Americans React - What's The Dumbest Thing An American Has Ever Said To You | Loners Podcast #25 

I never understand why Americans call any European health insurance system "socialism". I assume that most american households own a car. Don't you have to have a mandatory car insurance? What's the difference there, you pay your premiums year by year but never have an accident, so the money you give to the insurance company is used to pay for the accidents other people have with their car. Wouldn't that be socialism, too?

Yeah, I've been complimented by Americans on how well I speak English. I am English. In England. The worst one I had was an argument online, with an American who was utterly outraged that the British government refused to honour his right to bear arms when he came to the UK. So he carried a hunting knife for self defence instead. I explained to him that was also illegal in the UK, and he could get 4 years in jail, and he just got increasingly more outraged, and insisted 'how dare they take my means to defend myself'. So I reported him to the police.

I'm OK with people being very dumb. What I can't stand is "dumb and arrogant at the same time."

An American once told me that other countries would be more successful if they had a constitution. Like it was something only America had, and not something possessed by 90%+ of all the nations on Earth.

What's appalling is not the ignorance - it's the arrogance, telling someone they are wrong about their own country or language. It's shameful.

I once had an American correct me that "No, you're not Spanish, Spanish is a language and you can't BE a language. I think you mean you're Mexican"...uhm...I am from Spain. The country of Spain.

11:25 No she is not from the Middle East! She's from Algeria which is in North West Africa - the Middle East is part of Asia, not Africa. You have to travel about 3000 kilometers (about 1860 miles) from Algeria to the Middle East. Algeria is directly south of France. 21:50 Most US americans don't even realize that America is not a country - it's a continent. A twin continent to be precise. And everyone born in any of the 35 countries on the american continent is an american. It's not just the USA - Canadians are americans, Mexicans are americans, Brazilians are americans, Cubans are americans.

I told this story many times. I visted america 4 weeks years ago. Me and my girlfriend was talking in danish, and this lady verbally insulted us, and yelled at us that this is America and we speak American.i tried to explain to her we where turists and of course we speak out own language. She didn't even listen to me, but she went completely batshit crazy when I said that she didnt speak American but English.

I'm British and my then-American BF asked me if we celebrate independence day. I gave him a funny look and said "Yes we do, we celebrate the day we got rid of America" he was not amused at all and called me Anti American, But WTF why ask such a stupid question.

I'm English and was working in a trade centre and some America's said it was so funny that we had named some of our cities after places in America .OMG I walked away you can't fix stupid.

My dumbest encounter with an American was when I finished my A-levels in the UK and we went on a school trip to Australia. During check-in at the hotel in Sydney, there was another school trip from the US. A couple of the girls started talking to our group and I guess my Nigerian friend was comparing the climate of Africa to Australia. She was saying something like: well I'm African and... Cue the Americans being horrified and say: You mean you're African American. African is a bad word. My Canadian friend steps in trying to explain: No she's African. From Africa. We are from an international school so we have Africans, Asians, and Europeans.. The girls look around and say: which one is Asian? I get dragged in. I say: hi! I am. I'm from Iran The girls: Iran is not in Asia. It's in the middle east. I say: Yes. but the middle east isn't a continent. We are part of Asia and are in fact Asian. The girls: No. Asia means like china and stuff. Why are you saying that? You shouldn't lie. I know middle east is a bad place but you should be proud of where you're from. Asia means China and Japan and maybe India. You're not Asian (our chaperone steps in to intervene) the girls point at our chaperone: see? he's Asian Chaperone: Actually girls I'm from Cambridge, in England The girls now visibly angry thinking we're messing with them: Cambridge isn't a place. It's a university So yeah. Our entire group collectively facepalmed and moved away. The hotel breakfasts were awkward with the death glares from the Americans 😂

I had to learn every country in the world in school, every mountain, every body of water from age 9 to 15 we even learn every state of usa. Just common knowledge here in Sweden. I can only talk for myself what I've learnt and what I still remember. Love and peace from me.

I am from Argentina and have been living in diferent countries for over a decade. Every time I would meet a person from the USA I used to start with the same Joke. "Im am also American! just from the south part of it". There are 2 types. Those who laughed and those who looked confussed. That was a good way to know who I was dealing with.

I'm born, raised and educated in Canada... and, RE your question, "Do they learn about other countries in your country?" YES. We are extensively educated about the US, countries in Europe, countries in Asia, countries in the Americas - north and south, countries in Africa, and everywhere else. We are frequently shocked at how little some Americans know about the world in general, or even about their own country. Are they not paying attention in school, or is it just not covered by the teachers? What DO you learn in school?

