😖This One Hurt😖 American Reacts to What's The Dumbest Thing An American Has Ever Said To You pt. 1 

These examples may prove that A: The American education system is failing, which is a scary thought, or B: The American education system is working exactly as planned, which is even scarier.

I'm Australian, a friend of mine's sister did a 12 month exchange to the US in highschool. While there she entered an oration/poetry competition and did "The Man From Snowy River" which is a famous Australian poem, it's had a couple of movies made based on it and everything. She started off by explaining that she was Australian and she had selected an Australian poem for the competition. She was marked down for her fake Australian accent. She is Australian. That was her normal voice.

The dumbest thing I heard an American say, “Jesus was an American because he was preaching American values and American democracy.” To which I promptly said,” ah that’s why it didn’t end so well for him in the Middle East.” 😂👏🏾

One guy on Facebook corrected me that "You're Asian, not Vietnamese" when I said that I'm from Vietnam. I've never face-pamled so hard in my life.

I was In the Coliseum (which is in Rome, Italy, Europe 🤣) and the tour guide was talking about which dignitaries sat where., Caesars area, the politicians and where important foreign visitors to Rome say, from England, Spain, France and Greece. A voice came from the back of the crowd, a small loud fat woman In khaki shorts, where did the Americans sit? The guide said, nowhere, you lot weren’t discovered for another 1500 years. Everyone but her laughed.

When I told people in the US I was moving to Vienna, they either said, "Oh my gosh! I didn't know you spoke Italian!" or "You have to ride the gondolas." If I made the mistake of clarifying that Vienna is in Austria, invariably I would get a little silence, then "I love kangaroos."

I love how frustrated you were getting. In no way do I think all Americans are stupid, but, the dumbest things I've heard and had said to me were ALL said by Americans.

If you think this is scary to watch as an American, then imagine watching this as an European knowing that these are the people sailing around the world in nuclear submarines and carrier ships.

As a former exchange student who spent a year in an American Highschool in Nebraska, I have so many similar stories. Now, I am Swedish, but people, even adults, would regularly ask me if it was not strange for me to see this much technology. Obviously, I did not understand the question when it was first asked. So they would elaborate, and say: "Yeah, you know... computers, electricity, TVs!" As if... we do not have that back in Europe. Or most of the entire world with only a few exceptions. In fact, the stuff we have in Sweden is a lot better than what the households in Nebraska had. A few select people also thought it was unsafe for me, as an Athiest, to enter a church. While a bit dumb, at least the concern came from the right place.

Canadian here. I have to start by saying that I have worked in jobs where many of my colleagues were American, and for the most part they were intelligent and educated. But... There was one year in late December when I was providing software support to a woman in the North Carolina office, and she said, "Just to let you know our office will be closed on the 25th. We have an American holiday called Christmas. Have you ever heard of Christmas?"

I'm a portuguese and the amount of times I've heard an American say my country is in Africa or is a city in Spain is painfully astronomical.

I befriended an US army guy here in Germany and since he was stationed here for some years, he tried to get his parents to visit him. His mom didn't want to come as she didn't know what clothes to pack. She reckoned it severally unsave to pack her jeans as Germans don't know these garments and she might get robbed of them. She really thought Germans dress like in "The Sound of Music". And she believed Germans don't have any technology, like we're living in the middle ages ;))) She had the most severe culture shock when she actually did come.

I'm Canadian. I met an American tourist who was surprised to find out we had cars in Canada. He was from North Dakota and had seen Canadian licence plates on cars before because they get a lot of tourists from Winnipeg, but he hadn't put two and two together. And after I had explained it to him, he wanted to know where I kept my dogs. I said I only had one dog, and she slept in my back hall. He asked what happened to the rest of my dogs. I said I didn't have any other dogs. He was surprised to hear I only needed one dog _"TO PULL MY SLED"._ Over 80% of Canadians live in urban centres. I've never met _anyone_ who owned a dog sled team.

Not knowing Europe is classic. I gave up on saying I am from The Netherlands, and explaining Amsterdam is just a city. If you give up on it, it can be fun. I convinced ' a Shanon' I was from Holland, lived in a windmill, with a beautifull view of the Eiffel tower and that I went for my daily groceries to Stockholm on my bike.

I met a 30-something year old American man in NC who spent over an hour telling me about his hunting adventures around the world, even going so far as Tasmania Australia to hunt Tasmanian Tigers..... They have been extinct for over 100 years.

