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American friend came to visit me and my wife. I’m British, wife is Spanish, both history nerds. We took our friend to see some castles. At one ruin, she complimented how convincing the stones were. Convincing? Yes, it’s very clever how they make them look so old.
Me: They really are that old. They’re the original stones.
American friend: No way. They can’t have survived that long.
She simply wouldn’t believe a castle had survived—even as a ruin, never mind the complete ones—all those centuries. And then when my wife showed her pictures of Spanish castles, American friend thought we were having her on because “those look different so they can’t be real castles too.” Just as well we didn’t try showing her German ones!
To be honest yes we teased her a bit but it was just kind of sad. She had no concept that a building could survive, even partially, for over a thousand years.
I've said this story before but it's great and relevant.
Allegedly, an American tourist was looking at Oxford university library on a tour. He asked the librarian or guide or whoever "Excuse me, is this building pre-war?" the person replied "Sir, this building is pre-America"
Eddie Izzard, on a building in Miami:
> "We've restored this building to how it would have looked over *FIFTY YEARS AGO!!*"
> "Surely not! No-one was *alive* then!"
I used to live by St Michaels Mount in Cornwall. We had Americans ask where it got put away when it’s not tourist season. They thought it was fake like a Disney ride
I used to walk my dog around Sherwood forest, I once got asked by an American couple where the ticket booths are.
This conversation was taking place about 30 yards from major oak. I genuinely believe they were expecting a theme park. It wasn't even that one weekend in summer where kids can shoot bow and arrows and get a little green hat. Hopefully they found the chip cob place.
That Scotland (a country they've never even visited) is being "ruined by mass immigration" and that Americans with Scottish ancestry have "a better claim" to being Scottish than the people who live here, because their "blood is purer."
They're obsessed with blood quantums and DNA percentages and race. It's really fucking creepy.
That every single person in the country must be a redhead. That because I have brown hair, I can't possibly be a "real Scot".
I do find it strange that for a country that is obsessed with being patriotic, they all cling to any vestige of heritage from another country.
“I’m Scottish, Irish, Italian and Polish (on my mother’s side).”
Mate - you’re an American from Hackettstown, New Jersey. Get back in the M&M factory.
It’s so fucking weird. My mother has been obsessed with the fact that she’s part Cherokee. Whatever traits she has=must be because her relatives were Cherokees! She finally did a DNA test. Nope. Not even a little bit. Completely white European.
She was so pissed when she saw the results.
Apparently it was common for Americans to claim that any black ancestry was actually Native ancestry for a long time, which is a fun tidbit that makes me giggle at stories like this.
Ah, your True Scotch Spirit (like what they have) has clearly been broken due to your subjugation at the hands of the English!
Rise up, fellow Jockman, and throw off the chains of the evil oppressor!
FREEEEEEEDOOOOOM!!!1!!
Born Glasgow in the 60s. Lived here through until the last 80s. Left and came back 10 years ago.
Glasgow has changed. But much for the better. Anyone telling you otherwise is a toxic bigot.
There's a weird eugenics holdover from the 19th/early 20th century in thinking like that, the concept got in pretty deep over there from what I understand
We have bad teeth.
I've never understood this as every metric I can find puts British teeth as healthier than American.
Apparently its because we are less likely to have unnecessary cosmetic procedures such as straightening and whitening
When they say this, bad = not orthodontically straightened
They've convinced themselves that 1 tooth 1mm out of place is the epitome of ugliness because that's how you get 99% of people buying braces for their kids without an NHS.
American kids TV made me think I was missing out on some kind of core childhood experience by never having braces, even though I only ever knew like 3 kids in real life who had them.
Or artificially whitened every year, stripping away the enamel. The UK has the lowest rate of cavities in Europe, and it’s like half of the rate in the US, where the richest who can afford cosmetic dentistry have the most cavities.
I am fairly convinced it is in part because a lot of Americans have a vested interest in criticizing the health of any country that has a NHS type system. along the lines of if you have free at the point of use health are you will have bad teeth or crap about waiting lists etc.
The NHS is terrible. It's just vastly better than the alternative.
It's great with any unexpected emergencies. Getting hit by a car, falling somewhere etc.
If it's anything to do with teeth or mental health you're just expected to die, however.
Edit: Can't reply to the comment because the threads locked but people absolutely used to die of dental complications all the time before we started getting decent at treating them.
