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I was on vacation in England and a American dude heard me talking swenglish, he asked me where I'm from, and I answered "Sweden" 🇸🇪 he did inform me that it is pronounced Switzerland 🇨🇭 not Sweden 🇸🇪 in English. 😳 Now I wonder how they spell stupid...
Must be the same American woman who said to me "in the US we don't call it Sweden, we call it Switzerland" and as much as I tried to explain to her those are 2 different countries, it was no use.
It's common to them just pop up in random youtube comment sections of videos of any language. And start saying that crap. Even if the name of video don't have any English text.
I'm German and some Teenager in a Gamelobby once asked me : "Is Hitler still your King ?" I told him that he never was and that Hitler killed himself and his Family in a Bunker around 80 Years ago. Turned out that this Kid always thought that whenever he saw Prince Charles of Britain in a Picture or in the TV that he was called Hitler before he changed his Name into Prince Charles.😅
@@bubsy3861 I'm not sure if RU-vid is testing stuff or the creator can add translations to titles, but I have seen videos recommended to me with titles in my native language and then the video has the audio in english. Maybe they felt click baited? No excuse for being an ahole tho
Well, my little story. An American girl, met in Berlin (i'm Italian), tried to convince me that the italian word for "hello", that in Italian is "ciao", (in english sounds like the word "chow"), i wis mispronunciating it, and tried to teach me the correct pronunciation (that for her was EXACTLY HOW WOULD THE LETTERS "ciao" sounds in english), because she has "italian heritage".
@@spacebattlenun3522 In every sense. I can't think of a single way that Europoors are more influential than Americans. You're not watching this on a German platform, are you?
I was involved in a research project many years ago that distinguished Australians by ethnicity. Some American participants wanted African American as a category, though Australian people with dark pigment are generally neither African nor American.
I do not understand the concept of xxx-american (african, asian and what not). Either you are american or not (otherwhise the "white" americans should be refered to as "caucasian-american"? and how would you refer to a white guy from south africa? Caucasian-african-american?) Just weird....
I remember a radio program where they were talking about Nelson Mandela, referring to him as "the African-American leader" because "black leader" couldn't be said. Somehow didn't occur to then that he could be referred to as "African leader".
When I was 16, I went to the US for a 3 week school exchange. The host family picked me up from the airport; on the drive home, the teenage daughter asked me whether we have cars in Germany (yes, seriously). I politely pointed out that we were sitting in her father's Volkswagen, a German car brand, and listed other German car manufacturers. She would not believe me, saying that "but we bought this car here in the US, so it must be American!" It was three very long weeks ... 😶
This is what happens when the only thing you learn in school and from your parents that 'Merica is the greates country ever, over all and on earth... All other countries are boring, meaningless, irrelevant and unimportant... Because we live in 'Mercia! *Eagle scream in the distance* 😆
Actually, in the US, they don't have to. Although many teachers do not know that and try to force it on everyone, or try to punish students who refuse to say the pledge and/or to stand up for the pledge - Native Americans kids, for instance, who know more about their rights than some teachers or school boards.
@@WolfgangManichl Pasta/Noodles doesn't really have a single point of origin. It's a common thing made from wheat. It was common across Asia but no one really knows exactly where it came from. The oldest archeological evidence we currently have is in Italy however. Pizza however we have solid evidence for came from Naples, Italy. It was immigrated to the US by italian immigrants in the 1940s.
I worked in museums for four years in Scotland, I could write a book on daft things asked. Here are three that stick after nearly 20 years: 1. "Is that France I can see from the top of Edinboro Castle?" Tried to explain, in the end I had to say yes! "Jeez I never realised it was so close" 2. "How come you and your colleagues speak such good English?" 3. "How do you know when this happened?" Explain that in the 17th century we do have written records. "No I mean the exact time in the afternoon" (they thought 1617 was the time not year an event happened". Oh and we get an "isn't it neat they built the castle so close to the train station" frequently in Edinburgh!
I believe the yeoman warders in the tower of London sometimes make a joke that it was a bad idea to build the tower under the approach paths to two airports - they then have to explain to American tourists that it's a joke...
As someone who worked in hotels in Edinburgh for many years, I too have heard some shite. For example, "We're just going for a day trip to Loch Ness and come back here for dinner!" No you're bloody not, that's a 4 to 5 hour drive up there ya eejit! "REALLY?! But we thought Scotland was small enough to drive round in a day?" 😐
I've often heard variations of the fireworks on July 4th. What I found worst was that US tourists were expecting the fireworks in London. I mean, you'd think that if Americans are going to celebrate Independence Day, they should know why they're doing it, and of all the places in the world, London is the place where you least expect fireworks.
Believe it or not, they often expect Canada to have fireworks on July 4th as well. If so, they're three days late, as July 1st is their national holiday, known as "Canada Day" (formerly known as "Dominion Day").😉
I'm Belgian, and on a party in portugal I was asked by an American; "Where are you from", So i told him I'm from Belgium, he asked if i could say hello in Belgian, so I answered that's not possible, but i can say it in Dutch, he then responded, "Ah, so you're from Holland?", to which I responded, "Can you say hello in American ????", He was totally flabbergasted and didn't understand what i was pointing at :)
Of course it´s hard to understand the point, without knowing that belgium is seperated in 3 language-areas, an no "belgian". And that English is seperated in many parts like AE,BE AusE etc.
Americans literally have slurs against smart people like 'nerd' or 'geek'. Literally, if you're *too smart* you're automatically an outcast in an US school.
isnt that a common thing generally? I live in germany and when i was in school, some very smart kids would be antagonized aswell. Same in the working space. Dumb ppl say stupid stuff all the time everywhere. If a smart person jumps in and only needs two sentences to proof how dumb and narrow-minded ppl are, they feel threatened and in response call you geek or nerd or brainiac or something. I consider it a coping mechanism ^^ ... Being smart is an offense if you walk amongst the stupid ;D
This is very real. I'm from Ireland (Republic of), and I've had *several* Americans TELL me Ireland is part of the UK. I've corrected them, kindly, not looking to argue, just to inform... And they insist on arguing that *I* am wrong about where *I* am from. They tell me I'm British even after I correct them.
