What's the Dumbest Thing an American Has Ever Said to You (American Reaction)
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- Опубліковано 8 жов 2023
- As an American I know what we are capable of saying out of pure ignorance. Today I am both nervous and excited to react to the absolute dumbest things Americans have ever said to people from other countries. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
Recently an American who claimed to be an educated linguist told me that the British Empire had nothing to do with the spread of the English language. It was all thanks to America and American culture. The irony is that America owes its language to the British Empire.
I'm glad that you explained the origin of English language in America at the end, some of them might still not know that 😉
@@suonatar1 When you get "an educated linguist" correcting you about the English language it doesn't look good for the average person, does it?
@@anta3612 now imagine mind explosion after telling them that English, Dutch, Afrikaans and German are related
Yes Old English Old Dutch Flemish & Yiddish come from the same low on the Rhine Germanic tongue - and Afrikaans comes from the Boer Dutch who settled in South Africa
What an idiotic thing to say. England is responsible for spreading the English language and some would say Americans are responsible for destroying it 😂
I'm Scottish. An American once told me, for no apparent reason, that I probably couldn't live in America because it would be too hard to get a green card. I said I didn't want to live in America. He literally told me I was lying and I was just too ashamed to admit it, because "everybody wants to live in America". 🙄
I've holidayed in America before (a fortnight's visit to see a fellow Crowded House fan 'penfriend' I'd made whilst both of us had been backpacking around New Zealand a few years previously) ... every single person I met was perfectly lovely ... but I would as likely wish to live in America as as I would Afghanistan. I feel sorry for the nice people in America, living under that FUBAR regime.
Im and Aussie and would rather Die than live in America i like noting about the country and how they are towards others how they consider themselves the best i hate it all
@maxrander0101 with the amount of mass shootings over there, we probably would die if we visited..
@@thomasdendtler4077 3 of my family did a few yrs ago they were there for a yr with their parents and were killed in a school shooting so the country can go to hell because as far as my family care it already is
USA number one! is deeply ingrained in a lot of people there. Everybody loves America or is jealous.
German who studied in the U.S., asked by classmate if we have cars in Germany. "Gal, Germans INVENTED cars. Of course we have cars." "No, Americans invented cars." "No, that was Benz and Daimler in 1886 with the first car in Germany. Ford popularized assembly line production, but they didn't invent the car."
Around 20 years ago i spent 1 month in an american family and the girl asked me if i have a fridge at home and if i know what a micro-wave is ....
Germans invented gas automobiles if that's what you mean by cars. Carl Benz credited with that.
If you're talking mobile vehicles those came in stages throughout history but I'm guessing they meant standard gas automobiles.
Ford didn't just make faster production lines he mass produced the most affordable cars of the time.
Had a classmate that went for a year to study in America and when he came back he had to do an after-class catch up with my history professor because apparently in many American schools the world starts with the Declaration of Independence
@@verandream6675 of course! Before that, God created the world. ;-)
But murricans invented the sheer arrogance, based on nothing.
As a young person backpacking and hostelling through Europe I met mostly Americans, who invariably would ask “why do all you Canadians have the 🇨🇦on your backpacks?” I felt bad telling them the real reason, that we can’t STAND being mistaken for Americans, so I told them it’s the law in Canada, all luggage leaving the country must have the flag on it. Then I felt bad that they believed me.
😅 oh no - ist's too funny to feel bad about it... Maybe this would also work for us Austrians - we also don't want to be confused with our German neighbours.
I hate when people lie about these things and make Canada look dumb. I would tell people point blank that we didn’t want to get mixed up with Americans.
Is that a thing? That’s hilarious 😂
@@zizi_strizi001 I mean at least the world doesn't dislike Germany or Germans, or think they're stupid. But I worry if you told an American you were Austrian, they'd think you were Aussie.
@@es4666 How does it make Canada look dumb?
Americans work very hard to live up to their stereotype.
Yah, there's a user in the comments repeatedly doing just that lol
@@shmupperfromhell I just had a scroll down and found him. That's exactly the type of aggressive stupidity I'm talking about.
No they don't. It comes naturally.
All the while they stereotype other countries and nationalities
None harder than ... *FLORIDA MAN!*
The WORST or CRAZIEST thing I've ever been asked (or ever been yelled at for) was;
She; "You say you live in Norway?"
Me: "Yes"
She: "We must set up a zoom when job's done one night"
Me: "Well you gotta havee the timezone in your mind, since Norway's 9hrs difference from LA"
She: "What do you mean with 9hrs"
Me: "I mean when it's 12pm here in LA. It's 9pm in Norway"
She: "Why are you telling us this now and Why didn't Norway warn us about 9/11 then"
Me; "Eeerrh. ehm..."
I left. Shocked.
😯😆
That never happened... Right?
@@bradleybrown8428 Yes it did !
WHAT 😮 pre warn them about 9 11 for real 😲
LMAO! To be fair, that is expected from an American.
An American woman in a pub in Ireland turned to a man and said " its wonderful to hear the Gaelic language" he replied" im speaking English love."
Standing on Edinburgh High Street, the street that leads up the big volcano to the big castle, an American couple asked directions to the castle. I pointed uphill (it’s a straight line) and said “go right up to the top, the castle gate is right in front of you”. Man says “we’ve been up there but it’s just a big gateway, where’s the castle?”. Me: “go through the gate, that’s the castle courtyard.” Man, getting annoyed: “that’s not the castle”. I’m completely at a loss, just say “OK, sorry it’s not what you’re looking for”. Man says “where’s the lake with the road to the castle?”. Slowly dawns on me he’s looking for the very picturesque Eilean Donan castle 200 miles away. I said he might be thinking of a different castle, he says “quit trying to scam me, there’s only one castle per country.” In Scotland throw a brick in any direction you’ll hit a castle.
One castle per country! 😂😂😂 omg 😳
One Castle per square mile
Yanks and their world ignorance! If they haven't invaded it, it doesn't exist! I once heard one of television"s greatest dunces: David Letterman - say to his guest - the gorgeous Catherine Zeta Jones - "You're from Wales: that's up near England, right?" To her eternal credit, she kept herself polite and calm and just more or less said "yes"! Ignorance should be treated like Covid-19 and avoided at all costs!
@@geoffpriestley7310 What's that in washing machines?
Yeah, a couple in AUSTRIA though they were scammed, because it wasn't summer here in January.
Those who call it socialism have no idea what socialism is.
Yes, all the other countries across the world with national health care are socialist!
sadly they are totally brainwashed when it comes to socialism
"Socialism" doesnt actually exist, because for "an idea" to exist ... you need PRECISE DEFINITIONS for it.
In the 1920s Werner Sombart counted the number of different definitions for socialism and found 260. That was in the time of "assemble moveable letters to make a page in the printing press" ...
[The ONLY way to "define" the term would be to start with the WORD ...
- ism = "ideology of"
- social = "being nice"
=== "the ideology of BEING NICE" ... or in other words: POLITICIAN'S ELECTION PROMISES ... because the stuff that is typically called socialism is too expensive to actually finance it for long enough.]
@@Muck006 See? You have in fact no clue what the term means. xD
Also: You're lied to. Not even the politics you Yanks call "left" are promising ANYTHING that every other developed county doesn't already have. We all can afford it, we all have it, you're getting screwed and all you get is to throw around buzzwords to feel better about it.
Especially since the US has a lot of social programs. Almost all of them are just really bad and inefficient.
I am an elderly Englishwoman. An American lady once told me that Americans invented the English language. I reminded her that we English (clue in the name!!!) had been speaking this language since the FIFTH CENTURY!!!
She replied that that didn't matter, because there were so many more people speaking American English. British English, she said, wasn't really English!!! The WHOLE WORLD was speaking American English!!!
I gave up. 🤔🇬🇧
By her own (deluded) logic, India should own the English language, not US
@@justADeni I do so wish I'd thought of that at the time! Thanks. 😂
@@sairhug Thanks for that. I'll check it out. Americans just don't travel enough, I suppose. Wherever they go, they take America with them, and also are only looking for America.
Britain turns out to be sub-, sub-, sub- America at best, rather than permanently different. I don't know what they'd make of Rammstein's lyrics, as they take everything so literally. 🙄
i can say we Aussies do not speak that messed up American English ours is almost the exact same as British English with a few little changes over the yrs
It's also are rather good song. I had the pleasure of seeing them live. They controlled the audience like a conducter. It was marvelous!@@sairhug
I told a coworker in the USA that we didn’t have rabies in the UK. She said sarcastically, ‘I suppose the squirrels just stop at the border!’
