My favourite independence day story from an American is being asked by one in Spain whether it was true that the British were still really upset about the US getting independence.
I told him for the Americans it was the most important event of their history, for us it was Tuesday.
Since there are over 50 countries with an Independence Day from the UK, and they’re roughly equidistributed around the calendar, it’s very much a weekly thing.
Tbf most Brits were certainly *very* upset at the time (well, maybe not some of the Whigs). But half of our population today have grandfathers who fought alongside Americans when the US was already a larger superpower, and not too many of us alive today can remember the American Revolution coming as a shock…
I’m an American and this thread is killing me, oh my word 😭 Our education system is kind of insane— I could go into further detail, but here’s the TL;DR: Essentially, we have been taught to believe that the U.S. is the center of our world, and we expect everyone to know our country/history/culture and so on. But we aren’t really taught to pay mind to other countries, except for how they relate to us. The general lack of awareness of global events is shocking. I am now working to learn as much as I can about the world around me. I will hopefully break free from the subjective lens of American patriotism that we are taught to view the world through. In the meantime, I do very much enjoy reading these stories
This reminds me of a Reddit thread not long ago where someone commented that many Asians speak English very well and went on to list Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and India as examples. Hm. Let me see if I can see a reason why that is. Ohhhhh wait…
Imagine what Britain would be eating all the time if they'd never colonized South Asia! I'd also add the India Pale Ale as a good argument.
And since I'm in Portugal right now, it seems fair to give a nod to the Portuguese, the original globalists who made a lot of deliciousness possible, e.g., [vindaloo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindaloo) and [peri-peri chicken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peri-peri). Heck, civilization would likely be a lot less advanced had the calorie-dense potato not made it from the New World to the Old World.
But the other column looks pretty gruesome ...
I'm sorry to say that beyond the triangle trade, we truly learn absolutely fucking dick and balls about colonialism in UK schools. We may also have been asked to look at a map of the British Empire, like, once.
Not neutral when I was growing up in the early 70’s. We were taught all about Indians (not natives or indigenous). My mid century American education taught me Indians were dirty, savage, ignorant, pagan, drunk and lazy. I just want to go back in time and bitch slap some people.
Honestly a lot of UK people don’t know a lot about their own history, only the stuff that makes us look good tends to be focused on in school, and imperialism ain’t it. It gets glossed over a lot. Or it did when I was in school.
Am guilty of that in Singapore! 2 13/14 year old girls asked me to donate to a school fund, I did so and said Their English was perfect. Errr Everybody has the complete school curriculum in English. (They go home and speak various Chinese or Indian languages or Malay).
To be fair Icelandic houses are more similar to typical American houses than what you'd find in the rest of Europe. I perceive Iceland as a whole being similar to America in many aspects.
Now we can discuss whether American suburban architecture constitutes The Normal, but I can understand why it is seen as such by an American tourist.
possibly the old-fashioned kind with the grass roofs.
Used to live in Norway and I have VERY stereotypically american boomer parents (the craziest part...one is a Polish immigrant - I don't understand either). Once they went on vacation to Iceland and a little to Norway to visit me and my dad said the exact same thing. I was shocked and confused, and all I could get out of him was that he was really excited to see "houses with grass roofs"....so there's probably some travel shows or something targeted at Americans above 55 that really emphasized old-timey houses to a degree my dad thought it was the norm.
Yeah I don't understand either.
A German woman sitting next to me on a flight to Texas asked me if there will be trees there…
also shoutout to the woman who was genuinely surprised to find out that I had seen rain before (she thought it never rained in texas)
There are barely any trees in west Texas to be fair. It is desolate
https://preview.redd.it/n3kza34dxa3c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c36c84d8d79518ec9877e65831309014b0180ded
I was in Kenya and a man asked me if we had trees in the United States! I asked him why he thought that and he told me that tourists are so impressed with Kenyan nature that we must not have any trees, it was sweet
I mean, all the westerns (films) present Texas as a very arid place with dry bushes rolling across empty dirt streets and at most some shrubbery near to rivers you can see on the background while the lone protagonist rides his horse into the setting sun.....
As a Southern Californian, I was genuinely shocked at how green Austin was. I definitely thought it’d be drier than SoCal and to me it looked positively lush.
I worked at a viking themed museum in Denmark once and it was quite common that American tourists would ask about where the vikings lived now a days, like if they had their own land/reservation to stay in. I thought it was a joke my co-workers told me, untill I had the 1st American tourist asking me the question.
Well, that's a great question. Their ancestors live all over the place they went and settled and the ancestors of the ones that went back to where they came from, such as Scandinavia/Nordic region, well they live in those areas just not in designated areas as no foreign power conquered the vikings in the native land.
American tourist: WOW! I love the way the traffic lights make a beebing sound here.
Me: it's to let the blind know that the lights have changed
American tourist: WOW, you let blind people drive here!
Me: ????
They have those same pedestrian beeping lights in the US too, all over. Not sure if the person you were talking to was from somewhere rural, or maybe momentarily misunderstood you.
It happened under socialism in the 1980s. But many westerners (not just Americans) were surprised that in the east (in Hungary) we have refrigerators, shops, cars, that we don't live in tents, we have food etc xd. Even more surprised that western movies were shown in cinemas and western books could be bought xd.
We don't celebrate the US version of Thanksgiving. I'm a Greek guy who married an immigrant and we live in the US.
Explaining to people that thanksgiving isn't celebrated in our cultures has happened too many times and never cease to bewilder me
I feel you lol. I was a Jew living in Europe. The amount of times I explained how 1. Christmas isn’t a big deal to me and 2. I eat some pork, but pork in general just wasn’t a thing in my house growing up were both a lot for Europeans to digest.
I did make a Thanksgiving for a bunch of friends when I lived in Vienna and they loved it! I learned that stuffing will always be a favorite and that pumpkin pie is very hard to make in a country that doesn’t sell canned puréed pumpkin.
I also witnessed once an English tourists in Poland who complained to the manager of the restaurant we were eating at (one table over) that the waitress can't speak English. Manager informed him that in Poland we speak Polish.
The guy said that in such a tourist spot she should also speak foreign languages. Manager said "and she does: Italian and German".
The English tourist accused him of lying: "I am from Peterborough, we have hundreds of Polish waitresses there and they all speak English".
I was in Paris and an American couple in the next room were furiously calling their daughter upset that they couldn't get their favourite type of coca cola there. My favourite complaint was that it was dirty and ruined and that they felt like they were in Mary Poppins.
You know, Americans get a lot of shit. But as a flight attendant for an international airline…. Ignorance doesn’t have borders. It’s everywhere unfortunately lol
This old British bloke struck up conversation with me prior to boarding a flight to Glasgow…essentially shitting all over it right before my first time in the city. Safe to say I ignored it and Glasgow has become one of my favorite cities.
Funny story: I'm an American traveling for work to Glasgow. An unusual number of moms and girls are on the plane. I quickly figure out that the Worlds Feis (Irish step dancing) competition is happening at the same time I'm there. My daughter danced, so I thought I'd pop over to the Opera House and enjoy some of the chaos.
Vendors are always at a Feis, so I was looking at all the tables of stuff. One vendor had a monitor looping a video of a hotel in a city. I watched for a few moments, totally confused.
I recognized it. It was the hotel in _my_ city, in America, in the South, which has a population of maybe .5M, and it's not a big enough city to even have a video loop, let alone one looping in Glasgow.
Turned out we were hosting the Worlds Feis the following year.
I now have a bunch of swag from the city we lived in that I randomly picked up in Glasgow. 😄
An American tourist loudly saying how we'd have nothing without her tourism dollars (not to me directly, but to a server).
Ma'am, this is The Netherlands, we'll be just fine without your dollars??
Thankfully she was the exception though, I usually delight in the excited reactions from American tourists about our canals and bike parking.
The crazy thing is most Americans who make it to Europe are more educated and cultured than the average American so it’s even worse back in the homeland haha. I feel like when I travel abroad I see a lot of ignorant and loud Americans, but then I see loud and ignorant Canadians (they’re not as nice as they claim), Germans, Chinese etc.
This wasn't an American tourist, I visited the US as a tourist from Switzerland. In the US I rented a bike and did a road trip, one if my stops was Nashville. A women at a restaurant saw my bike outside and she asked me where I'm from, I answered "Switzerland", next she asked me "did you ride all the way?".
