I used to work at the Amsterdam tourist office. I explained an American how to get to a museum by bus. I told them they could buy the ticket from the driver. They asked me in which part of the bus they could find the driver. I told them dutch busdrivers usually sit in the front of the bus, so they can see where they are going. 😂
@mikespike007 yes just spread the laughter to everybody on the bus and see who is the one that's going to ask from witch American state he is from because they al know he is American.
On my return visit from Kansas to Manchester, l was obliged to transit through Atlanta. The flight was delayed because of a rain storm, and l missed my connecting flight. The lady at the booking desk rebooked me and handed me a ticket for Paris. When l poimted out Paris was in France not England, she retorted by saying she had checked the map and it was in Europe and quite near London. I pointed out l was going to Manchester, she insisted that Manchester was "part of London" How she was able to work for an airport without a fundamental understanding of geography is beyond me.
hmm just take the train from paris its right nect to london and evrybody know everythinh in the UK is close to london. Damm did you get another booking if not be glad you didn't live in derry.
While on holiday in Italy we did a tour of Pompeii. The tour guide explained how the residents of Pompeii were killed by volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in AD79, at which point an American woman on the tour stated she didn't believe the guide because she "didn't recall Vesuvius erupting in '79". I just couldn't stop laughing 🤣
Oh my word. On another note, I had the privilege of visiting the Pompeii archaeological site this past May. I’d been intrigues ever since being gifted a nook on it when I was 19. I’m 64 now. 😊
When I went on a tour at Pearl Harbour, the guide explained how there were still oil drums or something in the harbour, but that no one could bring them up “back then” because “no one could dive in the 40s” and I was like…..they could dive waaay before 1940, what?? there were suits in something like 1860s….All the Americans just nodded and carried on. Like….how could none of them know?
I was on a dinner date with my partner at a restaurant in England and had some American tourists at the next table. The wife? ordered steak and when the waiter ask how she’d like it served, she replied “large” 😂😂😂😂
Little souvenir shop by the Eiffel Tower. American couple (couldn't miss the accent) asking the shop keeper a question. He didn't understand English. Typical American tourist thinking if I yell louder he might suddenly understand. Wouldn't even try a few words of French. They got frustrated and left. The shop keeper asked in French if I needed help. I told him in my very basic French ' I don't speak French. Do you speak English'. He opened his mouth and spoke to me in flawless English. I've seen this scenario many times.
Yup thats the french for you but depending how long ago this was a lot french really don't know or suck at englisch a couple of decades ago. Now i suck at French but i can order a drink ar room ar ask directions in french but thats about it.
There's additional peril these days, a lot of Europeans aren't too keen on the English these days, I often pretend to be Scottish especially in France. Having said that out of basic courtesy I make a point of learning basic phrases for every country I visit especially as I tour solo on a motorbike and am often in rural areas where tourists and English speakers aren't common.
In France, always enter a store or restaurant with both “bonjour-hello.” I speak a little French as we study it in school here in Canada and I can get through a simple conversation. But the “hello” part signals that I speak English. Every single time the person I say it to speaks better English than I do French. I do speak as much French as possible as I want to learn more and French speakers are tolerant, and mostly kind.
I've heard it said by a few people that if you attempt to speak French, then they will be more forgiving, as in their eyes you've at least tried. Which is fair enough in my opinion.
I live in North Wales and a friend of mine is a tour guide. 1 time an American asked why we built Conwy Castle so close to the railway. They would not believe that the castle is WAAAYYYYY older than the railway!
Yeahhh…I can believe that! Also have a friend who’s works in that industry (I also live in NW 👋) who had a tourist ask how long since the dragons went extinct 🫣
My sister (English) was on a Mediterranean cruise that stopped for the day in Barcelona. That night at dinner she over heard 4 Americans discussing that they couldn't believe how much Mexican they'd heard during the day! 😂
They clearly haven‘t paid enough attention in SPANISH class!
หลายเดือนก่อน +11
An American I worked with spoke Spanish and was horrified to actually visit Spain and find that people made fun of the way he spoke 'their language' as it very bad.
We (Australians) were on the Champs Elysees looking for something to eat. We found a suitable place and waited to be served behind two Americans. Before the concierge could ask, one said “Table for two” loudly and with an arrogant tone. The concierge replied “No!” and waved them off. We could see there was a few spare tables, so I asked “Une table pour deux s'il vous plaît” in very poor French. Her reply startled us. “Oh, Australien! Come in, come in.”
Only got to spend a few days in France about 13 years ago, visiting the Somme etc. Had much the same reaction - being Australian made things much easier given my rudimentary schoolboy French....
@@enematwatson1357A lot of Australian tourists go to France. The first day I arrived in the UK in 1986 a French farmer heard my accent and starting yelling at me about Australia's agricultural policy. 😊
I’m a Volunteer Tour Guide in York. Here’s a couple of my favourites:- “Why did we chose an American name for our City”? “What came first Roman or Medieval”?
@rainerzufall42 I've heard an American (who insisted he was Irish) tell a genuine Irish person that Baltimore in County Cork was named after the US city. Baltimore in Ireland has existed at least since the 13th century. It ended up with the genuine Irish person calling the American a Plastic Paddy who knew nothing about Ireland, but with more swearing.
Similar experience with Americans at a B&B in York. This occurred during the breakfast service. One American couple was telling another American couple about their recent visit to Whitby and what they saw. The first couple said they had seen the Captain Cook statue. The bloke from the second couple then responded “Oh, Captain Cook, that’s Thomas Cook”. As an Aussie, it took all my self control to not blurt “not effing Thomas Cook, it’s James Cook”….. Bloody hell!!!! Grüße aus Australien. Tschüss.
I’m British and live in Wales. I worked a summer at a wilderness camp in Missouri and upon hearing my accent a kid asked if I was from London. I said no, I live in Wales but I am originally from England. He said, ‘oh England, I’ve heard of that. Is that in LONDON?’ 😂
I had an American tourist tell me my English was poor (Yorkshire accent) so naturally I dialed the dialect up to full on Tyke, the real fun came when my then girlfriend from Dudley addressed her in exaggerated Black Country.
@@mojobag01 You can imagine the conversation after we explained it was a Black Country accent. Apparently as well as having poor English we are also racist.
I've done similar. Back when I worked in a hotel an American guest *told* me I had to tone down my accent because he couldn't understand me very well (despite me speaking very clearly in my best 'phone voice'), so as an F.U. I switched to speaking the broadest Scots dialect I could muster and spoke to him as I would my elderly rural grandparents. The sheer arrogance and entitlement of some of these clowns is astounding.
I've got another sad thing for you: while all of these short stories were new pieces of information to me, none of them was shocking or surprising. Back in 1989 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, wild Poland was still a part of the Warsaw Pact (which you used to call the Communist Block), my friend got on a prestigious post-doctoral grant to the UCLA. A professor asked him if it was difficult for him to write his dissertation in Russian (naturally, he wrote it in Polish; well he then translated it himself into English, German, Russian, French, and Vietnamese to send to universities in all of those countries to see which one would take him on the grant; he was an exceptional person I have to admit, a truly stable genius if I ever knew one). He came back from the USA with this comment: people over there are amazing professionals in their fields, truly impressive, helpful, and inquisitive; but when conversation goes out of the field of specialty, you tend to lose faith in humanity and American educational system.
Here in the U.S. they're often called 'bubble people '. They might be very smart and well educated. However their lives are extremely routinized. Their world consists of home, family, friends, and work. That's their 'bubble' If they have to deal with any thing outside their bubble, their IQ drops by 25 points.
Yep. Overall, the average IQ in the US does not compare all that favourably with global standards ... but add the appallingly bad educational standards, and the extremely parochial point of view ... and this is exactly what you get.
I'm a New Zealander, I've had to explain that we are not all maori, that we do wear clothes and live in houses, that we have summer when you have winter so beach BBQ for Christmas is a real thing. I've also had to explain how we are a day ahead of you and are the first to see the sun on new year. Also, we speak English (mostly) because a lot of our ancestors came from English speaking countries. I'm a kiwi born and bred, I'm not Irish just because my ancestors left Ireland for the colonies. Americans are so self obsessed a lot of them don't even know about other countries.
They are self obsessed, but I find that true of Aussies and Kiwis too. Your own post reeks of "I'm a kiwi and I'm going to ram my country down your throat". Not as bad as Aussies, I'll grant you, but it's still very annoying.
Americans don't care about other countries because they think the U.S. is the be all and end all of the world. Their arrogance and ignorance is astounding!
As a motorcycle courier back in the 80`s , I was standing beneath the porch of the London Palladium ( theatre ) one time and I was asked by an American family for directions to ( you guessed it ) the London Palladium . I had the devil in me that day so I turned him around , pointed to a road opposite and told them to walk along it , take the first right , walk along that road and take the first right and at the end of the road it will be directly in front of them , they thanked me and wandered off . Some 10 mins later I watched them cross the road ( having followed my directions ) . They actually recognised me and thanked me for the directions and remarked on my getting here before them . I simply pointed at my motorcycle ,and they went into the theatre STILL none the wiser . It should be noted that the Palladium has a bright red neon sign about 15 or 20 feet high directly above the porch .
To be fair, I was once in York and a Dutch tourist asked me the way to York Minster. "You see that wall you're leaning on?" "Yes" "You are leaning on York Minster".
I was on the Constitution Hill crosswalk at Buckingham Palace when an Asian tourist asked me where the Palace was. I couldn’t resist, I turned her around , spread my arms and said “THERE!” Absolutely true story.
@@dbolt6543to be fair most Brits will pick up the corn and eat it that way. However I always eat it with a knife and fork,my friend finds it hilarious. I say do your own thing 😂
As a (formerly Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe) student, my mom and I did the 3 month tour of Europe. We were in Italy and took a day tour of the underground catacombs in Rome. We had to walk two abreast in a narrow corridor and there was an American couple walking in front of us - she definitly was not his wife. About 20 minutes into the tour, she turns to her "companion" and in a loud voice says "But Harry, how did they get them bulldozers down here? ". My mother and I just collapsed with laughter.
@@raybenstead2548 erm OK. I guess you are trying to nit pick here somewhere. Saying the USA has a national language still stands. If English is the dominant language and laws are written in English then it is good enough to say the national languages English.
@@pary327 no, national language is by law, they have the widest spoken language, which is English - not the same. Also, in Europe, long before the U.S. existed, a lot of countries had their laws written in Latin, but spoke their local language, even if by law Latin was official. Just because some document is written in some language doesn't automatically makes it by law. This is why every country has: "The national language of our country is: X" in their code of law, usu. constitution - the U.S. constitution doesn't have that, so, by law, there is no obligation for anyone to speak English in the U.S., it's by custom only. In fact, this means that any citizen could ask and should receive all required documents in their native language.
Earlier this year (2024) my Brother was in Lincoln, the County Town of Lincolnshire in England, UK. In one of the pubs he got talking to an older American couple. They commented that it was really nice of us Brits to name somewhere after one of their greatest Presidents. 🙄
I, a German guy, was in Ireland with a friend. We were in a pub and had a conversation in German. Then an American, sitting at the next table, asked if we were from here or if we were from Dublin. He really thought we spoke Irish. When we told him that we are from Germany, he responded: "Wow! I'm German too: My great-grandmother came from Germany." PS: Sorry for my bad English, I rarely practice this language. In Germany we say: "My English is not the yellow of the egg".
There's a video of a young American woman who was very upset with the English for not celebrating the 4th of July like the rest of the world..... she made it worse when she didn't understand the question you do know your in England right?...... And the very embarrassing video of two young American men who were asked by the police to stay where they were by a police officer who was investigating a possible crime ( they could have been the perpetrators or witnesses) the guy kept on quoting American law and saying how he knew the law and his rights...." Are you detaining me"? " Are you arresting me"? If not I'm free to go...i know my rights..... the poor police officer was doing her best not to have to arrest them... the guys had no idea that American laws don't apply outside the US.......