I said, ‘Britain is an Island you know.’
She said without embarrassment, ‘Really?’
The next day she came up to me and again without embarrassment said, ‘Hey I was looking in an atlas last night and Britain IS an Island!’
Oh my God...
Well at least she learned something! She actually looked it up. I'm impressed.
They could come from Ireland
@@mtauren1that is, also, infact, an island.
On a road trip in deepest Arkansas, chatting to a family at a water hole.. talking about cars, the son asked why I'd not driven my car over instead of renting the Impala.
Canadian: "How stupid could you be?"
American: "Challenge accepted!"
😁
World: "How stupid can you get?"
US: "Yes!"
😉
More like
American: Hold my beer.
Try saying stupid people shouldn't own Guns in the USA -every Republican in the room stands up screaming-." aint nobody takin my Guns "
response-Well are you stupid ?
Then spend the next hour trying to understand why giving guns to stupid people means we are free
🤣🤣🤣
When American tourists in Spain ask why they are speaking Mexican!!! 😮
They probably ask in England, why they speak American 😂
😂 OMG
Having served in the British Army, I have seen a few countries, but I have never met people that asked me these questions ANY where else: 1. While attending an official service in America, I had to wear my service dress and medals, one of the civilian attendees asked me about my uniform then stated "Well, if you're in America, shouldn't you be wearing and American Uniform?!" 2. While participating in a joint exercise with American Forces, we stayed on their base, we had just been for food and as a group we were marching back, just then the daily taking down of the flag was happening and to our surprise all the Americans stop, car, trucks and people that then saluted towards the flag, not thinking anything of it we continued on our way, to which an American Warrant Officer saw and made a bee line for us, our corporal halted us as he let out a burst of loud and abusive language, he got right up in the Corporals grill and spouted some really obscene and disgusting insults, then asked "What's your malfunction BOY, you have no respect for you country or flag?!!" to which, as calm as a cucumber, our corporal replied "Yes, absolutely, but as you can see we are British" as he tapped the insignia and flag on his arm, then spinning on his heels he gave the order to march on and we left the American Warrant Officer with our titters as we marched passed. 3. While completing a drop off in New York at the UN, a local asked me "You speak very good for a foreigner, where are you from?" I said Britain, he stated "Oh, small country? Didn't know other countries taught American in their schools!"
They are morons ha ha
I wish I'd been there 😄
Oh my goodness! No words….unbelievable. I’d love to have seen that American Warrant Officer’s face!
Sounds about right. I once walked in on a corner shop in the UK and an american couple were getting irate coz the indian fella on the till only understood English-English :o they were going off!
I was told by an elderly Texan couple on a cruise ship that, "You Australians speak pretty good American, and it must have taken youll a long time to learn".
Life advice. It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Kind or ironic, given the topic, that the originator of that quote was an American (Abraham Lincoln).
I'm Swedish and I heard about an elderly American couple who went to Norway for a "Midnight Sun Cruise" (which is during the summer when the sun is up 24/7) and the couple started complaining that "It was the same sun as during the day!" Like they expected the Midnight Sun to be a completely different sun that only appears in the north during the summers.... Like what?
hahahahaha!!!! Do they think there's multiple suns around the earth? hahaha
This is beyond everything 😂😂
Naaa I had an American lady come up to me and asked if the fjords was turned on this time of the year 😂😂
@@yvindwestersund9720 omg XD
We had a couple (hotel guests) complaining that it was winter in January. In AUSTRIA. She actually cried and he wanted to call the police because we scammed them, since they KNEW it was supposed to be the opposite season in...Austria. 🦘🇦🇹🦘
An American said to my friend, No, you’re not English, well, you don’t look English. She responded, Well, you don’t look stupid!
😂 What a great comeback 😂😂😂❤
Love it
😂😂😂👏👏👏
How did the American react?
❤
I was in Mexico once, and I explained to an American that I was Welsh and, as usual, I then had to explain that no, Wales is not in England 🤦🏻♂️. I explained that in Wales, we also speak Welsh, which he thought was cool. He then followed on by saying that America has its own language too, to which he continued to say that he spoke American. I laughed and said, "No, you speak English." He frowned and insisted he spoke American. I asked, "Then how do I understand you as I speak English, not American?" He became quite disgruntled and confused and he explained that Americans use words like "trash" and "dipers" to which I explained that they are just adaptations of words that already exist in the English language. He was not happy and walked away to my delight 😂
😂 Good god.
Haha from a fellow Williams 👋 we were travelling and pointed out the same thing… it did not receive a great reaction either 😂 I think my other half got sooo cheesed of in the end he said “let’s put it this way, you took English and bastardised it 😮” let say we weren’t friends at the end of the trip 😅
We tried to eradicate that hideous language. Crawling it's way back. Bloody taffs...
Back!? It never left. It's lovely to see you support persecution. Thank you for your joyous comment, and I hope you have a great day 🏴
They obviously don't learn a lot in school no wonder they're all thick
I was once told by an American that Scotland is not on the island of Britain.
And they knew better than me as an American because his grandfather was Scottish, and I was English and not Scottish.
I live a 4 hour drive away from Glasgow.
They really don't get the whole, English, Scottish, British thing.
No matter how many times they're told.
This whole 'I know better, because I am , my came from ' is it's own can of worms. That and their strange obsession with those bogus dna-tests.
@@larsg.2492well... at least the dna tests do work I have to say😂😂😂 at least the ones my family and me did^^ (we are from Germany). Don't know how far they go with distant relations, but my mother, grandmother and my relations and origins were spot on and it got the origin from my fathers side (different continent^^) right as well^^
@@natsukiilluna6324Yeah, but you don't think you're anything but german.
They do this all the time. Their great great grandmother ate baguette once and they "think" (and tell everyone) that they're french.
My husband and I were in a town in France ( we are Australian) we went into a Pharmacy to purchase some headache tablets. There was very rude American man there. He was pushing his way past everyone to get served first. When he got to the assistant he was really bombastic and she had no idea what he wanted, she could not understand him. He stormed past nearly knocking my husband over. He then proceeded to yell “wouldn’t you think they would speak English” My husband said “dude you are in Rural France”
When our turn to be served the assistance spoke broken but passable English. My husband was stunned and she noticed and said “would you speak to someone like that?”
A lot of us know english, we are just not willing to speak if the person in front of us is rude😂 always begining with Bonjour, then speak slow and clear english, then finish with merci and aurevoir. Easy recipe😊... and dont cut line, obviously.
@@Agathe.May... I agree 100% with you. I love the French people, I am Australian
@@denisewest7166 i have family in Australia and i hope someday i would be able to go and see those beautiful landscapes
I have always found, no matter where in the world, if you make an effort to speak a phrase or two, you're golden. Greeted with smiles and happy questions about your origins etc. It REALLY doesn't take much effort to be nice to folks and the benefits are endless.
@@Agathe.May...
Well, France DOES have a lot of clever people 😆
I live in Lincoln, England. I had a friend who was chatting to an American tourist over here, and the tourist said, "I think it's great that you decided to name your city after one of our presidents!" My friend had to explain how Lincoln existed for 2000 years before Abraham Lincoln was even born, and instead it's more likely that he had some kind of family connections to the city of Lincoln - the president's family was named after our city
😂😂😂 I've had the same. When I told an American I lived near Harwich (of the mayflower fame) Essex. He said oh you have an Essex too.
Plus he didn't know what the Mayflower was 🙄
Should have told him you can get from New York to Boston in less than 20 mins
Amazing. i like when americans try to prounounce the nearest town to me, Loughborough.
@@Rose.Archer I dread to think 😂
@@101steel4 so obvioulsy any normal english person knows its pronounced. "Luff Buh Rah” Americans… every single one. "Loo Gah Bah Roo Gah” dead
At Windsor Castle the tour guide told us that some US tourits had asked why the castle was built so close to the airport---- & that was after they had been told that the castle was a thousand years old.
wasn't Merlin a wizard who could see into the future, thus knowing that there would be an airport now, and telling King Windsor to better build the castle someplace else ? :-)
Do you live in Windsor or visiting? 😂
Well, robber knights allways build up their castles close to channels of commerce 😙
@@Anson_AKBAfter so much unbelievable content in the video, it took me a second to detect the sarcasm
I was in hospital in England ( im English ) in 2002 and an American tourist came in for a few days with a leg injury , on the day he was leaving he couldn't believe he didn't have to pay anything , so he asked the rest of us patients how big of a tip should he leave the nurses? We told him you don't tip nurses under no circumstances and the best he could do was buy them a big jar of coffee and biscuits ( i think Americans biscuits are different and call them cookies ) even then they weren't really allowed gifts but coffee tea and or biscuits were overlooked , he couldn't believe it , we are not a socialist country but its funny how many capitalists love this " socialist " privalage.