That's the thing. It seems to be only yanks that speak nonsense with such arrogance and confidence. Plenty of people who speak rubbish but the yanks do it in a particularly irksome way.
@@Mark73 Yeah, that's the part that makes no sense for me. I wouldn't get mad at someone for not knowing something, but insisting they're right and getting argumentative about it is crazy and stupid.
I’m English but was on holiday in Wales, where we went to visit a thousand year old castle. There was an information board which said an American had once asked the owner of the castle why they had been given planning permission to build a castle in front of Cardiff airport
A castle in front of _Cardiff Airport?_ Hmm? Is that Fonmon Castle you're referring to? I guess it _is_ close-by but I didn't consider it THAT close. I've heard about similar things happening at Cardiff Castle and Conwy Castle, since they're right in the centre of Cardiff and Conwy, respectively.
@lagerku.3137 It was Fonmon, yes. I guess the American saw the airport on a map or saw a plane flying low or something. Maybe someone said it was “near here”
If they have never been given the curiosity to the rest of the world at school, how can they improve ? I'm schocked each time I hear Americans not knowing at least 10 countries and their capitals in Europe, and at least the 10-20 major countries in the world ! But when you think that they might not even know all the States of the UNITED STATES ( I seriously hope they learned it at school), I'm wayyyy more schocked... They don't have a f**** clue on how the World works and its different cultures... Makes me sad and scary with all this stupidity 😢
It's seriously embarrassing. They stopped teaching anything of validity a long time ago. I think they started the "no child let behind" on the newest kindergardener's when I was in like 5th grade. They attempted to with the older classes. They been tried force passing me when my dad came in told them....HELL NO! She repeats her grade because I ain't allowing you to turn her into a moron. I ain't got no shame in admitting I sucked in school. Truth was, I needed help and help programs were harder to get into.
Im Spanish from Spain. I once had to go to a congress in Florida, and a woman that was also attending the congress asked where I was from. I said I was from Spain - Europe (I always tend to add Europe as I encountered many of these situations). Her next response was "Oh yeah Spain, beautiful Mexican region".... At the same congress I was asked by another woman, I gave ger the same reply. She then proceeeded to ask where Spain was, and I said below France. She then proceeded to ask where France was. I gave her a simple explaination about France, Europe and Paris (as it is a well nown city). Her response: "But isn't Paris in Canada? is France a canada state then?". It was a fun trip.
OMG so many times that I hear that, might be true and it's tragic... I'm really schocked by the level of ignorance of the world (geography, culture, languages...) of the Americans (from USA), they could at least show a little interest in Europe from where their close ancestors (max 5 or 6 generations 😮) come !!! It make me think a strong 'reset' syndrome might have happened when our ancestors (I'm French) landed there !
@@nicolasaubertin4949 It's because of education and schooling or rather lack of. Yes people can naturally find interests but a lot of interest are cultivated. Most people wouldn't go out of their way to learn algebra on there own and same with history and geography so if you get a bad education you don't know a lot of things. A lot of people in these videos seem to probably have been educationally neglected or didn't pay attention at all in school. Some of them aren't necessarily dumb. They just haven't learned about things that they should have been taught. It's doesn't reflect as much on their intelligence as it does on the education system in the US.
@@y-tiplex Couldn't agree more. But I think that if people are not naturally dumb, the US education system will make them dumber génération after another... And unfortunately it's the way it's going here in France (maybe in Europe) too 😓
@@y-tiplex But they can all tell you about the 30 genders....can't add 2+2 even with New Math and a ream of paper......they aren't being educated, they're being 'indoctrinated".
technically in Canada we do have a Paris, Ontario... but this person obviously doesn't know anything but a few Canadian stereotypes I'd think due to the fact they said "is France a Canada STATE then?" Canada doesn't have states we have provinces
I was in Amsterdam, visiting the Anne Frank museum, which is notorious for having these really long queues to get inside. In front of me were two women from Chicago. We started talking, and then one of them asked me where I’m from. So I tell her that I’m from the Netherlands - that is - Holland (I added Holland because I know many people get confused when you talk about the Netherlands). She nods and asks me “is that far away from here?” She thought Amsterdam was a country! I explain to her that Amsterdam is our capital city, just like Washington DC is hers. She nods again and says: “right, yes that makes sense, I already thought you looked a bit Scandinavian!”
@romydevos610 Washington D.C. is not even part of the U.S., it is like the City of London, the Bank for Internatinal Settlement, the Vatican - and mostprobably Berlin also... Philadelphia used to be the original capital of the U.S., until the british banker took over. in 1871.
I met an American in UK where I live and he noticed my accent. When I told him I am Italian he got excited and said "I'm going to Italy for 3 days soon! I want to take a bike and travel from Venice to Florence and Rome!" I didn't tell anything to him but I tell you: Venice-Florence-Rome is around 380 miles (625km). Good luck with that in 3 days.
@@flighttrain71 whoops I meant Kilometers plural but I can see what you mean it does look like I meant km/s. Does op mean a bicycle? I can see how that would take forever but I was assuming a motorbike.
