Here's a classic! Travelling in a bus in Tipperary in Ireland we passed a 900 year-old Castle.A twangy and loud American voice from the back of the Bus-" Why did they build the Castle so close to the highway?" Brilliant!
How about some directions, from Ireland? "Turn right half a mile before the post office." Or the company telephone directory, arranged numerically, rather than alphabetically - so you had to know someone's number, to find them... Or the factory, whose out of hours switchboard operator was registered deaf, so couldn't hear anyone when they answered the phone..
When I was at university at Western Michigan we were asked if we have car washes in Germany. We said "no, when our Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen are dirty, we just buy a new one!"
Germany is the only country commiting suicide faster than the Blue States in the U.S....other than Austrailia. And you guys question our Second Amendment? Who's the backward fools now? Everyone in West Virgina owns a fuckin' mountain.
I used to see car washes (the big machines with the giant brushes) when I was little, but now I just see car washers (guys with cloths and power soakers handwashing your car). I think they do a better job than the machines. I don't know if it's like that everywhere, or if it's just in my area. UK
I used to see car washes (the big machines with the giant brushes) when I was little, but now I just see car washers (guys with cloths and power soakers handwashing your car). I think they do a better job than the machines. I don't know if it's like that everywhere, or if it's just in my area. UK
Being on a student exchange when I was 16, my Host Family asked me, if we have microwaves in Germany. I looked at their microwave, saw the Brandname „Braun“…. Well, no. We just produce them…
I am British and a British friend of mine moved to the US to work for an American company. He was out one day in the country and he got talking to an American who immediately spotted his strange accent. He asked my friend where he was from so he told him. The follow-up question was so how did he learn to speak English so well?
Simple, Scandinavia is not that far from Britain. Scandinavia is where the Germanic language came from, English is a variation of the Germanic language.
By contrast, here’s a different story. I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely German student at a party when I was in grad school. Since no other Americans were talking to her, I tried to make her feel welcome with the limited German I learned as a teen. Pointing to the desserts on the table, I asked her, “Magst du Geburtstagskuche?” or “Do you like birthday cake?” She looked positively stunned and delighted at the same time. Thanks to that question, she began to open up and we ended up having some wonderful conversations in the weeks that followed. As a violinist, I loved hearing about her culture and the amazing country that produced some of my greatest musical heroes. I’d also say she was one of the most thoughtful and sweetest people I’d ever meet as a student. Wherever she is today, I hope she’s well and happy, and knows how special she made that semester.
Had a similar experience when I met a couple of younger German gals in a pub in Colorado...I was listening to them gassing each other when I chimed in with my best high school German....they appeared to be stunned for a moment, when one of them said Ach, das ist Hoch Deutsch....what elder college professors speak....she explained that most common Germans spoke Platz Deutsch....which is the name used for Low German versus Hoch Deutsch or High German.....what that has to do with anything is beyond me
@@davidmclane4145 nah. Although we have at least 7 different dialects, Plattdeutsch (the one they meant) is a very localized dialect. Hochdeutsch, or High German is the standardized variant
A German Girl who did work as a Nanny in America got asked if she knows what electricity is. ...Some Americans sure are thinking that the civilication ends behind their border
@@pablohammerly448 I used Google translate "The lint wind"? I do not understand the meaning of that phrase." so it is more an inside joke...for you & your buds.
@@davedaring9823 Could be too as she was a nanny she did not have access to 230V receptacles for her electric stuff.(they use the round pin type of wall outlet) so she has nothing electrical with her. Australia has 240V but it is the flat tangs similar to 120V but the tangs are bent inward like "/ \" so I could bend my elec shaver tangs in with pliers and turn the setting on the shaver to 240V (from 120 V)and use it.
I'm Dutch and an American woman (that I knew through Postcrossing (one time penpal, basically) asked me if we had internet in the Netherlands. I'm supposed to register the card online after recieving, so I did. I then typed; 'No, we don't have internet, greetings, Emma' and emailed it back to her.
Oh, also, I recieved a card from a woman in Florida that seemed convinced I was a descendant from the Neanderthals, because she wrote; Emma Surname Streetname 10 3456 Cityname The Neanderth-lands.
OH and an American guy and girl were talking to me online and I mentioned I lived close to Amsterdam. The woman asked; 'So you live there?' and I said; 'No, I just work there.' The man went; 'Ooohhh how much are you?' I said; 'Don't you mean, how tall are you? Or how old? I'm 27" (at the time.) He went; 'No, no, how much do you cost?' I said; 'Wh...Oh god, no! No! I work there in a shop...it's a city, they have shops!' He went; 'Aaahh ahahaha okay, like with toys and stuff?' I said; 'Oh jesus christ, it's a departmentstore... the street you are refering to is ONE STREET!
My personal favorite: I was asked which language I speak with my family. When I responded that I obviously use German, the person was very confused why I do so, since my English is so good that I could just use English. Even though I tried to explain that German is my and my entire family's native language, he didn't quite get why I wouldn't use the 'superior' language, English.... Also, I was asked several times whether I came by car from Germany. First, I thought they meant if I shipped my car to the US, but no, they literally meant drove my car from Germany to the US. The idea of an entire ocean separating both countries was mind-boggeling to them. These are just my favorites, but obviously the Nazi question got asked several times also. When I informed them that, in fact, the US has one of the largest Neo-Nazi movements, they didn't believe me...
Germany has outlawed a lot of the Nazi stuff. Many years ago when the American TV show "Hogan's Heroes" aired on German TV, I read in the papers they had to dub the Nazi salute into German as "the corn grows this tall".
English is quicker and simpler, but german is way more descriptive and precise. Most languages have something going for them, but english is in no way the better or superior to german.🤷🏼♀️😂😂
I was on a domestic flight in the US talking to the guy sitting next to me for the entire flight. Like that I’m from Germany, here on vacation,… He wasn’t stupid or anything at all but… Once we had landed I took my iPhone out to turn off the airplane mode and he was like “Oh you’re in the US for only 2 days and you already got an iPhone!”. I told him that I bought it in Germany and he was seriously confused by the fact that we have iPhones in Germany as well.
My cell phone service won't work outside my country. I'd have to buy one after I get to my destination. Maybe he was thinking that way. A lot of people can't afford the cell phone services that work beyond the borders. All I can afford is about $10 a month for a cell so I use Tracfone (which is pretty useless internationally). Just trying to find a reason why he said that.
@@annbstitched that’s just not very smart as well: why buy a new phone if you can purchase a SIM from a local provider so you can use the local services? People who go abroad regularly do this all the time, but I guess most Americans hardly leave US territory when they travel
I mean, I can kinda understand his confusion. Obviously we all import and export goods, but I’d imagine there are quite popular cellphone manufacturers in Germany that nobody in the us would buy and use here. But of course the iPhone is sooo popular it’s exported to every country on earth, had it been any lesser common phone brand I’d get it.
@@abelgreen5046 It's the same companies in both countries (and most of the rest of the world). The Americas and Europe use (or used?) different frequencies so 10+ years ago some phones wouldn't work in the other place, but modern phones can handle everything.
I have a nice variation of the "What language do you speak?" conversation: So you speak German at home? - Yes. All day? - Yes. Every day? - Yes. Isn't that exhausting?
@hognoxious Huh? German has a similar basic sentence structure as English does, subject - verb - object, with the exception of split verbs and subclauses...
I’m an American. I was in Stonehenge getting a speaker in English for the self-guided tour. All the speakers had flags on them to identify which language is spoken by that device. Then I saw a group of Americans come to find a device and found British, French, German, Japanese flags, etc. And asked “Where’s the American one?”
Oh well, I went to Vienna with a German friend many years ago. She also struggled to find the „German one“ because the German one had a Austrian flag on it. I think she just forgot at that moment that we were in Austria
As an Austrian, my favourite story about getting confused with Australians was when I met a bunch of traveling students from Wisconsin in my hometown. They asked me about racism here in Austria, so I told them about how us "people native to Austria" view people from each individual country we meet. I got stopped in my tracks when one of the Americans asked me whether it wouldn't be a little bit ignorant of me to call myself a native when in reality we just took this land away from the Aborigines. I mean, when you have no clue about geography it's one thing to confuse two countries with a similar name on paper, but it's a completely different story when you confuse them while you're actually on vaccation in one of them. :D Another stupid conversation with an US American I had to deal with was when I had a little banter with the owner of a small diner in New Mexico. At some point he tried to explain to me what an airplane was. At first I thought he was just shitting me, but soon I realised that he fucking wasn't. I played along and told him that I had no idea such wonders of technology would exist and that us Austrians always had to swim when he wanted to get to the USA. He responded with, "Yeah, I hear that a lot." I actually believed that last part.
@fg K I'm Canadian, and it is not only redundant, it's a tad insulting, though we're usually too polite to say it. Why do you think we put our flag on our luggage when we go abroad? We don't want to be mistaken for Americans.
@fg K Thanks, but I don't need a European teaching me geography, much less one who thinks that a viewpoint from across the Atlantic should apply to our culture, about which I'm guessing you're not completely informed. Some of us Canadians aren't terribly impressed with the hypocritical neocolonialist attitude of Europeans. I don't particularly care what my European ancestors decided to call the land they stole from the peoples of these continents. "American" has been the word we've used for citizens of the United States of America for more than 2 centuries. There is well established historical precedent for that usage. I see no reason to change that just because some Europeans need to feel smugly superior. "Did you know you're actually Americans?" That's more than a tad condescending, don't you think? Besides these continents were given other names by the indigenous peoples. Calling them "Americans" is a bit dodgy since they've only been "American" for a couple of centuries. For thousands of years, they were something else entirely.
@fg K Maybe it's because I'm North American that I feel more entitled to be mystified by that. Lol. I mean seriously. I have a few Brazilian friends and I tease them about it.
@fg K I also use the phrase "American exceptionalism", and I feel much the same as she does about it, I just don't see it as applying to that particular word. Besides, it is a convenient way to refer to a specific entity. Granted, stereotyping people is bad, but there is a definite mindset/worldview/culture that we all understand immediately as "American". It is not shared by the other cultures of the Americas. If "American" means all of us, what do we call that cultural entity? The point of using the word like that is to differentiate ourselves from them. I'd be interested in your Argentinian friend's take on that point, actually. I'm guessing she's as keen to differentiate her culture from theirs as I am.
My English teacher is from the US. In our class she was surprised that a river can go from south to north, because “north is up on the map and south is down and water goes down and can’t go uphill so it must always go from north to south”. For a long time we didn’t know if she was really serious. Unfortunately she was 😂😂😂
I'd give her a slight pass on this one. In America, there are basically no rivers of any significance that flow south to north. At least not any that would be delineated on a national map. Some flow west to east or vice versa, but they all basically trend south eventually.
@@johnsilcox8 Well the Mackenzie river is pretty damn large, (and looks _extremely large_ on a flat earther map) and also goes from South to North. Is Canada considered to be in America, or is Amurica only the USA? Yes, most rivers goes horizontally, but when two large rivers goes from south to north, and one of them being _The_ largest in the world, this theory just doesn't hold out...
One day after the atomic desaster in Japan (2011) I had sushi in a mall in Germany. This US tourist lady saw me and went „You shouldn’t eat that.“. I responded „Excuse me?“ and she goes „It‘s sushi. It‘s from Japan, it might be radioactive!“. I replied that the fish probably was not caught in Japan, then she started looking like a cow trying to digest this information. In the end she said „Yeah, but you shouldn‘t eat that. It‘s sushi, it‘s from Japan.“
Indoctrination is STRONG here in the US. Most Americans can no longer rationalize anything. They simply parrot talking points. It's so sad, and sometimes dangerous.
Danke, Feli! I can SO relate. I am also from Munich, living in NYC (not on and off) since 1999, and the dumbest questions I have been asked (in no particular order): - Is the war over yet? - Is Hitler still alive? - Are there lanes on the Autobahn? - Do you have internet?
I am also from Bavaria. Here since 1992. LA, CA. Same thing WW2 Hitler Not only Autobahn, LOL, if we Germans can drive without speed limit everywhere. LOL Do we have freedom LOL
I just can’t understand the hitler thing, I refuse to believe that there are such stupidity in this planet, how can people think that hitler is still alive, is like, dude, even if he didn’t kill himself, he would have died already because of, well, you know, time !!
When someone asks “oh you’re from Germany, do you speak German?” You should have been like “Oh we speak English in Germany normally, we only speak German around the tourists to mess with them.”
After I retired I returned to Uni to learn German for personal enrichment. Two of my classmates said they were taking German because they were constantly asked if they spoke it. One was born in München of Bosnian parents. The family came to the US before she started elementary school, but people always assumed she must speak German because of her birthplace. The other is actually 75% German. Her mother is a German who married an American stationed in Germany. Her father's mother is also German because his father also married a German while stationed in Germany. I used to tease her that if they kept it up a bit longer they would be more German than most of the German population.
You can turn this question on its head, when an american who refers to their ancestry says they are german. You then simply ask "So you speak german?" and if the answer is "No" then you simply say : "Then you are not german." ;)
An American once asked me where my family originates from, I said "Well, it depends on which map you are looking at. After 1945 it's Poland, before it's Germany" I got the most confused face you could get with the question "Why? Are there 2 different maps?" ... during the conversation I found out that this person was not aware that the borders changed during WW2
then you should've continued before 1795 1793 1763 1762 or 1226 because borders in Europe are indeed a very confusing thing especially the german borders and their Drang nach Osten
@@mikesmith7517 Most people are very ignorant about that in the entire ‘New World’. As a Brazilian from a very German region I find it difficult to find people even with German ancestry who understands that. People just assume borders in Europe are intact since Middle Ages 🙄
I was aware of that as a child, but only because my dad explained it to me - my great grandfather came from a part of Germany that's now part of Poland. But I don't remember that being taught in school. I can see why a lot of folks in the U.S. aren't aware of that.
The last time we were in the States, my dad had to go to the audiologist (ear doctor) and the receptionist seriously asked us if we were from East or West Germany and what it was like there.... well she didn't mean the cardinal points, so she was really shocked to learn that Germany has been reunited for over 25 years.
@@pilotlars Same, I am a huge ww2 nerd, so I know geography considerably well, and I just don't bother trying to remember the Post-Yugoslavian countries since it's such a hassle.
@@mikulagen well if I remember correctly, czechoslovakia split in the year 1993. There are may be people that saw czechoslovakia as a country for half of their earlier life, which coincidently they remember more vividly. So many a times they may forget that czechoslovakia isn't a country any more.
The time zone confusion is shocking to me because Americans have multiple time zones in their own country! Even on television, broadcast times are given in different time zones.
The weirdest thing about the time zone question is that the USA is one of the few countries in the world with multiple time zones, so how come the Americans have more difficulty understanding the concept than other people? I mean, some TV shows even specify the time zone when announcing the time they will be broadcast, if they are national shows.
A show may be on in NYC at 7 pm local time there. Three hours later it is shown in LA. Time delayed. Also before satellite the video or film had to be flown across the Atlantic, so Europeans saw it many hours before Americans did.
A lot of Americans probably don’t understand their own time zone situation. They just know that they watch the thing at PST or EST/CST. (Nobody lists anything in Mountain Time which is frankly hilarious.)
I am currently living in Costa Rica and at the time I ran a restaurant. The question I was asked by an American couple was similar to one your referenced at the start of your video... "Where would the best place to watch the fireworks be?" It was, of course, July 4th. I felt bad afterwards, but I pointed to the beach and said that was the closest point to Miami. XD
Do people 🤔 not research where they are going?? We were in Idaho falls ( yes in Idaho !) For the 4th of July parade being Canadian it was so fun !! Everyone being able to buy fireworks 🎆 🙄 was a bit scary! Fire crackers in the mall ?
@@ANNEWHETSTONE, hallo from Germany. Untill 2020 you could buy every year fireworks in the last week of December. Cause it is a big tradition in Germany to fire up fireworks at the Silvesternight (31.12. to 01.01). Due to regulations cause of the big C, it is not allowed since 2020. Not all people love fireworks, cause of the air pollution, the noise, the waste and because animals are scared of fireworks. Of course people under the age of 18 are not allowed to buy big fireworks, but there are so called children fireworks, they are very small and burn just a few seconds, these you can use 365 days per year. 🎊🎉🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎉🎊
I know a guy that called the police on a guy that kept fishing in his pond and had him cited for trespassing. The man was from a different country and thought in the "land of the free" meant you were free to fish where ever you wanted.
I still remember, when I was 16 or so I was on student exchange in Germany. During the first dinner with the german family the mother asked me: "do you have potatoes in Poland?". At first I thought I understood wrong. But when she additionally pointed on the potatoes on the table I was like "WTF???"
@@katethegreat4918 Well, you see, its even more funny if you realise that potatos in german are "kartoffeln" and so you can call them in polish "kartofle"
Living in the US, I had a coworker whose spouse was being transferred to Germany. Knowing that I was from there, she began to evaluate her options. "Well it'll probably be quite a change, do they have traffic lights there? I don't know if they have cities like we do, we'll probably have to live in a village. But I won't be wearing any of those outfits. We may have to bring a refrigerator and stove, etc, etc." That was a lot of information to debunk, but her final question, when I told her about currency exchange, was: "Why don't they just use dollars?" 🤣
The traffic lights question can be relevant, though. I traveled through northern Norway in 2016 and noticed that apparently north of Bodø there aren't any traffic lights (or at least, I didn't see any). Quite a strange experience. When I traveled back south and saw a traffic light for the first time in 2 weeks I almost didn't know what to do.🤣
@@wohlhabendermanager you're right about that, that is the case in many remote or rural places. But the guy was being transferred to Frankfurt (sorry for not mentioning earlier). She couldn't understand that Frankfurt/Main, Germany was a heavily urbanized area, and even if they would have moved to a village nearby, there would have been traffic lights. Btw, they ended up living in Niederrad. Talking about culture shock...
Mein absoluter Favorit war eine ältere Dame in Minneapolis: "In which Part of Bavaria is Germany?" Oder so ähnlich. Auch gut war die Frage, ob die Allierten immernoch Deutschland bombadieren. Meine Antwort war "Ja, und das nervt so beim Fernsehen, dass ich immer die Fenster zumachen muss, was aber auch schlecht ist, da so die Eisbären nicht mehr rauskönnen."
I'm from Switzerland, and I was often requested to speak "swiss", just to hear how it sounded, lol. Or what language I spoke there. Not really a dumb question, but a very difficult one to answer ! When I tried to explain the very complex linguistic situation of Switzerland, they were blown away that so many languages and dialects could cohabit on such a tiny territory without problems, and even more blow away to learn that I spoke 3 of the official languages, plus 2 foreign languages and 2 dialects, lol. 😂
@@inconnu4961 not every europeen speaks english! the people who do had to study it! i spent 6 months in London, that cost a lot of money! People thinking we all just speak english so the (native) English speaker don't need to educate themself while visiting our counties, really annyos me!
@@inconnu4961 Well, YOU tell us why we all speak English. What do you think? My opinion to this subject is that many people speak English because compared to other languages it's a very simple one with almost zero grammar: no declination, no conjugation. The only difficult thing in English is the prononciation which has no logic whatsoever.
I was asked several stupid questions over the years like if we had microwaves, fridges and so on in Germany. Depending on my realtionship to the asking person, my response sometimes is:"We live in caves and just come out to build the best cars in the world." Only some peolpe do get the irony though.
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No, we build those cars *in* the caves. With a box of scraps.
I recieved a card via Postcrossing (online website where strangers can send each other mail) from a woman in Florida. She wrote my address right, but instead of Netherlands, she wrote Neanderth-lands. If I'm correct, she thought the Dutch were basically..the evolved version of Neanderthals, but not..youknow...modern yet. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry and I need to milk my pet-bison for the cheese.