Jeremy Clarkson nailed it when he asked; "Why do UFOs ALWAYS seem to appear in a particular place or community in south-west America?"

The second one really baffles me... I find it really weird that they value a driver's licence as a higher form of ID than an actual IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT (aka ID) like a passport. And what if I don't drive? What if I never took the driver's test? Can't I be identified without it?

My third grade teacher ridiculed me for answering her question: "Which planet is closet to the Sun?" I had answered Mercury. She then lectured me on how Mars is the closest planet to the Sun. That was the first time I realized that (on some things) I knew more than my teachers.

Now you are beginnning to understand why we Brits see the War of Independence (in the words of Al Murray) as a lucky escape

As a Dutch person, I am forever grateful to that last guy. In the 3 weeks that I've spent in the US I got so sick of having to explain that. I also got sick of the amount of times I had this conversation: 'Are you guys speaking German?' 'No, we're speaking Dutch' 'What's the difference?'

This story I'm going to tell you is the absolute truth. I was a Travel Consultant for American Express for 11 years and my older sister booked her own trip to England online all by herself without consulting me first on what were the best areas to book a inexpensive hotel in London and what tours to take, etc;.. she booked the flight, hotel and car rental through the website... when I ask her where she was going after London she looked me dead in the face and said, I'm going to drive to Paris... I looked at her and said, "you mean you're going to fly to Paris"... she replied, "No, I'm driving there in my rental car. I said, Kathy, you can't drive from London to Paris, you either have to take a plane, a train or a ferry if you want to go to Paris. I told her, if you want to take your rental car you can pay to transport it through the Chunnel on the Eurostar. Otherwise you must use the ferry to cross the English Channel with your car.She looked me dead in my face and laughed and said, "Oh My God, you do not have to cross a body of water... England and France are right next to each other... you can drive there in about 2 hours. What was worse is my older sister chimed in and validated my other sisters claim that not only were London and Paris 2 hours apart by car but that they were both on the Pacific Ocean. I couldn't beleive my ears. My one sister looked at me and said you don't know what you're talking about, you haven't been educated enough to know Geography like I do. I was 38 at the time with 4 years of college under my belt to her 7th grade education at 50. My oldest sister went to the 10th grade... later that day my older sister asked me how to spell "IF"... I shit you not. I love my sisters but they are dumb as stumps. My nephew came in the room and told my sisters, "I think that someone with ha degree in World History and works for a Travel Agency for a living would know a whole lot more about these places than a Data Entry Clerk and a unemployed Auto dealer cashier. We just looked at each other and shook our heads. He knew what time it was. hahaha 🤣😂

Speaking to a American girl here in UK, we were talking about travelling and so on. She then says "I really want to visit Rome because I've never been to France before", we couldn't stop laughing.

As a European, I feel your pain! It's astonishing how 400 mil country has people who are clueless about the planet they live on.

Belgian here, more specifically Bruges. My girlfriend was walking through the city some time ago and an American tourist asked her when Bruges closes.. Looking totally flabbergasted by the question she replied: "At 8pm" That tourist was under the sheer impression that our city is an amusement park and noone lives within the city walls...

To quote the great George Carlin.. "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat."

Californian here, I've been around the block a few times and stupid has a way of sneaking up in you. I was in Germany, Berlin specifically, and I was amazed at how well this Asian woman was speaking German. Took a minute for my proper brain to start up with, "She was probably born and raised here idiot. Even if she isn't, German isn't exactly a rare language. " I was ashamed of myself.

That feels like a dystopian nightmare. A friend of a friend went to the US for a holiday and she had to show her ID (Finnish Passport) at a convenience store and they claimed that her passport was fake and that Finland doesn't even exist. Honestly it threw my mind on a loop for a while. I mean I guess it's a meme but seriously?? Even the security said the same thing as the cashier.

The passport problem happened to me too! When I returned to SC from studying abroad, my driver's license had expired so I had to use my passport for ID until I could get it renewed. The clerk refused to accept a valid US passport and a valid international driving license. She didn't know what either of them were. So my UNDERAGE friend shows his FAKE ID and she accepts it without a quibble. OMFG!