@@stevehilton4052 Yeah, that idiot posted his video of the British police stopping him from leaving saying that he had "owned" them. The millions of replies to his original post and those of reaction posts, including those of many Americans, showed what a conceited ignorant idiot he was. 🤣
We get that in Canada too - the Yanks think we have to follow their constitutional "amendments". Their "2nd amendment" doesn't apply here, but they try to bring in their hand guns and modified long guns, both illegal in Canada. They also think they can "plead the 5th" in our courts - well that's a no. They are also stunned that we don't have to allow Trump into Canada because he's a convicted felon. (A waiver can and likely will be issued in Trump's case.)
And I'm quite sure that, when they finally were arrested (I would have arrested them, just out of spite), they immediately called mommy & daddy to ask what to do. They were paralyzed with a lack of advice, and couldn't retreat to their "Happy Place" or "Safe Spot". Young Americans abroad - Big mouths & attitude, tiny brains. Just like here in the US.
G'day from Down Under. I worked in Kentucky installing a computer system in a large manufactory. For the first 3 months or so I was asked the most crazy questions about how I survive in Australia. I mean, some of the questions would literally short-circuit my brain and I would think, " Wait..... WHAT!!!???". The last 6 months of that contract I ran with it and told the most OUTRAGIOUS stories. The people though were the kindest most generous people I have ever met but seriously, the education system there really needs to take a long hard look at itself.
@@m.m.9684 No, I didn't tell them that particular Furphy, but I did tell them wombats are really about the same size as cows and the pictures they had seen were of baby ones.
I used to work at the National Museum in Edinburgh. We had a roof terrace with a great view of the Castle and a member of staff had to be there whenever it was open. One day a US tourist pointed at the Castle and asked my colleague if that was Stirling Castle. "No, that's Edinburgh Castle, sir". "So where's Stirling Castle then?" "Stirling, sir". 🥴
We recently visited Scotland for the first time, namely Edinburgh. And it is now one of our favourite cities along with York, I wish I had visited sooner! ❤
@@-apocs- you must be cousins to a mountain goat then ;) We just visited for the first time and the entrance to the hotel was on the ground floor with the entrance on the main road about 30 metres above at the 4th floor level! So just to get a bus into the city centre you had to walk up the access road, and if you wanted to get to the nearest restaurant you needed to climb another 100 metres or so, horizontal distance about 200 metres, vertical about 150 metres. York is a much more accessible city and is my favourite of any U.K. city.
@@SometimeWoodworker haha it is extremely... Not even hilly - steppy 🤣 steps literally everywhere. We went up one set and we're so relieved to be getting to the top as we were almost dead only to find more 😭🤣
@@richardkent True, there are always exceptions. And that includes such as Buckingham Palace, not named for where its situated, but named for the guy, who built it, the Duke of Buckingham. Im sure, that would really blow some American minds.
I argued with an American woman on facebook about 5 years ago about then Prince Charles, and said that he was the Prince of Wales. She commented back, you don’t spell Wales like that, it is spelt Whales. I commented back, you do if you are talking about the Country. I told her to Google it and then get back to me. She removed all her comments from the post. 😂
@@CymruEmergencyResponder If you knew anything about the history of your own country and why Wales is often referred to as a 'Principality' rather than a country, then you would know that your comment is you just being silly.
@@Dionysos640 No, my comment is factual. There has been no legitimate holder of the title since our last royal died. Charles, just like William now, is an English royal who used a stolen title that he had no legitimate claim to.
Im a Brit that worked in America. A girl who was failing English came to me and said. 'I don't know why we are learning English, we should be learning American'
My old neighbor was Qantas cabin crew. She told me that on a US to Australia flight the captain announced that they were crossing the international date line, at which point everybody lookef out of the window to try and see it.
ooph where do I start - An American in Australia who couldn't understand that my Kenyan coworker "refused to admit" he was "African American" (My coworker was born in Kenya, grew up in Kenya, had never even visited America) Another one sitting on the beach in Bondi (Sydney) couldn't understand why the sun rose over the ocean because "Australia is west of California" and the sun rises over the land in California" and when told "you could also say we are East of New York" Just. Didn't. Get. It. Two American 19'sh year olds staying in the same backpackers as me in London, one's on the phone to his parents in the US "I can't believe how well everyone speaks English here!" (I think the clue is in the country's name "ENGLAND") the Americans staying at the same guest house as me in Japan (Kyoto) who - 1: came back from the local Christian church complaining that the service was in Japanese and literally said "don't they understand English is the language of God?" 2: the next day FREAKED OUT that the temples here have Swastika symbols, me trying to explain hooked crosses are ancient symbols of good luck and good fortune that predate the NAZI party by well over two millennium one of them just went "WE NUKED THEM FOR THIS SHIT, LOOKS LIKE WE DIDN'T NUKE THEM ENOUGH!" The elderly American in a tour group in Salzburg Austria who asked the young (late teen/early 20's) local tour guide "where is the old iron curtain from here?" when informed that the Iron Curtain was just a metaphor not a real wall and that Austria was neutral and not a member of the Warsaw Pact during the cold war he started shouting at the tour guide that he "Needs to learn his country's real history and not be brain washed by his Commie government" ... I could do this all day edit... one more.... on another trip to Japan another American who insisted Geshia ARE prostitutes and he was going to hire one ... I was like No no they are not, and also you need an introduction from an existing client to book time with a Geshia, and 2 you can't afford it. edit edit... sorry can't leave this one out one of my relatives works as a house master in a very VERY exclusive and expensive boarding school in the UK that has quite a number of American students who are the children of expats working in the London Financial district..... over this time he has had multiple parents not understand, and sometimes get quite upset, that they don't get Independance day off, and the school doesn't do Thanksgiving dinner.
Regarding the 'edit edit' - If they, and their families, are ex-pats, they shouldn't be celebrating EITHER. They gave up that right when they became EX-PATS. Self-important,, elite, rich bastards. Why don't you go home, and use that money, power, and influence you THINK you have towards making this country somewhere you WANT to live in, instead of running away from it.
Some years a retired BBC North America correspondent was interviewed on his return to the UK. In the course of the interview he was asked for a lasting memory. He said he'd spent his last months in the USA visiting schools and colleges giving talks on his experiences working as a BBC correspondent. At the close of his talks he invited questions and at a college somewhere in Texas a senior student had stood up and asked him: "Say, how come you speak such good American?"
There was a show (again, some years back) about an exchange pairing between an English policeman and an American. The English policeman's lasting memory was, as a foreigner, having to take a language assessment to judge how good his English was...
I once had a conversation with an American about the Apollo 11 moon landing and he said " If the other super powers in the world like China , Russia & Britain want to land on the moon they should ask permission from The United States first " He believed that because Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon that the moon belonged to The United States . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I replied " If that were true Nasa should have called the mission The Mayflower 2 " . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
While in a pub in London, while talking to my wife, an American woman loudly proclaimed to all those on her table that my wife was pretending to be Mexican and couldn't actually speak Spanish. My wife is Brazilian and was speaking Portuguese. You could tell who was not an American in the woman's party as the all put their heads in their hands while mumbling "Oh f***ing hell." I trod on my wife's foot to stop her from performing a practical demonstration of a South American woman losing her temper.
@@patrickporter6536 how else would you eat a burger , i made the original comment out of jest because what i have seen , for example some americans i have seen that would eat a meal where you would normally use two hands will cut say a steak with a knife and then put the knife down and transfer their fork to the hand the knife was in to eat that steak , whereas i would use my fork to jab and hold the steak whilst cutting it and then eat the piece that is attached to my fork , so i wouldnt actually put my knife or fork down until i have finished my meal
My first trip to Europe was to Po land. We Americans learned really quickly the proper way to use a knife and fork. People were shocked and stared at the American way. I've been eating that way ever since. But I love in NYC so nobody notices.
It was January in the US. An exchange student Brazilian girl was with some American classmates. Her phone rang and she talked to her mother for a while. Hung up and said: it was my mom, she is on the beach. “So it’s July in Brazil now” commented one of the girls😮
When I was a kid in the 70's. (In Scotland), my Dad worked for an American steel firm who were recruiting people to relocate to Phoenix. The delegation were surprised that we had electricity. A steel company that used arc furnaces! We didn't move to Arizona!
I'm English - visited a friends house in the states - their school age daughter asked how to spell a word and I spelt it the English way by mistake. The mum corrected it to the American spelling and explained we spell some words wrong in the UK - In a friendly joking manner I said, "'ang on a minute, what's my nationality?". The mum replied "English". I replied "And the language is called?... So who spells things wrong?". It was interesting to see the kid really think about it then look genuinely surprised. The mum also. We then had a conversation about the different forms of English in use around the world, with American English just being one of many, and all of them a little different to the English used by the English.
And the lack of ‘u’s in US spelling, colour, neighbour etc., is all due to Merriam Webster, the person that originated the US dictionary, simply decided they were superfluous and so removed them. And that’s why Americans drop the ‘u’s that came into English from Norman French. A great video on this on the ‘Rob Words’ channel
Also during the 1930s a lot of letters were missed but you could understand the meaning when printing presses for newspapers etc used to pay by the letter, therefore you could get more words printed for less money.
I spoke to an American once over the net regarding a job, he was convinced I was Scotish and not English, I'm from Rotherham but I have been to Scotland so maybe a picked a few words up 😅 Having said that, a lot of Scots came down to work in the pits and did bring a lot of words down with them, we call Ginnels, Jennals round here, maybe he wrote right :D, my cousin co-wrote a book called "Haggis and Yorkshire Pudding".
I find switching to reet tyke works well for confounding Americans. I've been told my English is terrible by a couple of Americans so felt it a proper response. "Tha mun be jesting tha maundy berk, get thi'sen gone"
@@katashworth41 It's OK you can't help being born on the wrong side of t'hill, I have friends in Burnley and Blackburn who could certainly confuse Americans with their accents when they want to.
That’s why there is no IQ test or general knowledge test for gun ownership in America, if there was there would be tens of millions unable to get one 😂😂.
I know someone works in the SeaCity museum , Southampton UK. He frequently has American tourists visiting from cruise ships that dock in Southampton. The most common question is, 'Is the actual Titanic on display in the building' He has to point out its on the bottom of the sea.
That's what shocked me so much. Was he thinking of driving on the right? Likeliest answer is: wasn't thinking at all. Let's hope he never visits again, he's dangerous.
I was born in Ireland to Irish parents. My grandparents, great grandparents etc etc were also born in Ireland. It was my parents that left for work opportunities. I’ve had an American question my heritage and being confident that they were more Irish than I was because they had green eyes and mine are blue. Apparently my Irish birth certificate doesn’t qualify.
Half of Irish people have blue eyes because the country was invaded many times. Lol. Plus more people in Scotland have red hair than Irish so that would blow their tiny minds.
@@letitiakearney2423 I know lol. I had dark hair not red though there’s a few in the family with red hair. It would blow their minds to think there’s more red haired people in Scotland! There’s more people with dark hair and blue eyes than red hair and green eyes. That person questioning my heritage was just looking at stereotypes
I was in Oxford Street once doing some shopping (Oxford st is in the heart of London’s west end and a shopping Mecca) when an American family declared loudly on the way into the giant department store Selfridges….stand aside,we are Americans and we don’t have to queue ?! The response from everyone around was to burst into laughter because we thought it must be an ironic joke,but no,the father went straight to security to demand “these people” need to be removed,he was raging. USA,you are NOT the whole world.