German here, when my family or friends are in the hospital I like to drop off a salad or cake at the nurses station. Just a little thing to apreciate their work.
And I got the bowl/tray back the next day.
I know Britain is small compared to the US. But I was asked by an American if you can walk around it in a day.
Also been asked if Britain has beaches. When I said we're an island, I just got a blank look.
i got ask why Germany build subs in WW2, because Germany got no coast!
😂
Does your island has beaches?
😂
LOTS of them unironically believe that Europe, as a whole, is smaller than Texas.
Visiting Edinburgh Scotland and browsing a small market. Saw this sign propped up on a small table. “English spoken, American understood “ 😅
Ah Edin burrow 😂
My dad used to say “they haven’t spoken English in the States for years” 🤣🤣
There was an elderly gentleman selling postcards outside Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh who sold postcards in the 70s and 80s. He had this handwritten sign on top of the postcard racks.
i missed that, but i did run into US tourists in the castle....
they been surprised about my Scottish accent....
wich i dont have... i am German citizen with only German based family on my 2nd visit to the UK....
last English lesson in school, summer 1986!!
@@thecynic9232basically a quote from the song "why can't the English" in My Fair Lady
"There's three doors for England, France and Britain"...add that to the list.
That was perfect
I am Norwegian and in the summer of 2022 we traveled to Western Norway on holiday. I stopped by the tourist office to order some tickets for an event. Inside there was an angry American tourist who shouted and screamed. Reason? No one had told them that there were fish in the water where them were swimming and her children had been terrified!
😂
Many Americans view the rest of the world (that they "know" of) as sone sort of theme park for them to visit and enjoy.
An American friend of mine was visiting me in Australia. We were talking about the native animals and she kept pronouncing emus as ‘emoos’ I explained that it was ‘emews’ “No,” she said, “it’s pronounced emoo in America.” I pointed out that it was an indigenous Australian word, not an American one, but she refused to correct her pronunciation. We made a quick trip to New Zealand together and she kept checking how to say the Māori words and made a point of pronouncing them as correctly as she could. When I pointed out that she didn’t do that with indigenous Australia words she said, “But it’s different.” We are no longer friends.
They struggle with the letter U.
I've been asked why we in England added the U to colour.😂
@@koschmx Anglicised 😉
You Americanised it 😁
@@koschmx Give me five minutes, I need to translate that into English.
@@koschmx It does actually look very strange to English people.
Looks like a five year old has written it, due to all the spelling mistakes and incorrect words.
It would probably be a 0/10 in English class 🤣
@@101steel4Did you tell them that colour is a French word?
It translates into hues and shades.
I am British. I lived in Germany for many years in a village which was called the gateway to the Black Forest.
I was once stopped by a car full if American tourists and asked the way to the Black Forest. I gave directions and was then asked 'will it still be open?' it was around 15:00 (3 o'clock for Yanks). The Black Forest covers an area of around 3,400 sq. miles and has approx 250 towns and villages.
It would be very difficult to 'close'.
That's funny. I was born next to Stuttgart, my great grandfather lived in Freudenstadt. Which is in the black forest. When I live in Germany again it's gonna be fun dealing with American tourists. I'm dual citizen of USA and Germany. Mom was German and dad is from New Jersey.
Well I'm Norwegian and I don't think Americans have any grasp of nature
I was once in Bergen it's a city on the Westcoast of Norway
And I was asked by an American lady
So the fjords are they turned on this time of the year 🤔
I didn't know at first if she was joking but by the look on her face I assume that she was sincere 😂
So I just said yes and turned Around sso I didn't start laughing to her face
😂😂
@@yvindwestersund9720 Oh I've been to Bergen it was lovely and my boys BTS did a bon voyage ep there sadly not at the same time
@@MsKaz1000 hey I'm not saying that all Americans are dim-witted but I'm pretty sure that by the state of the school system in the US at the moment
The US state is producing idiots as far as I can see
But if you as an citizen has money you can get the education you need and so also for your children
But as said the stat the public schools are in now thers only a matter of time before the US will truly be a nation of dim-witted fool's and that will be to the detriment of the whole world not just the US
So please for the love of all that is good do something about all these MAGA people start a Free educational program that will help them to get their heads screwed on right and not like now when everything is a conspiracy and noting is real
If Trump are elected president again the great country of the USA will drag us all in to a state of conspiracy theories and fake news that will promptly become a war on truth and reason
And by the looks of it we will loose that fight and a third world war will end us all
Just saying 🇳🇴
I'm from Venezia (Italy) and that's happening all the time.
I was working and an American couple came over and said you English people are lucky we Americans let you use our English language. My answer was if your country made the English language then why would English begin with eng and not ame the wife walked away the man called me a bad word I never laughed so much.😂
Why did you let them use it though? Now we all have to (someone) understand what they're blabbering. If they spoke some made up gibberish, it would be so much easier to ignore.
"You ENGLISH people are lucky we Americans let you use our ENGLISH language." 🤦🏻♂️
Love the humility in admitting you don't know something, that's the energy we need. I had an american tell me that I couldn't be Italian, because I was "too white" and I have blue eyes, while another insisted I should consider myself a person of colour for the same reason. Bro, I'm 2 hours drive from Germany, how dark can I be? Another one insisted that Italy has a tropical climate, with monkeys, and wouldn't believe that in winter in Venice we can reach -8 degrees (celsius). Last one, started to angrily shout on the phone at the hotel my friend works in because he demanded to use his car to get to the hotel, in VENICE, where there are NO STREETS BUT ONLY CANALS.
Wow, yes, this is the best of all!! Love it!!! 😂😂😂😂🇬🇧
The racism is strong in America.
The same for me, I was told I could not be Italian because I was too White (northern Italian I am) then told me I should not go back to my country because I had to walk behind man for the rest of my Life...
😂. By the way, Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world! You are so like!
My dad used to say “they haven’t spoken English in the States for years”. 🤣❤️🇨🇦
Ever since Noah Webster butchered the language.
Or romour has it the late Queen said 'There is no such thing as American English, there is English and then there are mistakes'
I had a couple from Florida ask me, "how many days of the week do you have?" I must have had a really dumbfounded look on my face and before I could say anything, the wife counted out ...."we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday" etc. at this point, I couldn't contain my laughter any more and just replied, we live on the same planet!!!!
I mean if anything, I guess the USA would be the odd one out in their time measurements considering they still refuse to switch to metric like the rest of the world. The closest thing you get to a difference in calendars is the Lunar Year, but I doubt they'd know about that either.
If you can stand it there are a lot of these. I'd love to see more of your reactions to them. My worst was standing in a line in Vegas. A little kid tugged at his father and said that man talks funny (i'm English) and i smiled. But then his father said 'Yeah they dont speak our language like we do'. I said 'Excuse me we were speaking Englash 500 years before you buthered the language, and gave him a history lesson about the Mayflower and British colonisation'. He got mad that i was making a fool of him in front of his son. He was about to retort when a fellow American suggested when he goes home he joins his sons class at school as it was shameful that someone from the UK knew American history better than he did.
Wow!!!! Oh boy.. We know so much more of their history than they do!
@@koschmxlol that son needs to know as ASAP that his dad isn't god. Plus you don't know how long Mervin had to put up with the BS from Mr Dunning-Kreuger...
The saddest thing for me is that history classes in the U.S. are pretty mush all about the U.S. I'm not sure what geography classes teach, but clearly not the map of the world. I shake my head and sigh sometimes.
Well done, they really need educate better. I don't get how US could be good in other things if they don't know the basics 😅
@@suerickard9556 No, we learn world history in every public school as children. That man must not have paid attention in class. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can teach a student, but you can't make him listen. I was educated at public schools in the U.S.A. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.
"English door & British door?" I think you just proved the point, lad!
I'm a Brit. As a student maybe 50 years ago, I took an exchange trip to France. We visited Paris, and the top of the Eiffel Tower. There, was a typical middle-aged American tourist couple. The whole of Paris was laid out ahead of us. A beautiful sight. She turned to him and exclaimed "Gee Elmer, it's just like Disneyland!" :D
In context - she could have been remarking that the whole of Paris was a beautiful magic fairy-like kingdom. But she probably wasn't.
In fairness that could mean just the moment or the view I don't think they literally meant Paris is Disneyland.