@@Mr21December2012 And where are you from? I bet, well maybe lol. I saw it before you did lol. Was in fits of laughter before on FB to a lovely American online friend, we got talking about time travel lol. Intelligent girl and her brother is a college/university lecturer, very dry humour but so funny, But we still educate each other about our different ways and terminology - which usually ends up in fits of joint laughter 😊
I was in 🇺🇸 for 5 yrs, I’m Italian from north eastern corner, my hometown in the alps is close to the borders with Austria and Slovenia. I don’t have an Italian sounding last name, and a lot of Americans were telling me that I was not Italian because of my blonde hair, green eyes and 6.2 ft tall. They were shocked when I was telling that Italy is not only Rome, Florence or south Italy! A lot of stereotypes 😂
😂 we speak about “Europeans” but just looking at Italy we are so different from each others… imagine trying to speak about similarities between Italy and north European countries 😂 Not even Italians themselves share the same habits/ looks/ accent /sometimes languages 😂 My boyfriend is from Napoli and he’s blonde with blue eyes and when he went out with his Moldavia friend (blonde with blue eyes) you really couldn’t tell the difference 😂 they seemed cousin! But yeah In Italy we come in all different colors, even the skin colors can be different sometimes 🤷🏻♀️even if we’re still all technically “white/Caucasian”.
I mean, in fairness your area is not ethnically Italian. It was taken from Austria a century ago. It's absolutely normal that those Americans would be confused, and that doesn't make them ignorants per se. Nobody can know every uniqueness of each single small region in the world. I'm from Spain and here barely nobody knows about your region (only history and geography geeks). People from here would believe you being Italian because of your accent (assuming your mother tongue is Italian and not German), but for the rest (your look and your surname) they would be as surprised as those Americans you were talking about, because it's not something popularly known.
My favourite one was a US news network reporting that our UK fireworks night was actually us celebrating Biden becoming president. Literally even US news channels don't have a clue about other countries, so how can we expect their population to know better? I have a couple of stories myself: -I once saw a post in a group chat where an American was about to move to Switzerland and wanted to know if they had refrigerators there, or would she have to get hers shipped from the USA? She was literally moving across the world without the foggiest idea of the culture she was moving to. -I had an argument with MSN because every time I pressed the keyboard key for "€" it sent MSN into fits of webdings (I lived in a country using the Euro currency, I literally had a separate button on my computer keyboard for it). I assumed they'd just reply and say "oh yes, go to this setting and change from US to UK English" or something along those lines. Instead I got a reply back saying that MSN doesn't support "minority symbols". Population of USA = 333 million. Population using the Euro currency = 350 million (plus countless millions more using it in business). Sigh.
The thing with the 4th of July firework happened to me as well.. i was asked by an older american couple in Berlin where the big fire work happens.. when i told them that we dont celebrate 4th of July, they were SO offended and said we HAVE to cause they beat us in WWII.. i slowly backed away from them
Good on you. They also seem to think they won the war all on their own. They didn't even join the war until Dec 1941 meanwhile allies from around the world had been fighting alongside the British and European allies for 2 years and they didn't enter WW1 until April 1917. Australia lost over 60,000 men during WW1 out of 416,809 who enlisted for service. Australia only had a population of 4M people at the time. They represented 38.7% of the total male population aged between 18 and 44. But there were boys as young as 14 who put their age up to join. You can imagine the effect of losing a generation of young men on our country. They are not forgotten. The US had a population of a little over 103M in 1917 for a similar amount of deaths. Apparently an Australian soldier wounded Hitler in WW1. Just imagine how many lives on all sides would have been lived if he had died.
@@Mr21December2012 I bet the only reason they travelled abroad was because they wanted to connect to their "roots". "Yeah, we're German-Americans - even though I don't speak any German, couldn't find it on a map and don't know anything about it. But we're totally German!"
@@QuentinPlant yep, when I was in the US someone told me: „Cool, I‘m German as well!“ I asked: „Cool! Von wo genau kommst du?“. He look funny at me. I raised my eyebrows: „Sooo, you don’t speak German?“. He: „Nooooo, my great-great-great-grandfather came from Germany! I was never there and don’t know any German.“ Okay, cool story, bro…
Was in an uber in Baton Rouge. Driver asked me where I'm from, and i said Australia. Driver told me that sounds like a great place to visit, but would never go due to lack of freedoms. Very quiet drive after that nugget.
@@aledjangoYep, I'm from Ireland and know most state capitals, even in cases where the state capital is not the "obvious" well-known city of that state.
One time I was talking to an american girl. She asked me where I am from because of my accent. I told her that I am a Portuguese who grew up in Berlin. All of this took place in the beginning of 2010's. She then went on to ask me wether the Berlin wall is still standing. She also was convinced that Portugal is a spanish province
@@lynn69jackson 😂 I am not sure if she would know what a peninsula is...but all jokes aside, I didn't want to mess with her. She was very friendly and had a good heart, which is more important. Memorizing facts is an easier task than being kind.
It's not just Americans. I remember a story about a woman in the UK yelling at a couple to speak English because they were speaking a language she didn't understand. They were speaking Welsh. They were currently in Wales.
An American traveller in the UK is on a train and gets into conversation with an Englishman telling him how great the USA is. When he says it takes three days to cross the US by train the Englishman responds by saying, "Some of our trains are quite slow as well."
A while ago i had a argument with someone from the US who did not understand that even after Brexit, Britain is still part of Europe. He was convinced that the EU and the European Kontinent are the same. After failing to explain the difference to him for about 20 minutes !, i just went with it. So i told him that Britain set Sails and is currently near Costa Rica. HE BELIEVED IT I feel a bit bad about it but who says Germans have no sense of humor ^^
English here but have lived in several other countries including Germany. I've always been of the opinion that Germans mostly have the SAME sense of humour as us (definitely more so than the rest of Europe), but due to slight historical differences of opinion we just don't like to admit it. We are, after all, Anglo-Saxons! 😆
I heard that a LOT during the Brexit times... SO many people thought it meant, that Britain was somehow leaving the European CONTINENT as opposed to just the political union called EU for short, lol........ a lot... of people...
Im Dutch and live in southern California. I was asked if we have freedom, and if we also celebrate Thanksgiving. People are also convinced I must be Danish because I speak Dutch. The worst one was a friend of the family here who was going off on a rant about how EVERYONE wanted to come to the USA and how the USA passport was the most important thing in the world. To everyone. He has never been to Europe, but this fool was acting as if he couldn't safely go to Europe, because we're all savages that would try to steal his passport from him if anyone found out that he's American, IF he ever would go.
