakfast. I ordered breakfast, including orange juice. “Orange juice? Sorry we don’t have that.” I said, it’s on the menu, pointing at the board, which admittedly, said O.J. (Not orange juice) I said, O.J. is orange juice. The young guy learned something new that day.
4 years ago my wife and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary in Florence and having a great time. One evening we went out to a bar very near to our hotel called The Joshua Tree - I highly recommend it- as it was very busy we asked a chap if we could share his table. During the next few hours we chatted away like long lost friends over several beers. He was in Italy to give lectures but said that he really wanted to see the statue of David but it was in some place called Firenze. He would not take my word that Florence and Firenze were the same place. Google is your friend and it took Google maps to convince him. The kicker being that his hotel was a mere 400 yards from the museum.
I once went to my local post office and wanted to send a letter to New Mexico. The postal worker said I would need an international stamp. She did not know that we had a state in the USA called New Mexico. When I wanted to buy 100 decorative stamps, she brought our several sheets and asked how many I would like of each design. When I asked for thirty of one design, I noticed that she was counting them out one by one. The sheet had 100 stamps arranged in ten rows of ten. I asked her why she didn't just tear off three rows of ten. She answered that she wanted to be really accurate, so she didn't want to use that new math. Multiplication is new? She wasn't there the next time I came to that post office. Bless her heart.
Thanks for the videos. They're incredible. Fifty years ago this month, my family returned to the USA from (West) Germany where my father had served in the US Army. We moved to far West Texas. Three years later, I attended college in Nebraska where some fellow students attended school with 17 students in the entire school; one teacher and the principal was also the superintendent. Most had never been outside the state, few had ever been in an airplane and none had seen the ocean. Everyday, someone would ask why I didn't have a Southern drawl. One student from New Jersey asked me how many Indians I had killed! So, it appears that not much has changed.
Im Australian, and back in high school (long time ago) we had an exchange student come out from the states and wanted to know why we lied to the world. I was very confused and asked what we were supposed to have lied about? Apparently we as Australians do not drive in cars, we ride in kangaroo pouches.......doesn't everyone know that?? So why did we lie when we have cars... Hate to break it to ya hun, we don't tell the world we ride in kangaroo pouches.............
I'm from Wales UK and whilst in the USA, I was asked where in England I was from. I said I'm not from England, I'm from Wales. He then looks me in the eye, starts laughing and honestly thought I was making it up before saying 'OK son, you keep believing in your fantasy countries like Narnia and Oz' and walked off!!!
The dumbest thing an American friend ever said to me was as follows “But Australia is an all flat desert how do you go hiking when it doesn’t even have any forests or mountains?” After seeing photos of myself & friends HIKING IN THE MOUNTAINS IN AUSTRALIA surrounded by RAINFORESTS & BUSHLAND!😂😂😂Arhh god love him….
This is slightly different. Whilst visiting Stonehenge I followed a young American couple. Their conversation went as follows:- "Honey, the smartest historians, the smartest philosophers and the smartest scientists in the world have studied Stonehenge. They don't know who built it, or how they built it, or why they built it.... So why why the f**k do you keep asking me "Why is it here?"
I’m Australian. Visiting Paris some years ago having dinner in a lovely restaurant which was literally across the road from the Louvra, and the Tullieries Gardens. An American woman with two young girls is at the table next to me. She says to them “ok, we’ll you’ve done Disney Paries and Hard Rock Cafe. Is there anything else to do?” I excused myself and suggested the Louvre (largest collection of renaissance paintings in the world) was just in front of them and that right in their eyeliner on the other side of the river was the Musee d’Orsay (collection of the Impressionists) and at the right towards the end of the gardens was the Orangerie where Monet’s paintings of water lilies were kept. They were happy to know that - and impressed with my English (sigh).
I was in Vegas in 2019 (from Australia) and expected that I wouldn't have these issues. I have previously lived in CA for 2 years and figured Vegas being a very touristy place it wouldn't be an issue. OMG... the number of people who didn't think I was speaking English or were AMAZED at my ability to speak English was ridiculous. I am very well spoken, educated and in Australia often mistaken as being from England because I have a very soft Australian accent. So, it's not like I have a really bogan accent, either. 🤯
Same thing happened to me - on my first trip to the US in 2001, I was very soft spoken (lacked confidence) and was told I sounded more British - eventually was told that because I didn't speak like Steve Irwin, they thought I was from England. JFC.
I live in the UK and a few years ago I was on a plane from Paris to London, sat next to someone from Dallas. They were telling me about their travels around Western Europe, then asked me where this plane was going. I thought surely if you’re on a plane you’re supposed to know its destination. But anyway I told them that we were going to London. To this day I still laugh about the next thing they said to me: “could you please tell me, how far away is London from England? Because that’s where I’m supposed to be going.” I was a bit lost for words.
We have had 9 trips to the US visited 20plus states in 40 years, we found mpeople in every state had one thing in common, the knowledge on the world is dreadful. Many had college degrees but knew so little about their own country let alone a country the other side of the world. The northern hemisphere /Southern Hemisphere was beyond comprehension. Me telling them that most tornados, bath water going down the plug and climbing plants circle the other way here was just too much for them to grasp.
I almost have to get my dad to translate when we go up north to Newcastle to meet family. He’s from there too but I was born down South. I don’t know how to feel but yeah… accents can sometimes be a bit of a challenge
Visiting USA, it was Thanksgiving & was asked how Australia celebrates Thanksgiving, said we don’t. The guy tells me we HAD to have Thanksgiving, how could we not celebrate? Told him we were short on Indians & pilgrims. Then he said we HAD to have the 4th of July, I assured him we did have the 4th of July, it prevents the 3rd & 5th from running into each other.
That's funny.
😂😂😂
This is the most Aussie sense of humour I’ve ever heard 🤣 Love it!
I am going to remember this the next time Americans ask me about this👍
😅😅😅😅
American tourist arguing in a coffee bar in Italy that "everybody knows what 'latte' means, and it's not milk". Lady, no. Latte LITERALLY means milk in Italian. And it's something you can order for kids at a coffee place. We are not going to change our dictionaries and our menus because Starbucks misuses a word they borrowed from another language.
This is why pretty much every other country uses "latte macchiato", instead of just calling it a latte. The fact they even act as if they're in the right in an ITALIAN COFFEE BAR.
Just sip your milk and ask what the correct term is so you don't order the wrong thing next time, jeez
@@mage6475 Calm down and enjoy your PINEAPPLE PIZZA
@@futaarmor😂😂😂
Actually macchiato in the Italian word for ‘stained’ ie your milk is stained with just a little dollop of milk - and is very different to a caffe latte / latte … albeit coffee terms differ so much - even from one state to another here in Australia. However here we call it a latte, the Italians have a caffe latte - and yes, once I forgot to say caffe latte and got a milk drink in Italy. I guess irrespective what you call something, normal people laugh at themselves, have fun telling the story and don’t be a d!ck about it like the person in the OP 😂😂😂
@@futaarmor Nothing wrong with pineapple pizza, though I prefer tomatoes on my pizza nowadays.
I'm a Brit who moved to the US as a teen. I was constantly asked by kids and TEACHERS things such as: "You speak English so well, how long did it take you to learn it?", "How long is the drive from England to America?", and "What language do they speak in England?". I also encountered the passport thing when trying to write a check to someone in a store. "Can I see your ID?", *pulls out passport*, "I can't accept this I need your driver's license", "this is my passport it's the most secure piece of ID you can own", "I'm sorry we just can't accept that here".
The list of stupid stuff Americans say is endless.
I agree 👍
I had a American woman shout at me about drinking while I was 18 bearing in mid we are in England I tried to explain to her it’s legal here to which she replied don’t be stupid I know the law now stop drinking before I take it from you I tried to remain calm but she was extremely rude so I finally lost my temper and told her to F off n that although I can’t hit you I’ll get my mrs over to knock her out safe to say she wasn’t pleased
You should have said that If my passport is not accepted, how the hell did I get passed US immigration!
@@ashiko7376 That would have stumped them even worse.
As a Canadian, I've had times when American customer service people have told me that shipping to Canada is too expensive or complicated because Canada is "overseas."
I asked which state this person was in, and when she told me, I told her that she could literally walk from her office to my home without crossing the ocean (though it would take a long time since we were over a thousand miles apart.
Hasn't Americans repeatedly proven to everyone worldwide that they are endlessly stupid+ unnecessarily racist,ijs💔😭
I was on a business trip in Switzerland last year and over drinks everyone was introducing themselves, a bit of their background and where they come from. After a few of us had done it this large black guy said he was African, from South Africa. The woman from USA said the correct terminology was African American. He said no, just African. She argued that that was racist and he should use African American.
This Is our future 🤕
🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Omg
I do wonder what color the skin of this woman was; well, I have a *very* strong suspicion.
@ I think she was British American. But she could have been Scandinavian American.
Nothing has changed.
About 50 years ago in Rome, I met a young American who had just arrived on his first trip to Europe. He asked me about various sights in Rome and elsewhere; when he asked me if the roads between the major cities in Europe were paved, I said that although they might not be where he came from, the Romans had invented paved roads 2000 years ago and ever since then, we had had them all over Europe ...
Then even older than that are the roads made with timber discovered in Ireland.
@@Phoenix8Risinginteresting. Even before the Etruscans ?
GREAT answer. It probably went right over his head. Poor guy!
@@janined5784poor guy indeed, he was trying to learn :/
@@Phoenix8Rising
ruclips.net/video/QMtw1I_ro84/видео.html
When I went to University in the UK, I'm English after all, we had a team of Harvard students turn up to play rugby against us. It was one game of American football, one game of rugby. They lost both. Apart from being really easy to get drunk, they had a list of things they could not understand or seriously questioned.
1. Wales, it's not a real place. It's made up.
2. We only drink tea (I've never drank tea in my life)
3. Did or did we not celebrate the 4th of July - although I have to say we contributed to that confusion because we told them that both England and America gained independence from France and mentioned William the Conqueror. That worked a treat.
