When Nelson Mandela got elected as the first black African president in South Africa, an American reporter kept referring to him as African American. When she asked how it felt to be the first African American to be elected, he just looked at her and said: This is Africa.
That reminds me, in the eighties, when the world was crying out against the Apartheid in South Africa, there was a large benefit festival in the US simply called "Free Mandela". People were complaining they didn't get a free Mandela as advertised when they bought a ticket.
Sounds about right. When I was still in uni we had an american come in for a study. He lasted about 3 months then left after a rather heated shouting match where he kept screaming at a student they weren't spelling their name correctly. They had a Maori name which he kept trying to turn into an english version.
Sounds more like he was insulting you and your country or at least bragging. Why he went to Germany for a vacation if he can’t let WWII go, I dunno. Its even funnier when they say in such a way as if they were there themselves.
I live in Cambridge England and once heard two American tourists talking. The female told her male friend/partner that Cambridge England was so obviously modelled on the Cambridge MA. Our oldest college is Peterhouse founded in 1284. Duh my brain hurts.
Came across some Murican tourists standing in front of King's College, and overheard the man saying loudly: "Is this all there is to see in this gad dayum town?!"
@@MrPagan777 Within 100 yards of Kings College and on the corner of Benet Street is the millennium clock which apparently cost £1million pounds to make, across the road is the Eagle pub where American and British pilots during WW2 wrote their names in smoke on the ceiling. It is also the pub that in 1953 Crick and Wallace told startled drinkers that they had solved the riddle of DNA. Just across the street is the remains of an old Saxon tower about one thousand years old. Nothing to see? What the heck do American tourists expect a bloody Disney theme park? Also on Kings Parade was the home of at least two famous authors Ronald Searle who inspired the St Trinians films and James Runcie who wrote the Grantchester books.
In Stratford upon Avon, a friend of mine was told to stop laughing and show respect for Shakespeare by an American. My friend was a school head of English, with an English degree from Oxford. The play was a comedy!🤣😂🤣
@@kevanwillis4571 ....if even I, a wee lass from wee country in SEA knows about Shakespeare's comedies (as you like it, King Henry the VIII part IX, especially the ye olde "your mom" joke), ...i'm speechless
On the language question, I was talking to the guy serving at the till in a Washington DC deli. The customer behind me said "I love your accent. Where are you from?" "England", I replied. "And how long have you been in the US"? he asked. "Three weeks". "Only three weeks? Wow! Your English is almost perfect!" I didn't say anything. Just paid and left. But as I got to the door, I heard another customer saying to him "She was speaking ENGlish. She's from ENGland. The clue's in the name"!!
I'm the daughter of Chilean refugees that fled to Sweden after the coup in 1973. This happened in 2001, and I was 28 at the time. That didn't stop the officer at immigration in Miami (I was only changing flights in transit, but still had to go through the process) from the following questions: "It says in your passport that you were born in Chile. How long have you lived in Sweden?" "Since 1974." "Uhu, and why did you run?" "Because there was a military coup, and we had to flee the country for safety reasons." "Uhu, so what did you do?" "Excuse me, what I did?" "Yes, you did something, or else you wouldn't have had to run, right?" "Not really. I was two months old at the time. I was a baby." "A baby?" "Yes. As I said, I've been living in Sweden since 1974 and I was born in 1973, as you can see in my passport. So..." Long, stern look from the officer. The experience was mind-blowing, but not in a good way.
I would have answered: "I said 'Goo-goo-ga-ga' and pooped my pants in front of the military leader" ... but then again, he might have taken it seriously.
Oh yeah, that's the reason why i never ever travel even near the US. I had 2 occations in Europe (live in Germany) where I had to explain my birth place, that it's not in the same country as it used to be, that the place does not exist anymore anyway, that it was part of the USSR (which also doesn't exist anymore) but an autonomous part of 'greater russia' and is a republic now while still belonging to Russia, and is in Asia. That I may have been born in Asia, but am not asian, that i may look 'kinda asian' but am a european and that my parents are a russian with ukrainian and swedish roots and a german-belarus mix (and a bit more actually), and that i am a german citizen, that my surname is not my birthname and why and what not. I am avoiding situations where that comes up cause MAN it's complicated and even her in Europe people seem to have a hard time following.
I used to live in Sweden, and I can assure you that the Vikings are treated very well. They do complain about restrictions placed on going berserk, though.
Turning left on red isn't a thing in the UK as going through a red light is completely illegal, we have to wait for a green light to be able to progress in any direction.
I lived in Canada some years ago, I took a driving test and nearly failed it because of that. I approached the junction to turn right, it was a red light, there was nothing coming. I waited for green, then turned. Back at the driving center he said he could have failed me for that as I was impeding traffic, but as everything else was OK he'd "let me off".
but its worth pointing out he was thinking along the right tracks, because we drive on the opposite side of the road the allowed turn would be reversed to avoid crossing oncoming traffic, it just so happens our road design will always use either a staggered turn or a separate signal. apparently "red means stop" was a basic principle we didn't want to risk confusing drivers over, which may say more about our population than anything else.
In most countries it's illegal. In germany there is a small exception, when there is a small green arrow pointing to the right, then you are allowed to turn right, but everyone else still got priority, so you need to look that everything is free before turning.
@@Rafaela_S. It's the same in France (except the arrow is orange ^^). Apart from the few traffic lights where there is such arrow, it is illegal to turn right. But that should be clear from the way the traffic lights are placed. In US, the traffic light is AFTER the intersection. In Europe, it is BEFORE the intersection.
It is a real difference between the USA and Europe. In Europe, when the origin of someone is evoked, it is usually by far-right movements to try to deny them of their citizenship. Most USA citizens don't understand.
The saddest thing about it is that even black Americans are starting to adopt the "African" this, "African" that, without understanding how disrespectful and degrading it actually is. One such case was a black American addressing what one black English bloke had said, and he wrote on the comments of that video something like "good on this African-English brother"... to which I replied that he probably wouldn't like being reduced to that, and had to further explain (it should be obvious) because I was asked why so, to which I said that firstly, no one outside the US tries to differentiate their nationality from their supposedly ethnic origins... it's like denying their culture, both of them, you aren't neither American nor African, even thou they call you "African-American" (no one calls a white American "European-American" do they?). Secondly, the bloke was English, a black English fellow who could have been of Nigerian descent, or Eritrean descent, of any other nationality or ethnic descent, so even saying "African" is denying their culture and ethnic background. So on one side it denies their very own identity, culture and nationality (or from having it in full, being merited, from being their own), on the other it denies their ancestry by watering it down to a simple geographical denomination of a continent.
@@nco1970 What do you mean? In my experience Europeans are way more focussed on nationality than ethnicity or "race". In the Netherlands your "race" is not on your passport, because there is only 1 human race. That doesn't mean we are a perfect utopia without hatred, but racists here tend to focus a lot on nationality instead of skincolor. For example: Many of the racist people in the Netherlands have a problem with Morrocans, but not Turks. They have a problem with Ethiopians, but not Nigerians, etc.
@@DDanV If Europeans would start doing this, it would get extremely confusing. Europeans have always married and had children with other Europeans from different regions. I would be a German-Spanish-Russian-Dutchman. Sounds very confusing and tiring.
Canadian here. I was in Pisa, Italy. Aside from the tower, there's an historic cathedral there. That cathedral burned down in the 15th or 16th century, and was rebuilt in stone. The big doors are wooden and carved with a multiple-panel bas relief that tells the story of the old cathedral, with the narrative carved in the free spaces in Latin. Now, I can half-ass read Latin, so I was translating it to my wife. Just after I started, an American walked up and whinged "I can't believe they didn't carve this door in English given the tourists and the fact it's a church." After a moment of open-mouthed gawping, I said "You do understand that you're in Italy, the language of the Catholic church is Latin, and when this door was carved, educated people in England spoke FRENCH, only peasants spoke English." He just stormed away.
Yeah, but no, they spoke English. They may have also spoken French, because that was definitely seen as an upper class thing to do right up until the 20th century, as was knowledge of Latin, but all people conversed with one another in English.
An American tourist couple was visiting a viking reenactment festival. At one point they saw some reenactors leaving the area and getting into their Mercedes in the parking lot. The American couple promptly ran up to the security staff shouting that a couple of vikings had escaped the reservation and were stealing a car.
I lived in South Africa for 30 years. An American asked me how we coped with all the wild animals roaming around. I told him that if you went shopping and the high street was full of elephants, you just didn't do your shopping that day.
Americans ask shit like to Canadians. Teen me used to sell Dickie Dee ice cream (think Good Humor... kids on refrigerated bikes). I lived in St. Catharines, literally 15 km from the US border with NY state. It's July. A hot day, about 33 C. A car rocks up with New York plates, so he's driven almost 15 minutes to get there from the border. Rolls down the window, buys a couple of ice creams, then asks "How much further until we get to igloos?" "Sir, do you understand that if you went to the top floor of that apartment over there, you can literally see New York state, and that you're asking an ice cream vendor on a hot-ass day in July where the igloos are?" "Well, this is Canada, right." I ended up directing him to the big white Cinesphere ball in Toronto. That question just seemed like a job for people in Toronto.
I got an american girl to give me hug to console me because my pet elephant stepped on and killed my lion back home…still cant believe she fell for it 😂
I had an international telephone conversation in 1970s with an American. I’m Australian, in Sydney. This was our first conversation after being pen pals for a few years. She said “I love your accent”. I said “I love your accent too.” She said “I don’t have an accent.” I said “Everyone has an accent.” Silence from her end for a few minutes. I wondered to myself how Americans dealt with the rest of the world and why their education system leaves them so unprepared.
@@coraliemoller3896 Sorry, I was just ironically joking from an American perspective. As European I know what pencils are, and I know that you know them. Greetings from Germany
El sistema educativo es muy poco exigente en lo que a su juicio no es útil. Un sistema privado donde lo importante es que puedas pagar la enorme factura. ¿Puede ser un sistema eficaz? Siempre que aparecen premios universitarios de investigación son extranjeros becados, demasiada casualidad.
i must confess i may be personally responsible for at least 3 Americans believing they ride polar bears in Denmark........ i was a teen and it was funny.
American tourists coming to Norway will sometimes ask when the midnight sun will rise, as if the midnight sun is a completely different sun that only we have. Sometimes they will ask us when we turn on the northern lights, as if we created it ourselves and it's not a natural phenomenon.
I'm in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and I overheard an American girl order a bagel at a small family run cafe. The barista said "What is a bagel?" and the look on that American's face was priceless. Then there are the really really dumb ones who don't believe our money is real, they call it monopoly money and try to pay in US dollars. Also they ask for CREAM in their coffee and then get mad if we put cream in it. Apparently in the USA "cream" means some kind of chemical foaming agent.
A friend of mine had an American boyfriend. This guy refused to even try to learn our language (Norwegian), and he got super angry if we spoke Norwegian among ourselves. Sure, it would have been rude if we only spoke our own language around him, but even tiny things like «fetch me some coffee please» or «remind me to buy more bread on the way home» from a Norwegian to another Norwegian, was enough to make him angry. But then, everything un-American made him angry. I have no idea why he stayed with my friend so long before leaving and going back home, when he had such a horrible life here in this socialist hellhole 😂
How can you "refuse" to learn Norwegian? I've put on NRK humor skits for my friends here in Aus and they seem to pick it up like a foreign accent, context makes the meaning quite obvious. Somebody who plans to visit Norway could learn the basics within a week and with enough listening exposure they can just reply in English and let their friends speak Norwegian.
Anyone remember Oprah interviewing Hugh Laurie from the tv show "House" ? Hugh played the role with a flawless American accent and when Oprah heard him answer her questions in his actual British accent she was stunned. She actually asked him if he could speak like an American, why didnt he speak like that all the time 😂😅😂
I once had a chat with an elderly Amerixan woman who insisted that the USA was the oldest democracy in the world, I had great pleasure telling her that Greece had one at least 1000 yrs before the USA was founded, she replied , impossible, they didnt speak American, I gave up and walked off
@@barrytaylor6565 Americans don't even know that most of their Constitutional Laws were 'borrowed' from the ancient Athenian laws, especially the 'right to bear arms' one that they are SO proud of. If only they knew the truth about it. In Ancient Athens the law was that only Athenian born 'free' people were allowed to carry weapons. That was because about 60% of the population were slaves and it was seen as a way of stopping the slaves from rising up against them to gain their freedom. The educated wealthy American males that formulated the American Constitution probably thought it was a great way of keeping the status quo in their society too.
@@isabellevince5174 Athens was actually the first democracy in the world (starting in 5th Century BCE). Ancient Greece was actually made up of many city states that ruled in different ways but Athens was definately the first known place with a democratic leadership.
@@leithmacdonald4242 plenty of Americans know, including me it's just that their are plenty of stupid people and they are typicaly the ones to run their mouths off thinking they know everything.
during my student exchange in the 90s an american asked me if we've got cars in germany. told him no, we still ride donkey carts which is why we have no speed limit on the autobahn. donkey carts just don't go that fast.
I once watched a video where a German woman explained German brand names. When she explained that BMW stands for Bayrische Motoren Werke the amarican girl asked why the W wasn't pronounced as a uu when it's clearly a W... Because it's German 🙄 and the video clearly wouldn't make sense if the English pronunciation was always the right one 😅😂😂
I did exactly the same thing when asked if we had cars in Croatia..... told the guy that we only used donkeys, lived in caves, when hungry killled animals with sticks and had leaves over our genitals to cover ourselves.... he responded: "Reallly!?"
Working in a shop, I see the worst of Americans. One told me I had to give him a discount because he was American. When I said no, he insisted I call my boss (om holiday in Morocco). He then told her she needed to fire me. Instead, she told me to throw him out of the shop.
I was in a restaurant across from Hampton Court. An American family had asked for their bill. Father spent ten minutes harranging the waiter because he could not work out a 12.5% tip in his head. The man said "all good wait staff should be able to work out 12.5%". We don't use 12.5% as standard. If we did I am sure the waiter would have had it straight off. That's what to do go to a foreign country and insist on having everything the way it is back home and be rude and aggressive about it.
@@SP-eo1vlBritish people do the same. I live in Ireland. English people move here and start b1tching that they can’t get Yorkshire Tea, there’s no Greggs, the road tax is more expensive, why they have to re-register their car, how our postcodes are different, how the pubs don’t have Carling etc. etc.
I was on a boat in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, and a US serviceman was complaining so loudly that people on the pier were stopping to listen as he berated the tour operator because there were no special discounts for US veterans. Glad to say the operator quickly put him in his place and received a round of applause from everyone not from the USA.
A retired US serviceman asked me for a military discount at a shop & was furious when I said we didn’t offer one…..we were in New Zealand so I told him to get back to me when he’d joined the New Zealand Armed Forces
I used to work for a vaccine / pharma company in Sweden. The company had several sites in Europe and had been aquired by a large (international) US company. At one occasion a pharmacovigilance inspection was planned for the product manufactured and managed at the Swedish site. The inspectors from the US never turned up. They had gone to the site in SWITZERLAND.