In France, but pretty sure it's similar in all European countries, we are taught from a young age about other countries, and some of the history of other countries too. There even is a world map in every classroom, so even if you are not curious, it will be seared into your brain xD

I remember many years ago, I went to visit my cousin who lived in New York(this happened in 2006). On the way back to England (where I am from), I met a young American couple on the flight, who were between 20- 24. We started talking, and they asked me about my trip. Then I asked them what they were doing. "We are going to London for a week, then we are going to visit some of the other states. I said, "you mean countries?'" They thought that France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, etc,, were 'States" of Europe. I explained it to them and also the fact that each country spoke its own language. They were in complete shock.

I was in the U.S. a few years ago at a Thanksgiving celebration at the private home of friends. The family patriarch was there and eventually sidled up to me and said, "It must be hell in Australia these days." I asked him why he would think that. He said, "Because the crooks have got all the goddam guns. How do the people protect themselves?" I asked him, "Protect ourselves from what?" and he said, "From the goddam crooks, the government has taken away all the automatic weapons from the people." I replied that we don't have any real gun problems in Australia and have actually only had one really serious mass shooting. He said, "I don't believe it, that can't be right." I told him to google the statistics and look at the stats of the most civilised countries homicide stats compared to the U.S. I have forgotten the actual figures now but quoted to him what they actually were and he just couldn't get his head around it. This was in 2015.

I used to work as a waitress in Vienna /Austria. Once an american lady ordered a "viennese ice-coffee". On the menu it was explained (in german and english) that it is cold coffee with vanilla-ice cream and whipped cream. After I served it to her she immediately complained that this is different to what she expected. I told her, that i can bring her just cold coffee with some ice cubes, but she has to pay for her first order, which was the viennese version. She ranted in perfect Karen-Style. "i want to speak to the manager! I get you fired! You have to do what i say, because the client is king! I will not tip you! I'm american, i know my rights!" Karen's manual page 1 to 100 without breathing 😂 I bent myself over and brought my face very near to hers and said very calm... "Well mam, you are in austria. You ordered, you pay. If you order something else, you will also pay for this. If any viennese waitress will 'obey' after beeing treated like this, i really recommend you NOT to eat or drink, what she will serve you. So? Do you really want me to bring you something else, or do you prefer to pay and f*ck off? " This lady was soooo american.... She even tipped me 😂😂😂

I live in Croatia and I had to learn the name and date of reign of every French king over a period of a thousand years. So yes, they teach you about other countries.

Food for thought - the Philippines was actually in the same situation as Puerto Rico before WW2. An unincorporated territory way out in the Pacific. It took Japan invading it in WW2 and the US razing it into the ground with air strikes for it to become independent. Because after the war, the US didn’t want to shoulder the repair costs, so they left it to the Japanese and “granted” it independence. Japan paid reparations for decades after that and continues to help the Philippines even now. And they’re not even the colonizers now. Yep, that’s how the US treats its less significant properties. Just note since you’re going into this rabbit hole, people who say bad things about America probably have nothing against the people, but the American policy in its international dealings sucks. I think that’s where it all comes from. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was working on a multinational film in Luxembourg. The schedule had us work through All Saints and All Souls day. A very big deal in mainland Europe, when everyone takes flowers to graves of relatives. We then worked through Remembrance Sunday, again big with Brits, the French and other countries remembering the fallen in both World Wars. The American 1st.A.D. then gave us two days off for Thanksgiving and wished us a good time with our families! Everyone laughed at how the Americans on the crew assumed Europe celebrates an American holiday!🤣

Hi guys, i lived 5 years in Princeton New jersey. I m french and i ve been asked by americans if we had cars in france, refrigerators, planes or trains.... Whats strange is that when i came in the us , i found the cars, trains, metros, very old and reminded me what we had in France 30 years ago. Especially the ovens in the kitchen, the fridge and the washing machines. Still love you guys!

Im Scottish and went to high school in the usa for a year. I was congratulated at how well I spoke English by the English teacher. WTF. 😂

I’m from Norway and I was talking to a guy from Texas, who admitted he didn’t know much about foreign countries. I talked about our language (Norwegian) and he asked «oh, you have your own language over there??» 😂

I'm from Poland and I remember that in primary school, during our geography classes, we had to learn about all the countries as well as their capitals, currency, most prominent rivers or mountains, climate and some basic info about economics and society. Not very in-depth but still enough to have a grasp of what every coutry is :) As far as weird experiences with US citizens, I've worked in an offshore office for one big US company. At least part of our responsibilities was customer service. We were forbidden to use our last names in email footers so customers won't know that we are foregins. We were told that this is because Americans are not very happy when thy know that their customer service is from outside the US. Another thing was directly from my manager. When we were talking on a phone meeting, I told him about our presidential election that was happening during this time and that I was concerned about who will win. He replied back that I shouldn't worry because Putin will pick someone for us. In his mind, it was a clever joke. Not sure if he knew how insulting this was. Btw, you guys asked what kind of music we are listening. For me it will be metal (like Rammstein), pagan folk (like Wardruna), movie scores, dark ambient and similar stuff :) Maybe you will consider music reactions? That could be fun too :D