I'm from Rome hi. I read that Italian immigrants in Canada (but probably also in USA) in the 60th were asked if we had railways in Italy. I would reply "no, we move by horses like in the movie Ben Hur , what's a railway?". By the way, this happened to me: a friend of mine told me as a child that Americans don't know that Rome is the capital of italy; when I grew up in 1995 became a guard inside one of the most visited monument in Rome, the Pantheon ; i wanted to check and often asked American visitors about the capital of the country they were visiting. One replied "is not Barcelona?". I couldn't belive! By the way many people from USA didn't know actually the capital.
@Ben Dover Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, where do you see the irony? Of course if you are not into elegant, well designed cars with top notch technology, I can definetely see your point.
@@lucaschiantodipepe2015 not only in your country in My country México probably they don't know that México City is our capital and have more cities. Greetings
Question I was often asked when I was a young officer in the U.S. Army: "You were stationed in Germany? My brother was there too. Maybe you know him, his name is Frank." It was the Cold War, there were 335,000 American soldiers there at the time. On the other side of things - I married a German (making me very lucky indeed), and after we moved to the U.S., if anything happened anywhere in the country (a fire, a storm, a murder) and it hit the German news, her mother would call us to make sure we're OK. No concept of the sheer size of this country.
Urgh. I have repeatedly heard the "Oh, you're German? Do you know so-and-so, he's also from Germany" There are millions of Germans and no, I don't know all of them.
My mother told me a story about the time she was in an exchange program in France and another student from America was also there and he talked to my mother about the time he already spent in Germany. He then asked her if he knew a Sabine from Cologne (We live an hour away from Cologne and that city has 1 million citizens, the whole region/state has 17 million people and Sabine was a very popular name in that generation)
I always end every conversation with "Tell everyone that I said Hello!" It brings warmth and a sense of pleasure, happiness to them? It makes them smile. So little, can mean so much? I really mean it, by the way! lol.
As an Australian living in the US as a child, I was asked where I learnt to speak English (it's my native language); did we have pet kangaroos (do you have a pet buffalo or coyote?); do Aboriginal people throw spears at one another in Sydney (as often as cowboys ride through San Francisco shooting one another); who was the Australian president (we are a monarchy); isn't Australia just south of Germany? And no, we don't refer to ourselves as "Down Under" -- that is rather obviously a Northern Hemisphere term.
> And no, we don't refer to ourselves as "Down Under" I guess "Men at Work" really did you guys a disservice when singing about coming "from a land Down Under".
@@wohlhabendermanager Yes. I first heard the term when I lived in the US for two years. It was never used in Australia when I was a child, although international communication has made us aware of the term since then.
I will never forget the time that i told an American i was talking to on Reddit that i come from the Netherlands and she literally said, with full confidence "Ohh the Netherlands, i know that, thats the capitol city of Berlin right?" Yeahh no sweetie but you are trying your very best and i'm proud of you. You will get there when its time.
From an American patient to my wife when she worked as an MD in the USA: "Are you loving the standard of living here in the USA, being so much better than in Australia?" "Actually our standard of living in Australia is very good. Why do you think it isn't?" "Well I watch a home renovation TV show from Australia and I've never since a granite kitchen bench on it, so your country must be pretty poor." My wife just didn't know how to proceed from there.
I grew up in the 80s and Crocodile Dundee was huge back then. I imagined all Australians lived in the outback and wore animal skins, carried around huge knives, and were always covered in dust.
An Aussie I know was asked in a California bar where he had learned English so well. There is also this story about two US tourist traveling to the northern parts of Norway in the summer to see the midnight sun. They were so dissapointed when they realized it was the same sun the had at home...
I'm from Luxembourg and I spent a semester in Los Angeles for my Master, a student asked me if my parents or grand parents were nazi, I was surprised how offending her ignorance was. I answered that Luxembourg is a country and was invaded by Germany. I told her that my grand father died during the war, killed by Germans, so not exactly a nazi. But then I realised something, it must be tough to be a German abroad sometimes, I hope you don't get a lot of comments like those.
Well, as a German, sometimes I just claim to be from Switzerland. Mostly, when I am embarrassed by the behavior of other german tourists. But my familytree is realy european (Germany, Switzerland, North Italy, Balticum, Sweden, Bretagne, Normandy, Gascogne) so I feel in every way "european".
Asking questions of someone from Germany about Nazis or Hitler or WW II is just shameful and ignorant. It would be like a European asking an American if their family has ever owned slaves. Nobody wants to talk about their country’s ugliest episodes. It’s an appalling subject of conversation to raise.
@@richardsmith881 Honestly I do talk about it. I just know very little of my great-grandparents involvement. I know 2 of them where in Stalingrad and while on was flown out days before the devastating loss, the other became a POW. Neither of the two ever talked about it - or suvived the war for long. Hence I look at it rather objectively, I am certain that they were good people (both faithful christian teachers), but I am not too sure they weren't involved in some war crime. Anyhow I do not have a problem talking about it, but it rarely makes for a good conversation, at least if the evening is supposed to stay cheerful.
During studies, I worked as an animator in hotels when I had holidays from my studies. I worked in Greece and there was an entire family from Israel on a holiday together to celebrate one's 50th birthday. I sat with them at the bar, chatting very nicely for almost an hour. Then they asked "by the way, where are you from?" I was a little unsure but I thought they had recognised my accent anyway so I said "from Germany". 19 out of these 20 people immediately stopped talking to me. The youngest explained that family members had died in the Konzentrationslager and it made me really sad and I told him how horrible I find everything that Germans did to others back then but I was born around 40 years after the end of the war - the others didn't want to talk to me anymore anyway. At another hotel, a colleague found it funny to say "Arbeit macht frei" every time he saw me. That's not funny, it's disrespectful to all victims of the holocaust and it causes pain to us Germans as it brings up the shame of our history. One time on holidays, my parents and me wanted to join some French people for breakfast (we always like to get to know new people and didn't want to sit on our own) and they said that they don't want Germans at their table (they had heard us talking German to each other before). The only happy moment was when just after them saying this, another French family who had heard this, invited us by saying "but we'd like you to come join us". It doesn't happen very often but there are some people who still cannot stand the Germans - even those who weren't born when these terrible things happened.
@@richardsmith881 Well the slave trade wasn't exactly the darkest hour of the Americans and they hated the Germans soo much but loved to steal 3000 tons of patents and I mean steal.
Although I've been living in the US for most of my life, I was originally born in Peru and have been back to several times to visit relatives. As such, in addition to feeling like I am a part of both the US and Peru, watching your videos Feli has really helped to make me feel like I am also part of the larger community of first generation immigrants in the US regardless of their point of origin. So I wanted to start off by saying thank you for that. That being said, I think one of the dumbest questions that certain "America first" native born Americans have ever asked me is if I speak Peruvian? Then when I say that I actually speak Spanish, they will follow up with an even dumber question which is "Well how come they speak Spanish in Peru instead of Peruvian?" To which my reply is always "For the same reason they speak English in the US." But sadly that answer doesn't always seem to register with them.
Yes, It is the same nonsense as people who insist that in the US we "speak American". No such language. It is called ENGLISH! My wife is from Peru by the way. She hated English at first!
You could have also said that you speak Spanish because the many native languages of Peru: Aymara Quechua Kichwa Ashaninka Jaqaru Aguaruna Arawan Jaqaru aren't used much outside of South America.
I was asked by a (texan, i believe that explains a lot) colleague f we would have the Euro in Germany. I sais, yes of course we do. Then it continued like "Yeah, but is this only in the bigger cities?". My answer was, sure, in the countryside, where I acutally live we still exchange chickens and carrots if we want to trade stuff between us 🤦♂
I don't know, if the story is true... but a friend was once asked in a chat, if Hitler is still our Chancellor. My friend said "No, he's been dead for 70 years." The answer from the american was: "Oh, i'm sorry to hear that."
I'm Dutch and I met an American girl in a chat group some time ago. I told her about how New York used to be New Amsterdam in the past and she got got quite offended and declared it as nonsense because: "we all speak American here"..
Back in 1987 after my slide show about Bavaria at a Rotary meeting I was asked: „Do you have lions in Germany?“ To be sure, lions at the zoo were not meant. In El Paso we were asked where we came from. I tried „Germany“ and „Munich“. I added „Oktoberfest“, „Olympiad 1972“. No success, Finally we found out that the inquirer in fact knew one town in Germany. A neighbor of him was once stationed in Hanau. In Houston in a travel agency (!) I experienced a similar ignorance concerning Germany and Munich. Fortunately there was a picture on the wall of the castle in Neuschwanstein. I told them I was coming from there. I guess they believed me to live right in this castle.
The question about lions isn't completely unreasonable, considering we have mountain lions in a large portion of the United States, so it's possible they were asking about those and if you have them anywhere.
when i got asked "oh, do you got refrigators, cars, planes, etc." i usually went with the answer "its most likely been invented in germany, so yes". Worked like a charme and opened up a lot of nice talks.
Well those three items were all invented by Americans. Unfortunately I think Americans believe all other countries are third world. All the poor crossing our borders to the south.
Actually the refrigerator and the first working plane was invented in usa. Also the car wasn't a fully german invention, cause for example the combustion engine wasn't a German invention but an Italian one "Barsanti and Matteucci" combustion engine. I'm European, but stupidity is a global issue.
I have been asked many times : 'How are you speaking English if you're from Germany?" The creepiest thing I heard from many American adults as a child was, "Oh Hitler would have LOVED you!"This was especially when I was younger because my hair went from white as a toddler to dark blonde as teenager. I also have blue eyes.This still creeps me out when I think about it.
OK so you've met some idiots Most Americans Know Europeans speak / Learn English. after all Europeans grow up watching American TV, Movies & listening to American Music listen to feli she speaks like a native , she speaks it better than the Scorpions & They been singing in English since 1972.
The 9/11 time difference warning thing is so cool... We could really make profits over here in good old Europe by sports betting... We know the results of the matches before they actually have started in the US :) Love that idea :)
Mate, us Aussies are in from of both the Yanks and you Europeans so we could have your sports betting well covered….. in fact, us Aussie could share the betting results with you and both of us could stitch up the Yanks. That would be so satisfying on so many levels and the Yanks would still not be able to understand how we achieved that. Grüße aus Australien.
@@robertgary3561 Mate, I’ve had business dealings with Americans who cannot grasp the concept we could be a day in front. They even had trouble understanding the concept of flying out of Melbourne on a Friday at 11am on a 13 hour flight and arriving in Los Angeles at 8am on the same Friday…… literally arriving at their destination BEFORE they had left Melbourne. Fair dinkum. Grüße aus Australien.
As an American, I agree that is a fun one. I can't say I've ever met another American who thought time zones were actually traveling in time, but I'm not surprised such people are out there either. It probably doesn't help that airplane travel is used to teach Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but still, that's a completely different thing.
I was asked if you could see the moon from Europe. I was thinking "do I have the time to explain the rotation of the earth and orbital mechanics?". And when I told one guy that I was living and studying in Paris, his answer was "oh yeah, the capital of Europe". Huh????
Well it’s the cultural and economic centre of the continent so if they had to believe Europe has a capital (a true capital I mean, not in the EU sense) Paris would be a reasonable guess
As an American, we can be rather idiotic with questions but it’s not meant to offend. We are mostly curious that’s all. Many of us here do not get the chance to meet people from other countries, that’s why some of us are excited to meet foreigners
It is not offensive if you politely ask, just annoying. But believe me, most questions are not out of curiosity from children, but people that blatantly assume that Europe is a medieval continent with horsecarts, minstrels and some screeching witches in the forests.
@@jamesr1703 I'm serious. Two Valleygirls complained about the lack of goats, others wondered if there was a horsecart from SchipholAirport to the hotel, they were expecting 'mud-roads' and complimented (backhanded) the airport out loud for being 'almost as clean as the USA" (while a cleaner was scrubbing the floor that their heels touched with bleach, of all things.) I've had people ask me where they could get safe water, because 'obviously the tapwater was not drinkable' because it 'did not have any chlorine' and was therefore 'infected with parasites, drugremains and filth' and they also didn't dare to walk into buildings like churches, because those could 'collapse any second.' The church has been standing since about 6000 years, but sure, Hank will walk into it and that'll be the final blow that makes the church collapse. People have panicked about the dangerous streets of Amsterdam, but instead of panicking about the dangers of walking into the bikelane (which they should nót do, and instead just walk onto) they are telling me that they are afraid of getting their food drugged by a café, like 'in the movies' and then they'll be sodomized by strangers and sold onto the sexmarket, 'like in taken.' I assured them nobody would drug you for free, we are famously keen on making money here, so if your brownie stinks of hash, and it costs more than a normal one, and you look around and see weed-leafs everywhere and the sign above you says; 'Coffeeshop!' with weedleafs and people around you are smoking and Bob Marley music is playing in the background, then it is safe to assume you walked into a drugbar. They famously advertise the drugs, otherwise the tourists wouldn't find it. We don't 'drug you for fun' so that we can clean up the floor after an overwhelmed American vomits on it. There is no time for such nonsense, there is money to be made. I can't give anyone guarantees, but I can assure you the chances of the following fears happening are slim; 1. Witnessing prostitutes fuck animals and humans on the street (They famously have windows and they don't fuck animals) 2. Seeing gay people fuck on the street (they famously have wonderfully designed houses and stylish bedrooms for that.) 3. Having people kidnap you like Liam Neeson's daughter to sell your American-style bodies on the dark web. 4. Invite you over for a lovely cup of tea and then announce a spontanious orgy 5. Offer you free sex, with the sole purpose of spreading diseases 6. Giving your tourist-teenagers euthanasia-pills because they mentioned they are depressed 7. Casually killing your grandma with euthanasia-pills because that's what we get off on 8. Marry you and then reveal we are now 3 people in a marriage (Fox News was convinced we did this) 9. Beat you up, because we saw a cross on your neck and we consume Christian blood Street-cons WILL however....pickpocket you, so watch out
I (german) heard of the refrigator / fridge question. Now I am prepared: if that question would arise, I would answer: "Of course, we invented them [it was Carl Linde from Bavaria]. We also invented the car. Do you know what a car is?" Replace the product / go on with "bicycle", "computer", "rocket" and other inventions of germans. Like the "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher". hehe.
@@chrisb2535 Goddard work is having built the world's first *liquid-fueled* rocket. That was in 1926. Long before that, the german Conrad Haas built the first manned rocket That was in the 16th(!) century.
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@@chrisb2535 Let me guess, he's credited with that by Americans? ;-)
In a restaurant on the east coast of the US, the waitress said: "Oh, you're from Germany!! Is that far from Europe?" - Even funnier, a friend of ours hitchhiked in California, and the driver asked him: "Did you hitchhike all the way from Germany?"
I'm guessing that second guy was trying to make a joke. Older Americans (boomers) will often make stupid jokes like that. At least I hope he was joking
The second question was either a joke or he really meant it - i've read blogs from hitchhikers who asked sailors if they could come with them or worked as a sailor to pass the ocean. That question isn't dumb in my opinion
When my sister and I visited New York for the first time we went into a shop close to the time Square, during the conversation with a girl from the staff she asked us where are we from and we told her that we are from Germany. Her next question has been so wierd /stupid that I thought I haven't heard correctly. She asked us if speak a different language in Germany. I know that Americans are often quite absorbed by the them self and not very good educated but this was hard. Especially in the center of Manhattan where millions of tourists from all over the world around.
@@stevesoutar3405 🤦🏻♂️ They just a tiny bit self-centered and very good educated. Sarcasm off... What makes me a bit upset that they don't accept our degrees in the same time.
I experienced this. On a flight from Boston to London I overheard the end of a conversation while I was waiting to use the toilet. “They speak American there so don’t worry” “thank goodness for that” was the reply. I went into brain numb for at least 10 minutes.
@@Turbo36de Solche Fragen einfach auf Deutsch beantworten, dann versteht der Andere zwar nichts, aber er merkt wenigstens, dass du ne andere Sprache sprichst. 😁😁
Bless you ALWAYS, Feli! You are such an effortlessly radiantly comradely, empathetic, wonderfully understanding messenger of truth to all mankind! As to the dumbest thing Americans have ever asked me (and at this moment I MUST apologize to all people from other countries who've had to suffer too many of our people's general illiteracy not just when it comes to other countries, but when it comes to thinking in general! NOBODY deserves the extent to which too many people in the U.S. have fallen in their general ignorance of the world!), I think it was from a young bank teller in her late 20's who enjoyed my company. When she was finishing processing my transaction, while we'd been talking a bit about the significance of W.W. II in Europe, she very brightly smiled and told me, "Now, I was never aware the Nazis ever were in Holland!?" I quietly let her know where to look up sources explaining the Nazi occupation of Holland, and also mentioned to her that an old family friend (nearly two generations my elder) had served in the Dutch resistance to the Nazi Occupation - but underneath my quietly tolerant expression, I was almost dumbfounded and was thinking, "OH! MY! GOD!!" Then again, here's a story both cute and pathetic because it's a bellwether for just how low too many people in our country have fallen: I was being driven home from an appliance pickup at a local department store by a local cabbie, a middle-aged American in his late 50's. It was early summer, and the 4th of July was coming on, and I was sharing with him a memory of one of those (all too many!) comedic straw polls of public ignorance (in the name of public opinion) you can find so many of online now, though some of them were done years and years ago on TV before the rise of video and online culture. The straw poll was done by a once-reknowned sportscaster, a very magnetic, comradely, very engaging, very socially attractive young guy with a great way with people (Sadly I don't remember his name or I'd share it with you). This guy was in the greater Chicago area and was polling people either on July 3rd or early on the 4th. He was walking along a large grassy quadrangle near some public and professional playing fields talking with people about upcoming exhibition and minor league baseball and other games, and the quadrangle naturally had many booths and tables being set up by people selling food, drinks, holiday souvenirs, legal small-scale fireworks (sparklers, noise-maker caps, etc.), and patriotic tokens and symbols, and one young man putting up a booth was in his mid-30's. You could hardly see him because his head was surround by thick, graying, wavy, frizzy, kinky hair and beard, and his eyes were covered by reflective sunglasses, but he was amenable when the sportscaster introduced himself and told him he was doing a public opinion straw poll about the upcoming holiday celebrations. The dialog went: Sportscaster: "Everybody's busy getting ready for the 4th of July celebration and for games they're either playing in or watching." Booth Owner: "Yeah, you know how big the 4th is around here." Sportscaster: "Well, I'd like to know your personal opinion about what it is we're really celebrating on the 4th." Booth Owner: "Oh, you know, hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecued or fried chicken, sodas, beer, ice cream, fireworks--" Sportscaster: "Yeah, well, that's all part of HOW we celebrate the 4th, but can you tell me just WHAT the 4th really means? I mean, just exactly WHAT are we celebrating?" Booth Owner: "Oh, I don't know, really, it's just a big day to - be an American and to celebrate America." Sportscaster: "Isn't it also something about independence?" Booth Owner: "Oh, yeah, independence, but you know it's been years since I was in school, and yeah, they taught us something about that, but I've forgotten most of it. You usually tend to forget about things like that once you've finished school." Sportscaster: "Oh, well, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know what you remember about our celebrating our independence, like when did we become independent?" Booth Owner: "Oh, let me seeeeeeeee, I think it wuzzzzzzzzz, back innnnnnnnnn, 1840? No, that's not right, it was before then - 1820, yeah, that was it, 1820." Sportscaster (good-humoredly playing along): "OK, do you happen to remember who we got our independence from?" Booth Owner: "Oh, let me seeeeeeee, Australia? No, that's not right, it wuzzzzzzzzzzz, ummmmmmm - China! Yeah, China!" Sportscaster: "OK, so when we got our independence from China back in 1820, didn't we make some kind of formal public statement about becoming independent and why we were doing it?" Booth Owner: "Um, yeah, I think we did, you know you forget things like that when you've been out of school for a while." Sportscaster: "OK, well, would you happen to remember what we called that statement?" Booth Owner: "Oh, I don't knowwwwwwww, ummmmmmmmm - statement of independence?" Sportscaster: "How about Declaration of Independence?" Booth Owner: "Oh, yeah, that!" I don't remember how the poll continued, but it was all at that same level, and I shared with the cabbie all of what I've shared with you here, and when I got to the point where the Sportscaster asked the booth owner, "How about Declaration of Independence?", and the booth owner answered, "Oh, yeah, that!", you should have seen this cabbie's face light up with a shock of recognition, as if I'd just revealed the key to True Enlightenment to him! He answered, "Oh, right, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat's it! Thanks for sharing! Yeah, you know when we were in school they always taught us about the Declaration of Independence, but I never really understood what that meant, but you've made it clear! NOW, I understand! Statement of Independence, Declaration of Independence! NOW it makes sense! NOW I understand, finally! Thanks for the sharing!" (Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!!) It wasn't even worth the waste of energy to blink! I smiled quietly, told him he was welcome, and when we got to my home and I'd thanked him, paid him and got out with my appliance and he'd driven off, I could only think along with Prof. Henry Higgins, "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?!!" Btw, I LOVE the fact that My Fair Lady found itself audiences all over the world, especially in Germany! It's lovely to hear, from time to time, that sentimental song, "In dem strasse, mein schatz, wo du lebst!", a.k.a. "In dem strasse, mein schatz, wo wohnst du!" I wish I could find a video of a good full-length German production, because of course many German theaters do this time-honored singspiel so well! Meanwhile, Blessed Soul that you are, please know that unlike some Americans, I have NO illusion at all that our country is the only one on Earth or that we're somehow the center of the world! We're not, and we have no business acting as if we were! I only hope the ratio of U.S. people suffering from general illiteracy to those who have at least a decent idea of what other countries are like and are about is much higher on the knowledgeable side than it is on the ignorant one, especially in your experience and the experience of your fellow Germans! I'd hate to think of what it would mean for international relations if it were the other way around! Tjus, Servus, Auf Wiedersehen!