Can't attest to stupidity, but I can attest to entitlement. I have a rental house right next to mine, not ideal, but it is what it is. 2 years back an american couple rented it for a week. Sunday morning at about 8 am i'm awakened by a techno party next door. I get up grumpily, go to that house, explain to him that in Belgium, the sunday is a rest day, where ppl are not supposed to make a lot of noise and just chill out. So no mowing your lawn or turning up loud music or revving your engine on the driveway, also most shops are closed aswell. I asked him politely to turn it down a few times to no avail. His argument: "I'm an american, i have every right to turn my music up as much as i want to". It was all pointless. So i called the cops (which i fk'ing hate to do). The cops roll up, hear the music banging like a music festival, they look at me, and go, "I guess you called us?" They then proceeded to knock on his door. The guy comes outside, and the cops tell him to turn off the music. He again goes on about being american so he can do whatever the fk he wants. That was a bad move. Now due to his refusal he was going to get a fine, but for that they need his ID. (In Belgium, it's compulsory for anyone over 18 to always ID yourself to the police no matter what). He did the "i don't have to show my ID, went on about the american constitution (meanwhile me and the neighbors were laughing our asses off). He kept refusing to ID himself (didn't even turn off the music while arguing with the cops). This went on for quite some time. So finally they cuffed him and took him away. I later heard from the local uhm dono the american equivalent for it "neighborhood cop" what happened later. Apparently he kept refusing to ID himself, was acting like a twat etc. His gf did go there a bit later with his ID. So normally that would have meant that they'd just instantly give him a fine and he'd be out. But as he had been such a twat, they just told her that they were low on staff as it's a sunday and they'd get it sorted asap. Apparantly asap meant 7pm lol. (yes, our cops are aholes too) The end result: a fine for "disturbing the peace on a sunday", "refusal to ID himself" and "smaad" (dono how to translate that, but it means heavily insulting a police officer). (and being a foreigner, that means it needs to be payed on the spot). The next morning when i went to my car to go to work, he came up to me yelling about how it was all my fault. I just told him that he was now trespassing and threatening another person and if he wanted i'd gladly reunite him with his friends in blue. I told him to get lost and to not address me again, except with an apology, or I'd call the cops on him for harassment. I could see him doubting but finally he backed off and went back inside. I do have to admit for the rest of their stay they were the quietest ppl that have ever stayed in that house. He never apologized, but hey, i did get a perfectly quiet neighbour for the rest of his stay.
😂 I can imagine the horror story he told his usa-friends of ”lacking freedoms in Belgium”. The same would have happened in Finland too, with fines because of ”opposition to officialdom”. The only thing that has been tolerated here, is loud sex since it has been considered a normal living sound - yet a couple of people in my block of flats have been complaining about their neighbours to the housing manager. The answer has usually been a friendly ”it is like that when you live next to young people/move out to an own house/town house”.
Wait, are you telling me that spanish didn't arrive in Europe when Moctezuma and his warriors crossed the ocean on sea turtles to colonize the iberian peninsula?
@@edwardfletcher7790 Indeed. They know your country better than yourself even if they have never been there, and if you disagree with them, you are just lying for whatever reason.
That reminds me of the American actress "Jessica Alba". She did a DNA test on a talk show, and she was stunned when it was revealed that she was largely of European descent. She said confusedly, "How is that so, my dad was born in Spain". lol
I'm a spaniard. I've been told that I'm not from Spain because "Spanish is a language not a nationality" by different people from USA SO MANY TIMES. Its actually kind of insane how often people from USA think the entire peninsula just doesn't exist and/or is in south america. (and no, don't try to explain to them that Mexico isn't in south america either. They won't get it.)
If there is one thing, that is Americans are very confident with what they say even if they are wrong. They spend their whole lives being told how great they are and their country is to the point that ignorance is the only way this can happen.
Way back in 1989 I was a tourist in England (ended up living there for 22 years) I was at the tower of London and an American tourist behind me was complaining about the state of the stairs we were walking down. I said "well you'd be a bit worn if you were 900 years old too!" While travelling through Europe I heard a lot of Americans complaining. Shut up already and enjoy a different culture, what's the point of visiting another country if you expect it to be just like America?
Oh, the amount of complaints you hear from american tourists here in Germany when they realize they have to CLIMB THE STAIRS by themselves (instead of using an elevator), to get to the top spots of our churches - or how narrow those staircases are. Or that they can't drive their jeeps into the parking lots of our castles - cause there are none - but have to park at the bottom of the castle hill and then WALK a few hundreds of meters to a few kilometers. Uphill. And that there's no McDonalds inside.
My dad was in the states on St Andrews Day so decided to wear his kilt. An American woman complimented him on his ‘Farquhar plaid’, my dad smiled and said it’s actually a ‘Cochrane Tartan’ (my family tartan). She said she could assure him he was wrong. It’s the confidence for me! 😂
I'm Irish, back in the 90's there was a man arrested here in Ireland, for scamming American tourists. Now initially I thought they should throw the book at him but I changed my mind after reading that he had been selling bottled tap water, as leprechaun tears. No other nationalities were scammed, funnily enough 😭
A lot of Americans believe we are too poor in Copenhagen ( because of our taxes) and that’s why we bike a lot and apparently we can not afford a car 🤦🏼♀️
Well they're right. Cars in Denmark are extremely expensive,probably twice more than in USA. And most trade jobs are much better paid in the USA. I think for a working class danish to buy a new car (say vw golf) he (or she) needs to save twice as more monthly salaries. And both energy (incl.fuel) plus car ownership are very,very expensive in Denmark. I'm dutch,here is the same. Not a good country for hard working blue collar workforce.
Kriss Akabusi had that problem with an American interviewer who kept calling him that despite his repeated corrections. Eventually the interviewer ended the interview in confusion because they couldn't deal with this nutcase who seemed to be in denial about his own skin colour.
When we moved to the US for six years, my then 10-yr old son, my late wife being Kenyan, and he being born in Kenya, was indignant when his new school recorded him as "African-American".
Well, at least he picked up on the African-American habit of being offended no matter what you call them, or even if you don't say anything at all. He'll fit right in.
@LadyIarConnacht there's a difference between being overly sensitive and a reasonable annoyance at a basic fact being recorded wrong. Getting someone's nationality wrong is like getting thier name wrong, especially on official paperwork. Hes kenyan, not american. Some Americans would go mental if you made that mistake to them and wrote them down Canadian for example
When working in Airport security an American woman told me she had brought her hair dryer and electric curlers in case we had electricity in England. I told her we only had steam. If she goes to a hardware store near her hotel she could get a steam to electricity converter very cheaply.
asked if we had fridges reply nope we use black hole technology a small black hole slows time but a larger on stops time so anything in side stays fresh forever was upset it wont work in the USA as it needs 220vols to run it
My encounter with an American "in the wild": I was working tech support for some telecommunications company in Germany and he was calling from ramstein Air force base(paratrooper stationed there). It was the most pleasant and intelligent conversation I had all week. Just here as a reminder not to generalise from cherry picked examples.
a Scottish manor had a web page for "haggis hunts" the weekend had haggis beaters, organised shoots, they got so many inquiry's and bookings from USA they had to issue an apology
I am German-Swiss and would have believed it too. I know that in Pamukkale in Turkey parts of the white rocks are closed off every year so that they can regenerate and be cleaned and become white again. That's why I would have believed the story.
Yes. It happens! I'm Australian and when I was touring Europe with my mother some years ago, we were standing in a busy area, chatting away, when an American barged up to us and asked where we were from. When we answered "Australia", she said "Wow. You've learned to speak good English.". We were stunned. Also, a few years later I was on a bus tour of Scandinavia and had the misfortune of sharing the tour with a lot of obnoxious Americans. In Sweden, our hotels offered the famous 'smorgasbord' for breakfast and we were told the rule that we could eat as much food as we wanted for breakfast but that it was the height of rudeness to take food away with us when we left. Many of us were horrified to watch a lot of the Americans pack food in napkins and stuff it into their hand luggage each morning. We nearly cheered out loud one day when a hotel manager refused to allow those Americans' luggage to be packed onto the bus until they paid for the food they had stolen from the breakfast smorgasbord. 👏👏
@@mysticalmaid BS, they were warned multiple times and knew exactly what they were doing. If you visit another country, you abide by the laws and customs of that country.
@@mysticalmaidIf you took food from the smorgasbord, ate most of it, and kept what remained, that would be leftovers. Taking it straight from the table and putting it into storage is _not_ that.
@@ReddwarfIV I've never had a smorgasbord or heard of one, nor am I American. I'm just saying there may be some misunderstanding due to how different things are over there.
Years ago, an american cousin came to France for summer. There was a festival with David Guetta. He was surprised: "You know David Guetta? It's an american DJ!"... well, he is famous worldwide but most important, David Guetta is FRENCH ! 😅
@@VlogMusique I wanted to disagree with your daughter, but I could only think of Maurice Chevalier, Sacha Distel, Charles Aznavour (called by a former BBC presenter Charles Az no voice) and Johnny Hallyday (I had a short romance with a French girl when I was about fourteen).
In a post office in Italy, an American guy asked:"Do you have any stamps?".... the teller said: "Non parlo l'inglese."... the guy then continued: "DO - YOU - HAVE - ANY - STAMPS!".... he left empty-handed
Have you come across Lenny Henry? He is a black British comedian and actor, regarded by many as a national treasure. A particularly persistent interviewer of the "you must be African American" type kept insisting "No, where are you really from?" Finally Lenny admitted the truth "Dudley". To really pile it on Lenny could have said Dudley is in the heart of the Black Country, home of the industrial revolution. He was too merciful.
I'm an Aussie. Whilst visiting the USA, I was given a lesson on how to turn on a water tap. They were shocked to learn we have taps with running water already, but couldn't understand how a tap was installed inside a cave 😂 I was screamed at "don't tell my kids lies, cartoons aren't real, you're one of the terrorists we've been warned about" - I had told her kids that Tasmanian Devils are real animals, that I'd seen many times, but no they don't spin 🥴.
😂 I was shown around the house of my hosts and had things like the fridge and the stove explained to me. Later I was asked if we had coins and traffic lights. I’m European, not StoneAgeian.
@@nandella Yep, that's pretty much what they did to me lol. I couldn't believe it when they asked me "have you seen one of these before"? - it was the fridge 😂😂. I tried very hard not to be rude, but sheesh they make it difficult lol. When I got home to Australia and shared my stories, my friends and family thought I was joking, and found it hard to believe, until they came here for a holiday and confirmed it all lol. They just don't have a clue what's out there in the world, none whatsoever, until they meet someone from another country lol. Geez, I even met people who didn't know where the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower are - it's quite sad really
Eso mismo le pasó a un alumno de intercambio, le enseñaban la nevera y él pensaba que era para que eligiera la comida o la bebida, le enseñaban el aire acondicionado y creía que era para elegir la temperatura. Hasta que se fue dando cuenta que le estaban presumiendo de tecnología como si nunca hubiera visto una. El alumno por vergüenza no les reveló el error, pero cuando su hijo regresó de España tuvo que ser un show al explicarles. Además la casa era mucho mejor y más tecnológica que la de los estadounidenses. 😂
@@albertomartin7576 😂😂 it's amazing how many people it has happened to. The Americans who get a decent education, are normal, educated people, but the ones who the American education system fails (far too many), it's a train wreck lol
Whistler ski resort waiting for the chairlift. There was a group of Asian girls standing in front of me speaking Chinese and laughing and giggling. Two older American women behind me. One of the American women pushed me aside and started yelling at the Asian girls telling them to speak American when they’re in America. I interrupted and informed the woman that they can speak whatever language they want to. I also told her the only language we don’t tolerate in Canada is American , and she should speak Canadian when in Canada. I also told them to mind their business. She tried to have me kicked off the mountain for being rude to them. lol. (This was before “Karen’s”, but she demanded to speak to a manager)
Was at a Friday night High School game in Dexter, Michigan getting a half-time drink from the concession stand. Some of the kids on the cheerleading squad were there and overheard me. "Wow, I love your accent! Where are you from?" "Thank you... I'm from England so technically I don't actually have an accent. You all are the ones with an accent." Pause for five seconds, observing the puzzled looks as they try to process that. "I'm just messing with you. Have you all heard of Robin Hood? I was born a few miles from the centre of Sherwood Forest. That's where my accent is from." Cue ten minutes of being quizzed on exactly where Sherwood Forest was, why I was in Michigan in October, their shock at what English money looks like. Having different sizes and colours for the different value notes to help visually impaired people was genius level design to them and deemed super cool. They were genuinely curious, polite and a credit to their school. Not all kids these days are how the media sometimes try to depict them.
Not knowing something you have never seen, heard if or been taught is normal and a geat opportunity to learn. Not knowing something that you were taught, and refusing to learn is a dumbass.
Thank you for this positive comment. As an American I can say it is very disheartening to read all of these comments about the stupid things. Americans have said and the rude behavior they have exhibited while visiting other countries. It’s very embarrassing.
Half my family is American (NorCal) .. Im from New Zealand. When my mum moved here, my grandmother would send her care packages with toothpaste, glue, salt and pepper, pens etc since it was "not a developed country, and so far from America that these things must be hard to get". My Aunty and Uncle recently came out to visit from the US, and would repeatedly ask people what they said, or to speak slower etc even when people were giving them basic, one word answers. "Your language here is so different". Also they claimed that they couldnt eat the food in many restaurants, that it didnt taste right or something was wrong with it - It was fresh
While visiting the London dungeon in 2022, I overheard an American tourist responding to the information relayed by the group tour guide. “If, as you say, Jack the Ripper was never arrested, does that mean he is still at large?” In Italy, I overheard an American tourist asking his mate, “If this is the Sistine Chapel, where are the other fifteen?” You go figure…🤣🤣🤣
I once had a 30 min long discussion with an American from Chicago, living in Spain. He insisted that while in Spain it was winter, in Chicago it was summer because "it's at the same height as Florida and it's hot in there". After discussing with him that the equator doesn't divide the Atlantic Ocean North to South, and that it was also winter in Chicago, he said that it couldn't be true since "the Moon goes north to South so Chicago is so hot now". I had to literally pull out my phone, google the weather in Chicago, which was at a record low in December and then show on Google Maps where the equator was. After that whole 30 minutes, he just said "oh, OK" and changed the subject. His girlfriend, who was South African was looking at him with her mouth open. We were all teachers in that room. The couple had just bought a flat together.
@@matso3856 Thats the least of the problems. You need to stop the car which would stall it and then you need to start it up again in apparently second gear. Even if she shifts into neutral which is questionable its almost impossible. Driving a manual without a clutch is very hard for people who know how to drive manuals. When I was a child It happened to my father on a vacation trip. He used to revs to match the specific gear for the roadspeed to shift. And we had to run in circles through a gas station in front of a red light. We were very lucky to arrive. My father said if he wouldve had to fully stop anywhere there wouldnt have been a way to get going again.
I’m Canadian. I dated a guy from Seattle. when we were driving on the freeway to Seattle from Canada. He explained to me that the little white bumps between the lanes were so that blind drivers could stay in their lane or know when they’ve changed lanes.
The amount of african-Americans who think that black is an American term is astounding. There are millions of threads of them saying Jamaicans aren’t black, British blacks aren’t black and lastly Africans aren’t black. It’s the weirdest thing
To be fair, "black" (or various other SELF-identifying markers like it) DO tend to be hallmarks of those countries that have historically had large populations of slaves of sub-Saharan African origin. This includes Carribean countries and some other countries (especially Brasil and a few Spanish-spreaking countries in Latin America). It's also not surprising that the distinction is also common in former colonial powers whose populations include many relatively recent immigrants - often descendents of slaves - from their former colonies (as well as their post-immigration descendents). But it really DOESN'T include countries in sub-Saharan Africa where a simple term based on a dyadic "black-white" distinction typically makes LITTLE or NO sense as a way for people to distinguish THEIR identity group from the VERY numerous other identity groups you find in that most diverse of continents... Indeed, it makes no more sense than for the majority indigenous populations of Europe to use the term "white" as a self-indentification marker to distinguish, say, indigenous Germans from indigenous Poles or Greeks or Spaniards or Irish when there are much more relevant distinctions in language, culture, history or geography that are much more meaningful to them. So to an outsider like me, the REALLY weird thing about "identity politics" in the US is not the frequency with which a sizeable minority of its population self-identifies as "black" or "African-American", it's that a sizeable minority (from within its majority of largely European descent) self-identifies as "white"!
Another embarrassment. This stupid African-American bs. 1. Not all black people are from Africa 2. They are just American. They were born here just like everyone else and 9xout of 10, have probably never even been to Africa. PC at it's finest...not.
Had an American comment on a TH-cam video & state that Melanesians (Black Pacific Islanders) are not black. We literally have some of the darkest people (Bougainvilleans) on the planet.
The comedian Gina Yashere has told the story of how an American cop stopped her. On hearing her British accent he said "Sorry, I thought you were black".