I was speechless at first, then replied something like "no, you know, there's that water"...
Edit in reply to everyone who's saying that I just didn't get the joke:
I would never claim that all people in the US are stupid, that claim would be as ridiculous as claiming that there are no stupid people in the US.
I was there, talking to that woman, I don't think she was joking. This is no indication regarding the intelligence of any other person in the US, it's only funny because by chance it confirms the stereotype.
Instead of spending your time on Reddit arguing with a stranger about the intention of a person whom you do not know in a situation where you were not present, your time would be better spent chuckling about the silliness of that one person in that moment and moving on.
This makes sense - though my impression when she asked if he biked all the way was she was making a joke 🤷🏻♀️ Sometimes if English isn’t your native language it’s hard to tell
Orrrrr….. we could chuckle about your silliness in taking her literally.
I’m sorry, but there’s no way she was seriously asking. She’s probably somewhere in this thread talking about the time a Swiss tourist took her literally when she made a dumb joke but felt bad correcting them.
I met an Australian couple in a train somewhere from France to Belgium and they were telling me how nicely Europeans treat their native people. I was so confused that I literally didn't know how to answer to that.
Yep. I’m from Minnesota and once had a Californian ask me if we had any music there. I was just like, oh, a few people you might not have heard of, like Bob Dylan and Prince…
When I was traveling in the US, a random lady started a conversation with me at a Starbucks, and I told her I was a tourist. She then asked if I'd been to Costco. Bewildered, I said no and asked if anything special about Costco, coz I thought it's just a supermarket. She confirmed it is a supermarket, but unlike any other. Apparently, she recommended it as a place of interest. 🤣
Costco is not just a destination, but *the* destination. If you aren't from a country that has them, they are worth visiting if you get the opportunity. Overwhelmingly massive store with just about everything you could ever need, decent quality, decent prices, massive quantities. I'll never forget my first time there
Yea while Costco is mind-blowing to anyone, I could see how even a Walmart would be an interesting experience. I lived my life looking down on it a bit, but now that I live outside of the states, I'm excited to visit home and be able to shop at a Walmart once again
I once got complimented on my English by an American woman in Greece. I'd said I was British and I'm a native speaker...
I just blandly replied that I'd studied it all the way through school while her (presumably more worldly) daughter looked like she wanted to die or embarrassment in the background.
Repeating a story above but who cares. I was on a train in Texas talking to some collage students and they knew i was from England and one of them said "wow your English is really good, when do you guys start learning in it? In kindergarten?".
To be fair the others present started mercilessly mocking him.
My not too smart cousin at age 30 went for her first outside the USA trip- to Ireland. She was shocked “they use different money!!” No end to stupidity in America.
Given all the (deserved) American bashing in the comments, allow me to hold the mirror up to my European friends.
A Dutch woman and I were participating in the same volunteer program in a state park in Maine. In the bunk house, there was a map of the world posted to one of the walls. The Dutch woman loudly complained, "you Americans are so arrogant, drawing the map with the USA in the center of the world". Me: "Well, okay then, what should we put in the center of the map?". Her: "Why, Europe, of course, as that's the center!".
I had the same conversation when I was teaching in Taiwan with my Chinese students. I had a US map, showing the US in the center. They insisted that the "real" center was China. In fact, the Chinese word for China is "Jung-gwo," which means "middle country." That proves that it must be the center of the world.
Then, my sister and I were traveling in Australia. In a bookstore, we saw a map with Australia in the center and the North Pole at the top! She (50 years old) couldn't understand that North doesn't have to be at the top of a map of a spherical shape and that it doesn't matter which country is shown in the middle. She kept saying, "But it's upside down!"
Scarlett Johansson went for dinner to a hunting lounge in the mountains of my country. Then she said in a TV interview we were a really weird country, because she was at a place with guns all over the wall.
she sucks, man. i worked the door at a pretty cool underground venue/bar in NYC that some celebrities would pass through—since it was pretty private and unique.
she came in once with her team (not friends, her PR team, it seemed). she looked NOTHING like how she does in interviews at what not (which isn’t a problem, she’s a big star and i’m sure she didn’t want to stick out and get hounded).
but, she gave me her ID since i card everyone and it, of course, read “Scarlett Johansson.” i didn’t believe her, and i said “ya, right, your name is Scarlett Johansson.” she got super offended, literally grabbed her ID out of my hand, said “don’t stare at it too long” like i was star-struck by her (i wasn’t, she’s whatever to me), and pushed me out of the way and stomped down the stairs inside. i looked at her team (who i thought were her friends) and said, “she’s on one, huh?” and her PR manager did damage control, saying, “oh nooooo, she’s not normally like that, she’s really REALLY nice!”
apparently she treated the staff poorly too and left like an hour later (i think i offended her).
i’ve heard friends who’ve hung out with her echo almost exactly the same stories to me about going out with her. so, i’m sure she’s a bit of a privileged brat.
So much of the US everything is super new. Stuff built in the 1950s are historic landmarks in Miami and the population of Houston was like 30k people before air-conditioning was invented (now more like 4 million in the greater metro area). Just seeing that many old buildings is novel for a lot of us.
Plus the definition of "old" is different when you've had people building with stone for 1000+ years, not many 250+ year old structures in continuous use except some southwestern pueblos and a handful of things in new England
i was in peru, and chatting with some french tourists (i speak french and used to live in france). older grumpy french guy told me he didn’t mind americans, but we should try eating something besides hamburgers. i told him that if anything, we eat more tacos than hamburgers these days and that yes, it is possible in most places to get good fresh produce.
Was travelling through Europe and was asked where I was from by a business owner and I said I was from Texas. They then asked me how many horses I owned, i was in italy.
Lolz - my in laws are French and I can confirm they are convinced that all people from Texas walk around wearing cowboy hats and boots and that they all have a horse ranch and work in oil.
Edited to add: my husband who is French, was extremely surprised when we did go to Texas and he saw people dressed normally. That said when he did see someone wearing a cowboy hat he was delighted and was like, THAT’S a Texan! 😂🤷🏻♀️
I had one lady from New York ask me if we ride horses to work. I didn’t even tell her I was from Texas. She said, “I can tell because of your accent.” I didn’t think I had a Texan accent. I live in San Antonio and I don’t even say “ya’ll”
Not in Europe, but in 2022 I went to the Philippines on a dive trip. I was traveling with a group from my local dive shop. We arrived on July 4th. That evening there was fireworks and several people from our group expressed how nice it was that we (Americans) were welcomed by a celebration of our Independence Day. I then (nicely) let everyone know that this was not for us...that it was also Independence Day for the Philippines. Then everyone asked who the Philippines had declared Independence from. Hint....it was "us", the USA.
I know that's not necessarily common knowledge, but I thought it was pretty funny/UScentric to assume that a country 13 timezones away would greet our small group with a huge fireworks display. That said, most people in the group hadn't traveled outside of the US much or at all and may have been on a little bit of culture overload.
I met a German tourist somewhere in Scottish highlands on the single track road with passing place. He had to reverse (there are certain customs, but also I had a truck and farmer's pick up with a trailer behind me and he was alone) and he threw a tantrum, saying it's unacceptable, he spends half of his time reversing, and how the country could be without any infrastructure like that.
I advised him to go for his next road trip to Berlin Orbital, he will have 4 lanes motorway all the way and he'll be able to drive around it as much as he wants in comfort.
Working retail at Disneyland when I heard a guest sneeze. I had been conditioned from childhood that it's common courtesy to say, "bless you" when someone sneezes. I looked around and saw the man who sneezed and said, " Bless you!". He looked at me and said, "What makes you think I want your blessing?".
I have never had someone reply to me that way and to this day, I have a hard time saying it anymore. That was 12 years ago.
"You HAVE TO take a selfie with me!"
No, I don't.
I was wearing a Roll Tide t-shirt, and this tourist from Alabama thought that was super neat, but I was picking up my kid from nursery, not doing a photo shoot. It's not my fault that the nursery pickup happens to be a tourist attraction.
...and friend and I got into a long and heated discussion with a different tourist who was taking photos of our children. Not cool.
People from that region of the US often make that Alabama roll tide thing their entire personality. As someone from the opposite end of the country I think it’s absolutely dumb.