When was in college I went to California to summer school. One guy there asked whether it was true that we in Russia have bears walking on the streets. The funny part was, that couple days later I actually saw a bear in the backyard of the house I was living in.
I was walking with a Dutch colleague in Holland and asked in anyone ever really wears wooden shoes. He said, 'No', and then we passed a gentleman walking in the other direction wearing wooden shoes. It happens. :)
I thought you had penguins ….. I can just bet that you get a lot of odd question because you come from Russia. I have noticed that when me and my wife (I’m a Swede, she’s a Russian) travel in USA and speak our Swedish-Russian, people often hear we speak two languages, but cannot place them really.
My German friends once told me a story about a bus tour they took in Warsaw, Poland. The tourists were all German, but the tour guide was Polish. The tour guide mentioned that many buildings were destroyed during World War II. One of the German tourists asked, "who destroyed them?"
@John Smetak idk know about that. From what Germans I have talked to they teach it. They may not go into as much detail as they do other places but they all knew they started the war and why and which places they attacked as well as the Holocaust. Japan on the other hand like you said glosses over the whole thing till they get nuked and act like they were a victim when they were as bad if not worse than the Germans.
@John Smetak Yes, German history and especially WWII is thought extensively in German schools. It involves all the questions of how Hitler came to power, what were the socio-economic conditions to how other countries were effected. Most schools do take a trip to one of the many konzentration camps turned into memorials. But that is a very common misconception about Germany. But to the original post - yes also Germans ask stupid questions, sometimes
Once at a ski resort here in the States, my wife and I were riding up in a chair lift together with another gentleman. We two were discussing something in our native Russian. The other gentleman was trying to figure out what was going on, and then had a lightbulb moment and asked in clearly American English: "you guys must be from Minnesota, right?"
Funny story Feli. I have a friend from Berlin who came to the US for his Ph.D. (aerospace engineering at UM). after graduation, he was hired by GE at its R&D center in Munich--yeah, back to Germany. First day of work, he went with his new colleagues to the cafeteria for lunch, and he could not understand anything on the menu. Not just was unfamiliar with the foods (Munich. v. Berlin), but literally had no idea what the menu items even meant. At that moment, he wondered if he actually did understand German (or probably more whether or not they spoke German in Munich).
"Why didn't you warn us about 9/11?" You should have answered: "We tried but the carrier pigeon wasn't fast enough. You know, because we don't have telephones..." 😁😁
Holy heck thats a brand new take that ive ever heard! Im proud to be american but people who ask those specific questions just make me a bit embarassed
That hurts my brain just trying to understand how anyone thought this was a valid question. I am American, but once another American asked me "who wrote Grimm's Fairytales". At least she laughed at herself after I told her.
Many years ago I was traveling from London to Paris on the Eurostar and I sat opposite an American young lady who was very nice to talk to and then we got to Paris and we were saying goodbye and she looked around confused that about all the signs. I wouldn't expect her to understand the French written on all the signs, except for the fact that in the Eurostar terminal every sign is both in English and French. So whilst all the green signs had the word "Exit" written on them there was also word "Sortie". And she asked me what the word "sortie" meant. I don't know how she survived after she had left the Eurostar terminal because guess what the signs in France usually don't have English written on them, it's just the Eurostar terminal is a special case.
She probably coped as well as any English . They know , well I am not so sure these days, that French is a different language but 90% can't get by in it.
@@matthewbaynham6286 I was talking about outside the station most English people can't speak a word of french. So it wouldn't make a bit of difference. I guess what I am saying is don't look down on people.
@@MrTohawk In English the word 'sortie' has a different meaning than it does in French. In French it means 'exit', but in English the word sortie means what the Americans call a 'mission' as in 'we're on a mission to attack an enemy stronghold'.
This reminds me of living in China/ Asia. Many funny questions asked of me as a Mexican/ American (adding jalapeños to a dish does not merit the name Mexican and you guys do this as well lol) and my white South African ex used to blow their minds. Just goes to show you how big the word is and how little we all know. Also, it’s super cool that you are from München and you live in your sister city! I used to work as a tour guide in München and my German tourists never knew that Cincinnati helps foster so much business and relationships between our countries. I remember the German tour guide that trained me said Cincinnati donated loads of money to München to help in reconstruction, but I could never find that stuff online. Anyway, thanks for making these videos, it was a nice blast from the past!!
I might have the best one, and it happened twice. On visiting the US in December I remarked that it was now summer where I came from. After some surprise and confusion, I explained about the seasons due to the tilt of the Earth. They were prepared to accept my explanation as I seemed serious, but added, "so it must be June in Australia now."
*Sigh* I would bet anything that lack of scientific understanding is, at least in part, influenced by the religious culture in the US. The world has come a long way since burning Copernicus for heresy, but America prefers to take baby steps and wave from a mile behind everyone else.
Asked by an American (who had a VW btw) : do you have cars in germany? I answered „no we still ride horses“ as a joke and he was like : oh damn poor you
I've been asked a few times about driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. I said I've no idea how that works since I've never done it. They always look confused. It's similar to the "have you driven on the autobahn?" question. No, never, I've never driven on a highway. We purposely take side streets which are slower, less safe, take longer, and go through every 13th century village with streets barely wide enough for a horse and buggy.
I'm from California and my best friend is from Germany. We met while she was a student here 20 years ago. I used to take her over to my aunt's house for dinner and my aunt would always talk about stuff we had in the US and ask if they had that in Germany. Like basic stuff they obviously had in Germany. It has been a running joke with my friend and me for years. Anytime we mention anything we'll say, Do they have that in Germany? Or do they have that in the US?
Asked by an American: " Do you speak Danish with other Danes at home in Denmark, now that you are speaking such a good English" 🤣. Ich wünsche dir einen schönen Weihnachten und ein guten Rutsch ins neues Jahr 🎄🎄☃️❄️🍺.
The whole thing with someone asking if you actually speak German when you say you are from Germany probably stems from SO MANY Americans claiming a cultural heritage from a nation when they've never even been outside the state they live in, much less even outside the US. For instance, many Americans will say they are Irish, or French, or German, or Italian, when they may have never been more than 100 miles outside the small town in Texas they were born in for their whole lives.
I am Dutch and was looking for Germans to talk to (just talking.) I then found someone and greeted him in English (the website was also in English.) I checked and said; So, you are German? and he replied; Yep, yep, haha, that's me, my grandpa was German.' I said; Okay, but are you German?' He said; Yeah partially, haha. I consider myself German.' I said; 'Okay, also, wenn ich Deutsch spreche, wirst du mich verstehen?" He said; 'Oh, what the hell...hahah...that's German right? I know the ish. Ish is like 'Me' hahah.' I replied; 'Have you ever spoken German?' and he said; 'Naw man, I only speak American lol. Grandpa taught me that ish-thing. But like, we weren't very close.' I said; 'Have you ever tried to learn more German, visit Germany...youknow, to really... 'become a German' as you wish to be? And he said; 'Naw haha, no, it's too expensive and also I have enough to learn in university lol, like I'm partially German though, but maybe like, also American.' And despite being frustrated because I had been talking with him for 20 minutes for nothing, I tried to politely say; 'Yes..perhaps a bit more American.'
@@Widdekuu91 - your story is exactly what I'm talking about. There are just too many Americans that think they can call themselves German, Italian, Japanese, whatever when they don't even speak the language of the nation, and have proably never even visited it. I understand pride in cultural heritage, and ethnic identity, but, I think Americans are really very bad at misrepresenting who they are.
@@konstantinavalentina3850 Exactly. I'd say you can call yourself Japanese if your parents are Japanese, you actively speak Japanese at home, you honour the traditions, it's just that you were born in America, but the rest of you is fully Japanese. And even then you're just an American, but o.k. I would understand if they said "Japanese" then. Around Thanksgiving/Christmastime, I got loads of commercials for DNA-testing on Facebook, called "My Cultural Heritage" with a picture of a Viking on it (sometimes they swapped it for a Native American or an Aboriginal) that said; 'Your DNA-results in just a few days!" Underneath, a woman said; 'I have adjusted my diet to my original ancestors and I feel so much better now!' Turns out her ancestors from a few hundred years ago, were Vikings and therefore "she wasn't eating enough fish" to keep her DNA happy. I mean, they're not even trying to make it sound legit. (I'm not even going to go into detail about what happens afterwards, because you can only join if you let them store your DNA for 'research purposes.' Hence the arguable-cheapness of it.) And underneath, you had responses such as; 'Hi from Michigan here, sóóóó happy when I got the results back, turns out I am from Eastern Europe, originally, that's where my ancestors came from. I've always known, I'm such a traveller as well, and I like the cold and I guess I like reindeer lol-' (etc.) I just think it's a knee-jerk movement because America isn't really looking so great right now and everyone would rather claim they were 'actually' from Sweden. And whether that be a hundred years ago or threehundred, doesn't matter.
Todays Americans are proud of their history from the 15th century on and because of that and their economy they think they are the leaders of the world. What should they want to know about civilisations that are thousands of years older, as for example in Europe, Mesopotamia or China. That's only old stuff outside the US borders...
Feli, I have to commend you again on your excellent American English. I have never met a German (even decades in the U.S.) who speaks as well as you. My grandma was German and came to the U.S. in the 50s and "Zee all-vays tauked like dis." This video was hilarious by the way. You showed a lot of humility. Not all Germans can tolerate these kinds of questions, but you have heard them many times over.
Most Germans, including myself, learn English at school and don't need it afterwards. In Germany itself, of course, everything is German (even foreign films) and in the typical European vacation regions German is spoken everywhere. It is unfavorable if you are then in the UK or the USA and imagine that you know the language. When I came to the USA for a semester abroad, I found that I couldn't even place a restaurnt order. However, I was young enough to pick up the language quickly.
well nowadays people here in germany speak better english than 20 or 30 years ago. because of the internet and overall more exposure to english in daily life and people traveling more. at the same time i am often surprised that a lot of people still manage to hide that well that they don't speak english at all.
@@robopecha naja, Deutsch ist die größte Sprache in der EU. Die Deutschen müssen keine Fremdsprache sprechen. So ist das auch in Spanien, wo ich lebe. Spanier und Franzosen sind in einer ähnlichen Situation. Und die meisten Deutschen wollen noch nichtmal einmal im Leben nach Amiland, wo sie Englisch vielleicht praktisch brauchen könnten (in Florida und Kalifornien gehts auch mit Spanisch).
I've heard plenty of stupid questions from Brits as well. I remember two in particular. The first was a woman who wondered why it's colder in Scotland than it is in England, because Scotland was "closer to the sun". I can only assume that she was looking at a map of Europe and noticed that Scotland was above England, thus closer to the sun. The second was a story told to me by an Englishman about something his wife said while watching a live cricket match in Australia. She apparently got bored watching the game and wanted to go to bed, but not before she knew the final score. She suggested that they call their relatives in Australia to find out, because Australia's time zone was a day ahead, and so people there would already know how the game ended. lol
Lol... people have no idea how time zones work??? Living in Canada 🇨🇦 with a sports crazy husband time zones are very important! I guess for smaller countries they may all be in the same time zone. The US, Canada and Russia 🇷🇺 definitely are not!!
I'm from Massachusetts, I once had a Brit say the 'we' weren't creative enough because we named out cities and towns after many in England, she was a bit insulted that a part of the USA is called New England. She still didn't get it even after I explained that everything was named by English settlers when we were a British Colony under the rule of the Crown. I'm assuming she didn't pay much attention in school during her history lessons about her own country.
@@nctpti2073 Well, there's virtually no creativity in any of the place names in Britain either. It's not like someone had a place naming contest a thousand years ago. Hell, there are _five different rivers_ (or seven, depending how you count), named Avon in the UK... because, when the Saxons invaded, all the locals called every river Avon... because "avon" is "river" in the Britonic language. smh
I was once asked: what language do people speak in Germany? Actually it is probably a legitimate question, but at this moment I thought: what question? - it is so obvious: Germany = German. So (because it was at a party) I wanted to be funny and answered: "we speak Austrian". What now followed seemed dump because nobody laughted and they took it as a serious answer.
You could have give a correction like: "You mean what languages?" Than you could have answered "Mostly German, but there are also the minority languages Danish in the north and Sorbian in the East." Probably also some Frisian.
I was left speechless when one exchange student asked me how are we celebrating thanksgiving day in my country... yea. My other favorites were (actually 2 different Americans asked me) what is the name of our king (we didn't have any monarch for over 100 years) and if I speak any other language besides English (I was asked this in Czech Republic after I was introduced to that person as foreign student from Slovakia)... like WHAT? W H A T????
I´ve been working in a souvenir shop in the middle of the Prague Castle for some time. I heard the question about king too several times, like who is he now, where he live in this castle and such. I always thought that I understood wrong and they´ve been asking who is our prezident, where are royal chambers cause they haven´t seen them yet or I thought that they just couldn´t find the right word (president/king) and took the one what carrie a thought (Hence "Who is your king now?" - "Oh, our president is so and so :)“ ) But now I kinda second gessing...
I was at a Petroleum show in Houston explaining to a lady that I was from Canada and I'd lived in Nova Scotia, Calgary and Toronto. We got in a discussion of nuts and bolts of where all this was, and I let her know that Toronto was just north of Buffalo. She assured me there is nothing north of Buffalo. Apparently here elementary school had a map of the US which didn't have the rest of North America on it and Hawaii and Alaska appeared as cutouts on the west side of the map. I guess that was the extent of her geographical training. I didn't ask her is she knew where Mexico was but Im guessing Americans from the southern US do know where that is.
I saw the title and was honestly surprised it wasn’t a several hour long video. As a biracial America, I also get asked if I can speak English, even if I am actively speaking English so I can’t imagine how much worse it is for people born in other countries.
Are you American? If so then we Brits are often confused by your "English" and there used to be an advert on the TV about it for a chocolate bar, Drifter. th-cam.com/video/qXuvFtcKHKc/w-d-xo.html
I think it's more of a cultural problem that also manifests in education: systemic disinterest in other countries and cultures. Individual people might actually find other cultures very interesting, but they barely get any exposure to them. I've seen US news media coverage of the German election, and it was the shallowest surface level shit I've ever seen. They usually have some external person call in who then talks about literally nothing for a few minutes and then the segment ends. You might find better stuff in good newspapers, but who reads newspapers in 2021?
I think it's not only about education system, here in Europe, we also know shit from school, but most of us is interested about world and travel to other countries, so you see informations about other countries everywhere and there is plenty of documentary movies in TV.
When I mentioned that I was from Germany the girl I was talking to got really excited and told me that she‘s been to Germany before. Turns out she visited Amsterdam once. Close but not quite Germany 😂
I used to study in Brussels, Belgium. I was speaking in French with a university official, who asked if I was from Ireland. I explained that I'm an American. The official asked why I was speaking French with an Irish accent. I replied that this is how I speak French and I'm not sure why it would sound Irish. He insisted that we switch to English, and then proceeded to tell me that I was speaking English with an Irish accent as well. As tactfully as possible, I told him that my accent wasn't Irish. After much arguing, he finally completed my paperwork. I could tell by his demeanor that he was convinced I was an Irish spy posing as an American for...reasons?
YES! I have lived in Germany on and off for years at a time and the ignorance goes both ways. I've been asked some really stupid questions by Germans and I get it. They watch a lot of garbage American TV. One question: After I said that I'm from Minnesota and that it borders Canada, I was asked, "Do you have an oil well in your backyard"? After further query, they were an avid fan of the TV show DALLAS. I said that Minnesota is nowhere near Texas. 🤣🤣🤣
I have been asked by educated Americans, “ How’s the fighting been there recently?” When I answered that there hasn’t been any fighting there for the last 75 years, I was told, “ I thought all of those LITTLE countries OVER THERE were always fighting with each other.”
🤦🏻♂️ that’s a rather awkward thing to say considering the fact that he comes from a country that themselves started or got involved in several conflicts around the world in the last 75 years 😂😂😂 no offense, dear Americans. I don’t mean to insult you or call you aggressive in any way. Just stating a fact…
I live in Detroit, Michigan USA. The most embarrassing incident I witnessed was during an International Engineering Conference. An Austrian professor was presenting a paper on preventing wrong way entry on to the highway by drunk driver Here is the scenario American presenter: Dr. professor abc from Australia, she corrected him, From Austria American presenter looks at the paper and says Dr. professor abc from Australia, The professor finishes the presentation, American presenter: Thank you Dr. professor abc from Australia Very embarrasing
I used to work for the Department of Employment and Social Development in Canada. Foreign workers who have worked long enough in Canada can qualify for a partial pension. I remember receiving multiple letters from a very displeased Austrian man who was complaining that his bank charged him service fees to convert his pension payments from Australian dollars to Euros. I investigated the matter and discovered that one of my colleagues had erroneously sent pension payments in Australian dollars to the poor Austrian man. What ensued was the most embarrassing apology letter I had ever written in my official capacity as a representative of the government of Canada.
Don’t worry, one time a girl asked me where I was from, I said Alberta, she thought for a while so I told her Canada, she then said, “oh I thought it was another planet”
Lol.... too funny!! Im in Alberta too. Some may know Banff or Jasper. Calgary stampede. Oil 🛢 country. For some people we might as well be on another planet!!
@@johnkarapita437 I like to think they don't speak enough and the misconceptions they've harbored all their lives can come out on the rare occasions they say what they're really thinking.