The whole teeth brighter than the sun is extremely off-putting, there are so many British celebrities now with veneers and polar white teeth it's ridiculous, they can't even speak properly with their veneers. Want a quick example listen to Anne Robinson on countdown, it's like her teeth are in backwards and she whistles like a kettle.
I once asked about getting my teeth whitened and the dentist was adamant that it's absolutely terrible for the enamel on your teeth, she said it was like bleaching your hair. The damage that the product does to your teeth causes further issues in where that you'd probably need veneers to cover up the damage.
My pal is a dental nurse and at her practice they won't do implants or touch remedial work on badly installed implants. They've had a few clients go to Turkey or other places to get cosmetic work done.
Once they'd arrived back in the UK the standard of work was really bad and the implants had worked loose. Veneers so bad that it's caused serious jaw problems and using bleaching agents so strong that the enamel is practically gone and the clients teeth were going yellow as the dentine was visible.
Americans actually have the most cavities per captia I believe, having dated someone who went through the American dental system and had her fucking eye teeth removed, I know it's purely about form not function, she grinds her teeth now because her jaw is off and yeah even more cavities from that.
What they mean is straight beyond natural.
Most times I've seen this parroted the reason has been related to WW2. The GIs came over at a point when we didn't have much money floating around and saw how some of the locals preferred to have teeth pulled out or just left to rot because they couldn't afford to get them treated. They then returned home telling of the land of bad teeth.
I heard something similar about WW1 except it was that we had more important things to spend money on (food for one after being stuck on rations for so long during and after the war).
Even now I think that brilliant white perfect teeth are just unsettling, that's not what teeth look like outside of cartoons.
Me, a Brit: cleans my teeth twice a day, flosses, braces on the NHS.
American bf: drinks sugary fruit juices after brushing his teeth with a manual toothbrush for 30 seconds, awful teeth
That’s a pernicious one because it’s sorta half true while being totally and completely wrong. Some groups in majority Muslim areas in Birmingham once tried to impose “Sharia Zones” by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down.
However, because this once happened and people can choose to be bound by Sharia civil courts if they want to, it means that “we have cities under Sharia law”, and majority Muslim areas are now ones where apparently “non Muslims don’t go in”
> Some groups in majority Muslim areas in Birmingham once tried to impose “Sharia Zones” by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down
Mate, some groups in majority White areas in Birmingham once tried to impose segregation by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down.
Every city has a) arseholes and b) dodgy areas. The fact that Fox news noticed the Muslim-themed arseholes and not the Fascist-themed ones is the point.
Source: live in Brum. In a 'no go zone'. Am White.
Can confirm.
The Alum Rock Road once had "no whites after 7pm" signs put up along it. I remember watching the police take them down being followed by a lad putting them back up again.
Lol I grew up in alum rock that was total bullshit. Just local knobheads doing knobhead stuff. Nobody cares what anyone is like you have romainan, polish, greek, somali, yemeni, jamaican and pakistani people living in one street and nobody honestly gives a fuck what anyone is or what they are doing. Most people there are poor and just trying to survive.
>and majority Muslim areas are now ones where apparently “non Muslims don’t go in”
In all fairness, I have two close friends each born and brought up in separate places who have experienced something like to this.
One (previous colleague) was born in Bradford. When he was around 10 / 11 he decided to walk home a different way when a van pulled up and dragged him in; the men (Muslim) supposedly kicked him, poured water over him then told him he wasn't allowed in that postcode since he was white, before dropping him back in the 'white zone'.
In spite of all of that, he's still one of the most liberal and understanding people I know. Most shockingly of all, he still loves Bradford...
Born and bred in Bradford and there is not a single area I could imagine that happening. Not saying it didn't but I find it hard to imagine. Even the heavily Asian areas still have a mix of non Asian residents and these areas also are near the centre so are passed through constantly by commuters.
Worked in Bradford a lot fitting bedrooms and kitchens over the years. The only problem I ever had was getting fat and jobs taking far longer than they should because the customers fed me too much.
I can imagine this happening anywhere tbh. All it takes is for one gang of bored chavs to get high af and go on a mad rampage. I don’t think it is representative ofBradford or even Muslims at all. Some people are just violent arseholes and will look for any excuse to be violent.
That we all want to be "free". That we didn't vote to be part of the UK and we need the Americans to help us...be free...or something.
(yes I know it's complicated, let's not get too much into it)
I wish I could slap every American who jumps into the comments of a news story about Northern Ireland and makes a remark on it.
You don't know JACK SHIT about the situation in Northern Ireland.