I was in London a few years ago with my wife and an American couple on the next table asked where we’re from. I replied that we live in Ascot. He said that they lived in Ascot too. I said “Oh really, whereabouts?” He said just outside Ascot, in Honey Creek. I replied there is no Honey Creek just outside Ascot but we have the horse racing, Royal Ascot since Queen Anne started it in 1711. Looking totally dumbfounded, he replied “Your Queen must have visited the real Ascot way back then and Ascot was founded over here. I replied, with some irony, “Sorry old boy, Ascot dates back to way before then, Saxon times, about 600AD.” He said “Is that 600 years ago?” I replied “Yes, that’s about right” and we politely left. Good grief, the US needs to improve its education 😂

So, I get a call from the US to Finland. This guy is trying to sell me a Green Card Lottery ticket, likely because I'd had a summer job there that summer. I said: "No thank you, I don't need a Green Card." To which he says, sounding slightly panicky: "You are gonna come here illegally?" .... dude...I don't want to move to the US...😂

So this isn’t something that was said to me personally. But by an American RU-vidr running culture channel. Who was reacting to videos about other cultures. One of the videos was about Britain. She says “wait, they have industry in Britain”. She seemed really surprised. For starters the Industrial Revolution started in Britain. Secondly she said that after seeing a tractor on a farm.

I communicate with a tremendous number of Americans through my various hobbies, including Amateur Radio and elsewhere.... and it seems that few understand that we (meaning the rest of the world) don't necessarily have to celebrate "Thanksgiving"........ oh, and many of us speak English.... often far better than Americans! :) Oh! And we can spell, as well! LOL

The most wonderful thing in life is travel!!! Being in totally different cultures is amazing & educational. Unfortunately, a huge % of US citizens are not able to experience this.

Don't have an anectode, but the last time I encountered an American, I was lost in Paris, yes as a French, and she was holding a map, so I asked her "where is rue blablabla" and she was the nicest. She didn't know either but she helped me find it like she wasnt on vacation and her time was precious as well. She just saw little 15yo me trying to find the school I wanted to enroll with and was like "yeah I don't know anything about Paris but I'll get you there". And long story short I made it in time thanks to her

In my humble opinion growing up in Europe makes you more aware of Geography on a daily basis than in places like the US. I mean the mere existance of other countries around you may be visible in your daily life, not to mention being around people from different countries all the time. So I have hardly heard anyone blame it on their teachers if they were bad at geography. Our education (at least from what I can tell from Germany) does not focus that much on being able to name our countries or knowing the nation's capitals by heart, so that might not be that different from other countries. But I always felt like knowing at least basic (European) georgraphy has always been regarded as commong knowledge from an early age on, while other topics heavily relied on good education and teaching

The funny thing about the american socialist fear is, that your police, your fire-fighters and of course your military are all totally socialist also. Imagine you are in a burning house, firefighter comes to help you, but first he shows you a contract where it says "pay 5000 dollars or burn in hellfire because we are no damnce socialists" 😄😄

Attention all passengers, the lady in seat number 42 row 7 asked us to turn off the engines so she can sleep. please prepare for an emergancy landing in the middle of the ocean... 🤣

I'm an Asian who used to worked in the service industry for a cable company. An American once was so pissed, wanted to look for my supervisor and even threatened to sue the company because I can not help her fix her TV so she can watch. I was trying to explain her something but she didn't let me talk. The power in her area was out the whole day...😒

I met many lovely Americans and they were from all over the US, California, Alabama, Texas etc. But the two situations I had left me bit dumbfounded. The first one was not live but on an Internet forum. I don’t remember exactly what the discussion was about but I mentioned Maria Skłodowska-Curie in one of my comments. And one American (they had the flag in the profile etc. that’s how I knew) responded with something between the lines “It’s spelled MARIE, educate yourself”. I was just… dude, I’m from Poland and she is one of our Nobel prize winners, I’m quite confident I know how to spell her name. One of the elements she discovered is called POLON (or Polonium). The second one was not that long ago when an American from Nevada said to me that the whole world should just switch to english and that any other language is useless and not as advanced and sophisticated as the one America uses. So they should just stop using theirs. I didn’t even know how to answer this since it just fried my brain.

Once in South Carolina I was asked if I was from England, as the guy had heard me speak a language (Danish) that was not English. He clearly believed that USA was the only place English was spoken.

The most dumb thing I was told after i asked a couple of lads from the local US base why Americn football players needed all the padding and a helmet was - "you need the padding because of the helmet." I said, "But what if you don't wear the helmet?" Reply "you have to have a helmet to protect you from the padding". Could not understand the concept of not wearing both items at the same time

Yes, people world wide say and believe dumb things world wide, but I do find that people from other countries are more willing to learn from their mistakes, whilst more Americans do tend to think they are correct in their beliefs and perceptions.