The question about whether you speak German... it brought back a CRAZY memory. Some years back, I moved to Egypt. While I was still in the US, getting ready for the move, someone actually asked me, "What language do they speak there in Egypt? Is it Spanish?"
I'm a Brit who lives in America. Around the time of William and Kate's wedding a couple from Missouri asked me, in all seriousness, if I had been invited. I'm still kicking myself for not saying "yes" and having some fun with them.
I'm from Norway, and my favourite one that I've heard of is an American tourist asking if Norwegians had as much trouble with trolls as they did with the American Indians.
To be fair, when I was 17 and first time worked as a trainee in Germany in 1999, in a small town in the heart of Baden-Würtenberg, I also had to face a rather dumb question One of my coworkers asked me if it is true, that in Hungary we still have more horses than cars, and that everybody rides like in the 10th century... and this coworker was a bit over 20 Well in that small town I have seen more barns, than ever before in my life in Hungary - because despite the only place with horses there was the local riding school, literaly a third of the houses had a barn... :) But ofc I had that conversation only one time... ...and next year again in another small town in Ostalgäu, in Bavaria... I still love Germany! Friend of mine also told me, some people in Denmark wanted to teach him how to eat with a fork and knife when he visited in Aalborg... no comment... But that 7 hours ahead, and why nobody warned them about 9/11 ??? That tops everything - especially since there are multiple timezones in the US
A lot of people here in Germany have as weird and uneducated thoughts about eastern europe as americans about germany. I guess its hard to imagine for them that countrys east to germany are fully developed countrys, even though the weath and living standard is maybe slightly lower.
I lived in Nurnberg (in the US Army) for three years... well actually it was a little town called Zirndorf. Moving back to the US was a huge culture shock for me. That was also the first time I'd seen a Wiener Schnitzel restaurant in the states. I was floored that instead of Schnitzel, they served Bochwurst. My friends took me there for dinner, and I was laughing the whole time. So the next week I found a nice Bavarian place that served Schnitzel, and more importantly, Deutch style Cordon Blu. Much bier was had by all. 🙂
In his defense, he was going for a joke, but when I came over to the UK for the first time, my friend asked: "Wait, where are your tanks? Didn't you bring any tanks?" There's still loads of British people that are thinking about WWII the moment they learn I'm from Germany. The 2nd time I came over, I brought tanks. Model tanks. :D The most annoying thing wasn't a question, but apperantly I can't be involved in a discussion about Churchil. With the words: "You as a German, should not be critizing him!" I was baffled.
If Germans can't criticize Churchill then, by that logic, Britons can't criticize Hitler. Lost is the irony of claiming to have won the war in the name of freedom while telling ohters what they are "allowed" to say and think.
This was great! The funniest this I have heard along these lines doesn’t involve Americans… It was May 5th (Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday) and my Bolivian friend was greeted by an Asian colleague with “Happy Cinco de Mayo”. He thanked her and explained that he was from Bolivia, to which she responded, “Where in Mexico is that?”. When telling this story to his friends, we all immediately responded “South Mexico!”. From that day forward, to his Stammtisch buddies, he was no longer Bolivian. He was South Mexican.
As an American student at an English university I was once asked by another student, “will you be taking the train back to America.” I might add that the universities in England at the time represented the top 2% of UK students. Stupidity is a global phenomenon.
The principal of the high school in rural Illinois I attended in 1974/75, who was really a terrific, educated guy in spite of being out in the sticks and running a tiny high school, told me the story that he once was at a party and mentioned that he'd love to go to Europe, but that he felt that the flight was too expensive for him. Then one of the other guests asked him, "Why don't you drive?"
I am from Austria and I made more than once the experience that Americans (but not only) mistake it for Australia or never heard of it at all. Therefore I've changed strategy and just say right away: "I am from Austria. That's a small country in Europe between Italy and Germany" to avoid misunderstandings.
I'm Australian and have been asked by someone from the USA "How does it feel to come from the same country as Hitl*r?". It's pretty common for them to mix up Australia and Austria. I mean, I know the names are similar, but apart from that we are really quite different....
I've also been told "Wow, you speak English really well for a European". I was left wondering what they meant and then said "Australia is not in Europe, it's an island/continent in the Southern Hemisphere". A brief, strange conversation ensued and then I cleared it all up for her.
yes, closet racists often bring up Hitler to anyone they think is German or Austrian, the same way that anti-white racists often bring up slavery to white Americans.
This was hilarious. My mother was going on about German being a "spitty, yelling" language and I said no, just listen to me. She said I didn't sound like that, because I didn't have a good accent. I said that Germans had thought I was native at times. She said they must be used to Americans.
Ugh! Yes, I can confirm this one. Americans do associate the sound of German with over-the-top spoofs they’ve heard, or simply based on hearing a clip from a rally where the speaker was yelling. But listen to the news or a polite German conversation, and I think it sounds very smooth and charming.
German friends were once asked by an American if they were speaking French. When they said no, it was German, she accused them of lying bc they weren't yelling.🙄
It’s not just in the U.S. I’m Portuguese, and after having lived in Sao Paulo- Brazil for nearly 10 years, I moved to Hong Kong, where I’ve been living for almost 4 years now, and I’ve had my fair share of dumb questions. I’d say the funniest one happened in Brazil, when someone asked me where I had learned to speak Portuguese so well ( official language in Brazil is also Portuguese). In Hong Kong, many people try to speak Spanish to me after they find out I’m Portuguese, which is a bit annoying, but understandable, I give them a few points for the effort.
Something very similar happened to me the day I arrived to Spain. A lady contratulated me on my great spanish speaking skills, and ask me where I'd learned it. I'm argentinian, we have one of the most obvious of the spanish accents. She cracked me up, but I did thank her for the compliment
@@vikolivik please tell me the lady wasn’t Spanish because I really can’t believe anyone in Spain doesn’t know about Argentina speaking Spanish. En plan, no es ni medio normal
@@vikolivik pues te iba a decir que lo siento por ti eh pero lo siento mucho más por esas señora, Dios mío, como cojones no sabes que en Argentina se habla español, si hemos tenido muchísima relación entre los dos países desde siempre, y te juro que en serio no creo que sea casi posible encontrar a otra persona así, por dios santo si hay artistas argentinos muy conocidos en España
@@QwertyUiop-bs2zr Lo sé! me quedé 7 meses y nunca pasó algo así de nuevo. De hecho, a los pocos días, una chica con sólo decir "no, gracias" me dijo "ahhh! eres argentina!" y yo no podía creer lo rápido que me sacó la ficha.
As a Frenchman who lived 40 years in the UK, I have heard it all, particularly in the 70s, people are more aware and sophisticated these days, anyway, back in the days, some people were very surprised ( and skeptical) when i told them that frog legs were not the national dish in France, I got the question "what do you have instead of chips in France? I remember my comments being received in total disbelief when I said that the Normans were Vikings (this was way before the Vikings series being shown on TV. ) . You might be amused as a German lady, that, when watching a travel programme about Munich, the presenter made great effort to pronounce the ish of Munich in a German way which of course the Germans never do as Munich is München in German :-)
the most annoying question for me is still the "are germans nazis?" question because i am never sure if they are actually that stupid to assume that germans are nazis or if the person just wants to provoke me..which works just fine tbh xD
Yup. Watched a friend in high school ask a German exchange student if they had (still SMH) "do you have traffic lights in Germany?" I still can't think about it without feeling some shock. And, this was decades ago.
I'm lucky I suppose. Having been in both the Navy and the Merchant Marine, I've traveled over much of the world and am constantly amazed at how little most Americans know about other countries.
I teach Spanish, in a class about Mexican culture, I ask my students "Where Spanish language came from to Mexico?" They all look at me, silents. I thought that a comparison would work, so I ask "Where the English language came from to US?" They keep looking at me... some brave soul says "Nowhere?" Just to be clear, two days earlier we had spoke about the horrors of American Conquer by European powers.
The timezones thing lol I'm an American but I was living in Japan for a period of time. I called my mother one Sunday (it happened to be Superbowl Sunday) She asked me if I knew who will win the Superbowl!!!
Thats like the American woman who was talking to a German woman about the 11th of September attacks and the German woman said she was 6 hours ahead in Europe and the American woman replied, in all seriousness 'Then why didn't you warn us then?'
@@B-A-L What makes that question even stupider is that America has 4 timezones in the lower 48, resulting in portions of the country being 1-3 Hours ahead of other timezones
I'm from Tennessee (and female- not my device). My friend and I were in Florida for the first time, years ago, and met two guys from California. They were so shocked and confused when we told them we were from Tennessee - because we were wearing shoes! They truly believed everyone in Tennessee always went barefoot. Let's just face facts- every country in the world has its fair share of REALLY dim bulbs!
Feli, now you know WHY I made sure that my daughters were exposed to foreign cultures and people from other countries. When I was in the Air Force I was the co=ordinator of the AMIGO program which was a welcomng organization for all of the foreign military personnel who were here to learn English. so we had people over to our house for the American Holidsys and Christmas and lunches on base with some of the officers who were here. I got my oldest daughter involved in the Foreigyn Exchange Program and sent her to Sweded We took one of her Swedish sisters here for a school term and had her family stay with us for week to repay them for letting us use their apartment when our whole family came to Sweden to picjk up my oldest .Annie also spent a college semester touring Europe.. My middle daughter minored in Chinese in college and went there for a few weeks and she has been to our Italian relatives of my grandmothers in Tyrol. Our youngest was with us in Sweden and we also took her and the others to Copenhagen to see Tivoli Gardens and experience and Indonesian rice tble dinner. My oldest daughter maintained her frendiships with all of her people that she met in the Foreign Exchange program and she has an apartment in Chicago where they come to stay and in return she get to visit them in Europe. She has been to Iceland, Wales, and Scotland Personally I have been to Europe four times and to Germany twice. The last time I took my wife to Paris for a week and loved every minute of it.
As an older American I would say that some of these ARE rather dumb but speaks volumes about the eduction system in general. In most cases though I believe we Americans can hold our own but education level may have a lot to do with it. When I was in high school in the 60’s and early 70’s, Geography was a separate subject but combined with History as Social Studies in most places in the 80’s, I believe. We had to work a lot with blank maps and were tested frequently. I’m from NY and while in Europe one summer I was asked if I was happy seeing so many trees since there aren’t any in New York! (the borough where I grew up ( Queens) is known as the borough of trees). Guess Manhattan has a strange reputation.
I find the question reg. The trees in NYC understandable to a certain degree. Most pictures of NY portray roads with a huge amount of traffic between endless rows of skyscrapers . And we were talking about American ignorance of whole countries and even continents, so your example reg. one particular city isn’t quite comparable imo.
During the conversation with an American about European history, i mentioned the great king of Sweden named "Gustavus Adolphus". and he replied "But i thought Adolf Hitler was German?".
What's the dumbest thing an American (or German, or other person from a different country) has said to you? 😅Let me know in the comments below! 👇
@@elizabeth-gt8rv That's indeed a dumb comment :)
I hate these WII/Nazi questions personally...
Have you taken the vaccine? That’s a dumb question. Of course, not.
„ouioui, baguette, croissant“
@@elizabeth-gt8rv please report bots!
Here's a classic! Travelling in a bus in Tipperary in Ireland we passed a 900 year-old Castle.A twangy and loud American voice from the back of the Bus-" Why did they build the Castle so close to the highway?" Brilliant!
Well, we had airports in the 1770s. Trump said so.
LOL
So your lazy a$$ won't have to walk so far! Just jking - I'm a lazy American myself :)
How about some directions, from Ireland?
"Turn right half a mile before the post office."
Or the company telephone directory, arranged numerically, rather than alphabetically - so you had to know someone's number, to find them...
Or the factory, whose out of hours switchboard operator was registered deaf, so couldn't hear anyone when they answered the phone..
This one sounds like it was probably meant as a joke. A funny one, I think
When I was at university at Western Michigan we were asked if we have car washes in Germany. We said "no, when our Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen are dirty, we just buy a new one!"
Man kennts.Wenn der Aschenbecher voll ist muss ein neues Auto her 😁
Lol.. My brother buys AMGs..... does tune ups...re- sells them for $10,000 more.
Germany is the only country commiting suicide faster than the Blue States in the U.S....other than Austrailia. And you guys question our Second Amendment?
Who's the backward fools now?
Everyone in West Virgina owns a fuckin' mountain.
I used to see car washes (the big machines with the giant brushes) when I was little, but now I just see car washers (guys with cloths and power soakers handwashing your car). I think they do a better job than the machines.
I don't know if it's like that everywhere, or if it's just in my area. UK
I used to see car washes (the big machines with the giant brushes) when I was little, but now I just see car washers (guys with cloths and power soakers handwashing your car). I think they do a better job than the machines.
I don't know if it's like that everywhere, or if it's just in my area. UK
Being on a student exchange when I was 16, my Host Family asked me, if we have microwaves in Germany. I looked at their microwave, saw the Brandname „Braun“…. Well, no. We just produce them…
I guess back then that was still true but afaik braun is made in china aswell these days
@@johnuferbach9166 A lot of the design still happens in the headquarters country of these manufacturers. Things are just put together in China.
Do you have kitchens? Or do wizards make all your food 🤪🥴🤣
Braun is a relatively common name in the U.S. as well. American names tend to come from everywhere.
@@scottfrench4139 Also across Europe it is a very well known brand name.
I am British and a British friend of mine moved to the US to work for an American company. He was out one day in the country and he got talking to an American who immediately spotted his strange accent. He asked my friend where he was from so he told him. The follow-up question was so how did he learn to speak English so well?
That's funny
hahahaha 😂
Simple, Scandinavia is not that far from Britain.
Scandinavia is where the Germanic language came from, English is a variation of the Germanic language.
About 500 years ago @@gerardflynn7382
By contrast, here’s a different story. I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely German student at a party when I was in grad school. Since no other Americans were talking to her, I tried to make her feel welcome with the limited German I learned as a teen. Pointing to the desserts on the table, I asked her, “Magst du Geburtstagskuche?” or “Do you like birthday cake?” She looked positively stunned and delighted at the same time.
Thanks to that question, she began to open up and we ended up having some wonderful conversations in the weeks that followed. As a violinist, I loved hearing about her culture and the amazing country that produced some of my greatest musical heroes. I’d also say she was one of the most thoughtful and sweetest people I’d ever meet as a student. Wherever she is today, I hope she’s well and happy, and knows how special she made that semester.
That's hella wholesome
Had a similar experience when I met a couple of younger German gals in a pub in Colorado...I was listening to them gassing each other when I chimed in with my best high school German....they appeared to be stunned for a moment, when one of them said Ach, das ist Hoch Deutsch....what elder college professors speak....she explained that most common Germans spoke Platz Deutsch....which is the name used for Low German versus Hoch Deutsch or High German.....what that has to do with anything is beyond me
@@davidmclane4145 nah. Although we have at least 7 different dialects, Plattdeutsch (the one they meant) is a very localized dialect. Hochdeutsch, or High German is the standardized variant
so, do you had a date with her or not??
I was expecting a dumb question but that's wholesome of you
A German Girl who did work as a Nanny in America got asked if she knows what electricity is.
...Some Americans sure are thinking that the civilication ends behind their border
@Das Fusselwind: beyond* (not "behind") 🙄
Civilization actually starts at their border
@@pablohammerly448 I used Google translate "The lint wind"? I do not understand the meaning of that phrase." so it is more an inside joke...for you & your buds.
@@davedaring9823 Could be too as she was a nanny she did not have access to 230V receptacles for her electric stuff.(they use the round pin type of wall outlet) so she has nothing electrical with her.
Australia has 240V but it is the flat tangs similar to 120V but the tangs are bent inward like "/ \" so I could bend my elec shaver tangs in with pliers and turn the setting on the shaver to 240V (from 120 V)and use it.
Somehow i just believe it starts outside of their border
"Do you have flushing toilets in Germany?" - "No, we keep a shovel by the backdoor to the garden/yard..."
The look on this woman's face: PRICELESS!
I'm Dutch and an American woman (that I knew through Postcrossing (one time penpal, basically) asked me if we had internet in the Netherlands.
I'm supposed to register the card online after recieving, so I did. I then typed; 'No, we don't have internet, greetings, Emma' and emailed it back to her.
Oh, also, I recieved a card from a woman in Florida that seemed convinced I was a descendant from the Neanderthals, because she wrote;
Emma Surname
Streetname 10
3456 Cityname
The Neanderth-lands.
OH and an American guy and girl were talking to me online and I mentioned I lived close to Amsterdam.
The woman asked; 'So you live there?' and I said; 'No, I just work there.'
The man went; 'Ooohhh how much are you?'
I said; 'Don't you mean, how tall are you? Or how old? I'm 27" (at the time.)
He went; 'No, no, how much do you cost?'
I said; 'Wh...Oh god, no! No! I work there in a shop...it's a city, they have shops!'
He went; 'Aaahh ahahaha okay, like with toys and stuff?'
I said; 'Oh jesus christ, it's a departmentstore... the street you are refering to is ONE STREET!
@@Widdekuu91 Lol 😂
@@Widdekuu91 I don't believe any of that.
The 9/11 question you were asked was pretty absurd! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, Feli. Great video!!!
Absurd, but not uncommon.😒😒
Today I've learned that we Europeans live in the future xD
I sometimes jokingly greet my American friends "from the future" at New Year's Day. Now I'm uncertain if they knew I was joking...
Perhaps they were thinking in terms of the realms of the multiverse, non-lineal time and other such dimensions haha
@@elisabethnm4492 living in Australia, we are way ahead of you in that regard! :)
My personal favorite:
I was asked which language I speak with my family. When I responded that I obviously use German, the person was very confused why I do so, since my English is so good that I could just use English. Even though I tried to explain that German is my and my entire family's native language, he didn't quite get why I wouldn't use the 'superior' language, English....
Also, I was asked several times whether I came by car from Germany. First, I thought they meant if I shipped my car to the US, but no, they literally meant drove my car from Germany to the US. The idea of an entire ocean separating both countries was mind-boggeling to them.
These are just my favorites, but obviously the Nazi question got asked several times also. When I informed them that, in fact, the US has one of the largest Neo-Nazi movements, they didn't believe me...
Neo-Nazi in the U.S. ? Just drive the backroads of Indiana !
Germany has outlawed a lot of the Nazi stuff. Many years ago when the American TV show "Hogan's Heroes" aired on German TV, I read in the papers they had to dub the Nazi salute into German as "the corn grows this tall".
English is quicker and simpler, but german is way more descriptive and precise. Most languages have something going for them, but english is in no way the better or superior to german.🤷🏼♀️😂😂
Have they not yet built bridges along the Aleutians to connect Russia with Alaska?
@@scottfrench4139 Luckily, no. That's called the "bridge to nowhere".
I was on a domestic flight in the US talking to the guy sitting next to me for the entire flight. Like that I’m from Germany, here on vacation,… He wasn’t stupid or anything at all but… Once we had landed I took my iPhone out to turn off the airplane mode and he was like “Oh you’re in the US for only 2 days and you already got an iPhone!”. I told him that I bought it in Germany and he was seriously confused by the fact that we have iPhones in Germany as well.
Oh wow. Mind blowing :)
My cell phone service won't work outside my country. I'd have to buy one after I get to my destination. Maybe he was thinking that way. A lot of people can't afford the cell phone services that work beyond the borders. All I can afford is about $10 a month for a cell so I use Tracfone (which is pretty useless internationally). Just trying to find a reason why he said that.
@@annbstitched that’s just not very smart as well: why buy a new phone if you can purchase a SIM from a local provider so you can use the local services? People who go abroad regularly do this all the time, but I guess most Americans hardly leave US territory when they travel
I mean, I can kinda understand his confusion. Obviously we all import and export goods, but I’d imagine there are quite popular cellphone manufacturers in Germany that nobody in the us would buy and use here. But of course the iPhone is sooo popular it’s exported to every country on earth, had it been any lesser common phone brand I’d get it.