But my favourite was when a friend of ours from Newcastle started talking, they asked him what country he was from because they wouldn't accept he was English 😀
And just to remind you... they were FROM HARVARD.
doesn't sound like fun
@@SaraLee1 or their parents had made very generous donations to Harvard...
No comment . 😂😂😂😂😂🐇😂😂😂🐇🐇🐇
So even in the Ivy League, their university level schooling is also whacked not even knowing that there’s an outside world besides their own immediate or enclosed backyard.
Tbf.....a geordie, scouser, welsh, brummie and london accent can be hard to differentiate for non-English citizens.
Just like hearing a thick boston accent as well as a jersey accent differs from a texan drawl or alabama southern accent.
"I'm secure enough in myself as an American"
3 minutes later:
"I don't claim these people"
😄
He doesn't know what the term "nationality" means either...wth
Right?!
Funnily enough after the girl that said someone told her the only country is America 😂
@@guppy1821 yeah,,, like the flat earthers don’t sound too bad anymore after hearing that 😅
@@romo9122 imagine asking them to explain what means : ethnicity! 💀
Absolutely true story. While visiting St. Paul's Cathedral in London I over heard an American tourist say to their companion how cool it was that the "Cathedral was built so close to the Subway!!" The Cathedral was built in the 1600s!!!!!!
Time has a different meaning to Americans :))))
@@lfcbproas much as distance has a different meaning to Europeans, as in the joke:
Americans think 100 years is old.
Europeans think 100 miles is far.
@@LMB222 And yet Americans can't waklk for a friggin mile even if their live depended on it.
Wasn't building started in 1100?
@@nellinightshade3358 The current cathedral was started in 1675 and completed in 1710. The previous cathedral was burnt down in 1666 during the Great Fire in London. Construction on that one started in 1087 and finished in 1240
As an Australian living in the US for 7 years we have a few but my favourite was when my wife was asked by my third grader's teacher to come to the school and do a presentation on Australia. My wife was attempting to find interesting but relatable things to talk to the kids about so she told them about having Christmas in summer. The teacher, who was proud of her master's degree in education, said - "so you have Christmas in July." My wife said - "No December, like everywhere else in the world." So the teacher asked her what she meant that we had Christmas in summer." My wife being somewhat bemused said, "well you know it is in the Southern Hemisphere." The teacher said, "yes...what has that got to do with it." I was in the States just three months ago and someone asked me: "How primitive is it in Australia?" I was not sure I had heard right or understood the question properly, so I asked for clarity. He asked - "well how primitive is it, like the houses are they primitive - do you even have houses?" I did not know how to respond, there was no way to answer that question without making him look as stupid as he was.
I met an American in the 80s in the Philippines as we travelled on a bumpy island dirt road. He said, I guess all your roads are like this. Um, no!
😳
Yes I was told by Americans when I was in the U.S. That Australia was the most overpopulated and most improvised Country on the Planet.
To the part about someone asking if there were houses in Australia, I'd have laughed at him and walked off (while still laughing) as a reply! HAHAHAHA! 🤭
@@catherineabellanosa2118
I would have loved the opportunity to confuse him even more and say that we live in little huts like Canadians live in igloos (obviously a lie but he might actually believe this).
Can I tell you my favourite? A Texan woman was taking a tourist bus around London England, when she heard a strange beeping sound at an intersection. "What's that noise?" she asked the guide. "That's the traffic lights indicating that the lights are red so that the blind people will know to wait to cross the road," he replied. "Wow!" she said, "In Texas, we don't even let' em drive!"
😂😂😂
😅🤣👍🇦🇺
😂
That's funny. - By the way, the beeping is to tell them they *_can_* cross. ;-)
@@SpiritmanProductions Depends on the sound. You have the slow tick which is waiting. and the fast tick with is cross.
I'm from Australia, but lived in Romania for a year with my Romanian wife. She took me to their Parliament building in Bucharest for a tour. This used to be the palace of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, but the Romanian people rose up against him and his family in the late 80's (he was killed by them eventually).
While touring the building an American family was there also, about halfway through the tour the Mother of the family yells out really loudly to the tour guide " why aren't there any pictures of Ceaușescu?!? my kids want to see pictures of Ceaușescu". To say something like this to a Romanian is massively offensive. she fully expected that they would have pictures of the most hated man to ever rule and oppress the Romanian people hanging on the walls of their parliament building ...... because her kids wanted to see him.
Insulting, offensive , insensitive and just plain dumb
I'm Romanian and to us it is exactly the same as asking to hang photos of Hitler at Auschwitz ! So offensive!
@@anca6702 That was pretty much the comparison that sprung to my mind. I thought, "huh, I suppose they'd go to Germany and be upset that there aren't pictures of Hitler hung up everywhere."
Perhaps we should visit the USA, go to the Sandy Hook Elementary School and loudly complain that there aren't any pictures of Adam Lanza hanging on the walls - "my *kids* want to see his picture, goddamnit!"
Its like asking why there isn't a photo of Osama bin Laden in hall of Whitehouse
@@tanvirapu885 I actually wouldn't be surprised if they did. I know it wouldn't be a relatively respectful one, but I could see it being proudly placed somewhere as a testimony of their eventual victory over him.
As an American all I can say is our culture constantly spits in the face of Romania and Romanians.
An American once said to me when I said I was from England *"Wait so you guys speak English too, I thought you spoke just British?"* the anger and fustration was unimmaginable for me.
REALLY?! I hope this dude got a Darwin award....
So that american guy forgot how his nation born😂
About 10 years ago a very dear friend of mine and I were talking about the war in the Middle East. I mentioned that one of my cousins is an officer in The Australian Army and was currently serving overseas. What she said next still blows my mind. I had to convince her that every country has their own defence force. She said “wait what? I thought America was the only defence force that wasn’t “the bad guys”.
I swear, I just lost like half my remaining neurons
@@sebastianoguarnaccia3694Same 😂😂
"the bad guys" 🫠💀
Actually, no, not every country does.^^
Did you tell her America is the bed guy to many many countries 😂
First time I visited the USA I had 3 different people ask me if I drove over from Australia. I also met two girls on a bus in LA who didn't know we had different seasons and time. I told them here it's Saturday but back home it's Sunday and that's how we find out who won the Super Bowl before the US does , which they believed until someone behind them in the bus almost fell off their seat laughing
And you were actually wrong, because SuperBowl is played on a Sunday, so the Australians won’t know the result until it’s their Monday.
Your logic would “work” if something happened in Australia early on a Sunday, because then the Americans would know about it on their Saturday.
@@nondesperadocome on, reading comprehension, man. You didn't understand his comment. That's why the guy at the back was dying from laughter, because he was tripping the LA girls. Are you American?
🤣🤣🤣
The person behind them know the truth😂
@@alphsno472bro said his "dumb American" story and unintentionally caught another American.. the jokes wright themselves
I taught school in Texas and the amount of people that asked me if I enjoyed sleeping on beds and indoor plumbing was shocking (I am from South Africa) and my favourite was someone complementing me on the fact that I could write since I was from Africa.... I was teaching her children MATH!! I was worried after that.
Lol they really think Africa is just a starving wasteland like ick.
sjoe! my husband is sth african and he and i like to joke about our childhoods, me riding kangaroos to school, him on an elephant.
If someone would have one reason to quit and flee the country that would it be for me ...
That's hilarious, in a weird way. Just as well you have a thick skin. Look at it this way, at least they're happy and blissfully unaware of how uneducated they are about the outside world 🌎
Sad though. Very sad.
Respect for not quitting immediately after that. How damn respectless and ignorant that person is.
The biggest problem isn't the ignorance (you can't fault someone for that)... it's the confidence in being wrong and the doubling down.
It's the broad lack of education coupled with an insular view and a touch of arrogant ignorance.
Add religion, and one should.... run
This
What a stupid comment! Not everyone in America is dumb. Just like not everyone in your country is
The worst mistake in my life, was talking to a former religious American friend (floridian) about basic history.
The amount of braincells I lost, can never be recovered
yet another adventure of Florida Man
An educator in Florida who now feels I have to censor myself.
See, your first mistake was that he was a floridian
I live in The Philippines. Here, it is an accepted fact that in entering malls, banks, hotels, schools and restaurants to have your bags checked by a security guard. Naturally this causes a line to form. I was in line to enter a mall and I overheard this woman whom I assume was US American refuse to have her bag checked because by the guard saying 'it is against my rights given by the 4th amendment ". She actually thought your US Constitution applies to other countries.
Even worse considering she had them checked at the airport before even boarding the plane.
Even if that was the case, 4th only applies to the government. Any business can request to check your bags as a condition for entering the premises.
@@brunovandooren3762 i guess she thought the 4th applies to private businesses as well
I too have come across this presumption in US tourists that US law applies in every country. It evokes massive secondhand embarrassment.
🤣
I was in an immigration checkline, I think it was coming from France to England. There were 2 queues which were signed something like "European Citizens' and Non-European Citizens'. A family of Americans behind me were confused and loudly discussing where the line for Americans was.... and in the next breath started pondering whether they have a name for people who aren't American.
You could have easily even enlarged their confusion by telling them, that there is no queue for Americans because they are not allowed to immigrate 😂
I had something similar happen with a us couple at the Frankfurt airport
I am Ukrainian who lives in the USA for 4 years. I had a singular doctor's appointment and she asked me my height. I said "it is 1 meter 69 cm" and I said "I don't remember how to convert m to ft". And she said "Is that what you guys in Ukraine used to measure?" I said "No, that's what everybody in the world is used to measure except the US" :)
and the UK n her former colonies...
(of course the U S of A was one of them)
Yanks don't know how to use the metric system. Too dumb.
I can see how this would happen.
American medical staff can convert centimeters but not meters. We are aware that centi is 100.. so yeah.. we know how many CM are in a meter. But we don’t use this convention every day.