German here. Visited a summer camp in California as a 14 year old teen back in '84. Was asked the classics: had I met Hitler, did I come from East or West Germany. The one that got me the most was from a self-styled car aficionado. He asked if we had cars in Germany. Told him Germany exported roughly 25% of all cars world-wide back then, and it was a German who had invented the first combustion engine car, called Benz. The guy outright claimed I lied, because "as everybody knows Ford invented the car." He didn't even listen that two of the most used combustion engines used were also invented by Germans, Otto and Diesel. Shrug, whatever.
I was a German exchange student in Michigan, 98, and got the same questions about did we have -electricity -washing machines And cars! When I started naming all the brands that are German, like VW, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, MAN….they flat out accused me of lying until the world cultures teacher chimed in who had started the Q&A
@@koschmx considering it was a class in HIGHSCHOOL, not knowing that a major European country whose industry was majorly centered on car manufacturing has both electricity and kitchen appliances cannot be explained away like that… That‘s a kindergarden question! I also didn‘t mention Cindy, who with a great smile on her face enthusiastically proclaimed that she knew exactly where Germany was….. ….right next to EUROPE! 🫣
@koschmx Living abroad for some time removes you from the group of vanilla Americans we are laughing about. The holes in your education have been replaced by personal experience. You probably speak at least one additional language fluently and get your news from media in different languages from different countries. So you will be treated like an adult, not like an American (tourist).
@@koschmx I seem to remember having heard once that growing up with several languages kind of opens up your thinking. You simply know all the time that there are several ways to express things or address a certain situation. You are less handicapped by growing up in a bubble. I was raised in a small German village, visited a catholic Kindergarten as an evangelic christianed boy, did my HSD in Grassrange, Mt, as an exchange student and I matured a lot during that one year. Most Europeans get used to some intense mingling with people from different cultural backgrounds (school mates, Vereinskollegen, neighbors, ...), where many (older) Americans stick more to their "bubble".
@@wora1111 we also get used to driving 3 hours and being guests in another country for vacations or weekends. 🇩🇪 I remember 4 days in Paris, a weekend in Bruges, a week in Zurich, a week in Sölden, a week in Canterbury, a long weekend in London. It‘s not just ÌMMIGRANTSˋ who haven‘t yet learned to speak YOUR language. The association of something amazing, great experiences, beautiful beaches and great fruit 🍉 makes learning French, or English, a cherished adventure for future holidays, not a way to talk to people to lazy to learn English while living in the states. That’s WHY I, for example, would never learn Turkish. I‘ve been othered too many times by Turks just talking to me in Turkish, assuming me to be an immigrant myself, even though I can trace my German/Eastern heritage back to 1536
The most galling aspect of some of these, is that instead of trying to educate themselves about the rest of the world, some Americans have the bloody cheek to contradict the person they are speaking to. The saying “Tis better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt” was tailor-made” for the US citizens mentioned here
A German comedian once famously said, "You don't need to have an opinion on everything. When you have no idea what you're talking about - just shut the f**k up."
This is MY bugbear. I don’t mind them not knowing things. I do mind it when they refuse to believe people talking about their own countries. Being convinced of your own false ideas is just too much. Dunning Kruger.
I’m a Tour Guide in York England. I love the stupid American questions. My favourites:- Why did we chose an American name for our City? Where in England is Scotland? What came first Medieval or Roman?
@@nightstorm5914 Weiß doch jeder das König Artus von Camelot lange, bevor die ersten Siedler sich dort niederließen wo später Rom erstehen würde, über ganz Eurasien herrschte. Bin mit stillem Wasser dabei
I was in a gift shop in Denmark and an American woman asked the girl behind the counter, whilst brandishing an ashtray adorned with a figurine of the little mermaid, whether they had any with Copenhagen spelt “CORRECTLY” - the Danish spelling is København.
Worked in a UK tourist attraction one summer. Had several americans complain that our vending machines weren't working. They were all trying to use dollars in them
I am English and was in America speaking with my partner when a woman behind me in the queue said "Oh what accent is that, where are y'all from?" I said "Oh, we're from England", she scoffed and said "I think y'all find that's called 'New England', honey".
I was chatting with a young American guy who asked me if he came to the U.K. England would he get respect I just said if you are respectful towards others, you will receive it in return. But no what he actually meant was if he comes to the UK, will he automatically get respect because (he is an American gracing our little island with his presence) that last part is a direct quote from himself lol
I was at the gift shop in Herculaneum in Italy. American loudly complained that there were no guidebooks in English. In front of him was a pile of guide books with the English flag 🏴 and most importantly all the writing in … English. What a muppet.
@@danhodson7187 German here. I had an argument with an American on TH-cam. He claimed that everyone learns English because of American influence. I then said that we teach British English in schools and only briefly mention American English to point out the differences. He didn't believe it at first, only when other Europeans said the same thing
I was brought up in uk in a town that tourists loved (Chester?) and I think it can go both ways - I worked in a bag shop and an American tourist came in clutching a map and asking where the castle was - I told her and added that there was a nice tea shop and some fun off tourist track things and she started to cry! Apparently I was nicest person she had met in uk 😂. My town does get overwhelmed with tourists so people do get a bit grumpy. But we have had awful experiences, we had a very historical home and big gates - but us family forced their way in and rang on doorbell demanding a room and even waved money at my dad… my dad was a little furious 😂. We had a garden that tourists could see but we had high trees - my mum and I were having our breakfast in the garden and to our horror we noticed about 15 Americans (Fanny packs!) taking our picture. We fled into house clutching our tea. Funniest was in London (I admit I was drunk) and Americans on tube train didn’t seem to realise we all speak same language.. they were insulting uk food and culture etc very loudly in quiet train carriage and so I marched up to them and said “you know we speak English and everyone in this train thinks you are a rude arsehole”. That was mean of me but I was drunk 🥴.
I was a student in Coventry 35 years ago. Two American tourists were walking between the Cathedrals when one turned to the other and said "Isn't it amazing that the Germans totally destroyed this Cathedral and completely missed the other one." The old Cathedral is a preserved bombed out shell. The new Cathedral was built right next to the old one after the war.
@@EmotionalLemonade And they have now spread to Northumberland and Cumbria, Yorkshire has a cross breed with the Glaswegian haggis, Wales has two breeds - one only comes out on Friday and Saturday nights - while we have them in Ireland as well. Ours are green with pink, purple or white spots so them blend in with the heather. Some actually believe the stories.
@koschmx A guy who lived in Nürnberg his whole life argued with my dad that Germany and America both were "running out of trees" and that wherever you go you don't see trees in either country. We grew up in a farming community in the US and lived in a small town on the edge of a forest in Bayern. We drove past tens of thousands of trees to get to Nürnberg. He ended up moving to the same small town as us, living at the edge of town right next to the forest, but still remained convinced that these were rare and that this was one of the last pockets of trees to exist in first-world countries. When my grandparents visited, he offered to show them the forest (apparently assuming they'd never seen one before) and was befuddled at their lack of interest.
I was helping to guide a group of American High School students around the 1,000 year old Warwick Castle in England. We took them up to to the top of the Bailey ramparts. The main guide asked; " do you know why they chose the place to build the castle?" - Expecting them to notice that it was the highest point for miles around and at the confluence of 2 rivers. One of the students answered; "because it's close to the freeway?"
Had a friend who worked at the camera obscurer in Edinburgh during the festival and he overheard an American couple complaining how inconvenient the distance was between Edinburgh castle and the train station. It took him a while to realise that they thought the castle was built each year for the festival and not built 700 years before the invention of the train.
I remeber seeing a TV programe on the Tower of London and one of the Beefeaters was asked by an Americian how it was the Tower was built in the middle of London.
When I was traveling in Germany, walking along a sidewalk one evening, a bicycle group of teenage boys stopped and the adult leader asked me, in halting German, if I knew where the hostel was. Happened I did, since I had passed the sign pointing up a hill to it. While I was giving directions in German, he suddenly said, "Excuse me, but do you speak English?" I caught the Kiwi accent, and answered, "No, sorry. I only speak American". He was not expecting that, but it only took him a moment to process it and laugh. Anyhow, giving him directions sure got a lot easier after we established our common language...practiced since we learned to speak - lol!
I was with my fiancée in Paris. We had just popped into a small cosy restaurant and asked for our food. It just showed up when a group of Americans walked in noisily and sat themselves in the middle of the room, being loud. Next thing, they one started clicking their fingers at the waiter and loudly saying “ CAN WE GET SOME SERVICE HERE?!” then proceeded to ask for burgers “ that are cooked properly, not raw”. They were so loud and oblivious to the atmosphere they had destroyed, that the waiter apologised to us and gave us half a bottle of wine by way of apology. I assured him he wasn’t to blame.
when I was at college in the 90s, I spent 3 weeks with an American family, upon arriving the mother explained to me what all the equipment in her kitchen was for: microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. ...she told me you don't have all that in France, I told her that we also had an equipped kitchen, she looked at me surprised, I'm sure she didn't believe me!
When living in the USA as an Aussie we were constantly asked if we were either from England or New Zealand, never Australia, we would simply laugh and say "You Canadians all say the same thing" TOUCHE!
My Aussie wife got asked the same thing when she lived with me in the US. Once we moved to Australia, I've been regularly asked if I'm Canadian. lol Like at least a couple of times per week. When her cousin visited from the Yukon, people swore we sounded just alike even though she's got a super thick Canadian accent and mine is countrified southern US.
@RanchHanded that's because Aussies are betting people, they're playing the odds. Americans are rarely upset by being called Canadians, but Canadian are the kindest sweetest people in the world until you call them American!!!
@@RanchHanded we Australians would prefer not to take the risk of insulting Canadians by asking if they're American. You can't even rely on the old ploy of asking if they often get oat of the hoase.
I’m a driver/guide in Ireland, I was driving by a road sign for Boston in Co. Clare, behind me an American lady when seeing the sign said “ isn’t it Nice your naming places after our cities?” I pretended I didn’t hear her & drove on.
Lol this one kills me bc my husband was born in Boston, Lincs, in the Pilgrim Hospital, built on/near the spot where the pilgrims left England and eventually founded Boston, MA. And he's had no end of trouble with idiots at not only immigration in Canada, but in the US when he went there for work, when they screwed up his paperwork and had that he was born in Boston, MA. Bc how dare there be any other cities or towns called Boston out there. *frustrated sigh*
I got into a conversation with an American on WoW whilst in a raid group, who, with genuine conviction, told me that he hated the UK because we stole all of our place names from the USA. His examples being New York and Birmingham. I then proceeded to tell him that the reason a lot of US cities share the same names as not just UK places but many European places, is because we settled there and named the settlements after towns and cities in the UK and Europe for familiarity. He continued to argue until I told him that most of the towns and cities in the UK and Europe are centuries older than any US city and told him to go and learn actual history. He rage quit the group.
Same with Dutch names in the US. When I told a guy from New York loads of names there were actually Dutch or based on Dutch names he didn't believe me. Harlem, Brooklyn, Long Island, Wallstreet, Flushing etc... all Dutch.
@Linda-hs1lk well as you will probably know, there was a settlement called Nieuw Amsterdam, which eventually became New York City, and there is an Amsterdam near Albany in New York State. I think a good part of the US population genuinely think America was the first place that existed, and that's where life started.
In 1992, an american black woman, who was a tourist, yelled at my black coworker here in Berlin (we worked in a sommer job with tour guides) because he didn't want to be called an "african-american" by her, since he was a german born to nigerian parents. She insisted that all black people outside of africa are "african-american". When he waved me over as his supervisor to deescalate, I (pale white) just pointed out that I didn't want to get involved in THIS conversation but that the conversation should end. I was then called a racist by the American woman
In Germany, you are allowed to turn right on red IF there is a small sign with a green arrow installed next to the red light, pointing to the right. It means you get to turn right even if the light is red, but only if there's no traffic.
A London cabbie once told me that an American woman he took from Heathrow to Central London tried to pay him in dollars. "Sorry, but we don't accept dollars in England" he told her. "Only English pounds". She replied, '"You WEIGH your money here?"
I had a teacher from the state of New York. She was 40 and was explaining us that river can only flow from north to south, because north is up and south is down and everyone knows water can only go downwards... 🙈
On the flipside, I met a lovely American family in my hometown of Brighton, UK. The eight-ish y/o boy asked so politely if he may pet my dog. Of course, he was given permission and as he fussed Dusty, I chatted with the parents. They'd lived in the UK for a couple of years or so and we reflected on a few of the cultural differences and other general chit-chat. I asked if they ever planned to move back to the States. When they stopped laughing, it was a resounding "No! We miss our extended families but that's where it ends." I was kinda shocked but watching videos like this, it makes sense...
When I was in the US (California)I was asked how we (UK) could cope with the complicated decimal system. If I hadn't been dumbstruck at the time, I would have told them that they have no problem with millimetres when it comes to guns. Hindsight, eh?
@@s.rmurray8161 The irony is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that they cling to Imperial measurements when they went to such efforts to cut ties with the old Empire. That said, I just measured my 14 year old at 182cm. "What's that then?" he said. "You're 6 feet tall". We can't commit to one or the other.
Back in the early days of the internet I was chatting with an American woman in a chat room who wouldn't believe I was in Scotland because I had electricity. On a seperate note, I was once surrounded by Japanese tourists all taking my picture and shouting 'real Scottish lady!' because of my red hair.
The only thing I remember is that a guy on the beach in Florida asked my dad the time. My dad looks at his digital watch and reads out 13:47 (very normal thing where I'm from), the guy straightens up and almost shouts "Oh, a military man! Thank you for your service, sir!" Now, the ironic thing is that my dad does work for the military, but most definitely not the American one 😅
In the US, they mostly use am and pm. Not in the military, though, so that's why it's commonly referred to as military time. I knew that, and I'm Swedish.
@@elisaa9981 Well, I'm Danish, so I think that probably levels the playing field a bit. It's fairly common knowledge, but caught in the moment, my dad just read out what the clock said and didn't think about the implications. It's pretty particular to Americans to assume that using "military" time actually means that you were in the military. Also, my dad has a pretty thick Danish accent (you'll know what I'm referring to), so I was surprised the American still assumed he served for the US; It's not impossible, but unlikely.
@@Catwomenofchemistry Well, I did admire his respect but he wasn't what I'd call young. He had that certain lobster-red emperor penguin-y look to him that formerly fit and sporty American men get when they hit middle age and the BBQ and slowing metabolism start to congeal in the lower abdomen whence Hawaiian floral patterns seem to magically sprout forth and overtake their always-in-the-shade swimming trunks.
As a French visiting Ireland, on a bus tour, I had a talk with US tourists very friendly. I asked them to translate english to english because of strong Irish accent but they were nearly as lost as me. Then we spoke about places we had visited and they complained that France and Italy's signs, posts, writings in general were not translated in english like in the airports. All I can answer at that moment was that it's because we don't want English to find their way...
To be fair, they have somewhat of a point. Last January, I (German) was at the international comic festival in Angouléme which is expecting lots of visitors from abroad, yet there was absolutely no English signage anywhere. I think I saw one English sign in the entire city. Me and some friends from different countries had signed up to see a (worldwide famous) manga artist speak, and they did have a Japanese translator there - translating from Japanese to French. If I didn't have a very good French friend with me who translated the entire interview on her phone in real time, typing like a maniac, I wouldn't have understood a single thing. And I paid good money for this event which wasn't included in the festival ticket. It's ok if France doesn't want English signs everywhere. But if there's a self-proclaimed international festival expecting international guests, I would hope they'd at least try to be somewhat accommodating.
I've been told so many times by Americans we (The Netherlands) should be happy we're not speaking German because they liberated us. Many of us DO speak German because we want to but also the area I live in wasn't liberated by US Americans at all. Somehow US Americans think they were the only ones in Europe and not part of the allies. The area I live in was liberated by Canadians btw and they NEVER boast about that. They were invited every year here to celebrate our freedom.
I was an exchange student from Germany to Michigan in 1981 and I got asked anything from if we have TVs and electricity down to how we were able to travel to the US with the terrible war on "over there" (first gulf war, Iran vs. Iraq). Some things apparently never change, when you have a defunct education system.