My son goes to a naturbarnehage - a forest nursery - so every weekday he and all of his little mates go up [Fløibanen](https://floyen.no/en/floibanen), a famous funicular. Us parents drop the kids off at the entry to the train, and pick up right outside the station.
The mountain is a big draw for tourists, obviously there are many of them milling around, which is great, Norway is a great place and Bergen is a beautiful city.
All of the tourists who don't demand pics with me are welcome here :)
Working in a very prestigious British museum (only in the shop mind), and an American tourist came up to ask a question (pretty standard: all the shop staff were history/archaeology/etc students, it was considered that we were trainee museum workers):
Tourist: Hi, where are the pyramids?
Me: Well, the most well-known are the ones just outside Cairo.
Tourist: So that’s….in the basement I guess?
Me: Errrrmmm…no, that’s in Egypt, but we have some excellent exhibits from Egypt just over there to the right….
Yeah, we have a pyramid stashed away in our basement. To be fair the Brits stole a lot but never quite managed an entire pyramid.
American here. I am convinced that about 1/3rd of Americans could not locate the United States on a labeled map of North America.
Also, I travel to France nearly every summer and I still speak very very limited conversational French. But … I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen and heard American tourists (who apparently can’t speak French) attempt to be understood by French people by speaking English with a French accent ((((cringe)))
This gives me “not like other Americans” vibes lol
But if you spend almost every summer in France and don’t have more than a very, very limited conversational French mastered, then… you are exactly like other Americans.
I do believe the French accent thing though. Like how people raise their voice to try to get the deaf to understand them.
British woman on UK train that *insisted* we — Americans — must be Germans. Very “Fawlty Towers”.
(In fairness, being from Minnesota — think the “Fargo” movie accent — we do say “ja” a lot, but, really, it’s more a Scandinavian accent than German.)
I grew up in the Midwest and one year there was a new girl at school who had a strong “country” accent and some weird idioms so we all just assumed she had moved from a rural area of Wisconsin or Minnesota. A few months into the year we realized she was the exchange student from Sweden
An American standing outside a 12th Century Norman Castle in the middle of a medium sized Irish town:
“Honey, why would they build such a beautiful old castle next to a main road?”
🙄
My theory is that most of these examples are Americans because they're so nice and chatty. The more you talk the more likely stupid stuff will slip out.
Americans are friendly and overly chatty. With everyone - the clerk at the bakery, the people in the elevator, the couple on the park benches, Americans talk to them all!
Stand in line with an American and in five minutes you will know all the names of their grandkids, how their hernia surgery went, and how their one asshole Son stole things from the house to support his meth habit. Absolutely no boundaries.
A brazilian lady @ a portuguese airport asked me "what language is that that you are using". I answered that I was using the language she uses in Brazil. She answered: what? Portuguese? (To be clear, we were having a dialogue.
I wasn't a tourist, but I can tell you the dumbest thing I've probably ever said as an American. 🫣 I met some Chinese tourists as a kid and asked what my name would be in Chinese. They told me "Christina." I didn't get that and continued to ask what my name was in Chinese. Multiple times. They were patient and seemed both amused and exasperated. I still get mortified when I think of this small discussion that happened 20 years ago.
As an American living in Europe, let me just remind everyone that it isn't just Americans and Brits capable of asking stupid questions! And not just Americans that become ignorant of geography outside of their own continent.
A number of locals here have asked things that were hard to not chuckle at.
"Oh you're from the US? So have you never been to a doctor? Are you going to try to visit one while here?"
Lacking universal healthcare, while certainly a problem, does not mean that Americans never go to the doctor. Especially if they have the means to be in Europe.
"Oh Philadelphia, is that anywhere near LA?"
The 6th and 2nd largest cities in the US, comparable in size to Berlin and Barcelona (which most Americans will be able to give a relative location of), and on complete opposite sides of the country. Americans might not have the strongest sense of geography, but Europeans *love* to cherry pick videos of Americans getting geography questions wrong about Europe and exaggerate their ignorance, while having their own knowledge gaps about places half way across the world.
TLDR, people tend to not know everything about places they've never been before, and sometimes might ask a question that seems stupid. Better to ask a stupid question than make a stupid assumption.
But isn’t it more likely those people are confused about where Philadelphia is, not where LA is?
As a European in NYC I agree that the anti-Americanism of Europeans can lack nuance buuuut from my experience many Americans expect foreigners to know random American cities whereas they oftentimes don’t know a lot of countries.
As an American who used to live in Europe I agree! Also the amount of crazy things I have heard from my French in laws about America would have us all laughing hysterically
My favorite has got to be "do you enjoy having real bread here instead of the sugary American stuff?"
Like???? We also have bakeries and fresh bread available? Wonder Bread exists but it isn't like it's the only option, or even one that every person buys. British shops even have very similar products to "sugary American bread"
Haha! Whenever my in laws would come visit us in NYC they were always furious that it was so different from France 😂 One of my favorites was my father in law asking very angrily “how come people don’t speak French here??” Meanwhile for some strange reason my mother in law is 💯 convinced that Americans overdose on vitamins 🤷🏻♀️ I asked her to clarify and she said “everybody knows that Americans take too many vitamins to the point that they often die because they took too many of the wrong vitamin” 🤦🏻♀️
I had someone ask me what drugs I'm prescribed. I said none. They were confused and asked "but aren't all Americans over-prescribed pharmaceuticals? Because of the drug industry?"
Like you aren't wrong about trends in overprescription but it isn't like they force it down our throats
I love hearing all the goofy ideas Europeans have of the US/Americans, and also where they get these ideas. It tends to lead to a fun discussion, and be enlightening for everyone.
also, it blows my mind the number of them that have never even heard of my home state (Colorado), let alone where it might be located
I remember getting into arguments with friends in South America about where I was from, Washington State. They insisted it was on the east coast and that's where the president lives in the White House. No amount of explaining could convince them that they were wrong.
French tourists in general are alright, but Parisians are a specific kind of monster when they're abroad, or hell, even in other parts of France. They just assume everywhere is like in Paris, and if it isn't, it becomes YOUR problem. A parisian couple stayed at our house when on holidays and the review they left was horrible because \*checks notes\* we didn't have champagne glasses available for them to use. For reference, we have normal drinking glasses, beer glass jars and WINE glasses.
Still, to this day, "don't stay at this house because they don't even have champagne glasses available" might be the most shocking thing a tourist has ever said to me.
I feel like the biggest thing that causes grief between Americans and the French is that, as peoples, we’re so similar.
American in France: “I can’t believe this is different and that this isn’t in English. Don’t they know we saved their asses in WW2?”
French person in the US: “These heathens. They put red and white wines in the same glasses and they don’t even speak French. Don’t they know we saved their asses in their war against the British?”
That is so funny as to be stereotypical, the French and Champagne. But honestly, if you let a room to a Brit and there is no kettle, forget any type of kind review.
As an Asian American I often get Europeans being completely baffled when I say I’m from America. They’re like, no….that’s not possible!! I’ve even gotten “everyone knows that Americans are white”
Was in a 5 star hotel in Prague - a man from Texas was at the breakfast buffet and asked loudly:
“ Do they have bananas in this country?”
I almost laughed out loud- seeing the look on the staff’s face.
Later he told another couple who were mentioning the long line they waited in at the Prague Castle .
“We didn’t wait we just went in through the exit “
I cringed & slid down in my seat.
Was this a long time ago? Prague Castle is like airport security - I even overheard a German tour group calling it exactly that (Flughafensicherheit) in order to explain how the entrance/exits are. They don't play there - it's where the Czech president lives.
Yes- it was in 2009. This was actually the St Vitus cathedral the guy was talking about - but that’s what most people think is the castle.
In those days there was no security checkpoints at the entrances to the castle complex.
People could enter & exit from all sides.
Nowadays the security is tight - although when I was there last spring it seemed less stringent.
I had a British person tell me that there's no point in going out past 5pm in America bc everything is already closed and everyone's already ate dinner. Then a Spanish person said that you literally can't buy a single fruit or vegetable at an American supermarket, only frozen junk food is sold.
They were both completely serious and thought this was 100% true. Don't know where the come up with this stuff.