@@abelgreen5046 It's the same companies in both countries (and most of the rest of the world). The Americas and Europe use (or used?) different frequencies so 10+ years ago some phones wouldn't work in the other place, but modern phones can handle everything.
I have a nice variation of the "What language do you speak?" conversation:
So you speak German at home? - Yes.
All day? - Yes.
Every day? - Yes.
Isn't that exhausting?
@hognoxious This was one is not bad! 😅
🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
@hognoxious 😄😁😂🤣
@hognoxious Huh? German has a similar basic sentence structure as English does, subject - verb - object, with the exception of split verbs and subclauses...
@hognoxious 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥
I’m an American. I was in Stonehenge getting a speaker in English for the self-guided tour. All the speakers had flags on them to identify which language is spoken by that device. Then I saw a group of Americans come to find a device and found British, French, German, Japanese flags, etc. And asked “Where’s the American one?”
In "America"... Well...no. in the US.
Oh well, I went to Vienna with a German friend many years ago. She also struggled to find the „German one“ because the German one had a Austrian flag on it. I think she just forgot at that moment that we were in Austria
But you have to damit - there is a difference 🇬🇧🇺🇲 innit?😅
I hear that they have a lot of trouble moving those big stones around when the time changes to daylight savings time.
@@w.rustylane5650 Its Stonehenge! They have an army of dwarves and a magic dreagon to do this.😅
As an Austrian, my favourite story about getting confused with Australians was when I met a bunch of traveling students from Wisconsin in my hometown. They asked me about racism here in Austria, so I told them about how us "people native to Austria" view people from each individual country we meet. I got stopped in my tracks when one of the Americans asked me whether it wouldn't be a little bit ignorant of me to call myself a native when in reality we just took this land away from the Aborigines.
I mean, when you have no clue about geography it's one thing to confuse two countries with a similar name on paper, but it's a completely different story when you confuse them while you're actually on vaccation in one of them. :D
Another stupid conversation with an US American I had to deal with was when I had a little banter with the owner of a small diner in New Mexico. At some point he tried to explain to me what an airplane was. At first I thought he was just shitting me, but soon I realised that he fucking wasn't. I played along and told him that I had no idea such wonders of technology would exist and that us Austrians always had to swim when he wanted to get to the USA. He responded with, "Yeah, I hear that a lot." I actually believed that last part.
Why do you say "US American"? It's like saying "Teutonic Germans". It's redundant.
@fg K I'm Canadian, and it is not only redundant, it's a tad insulting, though we're usually too polite to say it. Why do you think we put our flag on our luggage when we go abroad? We don't want to be mistaken for Americans.
@fg K Thanks, but I don't need a European teaching me geography, much less one who thinks that a viewpoint from across the Atlantic should apply to our culture, about which I'm guessing you're not completely informed. Some of us Canadians aren't terribly impressed with the hypocritical neocolonialist attitude of Europeans.
I don't particularly care what my European ancestors decided to call the land they stole from the peoples of these continents. "American" has been the word we've used for citizens of the United States of America for more than 2 centuries. There is well established historical precedent for that usage. I see no reason to change that just because some Europeans need to feel smugly superior. "Did you know you're actually Americans?" That's more than a tad condescending, don't you think? Besides these continents were given other names by the indigenous peoples. Calling them "Americans" is a bit dodgy since they've only been "American" for a couple of centuries. For thousands of years, they were something else entirely.
@fg K Maybe it's because I'm North American that I feel more entitled to be mystified by that. Lol. I mean seriously. I have a few Brazilian friends and I tease them about it.
@fg K I also use the phrase "American exceptionalism", and I feel much the same as she does about it, I just don't see it as applying to that particular word. Besides, it is a convenient way to refer to a specific entity. Granted, stereotyping people is bad, but there is a definite mindset/worldview/culture that we all understand immediately as "American". It is not shared by the other cultures of the Americas. If "American" means all of us, what do we call that cultural entity? The point of using the word like that is to differentiate ourselves from them. I'd be interested in your Argentinian friend's take on that point, actually. I'm guessing she's as keen to differentiate her culture from theirs as I am.
My English teacher is from the US. In our class she was surprised that a river can go from south to north, because “north is up on the map and south is down and water goes down and can’t go uphill so it must always go from north to south”. For a long time we didn’t know if she was really serious. Unfortunately she was 😂😂😂
She should not be allow to teach!
What you needed to do is turn the map upside-down and observe the one-eighty of her believes.
I'd give her a slight pass on this one. In America, there are basically no rivers of any significance that flow south to north. At least not any that would be delineated on a national map. Some flow west to east or vice versa, but they all basically trend south eventually.
Rivers like... The Nile?
@@johnsilcox8 Well the Mackenzie river is pretty damn large, (and looks _extremely large_ on a flat earther map) and also goes from South to North. Is Canada considered to be in America, or is Amurica only the USA? Yes, most rivers goes horizontally, but when two large rivers goes from south to north, and one of them being _The_ largest in the world, this theory just doesn't hold out...
One day after the atomic desaster in Japan (2011) I had sushi in a mall in Germany. This US tourist lady saw me and went „You shouldn’t eat that.“. I responded „Excuse me?“ and she goes „It‘s sushi. It‘s from Japan, it might be radioactive!“. I replied that the fish probably was not caught in Japan, then she started looking like a cow trying to digest this information. In the end she said „Yeah, but you shouldn‘t eat that. It‘s sushi, it‘s from Japan.“
wow... ok, I never saw that one coming.
it is like: But it has electrolytes!
Hah you should see how they react to "german Sushi" aka Mett. They freak out when they see you eating raw pork.
@@hannesromhild8532 They never understand. :D
Indoctrination is STRONG here in the US. Most Americans can no longer rationalize anything. They simply parrot talking points. It's so sad, and sometimes dangerous.
Danke, Feli! I can SO relate. I am also from Munich, living in NYC (not on and off) since 1999, and the dumbest questions I have been asked (in no particular order):
- Is the war over yet?
- Is Hitler still alive?
- Are there lanes on the Autobahn?
- Do you have internet?
I am also from Bavaria. Here since 1992. LA, CA. Same thing
WW2
Hitler
Not only Autobahn, LOL, if we Germans can drive without speed limit everywhere. LOL
Do we have freedom LOL
I just can’t understand the hitler thing, I refuse to believe that there are such stupidity in this planet, how can people think that hitler is still alive, is like, dude, even if he didn’t kill himself, he would have died already because of, well, you know, time !!
@@danieltrejo937 well, this was in 1987, Hitler would have been 98, so not completely impossible
Do you have internet in Germany? Correct response: Sometimes, somewhere.
@@Rondo2ooo internet is closed on Sundays, especially in Bayern
When someone asks “oh you’re from Germany, do you speak German?” You should have been like “Oh we speak English in Germany normally, we only speak German around the tourists to mess with them.”
That’s an honest answer in Berlin.
Just them why Americans speak English as they are not from England
After I retired I returned to Uni to learn German for personal enrichment. Two of my classmates said they were taking German because they were constantly asked if they spoke it. One was born in München of Bosnian parents. The family came to the US before she started elementary school, but people always assumed she must speak German because of her birthplace. The other is actually 75% German. Her mother is a German who married an American stationed in Germany. Her father's mother is also German because his father also married a German while stationed in Germany. I used to tease her that if they kept it up a bit longer they would be more German than most of the German population.
You can turn this question on its head, when an american who refers to their ancestry says they are german. You then simply ask "So you speak german?" and if the answer is "No" then you simply say : "Then you are not german." ;)
NOBODY says "oh, your from Germany." They say "oh YOU'RE from Germany."
SMARTEN UP, NITWIT!! YOUR third grade English teacher is embarrassed by you!!!
An American once asked me where my family originates from, I said "Well, it depends on which map you are looking at. After 1945 it's Poland, before it's Germany" I got the most confused face you could get with the question "Why? Are there 2 different maps?" ... during the conversation I found out that this person was not aware that the borders changed during WW2
then you should've continued before 1795 1793 1763 1762 or 1226 because borders in Europe are indeed a very confusing thing especially the german borders and their Drang nach Osten
@@mikesmith7517 Most people are very ignorant about that in the entire ‘New World’. As a Brazilian from a very German region I find it difficult to find people even with German ancestry who understands that. People just assume borders in Europe are intact since Middle Ages 🙄
I imagine many US people wouldn't realise the German/Poland borders changed considerably after WW2.
the borders of the continental US haven't changed in over 150 years, so it's hard to imagine modern countries changing borders in the last century
I was aware of that as a child, but only because my dad explained it to me - my great grandfather came from a part of Germany that's now part of Poland.
But I don't remember that being taught in school. I can see why a lot of folks in the U.S. aren't aware of that.
The last time we were in the States, my dad had to go to the audiologist (ear doctor) and the receptionist seriously asked us if we were from East or West Germany and what it was like there.... well she didn't mean the cardinal points, so she was really shocked to learn that Germany has been reunited for over 25 years.
As a Czech I can say that the most of the Americans are surprized that Czechoslovakia stoped its existence almost 30 years ago
@@mikulagen I still say "Yugoslavian" food lol.
@@pilotlars Same, I am a huge ww2 nerd, so I know geography considerably well, and I just don't bother trying to remember the Post-Yugoslavian countries since it's such a hassle.
@@mikulagen well if I remember correctly, czechoslovakia split in the year 1993. There are may be people that saw czechoslovakia as a country for half of their earlier life, which coincidently they remember more vividly. So many a times they may forget that czechoslovakia isn't a country any more.
Just wait until she finds out about the fall of the Soviet Union!
The conversations with yourself are so well timed out. I have seen a lot of your videos and your productions standards are well done.
The time zone confusion is shocking to me because Americans have multiple time zones in their own country! Even on television, broadcast times are given in different time zones.
how...can...they...not...understand it
This reminds me of the George Carlin quote: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
Does explain the existence of the Flat Earth Society!
I've found that flat earthers often don't get the time zones issue.
@@MrDisasterboy Really, just saw a video tons of scientist saying that the curvature is wrong. 100km Titicaca lake flat. please explain.
The weirdest thing about the time zone question is that the USA is one of the few countries in the world with multiple time zones, so how come the Americans have more difficulty understanding the concept than other people? I mean, some TV shows even specify the time zone when announcing the time they will be broadcast, if they are national shows.
A show may be on in NYC at 7 pm local time there. Three hours later it is shown in LA. Time delayed. Also before satellite the video or film had to be flown across the Atlantic, so Europeans saw it many hours before Americans did.
A lot of Americans probably don’t understand their own time zone situation. They just know that they watch the thing at PST or EST/CST. (Nobody lists anything in Mountain Time which is frankly hilarious.)
Because we're all just that stupid
@@g33xzi11a sad mountain time noises. Can't imagine how the Hawaiians and Alaskans feel lol
huh? many countries have multiple time zones - Australia, Canada, Russia, China heck even New Zealand has two official time zones!
I am currently living in Costa Rica and at the time I ran a restaurant. The question I was asked by an American couple was similar to one your referenced at the start of your video... "Where would the best place to watch the fireworks be?" It was, of course, July 4th. I felt bad afterwards, but I pointed to the beach and said that was the closest point to Miami. XD
XD
Do people 🤔 not research where they are going?? We were in Idaho falls ( yes in Idaho !) For the 4th of July parade being Canadian it was so fun !! Everyone being able to buy fireworks 🎆 🙄 was a bit scary!
Fire crackers in the mall ?
Your reply to the question was perfect. Except adding, "And bring a telescope."
@@ANNEWHETSTONE,
hallo from Germany.
Untill 2020 you could buy every year fireworks in the last week of December. Cause it is a big tradition in Germany to fire up fireworks at the Silvesternight (31.12. to 01.01).
Due to regulations cause of the big C, it is not allowed since 2020.
Not all people love fireworks, cause of the air pollution, the noise, the waste and because animals are scared of fireworks.
Of course people under the age of 18 are not allowed to buy big fireworks, but there are so called children fireworks, they are very small and burn just a few seconds, these you can use 365 days per year. 🎊🎉🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎉🎊
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I know a guy that called the police on a guy that kept fishing in his pond and had him cited for trespassing. The man was from a different country and thought in the "land of the free" meant you were free to fish where ever you wanted.
I still remember, when I was 16 or so I was on student exchange in Germany. During the first dinner with the german family the mother asked me: "do you have potatoes in Poland?". At first I thought I understood wrong. But when she additionally pointed on the potatoes on the table I was like "WTF???"
No! No potatoes! Nur Karrrrrrtofel!
What's tatoes, precious? What's tatoes?
@@germanvisitor2 Po-tay-toes! Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew! Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish…
@@AsterFoz hahaha
@@katethegreat4918 Well, you see, its even more funny if you realise that potatos in german are "kartoffeln" and so you can call them in polish "kartofle"
Living in the US, I had a coworker whose spouse was being transferred to Germany. Knowing that I was from there, she began to evaluate her options. "Well it'll probably be quite a change, do they have traffic lights there? I don't know if they have cities like we do, we'll probably have to live in a village. But I won't be wearing any of those outfits. We may have to bring a refrigerator and stove, etc, etc." That was a lot of information to debunk, but her final question, when I told her about currency exchange, was: "Why don't they just use dollars?" 🤣
The traffic lights question can be relevant, though. I traveled through northern Norway in 2016 and noticed that apparently north of Bodø there aren't any traffic lights (or at least, I didn't see any). Quite a strange experience. When I traveled back south and saw a traffic light for the first time in 2 weeks I almost didn't know what to do.🤣
@@wohlhabendermanager you're right about that, that is the case in many remote or rural places. But the guy was being transferred to Frankfurt (sorry for not mentioning earlier). She couldn't understand that Frankfurt/Main, Germany was a heavily urbanized area, and even if they would have moved to a village nearby, there would have been traffic lights. Btw, they ended up living in Niederrad. Talking about culture shock...
Just plain stupid...
@@wohlhabendermanager Well, when there is basically no traffic you don't really need traffic lights.
@@wohlhabendermanager That's frost giant country. People don't go there, so no traffic lights :P :))
Mein absoluter Favorit war eine ältere Dame in Minneapolis: "In which Part of Bavaria is Germany?" Oder so ähnlich.
Auch gut war die Frage, ob die Allierten immernoch Deutschland bombadieren. Meine Antwort war "Ja, und das nervt so beim Fernsehen, dass ich immer die Fenster zumachen muss, was aber auch schlecht ist, da so die Eisbären nicht mehr rauskönnen."
Ich verstehe die Eisbär Kommentar nicht. Aber das Fenster-Teil ist sehr witzig.
Another famous story, a German lady walked into the tourist office in Rotterdam and asked: “Wo ist die Altstadt?”
@@Apipoulai What's the point?
@@elmercy4968 The Altstadt of Rotterdam is gone: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_bombing_of_Rotterdam
How did I understand the first sentence but I don’t even know German?
I'm from Switzerland, and I was often requested to speak "swiss", just to hear how it sounded, lol. Or what language I spoke there. Not really a dumb question, but a very difficult one to answer ! When I tried to explain the very complex linguistic situation of Switzerland, they were blown away that so many languages and dialects could cohabit on such a tiny territory without problems, and even more blow away to learn that I spoke 3 of the official languages, plus 2 foreign languages and 2 dialects, lol. 😂
EVERY European LOVES to humble-brag about how many languages they speak! but guess what: we ALL speak English now, dont we! why is that?
@@inconnu4961 not every europeen speaks english! the people who do had to study it! i spent 6 months in London, that cost a lot of money! People thinking we all just speak english so the (native) English speaker don't need to educate themself while visiting our counties, really annyos me!
@@inconnu4961thank the British :D
@@inconnu4961 Well, YOU tell us why we all speak English. What do you think?
My opinion to this subject is that many people speak English because compared to other languages it's a very simple one with almost zero grammar: no declination, no conjugation. The only difficult thing in English is the prononciation which has no logic whatsoever.
@@inconnu4961Hello!
Many don't speak English very well. They cannot speak English fluently.
I was asked several stupid questions over the years like if we had microwaves, fridges and so on in Germany. Depending on my realtionship to the asking person, my response sometimes is:"We live in caves and just come out to build the best cars in the world." Only some peolpe do get the irony though.
No, we build those cars *in* the caves. With a box of scraps.
I recieved a card via Postcrossing (online website where strangers can send each other mail) from a woman in Florida.
She wrote my address right, but instead of Netherlands, she wrote Neanderth-lands.
If I'm correct, she thought the Dutch were basically..the evolved version of Neanderthals, but not..youknow...modern yet.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry and I need to milk my pet-bison for the cheese.
I'm from Rome hi. I read that Italian immigrants in Canada (but probably also in USA) in the 60th were asked if we had railways in Italy. I would reply "no, we move by horses like in the movie Ben Hur , what's a railway?".
By the way, this happened to me: a friend of mine told me as a child that Americans don't know that Rome is the capital of italy; when I grew up in 1995 became a guard inside one of the most visited monument in Rome, the Pantheon ; i wanted to check and often asked American visitors about the capital of the country they were visiting. One replied "is not Barcelona?". I couldn't belive! By the way many people from USA didn't know actually the capital.
@Ben Dover Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, where do you see the irony? Of course if you are not into elegant, well designed cars with top notch technology, I can definetely see your point.
@@lucaschiantodipepe2015 not only in your country in My country México probably they don't know that México City is our capital and have more cities. Greetings
Question I was often asked when I was a young officer in the U.S. Army: "You were stationed in Germany? My brother was there too. Maybe you know him, his name is Frank." It was the Cold War, there were 335,000 American soldiers there at the time.
On the other side of things - I married a German (making me very lucky indeed), and after we moved to the U.S., if anything happened anywhere in the country (a fire, a storm, a murder) and it hit the German news, her mother would call us to make sure we're OK. No concept of the sheer size of this country.
Urgh. I have repeatedly heard the "Oh, you're German? Do you know so-and-so, he's also from Germany" There are millions of Germans and no, I don't know all of them.
Same anything even just in Southern California, as if it's a small area.
My mother told me a story about the time she was in an exchange program in France and another student from America was also there and he talked to my mother about the time he already spent in Germany. He then asked her if he knew a Sabine from Cologne (We live an hour away from Cologne and that city has 1 million citizens, the whole region/state has 17 million people and Sabine was a very popular name in that generation)
@@einflinkeswiesel2695 Ironically, my wife's cousin is named Sabine, and she's from Cologne.
I always end every conversation with "Tell everyone that I said Hello!" It brings warmth and a sense of pleasure, happiness to them? It makes them smile.
So little, can mean so much? I really mean it, by the way! lol.
As an Australian living in the US as a child, I was asked where I learnt to speak English (it's my native language); did we have pet kangaroos (do you have a pet buffalo or coyote?); do Aboriginal people throw spears at one another in Sydney (as often as cowboys ride through San Francisco shooting one another); who was the Australian president (we are a monarchy); isn't Australia just south of Germany? And no, we don't refer to ourselves as "Down Under" -- that is rather obviously a Northern Hemisphere term.
Anyone knows that Hitler was an Australian and that Australia formed a monarchy with Hungary. 😆
> And no, we don't refer to ourselves as "Down Under"
I guess "Men at Work" really did you guys a disservice when singing about coming "from a land Down Under".
@@wohlhabendermanager Yes. I first heard the term when I lived in the US for two years. It was never used in Australia when I was a child, although international communication has made us aware of the term since then.
“Down under” is also pretty misleading, we’re partly in the tropics! Way more equatorial than the US/Europe!
I would like to own a kangaroo. Cool critters IMO.