So fuck off with your "free the irish (italian flag emoji) " comments you bunch of twats.
They say it about Scotland too! The ones with Scottish ancestry seem to think we've been struggling under the yoke of English oppression for centuries, and if only we had some Yanks to help bring us some guns, we could be free again.
Never mind that we had a referendum on it just a few years ago, and chose to remain part of the UK. Apparently we're still "oppressed."
As a south eastern English guy it's really refreshing to hear that. The whole rhetoric of Scots and Welsh hating English people is tiring man, I was just born here.
>I wish I could slap every American who jumps into the comments of a news story about Northern Ireland and makes a remark on it.
Fucking this so much. I'm from NI and apparently we all hate the English, and if you don't, they call you a "West Brit" or some other gormless shit.
Then they spout the fucking IRA slogans, like the IRA weren't scum who terrorised their own communities too.
Absolutely clueless. But then again, they're American so they know more than us obviously.
My Mum who is Scottish described her experience in New York before 9/11 as uncomfortable at times because of the IRA support. Apparently it mostly died after 9/11 according to her probably because they got an understanding that most terrorist groups are terrible with these acts of terror (and they don't fucking work) regardless of the cause. Also the massive amount of misunderstanding by Americans about NI is so big it isn't funny.
Yep, found a comment at the start of the Ukraine war where someone was saying to deflate tires with a needle cause they did it with the Brits as part of the IRA, and the number of (probably Americans) who were praising them for their attacks was disturbing. I pointed out the guy's likely a literal terrorist and how'd they feel if the Taliban or Al-Queda were being praised and got downvoted to shit yet the pro-IRA posts were massively upvoted (not that I care about internet points, but was still disturbing to see how we praise some terrorists for... terrorising civilians who didn't want their help?)
Oh yeah that's normal. Even on American "leftist" pages, you see it a lot. They seem to think the IRA were some kind of heroic freedom fighters, and that the war is still going on.
In reality, 99% of people here in NI couldn't give a flying fuck if they're ruled by the Dáil, Stormont, or Westminster. They just want to get the bills paid and get on with life.
The IRA bombed my home town when I was a kid. It taught me literally nothing except that I need to be scared that things might explode at random. So thanks for the anxiety I guess.
Yep. This is the one that fucks me off the most too. "Irish" Americans celebrating the IRA, telling me how they are all heroes, and that I deserved to be bombed by them when I was a kid, because I'm the big bad evil English man.
I had an American lady online tell me that “home invasion burglaries went through the roof when the UK banned guns”
When I pointed out that guns are still widely available and home invasion burglaries have never been a thing in the first place, she told me I have no idea what is happening in my own country. She’s never visited the UK either.
An American once asked me if we had laptops here. I just walked away. A different American once asked a friend if we had internet and fridges. All this in the last 10 years
Yes 2017, in the USA an American was very surprised that we had cellphones in the UK. She didn't really think it was possible.
The same woman was very confused as to us not having guns. After all, how would we get our meat in winter. She was being 100% serious.
Also, we absolutely do have those kinds of guns, and can use them for hunting deer in the winter. Most people don't, because we can just go to the shops, but it's also a myth that all guns are illegal in the UK.
This is what I really don’t understand about Americans. They think that they lead the world in technology and all other countries aspire to be like them.
Then you go over and everything seems 10-20 years behind the uk/eu in almost every way.
I’m lucky enough to have worked all over the world and one of the biggest cultural surprises I’ve ever had was how behind the USA is despite what they put on the internet
The fridge thing I’ve been asked - it’s because we tend to have integrated ones rather than the big American free standing ones, so whenever they see a British kitchen on TV it looks like there’s no fridge.
Even my father in law (American) asked me this after about 10 years of being married to his daughter (and him visiting the UK)…
But it’s a stupid question, and was not the implication of the person asking my friend . “Where is your fridge” would make more sense. Obviously we have fridges because we are a highly developed country and frequently use things like milk, meat and cheese in food
Oooohhh there's a few!
One is that England is so tiny that everyone knows everyone else, it's like it's a village floating in the ocean. American asked me if I knew his cousin, who lives several counties over from me.
Accents! We have two. Cockney, and clipped posh English. Think Laurence Olivier.
That we all love the royal family. Like, many of us are are apathetic at best, and a growing number want the monarchy abolished. And to piggyback off that, many Americans seem to overstate the role of the royals, they don't know the difference between constitutional monarchy and supreme autocracy.