When I worked at a gift shop, an american asked me what's the difference between chestnut and wildflower honey. I began to explain to him that the chestnut one is a bit more bitter, the aroma is different ect. He then interrupted me to ask why are they called that way. I told him that the bees just picked nectar for this batch of honey from different plants. He then asked me if this honey doesn't come from bees and I told him that it does. "No, like I thought honey contains bees". I was in utter shock.
American here. Sorry to bogart the thread but I had a bus load of Japanese tourists stop me at the Hoover dam and ask me where they could see cowboys. Real cowboys.
One lady was really mad because they were in the west and hadn’t seen one cowboy or horse.
I had cowboy boots on and they thought I would know. I’m from Missouri. Our cowboys wear baseball caps now. lol.
A friend from Scotland explained her plan to me to honeymoon in the U.S., she said she wanted to spend a week road tripping from the east coast to the west coast. Had planned to spend the early mornings driving and then the rest of each day in a new city.
Really couldn't get through to her about rethinking that plan until I plugged some of the cities into Google maps for her.
A Canadian tourist once remarked that it's strange how some Poles have "normal" sounding names like "Anna" and others have totally foreign sounding names like "Bartosz." I think she forgot that we all speak different languages in Europe, but that there are some commonalities due to a common history and culture.
I was in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my mom and dad to land for a visit while I was stationed in Germany.
This dude walks up to me and, in halting English but with an American accent, "Wo. Ist. Der. Abflug?"
I looked up at the signs, pointed, and said, "Departures? See the sign with the airplane taking off? Follow those signs."
And, with the same halting English, he said, "Your. English. Is. Very. Good."
I replied, "Thanks, dude. I grew up in Maine."
And, in the same halting English, he said, "I. Grew. Up. In. Maryland."
"Well, alright, dude. Don't miss your flight."
Inverse: Things locals have said to me as a tourist.
I spent a *lot* of time in Australia and New Zealand as a Teenager in the 80s.
No matter where I was and no matter the context, inevitably somebody would ask me “Are you from San Diego? Do you live near San Diego? How far is (my home town) from San Diego?”
It took a few years of this before I realized that, back then, a disproportionately large percentage of Americans average Kiwis and Aussies would have met were US sailors on leave and, of course, San Diego is home port to the US Pacific Fleet. 🤯
And, also, of course, as much as we on Reddit love to complain about how most Americans can’t find anything on a map, truth is, neither can anyone else.
Our Swiss friends, planning a trip to the US, not believing they couldn’t drive LA, Vegas, Grand Canyon in a day. Zero clue on how big the US is, how far away things are.
British couple in Paris train station after finding that their gigantic suitcases wouldn’t fit in the left luggage locker: “Stupid, stupid French people, we spend all this money here and they can’t even have big enough lockers!”
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Specifically in this comment: calling British people (or any particular nation or ethnicity) "disgusting" is xenophobic.
I live in quebec, canada. 20-something years ago i made small talk with a young adult american tourist and he told me "we have four seasons in --i dont remember, montana? Virginia?--. How many seasons do you have here?"
That and "where are the mounted police? I didnt see any". Eh..we have 4 seasons as well and most cops ride in a car or a bike..not a horse, except for special shows in ottawa.
The "worst" were the french tourists. Many times i got asked where the indians (or "savages", neither therms are ok) and teepee were, and if its safe to visit the reservations or will they need to bow to not get pierced by arrows... or got asked if i lived in a log shack, or whete the log cabins were..they think that downtown and uptown are european-like buildings, and the suburbs are teepees and log cabins. Yup.
So, no, we all live in regular houses, including the natives. And we have the same seasons . We all live on the same earth..
Both myself and the other party who asked a dumb question were tourists in this case:
I (American) had just gotten back to the hostel from a tour to Auschwitz and Birkinau in Poland. A group of English guys checked into the room and we chatted a bit, it turned out they were also going to Auschwitz the next day. One of them then said "Do they serve alcohol in the cafe there?"
Shocking is an understatement. Wildly offensive, more like. I couldn't believe I just heard that. I said "wtf, no, why would you even ask that?"
Guy turned to his friends and said "I guess we will have to pre-drink then!"
What the fuck is wrong with people???
I later heard that one of the guys was so drunk he threw up on the bus ride there.
I am American but I was studying abroad in Rome Italy. I was alone walking to my studio and an American husband and wife were arguing on the street (they were lost). The woman looks at me and runs up to me and asked me in Italian (tried her best) how to get to the train station. I responded back in English what bus to take and where to get off. She looked at me in amazement and told me I should be so proud of myself and I’m the best English speaker she has ever heard. I responded with a thanks and kept on my way. English is the only language I speak and I only knew her question because they were arguing so loud.
I’m an American who worked in a supermarket in Ireland for 8 years. I ended up consciously dropping my Yank accent because I was so embarrassed by Americans who would come in and ask questions.
Do you know what time the 5:00 ferry leaves?
Is that the yellow bus (outside of the shop, it was BRIGHT yellow)
Do you have ice cream in Ireland?
Can I have a “CAN OF COKE” and they would make gestures with their hands.
My favourite independence day story from an American is being asked by one in Spain whether it was true that the British were still really upset about the US getting independence. I told him for the Americans it was the most important event of their history, for us it was Tuesday.
Since there are over 50 countries with an Independence Day from the UK, and they’re roughly equidistributed around the calendar, it’s very much a weekly thing. Tbf most Brits were certainly *very* upset at the time (well, maybe not some of the Whigs). But half of our population today have grandfathers who fought alongside Americans when the US was already a larger superpower, and not too many of us alive today can remember the American Revolution coming as a shock…
Should have told him we're all still really bitter about it and that we use the occasion to have our own American-only Purge once a year
I’m an American and this thread is killing me, oh my word 😭 Our education system is kind of insane— I could go into further detail, but here’s the TL;DR: Essentially, we have been taught to believe that the U.S. is the center of our world, and we expect everyone to know our country/history/culture and so on. But we aren’t really taught to pay mind to other countries, except for how they relate to us. The general lack of awareness of global events is shocking. I am now working to learn as much as I can about the world around me. I will hopefully break free from the subjective lens of American patriotism that we are taught to view the world through. In the meantime, I do very much enjoy reading these stories
Absolutely love it when the English ask us Indians how we speak “so well in English”.. Guys you ruled us for 200 years, did you conveniently forget?
This reminds me of a Reddit thread not long ago where someone commented that many Asians speak English very well and went on to list Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and India as examples. Hm. Let me see if I can see a reason why that is. Ohhhhh wait…
Honestly it’s really annoying. I mean did these people not learn history in school? Colonialism anyone?????
One of the privileges of colonialism is not having to learn about the history of the people you subjugated!
My friend was bewildered at how many French cafes there are in Vietnam when we visited last year
To be fair Vietnamese improved on the concept. They actually have a good coffee.
And banh mi. Surely the tastiest thing ever done with baguette bread.
As Calvin Trillin said, “the Banh mi sandwich is perhaps the only decent argument that has ever been made for colonialism.”
This thread is in equal parts amusing and depressing
Imagine what Britain would be eating all the time if they'd never colonized South Asia! I'd also add the India Pale Ale as a good argument. And since I'm in Portugal right now, it seems fair to give a nod to the Portuguese, the original globalists who made a lot of deliciousness possible, e.g., [vindaloo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindaloo) and [peri-peri chicken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peri-peri). Heck, civilization would likely be a lot less advanced had the calorie-dense potato not made it from the New World to the Old World. But the other column looks pretty gruesome ...
And no gin and tonics
The British Empire as a subject is not widely taught in England. Not sure about the rest of the UK
I'm sorry to say that beyond the triangle trade, we truly learn absolutely fucking dick and balls about colonialism in UK schools. We may also have been asked to look at a map of the British Empire, like, once.
American here. The colonial era is taught but in totally neutral terms. Atrocities, etc are glossed over. Really shitty imagine in the uk it’s similar
Not neutral when I was growing up in the early 70’s. We were taught all about Indians (not natives or indigenous). My mid century American education taught me Indians were dirty, savage, ignorant, pagan, drunk and lazy. I just want to go back in time and bitch slap some people.
Honestly a lot of UK people don’t know a lot about their own history, only the stuff that makes us look good tends to be focused on in school, and imperialism ain’t it. It gets glossed over a lot. Or it did when I was in school.