In short: if you said 169 cm they would understand
@@chankwaichoi1The US and one or two very small countries still use imperial measurements only. The rest of the world uses only metric OR metric as its official and common system. Here in Australia, metric is the official system, most Australians under 30 use only metric and those with grandparents/co-workers over 60 are used to hearing both used. For example, I know how tall I am in both centimetres and feet and inches and I went to just a very ordinary school.
@@felicitybywater8012
yep, felicity, u r right, i shouldve known that. i forgot australia, like the united states, was a british colony once.
i was born n bred in Hong Kong which was a british colony until 1997. as much as i know HKers still use the imperial at least when we r talking about body height or weight etc cus i visit HK as least once a yr since i left for sydney in 1981, n ever since i ve been living here continuously.
i gathered we r not of the same generation so i guess i can only speak for myself whatwith my oldtimers' disease, haha...
cheerio n have a good one.
I've said this on another channel but I was talking to an American guy online years ago and he asked me if we had electricity in Australia.. No mate, I'm sitting here at my desk peddling my generator 🤦♀️
That's funny. (As is using the facepalm emoji after misspelling 'pedalling' lol. Unless you were illegally selling your generator, of course. Sorry, I couldn't resist! 😊)
I guess he also had no idea that his WiFi was invented by CSIRO
And CSIRO is an Australian research organisation in Australia.
Showing them an Australian banknote might blow a few minds also.
I live in Idaho, USA and passed a hotel that said it had electricity. I guessed the owner was asked just once too many times.
@@orlock20 🤦♀️🤣🤣🤣
I was in LA about 15 years ago. An American I met in a hotel lobby asked me where I was from. I said I was from Australia. He said my English was very good and did I have to study English a lot so I would he allowed to come to the USA. He then asked me to speak Australian in my native language. I said I only spoke English. He said no not English and said to speak in the language I spoke in my home with my family. I said I spoke basically the same language as him but we spelt some words a bit differently. like we put a 'u' in the word colour. He then asked me what the Australian word for colour was. I said it was colour.
He then said "no what do you call color?" I said colour....He then said that he understood I had a language problem speaking to him but I had done very well for a foreign person trying to understand English. I then said back in Australia we have a saying for a person like him. I said it was a complementary saying that was "He must have a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock". I then smiled and walked away. He looked a bit perplexed and confused.
🙃🤣🤣🤣👌
I had a similar encounter. So I responded with nothing but old Aussie slang words. Had this guy convinced that I had just spoken “Australianese.” 🤣😬
😁👍
I worked in the tourism industry and sadly no nationality was more perplexing.
Oh gosh, it's painful isn't it? Almost unbelievable (but I believe you).
When an American woman found out I was from Australia she remarked “ oh you people speak Hungarian”. I say no we don’t - we speak English. She says “ no I am sure you speak Hungarian “. I say are you getting Australia and Austria mixed up? Austrians speak German but they are next door to Hungary. Outraged at this she yelled “what - do you think I am stupid!”
Was asked by an American if we spoke Austrian in New Zealand when I said we are next to Australia in the south Pacific.
Did you reply 'yes' ?!
My answer to her question would have been: No no, i don't think you are stupid, i know you are!
How do people end up like this? What happened to them? I can't get my head around it, willful ignorance of the highest order.
Yes, I think she's stupid. Not necessarily for not knowing geography (though my class knew these things at age ten), but for thinking she can correct someone else on what language theor country speaks
This is real conversation I had with an American....
American. Where are you from?
Me. I'm from Australia
American. Wow, how long did it take you to drive here?
Me (thinking he's joking). A couple of days, I took a shortcut.
American. I see. How much did it cost in gas?
Me(realising he's serious) Coming over it costs alot, but driving back is cheaper because it's all downhill.
American. That makes sense
😂😂😂👍.
Had an American woman from NY tell me my race wasn't real. I am Māori. From Aotearoa New Zealand. She then accused me of being racist towards Mexicans for denying my heritage. I have a kiwi accent, have never even met a Mexican person. This woman was adamant. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
No I do not believe she is a reflection of all Americans, having had wonderful interactions with a woman from California. She was awesome, shared some insight into America and asked me if I would share my culture with her. Miss her. RIP Christie. ❤
I am sorry that you had your Māori heritage denied like that. I'm not kiwi, but one of my great-grandparents was indigenous and it's sad to see how little recognition is given to indigenous groups. People are incredibly ignorant about the cultures, though I suppose there should be an exchange, as you cannot magically attain knowledge about a certain topic.
There are natives who are incredibly guarded about their traditions, which is fair, but I'd like to know more myself and not everyone is willing to share.
It's always good to be informed about the world, and sadly many historical records were written by settlers, or straight up erased. I feel like it's time to change that.
Be proud of your ancestry, always.
kia ora :)
My mother is a Māori from Motueka, I have never been there yet, hope to go one day.
Lesson to be learned of American society and culture: If 2 people are in an argument and one is ignorant, the other must be racist.
Lmao - I can’t call myself Māori but about 5 generations ago I have a Māori heritage.
I was in an American History class while being an exchange student in the USA. A big part of the semester was about WW2. As a Belgian I am pretty aware of this part of History since it litterally concerns my country, my grand-parents and many places around my hometown. The teacher proceeded to lecture us from an american point of view (since it was an American History class, that made sens and I found that super interesting to make comparaisons... little did i know...).
A whole classe was about the Battle of the Buldge, which he told us happened in the town of Bastogne... in Germany !!!
Confused I said "Sir, Bastogne is in Belgium, I grew up 20 miles away from it", he replied something along the lines of "No, Belgium wasn't involved in the war, the battles couldn't happen there".
I said I was pretty sure to be right on the one and that I am personnaly concerned (family, hometown...). He said he wouldn't believe me because I was only a teenager and that I was probably thinking about something else since the second world war was between Germany, France and the USA... YEP that man was a high school History teacher...
Also, setting Bastogne in Germany would mean that the allies invaded Germany in 1944 and that would have changed the course of History quiet a bit.
No wonder so many Americans are uneducated when their teachers are unwilling to admit they made a mistake and learn from it. People are learning new things all the time. I for one had absolutely no idea, that WW2 was just between Germany, France and the USA. So all the stories my grandma told me about the war were fake since we're Czech? Oh boy. Or is it because for average American there are no other countries in the world besides these three? 🤔
@@moniqueriddle9339 Yup, honestly I think he knew better, he was just infuriated because I corrected him. But still, not wanting to admit such a big mistake and going deeper into the madness is quite a big sign of stupidity.
Everyone except Americans know WWII started on the 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.
Damn even I knew that
I wonder, do the teachers of other school subjects: chemistry, physics, geography, etc, have such detailed knowledge of their subject?
I'm a US citizen and a travel agent. I speak to a lot of culturally and geographically ignorant people. The worst, however, was a coworker, another travel agent. I was being sent to London for a few weeks to support a sister office struggling to service a new account. When word got around my home office I'd volunteered to go, a woman came up to me and asked me how I was going to be able to work there. I was confused and asked what she meant. She then asked what language they speak and if I spoke the same language. I was dumbfounded and snidely answered, "It's ENGLand, they speak ENGLish." She got all flustered and protested that she didn't know and scuttled off back to her desk.
HAHAHAHAAHAHB THIS MADE ME LAUGH 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
TRAVEL agent!! Dear god...
no come on that cant be true omg if i was american i would want to jump off the window...how embarassed can someone feel???
She must have thought they speak "Londonish" down there, Lol.
I started studying to be a travel agent, and someone that dumb would never have been able to get a license to be a travel agent if they did not know what language was spoken in England.
I'm swedish. 20 years ago I went to the states on a tour with the choir i sang in. We got to stay in different families. One time we were asked if we had windows in our houses. My first thought was if they actually believed we live in igloos here...
While visiting the US I lost my passport. I then had to travel to LA to get a temporary one. At the airport I was asked for photo ID and only had my Australian drivers license which they wouldn’t accept. I did have an American Costco card with my photo and the accepted that over a Government issued license.
I Could tell soo .many stories about Americans!
License?
ROFLMAO! 'Merika!
@@julesnagbunga1204 preemptive spelling. American version. Does it really matter?
@@jennyl3388 YES it does. Set an example for the children, please.
I was staying in a youth hostel in Munich, Germany sharing a room with a group of American girls who'd just returned from Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. They were sharing their thoughts about how evil the Germans had been and how "this sort of thing would never happen in America". Apparently they are unaware of the Japanese internment camps America set up during WWII.
Or that Hitler got the idea of concentration camps from the subjugation and mistreatment of Indigenous Americans....
They also caged the Guatemalan children only a couple of years ago.
“This would never happen in America”……Ummmmmm hello, has any American ever heard of “Indian Reservations”, and how they were given diseased (polio or smallpox I think it was) blankets ON PURPOSE.
Hitler actually got a lot of his ideas from the USoA (AKA "America"), including eugenics (racial purity) and the anti-semitic blame game - which were the foundation of his attrocities.
Also the Nazi got the ideas and practices from El Paso Texas racist major in 1917. This is why most racist don’t want CRT to be taught in college because it exposes the hypocrisy of the American legal system
I was in Italy (I'm Australian) and instead of eating the very plain Americanised food in our hotel, my sister and I went to a small local restaurant. The Italians running it knew one English sentence "no americanos, no like food". They stopped trying to make us leave when we said in Italian that we were Australian. They were still suspicious until they gave us the menus and we ordered with no difficulty (Australians use italian names for italian foods in Australia). It was the best food ever, they gave us free delicious dessert and we went there every night we stayed in the hotel while the US guests enjoyed their boring hotel burgers and fries. I shudder to think what experience these poor restaurant owners had had to shout No Americanos at potential customers.
This also happens in Japan, most restaurants with a lot of tourists don't let you in when you look like an american tourist. Also you better speak japanese you they won't service you because their english education is horrible, normal japanese people won't understand the simplest sentences.
I've never been to Italy, nor do I speak Italian, but from what I've seen and heard, I can imagine what happened to ban Americans from their restaurant.
I’ve not a few people who have worked at restaurants in various European countries. The stereotype is that they complain about everything.