When I worked as a contractor for Motorola I once asked my manager, why we control european, ME and african businesses from Germany and they don't do it from the US. He said "You would not believe, what a hard time I have to explain to them, why we have to deal with different currencies and 40 different law systems, let alone cultural differences and language barriers with non-native English speakers in Europe. Then think of Africa and Asia... They know they would never get it..." American Girl: "Hey, German guy, why are there so many languages in Europe?" German Guy: "Listen, Tiffany,... It's because we Germans lost a war." American Girl: "OH, I'M SO SORRY FOR YOU!!!" (Michael Mittermeyer, German comedian, true story)

When I was visiting friends in the US and one of their friends asked my if I live under water because he heard that half of the Netherlands is below sea level. You should have seen the look on my friends face, I thought is was hilarious!

We as 8 year olds (Grade 4) got taught all about the rest of the world being in Australia . As an island we needed to understand the rest of the world . Its the ignorance of Americans towards the rest of the world that makes the questions really sad lol .

I live in Cambrid.ge England and whilst in town shopping overheard an American couple stating to a local tourist guide that Cambridge England was obviously modelled on Cambridge Massachusetts

I used to work at a wine shop, not as a salesperson, didn't know much about wine yet. As I was going through the shelves doing inventory, a woman who spoke with an accent asked me if we had wines from Georgia, I said no, most of our domestic wines are from California, we have some other states but nothing from Georgia...she gave me this look, smiled and said thank you. Took me a while to realize she was talking about the country Georgia, not the state.

"Socialism" is what paid my way to med school

Hahaha! About the “that’s socialism” video. That’s actually how insurance works too!! Like the same private insurance that all you US citizens have to rely on to cover you when you go to the hospital. Except it doesn’t cover you as well, AND they make tons of profit off of you for not doing anything, AND they try to actively look for ways to deny you care so you have to pay. Great system! Love you guys! Hi from Vancouver, Canada!

The only dumb encounter I had with an US-American was a guy who thought I was Argentine. He heard me talking to my friend in Switzerland and he was so sure it was Spanish, I told him that I am Brazilian and that was actually Portuguese, but he thought that it was not true because I don’t have dark skin and he is familiar with Spanish and he was sure I was Argentine.

The Fourth of July thing has happened to me here in Ireland, about twenty years ago, an elderly couple who were staying in my parents hotel came up to me at the front desk and asked me where would be the best place to watch the fireworks, of course I was a bit thrown and enquired what they were talking about, when I eventually figured out what they were talking about, I had to explain that they were not in the USA anymore and we didn’t have any reason to celebrate their public holiday, could have been worse they could have been in the UK.

I knew an American who was genuinely shocked, that it wasn't "immediately cold" when he crossed the border into Canada. Lol

Hello from Canada. My go-to story is this... I emailed an American eBay seller asking if was willing to ship to Canada, and his reply was "I don't like shipping overseas" Here's the kicker... He lived in a US state that BORDERS with Canada. Another time, I had a friend who had to show a US highway patrolman his driver's license, and the cop accused my friend of having a fake driver's license. I asked my friend why he thought it was a fake (thinking maybe the cop meant to say "expired"), and the cop said "There's no state called 'Nova Scotia' ", and my friend said "You're right, because, that's a CANADIAN driver's license... I'm CANADIAN... And I live in the province of Nova Scotia". But the cop was convinced that everyone in the WORLD needed to have a US driver's license. Not just to drive in America, but he believed that EVERY country that had cars had to get a US driver's license. For example, If you were born and raised in Australia, you would need a US driver's license to to legally drive a car My friend had to explain that countries allied with the US have treaties which are basically agreements on how to be "friends". he had to go into detail that as long as our respective licenses were valid [in the country of origin], we are free to drive in each other's countries. Even after the cop called his police station to ask "Do we have treaties with other countries?" and accepted the driver's license was OK, my friend lost nearly two hours of his time.

The point of healthcare in Euope being socialist: That is how most insurances work, you pay a certain amount into the system and when you need it, it is taken out of that pool.

11:32 This vid should be called Dunning Kruger effect, as it’s not the lack of knowledge that is shocking, but the lack of awareness of lack of knowledge. How can a whole country have towering confidence in something they know nothing about?