@@LGBTQLegend There's the paris syndrome that mostly Americans and done Asians get. It's an acute psychotic breakdown, when they arrive and instead of the fairytale Paris they see a city full of dirt, trash, expansive restaurants and grumpy waiters.
So, I'm not really sure if fairness is needed here.
It's honestly ridiculous that so many Americans think every other country is stuck in the 18th century.
maybe because their own history seems to start only in 1776 ?
or at the most in 1492, but not several millenia ago like it did for europeans and many others.
and thus when their own history started, all others became uninteresting and got stuck in time in 18th century
@@Anson_AKB yeah but they seem to think that no country has progressed since then EXCEPT for the USA.
It's kind of like a childish ignorance ... I mean, when I was a little kid and my family emigrated to New Zealand from the UK, I fully expected happy waving crowds and beautiful dancing ladies to greet us with necklaces made of big flowers as soon as we set foot on the the airport tarmac. Well, that's what happened on TV whenever the Queen went anywhere - went my thinking 😂. My limited life-experience meant I didn't know any better!
Maybe it's because the US is extraordinarily insular? Their legacy media largely only bothers with events in the US and very little else - probably because it's all down to the mighty $ and advertising revenue,. A sister of mine was in America for one of the Olympics and couldn't believe that *only* events in which Americans were participating were shown on TV; and even THEN, the cameras didn't leave the American competitors! Maybe the thinking was that if they showed, say, some Swedish pole vaulter, even if they happened to be the world record holder, the paying public would quickly lose interest and click to another channel?
Perhaps one of the most telling features of how inward-looking the society is concerns their (baseball) "World Series" only having the USA and Canada as participants!
From this video, it sounds like very little outside of the US is taught in schools. Also, according to 2021 figures, only 56% of the adult population on average has a valid passport ... but good luck to those who have one actually using it to travel overseas as the average American worker has only 11 paid days' holiday off per year! Now THAT'S stuck in past, if not quite the 18th century!
I'm guessing that if The Rest of The World is about as likely to ever be on your agenda as visiting the Moon, why learn about it? It seems like a lot of the way society 'works' in the US is all serving to keep people uninformed ... then they wonder why half the people are so easily duped by bad-actor politicians and conspiracy theories.
@@koschmx then you're lucky, of the ~90 Americans (over the age of 20) I've talked to, about 15 of them didnt think cars, the internet, or even trains existed in Europe.
Here in Finland there are american style prisons used as museums.
American: "Where are you from?" Me: "London, England" American: "Do you know John from London?" ...
I got asked if I knew the queen when I told them I was from London this was back in the 1990's
Ahh we all know john from London. He is Jimmy's brother from Scotland
Met an American couple in Bristol and I told them not to drive up the one way street the wrong end…they did not understand and asked what a one way street was…I said…going only one way…
You take everything in good spirit…I have met Americans on my travels who have been informed and very nice…I think you are a very respectful and gentle soul. Where is the baby…
John is not from London! He's from Rochester. He just works in London!
I once had a guy who was incredibly disapointed to find that england was not, in fact, some sort of Charles Dickens centric Theme park land. He wanted misty streets, smog, handsome carriages, work houses, people ringing bells and declairing the hour... What he got was mcdonalds, starbucks and a bus that was more comfortable and reliable than anything he had ever seen before, also, on day one, some chavs nicked his cigarettes.
Well he should be happy that he got the 'pick a pocket or two' when his fags were pinched.
HAHAHAHAH!
the 21st century iteration of this Dickens story is now the Outlanders crowd that think all is magical. If I hear one more american bang on about how they're descendants of Scots royalty, lack of washcloths, flavored creamers, bad coffee, too much walking etc etc - why the hell do they even leave their american compound if only to do a whirlwind Outlander centric visit. Blows my mind.
@@Kat-po3mn Ooh! One of my co-workers says he had a tourist once who claimed he was decended from this one lord local to my area. My co-worker told him to keep that very, VERY quiet, because arrest warrants are technically still out on any family of the guy due to... uh... Well lets just say his punishment was unpleasant and terminal.
They come to Ireland expecting donkeys and carts, and find narrow roads they can't drive their rental cars on!
And when I was in Charlotte, NC, I was exhausted just trying to cross some of the roads, they were so wide!
I was asked by an American gentleman how i could live in a country with a welfare state. I said how can you live in a country without a welfare state i found it to be very judgemental
Not so much judgemental, more brainwashed to hell and back. Most of them are, poor fuckers.
They're legitimately taught, thoroughly, that it's bad to not get screwed over all the time.
I have been ill for the last 14 years. The welfare state has kept me alive.
In 1992 I was traveling across America on Amtrak, from Portland Organ going to Chicago. We stopped at some small town somewhere in Montana and this young man got on and sat near me. I was talking to a bunch of Americans and he joined in. After a while he asked where I was from, when I told him I was from England he looked at me for a few seconds then asked, "what language do you speak over there". Everyone around me just stopped and looked at him in disbelief. I told him that we speak English. At this his face lit up and he said, "that's so cool, the same as us'.
I once saw an American lady online ask, "How come the British all speak English and not some European language?"
I swear to God I'm not making that up.
Yes, my English cousin lives in Florida and gets it all the time. Well after he tells them he's not Australian 😂
@@101steel4I was in Florida a few years back. They thought I was an Aussie too. I think they assume we all talk like Jacob Rees Mogg or something
@@nigethesassenach3614or Terry Thomas
They all think us brits are fekin crocodile Dundee!! 😅
The last time I was in Disney world was 2013. A lady at the pool kept on asking me about the square footage of my home, which I personally never even gave a thought to. I told her it was 3 bedroom, one and a half bath. Finally, after the third time I said it's about 1400 square feet. She looked at me and asked how I could live in such a small home. She was shocked that everybody in Canada doesn't live in Hugh homes. But what really annoyed me was when she asked how many Humvees we have. Gas in Canada is 4 times the cost as in America, I don't know anyone who drives a Humvee. Americans have no idea how the rest of the world live.
Gas is not 4x the cost. It's like 1.3x the cost on average. Canadians just don't like spending much on gas where as Americans spend tons on it normally.
Tbh it always shocked me how an American could think that an house of 100+ square meters is small, here in Italy the norm for a family of 4 people is between 65 square meters and 95, and I do personally think that the houses on the upper part of the scale are actually almost too big, in my opinion probably the perfect size would be 80/85 square meters ( roughly 900 square feet)
Well, their houses are quite big, but the floorplans are often hilariously bad. As is the quality of many houses.
In my town (in Bavaria) an American once tried to sue a hotel, because he broke his hand punching a (brick) wall.
Well, he obviously couldn't do that, but people had a lot of fun showing him the news articles about the dumb cunt that first threw a fit, punched a wall like a maniac, broke his hand and then tried to sue (yes, it was in the newspaper, it was so idiotic it made it in the local news. :P).
You can always tell an American, but you can't tell them much. 🤔
From a Kiwi... No, we're NOT part of Australia.
i can 2nd that, never been to Aussieland but NZ!
That's a great line, I'll remember that
From what I gather, most Aussies would emphatically agree with you. :D
I'm SO gonna use that line next time it's appropriate. 👍😂
...agreed, and yet, you are both part of Australasia, the continent, along with several very small islands 🏝 😀...(I'm english by the way!)...
Im Canadian and I went to Mexico many years ago when I was 16 years old. At the resort, I was doing a special craft at an arts event. I was sitting next to a middle aged woman having good conversation. She continued to tell me that her home is extremely close to the equator and it’s quite warm. I asked nicely where her home was and she responded with “ in Missouri!”
😢😢
Tyler. I worked in Hotel Management in the UK for over 30 years and my experience of American guests being confused over differing accents within the English language, as shown by the Australians in your video, is absolutely true.I've encountered American guests even compliment me on how well I spoke English and was it hard to learn?? My answer to that was to gently but firmly remind them that the English Language originated in BRITAIN - it's a major Historical FACT! We gave it to America through history as British settlers arrived.
I've also had the dumbest questions asked of me by American guests staying in UK Hotels, especially in Scotland, where in one hotel in Edinburgh, we had at least 2 coaches per night of Americans doing a round the UK Tour and this was their first visit to Scotland. So, I and my colleagues would get.....
Do you have electricity here? (because they couldn't see Electrical cables strung across the street, nor could they comprehend in the UK, it invariably comes via cables underground!).
Do you have Television here? (we'd answer, "we ought to, we invented it!") Followed by.....
Don't you have American TV Channels across here? (not then in the 70's). Followed by.....
Is there any English to American translation service for UK TV channels?