Perhaps they were thinking of the DDR. Germany was literally divided during the Cold War, so that could be perceived as a war situation. Especially by an American. It wouldn’t be that strange that in 1981 people from outside of Germany would be concerned or confused about the situation in Germany at that time..
@@nikibordeaux no, my first reaction was telling them WW II has long been over. It took a few questions to even understand which war they were talking about.
@@Katt-._.7. I highly doubt that that person had any idea that the GDR even existed, tbh. And I explicitly asked to specify which war. THAT is what THEY said.
@@christineschmidt8501 oh dear.. 🤦🏼♀️ the ignorance was so bad that I just had to believe maybe there was some explanation for it, but no.. of course there wasn’t 😆
oh mate. I worked in the backpacker travel industry and my list would make you cry. No 1. - "Is an American minute the same as an Australian minute?"......reply "ahhh no, an American minute is a lot slower".
In university I had an American student come up tp me carrying an English text book, to complain that the writer had spelled lots of the words "wrong". More troublingly, she had supposedly been reading books by UK authors for two years.
Italian here. When I was working for Tourism Ireland (the Irish National Tourist Board), I was asked by more than one American if Ireland had paved streets and ATMs.
I visited friends in Alabama last year, one day their neighbor heard me and my wife speak Dutch to each other. He looked amazed at us and asked: "You have your own language???"
My friend when visiting New York was asked whether we celebrate 4th of July in England, they were shocked we don't, he jokingly asked whether Americans celebrate Guy Fawkes night, they said America doesn't celebrate French holidays
@@sopcannon i should add many other people assumed he was was Australian because our regional accent isn't the typical posh British accent, so he'd lean into and start with the "shrimp another Barbie on the one for me"
I work in museum in the Scottish Highlands, I've had several American visitors ask me where Jamie and Clare (from TV Show "Outlander") lived? I had to tell them that these were people in a made up story, not real historic characters. When Living in North Dakota I was asked where I was from, when I replied Britain they replied "Oh you speak English real good" I looked at them over my glasses and replied "I should do, we invented the language" it went right over her head!
Actually the English language came from Scandinavia NOT England. It was called a Germanic language. Britain had 2 languages at the time French and Latin.
@@gerardflynn7382 At which time? English is an amalgam of the many languages introduced by invaders over many centuries. Yes, it has French, Latin, Scandinavian and Germanic components, and also a few pre-Roman elements, but the language we have today is a thing all its own - ENGLISH! Like most languages, it is a product of its history, and is constantly evolving... In other words, don't be so insufferably pedantic!!!!
@@gerardflynn7382 it’s Germanic because the Anglo-Saxons introduced it. Where they are from is in the name, Saxony, which last time I looked was in Germany. The Angles were from Northern Germany/Southern Denmark. Before that? Mostly Brythonic Celt. Latin was probably the European linga franca, but not used every day. The French came after the Vikings.
@@gerardflynn7382 No. both French and Latin were the languages of the upper and religious classes. The common people never spoke either. Depending on the time period most people would have spoken a version of anglo saxon / old English etc, both of which in their turn were an amalgam of other influences.
@@gerardflynn7382 Actually, language historians have recently (in the last couple of years, following in-depth analysis) agreed that much more of the English language as we know it today, came from the old Brittonic, Pictish Gaelic and Breton (Cornish) and that Germanic/Scandinavian origins had a lot less impact on English, as spoken and written today than was thought of only a few years ago.
And remember when President Bush Junior is said to have declared that the problem with the French was that they didn’t have a word for "entrepreneur". It has since been refuted but the fact that it was believable says a lot. Also, undertaking a war in Middle Eastern countries and calling it a "crusade" (from Latin "crux" - cross) wasn’t the best choice of words. But that’s monolinguals for you.
@@gobnait7855 The Bush story about the French and a word for "entrepreneur" is TRUE. I saw him saying it on BBC news. People were laughing about it for days, and the clip was repeated on tv panel shows for months.
Was a British Soldier serving in Canada, got voluntold to attend a formal service in USA, so best bib and tucker, thats to say, Servce Dress and Medals. An American Lady was courious enough to ask me about my Uniform and Medals, then stated "You are in America, why are you not wearing an American Uniform?!"
I was talking with an American woman in Spain, who asked me where I was from. I told her England. She then asked where I had learnt to speak English so well.
I was on holiday in Vienna. Visited a museum and there was an old crown on display in a glass cabinet in the middle of the room. Opposite me an American couple were also looking at the crown. She turned to her husband and said "is it real?" On another holiday in Rhodes, a tour guide told us that she was explaining to some tourists that the harbour in Rhodes town used to have gates across the entrance as part of their defences centuries ago, and an American asked "what about the submarines?"
Ive worked in a national park in Ireland for the past 7 years, i have dozens of stories about Americans from the last 6 months, so thousands overall. One example, which happened more than once over the years, is, an American asked me recently, where are you from, i said im irish, cuz i am, so he then asked if i ever been to Ireland, he asked that while we were standing in Ireland, so i answered the obvious answer, which is yes, born and raised:) he went "wooooow awesome". I then had explain to him that we were in Ireland and that im an Irish citizen with an irish passport and that im not irish American etc. He was astonished. Part of me is thinking he was trolling, but he seemed genuinely clueless
Ties in with US visitors trying to convince me and other friends that our pronunciations of various Irish names is wrong. Based on apparently their x times great grandparent who travelled to the US back in the early 1800s and always pronounced the word(s) that way. Therefore the Irish version is wrong.
As a Dane i agree, if that asian Tzunami had hit us we would all be in trouble 🤣 My contribution: I was once asked by an American where i was from, i casually said "im from Denmark".. after a short pause he asked me what state that was in 🤭
i worked in a cafe in a tourist town, we often get Americans in , one day i asked a guy where he was from he replied "Hawaii, the big island" i said mate you're in Australia now, the biggest island"
“The Big Island” is the common name of one of the Hawaiian islands. Totally understand the assumption of American arrogance & geographical ignorance, but this one backfired a bit…
@@frankie23802 inwouldnt say he was being arrogant, geographically ignorant perhaps, i was hppy because i had ben waiting for a chance to use that line for a long time , he just stumbled into my trap. muhahahahahahaaaa
@@davecannabisHe wasn't being ignorant at all. He we just clarifying that he was not from Oahu, Maui etc., he was from the Hawaiian island called Hawaii, which is commonly referred to as the big island.
@@frankie23802 Yeah, probably best NOT to be blasé about renaming polynesian islands... in the pacific. If the aussies don't call you out for it, the nesians will
I stated on Twitter that USA wasn’t in the top ten democracies. A random American got mad at me. He said “America is not a democracy, it’s a Republic!” I replied that he should tell that to his Representatives.
Well, it should be said that being a republic is not a guarantee of also being a democracy. However, America officially declares itself as being a republic democracy. How they arrive at that conclusion may be slightly confusing since the American system of electing a president is anything but democratic per definition. For America to be a true democracy, their president would have to be elected by popular vote, meaning the winner would always be the contender who received the majority of votes. The actual system of an electoral college makes it impossible for America to support the claim of being a republic with democracy.
I believe this is why they only teach 'Math' (singular) - they don't teach Venn diagrams and set theory that demonstrate that a thing can be a sub-group of another one, or simply overlap. I think the 'math' they teach is how to convert measurements to football fields, elephants and cups.
Really enjoyed this Connor. The first few were hilarious but it was obvious you were getting despondent as the video carried on. It’s great that you don’t mind laughing at some of your fellow countrymen.
Norf Londoner here. A former workmate from America refused to believe England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales were separate countries until we asked him, "then why do they all have their own international football teams... " Just think, the Americans who travel overseas are the intelligent ones. 🙄
I mean, to be fair, the "countries" in the UK are as much countries as german Bundesländer or the 50 american states are. it's semantics at that point. the UK as a whole is also internationally seen and treated as a "country", which would then mean that England is a "country" inside of another "country". and then England and Wales are internally treated as one jurisdiction as well, making it yet more confusing lol
@@rde4017 dude. the UK is a country, composed of 4 "counties" which are devided into 3 jurisdictions.. that's a fact. and the word country doesn't really have a meaning. Wales has about as much autonomy within the UK as Bavaria has inside germany. YOU call them countries, but they aren't. it's semantics. functionally they aren't.
@@kevboard That must be why Scotland voted in a referendum about becoming an independent country, and why they had a separate government and monarchy.... 🙄 (btw the UK is a political union of 4 separate countries.)
I was living in Galway, Ireland for a bit and heard one American girl say to her friend, 'why does everyone here think we're so loud and crass?' I was about 100 metres away at the other end of the street...😅
Sharing a single room with an American girlfriend. I was a student on a French campus. She comes in all excited stating that I was going to be so pleased because the new neighbor spoke German. A bit embarrassed to intrude, I got out in the corridor. The guy was on the phone speaking to his mother, in plain English. With a thick english accent, still… I stepped in, told her she was going to be so pleased, we had a new English speaking neighbor. She didn’t pick it up. A few weeks earlier, we had traveled home so that she would finally meet my family. At first sight she started the typical east coast small talk bursting English words quicker than anyone else can breathe. They stared, confused. Then she asked, but aren’t your parents bilinguals ? Yep. French and German, you’re currently in Switzerland… I still married her few years later.
![American reacts to How Stupid are Americans? [part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-PA34wSTf44/mqdefault.jpg)
![[ 🔴LIVE ] Minecraft : Day5 บ้านหรู หนูอยู่สบายย](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/q3e6qfwDwFs/mqdefault.jpg)
Sign outside a London pub: "All americans must be accompanied by an adult"
😂😂😂😂 fabulous
@@suerasbridge8494Less funny, it was after Trump got elected.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Not allowed in Nando’s
😂
As a Norwegian, I can confirm that the indigenous viking minority is being treated terribly. They're not even allowed to raid churches anymore!
😂
😱
Just shamefull..
@@mohorko26
LOL!!
Not surprised. Those stave churches, Man, the damage their axes could do.... I 😉
When Nelson Mandela got elected as the first black African president in South Africa, an American reporter kept referring to him as African American. When she asked how it felt to be the first African American to be elected, he just looked at her and said: This is Africa.
That reminds me, in the eighties, when the world was crying out against the Apartheid in South Africa, there was a large benefit festival in the US simply called "Free Mandela". People were complaining they didn't get a free Mandela as advertised when they bought a ticket.
Would have been funnier to say "This is Sparta!"
@@Bakers_Doesnt Would be hilarious if we found out that 300 writers took Mandela's line and ran with it 😂
@@ulvsbane isn’t there an American President who thinks of himself as a modern day Nelson Mandela? LOL
And then preseded to kick them into a giant hole.
I had to explain to THREE professors of history from the US that Cambridge and Oxford universities both existed before America was a country.
Wow! That is pretty bad. Most of the examples of stupid Americans weren’t that surprising… But this one does surprise me.
This is why Leiden and Sorbonne uni laugh at US university, most of it,the ivy leagues ones.
😅
That is actually shocking !!
Sounds about right. When I was still in uni we had an american come in for a study.
He lasted about 3 months then left after a rather heated shouting match where he kept screaming at a student they weren't spelling their name correctly. They had a Maori name which he kept trying to turn into an english version.
Just across the place I live there is a Tombstone older than when Christopher Columbus discover the Carribbean Island hahaha 😂
One American tourist said to me "If it wasn´t for the US in WW2 you would all be speaking German" - We were in Berlin. I am German.
🤣🫶🫡🇬🇧
the usa did a lot to help in ww2 but it was not just them, it was all the civilliced world
Sounds more like he was insulting you and your country or at least bragging. Why he went to Germany for a vacation if he can’t let WWII go, I dunno. Its even funnier when they say in such a way as if they were there themselves.
Well, it's sort of the other way round, in several ways...
I DO understand why, say, the French always do not speak English/ American...
I live in Cambridge England and once heard two American tourists talking. The female told her male friend/partner that Cambridge England was so obviously modelled on the Cambridge MA. Our oldest college is Peterhouse founded in 1284. Duh my brain hurts.
Came across some Murican tourists standing in front of King's College, and overheard the man saying loudly: "Is this all there is to see in this gad dayum town?!"
That's funny
@@MrPagan777 Within 100 yards of Kings College and on the corner of Benet Street is the millennium clock which apparently cost £1million pounds to make, across the road is the Eagle pub where American and British pilots during WW2 wrote their names in smoke on the ceiling. It is also the pub that in 1953 Crick and Wallace told startled drinkers that they had solved the riddle of DNA. Just across the street is the remains of an old Saxon tower about one thousand years old. Nothing to see? What the heck do American tourists expect a bloody Disney theme park? Also on Kings Parade was the home of at least two famous authors Ronald Searle who inspired the St Trinians films and James Runcie who wrote the Grantchester books.
Ive on several occasions been told by Americans or overhead them complaining about it.... that we Europeans have "stolen" so many of their city names!
I wouldn't have stood for it. I'd have jumped in and put a stop to that shit.
In Stratford upon Avon, a friend of mine was told to stop laughing and show respect for Shakespeare by an American.
My friend was a school head of English, with an English degree from Oxford.
The play was a comedy!🤣😂🤣
@@kevanwillis4571
....if even I, a wee lass from wee country in SEA knows about Shakespeare's comedies (as you like it, King Henry the VIII part IX, especially the ye olde "your mom" joke), ...i'm speechless
On the language question, I was talking to the guy serving at the till in a Washington DC deli. The customer behind me said "I love your accent. Where are you from?" "England", I replied. "And how long have you been in the US"? he asked. "Three weeks". "Only three weeks? Wow! Your English is almost perfect!" I didn't say anything. Just paid and left. But as I got to the door, I heard another customer saying to him "She was speaking ENGlish. She's from ENGland. The clue's in the name"!!
"almost" perfect 😂 that was a good one
@@Lysandra-8 😁
Well hopefully the smart customer is American too, so that perhaps there is still hope there.
@@nurainiarsad7395the smart USAn often day drinking because their fellow USAn❤
I'm the daughter of Chilean refugees that fled to Sweden after the coup in 1973. This happened in 2001, and I was 28 at the time. That didn't stop the officer at immigration in Miami (I was only changing flights in transit, but still had to go through the process) from the following questions:
"It says in your passport that you were born in Chile. How long have you lived in Sweden?"
"Since 1974."
"Uhu, and why did you run?"
"Because there was a military coup, and we had to flee the country for safety reasons."
"Uhu, so what did you do?"
"Excuse me, what I did?"
"Yes, you did something, or else you wouldn't have had to run, right?"
"Not really. I was two months old at the time. I was a baby."
"A baby?"
"Yes. As I said, I've been living in Sweden since 1974 and I was born in 1973, as you can see in my passport. So..."
Long, stern look from the officer.
The experience was mind-blowing, but not in a good way.
I would have answered: "I said 'Goo-goo-ga-ga' and pooped my pants in front of the military leader" ... but then again, he might have taken it seriously.
Just roll your eyes and walk away.🙄
Oh yeah, that's the reason why i never ever travel even near the US. I had 2 occations in Europe (live in Germany) where I had to explain my birth place, that it's not in the same country as it used to be, that the place does not exist anymore anyway, that it was part of the USSR (which also doesn't exist anymore) but an autonomous part of 'greater russia' and is a republic now while still belonging to Russia, and is in Asia. That I may have been born in Asia, but am not asian, that i may look 'kinda asian' but am a european and that my parents are a russian with ukrainian and swedish roots and a german-belarus mix (and a bit more actually), and that i am a german citizen, that my surname is not my birthname and why and what not. I am avoiding situations where that comes up cause MAN it's complicated and even her in Europe people seem to have a hard time following.
@olgahein4384 Das klingt wild. Aber wo wurdest Du denn sowas gefragt?
@@nebelland8355 Miami airport passport control, in transit.
I used to live in Sweden, and I can assure you that the Vikings are treated very well. They do complain about restrictions placed on going berserk, though.