I live in Belgrade, Serbia on European continent. Next to Bosnians. The stuff we get from "westerners" is scary. 1st everybody thinks we are Siberians or Syrians. The best and closest is when they say Eastern Europe. 2. People think we are some 3rd worl county with no culture but guess what -Belgrade is over 7000 years old city. Over time my land was under Celts, Roman Empire, Bysantine Empire, Otoman Empire. We were slaves to PoC. -In WW2 and after we founded NAM - We write in Cyrilic and Roman alphabets. Learn english from 1st grade and russian, franch or german from 5th grade. - Oxford study fount that the Serbs are least racist bunch in the world and we have hade constitution in 19th century that gave freedom to slaves as soon as they tuch the ground of Serbia. This place, The Balkans has had wars after wars in every generation so that may be the reason why the Bosnian guy looked cold and full of burdens of life. So please dont call Balkans Easter Europe. It is south of Europe and it is very, very old place full of cultures. Not one but many. With all the major religions, with many ethnic groups and skin colors.

i played on NA servers in a video game a few years ago and some american teenager/young adult(?) told me that he had already met a few other germans in the game and how amazing he thought it was that the NA ZI government would let us use the internet so freely that we could even play with other countries. i didn't wanna explain in a games text chat so i just agreed with him. i don't think he was trolling

Most other developed countries teach at least the general basis of global geography and major countries. In history here in Australia we're taught it in relation to other countries, and the historical relations of them. We definitely get taught about our surrounding countries and the capital cities of major countries.

I have one to add today. The other day I was in York. I was sitting by the river when an American tourist stopped to chat. We started talking about the river and he asked me, "Does this river run all the way down to the ocean then?" I mean what do you say? Yeah rivers run to the sea. It's a river thing. It's what they do! Anyway I just nodded and so he pointed downstream and said, "So the sea is in that direction right?" I just blinked and said, "We live on an island." I don't think he grasped the point however.

Geography, in Italy, means studying not only the continents, but also everything from economy to demography of most countries. Still remember when in primary and middle school they made me learn all the freaking capitals continent by continent by heart. Also History, we study a lot of what happened in the world from pre-historic times to the 60s. Of course we focus more on Italian history and european history, but still... for ex. american revolution is a must

Also it’s really weird how Americans don’t understand healthcare insurance in other countries but are totally fine paying taxes that go to their prisons. That blows my mind! Most countries give their employees paid sick leaves , paid vacation, up to three years of maternity leave, 2 of which are also paid because of this system))) And yet many people in America can’t afford an ambulance in a critical situation. Paying for ambulance is not even a thing for majority of countries.

"Don't know what American idol is" yeah that British show, 1st franchised to Poland and then finally sold to the US. Congratulations on adding another "dumb thing Americans say" to the list 👍

Regarding the Forth of July clip, my impression is that Americans seem to think their holidays are universal in general. I seem to recall an American asking me - a Norwegian living in Norway - if we celebrate Thanksiving, a day marking the "peaceful coexistence" (definitely a lie) of the Native Americans and the first settlers.

I'm always astonished when people from the US don't understand the concept of time zones, because the United States do have 5 (?) time zones themselves. Time in New York is different from time in LA. Do they think this is an exclusively US-concept? About knowledge: I learned that the tests they take in US schools are mostly/all multiple choice. You don't have to understand much of the topics you're tested at (with 4 possible answers there's a 25%age of being right without knowing anything) and you forget most of the knowledge immediately if you're tested that way. If you have to write down what you know about something in your own words your brain has do deal with the thing more intensely and you will remember more.

New subscriber & love your channel guys 💙 I'm kinda approaching 60 and having worked in the travel industry for a well known US travel company for like 40+ years & met ) worked with many many Americans I'll be honest, I rarely came across Americans outlined in these video takes. However there was one interaction which I fondly remember & was so funny but it also kinda had a positive outcome. Altho I was employed as a HR Region Manager in Europe, when visiting a US office I was invited to sit in on interviews for trainee positions within the company alongside 3 American office managers. They were interviewing a really great guy called Johnathan, he was very young but his overall interview was exceptional. Then at the end of his interview the panel explained why I was kinda overlooking the process in the background to Johnathon. He politely turned to me & said "nice to meet you sir" & I replied saying it was a pleasure & how well his interview was. He instantly picked up on my accent "that's sure is a lovely accent you have there sir, if you don't mind me asking where are you from? " I replied I was from the UK, England. He smiled & said "well sir you're English is absolutely fantastic if I may say " .. As I didn't want to embarrass the poor kid I politely smiled & said thank you, let's call it years of experience. After he left the interview room my American colleagues just turned to me ...then a moment of silence - they quoted the "years of experience" & then we all simply laughed about it 😂 At the end of interviews we discussed the candidates & eventually we came to Johnathon & I suggested they should hire him - he excelled in everything in the interview - sure he messed up with the "you're English is good" at the end, but I just knew this guy had loads of enthusiasm & he showed huge potential as a trainee. I even wrote on my recommendation to recruit him. However, I never did get to know who my colleagues eventually recruited as I left for Europe 2 days later. But here's the positive ending of this story - Fast forward kinda 18 years & just weeks before I leave the company I visit the office in Germany. And guess who was the office manager there? You guessed it - Johnathon - we had such a blast over a few beers laughing & reminiscing about his interview. He was even so nice to invite to dinner with his family before I left the company. He now lives in Germany, now married & has a beautiful young daughter. He actually told me that he was just SO nervous & his mouth opened before he thought about what he said! Afterwards he was kicking himself in the waiting room . He just instantly thought he had blown it! Thankfully, unknown to me my American colleagues agreed with my recommendation & hired him. To this day me & Johnathon still keep in touch & has even visited me here in the UK. People say dumb stuff from all corners of the globe - trust me, it isn't just Americans.