But the best one was always how Americans couldn't believe how Scotland was a Country all of its own right. Some more elderly USA citizens said they'd been taught that Scotland was a little village in Northern England!
Or as one American businessman who was staying in the hotel in which I worked in England a few years ago once admitted, "I've travelled the world for my USA based company and always believe I've heard every stupid comment from Americans abroad.
But I'm always embarrassed by some of them who haven't a clue, and show up my Country as utter jerks with their dumbass questions and comments!"
Thank you, well put 🏴💜🌻
Was Tourist in London a few years back, saw an american couple get wrecked by the Queens Guard. Pushed out of the way from the back because the were behind the red line. Both americans ate dirt, and the guy was walked over. He got up and tried to fight the guard but was grabbed away by police.
I went to school in England in the 1950,s my history teacher had spent over twenty years teaching in usa; he was forever extolling the. Virtues about how clever the Americans were compared to us¡ What happened.😂😅
But ...Scotland IS a little village in northern England!
@@strangelee4400 Scotland is also a village in Ontario, Canada.
Luxembourg maybe small but it's a extremely rich beautiful modern country that would surprise many Americans
Luxembourg is gorgeous.
Warm regards from the Netherlands. 🌷
My dad was a taxi driver & picked an American couple up at the airport. Once in the car they proceeded to ask my dad to "TAKE US TO THE TOWN OF SCOTLAND"......I'd like to point out that he had called them from Prestwick Airport (Scotland) and we were on the West Coast of Scotland....speechless....
That was hilarious but also very worrying. A teacher thinking , Canada, no cars only sleds(or sledges) this from a supposedly educated person? Seriously troubling, the level of ignorance. (I’m from Northern Ireland)
just go there, i spend 6 months in the USA, and i came across people you wouldnt believe me.....
someone told me Henry Ford invented the car.....telling a German that made me turn around and leaving the room!
Well remember.... in Canada we all live in igloos hence the need for sleds. **eye roll**
Unfortunately, Florida worries the rest of the USA too… 😢
Greetings to Ireland from México 😊😊
It kind of grates when we are told in the UK that we speak British instead of English.
Eh a Ken,being telt wi speak English kinda grates tae 😊
in english class in my german school, we were told by our teacher that we could freely choose one variant, but then would have to stick to only that version ...
either british or american :-)
@@grahamsangster1042 😆
@@Anson_AKB😂😂😂
@@Anson_AKB There is only one right choice, there, in my view: British English. 1) Americans will think your accent is adorable, 2) Brits won't wince and secretly hate you for choosing the 'wrong' accent. Win-win.
I understand the cashier's confusion with the Australians. I'm a Brit and I was in coversation with an American who was trying to tell his wife's name. I was having the greatest difficulty understanding 'Aayyyeerrrrnnn' and asked him to write it down. He wrote 'Ann'.
haha. Gave me a chuckle, this one.
back in the late 70's our church got itself a new minister - he'd married a Texan girl while out there, got married and had a daughter. so, at his 'installation' party, the congregation got to meet up with the new minister, wife, and daughter.
one thing I learnt right from the word go - you don't f* with Texans, they'll mess you up as soon as you think you're on your feet with them. she could cook everyone under the table and had an accent almost as big as the state she was raised in. she introduced us to their daughter.. called her by name. everyone in the room heard 'Airless'. people commented that it wasn't a name they'd consider giving a child, and 'the rectors dog, Ben - such an easy word to remember!' and 'what sort of fun and games name is 'Airless'?'
the new minister found a moment to be heard over the growing commotion questioning their childs name.
'Its ALICE!! come here ALICE, let me introduce you to these PEOPLE, ALICE!!!' whilst trying to not look angry under a forced grin. my mum was the cleaner at the rectory and the rectory flat next door, so I got to know the new ministers wife quite well. she was fun to hang around with - she was a feeder who enjoyed cooking and I have to admit, I do miss her cooking.
and because of that miscommunication - Alice remained 'Airless' throughout their tenure and when we visited them when he took on his own parish 😂
@@audiocoffee That's so wholesome though!
😂😂😂😂
a few weeks ago, i spoke with a couple from Aussieland...here in Germany!
i understood them well, been to NZ, UK and the USA before...
so if i as a not native English speaker can communicate with them, why cant you???
As a Canadian... from the far north. The first interaction we had with Americans were pen pals... 100% of the letters sent to us were bad drawings of igloos asking how/ if we had running water and electricity and how we plugged in our tvs in the igloo. I'm not Inuit I am Dene. We never lived in igloos. But 100% of the letters were the same. I was 6 it made me wonder about the teachers...
My Dad had a tie for American business trips that looked like that and it was sad how many Americans thought it was real. People from Montana and north Dakota got it but no one we met in Florida understood the joke.
I was in Cardiff recently and was walking underneath the battlements which had been converted to air raid shelter during the war, there was an American couple behind me, the gentleman said, "I don't know why there's an air raid shelter here, only London got bombed during the war." My adopted home is Plymouth, and was definitely bombed
As a historian this triggers me. Where is this man I'm going to beat him with a history book.
Hitler only focused on London (and the few other bigger cites) after the bombing raid on Berlin. Even though the bombing didn't do much it was enough to piss off Hitler so he ordered bombing of the big civilian cities, mainly London. Before that everywhere was getting bombed.
I was on holiday and met an American couple, after explaining that my City (Leeds) was in the North of England and not London. The woman's eyes lit up and then she said ' my friend Suzie Jones lives in Leeds, do you know her'. I said No, and she replied that I must know her friend because we are from the same place. The population of my City is almost 796 thousand!!.
Doesn't surprise me. When i worked for Royal Mail. Dozens of letters and parcels would be addresed to England, with no city, county, post code or anything. Just the name of recipient and Country. ALL of them were from the USA. Nowhere else.
Reminds me of a Jasper Carrot joke when he went to the US people kept asking him if he knew the Queen.
Not quite the same but it can be a small World sometimes! When I was a kid we bumped into some neighbours from our street in a supermarket in the south of France. Neither of us knew the other family was going on holiday, never mind to the same place.
My favourite reply to stuff like this is "Have you ever been to China? No? Then you _must_ know my aunt - she hasn't been there either."
@Polarbear4 Yeah, a few years back my partner and I went to Blackpool for the weekend. The first morning we nipped out from the B&B to get a paper and the first people we saw walking up the street were our next door neighbours.
When we went to America I was asked if I was Australian I said no I'm from Manchester UK she said you named a place after our Manchester lol I said no I think you will find Manchester UK been there a lot longer than yours 😂😂
It's almost as if people who settled in America in the first place had some kind of respect or fond memories toward the place where they came from.
One of the dumbest things I heard an American say was by a lady who was planning to visit England and she was asking the interviewer "what language do they speak over there".
So im from the UK and of South Asian descent and about 20 years ago i was visiting relatives in Pakistan. We're at some big event and bump into some White tourists speaking English to each other and my friends, all local Pakistanis, got really excited about hearing a "real" conversation in English so got me to go to them and have a chat. I'm a sociable guy so why not?
Turns out they're American University professors currently teaching in the UK in a city about 20 miles away from me and are in Pakistan on a break specifically for this event. We have a chat for about 15 mins while my mates were absolutely loving listening to this pretty mundane conversation.
Anyway, it gets time to part ways and just as the conversation ends, and despite me only just telling them that i was born in the UK and lived about 20 miles from where they were teaching and just in Pakistan visiting like they were, one of them, with a huge American smile on her well meaning face, compliments me on how well i managed to pick up English and off they toddled on their merry way leaving me literally speechless for a few seconds...
Oh yeah, and the reason my mates had come across these tourists in the 1st place was because one of them, in a country where men, as a rule, don't pee standing up, had spotted one of the Americans standing next to a wall peeing and had run back to the group losing his mind about this madman having a pee stood up and everyone went back with him to see cos they just couldn't wrap their heads around it and thought he was making it up. Which was why, when the poor fellow turned around after putting himself away, he saw a bunch of brown faces grinning at him and looking at him as if he was an alien.
I live about 3 miles away from Windsor and its castle. Whilst stood in view of Windsor Castle, pausing on a bike ride a few years ago, I was asked by an American tourist as a plane having taken off and still climbing from the nearby Heathrow airport, why the Castle was built so close to the airport.
😂
They are a special breed aren’t they.
Ditto an American on the Edinburgh train from Glasgow said it was great that they built the castle next to the railroad.
I have seen quite a few Americans reacting clips like these and the thing that comes over as most problematic for Americans in understanding anything about the rest of the world is that the American education system doesn't seem to teach the importance of being humble or anything about history in the rest of the world unless the student chooses to take a course in it. This leaves the majority of the population coming off as extremely dumb when anything outside of America is involved in conversation as well as coming over as very arrogant (and often heavily racist).