I’ve heard a few stories about Americans complaining that well done steaks weren’t burnt enough, portions are too small, no free drink refills, no ketchup, the fries and too thick. One friend told me an American man was getting irate at a waiter because the bacon he was served, wasn’t real bacon (in other words American bacon which is different from the rest of the world).
Basically they complain when their food isn’t Americanised enough. Obviously not all Americans are like that, it’s just a loud minority that give the rest a bad name.
@@JarlGrimmToys there's that plus other cultural differences that makes Americans looks ridiculous for Italians.
Like if you eat meat you drink red wine and if you eat fish you drink white whine and doing the opposite would make the waiter triggered and confused, so you can imagine their face when Americans order fish and a cappuccino, Italians get completely flabbergasted
Probably because their major whingers.
What's really crazy about all these, is that they are REAL. I was (was) an English professor and a High School English teacher as well. I can't tell you how many times the American students in my class would say things that blew my mind both as an educator and as a human. I taught the 9th grade, and most of my students couldn't read past the 4th-grade level. It was both heartbreaking and upsetting. I subbed in a History class once and a student asked me if there really is a Europe or is what the Canadians call Americans. I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. The kid was 14 years old and didn't know there was a Europe. When I explained it to him and showed him a few countries in the EU, he wanted to know why Australia wasn't in the EU if they spoke English. This is only one kid out of how many millions?
An American once said to me, after asking where I was from, and I told him England, he said “oh so in Europe? Cool! I heard it’s a great country! By the way, you speak amazing English” and I just had to reply “I know, we invented that language, it’s English, from England… American English is a DIALECT of my country’s language.”
Side-note: I admit I said invented but I'd had an awful day that day and wasn't thinking straight upon reflection of this scenario, so yes, one should have probably chosen a better word
Was he offended?
@@Swissswoosher I hope he was :P
@@Swissswoosher who cares? let the american mald at the truth. It might be traumatising enough to actually give him a clue.
@@ceresbane uffff 😂😂😂
"Invented" may be a bit misleading, but it's where the language developed for sure.
"So if Americans are descendants of English people, why are there English people still there?" - that's what Hershel Walker should ask!
The biggest shock was when I was told at the checkout in the supermarket, in San Diego, that the next time I came in, It would be better if I had a better understanding of English. I am from Australia. The only language I know is English. I passed my schools exams at the highest level possible in English.
Why? Only because of your Australian accent? Don't they realize that everyone has an accent?
The RUDE ARROGANCE to rip into a customer for having an accent!!! It boggles the mind. You'd never get through a day in a major Australian city if that was your bugbear. We are a pretty diverse melting pot of cultures and backgrounds.
Not me but my son. On a tour of the Colisseum a strident American woman asked the tour guide if the Colisseum was based on the large stadiums in America. He said even the Americans in the group looked at her in amazement. My son is Australian.
should have told her the exits was called the vomitium and the warning signs was people throwing up
This one is really a good one 😂
I heard that an American tourist, while visiting Windsor castle in the UK, asked why they had built the castle on the Heathrow flight path.
@@paulm5443 We have a Tudor Manor House in Liverpool 'Speke Hall' completed in 1495. The tourist guide was asked by an American if it was built by Christopher Columbus. It is also next to the airport.
Yes I heard that 30 years ago. Straight after she was told the Castle was 900 years old.
I am from the Czech Republic, in the days of Bill Clinton I met by a chance an American in Prague (from Texas if I remember correctly) who, although he was a supporter of the Republicans, approved the American military intervention against Yugoslavia and the subsequent aerial bombardment of Belgrade and the attack on a civilian train there, where there were also many dead. Because I did not agree with this, I told him that this matter is not a matter of the USA at all and that they should not interfere in this problem at all. He answered me this: "If you Europeans can't get your house in order, then the Americans have to come to and solve the problems for you."
I then asked him what he knew about the beginning, progress and escalation of this Balkan problem, about the history of Yugoslavia, Serbia and . so that he could form his own opinion on the matter and take a position on it.
He answered me literally: "I don't know anything about it and I don't even need to know, I don't care at all. I trust our democratically elected president and government and that's absolutely enough for me !"
A country with so many stupid people and at the same time with so much weapons potential and power is a complete tragedy for the world.
There’s ignorant people everywhere, but Americans take it to a whole new level, don’t they? By the way, thank you for standing up for Serbia. Warm regards from Belgrade. 🇷🇸🇨🇿
@@granadina48 In the same way, I wish you, my Slavic sister, more happiness for your nation in the future.❤👍
from Praha
Btw:My mom has never forgotten that when she was in Yugoslavia at the time (when the Soviet Union and others attacked us -in August 1968) you all treated her beautifully , supported her in every possible way and even offered her that if she wanted , so she can stay and not have to return back to Czechoslovakia. She eventually returned because she believed the Russians would leave soon.
Later, many Czechs and Slovaks fled to the West (to Austria) via Yugoslavia. Respect to your people.
Big nations will always oppress the small ones, but unfortunately only some of them will always be condemned for it.
@@marty6945 Thank you for your kind words. I wholeheartedly agree with everything that you wrote. Politics divides people, but we should never forget our history and our roots. Stories like yours need to be preserved and bequeathed to upcoming generations. All the best to you and your mother. She sounds like an amazing woman. Warm regards from Belgrade to Praha.
Nothing's changed, the US still behaving like a big bully.
As someone who experienced a number of 'what the...?' moments in America with things that were said to me, I would say that Americans are not stupid. They are just ignorant because the education system and the media are so US-centric.
Whenever you are educated to be highly centric on only one country, that never bodes well when you go overseas or cross the borders.
So many Americans are wilfully ignorant though. They don't question things and never bother to try and learn about things outside the US on their own. They aren't brainwashed North Koreans who have no access to non-propaganda, they have the global internet available at all times.
I think what makes it worse is that when you correct those same people on something, they immediately reject the possibility they were wrong, instead of just being open to learning.
It is called Americocentricity. They invented WWW. They have Wikipedia. They have all forms of research material at their fingertips, but choose to believe that 'America is the greatest' .... while the rest of the world ... who DO some research, know that America is definitely NOT the greatest nation in the world by a long shot.
Define "stupid"
@@cmmndrblu Not knowing the States in your own country would be the definition of 'stupid'.
We were in a shop in Hawaii whilst on holidays and 2 women asked my Mother “did you learn how to speak English to come here from Australia?” My Mum was horrified and said “No, we speak English just like you!” This happened in 1981 and she still dines out on that story! After looking at some of these comments it appears the American education system still needs some work! 😳
SOME!! 😢 Great story, and Kudos mom.
I promise we are not all that stupid. I was in an Irish pub just the other night with my wife (we’ve been there before, it’s a very Irish pub, you’d think you were in Ireland). These 3 drunk guys were talking and laughing, I was trying to figure out what the hell was so funny.
Drunk Irish accents do not translate well to my American ears… I still know it’s English.
@@nwj03a are you sure it wasn't Gaelic?
Yeah. Our Ryan here needs a lot of work done. And he's grown on me.
I was talking online to a guy about 10 yrs ago he asked me how long did it take me to learn English? I'm Australian
When I was an engineer in France (I'm French) I was working in a big industrial company and sometimes we received people from all over the world to train them on tools or when they had a meeting at the HQ.
One day an American arrived at Charles De Gaulle. I was his trainer, it was Sunday evening and I went to pick him up at the airport after a weekend with friends. it was a personal trip so I did not have the car from work
He looked at me surprised:
he thought that public transport didn't exist in Europe
at the beginning in the RER he said that it was ugly and that it smelled like the subway in New York and that it was scary for the journey
then we took the subway he almost pissed himself because there were no drivers in the subway
and then he made a crisis because well the train it is a transport of poor one should have taken the plane or the car (to make 300km) in train one will not arrive before tomorrow morning
I told him very seriously "we will take a TGV it is a high speed train 300km/h we have for 1h30 of journey"
he answered me: "it is impossible no train can go at this speed anywhere in the world".
I had to answer him sharply: "we are not in the USA here we don't piss on ourselves when we take an automatic metro, it's normal here now if your infrastructures are rotten it's not my fault"
I had to reassure him by showing him videos of TGV during 20 mn while we were waiting because he was sure that it was dangerous to go so fast
ah and the next day he asked me what was the strange statue in front of his hotel I explained to him that it was the monument of the French who died during WW2 he told me: "Stop lying France did not participate in WW2 you did not fight you did not have an army it is us who liberated you"
I had to tell him that it was extremely insulting for my grandfather who fought at Dunkirk and spent 5 years in a prison camp feeding on rats and potatoes that fell on the ground
he laughed and told me that it was funny because France has never been in a war
Well... That guy wasn't just ignorant. He was a prick.
This reads Like a sitcom
Quel boulet 🤦🏻♀️
Unfortunately this is the degree of knowledge I have met as well when meeting Americans here in Sweden, when having been asked where we keep the polar bears...🙄
Good god, you have the patience of a saint.
Also, ain't France had win a lot of wars in the past?
I have a friend who was an exchange student in the US (I don't remember which state) and she was called to the principal and called unpatriotic for not doing the pledge of allegiance. She was like ???? It is in fact very patriotic of me not to pledge allegiance to a foreign flag, thank you. Absolutely idiotic situation.
I also had to explain that to my home room teacher in Jnr and Snr high as did every other diplomatic 'brat' and Australian and New Zealand defence staff kids in my school just outside DC during the Vietnam war.
Mixed feelings about that one, you could plead alliegeance to a country that is not yours but hosts you and protects you temporarily. I also see no obstacle to pleading alliegeance to multiple countries for as long as they are friendlies.
@@rlstine4982 Do you now know what "allegiance" means? It's not "they're cool too, I guess".
Also, for people in many other countries, the US pledge of allegiance looks cultish, bizarre and ultra-nationalistic.
@@rlstine4982 "pleading alliegeance to multiple countries" but only the US does that... and some dictatorships like China and Russia. In a FREE country you shouldn't force people to plead their alliegeance, they should have a choice to do it or not.