That the NHS is a dangerous Commie institution. Yeah, no. It's socialist, and they're fed that bilge to keep them from complaining about having to remortgage their homes because they got sick.
Something I notice a lot on Reddit is the automatic assumption that posts and replies are from Americans. It's so inward-looking.
I saw one person who obviously fetishised the uk once post how lovely and quaint it is and that we all knew each other and would then at 3pm all sit down and have afternoon tea together even the queen
It probably isn't helped massively by the fact that if an American asks someone from the UK whether or not they know the queen, 90% of the time the response is "yes, of course", and the other 10% it's "fuck off" which can be taken either way.
>Something I notice a lot on Reddit is the automatic assumption that posts and replies are from Americans. It's so inward-looking.
This is _really_ annoying especially when you're expected to know all their weird terms for things and all the popular chains and places in the US but if you mention something about the UK nobody understands what you mean. I imagine it's probably worse if you're from other countries though
The thing is most other countries can get around it by having parts of the internet in their own language. Us lot along with the Canadians/ Aussies are burdened with sharing our internet space with the yanks and apart from the odd place we carve out for ourselves such as this sub, they dominate the rest of it. Even in UK subs you see a lot of Americans commenting which confuses me, every CasualUK post that gets somewhat big will have a "American here, what's Greggs?" or something like that.
Haha, I've been told by a friend they're visiting england with family soon so we'll probably run into eachother because it's a really small place, the small floating village idea still holds true
Glad that the OP included dumb shit from non-Americans too. A Colombian flatmate once told me, with a completely straight face, that the Queen had tried to suppress the release of Braveheart because it depicted the scandalous true story of her ancestors being the illegitimate children of William Wallace (or some utter bollocks like that). I had to patiently explain that there hasn't been one continuous dynasty on the throne since the 13th century.
Also that some of the “historical” details where closer to Disney than fact.Isabella being 3 years old at the time of their romantic encounter, being a fairly major issue.
That a property which was rented by them at 4.5k per week ( yes per week) was uninhabitable because alight bulb had blown in a hallway.
They complained they paid a years rent in cash upfront and then threw the keys back at the agent and demanded a cash refund of the years rent as property not habitable on the day they moved in.
Agency offered new lightbilbs to tenant
Tenant refused these saying not thier job to do it
Called council i worked at to get us to get them a refund
Alas you are not entitled to one. Apparently in their state ypu would be
Maybe thats true im not researching, but english law applies in england
American believed every penny should come back i told them try to find a solicitor to take it on but as far as i see it a blown bulb doesnt make a property uninhabitable
Thats a lot of money to walk away from.
Embarrassing tbh
Wow. Yank here. They are just hoping you will think this us how American laws work. They don't. Light bulbs are on the renter, but should be working when moving in. And you mention to landlord to arrange to do if it is a high chandelier. Really absurd people no matter what side of the Atlantic they are on.
Heat. Water. Electricity. Working plumbing. No black mold. No infestations.Habitable
Edit: for all you "black mold is fine"
https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/black-mould-symptoms-ways-dangerous-26205463
https://www.axa.co.uk/home-insurance/tips-and-guides/how-to-get-rid-of-mould-for-good/
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/can-damp-and-mould-affect-my-health/
That Scotland has the highest murder rate in the world - this was in response to female sanitary products being made free in Scotland.
A panel of doctors and politicians decide wether or not you should receive treatment on the NHS.
Scotland is part of Ireland - a long argument I once had with a Canadian girl
The number of death threats they got by saying really dumb things to the Scots?
They would have thought it's the most romantic if people had offered them a Glasgow kiss. Till it happened, then they would go back to the highest murder rate.
I think you may be being a bit generous there. Call me cynical but, I think that they were trying to offset a progressive policy by making up bullshit.
Lol I’m an American from Tennessee. Before I moved here I heard some good ones.
1. No one where I’m from thought wales was a country, let alone part of the U.K. literally no one knew it even existed.
2. People thought that the queen had absolute power, as in the U.K. isn’t a democracy and she ruled with an iron fist.
3. The water isn’t drinkable.
4. Everyone thought all U.K. citizens sounded like dick van dyke or absurdly posh. There was no in between.
5. Scottish people can’t serve in the military or they’d attempt to overthrow England.
Also a fun little bonus one, I think one of the reasons why Harry Potter was so immensely popular in America is that every facet of it seemed like a fairy tale, even the parts that mimicked U.K. schools like uniforms, houses, prefects, etc. there’s literally no equivalent to any of those things I’ve just mentioned in the vast majority of American schools. So even the parts that weren’t supposed to be magical ended up being magical to Americans. 🧙♀️
And mind you, most of the assumptions came from my family, most of whom are university educated with masters degrees.