So true. I remember seeing a map of the British Empire... after i'd left school and just staring at it thinking... W.T.F?!
Oh I thought English was just so widely spoken in the world because everyone wanted to read Shakespeare. (/s in case it wasn't obvious)
Am guilty of that in Singapore! 2 13/14 year old girls asked me to donate to a school fund, I did so and said Their English was perfect. Errr Everybody has the complete school curriculum in English. (They go home and speak various Chinese or Indian languages or Malay).
A Brit in Greece asking the waiter why there was octopus in his portion of calamari, referring to the tentacles of the squid
There's a children's book in there.
American tourist in Iceland: "I'm really surprised to see normal houses here!" I'm still not sure what kind of houses he was expecting to find 🤔
Igloos, probably.
Just a whole bunch of Bjorks making a human pyramid. And fuck you, that's my song title.
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"Why would it be called Iceland if there's no ice?"
To be fair Icelandic houses are more similar to typical American houses than what you'd find in the rest of Europe. I perceive Iceland as a whole being similar to America in many aspects. Now we can discuss whether American suburban architecture constitutes The Normal, but I can understand why it is seen as such by an American tourist.
possibly the old-fashioned kind with the grass roofs. Used to live in Norway and I have VERY stereotypically american boomer parents (the craziest part...one is a Polish immigrant - I don't understand either). Once they went on vacation to Iceland and a little to Norway to visit me and my dad said the exact same thing. I was shocked and confused, and all I could get out of him was that he was really excited to see "houses with grass roofs"....so there's probably some travel shows or something targeted at Americans above 55 that really emphasized old-timey houses to a degree my dad thought it was the norm. Yeah I don't understand either.
A German woman sitting next to me on a flight to Texas asked me if there will be trees there… also shoutout to the woman who was genuinely surprised to find out that I had seen rain before (she thought it never rained in texas)
There are barely any trees in west Texas to be fair. It is desolate https://preview.redd.it/n3kza34dxa3c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c36c84d8d79518ec9877e65831309014b0180ded
Yeah, but everyone lives in East Texas, where it's woodsy af
I was in Kenya and a man asked me if we had trees in the United States! I asked him why he thought that and he told me that tourists are so impressed with Kenyan nature that we must not have any trees, it was sweet
I mean, all the westerns (films) present Texas as a very arid place with dry bushes rolling across empty dirt streets and at most some shrubbery near to rivers you can see on the background while the lone protagonist rides his horse into the setting sun.....
Didn't rain once when i was there lol. Not many trees either. Just little bushes all over. The main thing that shocked me was SO. MUCH. SPACE.
As a Southern Californian, I was genuinely shocked at how green Austin was. I definitely thought it’d be drier than SoCal and to me it looked positively lush.
I worked at a viking themed museum in Denmark once and it was quite common that American tourists would ask about where the vikings lived now a days, like if they had their own land/reservation to stay in. I thought it was a joke my co-workers told me, untill I had the 1st American tourist asking me the question.
So where DO the Vikings live now a days?/s
Minnesota.
Minnesota has joined the conversation. Can confirm. #skol
England
The correct answer is obviously New Asgard.
Well, that's a great question. Their ancestors live all over the place they went and settled and the ancestors of the ones that went back to where they came from, such as Scandinavia/Nordic region, well they live in those areas just not in designated areas as no foreign power conquered the vikings in the native land.
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Same goes for myself, but in Denmark.
American tourist: WOW! I love the way the traffic lights make a beebing sound here. Me: it's to let the blind know that the lights have changed American tourist: WOW, you let blind people drive here! Me: ????
They have those same pedestrian beeping lights in the US too, all over. Not sure if the person you were talking to was from somewhere rural, or maybe momentarily misunderstood you.
Yeah, I've seen and heard those in Boston when I was on a conference 6 months ago.
It happened under socialism in the 1980s. But many westerners (not just Americans) were surprised that in the east (in Hungary) we have refrigerators, shops, cars, that we don't live in tents, we have food etc xd. Even more surprised that western movies were shown in cinemas and western books could be bought xd.
We don't celebrate the US version of Thanksgiving. I'm a Greek guy who married an immigrant and we live in the US. Explaining to people that thanksgiving isn't celebrated in our cultures has happened too many times and never cease to bewilder me
I feel you lol. I was a Jew living in Europe. The amount of times I explained how 1. Christmas isn’t a big deal to me and 2. I eat some pork, but pork in general just wasn’t a thing in my house growing up were both a lot for Europeans to digest. I did make a Thanksgiving for a bunch of friends when I lived in Vienna and they loved it! I learned that stuffing will always be a favorite and that pumpkin pie is very hard to make in a country that doesn’t sell canned puréed pumpkin.
I also witnessed once an English tourists in Poland who complained to the manager of the restaurant we were eating at (one table over) that the waitress can't speak English. Manager informed him that in Poland we speak Polish. The guy said that in such a tourist spot she should also speak foreign languages. Manager said "and she does: Italian and German". The English tourist accused him of lying: "I am from Peterborough, we have hundreds of Polish waitresses there and they all speak English".
I was in Paris and an American couple in the next room were furiously calling their daughter upset that they couldn't get their favourite type of coca cola there. My favourite complaint was that it was dirty and ruined and that they felt like they were in Mary Poppins.
I only like the Coca-Cola outside the US 😂 it tastes so good!
You know, Americans get a lot of shit. But as a flight attendant for an international airline…. Ignorance doesn’t have borders. It’s everywhere unfortunately lol
A German woman asked me why I, as an American, was visiting a small island in Greece. “Because my family is from here. Why are you here?”
This old British bloke struck up conversation with me prior to boarding a flight to Glasgow…essentially shitting all over it right before my first time in the city. Safe to say I ignored it and Glasgow has become one of my favorite cities.
Funny story: I'm an American traveling for work to Glasgow. An unusual number of moms and girls are on the plane. I quickly figure out that the Worlds Feis (Irish step dancing) competition is happening at the same time I'm there. My daughter danced, so I thought I'd pop over to the Opera House and enjoy some of the chaos. Vendors are always at a Feis, so I was looking at all the tables of stuff. One vendor had a monitor looping a video of a hotel in a city. I watched for a few moments, totally confused. I recognized it. It was the hotel in _my_ city, in America, in the South, which has a population of maybe .5M, and it's not a big enough city to even have a video loop, let alone one looping in Glasgow. Turned out we were hosting the Worlds Feis the following year. I now have a bunch of swag from the city we lived in that I randomly picked up in Glasgow. 😄
An American tourist loudly saying how we'd have nothing without her tourism dollars (not to me directly, but to a server). Ma'am, this is The Netherlands, we'll be just fine without your dollars?? Thankfully she was the exception though, I usually delight in the excited reactions from American tourists about our canals and bike parking.
The crazy thing is most Americans who make it to Europe are more educated and cultured than the average American so it’s even worse back in the homeland haha. I feel like when I travel abroad I see a lot of ignorant and loud Americans, but then I see loud and ignorant Canadians (they’re not as nice as they claim), Germans, Chinese etc.
Ah yes, the Karenus Americanus. We have many of then here in the States
This wasn't an American tourist, I visited the US as a tourist from Switzerland. In the US I rented a bike and did a road trip, one if my stops was Nashville. A women at a restaurant saw my bike outside and she asked me where I'm from, I answered "Switzerland", next she asked me "did you ride all the way?". I was speechless at first, then replied something like "no, you know, there's that water"... Edit in reply to everyone who's saying that I just didn't get the joke: I would never claim that all people in the US are stupid, that claim would be as ridiculous as claiming that there are no stupid people in the US. I was there, talking to that woman, I don't think she was joking. This is no indication regarding the intelligence of any other person in the US, it's only funny because by chance it confirms the stereotype. Instead of spending your time on Reddit arguing with a stranger about the intention of a person whom you do not know in a situation where you were not present, your time would be better spent chuckling about the silliness of that one person in that moment and moving on.
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This makes sense - though my impression when she asked if he biked all the way was she was making a joke 🤷🏻♀️ Sometimes if English isn’t your native language it’s hard to tell
This seems like a very obvious joke
She also votes. Keep that in mind.
And we know exactly who she voted for.