I'm from London, but live in the US and have been told multiple times that my English "is real good for a foreigner". I've also been asked to "speak British to my kid". When I utter words in English, the response was "No, no. Your own language!" 😑

Malaysian here...this didn't happen to me but to my friend.. So we celebrated our Independence Day recently on the 31st of August and had a celebration and a big parade at the country's capital (Kuala Lumpur/KL) after 2 years of not being able to celebrate it on a national scale because of the pandemic... This friend of mine works as a hotel receptionist and the hotel happened to be close to where the parade was held. An elderly American couple (maybe in their 60s) got curious about all the noise and the crowd and asked my friend, and she kindly explained to them what all the fuss was about. The elderly couple suddenly laughed and one of them, with a straight face, legit said "but Independence Day is on the 4th of July!", to which my friend calmly replied "Yes ma'am, that's the *American* Independence Day. We are celebrating the *Malaysian* Independence Day today, 31st of August." And the lady just straight up said "Why are you celebrating it today? What's wrong with celebrating your Independence Day on the 4th of July like the rest of us?" My friend had 1001 snarky retorts she could've said to the lady in reply, but she wanted to keep her job, so she just shrugged her shoulders and said "I also wonder why..." with the sweetest smile she could muster..

I was a high school math teacher in Wisconsin for 12 years. I had a student who told another student that their ethnicity was Korean. The other student said, "No. You're Asian." It took me 20 minutes to explain that Koreans are Asians just more specific, kind of like we're American, but also Wisconsinites. I'm not convinced they understood.

New Zealander here. The thing is even if the school system lets you down, it doesn't mean your days of learning are finished. At 52, I am still learning shit and I hope I always will.

I (English) was in a McDonald's in Stockton California when a server said she loved my accent. I responded 'I love yours too.' Her response leaves me amused whenever I think back to it all these years later. She said "But I don't have an accent?" and stood there frozen with a confused look for several seconds as I exited the establishment.

"There's no way you actually speak more than one language. Everybody knows bilingual people are an urban myth." That was more than a decade ago and I still have no idea how she thinks translators do their job.

The „not accepting a passport to buy alcohol“ has happened to me. The cashiers name was Tiffany (no kidding) and she refused to believe that GERMANY IS A LEGIT COUNTRY and that my german passport is legit… She didn’t even understand the concept of OTHER countries She legit thought that EVERY place on this planet is in the US…

I ended up with 2 US tourists in a train in Amsterdam. A British family with 2 kids joined our cabin. The Americans were amazed how good the English accent of the kids were 🤦‍♂

I was once asked in the US, Florida to be specific, which country I was from. I told the guy I was English to which he replied "what language do they speak there, because your English is really good?" I just sighed. Also in Florida I was wearing an English brand of clothing called 'Maine - New England'. An American came up to me and asked "where in Maine are you from?" perfectly acceptable question. I replied "it's just a clothing brand name I'm from England. To which he replied "that can't be true only Maine can use that name." I was tempted to name a list of English town and city names but I worried his head might explode. I'm coming to the conclusion that all the chemicals they put in American food are slowly killing the brain cells of Americans.

As a German I had the same pasport problem when buying cigarettes. When I tried to explain what a passport is and that if it is good enough to cross the border it should be good enough to buy some tobacco, they threatened to call the police. At that point I was in full culture shock mode and just went. At that point I realized I had to handle my interactions with Americans in America much more carefully. I never felt safe there to be honest.

I'm Australian, I've travelled a lot in the US and have heard a LOT of dumb things said. But I can vouch for the need for a translator. But a tip for Aussies in the US; after the third failed attempt at being understood speaking normally, repeat exactly what you just said with a fake American accent, and they'll get it.

I'm from Eastern Canada, and my family went to my uncle's cottage in Maine. 2 elderly women stopped by as my sister and I were at the lake, and asked if we were visiting or lived in the area. We mentioned we were Canadians and that our uncle has a cabin here that they always come to in the summer, and this year we tagged along. Both women proceeded to ask us how much snow we had back home. In the middle of July. On the East coast where we get more rain than snow because of humidity. We laughed and said there was no snow, and that we get boiling hot summers too. They straight-up didn't believe us and thought we were lying, insisting "you're from Canada so there MUST be snow!!! Isn't it right there at the border!?!?". I brought up my weather app and searched for back home, and showed them how actually it was 5 degrees hotter back home than it was right there in Maine at that moment. I even converted it to Fahrenheit for them, and they left my sister and I with this ignorant attitude of "how can we be wrong?" That was my very first face-to-face interaction with an American. I was 16 lol.