Yeah, we get that here in Canada too. We always line up at bus stops, theatres, busy restaurants, etc. If there are rude line cutters, they are usually from south of our border. (But we do get some Americanized Canucks too.)
Too be fair stupidity is not uncommon in other countries. I am from Denmark born and raised 9 generations, a girl once asked me "have you ever seen anything in 3D" maybe she was talking about films, but i have a very high sense of humor so i answered " No i have only seen everything 2D but i hate when people turn their side to me" she looked at me in wonder and her boyfriend tried very much not to laugh out loud 😂 ❤ From Denmark 🇩🇰
@@Shan_Dalamani But unfortunately quite a lot of natural blondes that I know are. Stereotypes of dumb blondes like Kelly Bundy have their basis in reality and there are also a lot of blondes in Denmark so it would be a easy guess.
When visiting Illinois, I had a disagreement with a few Americans in the shop part of a very popular American chain restaurant. It was over the pronunciation of Derbyshire. Eventually one of them said, its spelled the way we pronounce it. I told them, that doesn't matter. I lived there for over 30 years. The all went silent 😂
My favourite American attitude used to be "If you have dollars you can get anything" The rest of the world silently added "and pay ten times the price plus tips", while laughing all the way to the bank.
In an internet chat room- American woman chatting to me. 'How old are you?' Me to her. 'I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.' After a slight pause she asked. 'How old is your tongue?' ALSO. I was told in the same chat room that us Brits only speak English because we learned it from Americans during the war of independence.
JT, do you really have only one year of geography at US high schools? That explains a lot. I had geography from Yr 4 to Yr 10, and then took advanced geography for two more years.
this shocked me too, we had it day one from Primary school all the way up to age 16 and then you could go further with it. Yeh the first year was mostly just learning flags and where things were (so very simple stuff) but you're right. It explains so much, how could you even cover all the geography stuff in one year?
@@Mitchell4892 Well i had geography in highsckool in the Netherlands and my teacher just said if you wanna know where some place is look it up on a map we going to do real Geography here. Odcourse we already had 6 years in elemantairy school learning all that stuff. About countrys and capitals. So we gor socoal geography and earthscience in highschool.
I was bored every minute of every geography lesson I ever had. My final lesson, a few weeks before I left school, the teacher threw me out and said she didn't want me to ever come back to her classroom again. I still know more about geography than most of these Americans...
Very many years ago, a friend of mine was at Avebury Stone Circle (Wiltshire, UK) this is the largest stone circle and henge in the world by the way. He overheard an American Tourist ask the guide "what do you do with the stones in winter". Not sure if they expected English heritage to wrap them up in bubble wrap or move them into the what they had also asked "is that a prehistoric barn". Merry Yule by the way :)
Quess what. English was invented in England. So many from the USA seem not to know that! Why? The clues in the name. The current US version is not a more pure version of 17C English either as claimed by others as all language changes over time. Therefore the language the English (and British generally) speak and write is the right one. The way we spell and pronounce it or whichever dialect we choose to use. Any other version is a variation on the original, including American English. The ‘American’ native language is any of the, naturally, languages of those native to that part of the World, whether Sioux or Cherokee or whatever.
Hearing that about Portuguese being Jewish made me laugh. When I was living in Israel, I had a flatmate who used to tell Americans, in Hebrew, that she only spoke Portuguese! 😂
The issue is that many Americans don't take the initiative to research topics themselves. When presented with new information, they often respond with skepticism, saying 'oh really?' If they took the time to verify facts independently, they would likely discover the truth for themselves, and wouldn't make misinformed claims, such as saying Wales isn't a real place. I've noticed that some Americans struggle to understand time zones. One comment that stood out was someone suggesting that Australia should have been able to warn the US about the 9/11 attacks because they're ahead in time. This shows a clear lack of understanding about how time zones work and the reality of global events unfolding in real-time.
Forks and knives is more typically used in the US Most people in the UK say knives and forks And if you say forks and knives, it just sounds like you’re saying f*ckin’ knives 😂
I know it’s not all Americans but these people give the worst impression. The fact that people think America invented everything it’s like -you realise your country is basically a newborn in terms of most of the world? My high school in Edinburgh was founded 500 years (in the year 1128) before the “United States” colonisation began in early 1600’s. Fun fact the inventor of the phone Alexander Graham Bell went there.
10 years ago my Husband and i were in NY. Whilst walking through time square, some random guy shouted “oh you’re British.. do you know Kelly from Yorkshire?”. I mean come on, Who the F is Kelly and why the hell would i know her? 😂
On a tourist city bus tour in Vienna the different laguage channels are identified by flags of the country that speaks the language. An american was most miffed that there was no US flag for English speakers. I pointed to the Union Jack telling him that's the channeel you pick. He told me but that's for British people. Took a while for him to comprehend he still speaks English.
5.00 you said "In school we have an entire class for an entire year about Geography" Do you mean you only learn Geography for 1 year????? That would explain a lot!!! We had a class every week right up till GCSE's (yr 9) where we could choose to do either History or Geography.
We had at least 2 Geography lessons a week right up to what was then called the 4th form (don't understand these new year numbers) which everybody took. Personally I took both History and Geography in the 5th form for O level and the 6th form for A level but that was obviously my choice to do so.
It does explain a whole lot! Twice weekly from years 7 to 9 as dedicated lessons and we all had geography taught in primary school! Absolutely no wonder they don’t know! I bet their year probably covers most of continental America as its closest and has such little time left for the rest of the world.
I was in USA for 5 weeks in 1987. Had 2 experinces, what I told that i was from Denmark. First one said "Oh Denmark, the capital of Sweden" The other asked how we could get permission from Moscow to leave the country... He thought is was a part of Soviet Union.
@@jamesfahey4508 I would say a lack of a proper democracy with a lack of freedom outways the other two. If the US had a democracy those other problems would disappear.
That German speed limit one hit home. A year or two ago, most roads with a 30mph speed limit in Wales were dropped to 20mph. A lot of young drivers drive cars with "black boxes", which keeps track of how they're doing so that it helps reduce their insurance premiums. One guy got his insurance revoked for constantly speeding ... because the insurance company thought that EVERY road in Wales was 20mph.
I'm English, but grew up in South Africa. Many tears ago, I was on a train from New York to Pittsburgh. A woman asked where I was from & when I told her, she went off on 1 about what "we" were doing to the indigenous people. My response was to ask about what happened to all the indigenous Americans? End of conversation.
On the coloured sheep thing, I was staying with a previous girlfriend's family in Devon and we were planning on going to Plymouth for the day. Her Mum said watch out for the PINK sheep and I was like "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.". Blow me, as we went over Exmoor there were actually pink sheep walking around. It turns out the local base rock is a red sandstone and it turns their wool pink when the sheep lie down to sleep or rest.
Theres a type /species of sheep called a Jacobs that naturally has a multi-coloured fleece, browns, greys, cream & black. Unfortunately the wool is a bit scratchy so not very comfortable.
Sometime, in certain weather conditions, algae can grow on their fleece. You’ve never lived until you’ve seen a green sheep. Admittedly it was only on the back but still…
There is also a thing known as a tupping block that is strapped to the rams chest so you know which ewes he has served. This can run in wet weather and colour the ewes fleece. Also when sheep are medicated, usually in the sprin after lambing, they are spryed with a dye so the farmer known which ones have had their annual meds. This is also water based and can run when the fleece gets wet. A fleece is naurally waterproof, so any water will run off and any dye with it will only colour the outer layer of the fleece. There are many pink (and blue) sheep around here on a wet spring day.
I worked with a lovely American teacher here in the UK about 30 years ago, she was dumbfounded that UK kids have different interests to USA kids. They had no idea what the NFL was, and baseball isn't really a big thing either (even though Jane Austen mentioned baseball once). I think America is a bit insular and assumes that what people like in the USA is universally embraced over our own cultures.
Baseball originated in England, originally in Oxfordshire, where it was called Rounders. My Cotswold family where keen players. I used to play it in my Essex primary school and my Welsh grammar school.
Ha ha. A bit insular. Ha ha. So very insular and also insulated against any knowledge of what happens in other countries. Having world series of sports that basically only Americans play. But as the largest English speaking population and producer of TV programming it's not so surprising that they only see America on the idiot box. And also so few Americans actually travel overseas or even have passports.
Oh and it’s not just Americans. British people can be petty thick as well. I work in IT and I had a user call for a password reset. Was providing them their new password and was like capital such and such then the number 2 and they replied is that a capital 2 😂😂😂
I'm German. One of my classmates was on a student exchange program in the US. They picked him up at the airport and began smalltalk on the way to their home, asking him if we had cars in Germany. The car they were driving in was a BMW.
I’m from Watford, England and was lucky enough to be in Time Square for New Years Eve 2003. I got asked (In quick succession) by a group of Americans who heard my London accent “Are you Australian? Do you know the Queen?” I wish to this day I’d said yes…😂
An entire class for 1 year about geography?!??!?!?! Man, we do geography for 8 years here in Europe, first local, then national, continental and later world geography. Same with History.
HHHAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA 😂😂😂😂 Excellent reaction!!! The vegan diet lions moment of silence was just perfect!! Stupidity is global though, here in Wales I had dropped my car off for a repair and had to use the bus to get home, 2 Indian looking people were talking to each other in a language one of the passengers couldn't understand and he shouted "we're in Wales, speak English", the vast majority of passengers turned to him in anger as they were speaking Welsh! Awesome reaction, keep it up!
Even though I understand the hilarity, I‘ve really. Been. Annoyed! With Indians, Pakistani or Bangladeshi talking /screaming into their cell phone on public transport. In Germany, that‘s so rude, I halfway expected the bus driver to dump their asses. As a school student this happened when kids acted thisway…ie. Loud and disrespectful
Once in North Carolina, I was asked what language we speak in England, and another time in Oklahoma I was asked “How come your English is so good?”. I replied “Because I’m English”. He looked puzzled and said “You guys don’t speak Dutch over there?”
In Germany, only certain sections of Autobahn have the famous "no speed limit". The rest of roads have strict limits and regulations, which are strongly enforced by the Polizei ( German Police).
Yup i know i have more tickets for speeding from germany then i have from the Netherlands. Its such a pain those 100KM back roads with 70 km intersections.
@@iainhughes8110 I only had 3 and i had to pay a totale sum of 90 Euro's its just that i only had 2 tickets for speeding ever in the Netherlands. One when i forgot that during rush hour the speedlimit was lowered with 20kmph and one during covid when nobody was on a road that normally is so busy you can't speed if you wanted to. So its not i'm a speed monster. 5 tickets in 34 years of driving of wich 4 where less then 10 kmph to fast and one i was driving under the speed limit i thought was there because i kbnow there is a camera there. It's just bloody annoying that the speed differences are so high on the crossroads in germany. If you drive a bit more slowly you have lots of cars stuck behind you. Also one of them was on an intersection that i could literly see over a mile in every direction and i was the only car on the road at that moment. again it was during covid.
Well said. You do realise now you've said that you're going to get hoards of trump supporters campaigning against you............Oh bugger!!! That probably goes for me as well now!!! Hey ho!!!
As an Aussie I couldn't agree more. Maybe they all donkey voted because that is what they got. Now I will be in trouble with RSPCA for denigrating donkeys.
No arguing with that. What amazes me is that his supporters seem to have no idea how disordered his language is. I don't get it. The man doesn't make a lick of sense and nobody seems to notice. When Trump was elected the first time around most of the sign language interpreters in NYC told their agencies No. Way. In. Hell.
I was on a Tour of France on a Bus. We visited a 14th Century Castle & when we got back on the Bus an American Woman was complaining about how the Castle was fake. It was built to fool American Tourists. as the Trench didn't have the technology to build it back then. Only Americans had the technology to do that. Her poor husband sunk down into the seat wishing to disappear.