Dutch and Danish are just different names for the same thing, kinda like Austria and Australia. All of you Scandinavians come from Deutschmark anyway, everybody knows that. What’s your capital called? Is it Amstelhavn or Købendam? Sorry, I'm not good at these Duits place names...😊
The Netherlands is placed as high as Canada on the World Freedom Index, both are top ten on the planet. WAY above the USA... Which is lost around the 30th place. I NEVER care when an American tells me some corny untruth. I just say SURE, in case they turn violent if contradicted with the truth, and RUN away, before my giant, sarcastic smirk has a chance to get me in trouble
I was taking a walk in Rome, waiting for a friend near the Coliseum, and a couple stopped me for a question. We started talking and it turns out they were Americans, from Seattle. At some point, I don't exactly remember the context, the husband, pointing to the Coliseum, asks me: - but... Is that real? - I'm sorry? - yeah I mean, is it the real one? The Romans built? - Sorry, I really don't understand. Of course the Romans built it. - but if it stays outside it will be ruined! The conversation was surreal, so I tried to be a bit sarcastic, answering something like "oh yeah I understand now! No of course we don't want to ruin it, so this is a replica of course! We moved the real one into a very big museum" and they were all like "ohh that's cool it does make sense!". I wasn't able to tell them the truth. I just hope they never went to someone asking where the museum of the real Coliseum was. 😅
don't be to too upset. Italians have placed some things inside museums and put up replicas in public places mostly because of the elements. the statue of David for example and he is just 520yrs old.
@@embreis2257I mean obviously some stuff are replicated! But the all Colosseo! 😂 How can you even think about move something so huge! 😂 And we also can’t do that to our ancestors😂😂😂
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@@Sim0sama "How can you even think about move something so huge". If you're American, (you think) anything is possible.
In our defense, he did lose the popular vote. We just have this stupid, obsolete thing called the "electoral college" that's a holdover from 200 year old voting logistics.
This reminded me of a moment in Whose Line is it Anyway, when the host mistakenly calls Africa "a big country," which causes one of the contestants to burst out laughing, calling out the correction of, "It's also a big continent if you're a geographer!"
Drew Carey was the one who said Africa was a big continent and Greg Proops was the one who pointed it out. They poked fun of it during the skits a few times for the rest of the episode as well xD.
When I went to the US I was asked what do we cook for Thanksgiving. No one could believe we don’t celebrate that in Australia. Then during my stay someone said to me, On the news we saw a plane crashed near Australia! I was like OMG did it crash into the ocean? They looked confused and said no it crashed on land. So it crashed in Australia?? They said it was near the border of Australia. Later I learned the plane crashed in Austria. 🤦🏻♀️
I met an American chap in Austria who was on the train and wanted to go to Vienna but couldn't find it. I explained to him that the sign said "Wien".....but he couldn't figure it out...He had gone by it twice.
A friend moved to the US 2 years ago and her daughter had a debate in class (all of the class v’s her daughter) that the Americans invented the English language and she should say thanks. Her daughter tried to explain that she was from England so therefore English and spoke English. It didn’t compute, what was scary was that the teacher didn’t interject and correct them. Another time a teacher said that Great Britain was not in Europe ??? As she was a new student she didn’t want to embarrass the teacher with the truth. I’m going to guess maybe he got confused with the EU.
Me to an American (about 1648 Polish-Ukrainian war): -...and so we voted, elected a new king and defeated Ukrainians. American: You cannot elect a king. It isn't how kings work.
@@Northerner-Not-A-Doctor to be fair, lots of people are surprised when I tell them that Poles used to elect their kings. On the other hand, no-one who is not from the USA has ever told me that it's impossible, they actually want to learn more about it.
The worst part is that teachers are encouraged to pass students regardless so the student doesn't feel socially ostracized and so it doesn't reflect badly on the school 🤦.
There's been a few things that have stuck with me in regards to what my American friends were taught in school in Arizona, being taught that the seasons are caused by the distance of the Earth to the sun, that America abolished global slavery, dinosaurs never lived - God just made the bones for us to discover, that blood is supposed to be blue and only turns red when it leaves, something about rivers only flowing in cardinal directions, America invented democracy and honestly the worst one to me, allowing bullying if the kids do a vote and the majority agree to bully someone. I just don't understand how a teacher will promote being horrible if it's done democratically - and that teacher was the best teacher they had in middle school. Honestly there's a lot more but it's 2am and I'm struggling to remember these decade old conversations.
Yep I often jokingly taunt a Scottish person I know with that. I often call him British as a joke. I mean it's technically correct, but they really don't like it. I do it through a webcam though, so I can't get punched in the face, lol. In all seriousness, it's genuinely just as a fun joke. They take it in good spirit. But I'm Dutch and they are very well aware that I know how the UK works, at least fundamentally.
When I told an American I am from Finland, she immediately started talking about our cold weather. I said "yes, we can have cold winters, but our summers can be fairly warm. One summer during covid it was actually so hot that I suffered from heatstroke several times". She didn't believe me.
@@Ausecko1 Well, it's not like I can compete with you, since I'm aware that you experience scorching hot temperatures. But it is possible to experience heat stroke in Finland, believe it or not.
@@Sim0sama As I have visited Italy but also the North: They can also have up to 30°C. Of course not for many weeks in a row, but they have hot Summerdays in the north of Europe!
22:20 The Norwegian flag hanging in the back of the room reminded me of a news story where they removed a Norwegian flag, thinking it was the flag of the Confederate States.
I corrected an American for using the American flag to represent the English language. I replied with the English flag, to which he replied "is that from a hospital?" 😂😂
I was an exchange student in Fayetteville, NC in 2007-08. I got asked the dumbest shit but one of the dumbest was " Do you have movie theatres in Italy'?". My answer was "No we don't cause we do not have electricity in Italy ". Only at that point she realized how stupid her question was.