I think this is the insulting thing. It's not that Americans (or other, English people are sometimes guilty of this as well) are uninformed. It's that when some Americans are confronted with new information that contradicts what they have been taught, instead of being open minded, some Americans see fit talk down to a person who is more knowledgeable on a topic when they have no clue. To the point (like in this video) where an American is lecturing a Canadian on what Canada is like when chances are they haven't even been to Canada themselves. It's not ignorance, it's willful ignorance and extreme arrogance mixed together

In 2015, I took some classes at a community college (3rd career change, I was in my early 60's). In one class we gave PowerPoint presentations on health care systems of other countries. One student gives her report on Switzerland, and prefaces it by saying Switzerland is not Sweden. After her report, the teacher said "But there is a country called Sweden, isn't there?" She genuinely was asking. This was the person grading my research papers.

I'm from NZ and a few years ago I was studying for my degree in art and design. We had an American dude in our class and when July 4th rolls around he's demanding to know where the flags and banners and shit were. We couldn't get it through to him that it wasn't a world wide holiday even though his arguments insisted it should be since we gained independence and should celebrate it. I think we broke his entire world view that there is a world beyond the US

It's important to remember that, while even the heights of genius has its limits, the pits of stupidity are absolutely bottomless.

As a Swedish person I get a lot of: "-Oh, you got the Alps, right?" Swiss guys, I feel your pain.

I'm Canadian and was driving down to Albuquerque one year. Stopped at the first gas station, about fifty miles south of the border, to fill up the tank - gas used to be so dirt cheap there. Anyways, the lady behind the counter says "Where are you all from?" I said "Canada'. She says, wait for it..... "Canada? Where's that?" I turned and pointed north on the highway that we could see through the window from the counter. "Fifty miles up that road." 😂

Oh my, I think I have a good one to share with you all. I'm from England and visited America a couple of times. My first visit when I was 10, I was sitting on a coach and just talking to my mum. A middle aged American lady sitting across from me smiled and said 'I'm sorry, but I just LOVE your accent. Are y'all from England?' I said to the lady 'Yes, we're on Holiday from England.' Then she said... I kid you not... "Where did you learn to speak English so well?' I blinked a couple of times and just said... kinda slowly... 'England. English? Yes?' The lady looked confused for a moment and said 'I thought y'all spoke French over there or something?' It gets worse. I smiled and shook my head and said no, we speak English. And then I asked her what she did. She said she was an elementary school teacher. She was nice and pleasant and we kept chatting for a while. But I've never forgotten that, and I'm knocking on 50 years old these days. Some things just... make an impression. Don't they? :)

I heard a couple in America. They where from England 🇬🇧. They went out to eat they got asked for ID. The person said this is fake. The couple said no it's not. The server said there is no 24th month. The manager had to come over to apologise lol.

I once had a conversation with an American fella on holiday in the UK with his family, we were all on the train going from London to Edinburgh. Being Scottish, this fella picked up on my accent when I was speaking to the guard handling tickets and he turned to me after and said: "You must be loving this son?" Being a bit confused, I asked him what he meant and he proceeded to explain to me how Scotland was third world and didn't have electricity in most places. So the act of being on an electric train must've been a thrilling experience to me. His wife and kids were very keen to just stare out the window while I let him know that we're not that backwards in the north though I'm not sure he really believed me.

I spent 6 months in the US as an exchange student. I've gotta say that the general level of the courses and requirements at the university were at the same level as in high school in Finland (also, my apologies to those that I tricked when I said that we have pet penguins and polar bears are the main threat to human population here). Once in class the professor referred to an American study, which proved that "on average, 50 per cent of the American people are smarter than the other half." I laughed at first bc I thought he was making a joke, but then I noticed no one else was laughing, including the professor. Then he just went on with this insightful study. Well, I have to admit that he wasn't wrong, but... Oh well.

Imagine being a half-Swedish half-Swiss person in America... that's my life, lol.