I was at the Roman Baths in Bath UK and I overheard some US tourists talking. There was a map of the Roman Empire (so essentially the Mediterranean and up through France to the UK) with a few key cities labeled. One of the Americans asked the other if they knew where we were on the map and he correctly pointed to the UK. The others were all amazed by his vast knowledge of knowing what country he was currently in. They were all adults.
Fine if you don’t know the details of all the countries of some other distant part of the world, but you should really know what part of the world the country you are currently in, is.
Larger islands especially are easy to spot aswell, like, a small country on a large continent, I could forgive you if you couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but islands and archapelagos like britain, Japan, New Zealand, Madagascar, Jamaica, Indonesia, Cyprus... if you can't pinpoint thos when your on them, the I'm concerned.
Oh the joy of an American tour group....endless anecdotes
What's bad is when American adults (or those nearing adulthood) can't even locate the United States on a world map.
@@jacklow9611 They see a bewildering array of land that isn't theirs, and have no clue where they are among all those other countries.
If American maps would just show Alaska and Hawaii where they really are, that would be a start to solving this mindblowing ignorance.
@@Shan_Dalamani: What would really cause many Americans to know where in the world they are is if they remember what they've seen on a map, as well as on a world globe, which I'm sure most people have seen. That, and actually recognize what they've seen on each and consolidate the different images seen by using their brains to actually think.
I got told by a friend that he couldn't believe I "knew so much stuff", yet had never been to university. I can converse on a broad range of subjects because I read, take in knowledge and generally am curious about the world. I didn't know whether to be insulted or to be saddened for him that his fellow citizens were so fucking dumb.
good for you👍
Right on - the reply has to be "how come you DON'T know such stuff?"
It's not your fault for not knowing stuff. But it is your fault for not changing that. Everybody can educate themselves if they want to.
Always great to see people who are willing to learn.
Yeah, college students seem to think the only way to learn anything is to go into MASSIVE debt, and come out "educated". I've seen the results of some of these college "educations", and I'd gladly pay NOT to get one. independent study is a MUCH better option. You can study on YOUR schedule, and CHOOSE your studies rather than having to take certain subjects you don't WANT to just to get your degree.
I took a year of technical school and they gave us a placement test to be sure we could all read and do math on at LEAST a 5th grade level. Though we were all highschool grads, I was the ONLY one that tested out immediately without having to bone up. I tested out at as though I had a master's degree in MOST subjects, and a bachelor's degree in math and spelling. (I have dyslexia so math and spelling can be problematic). And all from informal personal study of things that interested me.
The bad thing is that MOST people have the POTENTIAL to be MUCH smarter than they appear. They've simply been "dumbed down" by classes geared to the lowest common denominator. And by teachers that teach them WHAT to think instead of HOW to think. Like teaching a lot of dry math facts, rather than how to calculate answers on their OWN. When presented with problems that weren't COVERED, they have no CLUE how to SOLVE them, because they were never TAUGHT how.🤷
Americans stop reading anything after the late 1940s! You repeatedly see how since 1970s Americans ardently support stupidity and viciously fight against being 'Woke'⁉️ Uhm who ever wants their brain to be asleep⁉️ So feel extremely sad for all Americans, please do🙏
I can't even count the number of times I've been asked what it was like to grow up in a foreign country. I was born in New Mexico.
🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That's a valid Question:
There is Mexico and NEW Mexico!! So you are a new Mexican, if you were born in Mexico you would be a old Mexican 😉👍
😂😂😂pffff!
Well, is it nice there for Americans? Do y'all speak a newer kind of Mexican? I'm just fucking with ya man, I'm Canadian and even I know lol
An American couple on a cruise stopped a crew member and asked, " Has this ship ever sank before?".
Hey, in all honesty, why would anyone not living on the coast know anything about ships?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Omg!!! I wonder if that person would ask the Same question in regards to airplanes😂😂😂
I am Australian and I once had an American chap ask me: “Isn’t it a coincidence that the Queen of Canada had the same name as the Queen of Australia?” 😂
The interesting thing is, both countries have their own rules of succession, they just happen to be identical to the ones in the UK. But they could change them if they wanted.
Celine Dion?😅😅😅
Uh I hope this dude got a Darwin award......
You could drive him to suicide if you told him that had 3 more sister ,they were born all together ,all names of them was "Liz" and each one been selected to be Queens of UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand
My brother still laughs about the American tourist in Venice who seriously asked the tour guide when they flooded the roads there to make the canals....
🤣🤣🤣
Yoooo😂
I lived in Edinburgh - Scotland - & I got into a conversation with an American couple who were visiting during the Edinburgh Festival. Edinburgh is a beauutiful city with a Castle built on an volcanic hill in the centre of the city .During the festival there is a wonderfull Military Tatoo held on the Castle Esplanade - this couple asked me if the Castle was put up every year for the Tatoo - I kid you not! The Castle originates from 1103 - jeez Disney has a lot to answer for!!
I heard a story of american tourists in ireland wondering why our castles were built so close to the motorway
🤣
But in all fairness to Disney, they might be the reason he knows what a castle is in the first place.
@@gallowglass2630 And why Windsor Castle was built under the flightpath to Heathrow Airport.
I used to work in tourism in South Africa and was once standing with one of my American guests, admiring the view of Table Mountain in Cape Town. She wondered how hard it must have been to build it. When I told her the mountain was entirely natural, she looked at me in total surprise and said “What? You mean it grew like that?” 🤦♀️
@@SuperPuddingcat I am wondering how long it took to build the Rocky Mountains.
I went to America years ago, from Australia and I was asked if we had houses, roads, taxis (years before Uber was around), hospitals and the usual 'do kangaroos hop down the roads everywhere, there?', but the best was....airports!! 'Really? So you flew here?' It took most of my strength to not say 'well, I didn't friggin' swim'!!!😂😂😂🇭🇲
American expat here- In 2005, I went on vacation with my german husband to the states for 3 weeks. Thought I´d do the whole tourist thing with him. Went on a cruise from FL to the Bahamas. Made friends with a young scottish couple and a middle aged american couple. After introductions, the american lady asked where we came from. We answered "Germany". She flat out asked on which side of the wall we live- east or west. The scottish couple looked as uncomfortable as my husband. Lol. I really don´t expect the whole world to know about every country´s history, but I´m pretty sure the fall of the wall made global headlines. Middle aged american couple had been definitely old enough to have caught that little nugget back in 1989.
Americans are also willing to let/make themselves look stupid for the sake of small talk; any small talk. Being intelligent isn't "cool" here. Humiliation is a powerful motivator, and my fellow Americans don't revere it enough.
Some don't know Germany has been reunified for (then) 16 years, some don't know that ´ is not an apostrophe but an accent and is not to be used an apostrophe.
Look at it the good way: they've heard of the wall!
And that it collapsed 30 some years ago? Damn, they are retired, stop pestering them ;)
At least they know what happened to Germany during the Cold War
*American immigrant
I know a lot of Americans think us Brits are smart and well educated but let me tell you, we have some pretty stupid people here too. However, whilst in Florida I was asked if we have refrigerators in the UK, so I answered "no, it's so cold we don't need them". 😂✌️♥️🇬🇧
I told some we never had electric windows in cars in the UK till early 2000’s and they truly believed it.
@@Xerame506 For jousting, don't you know.
@@Xerame506 Wait, people actually fail those job math tests?😅
Your British passive-aggressiveness is lost on the typical American. Chances are they took your words literally.
Yeah, in sweden we'd say he has too many gnomes in the attic.
I was vacationing in southern usa from canada years ago, early 1990's and stopped for gas. Was going to pay with Canadian travellers cheques. Clerk had never heard of Canada, so I said it was the country north of hers. She got really huffy and said there is no country north of ours. Her manager heard her voice tone and came to see what was up. She told him I was trying to pay with travellers cheques from a fake country. I showed him, he rolled his eyes and apologized, telling her that there was a country north of the usa. Let her pay and get out of here. When I went back out, my husband asked what took so long. I said before I explain I have to do a palm to the forehead and say WTF. We laughed about this for years.
Did you do a proper exchange? You know it's not $1 US to 1$ Can, right?
Yeah, in case you feel too good about being Canadian…
I had a Canadian explain to me that $22 that he paid for the set of spanners in the US wasn't the same as the $22 in Canada.
In short, he took a few minutes to explain the concept of currencies.
As an Australian I'm not surprised by the stupidity displayed in these comments. Why would they call petrol gas, It's a liquid.
I was in America on a scholarship and went to open a bank account at which point, upon learning I was Australian, the teller asked me 'how long I'd been speaking English'... she seemed so impressed with my fluency I was reluctant to reply, 'since birth.' Hilarious!
She couldn't beliwve you've grown so much since coming to America! 😂
I am unfortunately an American with an accredited BA in international Relations from Poland and a Masters from St Andrews, Scotland. Returned to USA 5 months ago after 7 years living abroad in 5 countries, and - after 87 interviews in those 5 months - I am not "qualified" for a job because Poland and Scotland "are not real countries". I live in Seattle, and Live Life Fabulously is my life's motto!
Show them photos.
I'm not joking. And it isn't even my idea.
Went to the US a few years , some people asked me where I came I said Australia they then said "you speak English so well " will never forget this
This is reminding me of that one girl that thought the English spoke Britishish and Americans speak English
That’s happened to me before too. It was hilarious but kinda insulting
Pricey51, c’mon mate, admit it. You said Straya and they assumed you were from a small Scandinavian nation. 😆
Yup when I visited US prior to emigrating to Australia, and had been born and lived my whole life in the UK, and the amount of Americans that were shocked I knew how to speak English, but found it cute that I didn’t know how to say some words in correct English.
HAHA me too . I told the very nice lady whom I didn't want to embarrass that I took it at school for 12 years .