I will never forget the time that i told an American i was talking to on Reddit that i come from the Netherlands and she literally said, with full confidence "Ohh the Netherlands, i know that, thats the capitol city of Berlin right?"
Yeahh no sweetie but you are trying your very best and i'm proud of you. You will get there when its time.
From an American patient to my wife when she worked as an MD in the USA:
"Are you loving the standard of living here in the USA, being so much better than in Australia?"
"Actually our standard of living in Australia is very good. Why do you think it isn't?"
"Well I watch a home renovation TV show from Australia and I've never since a granite kitchen bench on it, so your country must be pretty poor."
My wife just didn't know how to proceed from there.
Ha ha the median Australian has more than twice the wealth of an American.
I grew up in the 80s and Crocodile Dundee was huge back then. I imagined all Australians lived in the outback and wore animal skins, carried around huge knives, and were always covered in dust.
@@shaunsteele8244 it’s a worry that some still do think that’s how it is :)
@@newbris its harder when a country have 350 millions of people u know?
@@oscaralegre3683 I think it is the rate of people who have those ideas, rather than the absolute number.
An Aussie I know was asked in a California bar where he had learned English so well. There is also this story about two US tourist traveling to the northern parts of Norway in the summer to see the midnight sun. They were so dissapointed when they realized it was the same sun the had at home...
😂👍🏻
I almost started crying at the last sentence
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ʞɐǝds oʇ ǝʌɐɥ no⅄ ˙ʇlnɔᴉɟɟᴉp ʎɹǝʌ sᴉ ǝᴉssn∀ uɐ ɥʇᴉʍ ƃuᴉʇɐɔᴉunɯɯoƆ
How do you do that?
@@alvallac2171 that is Funny
I'm from Luxembourg and I spent a semester in Los Angeles for my Master, a student asked me if my parents or grand parents were nazi, I was surprised how offending her ignorance was. I answered that Luxembourg is a country and was invaded by Germany. I told her that my grand father died during the war, killed by Germans, so not exactly a nazi. But then I realised something, it must be tough to be a German abroad sometimes, I hope you don't get a lot of comments like those.
Well, as a German, sometimes I just claim to be from Switzerland. Mostly, when I am embarrassed by the behavior of other german tourists.
But my familytree is realy european (Germany, Switzerland, North Italy, Balticum, Sweden, Bretagne, Normandy, Gascogne) so I feel in every way "european".
Asking questions of someone from Germany about Nazis or Hitler or WW II is just shameful and ignorant. It would be like a European asking an American if their family has ever owned slaves. Nobody wants to talk about their country’s ugliest episodes. It’s an appalling subject of conversation to raise.
@@richardsmith881 Honestly I do talk about it. I just know very little of my great-grandparents involvement. I know 2 of them where in Stalingrad and while on was flown out days before the devastating loss, the other became a POW. Neither of the two ever talked about it - or suvived the war for long. Hence I look at it rather objectively, I am certain that they were good people (both faithful christian teachers), but I am not too sure they weren't involved in some war crime. Anyhow I do not have a problem talking about it, but it rarely makes for a good conversation, at least if the evening is supposed to stay cheerful.
During studies, I worked as an animator in hotels when I had holidays from my studies. I worked in Greece and there was an entire family from Israel on a holiday together to celebrate one's 50th birthday. I sat with them at the bar, chatting very nicely for almost an hour. Then they asked "by the way, where are you from?" I was a little unsure but I thought they had recognised my accent anyway so I said "from Germany". 19 out of these 20 people immediately stopped talking to me. The youngest explained that family members had died in the Konzentrationslager and it made me really sad and I told him how horrible I find everything that Germans did to others back then but I was born around 40 years after the end of the war - the others didn't want to talk to me anymore anyway.
At another hotel, a colleague found it funny to say "Arbeit macht frei" every time he saw me. That's not funny, it's disrespectful to all victims of the holocaust and it causes pain to us Germans as it brings up the shame of our history.
One time on holidays, my parents and me wanted to join some French people for breakfast (we always like to get to know new people and didn't want to sit on our own) and they said that they don't want Germans at their table (they had heard us talking German to each other before). The only happy moment was when just after them saying this, another French family who had heard this, invited us by saying "but we'd like you to come join us".
It doesn't happen very often but there are some people who still cannot stand the Germans - even those who weren't born when these terrible things happened.
@@richardsmith881 Well the slave trade wasn't exactly the darkest hour of the Americans and they hated the Germans soo much but loved to steal 3000 tons of patents and I mean steal.
Although I've been living in the US for most of my life, I was originally born in Peru and have been back to several times to visit relatives. As such, in addition to feeling like I am a part of both the US and Peru, watching your videos Feli has really helped to make me feel like I am also part of the larger community of first generation immigrants in the US regardless of their point of origin. So I wanted to start off by saying thank you for that.
That being said, I think one of the dumbest questions that certain "America first" native born Americans have ever asked me is if I speak Peruvian? Then when I say that I actually speak Spanish, they will follow up with an even dumber question which is "Well how come they speak Spanish in Peru instead of Peruvian?" To which my reply is always "For the same reason they speak English in the US." But sadly that answer doesn't always seem to register with them.
😄😄😄😄😄
Yes, It is the same nonsense as people who insist that in the US we "speak American". No such language. It is called ENGLISH!
My wife is from Peru by the way. She hated English at first!
Oh, so you think US patriots are dumbasses? Nah, even the open borders lot are just as dumb, sorry.
You could have also said that you speak Spanish because the many native languages of Peru:
Aymara
Quechua
Kichwa
Ashaninka
Jaqaru
Aguaruna
Arawan
Jaqaru
aren't used much outside of South America.
I was asked by a (texan, i believe that explains a lot) colleague f we would have the Euro in Germany. I sais, yes of course we do. Then it continued like "Yeah, but is this only in the bigger cities?". My answer was, sure, in the countryside, where I acutally live we still exchange chickens and carrots if we want to trade stuff between us 🤦♂
That's a silly question, but please don't assume he represents most Texans because of it haha
I don't know, if the story is true... but a friend was once asked in a chat, if Hitler is still our Chancellor. My friend said "No, he's been dead for 70 years." The answer from the american was: "Oh, i'm sorry to hear that."
@@Anthyrion LOL that's hilarious, but also disturbing
lol I think you were trolled
@@lyricberlin , believe me, no, I was not. There are more stories about the guy.
I'm Dutch and I met an American girl in a chat group some time ago. I told her about how New York used to be New Amsterdam in the past and she got got quite offended and declared it as nonsense because: "we all speak American here"..
dude, don't expect any intellectual conversation from American girls lol
Next time tell her Americans would almost have spoken Dutch… & US president Van Buren spoke Dutch at home…
I woulda told her there is no such thing as an American language :p
@ Misterkami: Arrrgh! As an American, I'm so embarrassed! Please don't think we are all stupid just because of that one girl!
@@Milesco Don't worry; I fully realize that she was an exception and I have met many intelligent and fun Americans.
Back in 1987 after my slide show about Bavaria at a Rotary meeting I was asked: „Do you have lions in Germany?“ To be sure, lions at the zoo were not meant.
In El Paso we were asked where we came from. I tried „Germany“ and „Munich“. I added „Oktoberfest“, „Olympiad 1972“. No success, Finally we found out that the inquirer in fact knew one town in Germany. A neighbor of him was once stationed in Hanau.
In Houston in a travel agency (!) I experienced a similar ignorance concerning Germany and Munich. Fortunately there was a picture on the wall of the castle in Neuschwanstein. I told them I was coming from there. I guess they believed me to live right in this castle.
The question about lions isn't completely unreasonable, considering we have mountain lions in a large portion of the United States, so it's possible they were asking about those and if you have them anywhere.
Don't you?^^
@@ImperatorCaesar22 Just no.
@ ?
Lions are the nemesis of Rotaries, aren't they?
when i got asked "oh, do you got refrigators, cars, planes, etc." i usually went with the answer "its most likely been invented in germany, so yes". Worked like a charme and opened up a lot of nice talks.
Well those three items were all invented by Americans. Unfortunately I think Americans believe all other countries are third world. All the poor crossing our borders to the south.
Actually the refrigerator and the first working plane was invented in usa. Also the car wasn't a fully german invention, cause for example the combustion engine wasn't a German invention but an Italian one "Barsanti and Matteucci" combustion engine.
I'm European, but stupidity is a global issue.
@@solinvictus1234 thats why I use the phrase "most likely".
I have been asked many times : 'How are you speaking English if you're from Germany?" The creepiest thing I heard from many American adults as a child was, "Oh Hitler would have LOVED you!"This was especially when I was younger because my hair went from white as a toddler to dark blonde as teenager. I also have blue eyes.This still creeps me out when I think about it.
Yeah thats true and all, but he would have loved you 🤷🏼♀️😂😂😂
@@ololadin91 I'm gay, so no he wouldn't. I would have been one of the first people in the concentration camp. 😀
@@crittah74 lol
@@crittah74 well than he probably wouldnt 😂😂
OK so you've met some idiots Most Americans Know Europeans speak / Learn English. after all Europeans grow up watching American TV, Movies & listening to American Music
listen to feli she speaks like a native , she speaks it better than the Scorpions & They been singing in English since 1972.
The 9/11 time difference warning thing is so cool... We could really make profits over here in good old Europe by sports betting... We know the results of the matches before they actually have started in the US :) Love that idea :)
I don’t think it’s a actual question it’s just a funny joke to Americans.
Mate, us Aussies are in from of both the Yanks and you Europeans so we could have your sports betting well covered….. in fact, us Aussie could share the betting results with you and both of us could stitch up the Yanks. That would be so satisfying on so many levels and the Yanks would still not be able to understand how we achieved that. Grüße aus Australien.
@@robertgary3561 Mate, I’ve had business dealings with Americans who cannot grasp the concept we could be a day in front. They even had trouble understanding the concept of flying out of Melbourne on a Friday at 11am on a 13 hour flight and arriving in Los Angeles at 8am on the same Friday…… literally arriving at their destination BEFORE they had left Melbourne. Fair dinkum. Grüße aus Australien.
When I was I kid, I thought crossing the international dateline was a way to go back in time. And if I were in a plane, then so much faster!
As an American, I agree that is a fun one. I can't say I've ever met another American who thought time zones were actually traveling in time, but I'm not surprised such people are out there either. It probably doesn't help that airplane travel is used to teach Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but still, that's a completely different thing.
I was asked if you could see the moon from Europe. I was thinking "do I have the time to explain the rotation of the earth and orbital mechanics?". And when I told one guy that I was living and studying in Paris, his answer was "oh yeah, the capital of Europe". Huh????
I suspect that a certain Mr Macron might like very much for that to be true !
Well it’s the cultural and economic centre of the continent so if they had to believe Europe has a capital (a true capital I mean, not in the EU sense) Paris would be a reasonable guess
@@augth london is europes economic capital
@@ajeettv Prague is da best though!
No, thats Brussels. Technically.
As an American, we can be rather idiotic with questions but it’s not meant to offend. We are mostly curious that’s all. Many of us here do not get the chance to meet people from other countries, that’s why some of us are excited to meet foreigners
Fun fact, even 'muricans are allowed to travel.
But it comes from a place of ignorance and lack of education so it's still offensive
It is not offensive if you politely ask, just annoying.
But believe me, most questions are not out of curiosity from children, but people that blatantly assume that Europe is a medieval continent with horsecarts, minstrels and some screeching witches in the forests.
@@Widdekuu91 LOL ! 🤣
@@jamesr1703
I'm serious. Two Valleygirls complained about the lack of goats, others wondered if there was a horsecart from SchipholAirport to the hotel, they were expecting 'mud-roads' and complimented (backhanded) the airport out loud for being 'almost as clean as the USA" (while a cleaner was scrubbing the floor that their heels touched with bleach, of all things.)
I've had people ask me where they could get safe water, because 'obviously the tapwater was not drinkable' because it 'did not have any chlorine' and was therefore 'infected with parasites, drugremains and filth' and they also didn't dare to walk into buildings like churches, because those could 'collapse any second.'
The church has been standing since about 6000 years, but sure, Hank will walk into it and that'll be the final blow that makes the church collapse.
People have panicked about the dangerous streets of Amsterdam, but instead of panicking about the dangers of walking into the bikelane (which they should nót do, and instead just walk onto) they are telling me that they are afraid of getting their food drugged by a café, like 'in the movies' and then they'll be sodomized by strangers and sold onto the sexmarket, 'like in taken.'
I assured them nobody would drug you for free, we are famously keen on making money here, so if your brownie stinks of hash, and it costs more than a normal one, and you look around and see weed-leafs everywhere and the sign above you says; 'Coffeeshop!' with weedleafs and people around you are smoking and Bob Marley music is playing in the background, then it is safe to assume you walked into a drugbar. They famously advertise the drugs, otherwise the tourists wouldn't find it.
We don't 'drug you for fun' so that we can clean up the floor after an overwhelmed American vomits on it.
There is no time for such nonsense, there is money to be made.
I can't give anyone guarantees, but I can assure you the chances of the following fears happening are slim;
1. Witnessing prostitutes fuck animals and humans on the street
(They famously have windows and they don't fuck animals)
2. Seeing gay people fuck on the street (they famously have wonderfully designed houses and stylish bedrooms for that.)
3. Having people kidnap you like Liam Neeson's daughter to sell your American-style bodies on the dark web.
4. Invite you over for a lovely cup of tea and then announce a spontanious orgy
5. Offer you free sex, with the sole purpose of spreading diseases
6. Giving your tourist-teenagers euthanasia-pills because they mentioned they are depressed
7. Casually killing your grandma with euthanasia-pills because that's what we get off on
8. Marry you and then reveal we are now 3 people in a marriage (Fox News was convinced we did this)
9. Beat you up, because we saw a cross on your neck and we consume Christian blood
Street-cons WILL however....pickpocket you, so watch out
I (german) heard of the refrigator / fridge question. Now I am prepared: if that question would arise, I would answer: "Of course, we invented them [it was Carl Linde from Bavaria]. We also invented the car. Do you know what a car is?" Replace the product / go on with "bicycle", "computer", "rocket" and other inventions of germans. Like the "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher". hehe.
I have been ask if they have telephones in Germany?
Or, if Germans live in TENTS?
Actually, Robert H Goddard (American) is credited with the first rocket in 1926. Although, I probably would have guessed Wernher von Braun.
@@chrisb2535 Goddard work is having built the world's first *liquid-fueled* rocket. That was in 1926. Long before that, the german Conrad Haas built the first manned rocket That was in the 16th(!) century.
@@chrisb2535 Let me guess, he's credited with that by Americans? ;-)
@@chrisb2535 What is the Star Spangled Banner about.
In a restaurant on the east coast of the US, the waitress said: "Oh, you're from Germany!! Is that far from Europe?" - Even funnier, a friend of ours hitchhiked in California, and the driver asked him: "Did you hitchhike all the way from Germany?"
Maybe hitch hiking on private jets is a thing in California lol
Well I supposed he could have gone to Hamburg and waved down a container ship?
I'm guessing that second guy was trying to make a joke. Older Americans (boomers) will often make stupid jokes like that. At least I hope he was joking
"Of course, people are always so nice and ready to pick up hitchhikers on the scenic transatlantic Autobahn" ;-)
The second question was either a joke or he really meant it - i've read blogs from hitchhikers who asked sailors if they could come with them or worked as a sailor to pass the ocean. That question isn't dumb in my opinion
When my sister and I visited New York for the first time we went into a shop close to the time Square, during the conversation with a girl from the staff she asked us where are we from and we told her that we are from Germany. Her next question has been so wierd /stupid that I thought I haven't heard correctly. She asked us if speak a different language in Germany. I know that Americans are often quite absorbed by the them self and not very good educated but this was hard. Especially in the center of Manhattan where millions of tourists from all over the world around.
Americans sometimes ask British people where we learned to speak English ... doh !!
@@stevesoutar3405 🤦🏻♂️ They just a tiny bit self-centered and very good educated. Sarcasm off... What makes me a bit upset that they don't accept our degrees in the same time.
I experienced this. On a flight from Boston to London I overheard the end of a conversation while I was waiting to use the toilet. “They speak American there so don’t worry” “thank goodness for that” was the reply. I went into brain numb for at least 10 minutes.
@@mow3186 There is a saying in German which fit to this, but I'm not sure if the translation will... It would be funny if it wouldn't be so sad.
@@Turbo36de Solche Fragen einfach auf Deutsch beantworten, dann versteht der Andere zwar nichts, aber er merkt wenigstens, dass du ne andere Sprache sprichst. 😁😁
Bless you ALWAYS, Feli! You are such an effortlessly radiantly comradely, empathetic, wonderfully understanding messenger of truth to all mankind! As to the dumbest thing Americans have ever asked me (and at this moment I MUST apologize to all people from other countries who've had to suffer too many of our people's general illiteracy not just when it comes to other countries, but when it comes to thinking in general! NOBODY deserves the extent to which too many people in the U.S. have fallen in their general ignorance of the world!), I think it was from a young bank teller in her late 20's who enjoyed my company. When she was finishing processing my transaction, while we'd been talking a bit about the significance of W.W. II in Europe, she very brightly smiled and told me, "Now, I was never aware the Nazis ever were in Holland!?" I quietly let her know where to look up sources explaining the Nazi occupation of Holland, and also mentioned to her that an old family friend (nearly two generations my elder) had served in the Dutch resistance to the Nazi Occupation - but underneath my quietly tolerant expression, I was almost dumbfounded and was thinking, "OH! MY! GOD!!" Then again, here's a story both cute and pathetic because it's a bellwether for just how low too many people in our country have fallen: I was being driven home from an appliance pickup at a local department store by a local cabbie, a middle-aged American in his late 50's. It was early summer, and the 4th of July was coming on, and I was sharing with him a memory of one of those (all too many!) comedic straw polls of public ignorance (in the name of public opinion) you can find so many of online now, though some of them were done years and years ago on TV before the rise of video and online culture. The straw poll was done by a once-reknowned sportscaster, a very magnetic, comradely, very engaging, very socially attractive young guy with a great way with people (Sadly I don't remember his name or I'd share it with you). This guy was in the greater Chicago area and was polling people either on July 3rd or early on the 4th. He was walking along a large grassy quadrangle near some public and professional playing fields talking with people about upcoming exhibition and minor league baseball and other games, and the quadrangle naturally had many booths and tables being set up by people selling food, drinks, holiday souvenirs, legal small-scale fireworks (sparklers, noise-maker caps, etc.), and patriotic tokens and symbols, and one young man putting up a booth was in his mid-30's. You could hardly see him because his head was surround by thick, graying, wavy, frizzy, kinky hair and beard, and his eyes were covered by reflective sunglasses, but he was amenable when the sportscaster introduced himself and told him he was doing a public opinion straw poll about the upcoming holiday celebrations. The dialog went: Sportscaster: "Everybody's busy getting ready for the 4th of July celebration and for games they're either playing in or watching." Booth Owner: "Yeah, you know how big the 4th is around here." Sportscaster: "Well, I'd like to know your personal opinion about what it is we're really celebrating on the 4th." Booth Owner: "Oh, you know, hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecued or fried chicken, sodas, beer, ice cream, fireworks--" Sportscaster: "Yeah, well, that's all part of HOW we celebrate the 4th, but can you tell me just WHAT the 4th really means? I mean, just exactly WHAT are we celebrating?" Booth Owner: "Oh, I don't know, really, it's just a big day to - be an American and to celebrate America." Sportscaster: "Isn't it also something about independence?" Booth Owner: "Oh, yeah, independence, but you know it's been years since I was in school, and yeah, they taught us something about that, but I've forgotten most of it. You usually tend to forget about things like that once you've finished school." Sportscaster: "Oh, well, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know what you remember about our celebrating our independence, like when did we become independent?" Booth Owner: "Oh, let me seeeeeeeee, I think it wuzzzzzzzzz, back innnnnnnnnn, 1840? No, that's not right, it was before then - 1820, yeah, that was it, 1820." Sportscaster (good-humoredly playing along): "OK, do you happen to remember who we got our independence from?" Booth Owner: "Oh, let me seeeeeeee, Australia? No, that's not right, it wuzzzzzzzzzzz, ummmmmmm - China! Yeah, China!" Sportscaster: "OK, so when we got our independence from China back in 1820, didn't we make some kind of formal public statement about becoming independent and why we were doing it?" Booth Owner: "Um, yeah, I think we did, you know you forget things like that when you've been out of school for a while." Sportscaster: "OK, well, would you happen to remember what we called that statement?" Booth Owner: "Oh, I don't knowwwwwwww, ummmmmmmmm - statement of independence?" Sportscaster: "How about Declaration of Independence?" Booth Owner: "Oh, yeah, that!" I don't remember how the poll continued, but it was all at that same level, and I shared with the cabbie all of what I've shared with you here, and when I got to the point where the Sportscaster asked the booth owner, "How about Declaration of Independence?", and the booth owner answered, "Oh, yeah, that!", you should have seen this cabbie's face light up with a shock of recognition, as if I'd just revealed the key to True Enlightenment to him! He answered, "Oh, right, thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat's it! Thanks for sharing! Yeah, you know when we were in school they always taught us about the Declaration of Independence, but I never really understood what that meant, but you've made it clear! NOW, I understand! Statement of Independence, Declaration of Independence! NOW it makes sense! NOW I understand, finally! Thanks for the sharing!" (Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!!) It wasn't even worth the waste of energy to blink! I smiled quietly, told him he was welcome, and when we got to my home and I'd thanked him, paid him and got out with my appliance and he'd driven off, I could only think along with Prof. Henry Higgins, "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?!!" Btw, I LOVE the fact that My Fair Lady found itself audiences all over the world, especially in Germany! It's lovely to hear, from time to time, that sentimental song, "In dem strasse, mein schatz, wo du lebst!", a.k.a. "In dem strasse, mein schatz, wo wohnst du!" I wish I could find a video of a good full-length German production, because of course many German theaters do this time-honored singspiel so well! Meanwhile, Blessed Soul that you are, please know that unlike some Americans, I have NO illusion at all that our country is the only one on Earth or that we're somehow the center of the world! We're not, and we have no business acting as if we were! I only hope the ratio of U.S. people suffering from general illiteracy to those who have at least a decent idea of what other countries are like and are about is much higher on the knowledgeable side than it is on the ignorant one, especially in your experience and the experience of your fellow Germans! I'd hate to think of what it would mean for international relations if it were the other way around! Tjus, Servus, Auf Wiedersehen!