I'm from Britain and while on holiday in America, I had to show my passport to hire a car in Georgia, the very enthusiastic and sincere young man asked me where I had learned to speak English... while still holding my passport. I laughed and said "hahaha thats a funny joke", this young guy gave me a blank look and said "what joke Sir" 😂

I was once on my way home from working in Edinburgh when I overheard an American couple discussing, entirely in earnest, how convenient it was that the castle had been built so close to the train station. 🤦

Back in 2000, I was an exchange student, living at a host family in Atlanta, Georgia. My host mother used to point to various things in the house and asked me if we had these things in Germany too. Things like the vacuum cleaner, the fridge, the microwave and so on. She could not believe that most of that stuff was invented in Germany.

i moved from germany to the us as a middle schooler and had a 45 minute discussion with my geography teacher because she didn't believe me that we actually also drive on the right side of the road her argument was only the US drives on the right side. The day after she actually seriously asked me if we have DVDs and TVs over there this wasnt very long ago abot 6-7 years and as i told her technologically germany was at least as advanced as the US she called me a liar hahaha

i work in a museum in Antwerp (Belgium) and we had an American couple presenting us with their glorious presence. so they went up the escalators to the uppers floors (yes our museum consists of 10 floors, panoramic rooftop included) and they wanted to enter. as they went up to me and wanted to enter i asked them "Can you show me your wrist please" and they asked, "why?" so i replied with "well as you passed by the ground level, you bought a ticket and that ticket comes in a form of a wristband that you have to put around your wrist to make it for us easier to identify that you bought a ticket. it takes away the constant requests and wait time to get your ticket." they go "why, don't you believe us" me, yet again "it is not about me not believing you but more about the fact that our second floor and panoramic rooftop are actually free to visit. so to shift out the people who just wanted to go to the roof but try to get in the expositions without paying? we placed in the wristband system." they replied again with "oh well then we won't enter your exposition ... it is not like Antwerp has anything to offer and it is not like Antwerp and Belgium itself has anything culturally to offer nor made anything good that affected the world. we as experienced saxophone players wanted to visit Europe to learn more about its culture and what they brought into the world but Belgium and Antwerp are terribly disappointing which had nothing to offer unlike the American town in New York. which were the founders of this city we are in ... plus we only wanted to visit the rooftop and the tickets are expensive anyways. me baffled "erm excuse me sir but you do realize that as you claimed to be an experienced saxophone player and your wife as well... that the saxophone is Belgian, invented by the Belgian Adolphe Sax, who was born in Dinant, french side of Belgium. also, the founding fathers of this city of Antwerp were in fact not Americans, this city is 1000 to 1200 years old which is up for debate on an accurate count. so to be created by Americans ... is deemed to be impossible because at the time Americans did not even exist for the next what ... 500 to 600 years but ... what i clearly made out of the stupidity that you spout is that you cannot even read because downstairs before the registers ... it clearly says 10 times that the panoramic rooftop is FREE of charge. so you wasted a good 12euro (a little bit less than 12$) but if you find that expensive? then why don't you go to the Louvre in France ... the tickets there cost 17euro and in Germany, a museum visit is around 20 to 30 euros. but if you want to have a panoramic view in France? then you cough up at least 20 euros. in Germany, it is 15euro. so we are very cheap with our panoramic view ... since it is ... free. so have a nice day and by this, i revoke your tickets" without a word, they handed me their tickets and left and i had a good laugh with my boss and co-workers. i almost pissed myself from laughing and burst a vein or two with anger. i have allot of pride in my city. i do apologize for the bad English.

As a foreigner living in the USA a while ago, I was frequently complemented on my ability to be able to speak English. I happen to be English 🤣 I was once asked if the British celebrate Independence Day.

On the flip side - the first time I met my Greek neighbor, I pointed to the segmented nautilus-shell shape he displays on both his cars. "Ahh! The Fibonacci Sequence! Beautiful!" When he said he was surprised an American knew what that is, I wanted to punch him. After watching your video, I guess I owe him an apology.

I wish I could disbelieve the "Egypt doesn't exist" story, but... in high school English class, in one of our textbook exercises, there was a short passage about someone whose Egyptian friend always got upset when people claimed that aliens built the pyramids. And in the middle of class, one girl blurts out, completely astounded, "Egyptians are still around?!" Everyone looked at her for a moment like, "...how dumb *are* you really, though?" before bursting out laughing. I feel bad for her, because obviously in her head "Egyptian" was associated with Pharaohs and ancient Egypt and such, but... come on... There are stupid people everywhere, but some places breed them like rabbits. We live in a culture that literally thinks experts are untrustworthy *because* they're experts, and random people who say things they like are *more* reliable. How do we educate people who can't even understand what education is (and isn't) in the first place? I don't want to be cynical, but... we might be doomed. (BTW, I'm from Florida, so... let that color your judgment.) I want to give Bidet Guy the benefit of the doubt here. It sounds like the woman is French, so I'm going to assume "American on the floor of the bathroom in a hotel in France" was probably on vacation and had a *wee bit* too much to drink. I'd like to think he was just hammered out of all common sense and not actually that dumb... that said, hearing "the water goes up your ass" in a French accent was way funnier than I could have expected 😂

Just gonna say, a passport, no matter where, when or why. Is LITERALLY, the ultimate form of ID.