😂😂😂
Yeah, we do our best to keep them happy. 😁
Damn those restrictions. On my last holiday to Lindisfarne the bloody Brits impounded my longboat and detained our raiders! Bastards!
They have awesome solstice parties though, I bet😂
A while ago they were let out for a weekend away, they came too Holy Island in Northumberland. They went bloody berserk....I blame the Mead myself.
Turning left on red isn't a thing in the UK as going through a red light is completely illegal, we have to wait for a green light to be able to progress in any direction.
I lived in Canada some years ago, I took a driving test and nearly failed it because of that. I approached the junction to turn right, it was a red light, there was nothing coming. I waited for green, then turned. Back at the driving center he said he could have failed me for that as I was impeding traffic, but as everything else was OK he'd "let me off".
And in London you're fudged if u do
but its worth pointing out he was thinking along the right tracks, because we drive on the opposite side of the road the allowed turn would be reversed to avoid crossing oncoming traffic, it just so happens our road design will always use either a staggered turn or a separate signal.
apparently "red means stop" was a basic principle we didn't want to risk confusing drivers over, which may say more about our population than anything else.
In most countries it's illegal. In germany there is a small exception, when there is a small green arrow pointing to the right, then you are allowed to turn right, but everyone else still got priority, so you need to look that everything is free before turning.
@@Rafaela_S. It's the same in France (except the arrow is orange ^^). Apart from the few traffic lights where there is such arrow, it is illegal to turn right.
But that should be clear from the way the traffic lights are placed. In US, the traffic light is AFTER the intersection. In Europe, it is BEFORE the intersection.
I couldn't imagine calling black Dutch people "African-Dutch" or "Caribbean-Dutch". How racist. Dutch is Dutch.
the fact they have "african americans" is astonishing in the 21st centuy... how have we not boycotted them for there stupidity yet...
It is a real difference between the USA and Europe. In Europe, when the origin of someone is evoked, it is usually by far-right movements to try to deny them of their citizenship. Most USA citizens don't understand.
The saddest thing about it is that even black Americans are starting to adopt the "African" this, "African" that, without understanding how disrespectful and degrading it actually is.
One such case was a black American addressing what one black English bloke had said, and he wrote on the comments of that video something like "good on this African-English brother"... to which I replied that he probably wouldn't like being reduced to that, and had to further explain (it should be obvious) because I was asked why so, to which I said that firstly, no one outside the US tries to differentiate their nationality from their supposedly ethnic origins... it's like denying their culture, both of them, you aren't neither American nor African, even thou they call you "African-American" (no one calls a white American "European-American" do they?).
Secondly, the bloke was English, a black English fellow who could have been of Nigerian descent, or Eritrean descent, of any other nationality or ethnic descent, so even saying "African" is denying their culture and ethnic background.
So on one side it denies their very own identity, culture and nationality (or from having it in full, being merited, from being their own), on the other it denies their ancestry by watering it down to a simple geographical denomination of a continent.
@@nco1970 What do you mean?
In my experience Europeans are way more focussed on nationality than ethnicity or "race". In the Netherlands your "race" is not on your passport, because there is only 1 human race.
That doesn't mean we are a perfect utopia without hatred, but racists here tend to focus a lot on nationality instead of skincolor. For example: Many of the racist people in the Netherlands have a problem with Morrocans, but not Turks. They have a problem with Ethiopians, but not Nigerians, etc.
@@DDanV If Europeans would start doing this, it would get extremely confusing. Europeans have always married and had children with other Europeans from different regions. I would be a German-Spanish-Russian-Dutchman. Sounds very confusing and tiring.
Canadian here. I was in Pisa, Italy. Aside from the tower, there's an historic cathedral there. That cathedral burned down in the 15th or 16th century, and was rebuilt in stone. The big doors are wooden and carved with a multiple-panel bas relief that tells the story of the old cathedral, with the narrative carved in the free spaces in Latin.
Now, I can half-ass read Latin, so I was translating it to my wife. Just after I started, an American walked up and whinged "I can't believe they didn't carve this door in English given the tourists and the fact it's a church."
After a moment of open-mouthed gawping, I said "You do understand that you're in Italy, the language of the Catholic church is Latin, and when this door was carved, educated people in England spoke FRENCH, only peasants spoke English." He just stormed away.
Yeah, but no, they spoke English. They may have also spoken French, because that was definitely seen as an upper class thing to do right up until the 20th century, as was knowledge of Latin, but all people conversed with one another in English.
@@JaneAustenAteMyCat.........you are USAn huh?
@@nurlindafsihotang49 no, English
I thought the educated English people spoke in Latin back then as well.
@@nurlindafsihotang49 I don't know where my reply has gone, but no, I'm English.
An American tourist couple was visiting a viking reenactment festival. At one point they saw some reenactors leaving the area and getting into their Mercedes in the parking lot. The American couple promptly ran up to the security staff shouting that a couple of vikings had escaped the reservation and were stealing a car.
Thank you for sharing, I've just spent five minutes laughing my head off just imagining that.
This one is gold!
😂 This is brilliant.
Can this be real??
@@shoujahatsumetsu lol!
I lived in South Africa for 30 years. An American asked me how we coped with all the wild animals roaming around. I told him that if you went shopping and the high street was full of elephants, you just didn't do your shopping that day.
Americans ask shit like to Canadians.
Teen me used to sell Dickie Dee ice cream (think Good Humor... kids on refrigerated bikes). I lived in St. Catharines, literally 15 km from the US border with NY state.
It's July. A hot day, about 33 C. A car rocks up with New York plates, so he's driven almost 15 minutes to get there from the border.
Rolls down the window, buys a couple of ice creams, then asks "How much further until we get to igloos?"
"Sir, do you understand that if you went to the top floor of that apartment over there, you can literally see New York state, and that you're asking an ice cream vendor on a hot-ass day in July where the igloos are?"
"Well, this is Canada, right."
I ended up directing him to the big white Cinesphere ball in Toronto. That question just seemed like a job for people in Toronto.
Oh yes, we northerners also troll Americans, but about bears and reindeer 😉
I got an american girl to give me hug to console me because my pet elephant stepped on and killed my lion back home…still cant believe she fell for it 😂
@@totallylegit4092 - Did you show her your pet snake?
@@lotuselise4432 nope. That thing cant stand idiots so it was hiding 🤣
I had an international telephone conversation in 1970s with an American. I’m Australian, in Sydney.
This was our first conversation after being pen pals for a few years.
She said “I love your accent”.
I said “I love your accent too.”
She said “I don’t have an accent.”
I said “Everyone has an accent.”
Silence from her end for a few minutes.
I wondered to myself how Americans dealt with the rest of the world and why their education system leaves them so unprepared.
How could you be pen pals, if you don´t know what pens are? 😆
Don’t worry they still say this today haha
@@grmpflz It was the olden days when it was only pencils and pens. After quills.
@@coraliemoller3896 Sorry, I was just ironically joking from an American perspective. As European I know what pencils are, and I know that you know them. Greetings from Germany
El sistema educativo es muy poco exigente en lo que a su juicio no es útil.
Un sistema privado donde lo importante es que puedas pagar la enorme factura. ¿Puede ser un sistema eficaz?
Siempre que aparecen premios universitarios de investigación son extranjeros becados, demasiada casualidad.
i must confess i may be personally responsible for at least 3 Americans believing they ride polar bears in Denmark........ i was a teen and it was funny.
Everybody knows you can't ride polar bears in Denmark, penguin throwing (in water) on the other hand, yes, that is a popular sport in Denmark.
Of course, it is far too cold for polar bears in Denmark 😐
That's ridiculous! Polar bears can't walk in Denmark because all your streets are made of Lego.
@@flitsertheo dont forget sailing races with viking boats
Take a bow my friend.
American tourists coming to Norway will sometimes ask when the midnight sun will rise, as if the midnight sun is a completely different sun that only we have.
Sometimes they will ask us when we turn on the northern lights, as if we created it ourselves and it's not a natural phenomenon.
They ask if we turn off the waterfalls at night too. They seem to think everything is fake like Disneyland.
I'm in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and I overheard an American girl order a bagel at a small family run cafe. The barista said "What is a bagel?" and the look on that American's face was priceless. Then there are the really really dumb ones who don't believe our money is real, they call it monopoly money and try to pay in US dollars. Also they ask for CREAM in their coffee and then get mad if we put cream in it. Apparently in the USA "cream" means some kind of chemical foaming agent.
I confused an American when talking about the moon here in England. She thought it was something that was only visible from the U.S.
A friend of mine had an American boyfriend. This guy refused to even try to learn our language (Norwegian), and he got super angry if we spoke Norwegian among ourselves. Sure, it would have been rude if we only spoke our own language around him, but even tiny things like «fetch me some coffee please» or «remind me to buy more bread on the way home» from a Norwegian to another Norwegian, was enough to make him angry. But then, everything un-American made him angry. I have no idea why he stayed with my friend so long before leaving and going back home, when he had such a horrible life here in this socialist hellhole 😂
How can you "refuse" to learn Norwegian? I've put on NRK humor skits for my friends here in Aus and they seem to pick it up like a foreign accent, context makes the meaning quite obvious. Somebody who plans to visit Norway could learn the basics within a week and with enough listening exposure they can just reply in English and let their friends speak Norwegian.
Anyone remember Oprah interviewing Hugh Laurie from the tv show "House" ?
Hugh played the role with a flawless American accent and when Oprah heard him answer her questions in his actual British accent she was stunned. She actually asked him if he could speak like an American, why didnt he speak like that all the time 😂😅😂
I once had a chat with an elderly Amerixan woman who insisted that the USA was the oldest democracy in the world, I had great pleasure telling her that Greece had one at least 1000 yrs before the USA was founded, she replied , impossible, they didnt speak American, I gave up and walked off
Democracy was founded in Greece 3,200BC.
@@barrytaylor6565 Americans don't even know that most of their Constitutional Laws were 'borrowed' from the ancient Athenian laws, especially the 'right to bear arms' one that they are SO proud of. If only they knew the truth about it. In Ancient Athens the law was that only Athenian born 'free' people were allowed to carry weapons. That was because about 60% of the population were slaves and it was seen as a way of stopping the slaves from rising up against them to gain their freedom. The educated wealthy American males that formulated the American Constitution probably thought it was a great way of keeping the status quo in their society too.
Ancient Greece wasn't a democracy. Most people were disenfranchised.
@@isabellevince5174 Athens was actually the first democracy in the world (starting in 5th Century BCE). Ancient Greece was actually made up of many city states that ruled in different ways but Athens was definately the first known place with a democratic leadership.
@@leithmacdonald4242 plenty of Americans know, including me it's just that their are plenty of stupid people and they are typicaly the ones to run their mouths off thinking they know everything.
during my student exchange in the 90s an american asked me if we've got cars in germany. told him no, we still ride donkey carts which is why we have no speed limit on the autobahn. donkey carts just don't go that fast.
What about the multiple horse carts?
@@christinae30 Not yet. That's for 2124.
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Please, don't encourage them!!! They really don't need to be reinforced in their ignorance!🤣
I once watched a video where a German woman explained German brand names. When she explained that BMW stands for Bayrische Motoren Werke the amarican girl asked why the W wasn't pronounced as a uu when it's clearly a W...
Because it's German 🙄 and the video clearly wouldn't make sense if the English pronunciation was always the right one 😅😂😂
I did exactly the same thing when asked if we had cars in Croatia..... told the guy that we only used donkeys, lived in caves, when hungry killled animals with sticks and had leaves over our genitals to cover ourselves.... he responded: "Reallly!?"
Working in a shop, I see the worst of Americans. One told me I had to give him a discount because he was American. When I said no, he insisted I call my boss (om holiday in Morocco). He then told her she needed to fire me. Instead, she told me to throw him out of the shop.
You should have told him:
"You're American, I'm a Marocan, we are the same" with a confusing prononciation ^^ He would have freaked out.
I was in a restaurant across from Hampton Court. An American family had asked for their bill. Father spent ten minutes harranging the waiter because he could not work out a 12.5% tip in his head. The man said "all good wait staff should be able to work out 12.5%". We don't use 12.5% as standard. If we did I am sure the waiter would have had it straight off. That's what to do go to a foreign country and insist on having everything the way it is back home and be rude and aggressive about it.
@@SP-eo1vlBritish people do the same. I live in Ireland. English people move here and start b1tching that they can’t get Yorkshire Tea, there’s no Greggs, the road tax is more expensive, why they have to re-register their car, how our postcodes are different, how the pubs don’t have Carling etc. etc.
I was on a boat in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, and a US serviceman was complaining so loudly that people on the pier were stopping to listen as he berated the tour operator because there were no special discounts for US veterans. Glad to say the operator quickly put him in his place and received a round of applause from everyone not from the USA.
A retired US serviceman asked me for a military discount at a shop & was furious when I said we didn’t offer one…..we were in New Zealand so I told him to get back to me when he’d joined the New Zealand Armed Forces
I used to work for a vaccine / pharma company in Sweden. The company had several sites in Europe and had been aquired by a large (international) US company. At one occasion a pharmacovigilance inspection was planned for the product manufactured and managed at the Swedish site. The inspectors from the US never turned up. They had gone to the site in SWITZERLAND.
Can't attest to stupidity, but I can attest to entitlement.
I have a rental house right next to mine, not ideal, but it is what it is.
2 years back an american couple rented it for a week. Sunday morning at about 8 am i'm awakened by a techno party next door. I get up grumpily, go to that house, explain to him that in Belgium, the sunday is a rest day, where ppl are not supposed to make a lot of noise and just chill out. So no mowing your lawn or turning up loud music or revving your engine on the driveway, also most shops are closed aswell. I asked him politely to turn it down a few times to no avail.
His argument: "I'm an american, i have every right to turn my music up as much as i want to".
It was all pointless. So i called the cops (which i fk'ing hate to do). The cops roll up, hear the music banging like a music festival, they look at me, and go, "I guess you called us?" They then proceeded to knock on his door. The guy comes outside, and the cops tell him to turn off the music. He again goes on about being american so he can do whatever the fk he wants. That was a bad move.
Now due to his refusal he was going to get a fine, but for that they need his ID. (In Belgium, it's compulsory for anyone over 18 to always ID yourself to the police no matter what). He did the "i don't have to show my ID, went on about the american constitution (meanwhile me and the neighbors were laughing our asses off). He kept refusing to ID himself (didn't even turn off the music while arguing with the cops). This went on for quite some time.
So finally they cuffed him and took him away. I later heard from the local uhm dono the american equivalent for it "neighborhood cop" what happened later. Apparently he kept refusing to ID himself, was acting like a twat etc. His gf did go there a bit later with his ID. So normally that would have meant that they'd just instantly give him a fine and he'd be out. But as he had been such a twat, they just told her that they were low on staff as it's a sunday and they'd get it sorted asap. Apparantly asap meant 7pm lol. (yes, our cops are aholes too)
The end result: a fine for "disturbing the peace on a sunday", "refusal to ID himself" and "smaad" (dono how to translate that, but it means heavily insulting a police officer). (and being a foreigner, that means it needs to be payed on the spot). The next morning when i went to my car to go to work, he came up to me yelling about how it was all my fault. I just told him that he was now trespassing and threatening another person and if he wanted i'd gladly reunite him with his friends in blue. I told him to get lost and to not address me again, except with an apology, or I'd call the cops on him for harassment. I could see him doubting but finally he backed off and went back inside.
I do have to admit for the rest of their stay they were the quietest ppl that have ever stayed in that house. He never apologized, but hey, i did get a perfectly quiet neighbour for the rest of his stay.
😂 I can imagine the horror story he told his usa-friends of ”lacking freedoms in Belgium”.
The same would have happened in Finland too, with fines because of ”opposition to officialdom”.
The only thing that has been tolerated here, is loud sex since it has been considered a normal living sound - yet a couple of people in my block of flats have been complaining about their neighbours to the housing manager. The answer has usually been a friendly ”it is like that when you live next to young people/move out to an own house/town house”.
That's seems like an appropriate level of a __hole. At least they adjusted his attitude.
Thank you for sharing, it was a good and fun read.