Some of them think, that slavery was an american invention and that it was based on racism.
They don’t even know their own history unless they choose to learn about it beyond the classroom. Even those who come from the nonpublic schools don’t know their history. It’s getting worse with the sanitizing of the curriculum so the children won’t feel bad about being white. America is well on its way to imploding.
They are ignorant about their own country. They really do not know much American history or geography. They only “know” America is the best country in the world and they are very lucky to be American, nothing else matter.
Love your channels Tyler. First off, America is very diverse and there are all types, but here's a funny story. I live in Saint John New Brunswick Canada. A friend of mine worked at a shop in the market about 15 years ago. An American tourist was rather annoyed that we accepted American money, but did not return change in American money. My friend explained to the tourist that he was in Canada, to which the tourist replied, " I was in Alaska last year, and they gave me American money back!!!"
I watched one American in a shop in England ask a price for something. When they said 10 pounds, she replied don't you mean dollars? 🙄
I live in Alberta (Canada) and belong to a FB group having to do with Banff & Jasper National Parks. The umber of Americans that pose the question of, do I need to get Canadian money? Will they accept American money? And also not understand why they won't get American money in exchange 🤦♀️
Worked in tourism for years….the nice Americans are the ones who get on the coach last and apologise for the other fifty passengers being idiots!!
As a Brit, I find more Canadians know about Europe... its history and geography. I do not find this with Americans... unless something happens in the US or pertains to the US, they seen quite unknowing of it.. Having said this, when confronted with highly educated US citizens, their breadth of knowlege can be astonishing.
Could the fault be with American TV news, which, I hear, can be US-centered, even parochial?
Because Canadians are educated on Europe and British history, geography
This is the reason, thank you. I love Canada and all the Canadians we have here in the UK. (Only problem I have...I am 50% French but I struggle so badly with Canadian French when I'm there!) @@terrylynn9984
Very true about educated Americans.
Yes there are many well educated Americans
BUT most of them have a background in good middle class or richer upbringing and they have had the opportunity to go to a school that has both good teachers and good equipment on hand to educate them
The fact that monetary situation is so important for your educational outcome is not good for you in the long-term
I'm from Norway and we don't have a system that exclude people just because they're poor
Everyone is entitled to an good education and it's free all the way up to university
Same thing with Healthcare free and affordable for all
Very socialistic I know but we'll it works for us after all we only has the biggest wealth fund in the world so there's that 😂😂😂
I went on holiday to Florida and a guy from Texas asked where I was from and I told him England. He did not know where England was, I had to explain UK, Great Britain. He then asked if I was sure? I said, yes, where do you think I'm from? He said Australia because of my accent. I just said, "yes, you are right, I lied to you for no reason". He said "why would you lie?". I walked away.
My cousin lives in florida. After a decade of telling them he's English, not Australian, one locals still says G'day when he walks into their shop 🙄
I spent a student summer in America waitressing. One couple asked me where I was from. I said Ireland. They asked me how I got to America. “By bus”. I replied.
In fairness if you're not used to the differences Aussie language and Brit can sound the same.
An easy way to tell the difference is by which one cusses more.
@@LGBTQLegend the language yes, it's English.
The accent though is very different.
As you said Brit, that includes Wales and Scotland, so again, doesn't sound the same at all.
My brother used to work in hospitality... in a hotel bar in the Scottish island of Skye. They got a lot of tourists from all over the world.
He has so many stories of what he managed to convince U.S. tourists of about Scotland. He was rarely ever able to convince other nationalities of any of these.
The Scottish classic is pretending that the haggis is a real animal, but he went further and convinced tourists that the sheep that were marked with a red spot of dye on their coats (which is to help distinguish ownership) actually meant that they were to show which sheep had been bitten by the wild haggis and were now being quarantined. Those with the blue spots had been tested and were clear of "infection" 😂. The tourists were shocked to see just how many sheep in their photos had a red spot.
He also convinced a group of U.S. tourists that our second tap at the sink was for dispensing porridge in the morning 😂.
Sitting here laughing me head off at that!!! Remembering when I was about 5 my grandad telling me that a haggis has one leg shorter than the other so it can keep its balance on the hillside, and to kill a haggis you have to make it turn round so then the short leg is on the down-hill side and the long leg is on the up-hill side and it will roll down the hill and crash. 😂
@@Jenny.C1978 Yeah, that is definitely a classic!. 😁
That's cruel, very cruel. Hilarious though. 🤣🤣🤣
@@Jenny.C1978lmao legend
@@Jenny.C1978🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂crying laughing!!!
On holiday in London.. Get asked for directions by some American tourists. I said I had no idea I was lost too. They got sooo angry and said you English people (I'm Irish) are soo rude and unhelpful
similar question with a first assumption "of course you need to know" (but no remark about rudeness) when someone from one part of my town asked me about some nearby road in a different part of my town we both randomly happened to be in at that time. but what do you expect with 3+ million people and an area of 900 km² (350 mi²) ?
To be fair, they were half right, you were unhelpful, I guessing you were also ignorant (as in, did not know the answer they were seeking).
I'm guessing you found yourself, hope you enjoyed London.
At a Kaileigh in Ireland, having some of the best craic in my life a stick-thin blonde yankee woman said "I bet you'd love to live in USA/get a green ticket?" ... Fuck Nooo!
*ceilidh.. surely?
@@sufferablespot on. The poster above was trying to impress, but got it wrong…
When on deployment at sea, stopping over in the US, a local bloke, a civillian, asked me if I drove (in a land vehicle to his location) from Australia.
I have another - I have lived all over the world so Americans aren't the only ones. But I was living in the U.S. and our children were attending school. I told our daughters they could sing the Star Spangled Banner (they had already learned that in school in Canada) but they should stand out of respect but couldn't pledge allegiance to the flag. My 8 year old daughter was kicked out of class and I was called to the school. They didn't understand a Canadian cannot pledge allegiance. I mentioned that the bombs bursting in air in the national anthem were bombs headed in our direction. They had no idea and I had to take history books in to them to convince them. After that they made my daughter, even though she could sing the National Anthem and had to stand respectfully for the Pledge, leave the classroom until these were finished each morning.
At an airport in NZ about to board a small plane to go on a whale watch scenic flight, we found the other passengers were Americans 🥺 They started with "Oh my God Stanley, that thing has got propellers!!" & it continued for 2 hours! It felt like I had been in a weird American movie! Bombarded with a headspinning litany of bizarre comments, spoken with a comedic drawl. 🤪
Oh, tell me about it! Some of my most teeth-grinding moments on one of my back-packing holidays to NZ involved American tourists (usually over a certain age and retired ... I guess the younger ones didn't have enough paid holiday to go such a distance). These people seemed incapable of seeing/hearing/smelling something without giving a loud running commentary - usually of the utterly inane variety. The worst was on a trip to the Waitomo Caves, famed for their glow-worms. The guide explained that everyone had to be quiet, or the glow-worms would be less brave and wouldn't light up. Hooray, I thought - finally some peace and quiet. But NO! These elderly people had verbal diarrhoea (yeah, try spelling that one, Americans!) and literally nothing was going to keep it contained. Result: a really poor glow-worm display, and me feeling murderous.
@@sairhug How hugely disappointing! I can relate to that so well. It would have been tempting to gesture to "shut up" i went on a holiday to US before lockdown, and I couldn't wait to get on the plane home. I found the women worse. Raucous and garralous.
Coming from Carlisle ENGLAND I was asked in Prague how I learned English. I replied I was born in England! Her reply was you picked up English very well!!!😂😂😂😂
I was in a group conversation with an American lady that swore that Australia didn't have their own currency. They used the US dollar exclusively. It took a long time for everyone to convince her and I'm not sure if she really believed them.
Tbf they think the whole world uses the USD 😂
Oh no… I really hope this wasn’t my friend from school… she couldn’t believe me when I said other countries have their own form of currency 😂
Or, when they hear "dollar", they believe the USD is the only one of those to exist. Never mind the Canadian dollar or Australian dollar. Even more confusing, the Mexican peso uses the same $ symbol.
As I've said previously, americas postion on a lot of things is how europe was 200 odd years ago. We had no social safety nets, we had no social healthcare, we where crazy capitalist, imperialist conquerors. We just grew up, america will get there one day.
I guess every country wants to have their turn at conquering, before they mature.
May take a few centuries yet!