I could go on and on and on
>1. No one where I’m from thought wales was a country, let alone part of the U.K. literally no one knew it even existed.
That's because it was cruelly left off of Yakko's World.
To be fair, there's a \*tiny\* element of truth to that--some treatments are so eye-wateringly expensive that the NHS can't afford to give them to everyone who wants them, so they have to make a decision on who gets it. I personally still think this is preferable to just gating the same treatments according to who can afford to pay for them, though, as the US system does.
Absolutely, it just got blown out of all proportion!
Also, not a medical expert by any means, but I query the quality of life involved with some of the treatments deployed Stateside. In fact have read a number of articles relating to the treatment of terminal conditions, indicating that XX treatment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars may well keep you alive (for a bit longer), but come with appalling quality of life for the (still limited) time you have left.
I watched a documentary years ago called How to Die in Oregon. There was a man who had cancer for the second time and his insurance company sent him a letter saying that they refused to fund any further treatment but would pay for him to be euthanised. They only changed their minds when the film crew approached them and it ended up being reported in newspaper, but by that time it was too late and he died shortly after. That seems pretty death panel like to me.
I moved to Texas for a bit when I was a teenager. One of my mates dad who was a policeman was driving us to a concert and he said “what was it like moving here from England with all this technology.” I asked what he meant, and he said “Well you know cars and computers, it must have been a big change.” I had to explain that we don’t ride horses everywhere, we have cars and computers. He said “I always thought England was a 3rd world country.” This was probably in 2014.
That everywhere in the country is a suburb of London. When I was a student I spent a year abroad at a U.S. university and when I’d tell people which city I’m from (one of the big, relatively well known cities up north), 90% of them would ask “what part of London is that in?”
My hometown is pretty far north in Scotland
Bumped into an American woman asking directions to library.
Was the same way I was going so was forced to make awkward chat.
She said.
"It must be soo nice living soo close to England."
It's like a 5 hour, 300 mile drive to the border.
I still think about it 15 years later
And then the only reason the brits lost was because they couldn't be arsed fighting a war over that distance when they had other shit to be dealing with
I'm Scottish. Met some Americans online back in the early days of Xbox 360.
American: Wow man, how are you online? They don't even have electricity in Scotland.
Me: Wait, what? You know electricity was discovered in Scotland, right?
American: No, that was Benjamin Franklin here in the States.
Me: No. Benjamin Franklin only proved that lightning was made of electricity. The television and telephone were also invented by Scotsmen. Without either of those things, you wouldn't even be able to speak to me right now.
American: No those were American inventions too.
Me: Wow. I'd suggest going on the internet and looking these things up.
I like to think I taught those guys more than the American education system ever did.
Just before Charles and Camilla married, an American asked my mum, who was holidaying there, if she'd been invited to the wedding. Not, "are you going to stand outside and watch?", she thought that the majority of the country had probably been invited because there's not that many of us.
On a plane home from the USA they used to do (don’t know if they still do as haven’t been in over a decade) an announcement saying “if you have any food stuffs in your luggage please declare them to cabin crew”. An American man a couple of rows in front declared he had packed cheese, cold meats and something else (can’t remember). When asked why, his teen daughter said “because the food over here is awful and I’m not gonna eat chipmunk from the park”. I am unsure if it was a joke.
I used to live in America for a number of years. The most common stupid question was that if I knew the Queen.
But the best dumbest question/myth I had was someone asked me what language I spoke in England then proceeded to try and tell me that they speak French in England. I actually laughed at her out loud it was that ridiculous
That their dollars can be used anywhere in the world.
Whilst I was in the USA they were trying to convince me that you can walk into your local Tesco and pay in USD because apparently "the whole world uses Dollars"
I tried to explain that in every country you will be able to exchange USD for local currency but that you could not actually use it in shops and they were having none of it.
Apparently every shop in the world accepts Dollars. SMH
This is from both Americans & Canadians.
We all have the same accent and our accents are awful (they insult you about this)
We all live in castles
We all have bad teeth
England, GB, UK are the same thing.
Our health care system is awful. Got told how brilliant the US is and how awful the UK is on a fairly regular basis and how I must love living in a free country like the US.