When was in college I went to California to summer school. One guy there asked whether it was true that we in Russia have bears walking on the streets.
The funny part was, that couple days later I actually saw a bear in the backyard of the house I was living in.
Same question here in Australia with the Kangaroos in the street and well yes i have had a kangaroo bound down my street. outside my house.
We occasionally get bears and mountain lions in communities around L.A. that are adjacent to the mountains or foothills.
@NickKryuchkov That's a hilarious coincidence!
I was walking with a Dutch colleague in Holland and asked in anyone ever really wears wooden shoes. He said, 'No', and then we passed a gentleman walking in the other direction wearing wooden shoes. It happens. :)
I thought you had penguins ….. I can just bet that you get a lot of odd question because you come from Russia. I have noticed that when me and my wife (I’m a Swede, she’s a Russian) travel in USA and speak our Swedish-Russian, people often hear we speak two languages, but cannot place them really.
My German friends once told me a story about a bus tour they took in Warsaw, Poland. The tourists were all German, but the tour guide was Polish. The tour guide mentioned that many buildings were destroyed during World War II. One of the German tourists asked, "who destroyed them?"
That's you mumble something in Polish about a slur for germans the smile.
That's a huuuuuge "Ooooff" 😆
@John Smetak idk know about that. From what Germans I have talked to they teach it. They may not go into as much detail as they do other places but they all knew they started the war and why and which places they attacked as well as the Holocaust. Japan on the other hand like you said glosses over the whole thing till they get nuked and act like they were a victim when they were as bad if not worse than the Germans.
@John Smetak Yes, German history and especially WWII is thought extensively in German schools. It involves all the questions of how Hitler came to power, what were the socio-economic conditions to how other countries were effected. Most schools do take a trip to one of the many konzentration camps turned into memorials. But that is a very common misconception about Germany. But to the original post - yes also Germans ask stupid questions, sometimes
@John Smetak From your comment I assume you don't actually know any Germans.
Once at a ski resort here in the States, my wife and I were riding up in a chair lift together with another gentleman. We two were discussing something in our native Russian. The other gentleman was trying to figure out what was going on, and then had a lightbulb moment and asked in clearly American English: "you guys must be from Minnesota, right?"
Sorry but that made me laugh so hard XD it's sad though.
That plottwist is funny enough to make even a German (me) laugh. :D
Omg lol 😂😂😂🤦🏻♀️
Don't know if that is a valid question for Minnesota, but here in Oregon we have a lot of native Russian speakers, so maybe they also do in Minnesota?
@@admerin6961 Of course! He misspoke! He didn't mean "Minnesota", he meant "Oregon"! That explains…
Funny story Feli. I have a friend from Berlin who came to the US for his Ph.D. (aerospace engineering at UM). after graduation, he was hired by GE at its R&D center in Munich--yeah, back to Germany. First day of work, he went with his new colleagues to the cafeteria for lunch, and he could not understand anything on the menu. Not just was unfamiliar with the foods (Munich. v. Berlin), but literally had no idea what the menu items even meant. At that moment, he wondered if he actually did understand German (or probably more whether or not they spoke German in Munich).
"Why didn't you warn us about 9/11?" You should have answered: "We tried but the carrier pigeon wasn't fast enough. You know, because we don't have telephones..." 😁😁
Or maybe the pigeon got shot down by the jets that stupidly got sent to the wrong place 🤔 😬
Holy heck thats a brand new take that ive ever heard! Im proud to be american but people who ask those specific questions just make me a bit embarassed
As can be seen in the movie "Postal" by the famous german producer Uwe Boll.
Odigo messanger did.
That hurts my brain just trying to understand how anyone thought this was a valid question. I am American, but once another American asked me "who wrote Grimm's Fairytales". At least she laughed at herself after I told her.
I have a coworker who used to say, “There are no dumb questions, only dumb people.”
Honestly, that's something definitely a dumb people would say.
Mr. Garrison from South Park: There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.
th-cam.com/video/i-Ar0-5144M/w-d-xo.html
@@MichaelScheele ... that ask questions =P
Just ask the same question twice and this proofs wrong.
yeah well you're coworker got that from somewhere, Man that's an OLD one.
Many years ago I was traveling from London to Paris on the Eurostar and I sat opposite an American young lady who was very nice to talk to and then we got to Paris and we were saying goodbye and she looked around confused that about all the signs.
I wouldn't expect her to understand the French written on all the signs, except for the fact that in the Eurostar terminal every sign is both in English and French. So whilst all the green signs had the word "Exit" written on them there was also word "Sortie". And she asked me what the word "sortie" meant.
I don't know how she survived after she had left the Eurostar terminal because guess what the signs in France usually don't have English written on them, it's just the Eurostar terminal is a special case.
She probably coped as well as any English . They know , well I am not so sure these days, that French is a different language but 90% can't get by in it.
@@johnbircham4984 if a sign is written in English and French, then it's reasonable to expect a native English speaker to understand it.
@@matthewbaynham6286 I was talking about outside the station most English people can't speak a word of french. So it wouldn't make a bit of difference. I guess what I am saying is don't look down on people.
But sortie is (also) an English word. Surely one could guess what it means from there.
@@MrTohawk In English the word 'sortie' has a different meaning than it does in French. In French it means 'exit', but in English the word sortie means what the Americans call a 'mission' as in 'we're on a mission to attack an enemy stronghold'.
This reminds me of living in China/ Asia. Many funny questions asked of me as a Mexican/ American (adding jalapeños to a dish does not merit the name Mexican and you guys do this as well lol) and my white South African ex used to blow their minds. Just goes to show you how big the word is and how little we all know. Also, it’s super cool that you are from München and you live in your sister city! I used to work as a tour guide in München and my German tourists never knew that Cincinnati helps foster so much business and relationships between our countries. I remember the German tour guide that trained me said Cincinnati donated loads of money to München to help in reconstruction, but I could never find that stuff online. Anyway, thanks for making these videos, it was a nice blast from the past!!
I might have the best one, and it happened twice. On visiting the US in December I remarked that it was now summer where I came from. After some surprise and confusion, I explained about the seasons due to the tilt of the Earth. They were prepared to accept my explanation as I seemed serious, but added, "so it must be June in Australia now."
*Sigh* I would bet anything that lack of scientific understanding is, at least in part, influenced by the religious culture in the US. The world has come a long way since burning Copernicus for heresy, but America prefers to take baby steps and wave from a mile behind everyone else.
Does that mean you celebrate 4th July in January, in Oz? That would be wizard.
😁😁
Jesus christ
@stephenlee5929 lol the US is the only one who celebrates 4th of July it's our independence day not other countries.
Asked by an American (who had a VW btw) : do you have cars in germany?
I answered „no we still ride horses“ as a joke and he was like : oh damn poor you
😂😂😂
lol
"No, we still use people wagons"
I've been asked a few times about driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. I said I've no idea how that works since I've never done it. They always look confused. It's similar to the "have you driven on the autobahn?" question. No, never, I've never driven on a highway. We purposely take side streets which are slower, less safe, take longer, and go through every 13th century village with streets barely wide enough for a horse and buggy.
I'm from California and my best friend is from Germany. We met while she was a student here 20 years ago. I used to take her over to my aunt's house for dinner and my aunt would always talk about stuff we had in the US and ask if they had that in Germany. Like basic stuff they obviously had in Germany. It has been a running joke with my friend and me for years. Anytime we mention anything we'll say, Do they have that in Germany? Or do they have that in the US?
Asked by an American: " Do you speak Danish with other Danes at home in Denmark, now that you are speaking such a good English" 🤣. Ich wünsche dir einen schönen Weihnachten und ein guten Rutsch ins neues Jahr 🎄🎄☃️❄️🍺.
Tell him, "No I speak Swahili when in Denmark with my fellow Danes" 😄
The Danes are switching to English as the rest of Euro should as well.
Sehr funny! Liebe Grüße aus Hamburg, wo auch eine ganze Menge Leute Dänisch sprechen!
Schönes Weihnachtsfest, kommt gut und heil durch die Pandemie!
Well😌😏I agree but I'm German, my husband is German, living in Norway and we speak norvegan with each other both in Norway and in Germany.
@@biankakoettlitz6979 Norwegen.. Ist daß nicht eine Straße in Norderstedt? 😂
Schöne Weihnachtszeit! Hoffe, eure Infektionen sind nidriger als hier! !
“What time do they close the Black Forest?” Is one my wife has gotten.
that's a valid question though, because there are some national parks that close at night time
@@buciallstar kinda. To a German it sounds more like “what time do they close southern Idaho?”
The whole thing with someone asking if you actually speak German when you say you are from Germany probably stems from SO MANY Americans claiming a cultural heritage from a nation when they've never even been outside the state they live in, much less even outside the US. For instance, many Americans will say they are Irish, or French, or German, or Italian, when they may have never been more than 100 miles outside the small town in Texas they were born in for their whole lives.
She also has almost no German accent. Listening to her speak, you'd probably assume she grew up in the US.
I am Dutch and was looking for Germans to talk to (just talking.)
I then found someone and greeted him in English (the website was also in English.)
I checked and said; So, you are German? and he replied; Yep, yep, haha, that's me, my grandpa was German.'
I said; Okay, but are you German?' He said; Yeah partially, haha. I consider myself German.'
I said; 'Okay, also, wenn ich Deutsch spreche, wirst du mich verstehen?"
He said; 'Oh, what the hell...hahah...that's German right? I know the ish. Ish is like 'Me' hahah.'
I replied; 'Have you ever spoken German?' and he said; 'Naw man, I only speak American lol. Grandpa taught me that ish-thing. But like, we weren't very close.'
I said; 'Have you ever tried to learn more German, visit Germany...youknow, to really... 'become a German' as you wish to be?
And he said; 'Naw haha, no, it's too expensive and also I have enough to learn in university lol, like I'm partially German though, but maybe like, also American.'
And despite being frustrated because I had been talking with him for 20 minutes for nothing, I tried to politely say; 'Yes..perhaps a bit more American.'
@@Widdekuu91 - your story is exactly what I'm talking about. There are just too many Americans that think they can call themselves German, Italian, Japanese, whatever when they don't even speak the language of the nation, and have proably never even visited it.
I understand pride in cultural heritage, and ethnic identity, but, I think Americans are really very bad at misrepresenting who they are.
@@konstantinavalentina3850 Exactly.
I'd say you can call yourself Japanese if your parents are Japanese, you actively speak Japanese at home, you honour the traditions, it's just that you were born in America, but the rest of you is fully Japanese.
And even then you're just an American, but o.k. I would understand if they said "Japanese" then.
Around Thanksgiving/Christmastime, I got loads of commercials for DNA-testing on Facebook, called "My Cultural Heritage" with a picture of a Viking on it (sometimes they swapped it for a Native American or an Aboriginal) that said; 'Your DNA-results in just a few days!"
Underneath, a woman said; 'I have adjusted my diet to my original ancestors and I feel so much better now!'
Turns out her ancestors from a few hundred years ago, were Vikings and therefore "she wasn't eating enough fish" to keep her DNA happy. I mean, they're not even trying to make it sound legit. (I'm not even going to go into detail about what happens afterwards, because you can only join if you let them store your DNA for 'research purposes.' Hence the arguable-cheapness of it.)
And underneath, you had responses such as; 'Hi from Michigan here, sóóóó happy when I got the results back, turns out I am from Eastern Europe, originally, that's where my ancestors came from. I've always known, I'm such a traveller as well, and I like the cold and I guess I like reindeer lol-' (etc.)
I just think it's a knee-jerk movement because America isn't really looking so great right now and everyone would rather claim they were 'actually' from Sweden.
And whether that be a hundred years ago or threehundred, doesn't matter.
Todays Americans are proud of their history from the 15th century on and because of that and their economy they think they are the leaders of the world. What should they want to know about civilisations that are thousands of years older, as for example in Europe, Mesopotamia or China. That's only old stuff outside the US borders...
Feli, I have to commend you again on your excellent American English. I have never met a German (even decades in the U.S.) who speaks as well as you. My grandma was German and came to the U.S. in the 50s and "Zee all-vays tauked like dis." This video was hilarious by the way. You showed a lot of humility. Not all Germans can tolerate these kinds of questions, but you have heard them many times over.
Most Germans, including myself, learn English at school and don't need it afterwards. In Germany itself, of course, everything is German (even foreign films) and in the typical European vacation regions German is spoken everywhere. It is unfavorable if you are then in the UK or the USA and imagine that you know the language. When I came to the USA for a semester abroad, I found that I couldn't even place a restaurnt order. However, I was young enough to pick up the language quickly.
well nowadays people here in germany speak better english than 20 or 30 years ago. because of the internet and overall more exposure to english in daily life and people traveling more. at the same time i am often surprised that a lot of people still manage to hide that well that they don't speak english at all.
@@robopecha naja, Deutsch ist die größte Sprache in der EU. Die Deutschen müssen keine Fremdsprache sprechen. So ist das auch in Spanien, wo ich lebe. Spanier und Franzosen sind in einer ähnlichen Situation. Und die meisten Deutschen wollen noch nichtmal einmal im Leben nach Amiland, wo sie Englisch vielleicht praktisch brauchen könnten (in Florida und Kalifornien gehts auch mit Spanisch).
What the hell is American English?
@@B-A-L English spoken by Americans with an American accent as opposed to British English.
I've heard plenty of stupid questions from Brits as well. I remember two in particular. The first was a woman who wondered why it's colder in Scotland than it is in England, because Scotland was "closer to the sun". I can only assume that she was looking at a map of Europe and noticed that Scotland was above England, thus closer to the sun. The second was a story told to me by an Englishman about something his wife said while watching a live cricket match in Australia. She apparently got bored watching the game and wanted to go to bed, but not before she knew the final score. She suggested that they call their relatives in Australia to find out, because Australia's time zone was a day ahead, and so people there would already know how the game ended. lol
Lol... people have no idea how time zones work??? Living in Canada 🇨🇦 with a sports crazy husband time zones are very important! I guess for smaller countries they may all be in the same time zone. The US, Canada and Russia 🇷🇺 definitely are not!!
@@ANNEWHETSTONE For flat earthers its hard to understand how time zones work..!
I'm from Massachusetts, I once had a Brit say the 'we' weren't creative enough because we named out cities and towns after many in England, she was a bit insulted that a part of the USA is called New England. She still didn't get it even after I explained that everything was named by English settlers when we were a British Colony under the rule of the Crown. I'm assuming she didn't pay much attention in school during her history lessons about her own country.
@@mrchrislatino Well to be fair that does not make those settlers particularly creative, lol....
@@nctpti2073 Well, there's virtually no creativity in any of the place names in Britain either. It's not like someone had a place naming contest a thousand years ago.
Hell, there are _five different rivers_ (or seven, depending how you count), named Avon in the UK... because, when the Saxons invaded, all the locals called every river Avon... because "avon" is "river" in the Britonic language. smh
I was once asked: what language do people speak in Germany? Actually it is probably a legitimate question, but at this moment I thought: what question? - it is so obvious: Germany = German. So (because it was at a party) I wanted to be funny and answered: "we speak Austrian". What now followed seemed dump because nobody laughted and they took it as a serious answer.
If it makes you feel better I laughed.
You could have give a correction like: "You mean what languages?" Than you could have answered "Mostly German, but there are also the minority languages Danish in the north and Sorbian in the East." Probably also some Frisian.
Pres Obama once said publicly that Austrians speak the Austrian language.
@@ZER0ZER0SE7EN there are so many stories and hoax about Pres. Obama, if you are lucky half of it is true.
@@henningbartels6245 we're lucky, it's true:
th-cam.com/video/z1diNthezRk/w-d-xo.html
I was left speechless when one exchange student asked me how are we celebrating thanksgiving day in my country... yea. My other favorites were (actually 2 different Americans asked me) what is the name of our king (we didn't have any monarch for over 100 years) and if I speak any other language besides English (I was asked this in Czech Republic after I was introduced to that person as foreign student from Slovakia)... like WHAT? W H A T????
Czechoslovenia?! Right?! We certainly must rename a lot of countries so the Americans stop being confused.
perhaps they're confused because Christmas and Thanksgiving are celebrated closely together in the US, and Christmas is celebrated all over the world.
I´ve been working in a souvenir shop in the middle of the Prague Castle for some time. I heard the question about king too several times, like who is he now, where he live in this castle and such. I always thought that I understood wrong and they´ve been asking who is our prezident, where are royal chambers cause they haven´t seen them yet or I thought that they just couldn´t find the right word (president/king) and took the one what carrie a thought
(Hence "Who is your king now?" - "Oh, our president is so and so :)“ )
But now I kinda second gessing...
I was at a Petroleum show in Houston explaining to a lady that I was from Canada and I'd lived in Nova Scotia, Calgary and Toronto. We got in a discussion of nuts and bolts of where all this was, and I let her know that Toronto was just north of Buffalo. She assured me there is nothing north of Buffalo. Apparently here elementary school had a map of the US which didn't have the rest of North America on it and Hawaii and Alaska appeared as cutouts on the west side of the map. I guess that was the extent of her geographical training. I didn't ask her is she knew where Mexico was but Im guessing Americans from the southern US do know where that is.