Yeah, the problem is that we also didnt have nuclear weapons around the time when we were like that. The US has both insane millitary power and a mindset that would have been antiquated 100 years ago^^.
The Australian accent story, I relate to. I'm from near Sheffield (about 16 miles) in the UK, so my accent is pretty close to that in the movie The Full Monty (not exactly the same, but it serves as a handy reference). I was visiting the states and met up with a bunch of friends in a hotel bar in Chicago. After 4 attempts to order a beer, a friend had to 'translate'for me. Like, yeah I have an accent, but I ain't speaking Martian.
That same Chicago trip, I walked into a hobby chain store (Games Workshop, to be specific) that started in the UK. Now, folks in the hobby are generally very passionate about it. The store manager clocked easily I was from the UK and so started asking questions. How long had I been in the hobby, what did I play, had I ever visited the headquarters (also a huge community hub) etc and almost started hyperventilating when I told him I lived about 25 miles from it. I didn't dare tell the guy I'd had a job interview there a few months earlier so had had a tour of the 'behind the scenes' bit 😂
I was in texas in a mall, and i was feeling a little homesick so i put on my local rugby leagues team shirt, then this guy said you're not, turned out he lived 8 miles from me in the uk. and we were speaking proper, english but as soon as we started talking our accents got broader and faster, and the americans i was with soon lost track of what we were saying they said it was like another language
@Greenwood4727 When people who speak English as a second language come to England, sometimes they have trouble understanding our varied accents. But a German and a Polish guy (for example) can easily understand each other when speaking English to each other. I've met quite a few Polish people who all spoke very good English but every one of them apologised
for their bad English. I always joke that they speak it better than a lot of us do. I'm from Coventry myself and our accent is supposed to be unique from other Midland accents.
I was born In Dorset, I live in Birmingham, and visited Sunderland. I asked directions from a women there, could not understand a word she said. If she is reading this, I'm so sorry. She understood us, and she gave up talking and just beckoned us to follow!
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. 😂
Great comment😂
Not a place until a war happens that might effect America. Otherwise your just fictional.
Unfortunately, god has failed. Just look at those maps where americans try to point to Iraq or North Korea on the map
Unfortunately, it doesn't work! Among my fellow Americans, I shudder at the embarrassingly low numbers who can identify places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Vietnam on a map (to name only a few of the places that have dominated the news - for bad reasons - in my lifetime). Even those who could identify the correct CONTINENT would be a woeful minority!
Indeed!
Not a country but...I grew up in Wyoming and I've met Americans who thought we could only use wagons or horses to get around in Wyoming. They sometimes ask where we store our cars. Our worse, they ask what country Wyoming is in, and at best what state is Wyoming in.
I used to live in Durham; a medieval city known for its gigantic cathedral. A friend was stopped by an American couple and asked whether the tiny church in the marketplace was the cathedral. What was worse was they’d come from the castle, whose only entrance faces the cathedral across a large empty green.
define gigantic??
i just checked it out...that thing is kind of tiny, if you compare it to Notre Dame or Cologne cathedral.....
the city i work, they have 3 old churches the same size and none is called a cathedral!
it looks like you inventing stuff so people still want to come the Brexshit island!
The Falafel one was a fine example of rascism, he looked at that woman and made the assumption she was an arab.
Falafels aren't arabic. They have been invented in Egypt, probably by the Copts. Egyptians weren't arabs. Copts are christians. Falafafels are now traditionnally made by Midwest people, christians, jewishs, arabs and those whose origins are there.
@@laurentpaumier3103 And you think Americans know that? Ha ha these are people that don't understand that people in England speak English ffs.
That's not racism as there was no hate intended. More like racial ignorance.
@@laurentpaumier3103and, as I learned when I lived in Egypt, falafel is called tameya there and the best sandwich ever is tameya with slices of cucumber & tomato with tahini sauce in baladi bread (Egyptian flat bread)
@@c_n_bI'd say it's both. I mean, Arabic, Egyptian or whatever, why would they assume she could or would automatically cook and sell falafels at a stand of all things, when she's clearly a financial advisor?
I've had many run in with Americans, espically in Discord and I have to say about 90% of the time they are really polite and nice people to talk to and listen to as I love all the different American accents that I have come across.
And the people I have spoken to will ask a question about the UK or Europe if they're not sure about something.
But there is still that 10% where every now and again you get these Americans that will straight up come across as ignorant and rude especially to someone like my adobted Scottish son who has a very strong Dundee accent. We have had some people say to him that he isn't from Scotland as people there don't have an accent like that, as they don't speak English there.
Mind you these people have never left their country ever.
And he needs to stop putting on the accent as he sounds stupid and to talk properly what ever that means.
Then they get offended when he swears and tells them off in his lovely Scottish accent for offending him and his home land.
Your son sounds wonderful, you've done a good job
i play a war game in the internet,
i am in a Clan with Americans,
as the only European/German and my clan commander ask me one day if we Germans have something like a BBQ, too???
he couldnt believe that people in Europe do grilling and drinking beer with friends in our gardens...
after i told him that we can drink beer in public and can buy beer at 16...he told me to stop inventing stories..
I concur. I think most of them are nice people, despite what I said in another comment. I think most of the fault lies in their Educational system, which puts little to no importance in anything not American.
We were sitting in a pub in my hometown in BC and a visiting American couple sat next to us. We struck up a conversation and chatted about their holiday. We had already established that they were Americans, but I asked where they were from. "Oh, you won't have ever heard of it". I figured it was probably some tiny town, but I persisted... "Well, try me". The answer was "Maine". That told me so much about the American education system. They honestly thought a Western Canadian wouldn't have heard of Maine. I've travelled in Maine, so when I started rattling off the names of towns and cities in Maine, they were absolutely flabbergasted.
I’ve had a good laugh reading all the comments on here. Some of the things Americans do & have said are hilarious. 😂 I have my own story…when I was 11 we were on holiday in Toronto, Canada. We’re English but at the time we were living in Southern Ireland not far from Dublin. Anyway, I met a girl from the USA whose family were also on holiday at the same place as us in Toronto. So she of course, asks me where I was from. I explained that we lived in Ireland. She then said “is that in London”? I realised very quickly that she didn’t know that Ireland was a whole different country in of itself, and that London is merely the capital of England. I was quite flabbergasted really, as we were taught about world maps, and basic information about countries in my primary school. To be fair, she was only 11, as was I, at the time.
She probably wouldn't know much more even now
i could tell you more about Ireland as you knew yourself, at the same age...but i went to school in Germany and our news been full with Ireleand because of the IRA!
Once was in Newcastle upon Tyne and was asked by an American couple how long it would take to walk to London as they wanted to visit I was in shock I mean come on now you are on holiday and you haven't looked. I just said "maybe 4 days I'm not sure."
Then I said get the train considering we were across the road from the station, they said
"no we'll hire a car how long you do you thing it would take?"
Me - "6 hours give or take depends on traffic near london."
They just looked confused then said thanks and walked off.
Left me confused too haha wtf
Should have used the John Wick lines, follow the North Star until you can’t walk any further, then London will find you😅😅
@@gmdhargreaves wish it had been out at the time haha
The rail system in the US isn't for passengers for at least 75 years; it's all for cargo. This may explain why they didn't take your suggestion seriously. Public transportation has been getting worse for the past 50 years or more. There are pretty much just two means of transportation here: car and airplane.
I'm Scottish, an American once tried arguing with me about my own fckin language and culture, started with him complimenting my English and just went down hill from there
An American when hearing I come from Finland: "Wow, how did you get out? Did you climb the wall??"
I’ve had similar experiences. I was once told how stupid I was in stating that there are 8 islands in the British Channel Islands - the American told me there are only 4 - the rest being uninhabited rocks.
I was born in Guernsey, grew up (and currently live), in Jersey, and have conducted about 2 decades of research on the history of the islands. He refused to listen and blocked me instead 🤷♂️
When you mention Jersey they think you mean NJ.
When I told an American I live in Essex, home of the Mayflower.
He said "Oh you have an Essex too?"
Plus he didn't know what the Mayflower was.
So if it's uninhabited, it's not an island? Good to know.
@jimgill, you can't reason with stupid, I would of thought thank God he blocked me 😂
My mother's side of the family came from, and lived, in Guernsey. It is very hard to describe them to outsiders though, They aren't part of the UK, but Crown Dependencies, but the UK defend them, give them food, newspapers etc. And they speak English for the most part. I know there are other languages there, Guernésiais, but my grandmother did not teach my mother it, so I don't know it.