A few years ago in Scotland I was drinking in the bar of our Local Hotel. An American came in and asked the Waiter if they had any Haggis, he said No. He was not happy and said he thought he could eat a Haggis as they are Scottish. I turned round and said, 'That's because we can only go Haggis shooting twice a year'. He believed me, the Waiter smiled as he walked away.
@@petegarnett7731 They didn't, I wasn't aware they were that dangerous, in the comics they never depicted that side of them, but I guess that might have ended tourism to Scotland if the truth had got out and tourists had been attacked while walking. I'm going up on the 29th for a week, so I'll be avoiding the mountains just in case it's breeding season and they're a bit territorial
Only certain sections of the German autobahn have no limit (there is a specific sign) The rest will have a limit (often 120kph which is about 75mph) and some of it has variable limits so the limit is whatever the electronic sign is saying at that moment in time... If it's a red circle it's a limit. If it's in a blue square it's advisory
The best ive heard from an American was. Adolf Hitler was Australian. He was thinking Austrian. Or Australia isnt an island. Or Australia is so small because of our small population. He couldn't accept Australia is as big as the southern 48 states.
had a friend who lived next to a beach, there was a public toilet (clearly signed) just up the road from them, in summer tourists would just walk into friend's house either asking if it was the public restroom or just assuming it was. to get to their bathroom you had to go past their kitchen and up a set of stairs. they had to make a sign for their front door directing people, TO THE OBVIOUS PUBLIC RESTROOM!
Perhaps the clearly signed notice should have pointed the tourists to the Public Bathroom. Another US oddity, a bathroom where there is no bath . Wonder what they do when confronted with a lavatory and a bidet? .
My late Mother was in a meeting to be told 4/5 of them would be going to France for a work project. An American woman, who had a young child, asked if they had cows there so she could get milk for her baby?? Mum said the silence was deafening and the lady never went to France.
A few years ago I was reading some comments on a Handmaid's Tale review channel, and after the episode aired when one character escaped to Canada with another character's baby, there was a flurry of panicked comments of "Why did she take that baby? She doesn't have any milk, that baby's gonna starve! DO THEY EVEN HAVE BABY FORMULA IN CANADA????"
On a visit to the catacombs in Italy there was a group of very loud Americans. The guide paused and asked us all if we had any questions. One american woman asked if the catacombs were dug from the bottom up or the top down 🤦♀️
I was once at a Hogmanay party in Edinburgh at my m8's student halls where I met some Americans. It wasn't a dumb thing that they said really, but I was hitting them with all the dumb nonsense tales that we tell tourists for a laugh and they were rapt listening to me. That Unicorns were real but only us Scots can see them, that Nessie is a 70 million year old extremely shy dinosaur called an Awshitehesaurus (work it out 😜) and the classic tale of the Haggis. That is that Haggi, the plural, live on the high Scottish hillsides and have two short legs on one side and two longer legs on the other so they can run around the hillsides safely but only in one direction and that to catch them we have to climb the hills and set up big nets and then frighten the Haggi and chase them from in front of them to force them to turn around, lose their balance and fall down the hill into the nets!!!! THEY BELIEVED EVERY DAMN WORD! One of them even said she couldn't wait until she next went home to tell all her friends and family this! NOBODY corrected me either and I have often wondered if there is a town somewhere in the US where everyone now believes that because of her, and me! 🤣🏴🤣🏴🤣
I was visiting San Diego, checking into my pre-booked accommodation and the guy refused to believe people surfed in the UK. I replied my boss from work surfs every single morning before work in North Devon!
An American(in Ireland) asked where im from, so i answered that im irish, born and raised, so the person then asked if i ever visited Ireland(again, while in Ireland), it was extremely difficult not to laugh my ass off, so i did, while asking the dumbass what country he was in
Says hold on that's sounds terrible when he said fingering, so changes the word to fisting. Hate to tell you but not sure that wording is any better 😂😂😂
I was in the US, having dinner with an American business contact. The conversation got around to the international dateline, and losing or gaining a day when you crossed it. His wife was there, and she said how wonderful it must be to go there and see two suns in the sky at the same time! I didn't know whether to die of laughter or embarrassment!
I was born and live in the Midlands, UK, so I suppose I speak with what sounds like a Brummie accent. I've lost count of how many times I've been asked if I'm from Australia when visiting America. This confusion doesn't seem to be limited to one region; it has happened in places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York. I guess they expect me to sound like the Queen (did), with a more refined accent if I was from the UK.
Whilst working in Egypt I was lucky enough to visit the Pyramids at Giza and, was able to go into the great pyramid of Khufu to see the Kings Burial chamber and the massive granite sarcophagus. There is only one way in or out and it's very difficult, one of the problems being it is extremely hot and no ventilation (It's 4000 years old). On our way in, we had to squeeze past a group of Americans who were on their way out. One of them heard complaining about the heat, saying, (and I quote) "WOULDN'T YOU THINK THEY'D PUT IN GODAM AIR CONDITIONING?" It's a 4000 years old ancient monument, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And he want to know why there's no Air Conditioning ! STUPID or just plain bloody THICK?
When the skeletal remains of Richard III were discovered in Leicester by archaeologists, I remember hearing an American reporter asking one of them why Richard had been buried in a car park. Of course car parks were everywhere in the 1480s. 😬😬😬😳😳😳🤣🤣🤣🤣
An American tourist once said to me that Americans were the first to speak English and I corrected her politely and said… the English language has been spoken as a language since the 6th century in Britain. It was the British who brought the English language to America and American English is just an alternative variant version of the English language.
I was in a shop once and an American couple appeared from the back room behind the counter looking confused. They were tourists who had found themselves on a street with a dead end. Instead of turning around and going back they had just gone through a random door instead 🤣.
All I can say is since I started communicating with Americans over the internet, my English skills have been depleting. 😂 I am litterely getting dumber by talking to them.. 😭 no wonder the UK gave America back and pretended America won their independence, we got out whilst we still could. 😂
I used to work at the Amsterdam tourist office. I explained an American how to get to a museum by bus. I told them they could buy the ticket from the driver. They asked me in which part of the bus they could find the driver. I told them dutch busdrivers usually sit in the front of the bus, so they can see where they are going. 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
@mikespike007 yes just spread the laughter to everybody on the bus and see who is the one that's going to ask from witch American state he is from because they al know he is American.
Apposed to the american ones. They stay home. Saw an expat once in Amsterdam do that. So weird 🤣😜
On my return visit from Kansas to Manchester, l was obliged to transit through Atlanta. The flight was delayed because of a rain storm, and l missed my connecting flight. The lady at the booking desk rebooked me and handed me a ticket for Paris. When l poimted out Paris was in France not England, she retorted by saying she had checked the map and it was in Europe and quite near London. I pointed out l was going to Manchester, she insisted that Manchester was "part of London"
How she was able to work for an airport without a fundamental understanding of geography is beyond me.
Answer...she was American..
Wait, I'm combining threads...
Wha-?
She probably never cared beyond domestic flights. :/
hmm just take the train from paris its right nect to london and evrybody know everythinh in the UK is close to london. Damm did you get another booking if not be glad you didn't live in derry.
@arturobianco848 l insisted on an onward ticket from Paris to Manchester and arrived home half a day later than originally scheduled.
@@bernarddagnall8682 thats fair enough damm did she really think Paris would cut it.
While on holiday in Italy we did a tour of Pompeii. The tour guide explained how the residents of Pompeii were killed by volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in AD79, at which point an American woman on the tour stated she didn't believe the guide because she "didn't recall Vesuvius erupting in '79". I just couldn't stop laughing 🤣
Yep. We’re the fucking dumbest nation on the planet.
Oh my word. On another note, I had the privilege of visiting the Pompeii archaeological site this past May. I’d been intrigues ever since being gifted a nook on it when I was 19. I’m 64 now. 😊
When I went on a tour at Pearl Harbour, the guide explained how there were still oil drums or something in the harbour, but that no one could bring them up “back then” because “no one could dive in the 40s” and I was like…..they could dive waaay before 1940, what?? there were suits in something like 1860s….All the Americans just nodded and carried on. Like….how could none of them know?
I was on a dinner date with my partner at a restaurant in England and had some American tourists at the next table. The wife? ordered steak and when the waiter ask how she’d like it served, she replied “large” 😂😂😂😂
I was at Herculaneum, American man loudly complained there were no English tour books, whilst standing in front of a pile with the English flag on it.
Little souvenir shop by the Eiffel Tower. American couple (couldn't miss the accent) asking the shop keeper a question. He didn't understand English. Typical American tourist thinking if I yell louder he might suddenly understand. Wouldn't even try a few words of French. They got frustrated and left. The shop keeper asked in French if I needed help. I told him in my very basic French ' I don't speak French. Do you speak English'. He opened his mouth and spoke to me in flawless English. I've seen this scenario many times.
Yup thats the french for you but depending how long ago this was a lot french really don't know or suck at englisch a couple of decades ago. Now i suck at French but i can order a drink ar room ar ask directions in french but thats about it.
I've said this before but I'll say it again.........
The standard of education in the USA is abysmal.
There's additional peril these days, a lot of Europeans aren't too keen on the English these days, I often pretend to be Scottish especially in France. Having said that out of basic courtesy I make a point of learning basic phrases for every country I visit especially as I tour solo on a motorbike and am often in rural areas where tourists and English speakers aren't common.
In France, always enter a store or restaurant with both “bonjour-hello.” I speak a little French as we study it in school here in Canada and I can get through a simple conversation. But the “hello” part signals that I speak English. Every single time the person I say it to speaks better English than I do French. I do speak as much French as possible as I want to learn more and French speakers are tolerant, and mostly kind.
I've heard it said by a few people that if you attempt to speak French, then they will be more forgiving, as in their eyes you've at least tried. Which is fair enough in my opinion.
I live in North Wales and a friend of mine is a tour guide. 1 time an American asked why we built Conwy Castle so close to the railway. They would not believe that the castle is WAAAYYYYY older than the railway!
Yeahhh…I can believe that!
Also have a friend who’s works in that industry (I also live in NW 👋) who had a tourist ask how long since the dragons went extinct 🫣
😂😂😂😂
@@Trundlebuggthe dragon still roars 🏴😉
@@Trundlebugg I'd possibly have said dragons are still live n kicking so best watch what they say 🤫🤣
@@robertroberts8648 but only the red dragon
My sister (English) was on a Mediterranean cruise that stopped for the day in Barcelona. That night at dinner she over heard 4 Americans discussing that they couldn't believe how much Mexican they'd heard during the day! 😂
Or American, if they had heard your sister 😂
They clearly haven‘t paid enough attention in SPANISH class!
An American I worked with spoke Spanish and was horrified to actually visit Spain and find that people made fun of the way he spoke 'their language' as it very bad.
Funny thing, in Barcelona it's likely a significant proportion of that "mexican" was actually Catalan.
As opposed to Mediterranean
We (Australians) were on the Champs Elysees looking for something to eat. We found a suitable place and waited to be served behind two Americans. Before the concierge could ask, one said “Table for two” loudly and with an arrogant tone. The concierge replied “No!” and waved them off. We could see there was a few spare tables, so I asked “Une table pour deux s'il vous plaît” in very poor French. Her reply startled us. “Oh, Australien! Come in, come in.”
Sam reaction when people find out we are Canadian.
Only got to spend a few days in France about 13 years ago, visiting the Somme etc. Had much the same reaction - being Australian made things much easier given my rudimentary schoolboy French....
I'm honestly surprised that virtually anybody in France could spot an Aussie.