Oh man.. Lucky you. I'm Canadian and they would have BELIEVED that we had no electricity, AND lived in igloos because we are ALWAYS under 10 feet of snow and ice...
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You got one of the smarter ones. Quite a few would easily have believed you about the electricity.
I’m German and live in Berlin. Some years ago I was asked to take care of some American exchange students because my English was quite good. I was supposed to show them around the city, take them on some trips. The first thing that surprised me was that they were unable to speak German. If you go into an exchange program in Germany, at least in my school, you were supposed to be able to speak at least on a C1 level. Those students couldn‘t even ask for directions, tell somebody their names or where they are from. It wasn‘t a problem as many people in Berlin speak at least a bit of English. The second surprise was as issue, though. They constantly asked about Adolf Hitler. Where does he work, where does he life, can they see him, could they make a foto with him. At first I thought they were joking, after I realized that they were not I had a very hard time convincing them that 1. Hitler is dead since the second world war … because the Allies including the US won that fucking war against Nazi Germany (and even if they didn‘t he would‘ve probably died of old age by that point, it was 2008 or something around that time) And more important 2. that Adolf Hitler is not some kind of celebrity in Germany. I was shocked to see how little they new about the worlds history their country shaped
What shocks me more about this is how someone could possibly know enough to know who Hitler is yet presumabely know not enough about him to realise that you wouldnt want a picture with him? Like, how could someone possibly learn who Hitler is without also learning atleast some of the things that make him very very unlikeable, to put it nicely.
@@gklkjuhylpoiuyuiojhjklkjuh9976 C1 basically means that you are fluent in a language, which I think is a pretty fair requirement if you want to be an exchange student. After all being an exchange student should mean wanting to relatively Independently live in a foreign country for a while. Not be a tourist.
I`m from El Salvador, and always talk with this girl; once, when she asked me how I learned english, I told her by reading the lyrics of the songs I like, on RU-vid. She opened her eyes, really really, really surprised, and asked: “Do you have internet in Latin America?” That day I lost the little respect I had for her. I realized that day that the Simpson and Family Guy is more of a documentary than a comedy show.
While living in Atlanta with my then husband and two children, I got to know a lady from Illinois. We had been friends for six months or so, and I was helping her and her husband pack to move to another apartment. We were discussing the moving process, and she knew I was from New Zealand, but she asked me, "How long did it take you to drive down?" I was dumbstruck!, Yes, eventually I explained where New Zealand is located.
Nowadays people there don’t speak Russian, just a small percentage. Since the 90’s Russian it’s not obligatory in schools, after that most of the students have chosen other languages to learn as a second one.
This video confirms the wisdom of the good old English saying that “whilst we all have a right to be stupid, there will always be those that abuse even that privilege.”
The most embarrassing thing that happened to me with Americans was once here in Lisbon when I was walking by the river with my family and a group of young Americans that were passing by were pointing to the south side of the river and shouting: "Look! Africa!".... 😂
I asked an American once to name 5 (five) basic foods that originated in the USA . He said STEAK , BURGERS , PIZZA , CHICKEN & HOTDOGS . He was dumbfounded when i told him he scored 0/5 . He tried to continue arguing that all these foods originated in America 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I even Googled it for him that Pizza & Steak come from Italy , Burgers & Hotdogs from Germany & Chicken from China . But he still persisted in telling me that myself and Google were wrong . This American was a food critic for a magazine i met in a restaurant in Scotland . I'm not saying he was dumb just wrong because he did sound intellegent in other things we talked about .
@@testerpt5 The first steak on record comes from Italy in the year 258 AD in Florence . It then became popular through Northern Europe & Scandanavia . The Italian Pizza came along over 700 years later on record in 997 AD in Italy's most Southern Province of Gaeta , The modern day Pizza was perfected somewhere around the 16th-18th Century in Naples . America was introduced to Pizza around 1890 and Britain in the 1950s .
Most Americans aren't necessarily stupid, just many are uneducated or wear mental blinders so they don't believe anything except what people like Trump preach to them.
Weirdest thing an American said to me (a Brit) was at Ontario International airport in California (east of LA). I was at a car hire desk and the girl was trying to sell me additional insurance cover for $60 or whatever. I turned to my girlfriend and said, "That's an additional £40". The girl overhead me and said, "Excuse me, what's a Pound? Do you mean like pounds of gold?".... Yes, sir, at an international airport, the car hire employee had never heard of the British currency. True story.
Oh and another one. I was in a shop in England, when an American asked me the price of something, when I said 10 pounds, she replied "you mean Dollars" 🙄
An American asked me (in America) why I came over from Europe by plane and not by car - because planes were so expensive! 🤣 And another one asked me how the war was currently going and if Hitler was still in charge.... 🙈 (I am from germany)
German and grew up in the the US of A. Two most stupid questions or remarks I can remember: 1. Do you come from East or West Germany? 2. Always wanted to drive to Germany but the gas prices are just way to high.
On this question I like to say: "I grew up in North Germany and do now live in South Germany." 😊 Confused looks. "But, wasn't that Korea with North and South"?
@@iriscollins7583 But only since Brexit ;) Because the UK did the American thing, like "We are the best country on earth, we don't need others! We are GREAT Britian! We are a world power!" Well, now you need a passport to travel to france... BY TRAIN!
Me, as a EU citizen, I use my passport when I travel outside of the Nordic countries. Even inside the EU, cause my only other ID is my drivers licence, which is not a valid ID outside of the Nordic countries.
American tourists have asked me what part of Texas I'm from - I'm German. 😂 Sometimes I think that many people either think they are the only ones who can speak English or they can't recognize their own dialects.
@@Kloetenhenne They were very surprised that I was German, they probably couldn't hear my German accent at all, unlike the person sitting next to me, whose German accent was clear. The joke was that the person sitting next to me was a former English teacher and in my opinion she has a pretty strong British accent. She sounds similar to a German singer called Lena. Listen to "Satelite", which she sang at the ESC. 😂
When speaking to my cousins stepson, when he lived in America. I told him i live near Harwich in Essex, home of the mayflower. He said "whats that?" 😂 Bear in mind this was at thanksgiving too.