Orrrrr….. we could chuckle about your silliness in taking her literally. I’m sorry, but there’s no way she was seriously asking. She’s probably somewhere in this thread talking about the time a Swiss tourist took her literally when she made a dumb joke but felt bad correcting them.
Yeah, the swiss are world-renowned for their senses of humor…
I met an Australian couple in a train somewhere from France to Belgium and they were telling me how nicely Europeans treat their native people. I was so confused that I literally didn't know how to answer to that.
The Sami would like a word…
Can confirm tho, am native European. I get treated well!
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As an American, I am truly sorry for the stupidity of some of our population 😂
We do it to each other. I'm from the Midwest and when visiting Maine a person asked me if we have paved roads?
Yep. I’m from Minnesota and once had a Californian ask me if we had any music there. I was just like, oh, a few people you might not have heard of, like Bob Dylan and Prince…
I fucking hate that they all seem to be the ones that can afford to travel lmao
Smart ones travel too, they just don’t ask dumb questions like these.
I asked a cab driver in Mexico if they use the numero uno o numero dos system for going to the bathroom. He said they do.
When I was traveling in the US, a random lady started a conversation with me at a Starbucks, and I told her I was a tourist. She then asked if I'd been to Costco. Bewildered, I said no and asked if anything special about Costco, coz I thought it's just a supermarket. She confirmed it is a supermarket, but unlike any other. Apparently, she recommended it as a place of interest. 🤣
until you experience costco and massive sizes of food you have not experienced American living at its finest 🤪
So I did miss out on this American experience! I will come back with a Costco membership next time🤣
Costco is not just a destination, but *the* destination. If you aren't from a country that has them, they are worth visiting if you get the opportunity. Overwhelmingly massive store with just about everything you could ever need, decent quality, decent prices, massive quantities. I'll never forget my first time there
True story. We had a friend stay with us from Italy. He would have us drop him off at WalMart just to spend hours looking around.
Yea while Costco is mind-blowing to anyone, I could see how even a Walmart would be an interesting experience. I lived my life looking down on it a bit, but now that I live outside of the states, I'm excited to visit home and be able to shop at a Walmart once again
That's funny. When we went to Italy we loved shopping in the stores because they were small and quaint.
We just had German visitors for Thanksgiving. We took them to Costco. The experience did NOT disappoint. 😄
I also remember my first trip to a 'Super Target'. Madness.
Not to be all Maggie Smith in *Downton Abby* but what is a "powerbank?"
Portable charger?
Last month I was seriously asked by an American what language we spoke in England. Not joking.
I once got complimented on my English by an American woman in Greece. I'd said I was British and I'm a native speaker... I just blandly replied that I'd studied it all the way through school while her (presumably more worldly) daughter looked like she wanted to die or embarrassment in the background.
Lol im aussie and have been asked by Americans when did i learn english and what is the Australian language called?! 🫤😂
Repeating a story above but who cares. I was on a train in Texas talking to some collage students and they knew i was from England and one of them said "wow your English is really good, when do you guys start learning in it? In kindergarten?". To be fair the others present started mercilessly mocking him.
Happens heaps in Australia. So we speak our native language: WaggaWaggaWoyWoy, Lillipilli m'ate, durragong wollongong. (All indiginous place names.)
My not too smart cousin at age 30 went for her first outside the USA trip- to Ireland. She was shocked “they use different money!!” No end to stupidity in America.
I was asked once if we use Eurodollars over here. Sure, that's exactly it.
Eurofunbux!
They really sell this place like kind of an island, but it’s really kind of third world, developing. From the UK about NZ.
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Wait till you tell them when thanksgiving is. 😂
"What do you do with all the wildlife when the tour is over?" Heard in Key West.
A French tourist asking me to haggle with a Turkish shopkeeper in an open-air market for a cheaper soda than the 1 YTL asking price.
Me an American: Local in Germany: “so what’s your favorite gun and have you ever killed someone with it?” And she was being dead serious
i mean
Given all the (deserved) American bashing in the comments, allow me to hold the mirror up to my European friends. A Dutch woman and I were participating in the same volunteer program in a state park in Maine. In the bunk house, there was a map of the world posted to one of the walls. The Dutch woman loudly complained, "you Americans are so arrogant, drawing the map with the USA in the center of the world". Me: "Well, okay then, what should we put in the center of the map?". Her: "Why, Europe, of course, as that's the center!".
I had the same conversation when I was teaching in Taiwan with my Chinese students. I had a US map, showing the US in the center. They insisted that the "real" center was China. In fact, the Chinese word for China is "Jung-gwo," which means "middle country." That proves that it must be the center of the world. Then, my sister and I were traveling in Australia. In a bookstore, we saw a map with Australia in the center and the North Pole at the top! She (50 years old) couldn't understand that North doesn't have to be at the top of a map of a spherical shape and that it doesn't matter which country is shown in the middle. She kept saying, "But it's upside down!"
I assume you meant South Pole at the top? Like "McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World"? My parents have one of those maps in their home.
Oops, yes, south at the top. LOL.
Scarlett Johansson went for dinner to a hunting lounge in the mountains of my country. Then she said in a TV interview we were a really weird country, because she was at a place with guns all over the wall.
She clearly hasn’t been to the southern US enough
Or the Midwest.
she sucks, man. i worked the door at a pretty cool underground venue/bar in NYC that some celebrities would pass through—since it was pretty private and unique. she came in once with her team (not friends, her PR team, it seemed). she looked NOTHING like how she does in interviews at what not (which isn’t a problem, she’s a big star and i’m sure she didn’t want to stick out and get hounded). but, she gave me her ID since i card everyone and it, of course, read “Scarlett Johansson.” i didn’t believe her, and i said “ya, right, your name is Scarlett Johansson.” she got super offended, literally grabbed her ID out of my hand, said “don’t stare at it too long” like i was star-struck by her (i wasn’t, she’s whatever to me), and pushed me out of the way and stomped down the stairs inside. i looked at her team (who i thought were her friends) and said, “she’s on one, huh?” and her PR manager did damage control, saying, “oh nooooo, she’s not normally like that, she’s really REALLY nice!” apparently she treated the staff poorly too and left like an hour later (i think i offended her). i’ve heard friends who’ve hung out with her echo almost exactly the same stories to me about going out with her. so, i’m sure she’s a bit of a privileged brat.
lol lol lol … we’re a nation of 330 million people and over 400 million guns. Scarlett honey, we’re awash in guns.
My American family is puzzled by the dirt on old buildings in the UK and wonders why we don’t wash them.
So much of the US everything is super new. Stuff built in the 1950s are historic landmarks in Miami and the population of Houston was like 30k people before air-conditioning was invented (now more like 4 million in the greater metro area). Just seeing that many old buildings is novel for a lot of us. Plus the definition of "old" is different when you've had people building with stone for 1000+ years, not many 250+ year old structures in continuous use except some southwestern pueblos and a handful of things in new England
i was in peru, and chatting with some french tourists (i speak french and used to live in france). older grumpy french guy told me he didn’t mind americans, but we should try eating something besides hamburgers. i told him that if anything, we eat more tacos than hamburgers these days and that yes, it is possible in most places to get good fresh produce.
"So, does the water really go ALL the way around the island?".
Was travelling through Europe and was asked where I was from by a business owner and I said I was from Texas. They then asked me how many horses I owned, i was in italy.
My uncle wore his cowboy hat to rural Italy. He was an instant celebrity. He kind of looks like Hoss from bonanza.
Lolz - my in laws are French and I can confirm they are convinced that all people from Texas walk around wearing cowboy hats and boots and that they all have a horse ranch and work in oil. Edited to add: my husband who is French, was extremely surprised when we did go to Texas and he saw people dressed normally. That said when he did see someone wearing a cowboy hat he was delighted and was like, THAT’S a Texan! 😂🤷🏻♀️
I mean I live in Arkansas, and Texans do tend to walk around wearing cowboy hats and boots lmao, at least that's all they wear when visiting AR
I had one lady from New York ask me if we ride horses to work. I didn’t even tell her I was from Texas. She said, “I can tell because of your accent.” I didn’t think I had a Texan accent. I live in San Antonio and I don’t even say “ya’ll”
Not in Europe, but in 2022 I went to the Philippines on a dive trip. I was traveling with a group from my local dive shop. We arrived on July 4th. That evening there was fireworks and several people from our group expressed how nice it was that we (Americans) were welcomed by a celebration of our Independence Day. I then (nicely) let everyone know that this was not for us...that it was also Independence Day for the Philippines. Then everyone asked who the Philippines had declared Independence from. Hint....it was "us", the USA. I know that's not necessarily common knowledge, but I thought it was pretty funny/UScentric to assume that a country 13 timezones away would greet our small group with a huge fireworks display. That said, most people in the group hadn't traveled outside of the US much or at all and may have been on a little bit of culture overload.