Did you carry a jar of Vegemite? 😁
@@enematwatson1357A lot of Australian tourists go to France. The first day I arrived in the UK in 1986 a French farmer heard my accent and starting yelling at me about Australia's agricultural policy. 😊
I’m a Volunteer Tour Guide in York. Here’s a couple of my favourites:- “Why did we chose an American name for our City”? “What came first Roman or Medieval”?
Don't let them go to Boston!
@rainerzufall42 I've heard an American (who insisted he was Irish) tell a genuine Irish person that Baltimore in County Cork was named after the US city. Baltimore in Ireland has existed at least since the 13th century. It ended up with the genuine Irish person calling the American a Plastic Paddy who knew nothing about Ireland, but with more swearing.
@HJJSL-bl8kk LOL at plastic paddy! Now try explaining that a shamrock only has three leaves!
Similar experience with Americans at a B&B in York. This occurred during the breakfast service. One American couple was telling another American couple about their recent visit to Whitby and what they saw. The first couple said they had seen the Captain Cook statue. The bloke from the second couple then responded “Oh, Captain Cook, that’s Thomas Cook”. As an Aussie, it took all my self control to not blurt “not effing Thomas Cook, it’s James Cook”….. Bloody hell!!!! Grüße aus Australien. Tschüss.
@@peterfromgw4615 LOL
I’m British and live in Wales. I worked a summer at a wilderness camp in Missouri and upon hearing my accent a kid asked if I was from London. I said no, I live in Wales but I am originally from England. He said, ‘oh England, I’ve heard of that. Is that in LONDON?’ 😂
lies! everyone knows wales doesn't exist.
That’s Finland…. Dragons come from Wales so clearly it has to exist.
But France is the capital of Berlin.
@ exactly 😂
He’s only a child 🫣🫣🫣he can be forgiven I think
I had an American tourist tell me my English was poor (Yorkshire accent) so naturally I dialed the dialect up to full on Tyke, the real fun came when my then girlfriend from Dudley addressed her in exaggerated Black Country.
Champion!
@@mojobag01 You can imagine the conversation after we explained it was a Black Country accent. Apparently as well as having poor English we are also racist.
I've done similar. Back when I worked in a hotel an American guest *told* me I had to tone down my accent because he couldn't understand me very well (despite me speaking very clearly in my best 'phone voice'), so as an F.U. I switched to speaking the broadest Scots dialect I could muster and spoke to him as I would my elderly rural grandparents.
The sheer arrogance and entitlement of some of these clowns is astounding.
@@Safetysealed Love to have been there not sure if i still can understand you now but i used to be pretty good with understanding scottisch accents.
As a born and bred Black Country native, now living in Yorkshire... I almost feel sorry for the tourist - NOT!
I've got another sad thing for you: while all of these short stories were new pieces of information to me, none of them was shocking or surprising. Back in 1989 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, wild Poland was still a part of the Warsaw Pact (which you used to call the Communist Block), my friend got on a prestigious post-doctoral grant to the UCLA. A professor asked him if it was difficult for him to write his dissertation in Russian (naturally, he wrote it in Polish; well he then translated it himself into English, German, Russian, French, and Vietnamese to send to universities in all of those countries to see which one would take him on the grant; he was an exceptional person I have to admit, a truly stable genius if I ever knew one). He came back from the USA with this comment: people over there are amazing professionals in their fields, truly impressive, helpful, and inquisitive; but when conversation goes out of the field of specialty, you tend to lose faith in humanity and American educational system.
Here in the U.S. they're often called 'bubble people '. They might be very smart and well educated. However their lives are extremely routinized. Their world consists of home, family, friends, and work. That's their 'bubble' If they have to deal with any thing outside their bubble, their IQ drops by 25 points.
Yep. Overall, the average IQ in the US does not compare all that favourably with global standards ... but add the appallingly bad educational standards, and the extremely parochial point of view ... and this is exactly what you get.
Bad politicians like their people dumb.
Poland is maybe not that wild?
I'm a New Zealander, I've had to explain that we are not all maori, that we do wear clothes and live in houses, that we have summer when you have winter so beach BBQ for Christmas is a real thing. I've also had to explain how we are a day ahead of you and are the first to see the sun on new year. Also, we speak English (mostly) because a lot of our ancestors came from English speaking countries. I'm a kiwi born and bred, I'm not Irish just because my ancestors left Ireland for the colonies.
Americans are so self obsessed a lot of them don't even know about other countries.
I have started calling "white" Americans "European-American" since they are obsessed with calling black people "African-American".
They are self obsessed, but I find that true of Aussies and Kiwis too. Your own post reeks of "I'm a kiwi and I'm going to ram my country down your throat". Not as bad as Aussies, I'll grant you, but it's still very annoying.
Americans don't care about other countries because they think the U.S. is the be all and end all of the world. Their arrogance and ignorance is astounding!
As a motorcycle courier back in the 80`s , I was standing beneath the porch of the London Palladium ( theatre ) one time and I was asked by an American family for directions to ( you guessed it ) the London Palladium . I had the devil in me that day so I turned him around , pointed to a road opposite and told them to walk along it , take the first right , walk along that road and take the first right and at the end of the road it will be directly in front of them , they thanked me and wandered off . Some 10 mins later I watched them cross the road ( having followed my directions ) . They actually recognised me and thanked me for the directions and remarked on my getting here before them . I simply pointed at my motorcycle ,and they went into the theatre STILL none the wiser . It should be noted that the Palladium has a bright red neon sign about 15 or 20 feet high directly above the porch .
To be fair, I was once in York and a Dutch tourist asked me the way to York Minster. "You see that wall you're leaning on?" "Yes" "You are leaning on York Minster".
I was on the Constitution Hill crosswalk at Buckingham Palace when an Asian tourist asked me where the Palace was.
I couldn’t resist, I turned her around , spread my arms and said “THERE!”
Absolutely true story.
@@briantodd3190 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😉😉😉😉😉😉😉
12:17 Not only do we have knives and forks in England. We also know how to use them unlike 99% of Americans 🤣
At the same time too! haha
We also have spoons!
Yes but watching an Englishman eating corn on the cob is quite amusing.
@@dbolt6543 yes but standard response.
@@dbolt6543to be fair most Brits will pick up the corn and eat it that way. However I always eat it with a knife and fork,my friend finds it hilarious. I say do your own thing 😂
As a (formerly Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe) student, my mom and I did the 3 month tour of Europe. We were in Italy and took a day tour of the underground catacombs in Rome. We had to walk two abreast in a narrow corridor and there was an American couple walking in front of us - she definitly was not his wife. About 20 minutes into the tour, she turns to her "companion" and in a loud voice says "But Harry, how did they get them bulldozers down here? ".
My mother and I just collapsed with laughter.
There's a lot of Americans who don't realise English is a foreign language, in America.
Americans realising their national lauguage is foreign.
That's ok, fourty percent of Americans don't want Arabic numbers used in schools. Not a joke. It was a real survey.
@@pary327 hate to tell you this but the USA has no official language.
@@raybenstead2548 erm OK. I guess you are trying to nit pick here somewhere. Saying the USA has a national language still stands. If English is the dominant language and laws are written in English then it is good enough to say the national languages English.
@@pary327 no, national language is by law, they have the widest spoken language, which is English - not the same.
Also, in Europe, long before the U.S. existed, a lot of countries had their laws written in Latin, but spoke their local language, even if by law Latin was official. Just because some document is written in some language doesn't automatically makes it by law. This is why every country has: "The national language of our country is: X" in their code of law, usu. constitution - the U.S. constitution doesn't have that, so, by law, there is no obligation for anyone to speak English in the U.S., it's by custom only. In fact, this means that any citizen could ask and should receive all required documents in their native language.
Earlier this year (2024) my Brother was in Lincoln, the County Town of Lincolnshire in England, UK.
In one of the pubs he got talking to an older American couple. They commented that it was really nice of us Brits to name somewhere after one of their greatest Presidents. 🙄
I, a German guy, was in Ireland with a friend. We were in a pub and had a conversation in German. Then an American, sitting at the next table, asked if we were from here or if we were from Dublin. He really thought we spoke Irish. When we told him that we are from Germany, he responded: "Wow! I'm German too: My great-grandmother came from Germany."
PS: Sorry for my bad English, I rarely practice this language. In Germany we say: "My English is not the yellow of the egg".
There's a video of a young American woman who was very upset with the English for not celebrating the 4th of July like the rest of the world..... she made it worse when she didn't understand the question you do know your in England right?......
And the very embarrassing video of two young American men who were asked by the police to stay where they were by a police officer who was investigating a possible crime ( they could have been the perpetrators or witnesses) the guy kept on quoting American law and saying how he knew the law and his rights...." Are you detaining me"? " Are you arresting me"? If not I'm free to go...i know my rights..... the poor police officer was doing her best not to have to arrest them... the guys had no idea that American laws don't apply outside the US.......
@@stevehilton4052
Yeah, that idiot posted his video of the British police stopping him from leaving saying that he had "owned" them.
The millions of replies to his original post and those of reaction posts, including those of many Americans, showed what a conceited ignorant idiot he was. 🤣
We get that in Canada too - the Yanks think we have to follow their constitutional "amendments". Their "2nd amendment" doesn't apply here, but they try to bring in their hand guns and modified long guns, both illegal in Canada. They also think they can "plead the 5th" in our courts - well that's a no. They are also stunned that we don't have to allow Trump into Canada because he's a convicted felon. (A waiver can and likely will be issued in Trump's case.)
They "know" the world is subjected to America. That they are the "superior race!"
And I'm quite sure that, when they finally were arrested (I would have arrested them, just out of spite), they immediately called mommy & daddy to ask what to do. They were paralyzed with a lack of advice, and couldn't retreat to their "Happy Place" or "Safe Spot". Young Americans abroad - Big mouths & attitude, tiny brains. Just like here in the US.
G'day from Down Under. I worked in Kentucky installing a computer system in a large manufactory. For the first 3 months or so I was asked the most crazy questions about how I survive in Australia. I mean, some of the questions would literally short-circuit my brain and I would think, " Wait..... WHAT!!!???". The last 6 months of that contract I ran with it and told the most OUTRAGIOUS stories.
The people though were the kindest most generous people I have ever met but seriously, the education system there really needs to take a long hard look at itself.
Did anybody ask you how you manage not to fall off/stay on the ground? After all, Australia is on the underside/down under😅😅😅
@@Muchoyo That was one question I wasn't asked. I think gravity must have been covered at school sometime. 😁😁😁😁😁
Did you tell them you rode Kangaroo's to school? That's one of my favourites. Best wishes.
@@m.m.9684 No, I didn't tell them that particular Furphy, but I did tell them wombats are really about the same size as cows and the pictures they had seen were of baby ones.
I used to work at the National Museum in Edinburgh. We had a roof terrace with a great view of the Castle and a member of staff had to be there whenever it was open. One day a US tourist pointed at the Castle and asked my colleague if that was Stirling Castle. "No, that's Edinburgh Castle, sir". "So where's Stirling Castle then?" "Stirling, sir". 🥴
We recently visited Scotland for the first time, namely Edinburgh. And it is now one of our favourite cities along with York, I wish I had visited sooner! ❤
To be fair, Leeds Castle isn't in Leeds and Buckingham Palace isn't in Buckingham.
@@-apocs- you must be cousins to a mountain goat then ;) We just visited for the first time and the entrance to the hotel was on the ground floor with the entrance on the main road about 30 metres above at the 4th floor level! So just to get a bus into the city centre you had to walk up the access road, and if you wanted to get to the nearest restaurant you needed to climb another 100 metres or so, horizontal distance about 200 metres, vertical about 150 metres. York is a much more accessible city and is my favourite of any U.K. city.