I've actually met an American telling that Spanish can't be a European language, as it's from Mexico.
The way they insist they're correct is the most annoying bit 👺
Wait, are you telling me that spanish didn't arrive in Europe when Moctezuma and his warriors crossed the ocean on sea turtles to colonize the iberian peninsula?
@@edwardfletcher7790 Indeed. They know your country better than yourself even if they have never been there, and if you disagree with them, you are just lying for whatever reason.
That reminds me of the American actress "Jessica Alba". She did a DNA test on a talk show, and she was stunned when it was revealed that she was largely of European descent. She said confusedly, "How is that so, my dad was born in Spain". lol
I'm a spaniard. I've been told that I'm not from Spain because "Spanish is a language not a nationality" by different people from USA SO MANY TIMES. Its actually kind of insane how often people from USA think the entire peninsula just doesn't exist and/or is in south america. (and no, don't try to explain to them that Mexico isn't in south america either. They won't get it.)
If there is one thing, that is Americans are very confident with what they say even if they are wrong. They spend their whole lives being told how great they are and their country is to the point that ignorance is the only way this can happen.
So true Justin! 🇬🇧
💯
Way back in 1989 I was a tourist in England (ended up living there for 22 years) I was at the tower of London and an American tourist behind me was complaining about the state of the stairs we were walking down. I said "well you'd be a bit worn if you were 900 years old too!" While travelling through Europe I heard a lot of Americans complaining. Shut up already and enjoy a different culture, what's the point of visiting another country if you expect it to be just like America?
Oh, the amount of complaints you hear from american tourists here in Germany when they realize they have to CLIMB THE STAIRS by themselves (instead of using an elevator), to get to the top spots of our churches - or how narrow those staircases are. Or that they can't drive their jeeps into the parking lots of our castles - cause there are none - but have to park at the bottom of the castle hill and then WALK a few hundreds of meters to a few kilometers. Uphill. And that there's no McDonalds inside.
My dad was in the states on St Andrews Day so decided to wear his kilt. An American woman complimented him on his ‘Farquhar plaid’, my dad smiled and said it’s actually a ‘Cochrane Tartan’ (my family tartan). She said she could assure him he was wrong. It’s the confidence for me! 😂
I'm Irish, back in the 90's there was a man arrested here in Ireland, for scamming American tourists. Now initially I thought they should throw the book at him but I changed my mind after reading that he had been selling bottled tap water, as leprechaun tears. No other nationalities were scammed, funnily enough 😭
A guy with a thorough understanding of his niche market 😂
They should have let him carry on.
A lot of Americans believe we are too poor in Copenhagen ( because of our taxes) and that’s why we bike a lot and apparently we can not afford a car 🤦🏼♀️
😂
Next time tell them Danish wind energy plants are made to move the world in any direction you want and not to produce energy...
I think it was the former US Ambassador to Denmark who said that. Carla Sands was just ignorant...
Tell them you have the free time to ride a bike, since you only need 1 job each to live a good life ;)
Well they're right. Cars in Denmark are extremely expensive,probably twice more than in USA. And most trade jobs are much better paid in the USA. I think for a working class danish to buy a new car (say vw golf) he (or she) needs to save twice as more monthly salaries. And both energy (incl.fuel) plus car ownership are very,very expensive in Denmark. I'm dutch,here is the same. Not a good country for hard working blue collar workforce.
Several times I've heard Usain Bolt referred to as an "African-American" - always by Americans - and while he was wearing a Jamaican team vest.
Kriss Akabusi had that problem with an American interviewer who kept calling him that despite his repeated corrections.
Eventually the interviewer ended the interview in confusion because they couldn't deal with this nutcase who seemed to be in denial about his own skin colour.
When we moved to the US for six years, my then 10-yr old son, my late wife being Kenyan, and he being born in Kenya, was indignant when his new school recorded him as "African-American".
As he should be…good on him!
Well, at least he picked up on the African-American habit of being offended no matter what you call them, or even if you don't say anything at all. He'll fit right in.
@LadyIarConnacht there's a difference between being overly sensitive and a reasonable annoyance at a basic fact being recorded wrong. Getting someone's nationality wrong is like getting thier name wrong, especially on official paperwork. Hes kenyan, not american.
Some Americans would go mental if you made that mistake to them and wrote them down Canadian for example
@@LadyIarConnacht Are you European-American, by any chance?
@@Merriliokthey probably tell people they are Irish.
When working in Airport security an American woman told me she had brought her hair dryer and electric curlers in case we had electricity in England. I told her we only had steam. If she goes to a hardware store near her hotel she could get a steam to electricity converter very cheaply.
asked if we had fridges
reply nope we use black hole technology a small black hole slows time but a larger on stops time so anything in side stays fresh forever was upset it wont work in the USA as it needs 220vols to run it
My encounter with an American "in the wild": I was working tech support for some telecommunications company in Germany and he was calling from ramstein Air force base(paratrooper stationed there). It was the most pleasant and intelligent conversation I had all week.
Just here as a reminder not to generalise from cherry picked examples.
Me dad and I once convinced an American woman that the white cliffs of Dover are white washed once a year 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
a Scottish manor had a web page for "haggis hunts" the weekend had haggis beaters, organised shoots, they got so many inquiry's and bookings from USA they had to issue an apology
😂😂@@philiprice7875
I am German-Swiss and would have believed it too. I know that in Pamukkale in Turkey parts of the white rocks are closed off every year so that they can regenerate and be cleaned and become white again. That's why I would have believed the story.
@@philiprice7875 - April 1st?
Yes. It happens! I'm Australian and when I was touring Europe with my mother some years ago, we were standing in a busy area, chatting away, when an American barged up to us and asked where we were from. When we answered "Australia", she said "Wow. You've learned to speak good English.". We were stunned.
Also, a few years later I was on a bus tour of Scandinavia and had the misfortune of sharing the tour with a lot of obnoxious Americans. In Sweden, our hotels offered the famous 'smorgasbord' for breakfast and we were told the rule that we could eat as much food as we wanted for breakfast but that it was the height of rudeness to take food away with us when we left. Many of us were horrified to watch a lot of the Americans pack food in napkins and stuff it into their hand luggage each morning. We nearly cheered out loud one day when a hotel manager refused to allow those Americans' luggage to be packed onto the bus until they paid for the food they had stolen from the breakfast smorgasbord. 👏👏
it suits us people and it serves them right!!
It's American custom to take hone leftovers, it's was a cultural misunderstanding.
@@mysticalmaid BS, they were warned multiple times and knew exactly what they were doing. If you visit another country, you abide by the laws and customs of that country.
@@mysticalmaidIf you took food from the smorgasbord, ate most of it, and kept what remained, that would be leftovers.
Taking it straight from the table and putting it into storage is _not_ that.
@@ReddwarfIV I've never had a smorgasbord or heard of one, nor am I American. I'm just saying there may be some misunderstanding due to how different things are over there.
Years ago, an american cousin came to France for summer. There was a festival with David Guetta. He was surprised: "You know David Guetta? It's an american DJ!"... well, he is famous worldwide but most important, David Guetta is FRENCH ! 😅
my daugther (french) thought the same in fact. Same for DJ snake and Daft punk. Apparently for her, you can't be famous worldwide and french.
@@VlogMusique I wanted to disagree with your daughter, but I could only think of Maurice Chevalier, Sacha Distel, Charles Aznavour (called by a former BBC presenter Charles Az no voice) and Johnny Hallyday (I had a short romance with a French girl when I was about fourteen).
In a post office in Italy, an American guy asked:"Do you have any stamps?".... the teller said: "Non parlo l'inglese."... the guy then continued: "DO - YOU - HAVE - ANY - STAMPS!".... he left empty-handed
Have you come across Lenny Henry? He is a black British comedian and actor, regarded by many as a national treasure. A particularly persistent interviewer of the "you must be African American" type kept insisting "No, where are you really from?" Finally Lenny admitted the truth "Dudley". To really pile it on Lenny could have said Dudley is in the heart of the Black Country, home of the industrial revolution. He was too merciful.
I'm an Aussie. Whilst visiting the USA, I was given a lesson on how to turn on a water tap. They were shocked to learn we have taps with running water already, but couldn't understand how a tap was installed inside a cave 😂
I was screamed at "don't tell my kids lies, cartoons aren't real, you're one of the terrorists we've been warned about" - I had told her kids that Tasmanian Devils are real animals, that I'd seen many times, but no they don't spin 🥴.
😂 I was shown around the house of my hosts and had things like the fridge and the stove explained to me. Later I was asked if we had coins and traffic lights.
I’m European, not StoneAgeian.
@@nandella Yep, that's pretty much what they did to me lol. I couldn't believe it when they asked me "have you seen one of these before"? - it was the fridge 😂😂. I tried very hard not to be rude, but sheesh they make it difficult lol.
When I got home to Australia and shared my stories, my friends and family thought I was joking, and found it hard to believe, until they came here for a holiday and confirmed it all lol.
They just don't have a clue what's out there in the world, none whatsoever, until they meet someone from another country lol. Geez, I even met people who didn't know where the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower are - it's quite sad really
Eso mismo le pasó a un alumno de intercambio, le enseñaban la nevera y él pensaba que era para que eligiera la comida o la bebida, le enseñaban el aire acondicionado y creía que era para elegir la temperatura. Hasta que se fue dando cuenta que le estaban presumiendo de tecnología como si nunca hubiera visto una.
El alumno por vergüenza no les reveló el error, pero cuando su hijo regresó de España tuvo que ser un show al explicarles. Además la casa era mucho mejor y más tecnológica que la de los estadounidenses. 😂
@@albertomartin7576 😂😂 it's amazing how many people it has happened to. The Americans who get a decent education, are normal, educated people, but the ones who the American education system fails (far too many), it's a train wreck lol
So are you telling me that ducks don't talk and wear no sailor outfit, too?
Whistler ski resort waiting for the chairlift. There was a group of Asian girls standing in front of me speaking Chinese and laughing and giggling. Two older American women behind me. One of the American women pushed me aside and started yelling at the Asian girls telling them to speak American when they’re in America. I interrupted and informed the woman that they can speak whatever language they want to. I also told her the only language we don’t tolerate in Canada is American , and she should speak Canadian when in Canada. I also told them to mind their business. She tried to have me kicked off the mountain for being rude to them. lol. (This was before “Karen’s”, but she demanded to speak to a manager)
Now tell the South Americans they should speak "American" 😂
@@nikibordeaux You mean like Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia and so on? lol
Karen's have always been a thing but got official recognition with the expansion of social media.
@@36jjmc? You _do_ know that there's a whole continent south of your border, right? Or we're you being sarcastic? Nowadays, you never know.
@@elisaa9981sarcasm but the USA is south of our border 😊
Was at a Friday night High School game in Dexter, Michigan getting a half-time drink from the concession stand. Some of the kids on the cheerleading squad were there and overheard me.
"Wow, I love your accent! Where are you from?"
"Thank you... I'm from England so technically I don't actually have an accent. You all are the ones with an accent."
Pause for five seconds, observing the puzzled looks as they try to process that.
"I'm just messing with you. Have you all heard of Robin Hood? I was born a few miles from the centre of Sherwood Forest. That's where my accent is from."
Cue ten minutes of being quizzed on exactly where Sherwood Forest was, why I was in Michigan in October, their shock at what English money looks like. Having different sizes and colours for the different value notes to help visually impaired people was genius level design to them and deemed super cool.
They were genuinely curious, polite and a credit to their school. Not all kids these days are how the media sometimes try to depict them.
Nice 😃
Not knowing something you have never seen, heard if or been taught is normal and a geat opportunity to learn. Not knowing something that you were taught, and refusing to learn is a dumbass.
Most kids are great.
@@TheDimsml I'm old enough to remember the farthing 😁
Thank you for this positive comment. As an American I can say it is very disheartening to read all of these comments about the stupid things. Americans have said and the rude behavior they have exhibited while visiting other countries. It’s very embarrassing.
Half my family is American (NorCal) .. Im from New Zealand. When my mum moved here, my grandmother would send her care packages with toothpaste, glue, salt and pepper, pens etc since it was "not a developed country, and so far from America that these things must be hard to get".
My Aunty and Uncle recently came out to visit from the US, and would repeatedly ask people what they said, or to speak slower etc even when people were giving them basic, one word answers. "Your language here is so different".
Also they claimed that they couldnt eat the food in many restaurants, that it didnt taste right or something was wrong with it - It was fresh
While visiting the London dungeon in 2022, I overheard an American tourist responding to the information relayed by the group tour guide. “If, as you say, Jack the Ripper was never arrested, does that mean he is still at large?”
In Italy, I overheard an American tourist asking his mate, “If this is the Sistine Chapel, where are the other fifteen?”
You go figure…🤣🤣🤣
I once had a 30 min long discussion with an American from Chicago, living in Spain. He insisted that while in Spain it was winter, in Chicago it was summer because "it's at the same height as Florida and it's hot in there". After discussing with him that the equator doesn't divide the Atlantic Ocean North to South, and that it was also winter in Chicago, he said that it couldn't be true since "the Moon goes north to South so Chicago is so hot now". I had to literally pull out my phone, google the weather in Chicago, which was at a record low in December and then show on Google Maps where the equator was. After that whole 30 minutes, he just said "oh, OK" and changed the subject. His girlfriend, who was South African was looking at him with her mouth open. We were all teachers in that room. The couple had just bought a flat together.
And the gf had the "Oh my god, what have I done?" look on her face???😊
@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar they have a kid now.
@@sheherezahade Lol
Instant regret of all life choices
An American woman complained that her hire car was noisy. Not having come across a gear shift she drove from London to Cornwall in 2nd gear.
probly ruined the engine too
That poor car.
But she mustve gotten there somehow so she mustve used the clutch in one way or another.
@@TheDude50447 You can put in a gear by force(no clutch) , it will break the gearbox eventually so not recomended
@@matso3856 Thats the least of the problems. You need to stop the car which would stall it and then you need to start it up again in apparently second gear. Even if she shifts into neutral which is questionable its almost impossible. Driving a manual without a clutch is very hard for people who know how to drive manuals. When I was a child It happened to my father on a vacation trip. He used to revs to match the specific gear for the roadspeed to shift. And we had to run in circles through a gas station in front of a red light. We were very lucky to arrive. My father said if he wouldve had to fully stop anywhere there wouldnt have been a way to get going again.
I’m Canadian. I dated a guy from Seattle. when we were driving on the freeway to Seattle from Canada. He explained to me that the little white bumps between the lanes were so that blind drivers could stay in their lane or know when they’ve changed lanes.
😂😂 nice of them to accommodate all the blind drivers out there 😆
😂😂😂😂
Know why Helen Keller is such a bad driver?
She’s a woman. 🙄
Stop 😂😂😂😂
Here is one for you! An American woman in a rental car asked me in Western Germany 'how far to Paris?' I answered ' a good four day march!' 😂
Alleluya
Hahaha!
That's the sort of answer a New Zealander would give. Nice finding kindred spirits around the globe. 😃
You literally told the american lady to move her a§§ out of the car and go take a hike - and touch some grass?
@@olgahein4384 You're American, right?
The amount of african-Americans who think that black is an American term is astounding. There are millions of threads of them saying Jamaicans aren’t black, British blacks aren’t black and lastly Africans aren’t black. It’s the weirdest thing
To be fair, "black" (or various other SELF-identifying markers like it) DO tend to be hallmarks of those countries that have historically had large populations of slaves of sub-Saharan African origin. This includes Carribean countries and some other countries (especially Brasil and a few Spanish-spreaking countries in Latin America).
It's also not surprising that the distinction is also common in former colonial powers whose populations include many relatively recent immigrants - often descendents of slaves - from their former colonies (as well as their post-immigration descendents).
But it really DOESN'T include countries in sub-Saharan Africa where a simple term based on a dyadic "black-white" distinction typically makes LITTLE or NO sense as a way for people to distinguish THEIR identity group from the VERY numerous other identity groups you find in that most diverse of continents...