In The Netherlands I had to learn all the countries in the world. We would do each continent separately and learn the locations on the countries and their capitals. In elementary school.

It's funny how we quadlinguals usually speak english better than monolingual Americans.

i feel very sorry for Americans. They are conditioned from a young age almost brainwashed to think there country is the best. And in reality, they are treated the worse in healthcare and work and many other things in the world. The county is run as a business, taking as much as they can from the people, while making the people think its great. Only when they look outside to other countries do they see how bad they have it in reality in so many ways. I am from the uk .

About world geography: I‘m from Germany and had Geography class from year 7 to year 13. In year 10 we learned about the continents and we had to study every single country in the continent with capital cities and what the country looks like on the map. Then in the exam we had empty maps of the continents and had to write down the name of the country and the capital city in the right place on the map. My next teacher took it even further and also made us study the longest rivers, biggest lakes, forest areas, deserts etc. So yeah we do go deep into world geography in other countries.

When i was still travelling to Austria (before moving here), I needed health support in hospital once. Since the staff was not aware that my German health insurance worked just fine there, we were going back and forth with the company travel insurance about coverage. After the second night of trying to figure out the payment with them, I could explain them that the German health insurance works fine here in Austria, so they could take a note, in case anybody else comes to that situation. Long story short the answer was "how is your German health insurance work in Australia? I would not have thought so..." so i had to explain to them that I was in Austria and convince him that I was not saying Australia wrong, but being in a real country ... It would have probably not be that notable, if he did not work for an international insurance company specialized on supporting service engineers during business trips ...

People that say that spanish-speaking people can't be white, probably never heard of Spain.

The first time I visited my sister in IL (I'm from England) I met one of her friends who kept asking me... so Nicky, tell me, do you got TV in England, do you got mobile phones in England, do you got the Internet in England???? My sister actually had to explain to him the England is not a third world country 🙄 😆 ... American dogmatic exceptionalism at its finest 👌 🤣🤣🤣

The Algerian lady clearly says "yes I'm African" when correcting the assumption that shes South American but they still call her middle eastern when reacting 😂😂

No. Most *US citizens* probably don't realise that Puerto Rico is in America, not because the US never helps them enough. But because they have a hard time separating the fact that America isn't a country. It's a continent consisting of multiple countries. Most "American's" as you called it (ironically referring to just US citizens and not actually Americans proving my point) think that when anyone says America, that they must be talking about the United States of America, because the USA is America right?... 🙄

Hi guys, found your channel this week and have to say it's a breath of fresh air. It really is refreshing to hear from ordinary Americans with an open minded attitude to the issues in the USA and the wider world. That said I thought I might recount an incident on today's topic. In the UK you can buy an ice-cream in a cone, with a chocolate flake. These are called 99s. A couple of years ago I was outside The London Planetarium in a queue for an ice cream vender. In front of me was a group of 6th graders, whom I was marshalling and behind me were two American couples. I was amused by the discussion the Americans were having. "Did the signs on the van indicate the ice creams, with the chocolate, were ninety-nine pounds or 99 cents?" One seemed hugely costly and the other dirt cheap, so they were trying to work out what both costs were in dollars. At this point one of my little charges reached the front of the queue and ordered two 99's for himself and a friend. (This being a tourist spot the ice creams were very expensive). The ice creams were prepared, handed over & the vendor then asked for his highly inflated fee. At which point my 6th grader turned the ice creams upside down on the counter and announced in his best cockney tones "I only wanted an ice cream mate. Not to mortgage you F*****G house for you!" This prompted one of the Americans behind me, "Guess that settles it then, they are ninety-nine pounds". My group of kids all then left the queue, wisely followed by your compatriots and a large group of equally shocked Japanese tourists. This was literally a 'price-less moment'.