@@anni50ful personally, I was thrilled with what he said. It’s not often you get that JACKPOT conversation when you know you’re right and can easily prove it 😂
I'm a Geordie from the North East of England, and I speak to people from the USA on an almost daily basis. It's not uncommon to be asked which part of Scotland I'm from, and when I say I'm not Scottish, they often say "Oh, I'm sorry, I meant Ireland". Forgiveable, I'm close to the Scottish border after all. But when I'm challenged and asked "You're not from Scotland? ARE YOU SURE?" [sigh]
❤❤❤love Newcastle always in my Hearr but even English peoples call KENYA kenia😂😂😂
Wye aya Marra
@@0utcastAussie GEORDIE ANCIENT
Yeah got this all the time in Texas. My reply sadly I was born 40 miles to far south to be Scottish. I'd get a smile because they still don't know what country is around the border.
Also had an elderly woman in Texas ask be if I'd been to Filey I was like yeah ofcourse on vacation. They she listed all the family she had in Filey and if I knew them since it was such a small place ... I just smiled bless her she must of been pushing 90
Aw, divven't get me started with Yanks. They kept asking me at work, I work in a Maccy's, if I was Canadian and that I spoke "perfect English" I told them "are you thick or pretend to be thick? I'm ENGLISH. I was born in Country Durham and raised for most of my life over the water in Gateshead!" My boss told me off for yelling but kicked the yanks out for harassing his staff about their accents
I lived in texas for a time, lovely place, nice people for the most part, but the amount of questions, one group asked about haggis, and me being me, i made up an entire story about its actually an animal, the sound of bagpipes is its mating call and they believed me.
Tell them you visited Australia and was almost attacked by drop bears!
Texas and Florida are in a league of their own when it comes to ignorance. Even by American standards.
😂I'm Norwegian. At 13 I visited Texas with my parents. I barely spoke English, and what I spoke was witha heavy accent. A Texan asked me where I came from, and I answered: Norway. He paused. Then asked me "huh, is that one of em northern states?" - in stuttering English I tried to explain that it was another country, on another continent.
Speaking English doesn't help much either.
They don't even understand people from ENGLAND 😂😂
Norway? You mean Northern Denmark. 😼
Just yesterday I was on my way to university, on the phone speaking Dutch and English to a friend of mine, and this American asked me "excuse me, is your family okay back in Israel?" because he thought I was speaking Hebrew. I had to kindly explain what Dutch was, where the Netherlands is, and also had to let him know that I'm actually just English, language learning is my hobby and that I was born here in Newcastle (north east England)
😂😂. I’ll bet his head nearly exploded!
My favourite from those was an American getting hassle in a bank, because the teller wouldn't accept their ID, or driving licence, because they hadn't heard of their state and refused to believe it was in the US.
I (Canadian) went to Boston on a class trip when I was 13/14 years old. I was asked if we lived in igloos, owned beavers, and if we all spoke French. I also got yelled at by a guy running a stand in the mall because a Canadian dime accidentally made it's way into my change. Not several dimes, one.
when I was an AuPair in America in the late eighties, fellow AuPairs from Germany were asked whether we had fridges in Germany. One was asked whether we see the moon. Some people thought we didn’t have cars (in the land of the Autobahn, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW…)…
Asking if Germans have cars, for God's sake, it's only the country that invented the bloody things, and the moon? No, you see Der Mond 😂(which today I learned, or rather relearned, that the root word for Monday is the germanic word for moon)
In any case, hallo und guten abend aus England (I hope that's grammatically correct, I didn't learn much German at school)
@@PaulTheFox1988 Indeed. And, your German is good - at least what is here…Sometimes, it is really interesting to learn how many American live in their absolute bubble, thinking outside of the U.S. of A. there are only wilderness and “third world” conditions (where they also, unbeknownst to Americans, have cars, and cell phones, and can see the moon)…
@@Attirbful Danke schön, though I've had to use Google translate and then looking up grammar rules where it got it wrong 😁
When I can afford it Germany is on my list of places to visit for sure, but for now the best I can do is recognise that I suck at any other language other than English (and even that's a challenge lol) and admit I know nothing.
Ignorance isn't unique to America, but they definitely do it better than anyone else
Germany The country that invented cars
My sister was over on a school exchange in the late Eighties. The German kids were asked whether they were familiar with ketchup and televisions. What was it like to live surrounded by rubble?
I used to work at the National Museum of Scotland, on the edge of Edinburgh Old Town (the town wall, the Flodden Wall, actually goes through the building). There is a flat roof on part of the building where you could enjoy the view. One member of staff there was asked by a US tourist, pointing at Edinburgh Castle looming above us, "say, is that Stirling Castle?" "No, sir, that's Edinburgh Castle". "So where is Stirling Castle?" "Stirling, sir". Exit one baffled tourist.
American's refusal to even attempt to understand a different accent *in the same freaking language* never ceases to amaze me.
You just can't be an english speaker and not be exposed to multiple accents, i honestly dont know how these people tie their shoelaces in the morning.
Have you never heard that famous quote (i believe its from terry pratchett, but im not 100% sure ) regarding accents:
"(A European will say)
Oh god, i can hear that person speak, and i think it is english, but i don't understand it at all! What is wrong with me?
(An American will say)
Oh god, i can hear that person speak, and i think it is english, but i don't understand it at all! What is wrong with him?"
The "American door" is marked "SORTIE"
😂❤🇬🇧
😂👍
A Guy I used to work with (not American) was convinced that Hawaii was in the Mediterranean. I pointed out to him that if that were the case as the Japanese carrier fleet passed through the straits of Gibraltar on the way to attack Pearl Harbour I think the British may well have warned the USA.
Years ago a friend off mine was a bus driver in London and she told me it was common for American tourists to get on a bus to Stratford (east London) an on arrival ask for directions to Shakespeare's house/birthplace and was it a long walk. She would point west and tell them it was about 130 miles that way & that it was a 35 hour walk.
I remember telling an American couple to visit Hampton Court palace, as it was Henry VIII home.
They asked if he still lived there.
Once, in France, some young American women were in a Parisian wine shop. They had extremely limited French and the shopkeeper didn't speak English. They chose 3 bottles of wine, each from a different region. The shopkeeper commented that, with their selection, they had their own 'Tour de France' (it was July). They gaped at him, saying 'Huh?'. He patiently and slowly repeated himself, getting the same response. I spoke slowly and explained that they had purchased wine from 3 different regions and so had their own Tour de France. They looked at me in great puzzlement and said 'Huh?'. I tried once more before giving up.
You might be amazed how few Americans have even heard of the "Tour de France."
I don't think it's overly ignorant to not know of the Tour de France, I imagine most of us in the west haven't heard of some particularly famous sporting event in Asia for instance
Tyler, I've watched many reaction videos, when it comes to Americans reacting I have a great respect for you. I find most others get really offended and defensive. Where your eyes and mind are open, most are closed. Thank-you for being such a wonderful person to react and learn. Love your vids
To be fair as much as i like the guy he is a prime example of the kind of Americans we are talking about - some of the questions he asks during his videos sometimes makes me fall off my chair
I think you missed my point
yes@@jojow6519
Brown Noser !!!😂 (english insult!!!)...
He has a wonderful channel in which he learns all about Canada. He is a delight.
An American exchange student in the UK once asked if we celebrated independence day in the UK.
We just feigned ignorance of what independence day even was, and asked her to explain it in the vague hope that the process of explaining independence day might trigger some kind of thought process. She fully explained independence day without once thinking that perhaps what she was asking made no sense.
A missed opportunity there for her.. wow! The ignorance is palpable
To be fair it is something we British should start celebrating big time - Dont worry Americans are too thick to be insulted - they would take it as a compliment
I had a similar experience, but it didn't stop there, and when it came to Thanksgiving, she was visibly disturbed that we didn't have it as a national holiday! I don't think she ever understood why we don't share her excitement and appreciation for those occasions.
it happened to me too... I told them that we Brits celebrate it for the same reason they do. It went over their head, not realising that had they not broken away, the UK UK would by now have been ruled by Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Trump. Seriously, we really should celebrate July 4.
it happened to me too... I told them that we Brits celebrate it for the same reason they do. It went over their head, not realising that had they not broken away, the UK UK would by now have been ruled by Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Trump. Seriously, we really should celebrate July 4.
I heard from another American UA-camr, that the emergency phone number used to be promoted (I don't know why everyone wouldn't know it lol) as 9-11 but then they changed it to 9 1 1 as Americans couldn't find the 11 on the dial 🙄
“Where are the American doors?”
Is an aggressively American sentence 😝
On stage singing 😂
I probably would have replied 'in America, where else would they be?'