I've got dual citizenship Australia and New Zealand. When I went to Europe in my 20's New Zealand was still home, with family. I was sitting on a bus in Rome and got chatting with an American lady. She asked me what part of England I was from. (They can't tell the difference between English, Australian, New Zealand or Sth African accents). I said to this lady "I'm not from England, I'm from New Zealand". She just stared at me, cocked her head on one side like a puppy and asked "is that anywhere near San Francisco?" Ahhh - no. When I explained that NZ is a group of 3 islands about 2000km or so off the east coast of Australia, like in the southern hemisphere! She was shocked that I was "so far from home and travelling around". I tell ya there's a lot to be said for living in the antipodes! We had good geography lessons too. God bless Australia and NZ.
Agreed - I like our little enclave here in the Southern hemisphere - NZ and OZ are a hidden paradise from the rest of the hustle and bustle world.
That's too far fetched really..
Yes, american are often surprised. A while ago I talked to Americans when visiting Mexico, I told them that I am from Germany in Europe and they were shocked that I had the idea to travel so far. They couldn't stop telling their son that I am from very very far away...again and again.
@@nicholassaples8192 If you are referring to my post, I can assure you, hand on a bible, that it is true and it happened.
mate i'm from the UK and i once had a yank try to prove to me that Australia and New Zealand are the Channel Islands. apparently New Zealand is St. Anne and Jersey and Guernsey are Australia. when i tried to point out that Australia and New Zealand are in the southern hemisphere. i half expected the guy to tell me the world flat.
I worked in Denver years ago and a patient asked me if I'd ever been to a city as big as Denver. I explained that I was from Sydney which has a population of about 5 million. Denver at the time had a population of about 1 million and would be considered a small city by Australian standards.
I was also asked in a line at an American airport whether I get island fever living on such a small island. I explained that Australia is about the same size as the contiguous United states. She looked very puzzled!
Was it the word 'contiguous' do you think?
3:46 I am afraid that wasn´t a joke at all. I'm from Germany (Europe), never been to America, but a while back I met an american girll in Ireland. We had a nice talk, and when she asked me where I was from I responded "Germany". She instantly responded "Oh, that's in Maryland, I never guessed you're an American too". But there is no Germany in Maryland, just a villlage called Germantown. Maybe you already guessed that, in the end of the day, we didn't go along very well.
grüße
As a Czech, I am always shocked from that amount of US tourists who arrive here in Prague, but they don't know they are in Czechia, they know only they are in Prague and they think it's the name of country. 😀
@@Pidalin They are always like "I have no idea where I am, how it's called here and where it is on map. I'm just surprised the small shop over there doesn't accept dollars in cash."🥲
And yet they are so surprised why american tourists are so hated.
@@tess7418 To be honest, some British people or even some Germans (which is really surprise for me) don't really have better knowledge of my country, which is ridiculous when we had common history and emperor of Holy Roman Empire was literally ruling from Prague.
BTW, we don't hate US tourists, they bring money here and they are mostly pensioners who really want to see something, not some drinking parties like people from UK, Denmark and others....
@@Pidalin "some Germans (which is really surprise for me) don't really have better knowledge of my country"
As a German, this is not really surprising at all. We focus about 80% of our history classes on ww1&2 and some bits about French history. We learn about most neighboring countries where they're located and what their capitals are called (primary school). It's annoying af, but it basically means if you come across a German that knows more about your country they learned it outside of school.
This one stuck with me….
An American female said if Obama won again(which he did) she was going to move to Australia as they have a male Christian president and she was corrected because at the time had an unwedded atheist female prime minister. Needless to say her comment went viral.
LOL Julia Gillard
Not only an unwedded atheist, but Gillard lived in sin with her boyfriend. And was (to quote Bill Heffernan), "deliberately barren". Not fulfilling a woman's only role on earth, to have children. Atrocity upon atrocity.
Lmao
She only had to wait for Tony Abbot a catholic PM or Scotty (from marketing 😊😊😊😊) a Pentecostal happy handclapper as PM.
@@rossawood5075ah, yes.
Many years ago I was working as a waitress in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I served a well spoken spoken gentleman and his family. As I would when asked by tourists, I directed them to several places of interest that they might be interested in taking in. Just before they left the gentleman asked "So when we leave Victoria is there anything else worth seeing in Canada?" I took a moment and then replied by asking if they knew how big the USA was. Of course the reply was yes. Well, I informed this gentleman, Canada is larger. There could perhaps be one or two more things to see somewhere.
If you tell some Americans that there is a larger country than America, you are speaking fighting words.
How about letting them know how big Russia is.
Well Canada is pretty empty
Canada 🇨🇦 🍁!! Woop woop. I'm from, and still living in Vic, BC. Did u see the "gardens" when u were here? Museum?
Soooo much to see, just on the island; never mind the rest of the country 😅
@@hybbfr727 Like your skull?
I seriously had the you can't buy wine without an American ID thing when I first returned from Europe after working overseas for a few years. Because I only had my passport. I was in my freaking 40's!
Mate, I visited the Midwest (i.e Michigan and Illinois in particular) many times for work a few years ago and the following experiences didn't happen in large cities, like Chicago, but in more rural areas. I lost count of the number of times I was complimented on my English standard when asked where I came from (Australia). First couple of times, I thought it was just my Aussie accent but then one person mentioned that "yes, you speak German in Australia". I twigged then - these people confused Australia with Austria. One woman in particular was convinced my first language was German, so you know what? I thanked her for her assistance and wished her a pleasant day, IN GERMAN, so she was quite happy with that. I didn't have the same experience on the west coast because there are lots of Aussies there. And mate, don't start about the absence of knowledge about geography....I could bore you witless with hours of stories. I like your channel - great content. Tolle Arbeit und beste Grüße aus Australien, mate.
Yes I had the same experience as you concerning Australia Austria. I believe the primary reason Americans are so ignorant is because they don't get the chance to visit other countries, like we do. Only the very rich get a chance to holiday outside of the US.
I lived in Germany for about two months (I had also learned it throughout both primary and secondary so was - ok at best). I decided to pop over to France and found myself the shittest/cheapest backpackers ever. I went up to the front desk and stated, "Wie gehts, sprechen sie Deutsch?" He looked at me and very slowly and quizzically affirmed, "NOooo, I speak English". There was an awkward pause and I was like, well that's fair cop. He didn't like me after that. What the hell was an Australian doing pretending to speak Deutsch in France when English was obviously my first language. Germans would also often ask me to prove I was Australian because they thought I was an American pretending to be an Australian.
@@bigsiegee that is such a great story. Well done.
I get the “ you mean you live in Austria? How do you deal with all that snow?”😂
That is hilarious 🤣🤣🤣. Greets from Germany.🤘
Working at a tourist information centre in a small outback town in Australia, in came a woman from NYC. Apparently she'd never been out of NYC until this journey. Got on the plane in NY, flew to LA, flew to Sydney, flew to my town, never looked out the window. Got a taxi to the tourist centre, didn't look out the window. When she asked for a map of the town I gave it to her, it was free, a single sheet of paper. She demanded the map book for the town and insisted on paying for it. There isn't one. She got quite upset as if I couldn't understand her. Eventually it came out that she genuinely didn't believe that country towns were a real thing, she believed the whole world was nothing but big crowded cities and ocean, and small towns were fantasy things in movies and books about how we'd like to live. Poor woman was culture shocked to the bone. I tried to imagine being her, finding out that small towns are real only after you've landed in a small remote town in outback Australia!
Oh wow. Imagine if she'd run into Crocodile Dundee!! 🐊 😆
what was her reason to go there?
@@destinydelaney1621 If it wasnt for red dust, she'd be in for another shock.
As an American from California.......what!?!? Lol 🤣did she not believe the south exists? What did she think Texans were ? I'm ....... Just wow 😲
Poor girl ...... 🤦🏾♀️
That's the mentality of the people of NYC, friend. I'm from Upstate NY, about 161 kms directly north of NYC. We have no use for NYC people. They come up to towns like mine, destroy the local economies, then leave when all the businesses and service people leave for areas with more work...
One time, I was talking with a girl at our lunch table. I told her that I was British (Because my dad is British and I was born there) and she straight up told me I wasn't. I asked her what she meant and she said that because I have citizenship in America, I am American and not British. The way she said this to me with the utmost confidence and attitude like I was stupid for not knowing this made me really wanna just-
Imagine how shocked she would be if she learned that dual citizenship is a thing.
If she met me, she’d be telling me that I’m not Puerto Rican because I was born and raised in the states and speak English. 😂
This is how Michael Faraday and Alexander Graham Bell are thought to be American inventors. If you set foot in America that’s it….🤣🤣🏴🇬🇧
A friend of mine was chatting to a guy in New York and mentioned he was from London the guy says " I have a friend who lives in London, maybe you know him" my friend says "its very unlikely as the population of London is bigger than the population of New York" needless to say the guy didn't think this was possible.
"You need to have an American ID to buy alcohol in America. Everybody knows that" has got to be one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard in my life, and that's without considering the fact that they were rejecting the lady's freaking American passport as valid ID.
Well, the stupidest part seems to be the very end. When she says she can show her a passport and the lady connects passport-must be a foreigner "where are you from?"
My favorite passport was a man from Hong Kong who was working in the USA and wanted to adopt a dog with his American Girlfriend. We had to ID for adoptions and he was so worried we wouldn’t accept his ID.😅
if youve ever seen an american passport it gets worse. those things are VIOLENTLY american
That happened to me too but they can't even read DOB (date of birth) in a green card either.
@@caroline4323stupid manager probably hasn’t even stepped into a dmv or post office before
In 2003 I was in the Canadian army serving in Bosnia. An American soldier came up to me and looked at the flag on my shoulder and after thinking for a minute asked me if Canada was a country. When I said that it was she then asked me if it was anywhere near New Zealand. I just shook my head and walked away ......
The second largest country in the world, after Russia 🙂 I guess that upsets a few.😂
Yup, I always find the Canadian side of these ones the funniest and just SMH.
It's perplexing how little Americans know about their closest neighbours
Why were you an occupyer in Bosnia?