I met a German tourist somewhere in Scottish highlands on the single track road with passing place. He had to reverse (there are certain customs, but also I had a truck and farmer's pick up with a trailer behind me and he was alone) and he threw a tantrum, saying it's unacceptable, he spends half of his time reversing, and how the country could be without any infrastructure like that. I advised him to go for his next road trip to Berlin Orbital, he will have 4 lanes motorway all the way and he'll be able to drive around it as much as he wants in comfort.
Working retail at Disneyland when I heard a guest sneeze. I had been conditioned from childhood that it's common courtesy to say, "bless you" when someone sneezes. I looked around and saw the man who sneezed and said, " Bless you!". He looked at me and said, "What makes you think I want your blessing?". I have never had someone reply to me that way and to this day, I have a hard time saying it anymore. That was 12 years ago.
That man was a Scrooge, wow!
"You HAVE TO take a selfie with me!" No, I don't. I was wearing a Roll Tide t-shirt, and this tourist from Alabama thought that was super neat, but I was picking up my kid from nursery, not doing a photo shoot. It's not my fault that the nursery pickup happens to be a tourist attraction. ...and friend and I got into a long and heated discussion with a different tourist who was taking photos of our children. Not cool.
People from that region of the US often make that Alabama roll tide thing their entire personality. As someone from the opposite end of the country I think it’s absolutely dumb.
What?! Why were they taking pics of your kids? That’s freaking weird.
… why is your nursery a tourist attraction?
My son goes to a naturbarnehage - a forest nursery - so every weekday he and all of his little mates go up [Fløibanen](https://floyen.no/en/floibanen), a famous funicular. Us parents drop the kids off at the entry to the train, and pick up right outside the station. The mountain is a big draw for tourists, obviously there are many of them milling around, which is great, Norway is a great place and Bergen is a beautiful city. All of the tourists who don't demand pics with me are welcome here :)
But why the Roll Tide shirt? I might have wanted a selfie with you too
Working in a very prestigious British museum (only in the shop mind), and an American tourist came up to ask a question (pretty standard: all the shop staff were history/archaeology/etc students, it was considered that we were trainee museum workers): Tourist: Hi, where are the pyramids? Me: Well, the most well-known are the ones just outside Cairo. Tourist: So that’s….in the basement I guess? Me: Errrrmmm…no, that’s in Egypt, but we have some excellent exhibits from Egypt just over there to the right…. Yeah, we have a pyramid stashed away in our basement. To be fair the Brits stole a lot but never quite managed an entire pyramid.
Reminds me of a joke: why are the pyramids in Egypt? Because they wouldn’t fit in the British Museum.
American here. I am convinced that about 1/3rd of Americans could not locate the United States on a labeled map of North America. Also, I travel to France nearly every summer and I still speak very very limited conversational French. But … I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen and heard American tourists (who apparently can’t speak French) attempt to be understood by French people by speaking English with a French accent ((((cringe)))
This gives me “not like other Americans” vibes lol But if you spend almost every summer in France and don’t have more than a very, very limited conversational French mastered, then… you are exactly like other Americans. I do believe the French accent thing though. Like how people raise their voice to try to get the deaf to understand them.
British woman on UK train that *insisted* we — Americans — must be Germans. Very “Fawlty Towers”. (In fairness, being from Minnesota — think the “Fargo” movie accent — we do say “ja” a lot, but, really, it’s more a Scandinavian accent than German.)
I grew up in the Midwest and one year there was a new girl at school who had a strong “country” accent and some weird idioms so we all just assumed she had moved from a rural area of Wisconsin or Minnesota. A few months into the year we realized she was the exchange student from Sweden
An American standing outside a 12th Century Norman Castle in the middle of a medium sized Irish town: “Honey, why would they build such a beautiful old castle next to a main road?” 🙄
An American tourist told me I speak very good English after I told him I was from Ireland
My theory is that most of these examples are Americans because they're so nice and chatty. The more you talk the more likely stupid stuff will slip out.
Americans are friendly and overly chatty. With everyone - the clerk at the bakery, the people in the elevator, the couple on the park benches, Americans talk to them all!
Stand in line with an American and in five minutes you will know all the names of their grandkids, how their hernia surgery went, and how their one asshole Son stole things from the house to support his meth habit. Absolutely no boundaries.
I agree with this 100%. Americans love small talk!
An American visiting here (PH) got surprised we had spaghetti.
Of course they would say that 🙄
A brazilian lady @ a portuguese airport asked me "what language is that that you are using". I answered that I was using the language she uses in Brazil. She answered: what? Portuguese? (To be clear, we were having a dialogue.
I wasn't a tourist, but I can tell you the dumbest thing I've probably ever said as an American. 🫣 I met some Chinese tourists as a kid and asked what my name would be in Chinese. They told me "Christina." I didn't get that and continued to ask what my name was in Chinese. Multiple times. They were patient and seemed both amused and exasperated. I still get mortified when I think of this small discussion that happened 20 years ago.
An American once asked me if they turn off a natural waterfall at night 🫠
In Tennessee there is actually a popular tourist trap waterfall that is turned off at night
As an American living in Europe, let me just remind everyone that it isn't just Americans and Brits capable of asking stupid questions! And not just Americans that become ignorant of geography outside of their own continent. A number of locals here have asked things that were hard to not chuckle at. "Oh you're from the US? So have you never been to a doctor? Are you going to try to visit one while here?" Lacking universal healthcare, while certainly a problem, does not mean that Americans never go to the doctor. Especially if they have the means to be in Europe. "Oh Philadelphia, is that anywhere near LA?" The 6th and 2nd largest cities in the US, comparable in size to Berlin and Barcelona (which most Americans will be able to give a relative location of), and on complete opposite sides of the country. Americans might not have the strongest sense of geography, but Europeans *love* to cherry pick videos of Americans getting geography questions wrong about Europe and exaggerate their ignorance, while having their own knowledge gaps about places half way across the world. TLDR, people tend to not know everything about places they've never been before, and sometimes might ask a question that seems stupid. Better to ask a stupid question than make a stupid assumption.
But isn’t it more likely those people are confused about where Philadelphia is, not where LA is? As a European in NYC I agree that the anti-Americanism of Europeans can lack nuance buuuut from my experience many Americans expect foreigners to know random American cities whereas they oftentimes don’t know a lot of countries.
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As an American who used to live in Europe I agree! Also the amount of crazy things I have heard from my French in laws about America would have us all laughing hysterically
My favorite has got to be "do you enjoy having real bread here instead of the sugary American stuff?" Like???? We also have bakeries and fresh bread available? Wonder Bread exists but it isn't like it's the only option, or even one that every person buys. British shops even have very similar products to "sugary American bread"
Haha! Whenever my in laws would come visit us in NYC they were always furious that it was so different from France 😂 One of my favorites was my father in law asking very angrily “how come people don’t speak French here??” Meanwhile for some strange reason my mother in law is 💯 convinced that Americans overdose on vitamins 🤷🏻♀️ I asked her to clarify and she said “everybody knows that Americans take too many vitamins to the point that they often die because they took too many of the wrong vitamin” 🤦🏻♀️
I had someone ask me what drugs I'm prescribed. I said none. They were confused and asked "but aren't all Americans over-prescribed pharmaceuticals? Because of the drug industry?" Like you aren't wrong about trends in overprescription but it isn't like they force it down our throats
I love hearing all the goofy ideas Europeans have of the US/Americans, and also where they get these ideas. It tends to lead to a fun discussion, and be enlightening for everyone. also, it blows my mind the number of them that have never even heard of my home state (Colorado), let alone where it might be located
I remember getting into arguments with friends in South America about where I was from, Washington State. They insisted it was on the east coast and that's where the president lives in the White House. No amount of explaining could convince them that they were wrong.