Indeed, it makes no more sense than for the majority indigenous populations of Europe to use the term "white" as a self-indentification marker to distinguish, say, indigenous Germans from indigenous Poles or Greeks or Spaniards or Irish when there are much more relevant distinctions in language, culture, history or geography that are much more meaningful to them.
So to an outsider like me, the REALLY weird thing about "identity politics" in the US is not the frequency with which a sizeable minority of its population self-identifies as "black" or "African-American", it's that a sizeable minority (from within its majority of largely European descent) self-identifies as "white"!
Another embarrassment. This stupid African-American bs. 1. Not all black people are from Africa 2. They are just American. They were born here just like everyone else and 9xout of 10, have probably never even been to Africa. PC at it's finest...not.
Actually, Af.Americans aren't black.
Had an American comment on a TH-cam video & state that Melanesians (Black Pacific Islanders) are not black. We literally have some of the darkest people (Bougainvilleans) on the planet.
The comedian Gina Yashere has told the story of how an American cop stopped her. On hearing her British accent he said "Sorry, I thought you were black".
German here. Visited a summer camp in California as a 14 year old teen back in '84.
Was asked the classics: had I met Hitler, did I come from East or West Germany. The one that got me the most was from a self-styled car aficionado. He asked if we had cars in Germany. Told him Germany exported roughly 25% of all cars world-wide back then, and it was a German who had invented the first combustion engine car, called Benz.
The guy outright claimed I lied, because "as everybody knows Ford invented the car." He didn't even listen that two of the most used combustion engines used were also invented by Germans, Otto and Diesel. Shrug, whatever.
I was a German exchange student in Michigan, 98, and got the same questions about did we have
-electricity
-washing machines
And cars!
When I started naming all the brands that are German, like VW, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, MAN….they flat out accused me of lying until the world cultures teacher chimed in who had started the Q&A
@@koschmx considering it was a class in HIGHSCHOOL, not knowing that a major European country whose industry was majorly centered on car manufacturing has both electricity and kitchen appliances cannot be explained away like that…
That‘s a kindergarden question!
I also didn‘t mention Cindy, who with a great smile on her face enthusiastically proclaimed that she knew exactly where Germany was…..
….right next to EUROPE! 🫣
@koschmx Living abroad for some time removes you from the group of vanilla Americans we are laughing about. The holes in your education have been replaced by personal experience. You probably speak at least one additional language fluently and get your news from media in different languages from different countries. So you will be treated like an adult, not like an American (tourist).
@@koschmx I seem to remember having heard once that growing up with several languages kind of opens up your thinking. You simply know all the time that there are several ways to express things or address a certain situation. You are less handicapped by growing up in a bubble.
I was raised in a small German village, visited a catholic Kindergarten as an evangelic christianed boy, did my HSD in Grassrange, Mt, as an exchange student and I matured a lot during that one year. Most Europeans get used to some intense mingling with people from different cultural backgrounds (school mates, Vereinskollegen, neighbors, ...), where many (older) Americans stick more to their "bubble".
@@wora1111 we also get used to driving 3 hours and being guests in another country for vacations or weekends. 🇩🇪
I remember 4 days in Paris, a weekend in Bruges, a week in Zurich, a week in Sölden, a week in Canterbury, a long weekend in London.
It‘s not just ÌMMIGRANTSˋ who haven‘t yet learned to speak YOUR language.
The association of something amazing, great experiences, beautiful beaches and great fruit 🍉 makes learning French, or English, a cherished adventure for future holidays, not a way to talk to people to lazy to learn English while living in the states.
That’s WHY I, for example, would never learn Turkish.
I‘ve been othered too many times by Turks just talking to me in Turkish, assuming me to be an immigrant myself, even though I can trace my German/Eastern heritage back to 1536
The most galling aspect of some of these, is that instead of trying to educate themselves about the rest of the world, some Americans have the bloody cheek to contradict the person they are speaking to.
The saying “Tis better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt” was tailor-made” for the US citizens mentioned here
SO SO SO true they are so ignorant.
A German comedian once famously said, "You don't need to have an opinion on everything. When you have no idea what you're talking about - just shut the f**k up."
This is MY bugbear. I don’t mind them not knowing things. I do mind it when they refuse to believe people talking about their own countries. Being convinced of your own false ideas is just too much. Dunning Kruger.
Confident idiocy is infuriating....
Luckily we have Google now to humiliate them 👍😁
Thank you for saying "some Americans." We are not all like this and for the most part don't like the ones who are, either.
I’m a Tour Guide in
York England. I love the stupid American questions. My favourites:- Why did we chose an American name for our City?
Where in England is Scotland?
What came first Medieval or Roman?
I come from York and winding up dumb American tourists is a popular local pastime there.
For the last question, either say "Yes" next time or "Ask the Italians" next time ;)
last one is best and the correct answer is without a grain of doubt Arturian
German with a sense of humor by the way
PS. the darker flavour of humor
@@HrLBolle "how about Gothic" would also be a "correct answer"
Btw german aswell ;)
Hoch das Bier!
@@nightstorm5914
Weiß doch jeder das König Artus von Camelot lange, bevor die ersten Siedler sich dort niederließen wo später Rom erstehen würde, über ganz Eurasien herrschte.
Bin mit stillem Wasser dabei
I was in a gift shop in Denmark and an American woman asked the girl behind the counter, whilst brandishing an ashtray adorned with a figurine of the little mermaid, whether they had any with Copenhagen spelt “CORRECTLY” - the Danish spelling is København.
Worked in a UK tourist attraction one summer. Had several americans complain that our vending machines weren't working. They were all trying to use dollars in them
I am English and was in America speaking with my partner when a woman behind me in the queue said "Oh what accent is that, where are y'all from?" I said "Oh, we're from England", she scoffed and said "I think y'all find that's called 'New England', honey".
holy sh*t
😬
You should have replied, "no, i'm Old England."
Should have said. "We were ones that burned down the original White House"
How can they be THAT confident while also being SO incredibly dumb?! 😂😂
I was chatting with a young American guy who asked me if he came to the U.K. England would he get respect I just said if you are respectful towards others, you will receive it in return. But no what he actually meant was if he comes to the UK, will he automatically get respect because (he is an American gracing our little island with his presence) that last part is a direct quote from himself lol
The "chip on the shoulder" seems to be emerging as a common theme in these comments.
Friggin' americans, I can't even...
I was at the gift shop in Herculaneum in Italy. American loudly complained that there were no guidebooks in English. In front of him was a pile of guide books with the English flag 🏴 and most importantly all the writing in … English. What a muppet.
But... but... they're English, not American! 😆
Well done Italy! As an Englishman I'm constantly infuriated by our language being represented by an American flag.
@@danhodson7187 Me too. It should be recognised as its own language. Perhaps related and mutually intelligible, but not the same thing!
@@danhodson7187 German here. I had an argument with an American on TH-cam. He claimed that everyone learns English because of American influence. I then said that we teach British English in schools and only briefly mention American English to point out the differences. He didn't believe it at first, only when other Europeans said the same thing
@@Lysandra-8 well done Germany as well then! 🫡
I was brought up in uk in a town that tourists loved (Chester?) and I think it can go both ways - I worked in a bag shop and an American tourist came in clutching a map and asking where the castle was - I told her and added that there was a nice tea shop and some fun off tourist track things and she started to cry! Apparently I was nicest person she had met in uk 😂. My town does get overwhelmed with tourists so people do get a bit grumpy. But we have had awful experiences, we had a very historical home and big gates - but us family forced their way in and rang on doorbell demanding a room and even waved money at my dad… my dad was a little furious 😂. We had a garden that tourists could see but we had high trees - my mum and I were having our breakfast in the garden and to our horror we noticed about 15 Americans (Fanny packs!) taking our picture. We fled into house clutching our tea. Funniest was in London (I admit I was drunk) and Americans on tube train didn’t seem to realise we all speak same language.. they were insulting uk food and culture etc very loudly in quiet train carriage and so I marched up to them and said “you know we speak English and everyone in this train thinks you are a rude arsehole”. That was mean of me but I was drunk 🥴.
Years ago an american asked me if in Italy we have internet or electricity... In an online game...
Fun fact: electricity is an italian invenction.
I was a student in Coventry 35 years ago. Two American tourists were walking between the Cathedrals when one turned to the other and said "Isn't it amazing that the Germans totally destroyed this Cathedral and completely missed the other one." The old Cathedral is a preserved bombed out shell. The new Cathedral was built right next to the old one after the war.
hahaha nice. I have convinced a few people that a Haggis is a wild creature.
@@EmotionalLemonade And they have now spread to Northumberland and Cumbria, Yorkshire has a cross breed with the Glaswegian haggis, Wales has two breeds - one only comes out on Friday and Saturday nights - while we have them in Ireland as well. Ours are green with pink, purple or white spots so them blend in with the heather. Some actually believe the stories.
@@koschmx I've always told them it was a joke.
@@musicandbooklover-p2o do the Irish ones still have the shorter legs on one side to run around the hills?
@koschmx A guy who lived in Nürnberg his whole life argued with my dad that Germany and America both were "running out of trees" and that wherever you go you don't see trees in either country. We grew up in a farming community in the US and lived in a small town on the edge of a forest in Bayern. We drove past tens of thousands of trees to get to Nürnberg. He ended up moving to the same small town as us, living at the edge of town right next to the forest, but still remained convinced that these were rare and that this was one of the last pockets of trees to exist in first-world countries. When my grandparents visited, he offered to show them the forest (apparently assuming they'd never seen one before) and was befuddled at their lack of interest.
I was helping to guide a group of American High School students around the 1,000 year old Warwick Castle in England. We took them up to to the top of the Bailey ramparts. The main guide asked; " do you know why they chose the place to build the castle?" - Expecting them to notice that it was the highest point for miles around and at the confluence of 2 rivers. One of the students answered; "because it's close to the freeway?"
Lmao 🤣🤣🤣
In a sense, the answer is almost right. In that time, the rivers were the freeway! 😅
Had a friend who worked at the camera obscurer in Edinburgh during the festival and he overheard an American couple complaining how inconvenient the distance was between Edinburgh castle and the train station. It took him a while to realise that they thought the castle was built each year for the festival and not built 700 years before the invention of the train.
It's, what, ten minutes walk downhill?! 😂
Probably the same couple who asked why Windsor Castle was built under the flight path from Heathrow.
That’s what you get when your country is hardly older than Disneyland
I remeber seeing a TV programe on the Tower of London and one of the Beefeaters was asked by an Americian how it was the Tower was built in the middle of London.
@@36cmarti And why they built the main road so close to Stonehenge.
When I was traveling in Germany, walking along a sidewalk one evening, a bicycle group of teenage boys stopped and the adult leader asked me, in halting German, if I knew where the hostel was. Happened I did, since I had passed the sign pointing up a hill to it. While I was giving directions in German, he suddenly said, "Excuse me, but do you speak English?" I caught the Kiwi accent, and answered, "No, sorry. I only speak American". He was not expecting that, but it only took him a moment to process it and laugh. Anyhow, giving him directions sure got a lot easier after we established our common language...practiced since we learned to speak - lol!
I was with my fiancée in Paris. We had just popped into a small cosy restaurant and asked for our food. It just showed up when a group of Americans walked in noisily and sat themselves in the middle of the room, being loud. Next thing, they one started clicking their fingers at the waiter and loudly saying “ CAN WE GET SOME SERVICE HERE?!” then proceeded to ask for burgers “ that are cooked properly, not raw”. They were so loud and oblivious to the atmosphere they had destroyed, that the waiter apologised to us and gave us half a bottle of wine by way of apology. I assured him he wasn’t to blame.
Ow that's so sweet of the waiter ❤
when I was at college in the 90s, I spent 3 weeks with an American family, upon arriving the mother explained to me what all the equipment in her kitchen was for: microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. ...she told me you don't have all that in France, I told her that we also had an equipped kitchen, she looked at me surprised, I'm sure she didn't believe me!
good thing you did tell her about the built in fusion cells that power all of Europe
@@HrLBolle Shhh! Don't tell them that ............. they are still trying, without success, to master cold fusion! 😆😆😆
When living in the USA as an Aussie we were constantly asked if we were either from England or New Zealand, never Australia, we would simply laugh and say "You Canadians all say the same thing" TOUCHE!
Funnily enough I’ve been asked by a couple of Americans if I’m Australian. I’m English with a northern accent which they aren’t used to!
My Aussie wife got asked the same thing when she lived with me in the US. Once we moved to Australia, I've been regularly asked if I'm Canadian. lol Like at least a couple of times per week. When her cousin visited from the Yukon, people swore we sounded just alike even though she's got a super thick Canadian accent and mine is countrified southern US.
@RanchHanded that's because Aussies are betting people, they're playing the odds. Americans are rarely upset by being called Canadians, but Canadian are the kindest sweetest people in the world until you call them American!!!
@@RanchHanded we Australians would prefer not to take the risk of insulting Canadians by asking if they're American. You can't even rely on the old ploy of asking if they often get oat of the hoase.
@@canz1575 I finally asked someone and they said the same. You're not talking odds of being right, you're talking odds of survival. 🤣
I’m a driver/guide in Ireland, I was driving by a road sign for Boston in Co. Clare, behind me an American lady when seeing the sign said “ isn’t it Nice your naming places after our cities?” I pretended I didn’t hear her & drove on.
Lol this one kills me bc my husband was born in Boston, Lincs, in the Pilgrim Hospital, built on/near the spot where the pilgrims left England and eventually founded Boston, MA. And he's had no end of trouble with idiots at not only immigration in Canada, but in the US when he went there for work, when they screwed up his paperwork and had that he was born in Boston, MA. Bc how dare there be any other cities or towns called Boston out there. *frustrated sigh*
@@kmeWait until they discover how many Washingtons there are. And where THAT Washington's family originated.
@@TheArgieH America
it's not even the problem that they are stupid...everyone is stupid...it's that crazy level of self assurance
I got into a conversation with an American on WoW whilst in a raid group, who, with genuine conviction, told me that he hated the UK because we stole all of our place names from the USA. His examples being New York and Birmingham.
I then proceeded to tell him that the reason a lot of US cities share the same names as not just UK places but many European places, is because we settled there and named the settlements after towns and cities in the UK and Europe for familiarity.
He continued to argue until I told him that most of the towns and cities in the UK and Europe are centuries older than any US city and told him to go and learn actual history. He rage quit the group.
😱🙄
Problem is, I believe that story on the spot 😢
Same with Dutch names in the US. When I told a guy from New York loads of names there were actually Dutch or based on Dutch names he didn't believe me. Harlem, Brooklyn, Long Island, Wallstreet, Flushing etc... all Dutch.
@Linda-hs1lk well as you will probably know, there was a settlement called Nieuw Amsterdam, which eventually became New York City, and there is an Amsterdam near Albany in New York State. I think a good part of the US population genuinely think America was the first place that existed, and that's where life started.
@@shadybacon3451 That place was also called Stuyvesant intermittently, wasn't it?
In 1992, an american black woman, who was a tourist, yelled at my black coworker here in Berlin (we worked in a sommer job with tour guides) because he didn't want to be called an "african-american" by her, since he was a german born to nigerian parents. She insisted that all black people outside of africa are "african-american". When he waved me over as his supervisor to deescalate, I (pale white) just pointed out that I didn't want to get involved in THIS conversation but that the conversation should end. I was then called a racist by the American woman
I feel like people who are afraid to use the word Black, as if it's a dirty word, are racist
you are a racist! shrug shoulders but you are an amercian so we are even
You should have sided with your worker. He's not African American.
Copy-pasted but still a good story^^
@@steffent.6477 not copy&pasted
And no - in Europe we don't turn anywhere on red. Red means stop. Be patient until the light changes to green, regardless of where you want to turn.
In Germany, you are allowed to turn right on red IF there is a small sign with a green arrow installed next to the red light, pointing to the right. It means you get to turn right even if the light is red, but only if there's no traffic.
@@louibeans Same in Portugal, but the green (or yellow intermitent) arrow doesn't exist in the US.
@@ruialmeida818 That's true. I was made aware of that when I drove a rental car there last year!