You just don’t export your smartest people. Everyone that works in hospitality or tourism has encountered more stupid and argumentative Americans than educated and reasonable ones.
Ry, mate, they didn’t say it to me personally, but apparently there’s a percentage of Americans who think that if they go to a foreign country they are still under American law and have “rights” and stuff 😂😂😂
Oh my god this reminds me of a discussion I had with an american in yt comments who kept insisting that the american right to bear arms is a "human right" that applies to everyone...
Have you seen that other YT video where a British policewoman is trying to ask two Americans a question and they start spouting off American law about knowing their rights? They did not understand that their laws have diddlysquat traction in the UK.
We were earing burgers and the guy sitting next to us asked if this was our first time earing them (he overheard us speaking german). My husband is from Hamburg so we joked about him being a hamburger. He didn't get it, so we tried to explain the joke, but he just got mad and told us we were making it up and Hamburg wasn't a place. The thing is, in other parts of the world being stupid isn't something that is valued, so our idiots just shut up. In the US intelligence is what is frowned upon, which is very bizarre. I don't know any other culture where idiocy is considered an attribute, but people really do get offended by intelligent conversation and see it as annoying and shameful. Even in the movies the smart kids get bullied. In most other countries the smart kid is the popular one.
@carmenl163 ah yes, the european countries are like the US states 🙄. We know our countries pretty well, probably better than Americans knowing their own states. Do you know the provinces of Belgium? Do you know where all the arrondissements/districts are in Paris?.... What a stupid comment
My family and I have been living in the United States (more specifically in the D.C. area) for almost three years. My dad once told me he was on an Uber and the driver asked "where are you from?" and my dad said "I'm from Spain". The driver then asked "what language do you speak there" and then my dad told him that we speak Spanish in Spain, and the driver was like "Wow, I didn't know that!" Bro we literally invented Spanish 💀
I work for a US cooperation at the European HQ. One time we had a visit from my manager’s manager from the US. She asked during a meeting: which language is spoken in the United Kingdom? BTW the lady holds a master’s degree.
I don’t think that Americans realise how offensive they are when they refer to everyone in Britain as English. I am constantly constantly constantly correcting Americans. You see, I am ‘Welsh, and we have our own language, Cymraeg. This language predates English by thousands of years. When the Romans first invaded Britannia (not England) the English hadn’t even been invented for about a thousand years. It would be like calling someone from the Southern states a Yankee!! How would they feel?
To survive in Scotland use and do not mix up the following words : "English" for bad things eg taxes, hooligans. "British" for neutral things eg the British Isles. "Scottish" for good things eg whisky, Haggis, Irn-Bru.
An american hairdresser in Nebraska had no clue that her state was bordering colorado, south dakota or kansas. I was flabbergasted that she knew so little of her own country
I am Belgian. Belgium has 3 official languages: Dutch (Flemish), French and German. You take exams in all that when your are 10-13 yo, just in school. I also had classical Latin and Greek. (Classical Humaniora jJesuit school. I obtained my PhD in physics when I was 24. Cost of it all: a few pencils and some beers when in university. I am 77 now, worked all over the world and I am still fluent in Dutch, French, English, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian and I can ask for directions in Nihon-Go.
But then there are so many English accents too. Look I'm Irish and you only have to go a mile down the road to hear a different accent but we all have that diddly aye accent!
@@moorenicola6264 I'm Scottish, and bizarrely enough, we don't all have Bizarre Glaswegian accents! In fact, I'm originally from the Western Isles, and so naturally often get confused with having an Irish accent, as it so obviously isn't Scottish 😂😂😂😂
In my history book there was a cartoon. In the cartoon there was a man depicted (a stereotypical white American young man) who is being racist to various people, then in the last picture he is about to say “Go back to your own country.” again, when he suddenly falls silent. He was about to say it to a Native American. 🤦🏻♂️ (I am not from the USA, I am from the UK and the Netherlands.)
It’s true about Canadians living in a cold frozen wasteland!!! I went through Vegas in July and stopped at a gas station and told the clerk I was from Canada and she said “oh it must be so cold up there”. She was shocked to hear our temperature was about the same.
I was in Las Vegas for a conference one January when there was snow on the mountains around the city. During the conference a group of us went for a bus trip into the desert outside the city. Us Aussies were wearing jeans and sweatshirts, the Yanks were wearing jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the Canadians were wearing shorts and T-shirts...
We had low 40C (104F) temps last summer in Quebec City... SAME as in Las Vegas, if not hotter, because it came with 80% humidity and NO wind... IMPOSSIBLE to sleep at night without an A/C unit. It got to 55C in the kitchen where I worked, and I wound up in the emergency for heart palpitations... They are CLUELESS!!!
@@TheJimprez i am in Central Germany, we had 42°C in an area not having over 38°C for centuries! 80% humidity... we can beat that, my town is inside a area mainly consists of moors and swamps... i am born in a coast town...never had over 26°C....not they have way over 30°C, old people die like flies! because nobody is used to that temperatures!
@@TheJimprezto be fair, I knew a guy from Quebec who was always showing me the snow outside 😂 while I was on t-shirt with mostly sunny days (in Italy) But yeah south Europe is really different from the rest of Europe tho
@@artthounasty5877 Fun fact: All Inuits are Eskimos. But not all Eskimos are Inuits. It is more correct to call all of them Eskimos, rather than to try to guess which of them are Inuits. Also, Eskimo is not a slur. It is a mistranslation from someone who didn't know the language that well, and who claimed that "eskimo" meant "someone who eats their meat raw". But that is not a correct translation.
Weirdly enough, I got into an argument with a very nice American girl once because I informed her that the Smurfs were in fact Belgian comic books written in French, and not American. Not only did she not believe me at all, but she became quite angry. Lol.