May I just say my wife and I love the relaxed way you both chat before reacting, it's a lovely way to start your episodes in a more open way. It reminds us of how our family is when we get together. On the ice cream front, I'm eating some as we watch. Our youngest son, 18, just said you can get ice cream cone shaped covers for your mics. Oh and hello from the U.K. My wife is the daughter of Italian immigrants, my father was lucky enough to escape Germany in 1936 as he was a German Jew, my mother was part German part Cantonese (China), I was born in Hong Kong when my father was stationed there, and in 2015 we adopted a 15 year old Afghani daughter and her 2 daughters (2 more beautiful granddaughters) after I was wounded in Afghanistan. Which means we have 2 daughters, 2 sons, 7 grandchildren and a 4 month old great grandson. When you add up all the languages in our family it comes to 8, that's not including the ones I had to learn for work. But my wife wins the language competition in our home with a simple and terrifying look that can stop us all. On the subject of dumb, I prefer to think of it as a lack of a rounded education involving the outside world. Saying that though, a U.S. "Karan" can out do a U.K. "Karen" in everyway, so the U.S. is the greatest Country in the "Karan" department. I served in the British Military for 38 years and have had a lot of interaction with people from the U.S., and I I have a very long list, my wife is laughing just thinking about some of them watching this video. Here are just three things that have been said to me or in front of me. First, "If it wasn't for us 'Mericins' (always sounds like the word merkin i.e. a pubic wig), you Brits would be speaking German now", as the son of a German Jew (and a registered A hole), I always replied in German, usually "thank god you were there to save us". Or during the Yugoslavian conflict in the 90's, U.S. soldiers telling us how amazed they were how quickly we had arrived as part of the U.N. forces on the ground and and could speak English so well. And finally one that spread throughout my entire Unit within days, even back in the U.K.. Part of my Unit was in Afghanistan on the 6th of October 2001. We were all dressed in jeans and t shirts but still in body armour carrying our weapons, and an American high ranking officer asked our C.O. "how come you guys are here?", and without even looking up from a map the Boss said "we're here on safari". The American officer stopped for a moment, looked at us then turned back to the Boss and said "But America is at war with Afghanistan now!" A mate of mine couldn't hold back any longer and said "No wonder the tickets were so cheap, are there any other wars you're in where they have safaris?" At that the American walked away leaving us all sniggering like children, even our Boss had to grip hold of the map table. The next day he saw us all in our kit at a briefing and never came near us again. My wife and I love the U.S., we even had our honeymoon there (1983), it was supposed to be a coastal car ride from San Francisco to Miami but on the way to the car hire place there was a motorbike shop. It was cheaper to buy two bikes (mine being a 1970 Harley Shovelhead, my wife had a 1972 Honda) than renting a car. It actually cost more to ship them home than the entire honeymoon, but my wife, or as I call her "Owner", said as long as I bought and restored her a 1968 Mini Cooper she had seen I could keep the bikes. We sold all my bikes after I became wheelchair reliant, but I've managed to keep the Mini still going strong even though she drives an electric car now. Just a small point, the U.S. seized most of Arizona and Colorado, with parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming from Mexico. Also taking the whole of California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah in 1848. That might be why there are so many Mexicans and their descendants in those state's, but what would I know, I'm just a Brit. Anyway, you make sure to take care of each other, and be well from us and our family.

Not long ago, a guy commented on one of a picture I had taken of a castle, saying that he was surprised we had castles in Australia. I replied that I live in Austria (which is stated in my profile info). Had to explain the difference to him. Granted, I don't know where he was from, but I'm very certain he was from the US.

Algeria is located in - the West - of North Africa (across the Mediterranian sea is France + Spain) and that is not - "the Middle East" - which is actually located on the Asian continent and not on the African continent ;-D

From elementary 'til high school in geography we learn all the continents and countries, mountains and rivers, cities and towns, so hearing that they don't teach these basic things in USA is quite baffling to me. And can someone tell me what they have against socialism over there because it has done a lot of good over this side of the pond...

I am from east coast of Australia and i often meet and talk to ppl in the USA and when i mention the time difference to them (as we are 18 hrs ahead) of the USA east coast so we are often the day ahead of them so i always say welcome to the future

As a Canadian, I actually worked, for years, as an account manager for americas branch of "Capital One" ( it is english speaking only )...lemme tell you, the ignorance is rampant and wide spread. From coast to coast, all walks of life hold credit cards, and all of them showed a staggering level of ignorance, and entitlement. So it may not be everyone of you, but it definetly *could* be.

I find it so hilarious that apparently so many Americans confuse time zones (between America and Europe, Asia, or Africa etc.) with time travel, in particular because America is a nation that has different time zones within their own borders!… LOL Such an education fail!

With every other video, I'm more and more grateful for my upbringing, learning three languages from a very young age and having family at different timezone seems like a great headstart in hindsight.

Yes there are descriptions of Vikings being in North America 400 years before Columbus. Apparently they were all the way down to Mexico and spread their genes. Speaking of which, the Vikings were very popular among the ladies in England because they washed every week on Lögardagen (Saturday) so one can wonder how often the English washed then.