@@SometimeWoodworker haha it is extremely... Not even hilly - steppy 🤣 steps literally everywhere. We went up one set and we're so relieved to be getting to the top as we were almost dead only to find more 😭🤣
@@richardkent True, there are always exceptions. And that includes such as Buckingham Palace, not named for where its situated, but named for the guy, who built it, the Duke of Buckingham.
Im sure, that would really blow some American minds.
Not only do we have knives and forks in England but we also know how to use them properly!
Oh wow! That is brilliant 👏
Really!!! I don't believe you, that sounds so civilised.
You obviously haven't been to Norfolk
@17Blower is that why it's called nofork and over time it's changed spelling 😉
@@kujouk Brilliant
I argued with an American woman on facebook about 5 years ago about then Prince Charles, and said that he was the Prince of Wales.
She commented back, you don’t spell Wales like that, it is spelt Whales.
I commented back, you do if you are talking about the Country.
I told her to Google it and then get back to me.
She removed all her comments from the post. 😂
He has never been a Prince of Wales. Our last royal died in 1415.
@@CymruEmergencyResponder If you knew anything about the history of your own country and why Wales is often referred to as a 'Principality' rather than a country, then you would know that your comment is you just being silly.
@@Dionysos640 No, my comment is factual. There has been no legitimate holder of the title since our last royal died. Charles, just like William now, is an English royal who used a stolen title that he had no legitimate claim to.
@@CymruEmergencyResponder Well, there are facts and then there are (in this case, your) opinions
@ what I have said is fact. It is our history, as documented.
Im a Brit that worked in America.
A girl who was failing English came to me and said.
'I don't know why we are learning English, we should be learning American'
😂
My old neighbor was Qantas cabin crew. She told me that on a US to Australia flight the captain announced that they were crossing the international date line, at which point everybody lookef out of the window to try and see it.
ooph where do I start -
An American in Australia who couldn't understand that my Kenyan coworker "refused to admit" he was "African American" (My coworker was born in Kenya, grew up in Kenya, had never even visited America)
Another one sitting on the beach in Bondi (Sydney) couldn't understand why the sun rose over the ocean because "Australia is west of California" and the sun rises over the land in California" and when told "you could also say we are East of New York" Just. Didn't. Get. It.
Two American 19'sh year olds staying in the same backpackers as me in London, one's on the phone to his parents in the US "I can't believe how well everyone speaks English here!" (I think the clue is in the country's name "ENGLAND")
the Americans staying at the same guest house as me in Japan (Kyoto) who -
1: came back from the local Christian church complaining that the service was in Japanese and literally said "don't they understand English is the language of God?"
2: the next day FREAKED OUT that the temples here have Swastika symbols, me trying to explain hooked crosses are ancient symbols of good luck and good fortune that predate the NAZI party by well over two millennium one of them just went "WE NUKED THEM FOR THIS SHIT, LOOKS LIKE WE DIDN'T NUKE THEM ENOUGH!"
The elderly American in a tour group in Salzburg Austria who asked the young (late teen/early 20's) local tour guide "where is the old iron curtain from here?" when informed that the Iron Curtain was just a metaphor not a real wall and that Austria was neutral and not a member of the Warsaw Pact during the cold war he started shouting at the tour guide that he "Needs to learn his country's real history and not be brain washed by his Commie government"
... I could do this all day
edit... one more.... on another trip to Japan another American who insisted Geshia ARE prostitutes and he was going to hire one ... I was like No no they are not, and also you need an introduction from an existing client to book time with a Geshia, and 2 you can't afford it.
edit edit... sorry can't leave this one out one of my relatives works as a house master in a very VERY exclusive and expensive boarding school in the UK that has quite a number of American students who are the children of expats working in the London Financial district..... over this time he has had multiple parents not understand, and sometimes get quite upset, that they don't get Independance day off, and the school doesn't do Thanksgiving dinner.
Regarding the 'edit edit' - If they, and their families, are ex-pats, they shouldn't be celebrating EITHER. They gave up that right when they became EX-PATS. Self-important,, elite, rich bastards. Why don't you go home, and use that money, power, and influence you THINK you have towards making this country somewhere you WANT to live in, instead of running away from it.
Some years a retired BBC North America correspondent was interviewed on his return to the UK. In the course of the interview he was asked for a lasting memory.
He said he'd spent his last months in the USA visiting schools and colleges giving talks on his experiences working as a BBC correspondent.
At the close of his talks he invited questions and at a college somewhere in Texas a senior student had stood up and asked him: "Say, how come you speak such good American?"
There was a show (again, some years back) about an exchange pairing between an English policeman and an American. The English policeman's lasting memory was, as a foreigner, having to take a language assessment to judge how good his English was...
@@sarumano884I remember that!😂 He aced it!
I once had a conversation with an American about the Apollo 11 moon landing and he said " If the other super powers in the world like China , Russia & Britain want to land on the moon they should ask permission from The United States first " He believed that because Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon that the moon belonged to The United States . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I replied " If that were true Nasa should have called the mission The Mayflower 2 " . 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
While in a pub in London, while talking to my wife, an American woman loudly proclaimed to all those on her table that my wife was pretending to be Mexican and couldn't actually speak Spanish. My wife is Brazilian and was speaking Portuguese. You could tell who was not an American in the woman's party as the all put their heads in their hands while mumbling "Oh f***ing hell."
I trod on my wife's foot to stop her from performing a practical demonstration of a South American woman losing her temper.
🤣
Should've let her go. Then again, being arrested for assault in a foreign country usually doesn't go over well...
not only do we have knives and forks in the uk but we also know how to use them both at the same time lol
🔥😆 I did think that about their seemingly non-use of knives while eating, tbf
Whoo good one 😁
If your meals consist of shoving a hamburger into your face with your hands you probably don't get much practice.
@@patrickporter6536 how else would you eat a burger , i made the original comment out of jest because what i have seen , for example some americans i have seen that would eat a meal where you would normally use two hands will cut say a steak with a knife and then put the knife down and transfer their fork to the hand the knife was in to eat that steak , whereas i would use my fork to jab and hold the steak whilst cutting it and then eat the piece that is attached to my fork , so i wouldnt actually put my knife or fork down until i have finished my meal
My first trip to Europe was to Po land. We Americans learned really quickly the proper way to use a knife and fork. People were shocked and stared at the American way. I've been eating that way ever since. But I love in NYC so nobody notices.
It was January in the US. An exchange student Brazilian girl was with some American classmates. Her phone rang and she talked to her mother for a while. Hung up and said: it was my mom, she is on the beach. “So it’s July in Brazil now” commented one of the girls😮
When I was a kid in the 70's. (In Scotland), my Dad worked for an American steel firm who were recruiting people to relocate to Phoenix. The delegation were surprised that we had electricity. A steel company that used arc furnaces! We didn't move to Arizona!
I'm English - visited a friends house in the states - their school age daughter asked how to spell a word and I spelt it the English way by mistake. The mum corrected it to the American spelling and explained we spell some words wrong in the UK - In a friendly joking manner I said, "'ang on a minute, what's my nationality?". The mum replied "English". I replied "And the language is called?... So who spells things wrong?". It was interesting to see the kid really think about it then look genuinely surprised. The mum also. We then had a conversation about the different forms of English in use around the world, with American English just being one of many, and all of them a little different to the English used by the English.
I once had a woman (who claimed to be a teacher in the US) tell me that English is a language and not a nationality. These people walk amongst us.
Americans speak English (simplified)
And the lack of ‘u’s in US spelling, colour, neighbour etc., is all due to Merriam Webster, the person that originated the US dictionary, simply decided they were superfluous and so removed them. And that’s why Americans drop the ‘u’s that came into English from Norman French. A great video on this on the ‘Rob Words’ channel
Also during the 1930s a lot of letters were missed but you could understand the meaning when printing presses for newspapers etc used to pay by the letter, therefore you could get more words printed for less money.
An American tourist told me. “Speak English, we’re in America” which is arsey anyway. We were in London, and I just have a Northern accent.
I spoke to an American once over the net regarding a job, he was convinced I was Scotish and not English, I'm from Rotherham but I have been to Scotland so maybe a picked a few words up 😅
Having said that, a lot of Scots came down to work in the pits and did bring a lot of words down with them, we call Ginnels, Jennals round here, maybe he wrote right :D, my cousin co-wrote a book called "Haggis and Yorkshire Pudding".
I find switching to reet tyke works well for confounding Americans. I've been told my English is terrible by a couple of Americans so felt it a proper response. "Tha mun be jesting tha maundy berk, get thi'sen gone"
@ As a Lancastrian that would be a traitorous act, but I do go very broad to confuse.
@@katashworth41 It's OK you can't help being born on the wrong side of t'hill, I have friends in Burnley and Blackburn who could certainly confuse Americans with their accents when they want to.
That’s why there is no IQ test or general knowledge test for gun ownership in America, if there was there would be tens of millions unable to get one 😂😂.
if they fed the lions on vegans then technically that would be a vegan diet
😂
Surely it would be better if the Americans would be advised that the big kitty likes being stroked
I knew a butcher who claimed all his meat was vegetarian.
@ true? 🇨🇦
😂
I know someone works in the SeaCity museum , Southampton UK. He frequently has American tourists visiting from cruise ships that dock in Southampton. The most common question is, 'Is the actual Titanic on display in the building' He has to point out its on the bottom of the sea.
The “right turn on red” guy wasn’t even taking into account that turning right on red in the UK takes you ACROSS the oncoming traffic!
That's what shocked me so much. Was he thinking of driving on the right? Likeliest answer is: wasn't thinking at all. Let's hope he never visits again, he's dangerous.
It's quite impressive a septic survived driving in London long enough to do that.
Septics can't drive, and driving in London is quite aggressive.
Merry Christmas JT, thanks for the videos all year and keeping us entertained.
I was born in Ireland to Irish parents. My grandparents, great grandparents etc etc were also born in Ireland. It was my parents that left for work opportunities. I’ve had an American question my heritage and being confident that they were more Irish than I was because they had green eyes and mine are blue. Apparently my Irish birth certificate doesn’t qualify.
Perhaps next time you can say that the green eyed Irish Americans are from leprechaurn stock
@ they’d probably love that lol
Half of Irish people have blue eyes because the country was invaded many times. Lol. Plus more people in Scotland have red hair than Irish so that would blow their tiny minds.
@@letitiakearney2423 I know lol. I had dark hair not red though there’s a few in the family with red hair. It would blow their minds to think there’s more red haired people in Scotland! There’s more people with dark hair and blue eyes than red hair and green eyes. That person questioning my heritage was just looking at stereotypes
It would be difficult to track as one-cares, but I would think there are more of Irsh decent in England than there are in the USA.
I was in Oxford Street once doing some shopping (Oxford st is in the heart of London’s west end and a shopping Mecca) when an American family declared loudly on the way into the giant department store Selfridges….stand aside,we are Americans and we don’t have to queue ?!
The response from everyone around was to burst into laughter because we thought it must be an ironic joke,but no,the father went straight to security to demand “these people” need to be removed,he was raging.
USA,you are NOT the whole world.
Yeah, we get that here in Canada too. We always line up at bus stops, theatres, busy restaurants, etc. If there are rude line cutters, they are usually from south of our border. (But we do get some Americanized Canucks too.)
Too be fair stupidity is not uncommon in other countries. I am from Denmark born and raised 9 generations, a girl once asked me "have you ever seen anything in 3D" maybe she was talking about films, but i have a very high sense of humor so i answered " No i have only seen everything 2D but i hate when people turn their side to me" she looked at me in wonder and her boyfriend tried very much not to laugh out loud 😂
❤ From Denmark 🇩🇰
Let me guess, she was a natural blond?
"Too be fair stupidity is not uncommon in other countries. "
Quite right, but American are so much better at it that the rest of us.