French here, lived in the US 10years, so no way I can list even a slice of what I received, will run out of space. Asking if we have microwave or other appliances was always fun to hear. Also if we showered (like, as a serious question: were shower available)... one of these insulting stereotype I got more than once. The worst in my opinion is not the insulting aspect, because most of the time the person would not even realize it is insulting... it is the sheer idiotic aspect of the question. Granted it was 20 years ago, but still, some knowledge about the world was accessible.... in any case, I'll have to just pass on the fury of misconceptions or down right ignorance about the world outside of the US.... all expressed with absolute certainty that only ignorance provides. Now, you obviously meet with plenty of Americans with great education with who you will spend very fulfilling time to engage with, but in general I found the discrepancy between the 'best' and the 'worst' so large, it clearly says something about how standard education is so inequal (missing?) in the US (granted I only experienced 3 States, but probably not the worst in this aspect...).
English here, but I lived in Alsace at the time France said "non" to the war on terror. I played online games at the time and sometimes would be chatting in French with others on the game. The utter abuse I got online from Americans when they discovered we were having a conversation in French was INSANE (especially when they realised I could understand them lol). There were literally cases I heard about of teenagers being told by their ultra-conservative teachers that French people don't wash and smell of onions. Every time I said "I live in France, that's not true" they would reply "I have an uncle in France, it is true!". It seems the more ignorant you are in America, the more uncles you have in France. Do me a favour, next time you guys send them a giant statue make sure it has one finger up.
@@catbevis1644: I found the last part of your comment very funny. The image of the Statue of Liberty with one finger raised, shall remain in my mind all day. 😂
Hey Ryan, if it's any consolation, we in the UK do realise the stupidity is NOT related to ALL Americans. I for instance follow NASA very closely and are familiar with many very clever Americans without who we would all be a lot less clever ourselves, so THANK YOU NASA AND THANK YOU CLEVER AMERICAN COUSINS, with love from the UK
So you you've become America since you also write in Americanese - I think you mean "am familiar," not "are familiar;" and "without whom" no "who!" It seems that poor English isn't just a forte of the Americans!!
I was in the Royal Navy in the 70/80's and got invited onto a visiting American aircraft carrier: Dwight D Eisenhower [CV69]. On the boat taking us from Portsmouth harbour to the ship [anchored in The Solent, off the Isle of Wight, as it was too big to fit in Portsmouth], this American seaman kept pointing to things and said: "Wow what's that?". I would tell him. Then he would say: "We have bigger whatever back in the States" etc. We went past one of our cruisers and he would say: "Wow we have bigger frigates back in the states". This would continue until we got out into The Solent. He saw the Isle of Wight and asked what it was. I told him and added: "Don't tell me, you have bigger pebbles back in the States!" lol He got the message and shut up! lol
I think I have a big one guys, I’m Italian, from Florence and last summer a group of American tourists asked me where they could find Pinocchio’s grave (the novel is set in a place near Florence but obviously Pinocchio is a fictional character, he doesn’t have a grave). When I answered ‘it doesn’t exist’ they accused me of being ignorant. P.S. Also while I was in school I spent a month in the us as an exchange student and some girls were very surprised I had a phone as an Italian, cause apparently italians still live in the middle ages according to them
We used to holiday a lot for the most a month at a time starting in 1993 when I was 21 year old with my family we would drive around the country in a MPV staying at various motels and hotel's enroute. So, we as a family got to see parts of the USA where the locals had never moved out of their suburbs, let alone their town, nor had they even left their state. 😮 The funniest one I got asked was whether I was best friend's with the Queen as she only lived 4 hours drive away. We found a map and pointed out exactly where we lived up in Shropshie and where at that time the Queen of England lived. It confused them even more when we told them we had all been invited to one of her famous garden parties but refused to go.😂😂😂 Another question on a similar theme was when visiting a mall the once going into JCPenny, we asked a store assistant about something. She was like ' Oh my god your from ENGLAND, you and Helen must be neighbours as she is from England too'. She then runs off to grab poor Helen from another department saying 'your neighbours are here from ENGLAND!' 🤣🤣🤣🤣 We both then tried to tell her, yes we are both from England but we are not neighbours and do not even know each other as Helen was from Yorkshire. However, Helen who had married an American and not been back to blighty in years, did enjoy a good natter as we were the first Brits she had seen in ages. She got chance to catch up what had been happening news wise in the UK in general and when we got back home as we took her address, we sent her some very English treats back. We also got asked the once had we driven by car from the UK to Georgia? When we said there was a rather large ocean between the UK and the USA ( The Atlantic Ocean) but they would not accept we had flown and must have used the Channel Tunnel.😂😂 I have to say, how shocked I was on how biased the history is taught in the USA. It was like anything that had happened in Europe over the last few hundred years, practically didn't exist and if it did then the USA always saved the day. Also the news on the tv was very one sided too, I hope this has changed since.🤔
I met an American couple in the middle of Austria. We had a short conversation and we were about to go they asked me if I could see what EUR they have. My first thoughts "do they mean the value? The number?’. No, they wanted me to check what EUR they have because they are going to Italy and they need Italian EUR and probably what they have are Austrian because they had used them in Austria.
I get their point (because normally when you go to a different country, outside of the EU countries that use euro’s, you have a different currency) but yeah nah. It’s a mission failed successfully kind of situation
There also are different kinds right? At least the coins have different designs in different countries. Still seems odd to go to Europe and not inform yourself how the currency works.