I’m a Brit who used to live in the US. One evening I was having dinner in Denver with a Senior Exec Japanese visitor and a clueless dumb colleague from my office in Atlanta and she asked him if learning English was difficult for a native Chinese speaker. I nearly choked on the Rocky Mountain ‘oysters’ we’d ordered. The look on the Japanese guy’s face was absolutely priceless, he was literally lost for words.

This brings back a memory from my time working as a waiter in Munich. I got in conversation with an American guest at the hotel who asked me where Is was from. I let him know that I was a student from England but I was working in Munich during the summer break. He complimented me on my grasp of English saying it was almost fluent! As he tipped me 5 DM, I thanked him and told him that I had practiced speaking it a lot..

I was born in England but moved to America when I was 5 as my mother married an american, then moved back when I was 10. I was straight A student in America, but was C in England and worked toward my final B. English schooling is more complex. An A in America is borderline needing help in England lol

When I was young I spent a few months studying in the United States. I'm Spanish. I was asked several times, people who did not know each other, on different occasions if we have a moon in Spain.

I'm Aussie and spent six weeks travelling across the USA, and a lot of people said they couldn't understand me while speaking English. Others said I spoke really good English for an Australian. I had to explain to a lot of people that Australia was an island about the same size as the US - it was the only country that's also a continent of the world! How did they not know where it was?! Saying it was a continent confused them and they said the USA was the North America continent. I said no, it's a country of the North America continent - Canada and Mexico were also on the same continent as the USA. And some of them wanted to argue that I was wrong about that too! FFS! They have no idea!

I'm Belgian, lived in the US for nearly a decade and was unfortunate to attend a high school. The stupidity detector died really quick and things got worse when I got my first job, started talking online with a girl from Finland, my coworkers found out about her and one of them asked me dead serious "how does she have a phone? Do they have phone chargers in igloos?"

Once had an American tell me that because I'm white and speak English that I don't know what it's like for my people to be colonised. For reference I'm Irish.

The dumbest thing an American said to me was, “Cool! I have a Canadian friend named Jim! He lives in *insert random Canadian city* do you know him?” This was after a conversation we had (but I forget what it was about). I just remember that the man clearly thought I would know his buddy just because we both live in Canada lmao.

Recently an American started working in a department near mine (she's only been in the UK a short time and this was her first job here). She was upset to find out she would not be getting Labor Day, Columbus Day, nor any of the 11 Federal holidays off work. It was amusing when she complained to her manager. It was even more amusing when she complained directly to the Director of HR and our CEO.

A gringo told me once "Welcome to America" . I told him "I live in America already". He was so confused 😂 Cheers from México 😉

I worked in a bank for a while in customer service and I got a call from an American woman who wanted to apply for an Irish credit card. She still lived in America and was only going to be visiting Ireland later in the year. She thought that if she used an American card, the ATMs here in Ireland would only give her dollars and not Euros. I didn't know how to even begin explaining to her that's not how that works...

One of funniest recent examples on how education system works is a kid who had to write an essay on some book they studied in literature lesson, like what the writer thought on the main character while creating him. Now the funny part is that this kid was a friend of this writer’s grandson, he went to the writer, asked him everything, wrote his essay and…failed, because it’s not what the writer thought according to what they teach. That’s all you need to know about how education system works.

I feel for you my friend, I found it pretty depressing and I'm British. The look on your face is priceless, and I have the biggest smile just from your reaction!

I’m Canadian, this happened many years ago, probably 1995. An American I was speaking to in a chatroom, on the internet, that I needed a computer to access, asked me if Canada had electricity yet.

I think the most shocking is the geography teacher who told the guy there are only sleds in Canada. One might expect someone who left school at 14 to say that, but the woman is a teacher. Not only that, she teaches geography. How on earth did she gain a degree?

As teenagers in 1967, my buddy and I went to the Worlds Fair in Montreal. We met a couple from New Jersey camped next to us. They were in a panic as the starter had quit on their car. We took him down and got one ordered even though they speak French there. The wife ran out of food and was afraid to buy any in Canada because all the labels were in two languages. They told us this was the furthest they had ever been from home and the first time ever out of the US. We believed them.