@@nobodynone Are you someone who thinks all natural blondes are stupid? Most of us really aren't.
@@Shan_Dalamani But unfortunately quite a lot of natural blondes that I know are. Stereotypes of dumb blondes like Kelly Bundy have their basis in reality and there are also a lot of blondes in Denmark so it would be a easy guess.
@@nobodynone So you're just sexist with a bias. Got it.
When visiting Illinois, I had a disagreement with a few Americans in the shop part of a very popular American chain restaurant. It was over the pronunciation of Derbyshire. Eventually one of them said, its spelled the way we pronounce it. I told them, that doesn't matter. I lived there for over 30 years. The all went silent 😂
Try asking them to pronounce Worcestershire
@barryh8394 true
@@barryh8394 Or "Loughborough"
@@ColinRichardson oh yeah that's a great one
'Kirkcudbright'
My favourite American attitude used to be "If you have dollars you can get anything" The rest of the world silently added "and pay ten times the price plus tips", while laughing all the way to the bank.
In an internet chat room- American woman chatting to me. 'How old are you?' Me to her. 'I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.' After a slight pause she asked. 'How old is your tongue?' ALSO. I was told in the same chat room that us Brits only speak English because we learned it from Americans during the war of independence.
O M G 😂😂😂😂😂
JT, do you really have only one year of geography at US high schools? That explains a lot. I had geography from Yr 4 to Yr 10, and then took advanced geography for two more years.
this shocked me too, we had it day one from Primary school all the way up to age 16 and then you could go further with it. Yeh the first year was mostly just learning flags and where things were (so very simple stuff) but you're right. It explains so much, how could you even cover all the geography stuff in one year?
@@Mitchell4892 Well i had geography in highsckool in the Netherlands and my teacher just said if you wanna know where some place is look it up on a map we going to do real Geography here. Odcourse we already had 6 years in elemantairy school learning all that stuff. About countrys and capitals. So we gor socoal geography and earthscience in highschool.
@@arturobianco848 I mean we were 5 (primary school starting age) lol 😂. It obviously got more advanced after, just saying that was the starting point.
@@Mitchell4892 That could be but i started when i was 6 could be because i was born in august or that the started later then.
I was bored every minute of every geography lesson I ever had. My final lesson, a few weeks before I left school, the teacher threw me out and said she didn't want me to ever come back to her classroom again. I still know more about geography than most of these Americans...
Very many years ago, a friend of mine was at Avebury Stone Circle (Wiltshire, UK) this is the largest stone circle and henge in the world by the way. He overheard an American Tourist ask the guide "what do you do with the stones in winter". Not sure if they expected English heritage to wrap them up in bubble wrap or move them into the what they had also asked "is that a prehistoric barn". Merry Yule by the way :)
Thanks for all the laughs!
Would be great to see you react to Lee Evans if you haven't already (new subscriber) 😊
Quess what. English was invented in England. So many from the USA seem not to know that! Why? The clues in the name. The current US version is not a more pure version of 17C English either as claimed by others as all language changes over time. Therefore the language the English (and British generally) speak and write is the right one. The way we spell and pronounce it or whichever dialect we choose to use. Any other version is a variation on the original, including American English. The ‘American’ native language is any of the, naturally, languages of those native to that part of the World, whether Sioux or Cherokee or whatever.
Mmmm
Bastardised by England.
It's words we stole and resounded.
Not even their dictionaries can spell!
Their spelling is simplified and still they can’t spell.
@@kellydalstok8900
Give it 30 years and American English will be simplified with text speech.
U will tlk 2 USA like this 🤣
@@wispa1ai hate that
Hearing that about Portuguese being Jewish made me laugh. When I was living in Israel, I had a flatmate who used to tell Americans, in Hebrew, that she only spoke Portuguese! 😂
The issue is that many Americans don't take the initiative to research topics themselves. When presented with new information, they often respond with skepticism, saying 'oh really?' If they took the time to verify facts independently, they would likely discover the truth for themselves, and wouldn't make misinformed claims, such as saying Wales isn't a real place.
I've noticed that some Americans struggle to understand time zones. One comment that stood out was someone suggesting that Australia should have been able to warn the US about the 9/11 attacks because they're ahead in time. This shows a clear lack of understanding about how time zones work and the reality of global events unfolding in real-time.
I'm not surprised that so many would be clueless...... I mean, the U.S. only has four time zones just in the lower 48.
as a brit i can confirm we dont use knives and forks... we use forks and knives... completely different set of tools mate.. xD
Forks and knives is more typically used in the US
Most people in the UK say knives and forks
And if you say forks and knives, it just sounds like you’re saying f*ckin’ knives 😂
My aunt used to call it a fork 'n knife and giggle.
I know it’s not all Americans but these people give the worst impression.
The fact that people think America invented everything it’s like -you realise your country is basically a newborn in terms of most of the world?
My high school in Edinburgh was founded 500 years (in the year 1128) before the “United States” colonisation began in early 1600’s.
Fun fact the inventor of the phone Alexander Graham Bell went there.
Even more fun fact - Alexander graham bell didn’t invent it
😉
Johann Philipp Reis invented the first telephone, but Bell was the first to patent it
10 years ago my Husband and i were in NY. Whilst walking through time square, some random guy shouted “oh you’re British.. do you know Kelly from Yorkshire?”.
I mean come on, Who the F is Kelly and why the hell would i know her? 😂
Surely everyone in the UK knows Kelly from Yorkshire? There's only one, and Yorkshire is a tiny place, possibly in Canada, next to Germany.
I know a Kelly from Yorkshire and her daughter does ice skating with celebs so maybe it was her😂
I saw Kelly from Yorkshire the other day and she asked me if I know Joe from New York ?
@ 😂
"Fisting the Mac and Cheese" deffo sounded worse 😂
On a tourist city bus tour in Vienna the different laguage channels are identified by flags of the country that speaks the language. An american was most miffed that there was no US flag for English speakers. I pointed to the Union Jack telling him that's the channeel you pick. He told me but that's for British people. Took a while for him to comprehend he still speaks English.
5.00 you said "In school we have an entire class for an entire year about Geography" Do you mean you only learn Geography for 1 year????? That would explain a lot!!! We had a class every week right up till GCSE's (yr 9) where we could choose to do either History or Geography.
I noticed that too.
No wonder they don't know anything 😂😂
Was wondering this myself, I took geography until the end of year 9 lol 😆
We had at least 2 Geography lessons a week right up to what was then called the 4th form (don't understand these new year numbers) which everybody took. Personally I took both History and Geography in the 5th form for O level and the 6th form for A level but that was obviously my choice to do so.
It does explain a whole lot! Twice weekly from years 7 to 9 as dedicated lessons and we all had geography taught in primary school! Absolutely no wonder they don’t know! I bet their year probably covers most of continental America as its closest and has such little time left for the rest of the world.
We started Geography and world history in primary school and took it right up to 4th year (year 10 in new money)
I was in USA for 5 weeks in 1987.
Had 2 experinces, what I told that i was from Denmark.
First one said "Oh Denmark, the capital of Sweden"
The other asked how we could get permission from Moscow to leave the country...
He thought is was a part of Soviet Union.
Which is in a worse state, American healthcare or education? This is amongst the greatest questions of our time.
The political system must surely Trump it all. No pun intended.
Isn't the US the richest country in the world?
@pippodeclown It is also the most indebted country in the world. There is something rotten in the state of Denmark, to quote the bard.
@pippodeclown The richest country in the world is Luxembourg
You know, that tiny country that no American knows about
@@jamesfahey4508 I would say a lack of a proper democracy with a lack of freedom outways the other two. If the US had a democracy those other problems would disappear.
That German speed limit one hit home. A year or two ago, most roads with a 30mph speed limit in Wales were dropped to 20mph. A lot of young drivers drive cars with "black boxes", which keeps track of how they're doing so that it helps reduce their insurance premiums. One guy got his insurance revoked for constantly speeding ... because the insurance company thought that EVERY road in Wales was 20mph.
I'm English, but grew up in South Africa. Many tears ago, I was on a train from New York to Pittsburgh. A woman asked where I was from & when I told her, she went off on 1 about what "we" were doing to the indigenous people. My response was to ask about what happened to all the indigenous Americans? End of conversation.
I've spoken to Americans who have no idea they're European.
Even though they're white, and claim to be Irish (that's another strange Americanism)
Thanks
On the coloured sheep thing, I was staying with a previous girlfriend's family in Devon and we were planning on going to Plymouth for the day.
Her Mum said watch out for the PINK sheep and I was like "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.".
Blow me, as we went over Exmoor there were actually pink sheep walking around.
It turns out the local base rock is a red sandstone and it turns their wool pink when the sheep lie down to sleep or rest.
Theres a type /species of sheep called a Jacobs that naturally has a multi-coloured fleece, browns, greys, cream & black. Unfortunately the wool is a bit scratchy so not very comfortable.
Sometime, in certain weather conditions, algae can grow on their fleece. You’ve never lived until you’ve seen a green sheep. Admittedly it was only on the back but still…
There is also a thing known as a tupping block that is strapped to the rams chest so you know which ewes he has served. This can run in wet weather and colour the ewes fleece. Also when sheep are medicated, usually in the sprin after lambing, they are spryed with a dye so the farmer known which ones have had their annual meds. This is also water based and can run when the fleece gets wet. A fleece is naurally waterproof, so any water will run off and any dye with it will only colour the outer layer of the fleece. There are many pink (and blue) sheep around here on a wet spring day.
I worked with a lovely American teacher here in the UK about 30 years ago, she was dumbfounded that UK kids have different interests to USA kids. They had no idea what the NFL was, and baseball isn't really a big thing either (even though Jane Austen mentioned baseball once). I think America is a bit insular and assumes that what people like in the USA is universally embraced over our own cultures.
Baseball originated in England, originally in Oxfordshire, where it was called Rounders. My Cotswold family where keen players. I used to play it in my Essex primary school and my Welsh grammar school.
@@amyboleszny543 I played rounders in Year 7.
‘A bit insular’.
A lot
More than a tad insular in my experience.
Ha ha. A bit insular. Ha ha. So very insular and also insulated against any knowledge of what happens in other countries.
Having world series of sports that basically only Americans play.
But as the largest English speaking population and producer of TV programming it's not so surprising that they only see America on the idiot box.
And also so few Americans actually travel overseas or even have passports.
We have been watching your vids for years. You are hilarious.
Oh and it’s not just Americans. British people can be petty thick as well. I work in IT and I had a user call for a password reset. Was providing them their new password and was like capital such and such then the number 2 and they replied is that a capital 2 😂😂😂
When we Brits cane undairestaynd you ;)
Working in a shop in England, an American asked me the price of something.
When i told them 10 pounds, she replied "You mean Dollars" ?
Hope you remembered to add the tax to the ticket price. 😆
You should have replied "No, 10lb in weight" their head would have exploded 😂
@@kiddabiff It's called the 'pound sterling' from it's weight in silver, originally.
@@kiddabiffnow the m wondering how much ten pounds weight of dollars would be worth...
They aren't even aware that other countries have their own currencies. You cannot make this up!
I'm German. One of my classmates was on a student exchange program in the US. They picked him up at the airport and began smalltalk on the way to their home, asking him if we had cars in Germany.
The car they were driving in was a BMW.
😂👍
Surely they knew that BMW is Bavarian and that the free state of Bavaria is not part of Germany. 😅
I was walkkg up the Eiffel tower and an American lady exclaimed, 'Oh, they write the signs in American! The French know American!' 🥲
I’m from Watford, England and was lucky enough to be in Time Square for New Years Eve 2003. I got asked (In quick succession) by a group of Americans who heard my London accent “Are you Australian? Do you know the Queen?” I wish to this day I’d said yes…😂
Yeah I used to get the Australian thing quite a bit from Americans on discord when gaming, & I'm from London. It's a weird one alright 😂
An entire class for 1 year about geography?!??!?!?! Man, we do geography for 8 years here in Europe, first local, then national, continental and later world geography. Same with History.
HHHAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA 😂😂😂😂 Excellent reaction!!! The vegan diet lions moment of silence was just perfect!! Stupidity is global though, here in Wales I had dropped my car off for a repair and had to use the bus to get home, 2 Indian looking people were talking to each other in a language one of the passengers couldn't understand and he shouted "we're in Wales, speak English", the vast majority of passengers turned to him in anger as they were speaking Welsh!
Awesome reaction, keep it up!
Even though I understand the hilarity, I‘ve really. Been. Annoyed! With Indians, Pakistani or Bangladeshi talking /screaming into their cell phone on public transport.
In Germany, that‘s so rude, I halfway expected the bus driver to dump their asses. As a school student this happened when kids acted thisway…ie. Loud and disrespectful
Lions are vegan. If anyone says otherwise, they're lion.
Bro that's African lie
😂
Lions are not vegan. They eat vegan. Unfortunately, they don't have enough vegans in Africa to feed them.
@@gunterhagendorf8318😍
@@gunterhagendorf8318 bro you're lion, and from what I've heard a bit of a cheetah too 👀
Once in North Carolina, I was asked what language we speak in England, and another time in Oklahoma I was asked “How come your English is so good?”. I replied “Because I’m English”. He looked puzzled and said “You guys don’t speak Dutch over there?”
My English cousin had the misfortune of living in Florida.
No matter how many times he told them, they still thought he was Australian 🙄
They know of the Dutch language but aren’t aware English is spoken in ENGLAND? Wow 🤦♀️
@@anouk6644 Most don't seem to realise English isn't their language, even though it's called English and not American.
@@John-jw8rx I have been asked where in England i live many a time... i am Australian.
I’m sure they think that Dutch is what they speak in Deutschland.
The lions aren't on a vegan diet because we tried feeding them vegans but they said they tasted funny.
😂😂😂
The flesh is too soft, it's bad for their teeth. 😅
In Germany, only certain sections of Autobahn have the famous "no speed limit". The rest of roads have strict limits and regulations, which are strongly enforced by the Polizei ( German Police).
Exactly. The official speed limit is 130 kph. But it's just not enforced in certain sections.
@@elricthebald Richtgeschwindigkeit
Yup i know i have more tickets for speeding from germany then i have from the Netherlands. Its such a pain those 100KM back roads with 70 km intersections.
@@arturobianco848 May I suggest you slow down a bit, then? No speeding= no tickets!
@@iainhughes8110 I only had 3 and i had to pay a totale sum of 90 Euro's its just that i only had 2 tickets for speeding ever in the Netherlands. One when i forgot that during rush hour the speedlimit was lowered with 20kmph and one during covid when nobody was on a road that normally is so busy you can't speed if you wanted to. So its not i'm a speed monster.
5 tickets in 34 years of driving of wich 4 where less then 10 kmph to fast and one i was driving under the speed limit i thought was there because i kbnow there is a camera there.
It's just bloody annoying that the speed differences are so high on the crossroads in germany. If you drive a bit more slowly you have lots of cars stuck behind you. Also one of them was on an intersection that i could literly see over a mile in every direction and i was the only car on the road at that moment. again it was during covid.
Trump being elected President again is all the proof necessary! 💙💙💙
Well said. You do realise now you've said that you're going to get hoards of trump supporters campaigning against you............Oh bugger!!! That probably goes for me as well now!!! Hey ho!!!
As an Aussie I couldn't agree more. Maybe they all donkey voted because that is what they got. Now I will be in trouble with RSPCA for denigrating donkeys.
No arguing with that. What amazes me is that his supporters seem to have no idea how disordered his language is. I don't get it. The man doesn't make a lick of sense and nobody seems to notice.
When Trump was elected the first time around most of the sign language interpreters in NYC told their agencies No. Way. In. Hell.
I was on a Tour of France on a Bus. We visited a 14th Century Castle & when we got back on the Bus an American Woman was complaining about how the Castle was fake. It was built to fool American Tourists. as the Trench didn't have the technology to build it back then. Only Americans had the technology to do that. Her poor husband sunk down into the seat wishing to disappear.
Actually if it was Carcassonne she would have been half right.
A few years ago in Scotland I was drinking in the bar of our Local Hotel. An American came in and asked the Waiter if they had any Haggis, he said No. He was not happy and said he thought he could eat a Haggis as they are Scottish. I turned round and said, 'That's because we can only go Haggis shooting twice a year'. He believed me, the Waiter smiled as he walked away.
When I was a lad I used to believe that as well, think my education came from the Dandy or Beano and they used to go Haggis hunting 🤣
@@kujouk Did it tell you which way round the mountains they run? They are reputed to be dangerous if they come from behind you>
@@petegarnett7731 They didn't, I wasn't aware they were that dangerous, in the comics they never depicted that side of them, but I guess that might have ended tourism to Scotland if the truth had got out and tourists had been attacked while walking.
I'm going up on the 29th for a week, so I'll be avoiding the mountains just in case it's breeding season and they're a bit territorial
An American once asked my Brother, we're British, why do they not teach people to speak British in school, instead of English.
Only certain sections of the German autobahn have no limit (there is a specific sign)
The rest will have a limit (often 120kph which is about 75mph) and some of it has variable limits so the limit is whatever the electronic sign is saying at that moment in time... If it's a red circle it's a limit. If it's in a blue square it's advisory
That haggis one really got me laughing. How dumb can some people be 😂
Everyone knows that the haggis season is over. The sheep are safe for now!
Sky news did a report about wild haggis the other day..... actually not joking.
@@Rachel_M_ I've seen so many examples of it. I really struggle to keep a straight face!
I tell so many lies about haggis!
Yes please part 2 soon, this was hilarious!!! Thans for the laughs JT.
The best ive heard from an American was. Adolf Hitler was Australian. He was thinking Austrian. Or Australia isnt an island. Or Australia is so small because of our small population. He couldn't accept Australia is as big as the southern 48 states.
the Haggis one was brilliant, big hearty LOL
had a friend who lived next to a beach, there was a public toilet (clearly signed) just up the road from them, in summer tourists would just walk into friend's house either asking if it was the public restroom or just assuming it was. to get to their bathroom you had to go past their kitchen and up a set of stairs. they had to make a sign for their front door directing people, TO THE OBVIOUS PUBLIC RESTROOM!
Perhaps the clearly signed notice should have pointed the tourists to the Public Bathroom.
Another US oddity, a bathroom where there is no bath .
Wonder what they do when confronted with a lavatory and a bidet? .
My late Mother was in a meeting to be told 4/5 of them would be going to France for a work project. An American woman, who had a young child, asked if they had cows there so she could get milk for her baby?? Mum said the silence was deafening and the lady never went to France.
A few years ago I was reading some comments on a Handmaid's Tale review channel, and after the episode aired when one character escaped to Canada with another character's baby, there was a flurry of panicked comments of "Why did she take that baby? She doesn't have any milk, that baby's gonna starve! DO THEY EVEN HAVE BABY FORMULA IN CANADA????"
On a visit to the catacombs in Italy there was a group of very loud Americans. The guide paused and asked us all if we had any questions. One american woman asked if the catacombs were dug from the bottom up or the top down 🤦♀️
I was once at a Hogmanay party in Edinburgh at my m8's student halls where I met some Americans. It wasn't a dumb thing that they said really, but I was hitting them with all the dumb nonsense tales that we tell tourists for a laugh and they were rapt listening to me. That Unicorns were real but only us Scots can see them, that Nessie is a 70 million year old extremely shy dinosaur called an Awshitehesaurus (work it out 😜) and the classic tale of the Haggis. That is that Haggi, the plural, live on the high Scottish hillsides and have two short legs on one side and two longer legs on the other so they can run around the hillsides safely but only in one direction and that to catch them we have to climb the hills and set up big nets and then frighten the Haggi and chase them from in front of them to force them to turn around, lose their balance and fall down the hill into the nets!!!! THEY BELIEVED EVERY DAMN WORD! One of them even said she couldn't wait until she next went home to tell all her friends and family this! NOBODY corrected me either and I have often wondered if there is a town somewhere in the US where everyone now believes that because of her, and me! 🤣🏴🤣🏴🤣
JT please do a follow up on this episode. These were insane.
I was visiting San Diego, checking into my pre-booked accommodation and the guy refused to believe people surfed in the UK. I replied my boss from work surfs every single morning before work in North Devon!
An American(in Ireland) asked where im from, so i answered that im irish, born and raised, so the person then asked if i ever visited Ireland(again, while in Ireland), it was extremely difficult not to laugh my ass off, so i did, while asking the dumbass what country he was in
Says hold on that's sounds terrible when he said fingering, so changes the word to fisting. Hate to tell you but not sure that wording is any better 😂😂😂
I was in the US, having dinner with an American business contact. The conversation got around to the international dateline, and losing or gaining a day when you crossed it. His wife was there, and she said how wonderful it must be to go there and see two suns in the sky at the same time! I didn't know whether to die of laughter or embarrassment!
I was born and live in the Midlands, UK, so I suppose I speak with what sounds like a Brummie accent. I've lost count of how many times I've been asked if I'm from Australia when visiting America. This confusion doesn't seem to be limited to one region; it has happened in places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York. I guess they expect me to sound like the Queen (did), with a more refined accent if I was from the UK.
Mate I was born and and still live in Sussex , 70 years I’ve been asked twice in my life if I’m an Aussie in England by brits 😱
I speak English with received pronunciation. I, too, have been asked if I'm Australian. Very odd.
I’m a brummie and this has happened to me too in America. my husband has a more londonish accent and Americans seem to love him
I'm not a Brummie ( Hampshire), I've been asked if I'm Australian on every visit to the States.
To be fair.. Aussies swear a lot, Brummies swear a lot.. Though, a brummie swearing is mostly "I didn't steal it, I swear"..
Whilst working in Egypt I was lucky enough to visit the Pyramids at Giza and, was able to go into the great pyramid of Khufu to see the Kings Burial chamber and the massive granite sarcophagus.
There is only one way in or out and it's very difficult, one of the problems being it is extremely hot and no ventilation (It's 4000 years old).
On our way in, we had to squeeze past a group of Americans who were on their way out.
One of them heard complaining about the heat, saying, (and I quote)
"WOULDN'T YOU THINK THEY'D PUT IN GODAM AIR CONDITIONING?"
It's a 4000 years old ancient monument, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
And he want to know why there's no Air Conditioning !
STUPID or just plain bloody THICK?
When the skeletal remains of Richard III were discovered in Leicester by archaeologists, I remember hearing an American reporter asking one of them why Richard had been buried in a car park. Of course car parks were everywhere in the 1480s. 😬😬😬😳😳😳🤣🤣🤣🤣
And airports played a pivotal role in the US civil war!
An American tourist once said to me that Americans were the first to speak English and I corrected her politely and said… the English language has been spoken as a language since the 6th century in Britain. It was the British who brought the English language to America and American English is just an alternative variant version of the English language.
I was deep underground in Valley of the Kings, Egypt when an American tourist said "do you think they had discovered fire by this time"!
No, but they had the Sun on a chariot.
I was in a shop once and an American couple appeared from the back room behind the counter looking confused. They were tourists who had found themselves on a street with a dead end. Instead of turning around and going back they had just gone through a random door instead 🤣.
All I can say is since I started communicating with Americans over the internet, my English skills have been depleting. 😂 I am litterely getting dumber by talking to them.. 😭 no wonder the UK gave America back and pretended America won their independence, we got out whilst we still could. 😂