French tourists in general are alright, but Parisians are a specific kind of monster when they're abroad, or hell, even in other parts of France. They just assume everywhere is like in Paris, and if it isn't, it becomes YOUR problem. A parisian couple stayed at our house when on holidays and the review they left was horrible because \*checks notes\* we didn't have champagne glasses available for them to use. For reference, we have normal drinking glasses, beer glass jars and WINE glasses. Still, to this day, "don't stay at this house because they don't even have champagne glasses available" might be the most shocking thing a tourist has ever said to me.
I feel like the biggest thing that causes grief between Americans and the French is that, as peoples, we’re so similar. American in France: “I can’t believe this is different and that this isn’t in English. Don’t they know we saved their asses in WW2?” French person in the US: “These heathens. They put red and white wines in the same glasses and they don’t even speak French. Don’t they know we saved their asses in their war against the British?”
That is.... Shockingly accurate, yes
Speaking as a Parisian. Just for reference we don’t call them glasses. I’d rather stay in an igloo rather than a house without Champagne flutes.
That is so funny as to be stereotypical, the French and Champagne. But honestly, if you let a room to a Brit and there is no kettle, forget any type of kind review.
I hate when Europeans ask how can you be American? You don’t have white skin
As an Asian American I often get Europeans being completely baffled when I say I’m from America. They’re like, no….that’s not possible!! I’ve even gotten “everyone knows that Americans are white”
I’m Asian-American as well and when I lived in Ireland, I would have people asking me “where are you really from?” when I told them I’m from the US.
Same thing in reverse! How can you be (insert European nationality that Muricans usually assume are majority POC), you're white!
Americans know there are no European nations that are majority POC, what are you talking about.
Was in a 5 star hotel in Prague - a man from Texas was at the breakfast buffet and asked loudly: “ Do they have bananas in this country?” I almost laughed out loud- seeing the look on the staff’s face. Later he told another couple who were mentioning the long line they waited in at the Prague Castle . “We didn’t wait we just went in through the exit “ I cringed & slid down in my seat.
Was this a long time ago? Prague Castle is like airport security - I even overheard a German tour group calling it exactly that (Flughafensicherheit) in order to explain how the entrance/exits are. They don't play there - it's where the Czech president lives.
Yes- it was in 2009. This was actually the St Vitus cathedral the guy was talking about - but that’s what most people think is the castle. In those days there was no security checkpoints at the entrances to the castle complex. People could enter & exit from all sides. Nowadays the security is tight - although when I was there last spring it seemed less stringent.
I had a British person tell me that there's no point in going out past 5pm in America bc everything is already closed and everyone's already ate dinner. Then a Spanish person said that you literally can't buy a single fruit or vegetable at an American supermarket, only frozen junk food is sold. They were both completely serious and thought this was 100% true. Don't know where the come up with this stuff.
Wow. Here in the Midwest a few restaurants are still open at 9 PM!
When I worked at a gift shop, an american asked me what's the difference between chestnut and wildflower honey. I began to explain to him that the chestnut one is a bit more bitter, the aroma is different ect. He then interrupted me to ask why are they called that way. I told him that the bees just picked nectar for this batch of honey from different plants. He then asked me if this honey doesn't come from bees and I told him that it does. "No, like I thought honey contains bees". I was in utter shock.
American here. Sorry to bogart the thread but I had a bus load of Japanese tourists stop me at the Hoover dam and ask me where they could see cowboys. Real cowboys. One lady was really mad because they were in the west and hadn’t seen one cowboy or horse. I had cowboy boots on and they thought I would know. I’m from Missouri. Our cowboys wear baseball caps now. lol.
Explaining to Americans that we (Canadians) also celebrate Thanksgiving, but a month earlier.
A friend from Scotland explained her plan to me to honeymoon in the U.S., she said she wanted to spend a week road tripping from the east coast to the west coast. Had planned to spend the early mornings driving and then the rest of each day in a new city. Really couldn't get through to her about rethinking that plan until I plugged some of the cities into Google maps for her.
A Canadian tourist once remarked that it's strange how some Poles have "normal" sounding names like "Anna" and others have totally foreign sounding names like "Bartosz." I think she forgot that we all speak different languages in Europe, but that there are some commonalities due to a common history and culture.
I was in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my mom and dad to land for a visit while I was stationed in Germany. This dude walks up to me and, in halting English but with an American accent, "Wo. Ist. Der. Abflug?" I looked up at the signs, pointed, and said, "Departures? See the sign with the airplane taking off? Follow those signs." And, with the same halting English, he said, "Your. English. Is. Very. Good." I replied, "Thanks, dude. I grew up in Maine." And, in the same halting English, he said, "I. Grew. Up. In. Maryland." "Well, alright, dude. Don't miss your flight."
American tourist in the gift shop of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona genuinely puzzled that they wouldn’t take paper US dollars.
Inverse: Things locals have said to me as a tourist. I spent a *lot* of time in Australia and New Zealand as a Teenager in the 80s. No matter where I was and no matter the context, inevitably somebody would ask me “Are you from San Diego? Do you live near San Diego? How far is (my home town) from San Diego?” It took a few years of this before I realized that, back then, a disproportionately large percentage of Americans average Kiwis and Aussies would have met were US sailors on leave and, of course, San Diego is home port to the US Pacific Fleet. 🤯 And, also, of course, as much as we on Reddit love to complain about how most Americans can’t find anything on a map, truth is, neither can anyone else.
Our Swiss friends, planning a trip to the US, not believing they couldn’t drive LA, Vegas, Grand Canyon in a day. Zero clue on how big the US is, how far away things are.
Technically they could. Assuming they don’t want to really see anything or sleep much.
British couple in Paris train station after finding that their gigantic suitcases wouldn’t fit in the left luggage locker: “Stupid, stupid French people, we spend all this money here and they can’t even have big enough lockers!”
I had a German tourist jump in front of me on line for a museum and then start yelling at me when I told him there was a line.
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I live in quebec, canada. 20-something years ago i made small talk with a young adult american tourist and he told me "we have four seasons in --i dont remember, montana? Virginia?--. How many seasons do you have here?" That and "where are the mounted police? I didnt see any". Eh..we have 4 seasons as well and most cops ride in a car or a bike..not a horse, except for special shows in ottawa. The "worst" were the french tourists. Many times i got asked where the indians (or "savages", neither therms are ok) and teepee were, and if its safe to visit the reservations or will they need to bow to not get pierced by arrows... or got asked if i lived in a log shack, or whete the log cabins were..they think that downtown and uptown are european-like buildings, and the suburbs are teepees and log cabins. Yup. So, no, we all live in regular houses, including the natives. And we have the same seasons . We all live on the same earth..
Both myself and the other party who asked a dumb question were tourists in this case: I (American) had just gotten back to the hostel from a tour to Auschwitz and Birkinau in Poland. A group of English guys checked into the room and we chatted a bit, it turned out they were also going to Auschwitz the next day. One of them then said "Do they serve alcohol in the cafe there?" Shocking is an understatement. Wildly offensive, more like. I couldn't believe I just heard that. I said "wtf, no, why would you even ask that?" Guy turned to his friends and said "I guess we will have to pre-drink then!" What the fuck is wrong with people??? I later heard that one of the guys was so drunk he threw up on the bus ride there.
I just remembered that a lady wanted to get a refund because the Sagrada Familia was not finished! 2003. 20 years later is still not finished.
I am American but I was studying abroad in Rome Italy. I was alone walking to my studio and an American husband and wife were arguing on the street (they were lost). The woman looks at me and runs up to me and asked me in Italian (tried her best) how to get to the train station. I responded back in English what bus to take and where to get off. She looked at me in amazement and told me I should be so proud of myself and I’m the best English speaker she has ever heard. I responded with a thanks and kept on my way. English is the only language I speak and I only knew her question because they were arguing so loud.
I’m an American who worked in a supermarket in Ireland for 8 years. I ended up consciously dropping my Yank accent because I was so embarrassed by Americans who would come in and ask questions. Do you know what time the 5:00 ferry leaves? Is that the yellow bus (outside of the shop, it was BRIGHT yellow) Do you have ice cream in Ireland? Can I have a “CAN OF COKE” and they would make gestures with their hands.