Went to a local pancake restaurant with my family over a decade ago. Heard some woman at the table next to us say to her friend, "Did you know the Titanic really happened? It's not just a movie!" I don't think I've ever physically facepalmed so hard in my life. >__>

As they say, "There aint no cure for stupid" Stupid is universal, but I must admit that SOME Americans have turned it into an artform!

when I visited a friend in wisconsin for the first time, he wanted to introduce me to a dude he knew, who annoyed everyone around him with his stupidity and his claims of being of "german heritage" and how great his german is and all. since I am german, my friend wanted me to not say where I'm from and see how my first impression of the guy would be. I went along with it and met the guy at a small party and when his only ever conversation topic came up, I heard his german skills... and they were not good at all. my friend could pronounce certain words better than he did and my buddy never claimed to be good at it! so I went up to him and corrected him here and there in the middle of his monologue. this guy took this kinda personal as it seemed, because he fired back at me, to shut up with my fake german accent. I told him, it wasn't fake because unlike himself, I was actually from germany. he didn't believe me, and asked me mockingly to say a few sentences in german then, which I did, but in return he just giggled and "corrected" my "obvious" fake-german pronounciation failures, which no actual german would ever commit. I answered, that this might be because the german teacher in his and my friend's school probably doesn't know how to pronounce those words right to begin with and that he learned them wrong because of it, while I was speaking not high-german but a watered-down lokal dialect from my home region. No, that was fake to him. I was a cheap wannabe, who tried too hard, but ultimately failed to the depth of his well of knowledge. :)

Your look of incredulity when she said Egypt doesn't exist was priceless.

The one that made me laugh the most was an American telling an Algerian he was pronouncing the name of his country wrong and the correct way to pronounce it was "Argentina"..

I lived in the US for 13 years, I am originally from Belgium but Canadian now. At one time someone working with me asked this (I quote): "When you drive home to Belgium after work what interstate do you take?" At first, I thought he was joking. When it became clear he was serious, I told him I took I-72 east. He totally believed me.

"In her defense, it is Florida" you broke me. Spent about 2 minutes laughing so hard I had to wait until I was done just to type this.

I'm Norwegian, I spent 11 years in South Carolina. I'm permanently scarred by stupid questions.

The "translating Australian" piece reminded me of this joke: What do you call a person that speaks 3 languages? trilingual or multilingual A person that speaks 2 languages? bilingual A person that speaks 1 language? American

Friend of mine works as a tour guide in a castle here in Ireland. He watched a middle aged American lady looking at a lit candle before placing her hand in the flame and burning herself. She looks at him with a shocked face and asks "Why didn't you tell me the candle was real!?"

I am Brazilian, and in early 2000's I've lived in Florida for a few years under an H1B visa, as a software developer. Towards the end of my stint with that company, I met my current husband - who is Cuban-American and worked all his life in the music business. After a while, we decided to move to my city in Brazil, where we intended to - and actually did - open a record store. One of his friends, on learning about our plans, was like "But... but... what are you going to do there? It's just a little island, covered in jungle, full of snakes, jaguars and crocodiles!" After all those years living there, I was kinda used to the stereotypes and misconceptions, so I've tried to explain Brazil is larger than the contiguous 48 US states, and my town (São Paulo) is like New York on steroids, with a population of ~11 million, compared with the ~1,5 million of Miami-Dade, where we used to live by then . He, however, wouldn't have any of it, and kept saying he wouldn't dare visit us because jungle and dangers, and this and that. I finally got fed up and said "Look, it is actually better you never go there, cause chances are you would be killed by a jaguar and an alligator, all right: ran over by a drunk rich guy driving a fancy car, dressed in LaCoste gear." 🙄

I'm also an American, but a couple years ago I got back from living in Australia for a few years and someone asked me "well how did you understand them?" and I was like "what do you mean?" and they said "well do they speak English like us??" and I stared at them and went "... Yes???? They just have an accent?? Of course they speak English like us" 😭

Last summer I was working at a hotel in Iceland. Some night shift, after dinner service, I was attending the bar when a lady came over for a drink and small talk, while I was preparing her drink she asked where I was from, so I answered I am Spanish and she replied (pretty shocked) that I don't look Mexican at all!! I just had to stop and lmao.