A London cabbie once told me that an American woman he took from Heathrow to Central London tried to pay him in dollars. "Sorry, but we don't accept dollars in England" he told her. "Only English pounds".
She replied, '"You WEIGH your money here?"
Geezus, I had to run to the washroom after reading that! 😂
They did weigh it at one time to see if it had been 'clipped'.
😂😂😂😂😂🎉
Well... Originally you did.😊
I had a teacher from the state of New York. She was 40 and was explaining us that river can only flow from north to south, because north is up and south is down and everyone knows water can only go downwards... 🙈
On the flipside, I met a lovely American family in my hometown of Brighton, UK. The eight-ish y/o boy asked so politely if he may pet my dog. Of course, he was given permission and as he fussed Dusty, I chatted with the parents. They'd lived in the UK for a couple of years or so and we reflected on a few of the cultural differences and other general chit-chat. I asked if they ever planned to move back to the States. When they stopped laughing, it was a resounding "No! We miss our extended families but that's where it ends." I was kinda shocked but watching videos like this, it makes sense...
When I was in the US (California)I was asked how we (UK) could cope with the complicated decimal system. If I hadn't been dumbstruck at the time, I would have told them that they have no problem with millimetres when it comes to guns.
Hindsight, eh?
Also, it is far less complicated if you just have to move around a comma instead of dividing/multipling with random numbers.
The US Dollar is a decimal currency!
@@s.rmurray8161 The irony is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that they cling to Imperial measurements when they went to such efforts to cut ties with the old Empire. That said, I just measured my 14 year old at 182cm. "What's that then?" he said. "You're 6 feet tall". We can't commit to one or the other.
'Decimal system' labelled as 'complicated'...?!? Yeah, sure, the ability to count to 10 apparently requires genius level intelligence...
@@uwetheiss970 In the UK we use a dot, not a comma. Commas are used elsewhere like 1,000 1,096.74
Back in the early days of the internet I was chatting with an American woman in a chat room who wouldn't believe I was in Scotland because I had electricity.
On a seperate note, I was once surrounded by Japanese tourists all taking my picture and shouting 'real Scottish lady!' because of my red hair.
There's a strange phenomenon in London of tourists having photos taken standing next to doors. Haven't they seen doors before?
I was borderline harassed in Japan for my hair haha
Isn't red hair more an irish thing? I'm not sure how closely related the populations are^^
@@steffent.6477 the Irish and Scottish are closely related.
@@steffent.6477 Possibly. I'm not sure of the origin but I know large amounts of Irish people came to Scotland around 200 years ago.
The only thing I remember is that a guy on the beach in Florida asked my dad the time. My dad looks at his digital watch and reads out 13:47 (very normal thing where I'm from), the guy straightens up and almost shouts "Oh, a military man! Thank you for your service, sir!"
Now, the ironic thing is that my dad does work for the military, but most definitely not the American one 😅
what a nice reply from that young man 😂
In the US, they mostly use am and pm. Not in the military, though, so that's why it's commonly referred to as military time. I knew that, and I'm Swedish.
@@elisaa9981 Well, I'm Danish, so I think that probably levels the playing field a bit. It's fairly common knowledge, but caught in the moment, my dad just read out what the clock said and didn't think about the implications. It's pretty particular to Americans to assume that using "military" time actually means that you were in the military. Also, my dad has a pretty thick Danish accent (you'll know what I'm referring to), so I was surprised the American still assumed he served for the US; It's not impossible, but unlikely.
@@Catwomenofchemistry Well, I did admire his respect but he wasn't what I'd call young. He had that certain lobster-red emperor penguin-y look to him that formerly fit and sporty American men get when they hit middle age and the BBQ and slowing metabolism start to congeal in the lower abdomen whence Hawaiian floral patterns seem to magically sprout forth and overtake their always-in-the-shade swimming trunks.
As a French visiting Ireland, on a bus tour, I had a talk with US tourists very friendly. I asked them to translate english to english because of strong Irish accent but they were nearly as lost as me. Then we spoke about places we had visited and they complained that France and Italy's signs, posts, writings in general were not translated in english like in the airports. All I can answer at that moment was that it's because we don't want English to find their way...
To be fair, they have somewhat of a point. Last January, I (German) was at the international comic festival in Angouléme which is expecting lots of visitors from abroad, yet there was absolutely no English signage anywhere. I think I saw one English sign in the entire city. Me and some friends from different countries had signed up to see a (worldwide famous) manga artist speak, and they did have a Japanese translator there - translating from Japanese to French. If I didn't have a very good French friend with me who translated the entire interview on her phone in real time, typing like a maniac, I wouldn't have understood a single thing. And I paid good money for this event which wasn't included in the festival ticket. It's ok if France doesn't want English signs everywhere. But if there's a self-proclaimed international festival expecting international guests, I would hope they'd at least try to be somewhat accommodating.
I've been told so many times by Americans we (The Netherlands) should be happy we're not speaking German because they liberated us. Many of us DO speak German because we want to but also the area I live in wasn't liberated by US Americans at all. Somehow US Americans think they were the only ones in Europe and not part of the allies. The area I live in was liberated by Canadians btw and they NEVER boast about that. They were invited every year here to celebrate our freedom.
I was an exchange student from Germany to Michigan in 1981 and I got asked anything from if we have TVs and electricity down to how we were able to travel to the US with the terrible war on "over there" (first gulf war, Iran vs. Iraq). Some things apparently never change, when you have a defunct education system.
Are you sure they weren't thinking of WW II? I was asked how the war is going when I visited Seattle in the 90's, after I said I'm from Germany.
Perhaps they were thinking of the DDR. Germany was literally divided during the Cold War, so that could be perceived as a war situation. Especially by an American.
It wouldn’t be that strange that in 1981 people from outside of Germany would be concerned or confused about the situation in Germany at that time..
@@nikibordeaux no, my first reaction was telling them WW II has long been over. It took a few questions to even understand which war they were talking about.
@@Katt-._.7. I highly doubt that that person had any idea that the GDR even existed, tbh. And I explicitly asked to specify which war. THAT is what THEY said.
@@christineschmidt8501 oh dear.. 🤦🏼♀️ the ignorance was so bad that I just had to believe maybe there was some explanation for it, but no.. of course there wasn’t 😆
oh mate. I worked in the backpacker travel industry and my list would make you cry. No 1. - "Is an American minute the same as an Australian minute?"......reply "ahhh no, an American minute is a lot slower".
Yup. The American versions of most things - but especially people - are a LOT slower...
A New York minute is practically light speed!
Everything American is slower, it's the only way that the dumbass Americans can keep up with the rest of the world
In university I had an American student come up tp me carrying an English text book, to complain that the writer had spelled lots of the words "wrong". More troublingly, she had supposedly been reading books by UK authors for two years.
Italian here. When I was working for Tourism Ireland (the Irish National Tourist Board), I was asked by more than one American if Ireland had paved streets and ATMs.
I visited friends in Alabama last year, one day their neighbor heard me and my wife speak Dutch to each other.
He looked amazed at us and asked: "You have your own language???"
My friend when visiting New York was asked whether we celebrate 4th of July in England, they were shocked we don't, he jokingly asked whether Americans celebrate Guy Fawkes night, they said America doesn't celebrate French holidays
You should have asked them who the were independant from.
@@sopcannon i should add many other people assumed he was was Australian because our regional accent isn't the typical posh British accent, so he'd lean into and start with the "shrimp another Barbie on the one for me"
You should say YES, we are glad we got rid of you 😆
do you do the 4th july in england i replied well yes but we call it wow so glad we lost that one
@@philiprice7875 Think how good the US would be now if we still had control.
I work in museum in the Scottish Highlands, I've had several American visitors ask me where Jamie and Clare (from TV Show "Outlander") lived? I had to tell them that these were people in a made up story, not real historic characters.
When Living in North Dakota I was asked where I was from, when I replied Britain they replied "Oh you speak English real good" I looked at them over my glasses and replied "I should do, we invented the language" it went right over her head!
Actually the English language came from Scandinavia NOT England.
It was called a Germanic language.
Britain had 2 languages at the time French and Latin.
@@gerardflynn7382 At which time? English is an amalgam of the many languages introduced by invaders over many centuries. Yes, it has French, Latin, Scandinavian and Germanic components, and also a few pre-Roman elements, but the language we have today is a thing all its own - ENGLISH! Like most languages, it is a product of its history, and is constantly evolving... In other words, don't be so insufferably pedantic!!!!
@@gerardflynn7382 it’s Germanic because the Anglo-Saxons introduced it.
Where they are from is in the name, Saxony, which last time I looked was in Germany. The Angles were from Northern Germany/Southern Denmark.
Before that? Mostly Brythonic Celt. Latin was probably the European linga franca, but not used every day.
The French came after the Vikings.
@@gerardflynn7382 No. both French and Latin were the languages of the upper and religious classes. The common people never spoke either. Depending on the time period most people would have spoken a version of anglo saxon / old English etc, both of which in their turn were an amalgam of other influences.
@@gerardflynn7382 Actually, language historians have recently (in the last couple of years, following in-depth analysis) agreed that much more of the English language as we know it today, came from the old Brittonic, Pictish Gaelic and Breton (Cornish) and that Germanic/Scandinavian origins had a lot less impact on English, as spoken and written today than was thought of only a few years ago.
On July 4, 2019 your president said the Continental Army "took over the airports" from the British during the American Revolutionary War.
I have seen that on a different channel. Absolutely hilarious.
I remember seeing that and being deprived of speech because I nearly choked laughing
Yes that was Donald Trump.... the ultimate dumb American.
And remember when President Bush Junior is said to have declared that the problem with the French was that they didn’t have a word for "entrepreneur". It has since been refuted but the fact that it was believable says a lot.
Also, undertaking a war in Middle Eastern countries and calling it a "crusade" (from Latin "crux" - cross) wasn’t the best choice of words.
But that’s monolinguals for you.
@@gobnait7855 The Bush story about the French and a word for "entrepreneur" is TRUE. I saw him saying it on BBC news. People were laughing about it for days, and the clip was repeated on tv panel shows for months.
Was a British Soldier serving in Canada, got voluntold to attend a formal service in USA, so best bib and tucker, thats to say, Servce Dress and Medals. An American Lady was courious enough to ask me about my Uniform and Medals, then stated "You are in America, why are you not wearing an American Uniform?!"
I was talking with an American woman in Spain, who asked me where I was from. I told her England. She then asked where I had learnt to speak English so well.
My nextdoor neighbour here in the UK is American. Nice enough person but.................I can believe all of these examples.
John, I believe them all too! 🇬🇧
I was on holiday in Vienna. Visited a museum and there was an old crown on display in a glass cabinet in the middle of the room. Opposite me an American couple were also looking at the crown. She turned to her husband and said "is it real?" On another holiday in Rhodes, a tour guide told us that she was explaining to some tourists that the harbour in Rhodes town used to have gates across the entrance as part of their defences centuries ago, and an American asked "what about the submarines?"
Ive worked in a national park in Ireland for the past 7 years, i have dozens of stories about Americans from the last 6 months, so thousands overall. One example, which happened more than once over the years, is, an American asked me recently, where are you from, i said im irish, cuz i am, so he then asked if i ever been to Ireland, he asked that while we were standing in Ireland, so i answered the obvious answer, which is yes, born and raised:) he went "wooooow awesome". I then had explain to him that we were in Ireland and that im an Irish citizen with an irish passport and that im not irish American etc. He was astonished. Part of me is thinking he was trolling, but he seemed genuinely clueless
Ties in with US visitors trying to convince me and other friends that our pronunciations of various Irish names is wrong. Based on apparently their x times great grandparent who travelled to the US back in the early 1800s and always pronounced the word(s) that way. Therefore the Irish version is wrong.
@@musicandbooklover-p2o theirs so many examples of it, could go on all day:)
As a Dane i agree, if that asian Tzunami had hit us we would all be in trouble 🤣
My contribution: I was once asked by an American where i was from, i casually said "im from Denmark".. after a short pause he asked me what state that was in 🤭
i worked in a cafe in a tourist town, we often get Americans in , one day i asked a guy where he was from he replied "Hawaii, the big island" i said mate you're in Australia now, the biggest island"
“The Big Island” is the common name of one of the Hawaiian islands. Totally understand the assumption of American arrogance & geographical ignorance, but this one backfired a bit…
@@frankie23802 inwouldnt say he was being arrogant, geographically ignorant perhaps, i was hppy because i had ben waiting for a chance to use that line for a long time , he just stumbled into my trap. muhahahahahahaaaa
@@davecannabisHe wasn't being ignorant at all. He we just clarifying that he was not from Oahu, Maui etc., he was from the Hawaiian island called Hawaii, which is commonly referred to as the big island.
@@karlhendrikse yes but to claim you from "the big island" is pretty silly when you are on the biggest island
@@frankie23802 Yeah, probably best NOT to be blasé about renaming polynesian islands... in the pacific. If the aussies don't call you out for it, the nesians will
I stated on Twitter that USA wasn’t in the top ten democracies.
A random American got mad at me. He said “America is not a democracy, it’s a Republic!”
I replied that he should tell that to his Representatives.
Well, it should be said that being a republic is not a guarantee of also being a democracy.
However, America officially declares itself as being a republic democracy. How they arrive at that conclusion may be slightly confusing since the American system of electing a president is anything but democratic per definition. For America to be a true democracy, their president would have to be elected by popular vote, meaning the winner would always be the contender who received the majority of votes.
The actual system of an electoral college makes it impossible for America to support the claim of being a republic with democracy.
Looking at the state of america you can easily see that it's not a democracy but rather a lot of rhetoric and theatre to keep the masses compliant
I believe this is why they only teach 'Math' (singular) - they don't teach Venn diagrams and set theory that demonstrate that a thing can be a sub-group of another one, or simply overlap. I think the 'math' they teach is how to convert measurements to football fields, elephants and cups.
@@TheChiefEng No that would make it a direct democracy, the US is a representative democracy.
@@Bakers_Doesnt 😅
Really enjoyed this Connor. The first few were hilarious but it was obvious you were getting despondent as the video carried on. It’s great that you don’t mind laughing at some of your fellow countrymen.
Norf Londoner here. A former workmate from America refused to believe England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales were separate countries until we asked him, "then why do they all have their own international football teams... " Just think, the Americans who travel overseas are the intelligent ones. 🙄
I mean, to be fair, the "countries" in the UK are as much countries as german Bundesländer or the 50 american states are.
it's semantics at that point. the UK as a whole is also internationally seen and treated as a "country", which would then mean that England is a "country" inside of another "country".
and then England and Wales are internally treated as one jurisdiction as well, making it yet more confusing lol
@@kevboard Not American by any chance, are you?
@@rde4017 dude. the UK is a country, composed of 4 "counties" which are devided into 3 jurisdictions.. that's a fact.
and the word country doesn't really have a meaning. Wales has about as much autonomy within the UK as Bavaria has inside germany.
YOU call them countries, but they aren't. it's semantics. functionally they aren't.
@@kevboard That must be why Scotland voted in a referendum about becoming an independent country, and why they had a separate government and monarchy.... 🙄 (btw the UK is a political union of 4 separate countries.)
@@kevboard The UK is treated as a country because it is a country. Where are you from? Not the UK, I hope.
I was living in Galway, Ireland for a bit and heard one American girl say to her friend, 'why does everyone here think we're so loud and crass?'
I was about 100 metres away at the other end of the street...😅
Sharing a single room with an American girlfriend. I was a student on a French campus. She comes in all excited stating that I was going to be so pleased because the new neighbor spoke German. A bit embarrassed to intrude, I got out in the corridor. The guy was on the phone speaking to his mother, in plain English. With a thick english accent, still…
I stepped in, told her she was going to be so pleased, we had a new English speaking neighbor. She didn’t pick it up.
A few weeks earlier, we had traveled home so that she would finally meet my family. At first sight she started the typical east coast small talk bursting English words quicker than anyone else can breathe. They stared, confused. Then she asked, but aren’t your parents bilinguals ? Yep. French and German, you’re currently in Switzerland… I still married her few years later.