@@2dimitropolis370 I was not an "occupier". I was part of the UN sanctioned, SFOR Peacekeeping Force.
@@Xerame506 You mean "fight against each other AGAIN!" we beat them in 1814!!
the Egyptian one brought me back to when I was in high school and there was a girl who argued with the class about what type of food Oranges were because she couldn't believe they came from a tree and she dead ass said "I thought you plucked them up from the ground, you know, like chickens" so the whole class just went silent trying to figure out what the hell she meant and she demonstrated picking up a chicken by its legs out of the ground.. I knew then that the school system in America is shit 🤣
I'd have asked her to demonstrate plucking an orange
Should have told her they come from towns called Orange. And in Africa, in the Orange Free State, you can pick as many as you want from the ground...for free.
Did she think a chicken was a type of vegetable? You might pick a chicken up FROM the ground, but you don't pick them OUT of the ground like you would a carrot.
@@jacklow9611 Or that wild oranges are running around in a cage somewhere
How does an orange cross the road?
I was on a bus tour and we went and saw the Snowy Mountain Hydro system in New South Wales, Australia. I am from Western Australia and the tour guide was explaining how the melting snow rushes down the mountain and turns the turbines which creates the electricity. There were four people from America on this tour and they wanted to know how they then got the electricity out of the water without getting electrocuted.
I was once asked by an American who just spent 12 months living in Australia if Australia is a dictatorship. Obviously I said no, it's a democracy. So then she asked why Tony Abbott (the Prime Minister at the time) was in the news all the time if he's not the dictator.
I've also been asked if we ride kangaroos to school.
Guess the US president is a dictator now. Or any president or prime minister for that matter, lol
Australia does sound like a dictatorship these days.
Fair follow-up question though.
Had a similar question asked to me about kangaroos but it was the whole "do you have kangaroos bouncing around in your streets". I said no not really then followed up with "most kangaroos I see are dead ones on the side of roads. He was completely shocked when I said that.
I lived in the US for 13 years. I went for part of my school years and university there. When I was looking at colleges, I remember going to Franklin and Marshall to check out the campus. My mom, who was from Chile, and my brother took me there. We spoke Spanish with one another, and at one point, the campus guide asked us what language we were speaking in. We told her. Then she asked where we were from, but the moment we did, she mentioned how cool that was because there were many people from Africa there. Let's just say I did not go to that college. That's one of the dumbest things that I will never forget.
I have a couple of funny stories but I'll tell you one. I am Brazillian and I spent 7 months in the US in Tallahassee FL, between 2000 and 2001. I attended Belle Vue MIddle school during this time. In Geography we got 4 tests along the time I spent there: Test one: Memorize all the US States. Test two: Memorize all the US State's Abbreviations. Test three: Memorize each state's capital. Test 4: General world knowledge. I was kind of optimistic cause by default I knew it would be easy. One of the questions asked us to name 4 non english speaking countries and the language spoken in them. Well ... easy enough. Spain: SPANISH/Russia: RUSSIAN/France: FRENCH/Brazil: PORTUGUESE. For my surprise This was incorrect appearently. So I decided to confront the teacher who told me people speak SPANISH in Brazil. I Argued that I was FROM Brazil and knew no spanish at all. To which he replied " Oh I see what's happening" A glimpse of hope he is going to admit to his mistake. No ... he doubled down. " You must live in a small region of Brazil where portuguese is spoken, but if you travel around your country you will see that most of it speaks spanish". and THAT was the geography teacher. Out of curiosity I checked google some time ago and the school closed after 2013 I think. If you check bell vue way 2214 in Talahasse florida today in Google maps the building has become an art gallery. BUT if you go into google street view and check a 2011 pic you can see the board in fornt of the school that proudly display " Congratulations! School grade C" ... no wonder it closed shortly after.
Wenn schon die Lehrer so intelligent (😜) sind, muss man sich größte Sorgen, was dumm gebliebene Eltern dort im Homeschooling ihren Kiddies vermitteln. Eine Rolltreppe abwärts.
E no fim das contas você conseguiu provar pra ela que no Brasil se fala português?
@@fraufuchs9555 Não, eu nem tive oportunidade rs
Como foi a ultima prova o ano letivo entrou em recesso e eu voltei pro Brasil.
@@thiagoleme191 se fosse hoje daria pra pelo menos pegar o celular, abrir o Google e esfregar na cara dela kkkkk.
Mas q merda, hein? Quer dizer, os nossos dialetos tendem a diferir bastante ao longo do território, mas não o suficiente pra um jumento desses pensar que a gente fala espanhol
I'm from London, I went to CA and attended a community college. A student asked me where I was from, I said England, she corrected me saying New England, I said no, "old England" she asked how long I had been in CA, I replied five weeks. She was so amazed that I had learned to speak English in such a short time!
I am African and had gone to visit family and friends, and I have been often asked how I came to the USA. I was tempted to say on an elephant. Seriously, aren't people aware of international flights? Dont feel bad though, laugh at yourself and make an effort to learn with every mistake. None of us is born knowing what we do. It's all learnt.
i got ask how long a train ride takes me from my home town to Philadelphia...
i am living in central Europe!
From what country??
I think they believe you were living in a mud hut somewhere. And could not fathom that Africa could have any modern infrastructure such as an airport with aeroplanes.
It's probably because tv In America constantly shows Africa as a poor country that barely functions so charity's can make bank.
Africa is not a country 😬
I've seen a lot of these being reacted to, and I do feel for you. You have my sympathy. :) It is rather alarming that so many people in the US are so woefully, and willfully. ignorant, but what disturbs me more is their absolute confidence in assuming they are right. Not good.
Italians are the same way. They know nothing and think they know everything.
Yes and then they vote
and thats how people like Donald Trump get to be president! 🤣@@JaneAustenAteMyCat
Sadly, embarrassingly, Americans seem to be the MOST arrogant people on earth.
Yes, and then they vote Republican!
In venice an American in front of me was upset, I asked her what was wrong, the ATM had national flags you touched on the screen to select language, there wasn't a US option, I said try the British flag and she said. I didn't know that british people spoke american! she tried it and was very happy when she got her cash!!
Did she complain that the italian ATMs don't give US dollars?
I would have expected more likely that an average ignorant cannot recognise the Britih flag rather than she doesn't know the language they speak in Britain.
My favourite example is walking around Canary Wharf around the end of spring 2022. An American who seemed completely lost and new to the country and was around the right age for an intern turned to talk to his colleague and loudly said something to the effect of "I was watching the BBC last night at my airbnb and there was this speech by the Queen, she speaks very good English but her accent needs a little work". Everybody within earshot burst out laughing at that and this guy was just standing there looking confused why people were laughing at the notion of an early 20s American critiquing The Queen's English.
I SWEAR on both my beloved grandmother's graves this is a true story. In 2001 I was at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Anybody who's been there knows it's VERY hot and humid. Parched, I approached a woman selling drinks from basically a large bath tub filled with ice, in which the bottles were wedged. Walt Disney World only sells Coke products and this stand only had a very limited range (important to note). There was standard Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite and water. Not a MASSIVE range for the person to get confused over, right?
Wrong.
Me approaching: "Hello, could I please have a Coke."
Woman looking at me quizzically: "Sorry?"
Me (unsure if I may have asked for the wrong thing by accident) : "Uuuummm .... could I have a Coke please."
Woman: "You want a cake???"
Me (getting a bit ruffled): "NO - I'd like a COKE, PLEASE."
And I SWEAR this next part happened;
Woman: "You want a COCK???"
Me: "Yes - I've flown from Perth, Western Australia, literally to the other side of the planet to visit Disney World to purchase a COCK."
I use the term "wilfull ignorance" a lot when it comes to Americans. From her point of view, she's selling only FIVE items. Remove the vowels and you have items that sound like C-k, Spr-t and w-tr. The word "Coke" is very clipped and distinctive and EVEN if she thought she's heard "cake", shouldn't SOMETHING in her mind have concluded, "Perhaps he wants a COKE?" What made this double infuriating is that this was Disney World and the Magic Kingdom at that point had been open for THIRTY years - SURELY I cannot have been THE FIRST international tourist to ever visit? It's just mind bending to me.
It's mind boggling reading stuff like this. I was watching a video where the question was, "if you were born 13 years ago, how old will you be today?" And they kept subtracting their age by 13! ZERO critical thought
@@siddharthakvr5154 I saw that video too and yes, it was mind boggling. It hurt my head watching it. I'm glad I smoke pot; it makes life so much easier.
@@corners23251 me tooman, me too
As a Swede i've heard it all. One time this guy asked me (on an internet forum) how it was possible for me to use the internet. He thought we lived in igloos and that there were polar bears everywhere. No joke!
Another favorite of mine is when Americans (yes a few people have asked me this) don't understand that my country, Sweden, isn’t called that in my language. We say Sverige.
That's just two of like a million weird questions i've got over the years. From Americans. Cheers from Sweden!
I'm Aussie, and as soon as you Swedes have warm houses to stay in, indoor plumbing and rods to drive on, I'm a-coming to visit.
try to explain to them why Germany is called Deutschland in Germany!
@@Arltratlo wait what? i am like genuinely curious? is it like a historical contextual reason or more like a German language word for it? I was reading wikipedia, i think it had do some from reason historically
Americans think Scotland where I am from and live, is like the old Hollywood film “Brigadoon” where we wash the clothes at the river, collect peat for the fire, and hunt haggis!🤦♀️
Bet they'd be even more confused if you'd tell them different languages have different names for the same places xD
Went on a boat sightseeing tour around the islands of Stockholm seeing the sights from the water and the recorded guiding was in several languages starting with Swedish then English, German and French if I remenber correctly. A couple from the US loudly complained about this, especially the Swedish part because why would any Swede take the tour when they live there?
Also a few years back I lived and worked in Brazil for a couple of years, flew in from Sao Paulo to Orlando (FL) and while on the shuttle up to the Villages to visit family I had a conversation with a couple of snow birds fron NY city, it turned out that it was incomprehensible that I currently lived in Brazil even to the point that Brazil was an unknown to entity to them.