In the early 1980s I took my family to Florida while we were in Orlando I was buying pants in a store and the young guy serving me asked where y’all from I said about twenty miles west of London nothing and then I said England still nothing I said Europe and he finally recognised Europe, I have always wondered if he realised he was speaking English

I'm from hong kong, we get taught simplified histories all over the world in primary school and we learn about the countries we get taught and where they are on the world map and stuff, plus we had to memorize all the names of continents, oceans, seas in like year 3 or 4 I think? so like 8-10 years olds we had to memorize all the provinces of china in like year 7 plus a revisit on world geography around the same time I don't think people in hong kong are that good at word geography, but I think most people can name at least 5-10 countries on a world map about the civilized portrayal of other cultures and countries, it's definitely a form of propaganda haha, america always talk about how china's media is government controlled but like so is other countries lol, especially america, we have censorship, you guys have brainwashing manipulation lmaoo

I had so many USAmericans not knowing what language we speak in Greece 🤦‍♀️ And I wish this was the only weird experience with them. They're not raised to be aware of ..the rest of the world basically

Why would somebody presume Algeria is Argentina? She told him where she was from, and Algeria isn't in the middle east, she literally said she's African, it's next to Morroco, where do you think that is?

If people say "that´s socialism" because you pay for so. else, then tell them in capitalism you pay for so. else either: you pay the shareholders, the managers of health insurances and hospitals, the politicians who keep the system as it is and teach the citizens stupid things like this.

In Serbia, where im from, we have 8 grades of elementary school (you start 1st grade at age of 7 and finish 8th grade at age of 14) and 4 grades of highschool (from age of 15 to age of 19). In elementary school we learn world history as well as serbian history. We learn about ancient civilisations, medieval times, russian revolution, french revolution, american civil war, ww 1 and ww 2 etc. We also learn world geography, they taught us about every continent but main focus was on Europe. I remember us reading about european countries and their area, capitol, population, currency, GDP, industry and so on. And i dont remember numbers but i have scale in my head how countries compare to eachother, i know where majority of countries are in world map. If you give me enough time i can name all 50 american states for example :D also serbian language has two alphabets you have to learn and we learn english language from age of 10-11 until age of 19 (end of highschool). So when i hear how americans learn only about USA and are basicaly clueless about rest of the world i cant belive that. Its so sad and i feel like americans are brainwashed from birth and limited in education on purpose.

Algeria in Middle East, yeah, you nailed it. - same as Canada is Central America or so :D

Girl, I gasp when you said "the civilized areas" 💀

I'm American but my wife is Scottish. One day, an old lady told her that her English was very good for a foreigner.

Him: I can't have a gun?! Me: No, you can't have a gun. Him: How am I supposed to protect myself?! Me: Easy... no one else has guns. Same guy... urgent phone call at work while I was bathing a young person with Autism... Him: 'How do you eat a mango?' Me: *click*.

I had to learn about every country in the world over the spam of 4 years. Their main cities, their geography, demography.... what are their specialties, what is their industry, how is their level of living... And that was just one subject (Geography). I had to learn the whole history seperately. I'm from Czechia, Central Europe. Also, for the exams we mostly got blank map or even blank paper. Sometimes we had to draw the entire country from memory, sometimes we just had to fill everything like cities, rivers, mountains etc into blank map

Pretty much every European country has geography and world geography where we learn main things about every country, like size, location, capital, structure ect... Same as in history we cover countries history and world history.... It's very weird to hear you guys mention how closed off your education system is

As regards people from Mexico two good examples are Juan from the youtube channel "ThatWasEpic" hes 6ft3in tall, light skinned and light haired, and then of course the most famous one is probably Louis CK who looks more like an Irish guy than the cliche of what people expect a Mexican person to look like. As the saying goes "Never judge a book by its cover" :)

I once sat outside a restaurant by the Notre Dame in Paris, enjoying a bear with my mate. A few tables away from us was this American guy and his Dutch friend. The American guy explained to his friend, that on a corner like this in America the would be at least a KFC and a McDonalds. Then he went on very loudly telling about his brother who had a very loud and roaring laugh. Things like: "We live on each side of a Great Lake, and I can easily hear my brother laughing." Etc etc. The Dutch guy didn't say much, which he certainly didn't need. At a certain point my mate said: "A beer for the person that will strangle this narcissist." It was many years ago, but I still remember it because the American was so laud, and most of his talk was pure nonsens or just bragging."

Dubai may be wealthy, but let's not forget that it still uses real slaves as permitted by their culture and religion!

There's a video on RU-vid somewhere of an Australian guy who fooled loads of Americans into believing Australian kids got to school by grabbing a kangaroo's tail and getting dragged along.

You do know the rest of the world does NOT celebrate American independence day and thanksgiving?🤣 "I'm protected under the American constitution" Not in Australia you ain't. 😂 G'day from Australia 🇦🇺🦘

I never spoke to an American in person.But, when I was on facebook, two years ago, I was in a poetry group. One guy from USA wanted to know where I'm from, 'cause he find my poems were" cool stuff". " I'm from Serbia"- I said. " Ohh, is it very cold in Siberia??"😂😂I sad -Yes it is , but it finally clicked in his brain:" Ohhh, did you know you commited genocide?" " What? No I didn't, let me check my backyard.."🤐😂🤣

I went to school in South Africa in the 70’s and we definitely learnt world geography there.. my kids went to school in Australia in the 90’s and they were definitely taught World Geography…so no … “only in America “….