@@rayaqueen9657 Coins are indeed different but they can be used anywhere in Europe. Fun fact, this was used immediately as when Euro was introduced, the French mint for the 50 cent coin failed, and France thus got a massive load of German 50 cent coins to make up for it. So for some years here, until Euro coins started to really get mixed up due to traveling, we were used to see German 50 cents Eurocoins next to the French ones :D
@@101steel4: Yes, the difference in holidays surprised me too. In Europe it is 6 weeks paid holiday. Other things I found strange was the tipping culture and annual bonuses to try and make a living wage. In contrast, in the UK we pay £1.46 per litre for petrol and £1.50 per litre for diesel. Five litres to a gallon. Our gallons are slightly larger than US gallons but car fuel costs have always been more expensive here than in the US. It always makes me smile when US Citizens talk of $1.50 for a gallon of gas. Our beer costs around £4 to £6 a pint too in a pub. Very hard for those of us with a terrible thirst. We also have a sales tax on goods and services called Value Added Tax. I think both sides of the Pond are exploited in different ways. I wish all of you well, God bless.
I'm German and some Teenager in a Gamelobby once asked me : "Is Hitler still your King ?" I told him that he never was and that Hitler killed himself and his Family in a Bunker around 80 Years ago. Turned out that this Kid always thought that whenever he saw Prince Charles of Britain in a Picture or in the TV that he was called Hitler before he changed his Name into Prince Charles.😅
My friend is from Oslo Norway and I am from the Netherlands. We both play online a lot and we came in contact with this American man from I think he said it was Maine. But I am not 100% sure anymore. It is almost 2 years ago. After we gave him some stuff in game he joined up our party to play a bit together. He wasn't a kid. But I don't know how old. In the first place he was hilarious for having the eggs with his barely 100 hours in the game acting like he knew the place from the inside out. Me and my friend are verteran players with both well over 10k hours in the game and know just about every little detail there is to know. But we let him cook, did not insult him or anything. Just let him do his thing and we followed along where ever he wanted to go. Just have some fun. And he wanted to show us some places. Teach us some farming things and stuff he was convinced only he knew etc. Dude was funny without him knowing he was. He was not like an unfriendly guy or something. Just a bit braggy and loud. At one point ofcourse the conversation comes to the point where you guys from? We tell him one from Norway. one from Netherlands. Usually my Scottish friend is here but he wasn't there that evening. And we hang out with a big group of about 20 ish people. And then it starts. This man goes on and on about there was no such thing as Europe that has countries in it. He even laughed about the idea. Called us liars and frauds bc he knew that Europe was a place near Argentina. And all the places we mentioned where either in America or in Russia and not some overseas place. And he confirmed that by us speaking English. This ofcourse is not our first language. Amsterdam was a country. Not my capital. He had answers to anything we threw at him. And got even very angry in the process up the the point he left the party and blocked us both. I never ever had something like that happen. But I really hope someone gives this man a globe for his birthday.
Because they believe in the lie that the US is the best country in the world so they dont feel the need to educate themselves about the rest of the world.
Of course we do. It was a big weight off our minds. We have a cup of tea and a scone and then go out in the rain and splash in puddles. It's very moving.
1. I'm Brazilian, and when I said that when visiting the U.S., EVERYBODY immediately apologized: "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish." They got VERY confused when I replied: "I don't either." Unlike most other South American countries, Brazil was colonized by *Portugal,* not Spain, so we speak *Portuguese,* not Spanish. But even after I explained that, they couldn't understand it. 2. A friend of mine, another Brazilian, was asked by an American if there were cannibals in Brazil. I loved his reply: "Not anymore, we ate the last one last month." 🤣 3. A similar story to the passport one when buying beer, as told in the video, happened with a friend of mine who is Swiss and was visiting the U.S., but he used his Swiss national ID card instead, and there was a different problem. I don't know his birthdate, but let's assume for the sake of example that it's March 23, 1966 (day greater than 12 - you guessed where we're heading). His birthdate was written 23/03/1966 - day/month/year, as is customary in nearly every country other than the U.S. The attendant became very rude and threatened to call the cops because he was using a fake ID. "There is no month 23, there are only 12 months!" He tried to explain but the ignoramus wouldn't even hear it. He had to buy his beer elsewhere...
I travelled to the US with a friend in 2011 and we stayed at his uncles house (1st gen immigrants from Poland) in New Jersey. The 11 year old daughter (born in the US) of the uncle asked me (a german): "So, do you like Hitler?"...
Not stupid. Just a curious child asking about a famous figure from your neighbouring state. Legitimate question. When I (Polish) was working in Austria in 2003-2006 I met people proud of their native who built highways.
Reminds me of an exchange student at our school who talked about how his host family told him they wouldnt mind if he "did the salute" because they knew it was illegal over there...
Polish in the UK before we joined EU. Questions i was asked 'do you speak Russian, lithuanian, Chech? etc as its next to your country'. Me 'so you speak French, Gaelic etc as its next to yours?'
I was working in a shop (in Canada) and a family of American tourists came in. The Dad(?) asked me the price of something. I told him it was $40. And he said, Tourist: not in American. What's the price here? Me: Sorry? Tourist: You said $40. What is it in Canada? Me: Oh it's $40 Canadian. Him: No shit? So you're copying our money now to huh? Cant even have your own money. What a joke. *walks out* Me: ....
If she was there for an audition, in Nashville, surely she'd have some background in musical theatre? If not the state called Oklahoma, she should have heard of the musical?
@@hughtube5154 Exactly what I thought Ee the musical. I’m a ild enough Aussie to remember the movie on tv many years ago. Terrific movie, one of those movies you can sing along to every song 😊
@@Ukie88 The thing is... I didn't need to "google it" - because in our German schools we have learned this stuff... You're absolutely right about the rest, though!
I was in a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska having dinner with a group of mostly Americans. When I mentioned I was Australian, one gave me an intense curious look and asked "What do you eat?" You'll be pleased to know I kept my snarkiness at bay and didn't say, "witchetty grubs, wombat, and that there's nothing tastier than a nicely cooked koala".
You put skis under them, instead of wheels. I had a buddy who did that with a windsurf sail, clipped to his old skateboard, on skis. It was pretty cool to see him go... In the summer, he'd just put the wheels back on... That thing went REALLY fast.