Its not out of supidity, or being dumb, it's the lack of interest or curiosity of the rest of the world, wilfully ignorant is the expression I would use.
I'm Brazilian and foreigners (usually Americans) think that we all speak Spanish or that we live in the Amazon rainforest 😬
Somebody hadn't realised that not all Swedish speakers lived in Stockholm 😄 I'm from Finland, but I would probably listen to the recording in Swedish, to keep up the Swedish I learned at school.
@@laulutar Exactly. Not all Swedish speakers of Sweden live in Stockholm either. Stockholm is sort of a tourist trap for much of Sweden too. And the Stockholm archipelago certainly isn't where most people in Stockholm live either.
"why would any Swede take the tour when they live there?" that's a good point, these things have mostly prices meant for tourists, not for locals, but Sweden is a rich country, so maybe Sweds go there too
People from New York City go to see the sights there in the city where they live, so why wouldn't a Swede not want to see a Swedish site, too? Just because you (or anyone) might live near a site where there's something interesting doesn't mean you (or they) won't want to visit it someday.
I'm Australian and met a lady from the US in Portugal. During the conversation, in all seriousness, she asked me, What came first, English in Australia or English in England! Being a teacher, l just had to give her a short history lesson
As a 30 years old German I would've been honored to get taught by the elf lady Galadriel herself... (Real Talk though, I have Seen so many wonders in the World already that I came to the conclusion that literally nothing is Impossible, so I wouldn't be surprised at all, If you would really be the Galadriel mentioned by Tolkien)
I was in a chat room many years ago and some of us were comparing the time difference between Australia (me) and USA (them) - One guy (American) piped up saying it was impossible for Australia to be ahead in time. After reminding him the world is round so when the sun is up in Australia it's night time in America, he paused for a minute then launched into a tirade, attacking me because Australia "should have warned us before 911 happened"!! Yeah nah mate, in Australia, it happened at midnight!
Yeah, why aren't you playing the lotto in the USA? You'd have the winning numbers before you filled out a coupon. You blew a chance to be rich.
😂
Our Australian daughter was in the RAAF in South Australia She met her American husband who had transferred over for a year. Married and went to America. She was a medical assistant and was given a translator. People thought she didn’t speak American
Probably the easiest job the translator ever had.
Of course she didn't speak American! :-D
Mb they confused RAAF and RAF (Red Army Faction).
@@volh1volh195 Royal Australian Air Force
The level of US ignorance is mind blowing. How did they get a man on the moon.
I loved your reactions to this, it was so funny. Aussie here and guess what? I wrote this in English without a translation! 🤣
LOLOL!!!! C'mon Aussie, c'mon. Great comment.
You’re English is very good! 😉
@@cherryberry9468 😊
Is Australia in africa?
@@HerkkaW123 Nope! Austria is in europe! Upps...you mean Australia!!! ;-)
A Qantas Flight Attendant I know was working on a flight from the US to Sydney. There was a middle aged US couple in Business class. She got to talking to them and they told her that they were on a walking tour of Australia. She did know quite what to say to the when one asked " How long do you think it will take us to walk around the Island?" Meaning the island Continent of Australia. She could only answer, "how long do you have in Australia?"....."Oh..Two weeks!"
Many years ago we went to the USA for holidays. From Australia. We took the kids to a McDonalds or Hungry Jacks for breakfast. I ordered breakfast, including orange juice. “Orange juice? Sorry we don’t have that.”
I said, it’s on the menu, pointing at the board, which admittedly, said O.J. (Not orange juice) I said, O.J. is orange juice. The young guy learned something new that day.
4 years ago my wife and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary in Florence and having a great time. One evening we went out to a bar very near to our hotel called The Joshua Tree - I highly recommend it- as it was very busy we asked a chap if we could share his table. During the next few hours we chatted away like long lost friends over several beers. He was in Italy to give lectures but said that he really wanted to see the statue of David but it was in some place called Firenze. He would not take my word that Florence and Firenze were the same place. Google is your friend and it took Google maps to convince him. The kicker being that his hotel was a mere 400 yards from the museum.
I once went to my local post office and wanted to send a letter to New Mexico. The postal worker said I would need an international stamp. She did not know that we had a state in the USA called New Mexico. When I wanted to buy 100 decorative stamps, she brought our several sheets and asked how many I would like of each design. When I asked for thirty of one design, I noticed that she was counting them out one by one. The sheet had 100 stamps arranged in ten rows of ten. I asked her why she didn't just tear off three rows of ten. She answered that she wanted to be really accurate, so she didn't want to use that new math. Multiplication is new? She wasn't there the next time I came to that post office. Bless her heart.
Thanks for the videos. They're incredible. Fifty years ago this month, my family returned to the USA from (West) Germany where my father had served in the US Army. We moved to far West Texas. Three years later, I attended college in Nebraska where some fellow students attended school with 17 students in the entire school; one teacher and the principal was also the superintendent. Most had never been outside the state, few had ever been in an airplane and none had seen the ocean. Everyday, someone would ask why I didn't have a Southern drawl. One student from New Jersey asked me how many Indians I had killed! So, it appears that not much has changed.
Im Australian, and back in high school (long time ago) we had an exchange student come out from the states and wanted to know why we lied to the world. I was very confused and asked what we were supposed to have lied about? Apparently we as Australians do not drive in cars, we ride in kangaroo pouches.......doesn't everyone know that?? So why did we lie when we have cars... Hate to break it to ya hun, we don't tell the world we ride in kangaroo pouches.............
That's all well and good until someone mentions drop bears. Then we have to do some fancy talking about lying to the rest of the world. 🙂
@@Laurielism lol agreed
He'd probably watched an episode of the Pokémon cartoon where 3 people did just that and thought it was real life in Australia
@Sydibabe Same, pouches is a bit of a stretch, both literally and figuratively
I apologise for spreading misinformation
I'm from Wales UK and whilst in the USA, I was asked where in England I was from. I said I'm not from England, I'm from Wales. He then looks me in the eye, starts laughing and honestly thought I was making it up before saying 'OK son, you keep believing in your fantasy countries like Narnia and Oz' and walked off!!!
Wales IS a magical place though. Did you show him a picture of the flag? 😄
The dumbest thing an American friend ever said to me was as follows “But Australia is an all flat desert how do you go hiking when it doesn’t even have any forests or mountains?” After seeing photos of myself & friends HIKING IN THE MOUNTAINS IN AUSTRALIA surrounded by RAINFORESTS & BUSHLAND!😂😂😂Arhh god love him….
The ignorance of some americans is just scary.
This is slightly different.
Whilst visiting Stonehenge I followed a young American couple. Their conversation went as follows:-
"Honey, the smartest historians, the smartest philosophers and the smartest scientists in the world have studied Stonehenge. They don't know who built it, or how they built it, or why they built it.... So why why the f**k do you keep asking me "Why is it here?"
This made me laugh out loud.
At that point it was probably more about shutting the other one up.
I’m Australian. Visiting Paris some years ago having dinner in a lovely restaurant which was literally across the road from the Louvra, and the Tullieries Gardens. An American woman with two young girls is at the table next to me. She says to them “ok, we’ll you’ve done Disney Paries and Hard Rock Cafe. Is there anything else to do?”
I excused myself and suggested the Louvre (largest collection of renaissance paintings in the world) was just in front of them and that right in their eyeliner on the other side of the river was the Musee d’Orsay (collection of the Impressionists) and at the right towards the end of the gardens was the Orangerie where Monet’s paintings of water lilies were kept.
They were happy to know that - and impressed with my English (sigh).
I would love to see all those places and much more in Paris.Also would love to visit Australia.
They went to Paris and didn't even consider art?
@@Kalani_Saiko Yes, I know! !
@@Kalani_Saiko Didn't your hear? They covered every base of culture in Paris: Disneyland and Hard Rock Cafe!
@@Kalani_Saiko or food???
I was in Vegas in 2019 (from Australia) and expected that I wouldn't have these issues. I have previously lived in CA for 2 years and figured Vegas being a very touristy place it wouldn't be an issue. OMG... the number of people who didn't think I was speaking English or were AMAZED at my ability to speak English was ridiculous. I am very well spoken, educated and in Australia often mistaken as being from England because I have a very soft Australian accent. So, it's not like I have a really bogan accent, either. 🤯
Same thing happened to me - on my first trip to the US in 2001, I was very soft spoken (lacked confidence) and was told I sounded more British - eventually was told that because I didn't speak like Steve Irwin, they thought I was from England. JFC.
I live in the UK and a few years ago I was on a plane from Paris to London, sat next to someone from Dallas. They were telling me about their travels around Western Europe, then asked me where this plane was going. I thought surely if you’re on a plane you’re supposed to know its destination. But anyway I told them that we were going to London. To this day I still laugh about the next thing they said to me: “could you please tell me, how far away is London from England? Because that’s where I’m supposed to be going.” I was a bit lost for words.
I am so grateful for my boring broad Australian education.
I'm grateful for the American education system so I don't have to feel as bad about the Aussie one.
🤷🏼♂️😆
We have had 9 trips to the US visited 20plus states in 40 years, we found mpeople in every state had one thing in common, the knowledge on the world is dreadful. Many had college degrees but knew so little about their own country let alone a country the other side of the world. The northern hemisphere /Southern Hemisphere was beyond comprehension. Me telling them that most tornados, bath water going down the plug and climbing plants circle the other way here was just too much for them to grasp.
I had to "translate" for my mum at the international airport in Phoenix. Her Australian accent was just too strong for them 😂
I was also asked why my teeth were so nice considering Australia is "run by Britain"
@@spencerjmt lmao what
I almost have to get my dad to translate when we go up north to Newcastle to meet family. He’s from there too but I was born down South. I don’t know how to feel but yeah… accents can sometimes be a bit of a challenge
your spelling of mom is wrong
(jk i’m aussie too it’s mum)
As an Australian, we pick on our best mates more than our enemies. Take it America, they're complimentary insults. Love from Australia.