Just like many other comments from British people already included on here, I worked in Hotel Management right up to GM level across the UK, but have since retired after 45+ years serving all nationalities. In my experience, the worst country to provide its citizens with the most dumb questions was the USA. Sorry, but true! I was working in a hotel in Edinburgh, where we had around 3-4 coach tours each night, all staying just one night. It was the anti-clockwise tour of the UK which had their first overnight stop after leaving London that morning, supplying the best (ie worst questions).... "Isn't Scotland big - is it true it's a Country in its own right?" (and to me asking why they asked?) "we were taught at school it was a little village in the North of England!" Or the guests who asked on arrival at the same hotel, " do you have electricity here?" because they couldn't see any visible power poles and cables strung across the roads as the passed through Edinburgh en-route to the hotel! Or the best one ever was the lady travelling by herself, for the first time ever out of her little town in North Dakota, to follow a folk band playing at a major Folk music festival as a headline act, in a major town in England and she was staying at the hotel where I was working, On her due day of arrival, she hadn't shown up by late evening, but at around midnight, I received a call from the Police in Birmingham, some 20 miles away. They brought her to the hotel as she'd had an appalling trip. The starting airport in the USA saw her get on the wrong flight, only to arrive in Cape Town, instead of London Heathrow. She was returned to her starting US Airport, where she was re-routed correctly. At Heathrow the next day, instead of getting to the central coach station there for her coach directly to our town, she somehow got onto a taxi into central London where she wandered round utterly lost. She managed to find the Coach Station and got a coach to Birmingham. There she saw a road named after the town where she would be staying, thought it was "local" (whereas that road was 20-25 miles long to us! She went through some parts of the city trailing two large suitcases until she was found by people in the suburbs of the city who called the Police, who brought her to me. I asked her why she hadn't asked anyone for help at any stage? Her response was " Until I was taken to the Police, I didn't know if you all spoke fluent English in the UK or whether I would be understood?" A week later she started her return trip home, with copious notes written out by us to help her. But even three years on, I wonder if she ever found her way home??

I'm Australian. I was holidaying in Austria. 2 American women asked me where I was from, I told them and one looked at the other and said "you know hun, that's one of those little holiday islands off the coast of Hawaii". I'm sure they were very disappointed they didn't find any kangaroos while abroad.

I once met an american student here in germany and he said to me "He thought it was always raining here since all the WW2 movies show a rainy and dark germany!"

I've noticed a trend in a lot of American movies, if the story unfolds at different locations, there is often a text across the screen where they are. If it's in the US, it's very specific: "Las Vegas, Nevada" or "Brooklyn, New York". As soon as the action takes place somewhere else, it's: "Germany", "China" or "Sahara". Somehow the characters still find the exact location they need to...

Two weeks ago I posted that it was the hottest Tuesday morning for 40 years here in the UK, an American replied that it was Monday and that I was a dumbass , I explained to him that international time zones mean it isn't the same day or time in all countries on Earth at the same time and he responded that I was full of shit and Brits always try to sound superior even if they are wrong 🤔

I'm Scottish and was in a petrol station in Plymouth, Michigan paying for my fuel, and the young lady behind the counter said she loved my accent, and asked where was I from. I replied Scotland, and she replied is that near London!! I replied no, it's about 400 miles away, and it's a country. She then asked if we had television in Scotland, to which I replied, yes we do because we invented it!! I can still see the bemused look on her face.

17:55 That did it! Hahahahahahahahaha After ALL the corrections, the one that killed me was someone from a different country telling you what floor of a building you live on!!

Years ago in Ft. Wayne Indiana, an American girl (very, very pretty) found out I was Canadian. She asked me if it was true that the Canadian government blocked American satellites from sending news signals into my country, and that was why all Canadians were so happy, because we weren't getting bad news day in and day out. She was dead serious. I think about that girl every now and then...hope she is doing well.

Australian here, I literally had multiple people tell me to stop using a fake accent when I was in the US. I had to get my passport out in bars because it happened so often.

I spent two years living in America and I could write a book on this. Some of the most common questions were, Where did I learn to speak American? Do we have cars, computers, TV, electricity in the UK? And when they found out that I came from Nottingham they would often ask if I knew, or had I ever met Robin Hood?

As a Canadian in college, we were accepted in the border towns but when I first travelled across the south from California to Florida I had similar experiences at almost every stop. Most polite but curious but some were so completely ignorant of anything beyond their own limited travel.