I saw the title and was honestly surprised it wasn’t a several hour long video. As a biracial America, I also get asked if I can speak English, even if I am actively speaking English so I can’t imagine how much worse it is for people born in other countries.
That blows my mind.
Are you American? If so then we Brits are often confused by your "English" and there used to be an advert on the TV about it for a chocolate bar, Drifter.
th-cam.com/video/qXuvFtcKHKc/w-d-xo.html
@@colinp2238 I am from the US but because my family is not, I speak with a strange mix of British and American English.
Well, do you speak English?
@@williamrees9928 I speak fluent English. I just use a mix of British and American idioms.
Never underestimate the ineffectiveness of the American education system.
I think it's more of a cultural problem that also manifests in education: systemic disinterest in other countries and cultures. Individual people might actually find other cultures very interesting, but they barely get any exposure to them. I've seen US news media coverage of the German election, and it was the shallowest surface level shit I've ever seen. They usually have some external person call in who then talks about literally nothing for a few minutes and then the segment ends. You might find better stuff in good newspapers, but who reads newspapers in 2021?
I think it's not only about education system, here in Europe, we also know shit from school, but most of us is interested about world and travel to other countries, so you see informations about other countries everywhere and there is plenty of documentary movies in TV.
Nothing to do with our educational system... just that most Americans forget that other countries exist...
@@faultier1158 ignorant people don't read the news paper.
@@Jedi_Black seems to me that might be a condition of ineffectiveness of the American education system for your own condition.
When I mentioned that I was from Germany the girl I was talking to got really excited and told me that she‘s been to Germany before. Turns out she visited Amsterdam once. Close but not quite Germany 😂
Did she travel there, when Germany attacked the Benelux countries?
I'm afraid of her mental... "state"... WHILE she was in Amsterdam O.O
She went to a Dutch land.
Not right now, that is. ;)
@@sourisvoleur4854 Won’t we just call it the Netherlands, please? A dutch country doesn’t exist.
I used to study in Brussels, Belgium. I was speaking in French with a university official, who asked if I was from Ireland. I explained that I'm an American. The official asked why I was speaking French with an Irish accent. I replied that this is how I speak French and I'm not sure why it would sound Irish. He insisted that we switch to English, and then proceeded to tell me that I was speaking English with an Irish accent as well. As tactfully as possible, I told him that my accent wasn't Irish. After much arguing, he finally completed my paperwork. I could tell by his demeanor that he was convinced I was an Irish spy posing as an American for...reasons?
YES! I have lived in Germany on and off for years at a time and the ignorance goes both ways. I've been asked some really stupid questions by Germans and I get it. They watch a lot of garbage American TV. One question: After I said that I'm from Minnesota and that it borders Canada, I was asked, "Do you have an oil well in your backyard"? After further query, they were an avid fan of the TV show DALLAS. I said that Minnesota is nowhere near Texas. 🤣🤣🤣
you spoke to a belgian, that's just a very backward country in general.
Are you from Boston by any chance? 😀
I have been asked by educated Americans, “ How’s the fighting been there recently?” When I answered that there hasn’t been any fighting there for the last 75 years, I was told, “ I thought all of those LITTLE countries OVER THERE were always fighting with each other.”
🤦🏻♂️ that’s a rather awkward thing to say considering the fact that he comes from a country that themselves started or got involved in several conflicts around the world in the last 75 years 😂😂😂 no offense, dear Americans. I don’t mean to insult you or call you aggressive in any way. Just stating a fact…
Maybe they're thinking of what happens at particularly rowdy soccer matches. 😆
@@greg_216 LOL! well, if he means that he certainly has a point unfortunately
Was probably thinking about Bosnia/Serbia, the angry peasants over there. Still, a bit out of date.
lol and that's why it's called "fake news"
I live in Detroit, Michigan USA. The most embarrassing incident I witnessed was during an International Engineering Conference. An Austrian professor was presenting a paper on preventing wrong way entry on to the highway by drunk driver Here is the scenario
American presenter: Dr. professor abc from Australia,
she corrected him, From Austria
American presenter looks at the paper and says Dr. professor abc from Australia,
The professor finishes the presentation,
American presenter: Thank you Dr. professor abc from Australia
Very embarrasing
That’s a good thing.
An Australian emperor started World War I and Adolf Hitler is an Australian.
As an Austrian, I think this interpretation is good.
I concur!
@@claudiaberger9639 LOL.
@@claudiaberger9639 I can imagine US bombers going to bomb Australia instead of Austria. :-D
I used to work for the Department of Employment and Social Development in Canada. Foreign workers who have worked long enough in Canada can qualify for a partial pension. I remember receiving multiple letters from a very displeased Austrian man who was complaining that his bank charged him service fees to convert his pension payments from Australian dollars to Euros. I investigated the matter and discovered that one of my colleagues had erroneously sent pension payments in Australian dollars to the poor Austrian man. What ensued was the most embarrassing apology letter I had ever written in my official capacity as a representative of the government of Canada.
Don’t worry, one time a girl asked me where I was from, I said Alberta, she thought for a while so I told her Canada, she then said, “oh I thought it was another planet”
Lol.... too funny!! Im in Alberta too. Some may know Banff or Jasper. Calgary stampede. Oil 🛢 country.
For some people we might as well be on another planet!!
Welcome to earth then. I personally welcome our new Albertian Overlords.
Another planet? Ha, that's a new (and very dumb) one. Sometimes, people speak before they think, I guess.
@@johnkarapita437 I like to think they don't speak enough and the misconceptions they've harbored all their lives can come out on the rare occasions they say what they're really thinking.
Those winters seem like another planet.
The question about whether you speak German... it brought back a CRAZY memory. Some years back, I moved to Egypt. While I was still in the US, getting ready for the move, someone actually asked me, "What language do they speak there in Egypt? Is it Spanish?"
I'm a Brit who lives in America. Around the time of William and Kate's wedding a couple from Missouri asked me, in all seriousness, if I had been invited. I'm still kicking myself for not saying "yes" and having some fun with them.
I'm from Norway, and my favourite one that I've heard of is an American tourist asking if Norwegians had as much trouble with trolls as they did with the American Indians.
clearly they haven't seen the movie Troll Hunter
😂 😂😂
@Michelle Too true.
You shoulda answered: yes and we committed genocide as well.
To be fair, when I was 17 and first time worked as a trainee in Germany in 1999, in a small town in the heart of Baden-Würtenberg, I also had to face a rather dumb question
One of my coworkers asked me if it is true, that in Hungary we still have more horses than cars, and that everybody rides like in the 10th century... and this coworker was a bit over 20
Well in that small town I have seen more barns, than ever before in my life in Hungary - because despite the only place with horses there was the local riding school, literaly a third of the houses had a barn... :)
But ofc I had that conversation only one time...
...and next year again in another small town in Ostalgäu, in Bavaria... I still love Germany!
Friend of mine also told me, some people in Denmark wanted to teach him how to eat with a fork and knife when he visited in Aalborg... no comment...
But that 7 hours ahead, and why nobody warned them about 9/11 ??? That tops everything - especially since there are multiple timezones in the US
A lot of people here in Germany have as weird and uneducated thoughts about eastern europe as americans about germany. I guess its hard to imagine for them that countrys east to germany are fully developed countrys, even though the weath and living standard is maybe slightly lower.
I lived in Nurnberg (in the US Army) for three years... well actually it was a little town called Zirndorf. Moving back to the US was a huge culture shock for me. That was also the first time I'd seen a Wiener Schnitzel restaurant in the states. I was floored that instead of Schnitzel, they served Bochwurst. My friends took me there for dinner, and I was laughing the whole time. So the next week I found a nice Bavarian place that served Schnitzel, and more importantly, Deutch style Cordon Blu. Much bier was had by all. 🙂
Most Americans have always been mystified by "Wiener Schnitzel". They think it's some kind of sausage, like a weenie.
the owner is from Taco Bell im not shocked yall get this W
In his defense, he was going for a joke, but when I came over to the UK for the first time, my friend asked: "Wait, where are your tanks? Didn't you bring any tanks?"
There's still loads of British people that are thinking about WWII the moment they learn I'm from Germany.
The 2nd time I came over, I brought tanks. Model tanks. :D
The most annoying thing wasn't a question, but apperantly I can't be involved in a discussion about Churchil. With the words: "You as a German, should not be critizing him!"
I was baffled.
He has been canonized, but the truth is slowly coming out.
you can ansewer next time: I'm just a scout
@@Dalmen Secret scout, no less! ;)
If Germans can't criticize Churchill then, by that logic, Britons can't criticize Hitler. Lost is the irony of claiming to have won the war in the name of freedom while telling ohters what they are "allowed" to say and think.
After a military stint of two years in England, my mother used to shake her head and say England has never recovered from World War 2.
Really funny and I love your sarcasm. My wife and laughed so hard about the 7 hours ahead “Why didn’t you warn us about 9/11?” question.
Funny HA!! Really you think she was actually asked such a question, PLEASE!!
This was great!
The funniest this I have heard along these lines doesn’t involve Americans… It was May 5th (Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday) and my Bolivian friend was greeted by an Asian colleague with “Happy Cinco de Mayo”. He thanked her and explained that he was from Bolivia, to which she responded, “Where in Mexico is that?”. When telling this story to his friends, we all immediately responded “South Mexico!”. From that day forward, to his Stammtisch buddies, he was no longer Bolivian. He was South Mexican.
"I'm from the South!"
"... Which South?"
@@Alias_Anybody Lots of planets have a South.
😂 I'm Mexican living in the US, and I was truly shocked by how many people actually think 5 de mayo is an important thing for us...
@@fernandogil65 The beer companies have brainwashed the entire country.
@@RolandHutchinson
I'd say every planet has a South, lol.
As an American student at an English university I was once asked by another student, “will you be taking the train back to America.” I might add that the universities in England at the time represented the top 2% of UK students. Stupidity is a global phenomenon.
The principal of the high school in rural Illinois I attended in 1974/75, who was really a terrific, educated guy in spite of being out in the sticks and running a tiny high school, told me the story that he once was at a party and mentioned that he'd love to go to Europe, but that he felt that the flight was too expensive for him. Then one of the other guests asked him, "Why don't you drive?"
i feel like folks need to give this more likes but yea this aint just americans
I am from Austria and I made more than once the experience that Americans (but not only) mistake it for Australia or never heard of it at all. Therefore I've changed strategy and just say right away: "I am from Austria. That's a small country in Europe between Italy and Germany" to avoid misunderstandings.
Welcome to the Sweden / Switzerland Mixed-up.... :D
@@taurus70 Oh wow I didn't know that this was a thing too. Maybe you should just say that you come from Scandinavia hahaha 😂😂
@@alexs.7915 But that would be wrong... Ich bin westlich von dir beheimatet... 😂
@@taurus70 Achsooo und es gibt Leute, die die Schweiz nicht kennen 🤔😱 Ich dachte eher, dass Schweden weniger bekannt ist außerhalb von Europa 😂😂
@@taurus70 In Spanish, Sweden is “Suecia” and Switzerland is “Suiza” !
I'm Australian and have been asked by someone from the USA "How does it feel to come from the same country as Hitl*r?". It's pretty common for them to mix up Australia and Austria. I mean, I know the names are similar, but apart from that we are really quite different....
I've also been told "Wow, you speak English really well for a European". I was left wondering what they meant and then said "Australia is not in Europe, it's an island/continent in the Southern Hemisphere". A brief, strange conversation ensued and then I cleared it all up for her.
@@scoooter78 I live in America, I have to hear this stupid shit constantly. People here barely know American history.
yes, closet racists often bring up Hitler to anyone they think is German or Austrian, the same way that anti-white racists often bring up slavery to white Americans.
I'd have replied 'How does it feel to come from the same country as Donald Trump and tell me exactly what the difference is?'
@@scoooter78little do Americans know that English😂😂😂 is a European language
This was hilarious.
My mother was going on about German being a "spitty, yelling" language and I said no, just listen to me. She said I didn't sound like that, because I didn't have a good accent. I said that Germans had thought I was native at times. She said they must be used to Americans.
Ugh! Yes, I can confirm this one. Americans do associate the sound of German with over-the-top spoofs they’ve heard, or simply based on hearing a clip from a rally where the speaker was yelling. But listen to the news or a polite German conversation, and I think it sounds very smooth and charming.
@Johnny Rep Everyone was on vacation!!!
@@KurtFrederiksen Helene Fischer??? Seriously??
German friends were once asked by an American if they were speaking French. When they said no, it was German, she accused them of lying bc they weren't yelling.🙄
Well of course, Hitler yelled and spat like a crazy meth head.
"Oh, you're swiss, Sweden is such a beatifull country". It was a business call with a company involved in space technologies...
It’s not just in the U.S.
I’m Portuguese, and after having lived in Sao Paulo- Brazil for nearly 10 years, I moved to Hong Kong, where I’ve been living for almost 4 years now, and I’ve had my fair share of dumb questions. I’d say the funniest one happened in Brazil, when someone asked me where I had learned to speak Portuguese so well ( official language in Brazil is also Portuguese).
In Hong Kong, many people try to speak Spanish to me after they find out I’m Portuguese, which is a bit annoying, but understandable, I give them a few points for the effort.
Something very similar happened to me the day I arrived to Spain. A lady contratulated me on my great spanish speaking skills, and ask me where I'd learned it. I'm argentinian, we have one of the most obvious of the spanish accents. She cracked me up, but I did thank her for the compliment
@@vikolivik please tell me the lady wasn’t Spanish because I really can’t believe anyone in Spain doesn’t know about Argentina speaking Spanish. En plan, no es ni medio normal
@@QwertyUiop-bs2zr jajaja era españolísima la señora.
@@vikolivik pues te iba a decir que lo siento por ti eh pero lo siento mucho más por esas señora, Dios mío, como cojones no sabes que en Argentina se habla español, si hemos tenido muchísima relación entre los dos países desde siempre, y te juro que en serio no creo que sea casi posible encontrar a otra persona así, por dios santo si hay artistas argentinos muy conocidos en España
@@QwertyUiop-bs2zr Lo sé! me quedé 7 meses y nunca pasó algo así de nuevo. De hecho, a los pocos días, una chica con sólo decir "no, gracias" me dijo "ahhh! eres argentina!" y yo no podía creer lo rápido que me sacó la ficha.
As a Frenchman who lived 40 years in the UK, I have heard it all, particularly in the 70s, people are more aware and sophisticated these days, anyway, back in the days, some people were very surprised ( and skeptical) when i told them that frog legs were not the national dish in France, I got the question "what do you have instead of chips in France? I remember my comments being received in total disbelief when I said that the Normans were Vikings (this was way before the Vikings series being shown on TV. ) . You might be amused as a German lady, that, when watching a travel programme about Munich, the presenter made great effort to pronounce the ish of Munich in a German way which of course the Germans never do as Munich is München in German :-)
Many Americans think they're friendly when they pronounce Copenhagen (København) in pseudo-German
I would have thought that 'pomme frites' would have been a viable answer?
@@woolyimage "frites" in France. "Pommes frites" is in Belgium
@@augth lol its well over 40 years since i last took french and it was pomme frites then, i guess things move on.
well, 'ch' is never a 'sh' sound, that would be 'sch'
the most annoying question for me is still the "are germans nazis?" question because i am never sure if they are actually that stupid to assume that germans are nazis or if the person just wants to provoke me..which works just fine tbh xD
Yup. Watched a friend in high school ask a German exchange student if they had (still SMH) "do you have traffic lights in Germany?" I still can't think about it without feeling some shock. And, this was decades ago.
The only correct answer is "No, we don't have traffic lights, we have Wechsellichtzeichenanlagen!"
I've been asked if in Spain we had cars or bread toasters and they also thought that Spain was in Mexico and were surprised when I said it was Europe😅
Seriously??
I'm lucky I suppose. Having been in both the Navy and the Merchant Marine, I've traveled over much of the world and am constantly amazed at how little most Americans know about other countries.
some americans think that eruope is a country...
I teach Spanish, in a class about Mexican culture, I ask my students "Where Spanish language came from to Mexico?" They all look at me, silents. I thought that a comparison would work, so I ask "Where the English language came from to US?" They keep looking at me... some brave soul says "Nowhere?" Just to be clear, two days earlier we had spoke about the horrors of American Conquer by European powers.
Don't worry most of them don't even know that Paris is the capital city of France 🙄
The timezones thing lol I'm an American but I was living in Japan for a period of time. I called my mother one Sunday (it happened to be Superbowl Sunday) She asked me if I knew who will win the Superbowl!!!
Thats like the American woman who was talking to a German woman about the 11th of September attacks and the German woman said she was 6 hours ahead in Europe and the American woman replied, in all seriousness 'Then why didn't you warn us then?'
@@B-A-L What makes that question even stupider is that America has 4 timezones in the lower 48, resulting in portions of the country being 1-3 Hours ahead of other timezones
I'm from Tennessee (and female- not my device). My friend and I were in Florida for the first time, years ago, and met two guys from California. They were so shocked and confused when we told them we were from Tennessee - because we were wearing shoes! They truly believed everyone in Tennessee always went barefoot.
Let's just face facts- every country in the world has its fair share of REALLY dim bulbs!
Yes, the all encompassing, "What do you do for the Fourth of July?" A college student asked a group of Germans this question! OMG!
Feli, now you know WHY I made sure that my daughters were exposed to foreign cultures and people from other countries. When I was in the Air Force I was the co=ordinator of the AMIGO program which was a welcomng organization for all of the foreign military personnel who were here to learn English. so we had people over to our house for the American Holidsys and Christmas and lunches on base with some of the officers who were here. I got my oldest daughter involved in the Foreigyn Exchange Program and sent her to Sweded We took one of her Swedish sisters here for a school term and had her family stay with us for week to repay them for letting us use their apartment when our whole family came to Sweden to picjk up my oldest .Annie also spent a college semester touring Europe..
My middle daughter minored in Chinese in college and went there for a few weeks and she has been to our Italian relatives of my grandmothers in Tyrol. Our youngest was with us in Sweden and we also took her and the others to Copenhagen to see Tivoli Gardens and experience and Indonesian rice tble dinner. My oldest daughter maintained her frendiships with all of her people that she met in the Foreign Exchange program and she has an apartment in Chicago where they come to stay and in return she get to visit them in Europe. She has been to Iceland, Wales, and Scotland
Personally I have been to Europe four times and to Germany twice. The last time I took my wife to Paris for a week and loved every minute of it.
Dude i'm sure they will be very successful in life. People with that many education and culture exchange can work everywhere if they want or have to.
As an older American I would say that some of these ARE rather dumb but speaks volumes about the eduction system in general. In most cases though I believe we Americans can hold our own but education level may have a lot to do with it. When I was in high school in the 60’s and early 70’s, Geography was a separate subject but combined with History as Social Studies in most places in the 80’s, I believe. We had to work a lot with blank maps and were tested frequently.
I’m from NY and while in Europe one summer I was asked if I was happy seeing so many trees since there aren’t any in New York! (the borough where I grew up ( Queens) is known as the borough of trees). Guess Manhattan has a strange reputation.
I find the question reg. The trees in NYC understandable to a certain degree. Most pictures of NY portray roads with a huge amount of traffic between endless rows of skyscrapers .
And we were talking about American ignorance of whole countries and even continents, so your example reg. one particular city isn’t quite comparable imo.
New York City forests!
During the conversation with an American about European history, i mentioned the great king of Sweden named "Gustavus Adolphus". and he replied "But i thought Adolf Hitler was German?".