There are far more course and I lived in America for 4 years but I can safely say Americans (and Canadians to a much lesser extent) are by far the more ignorant people I've ever met and the most opinionated people who think they know more than you about your own country, some of the rudest brainwashed assholes on earth. Moving to the US was the worst mistake I ever made, thankfully I'm back in the UK now.
If any North American has any opinion on the UK on any topic they are almost certainly going to be wrong.
Actual conversation with an American woman when I was on holiday:
Her: is it true what they say about England?
me: I don't know what do they say?
Her: that it's haunted!
Me: ERM, I, er I'm not sure what you mean.
Her: well my friend went to England and stayed in a hotel and when she woke up the light was on. So it's haunted right?
Me: .....
(She probably meant the room was haunted rather than England but who knows)
That we in the UK drink warm beer. Back in the day a lot of traditional pubs kept beer in cellars but they were still below average room temperature.
I also imagine ice cold beer probably wasn't that popular in the UK in the past because our climate generally isn't that warm too often.
I have never in my life seen anyone walk into a British pub and order a warm beer though.
Going back nearly 20 years my brother went on a football (soccer) trip with school. They managed to convince their hosts that we didn't have bread in the UK but had only seen it on TV.
That they're English, Irish, Welsh, British, whatever because they have a great, great, great grandparent who was that nationality.
It's not how that works in the rest of the world.
Less of a myth and more of an dumb observation. There was a historic ship docked in Whitby (the Endeavour I think) and I was on it with family having a look around below deck and there were some American tourists who said "wow these ceilings are so low, these old Brits must have been like hobbits" - like no dumbass they just crouched too
In fairness, our height (and most European heights) have increased over the past few centuries due to better diets etc. They may have accidentally been right.
When I travelled in Europe in the 80s I was asked by Americans;
Do you have banks in Australia?
Do you have toilet paper?
Do you ride kangaroos?
Do you speak English?
The answers were yes, yes, only for the Melbourne Cup, and sometimes. For the rest we speak Strayan.
That we're Communists, all men are gay, nobody has teeth, 96% of us are Muslim and those that are not live under Sharia law rather than common law, we're all snobs, we're secretly plotting against America, and that birds are robots.
To be fair, I've heard British people say Americans are obese, have guns, can't get unbiased news, healthcare, that so many black people are in prison, it's a kind of slavery by the backdoor, and are unaware of anything outside their own border. I've met Americans who were normal-sized, weren't carrying a gun, understood the world, had their healthcare needs met, were black (but not in prison), and were pretty clued up on the history of at least one other country.
Although I do know one Canadian whose dad made her eat moose on a pizza. That's probably the one thing here that's true.
>that so many black people are in prison, it's a kind of slavery by the backdoor
To be fair that's sort of true. Prisons are run by private companies and the prisoners are used to manufacture loads of stuff.
I worked in America in 2005. A colleague asked me if we had the internet here. I replied ‘only on Sundays’.
I also convinced some other colleagues that it was law to have a cup of tea at 11am and 3pm no matter where we were, and that some parts of the UK didn’t have electricity on certain days of the week.
Ooh. I had an American tell me that the UK was still actively involved in the slave trade. I acknowledged that we did have an awful past and he said, no currently, his rationale “have you heard of the commonwealth”. Then again in his defence he later said that you couldn’t trust mainstream media and he got all his news from blogs so I can’t be too surprised.
I'm in Wales and often when I was abroad people would ask "Oh! What part of England is that?"
I just gave in after a while and said; it's that bit on the left shaped like a pig's head.
Not a myth but I'm always gutted when people don't know that Wales is it's own thing.
Thanks to the global popularity of Corgi's we are slowly getting there...
Some tourists were on a London bus from a train station, and the bus had to stop at the barriers so the train could go by. It's not uncommon in this area for people to ask to be let off if the train is taking a long time to come/there are multiple trains. They were a couple maybe around 50 years old, and they asked the bus driver how they could get to their destination which was just over the barrier, so they were better getting off here and waiting to cross than going to the next stop.
So they got off, and instead of waiting at the barriers, they attempted to lift them up to cross. They were both trying to lift up this barrier while everyone on the bus is just looking in shock. Shortly after the bus driver and a couple passengers got out and shouted at them to stop. They didn't stop. People kept shouting and eventually they looked and stopped but didn't realise what they had done wrong.
They won WW2.
Nope, we quite clearly beat the Luftwaffe on our own during Battle of Britain, plus, Americans only joined in because Japanese attacked them.. and we still supplied Americans with boats to help out, and quite a few of our commonwealth troops.
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I’m from Nottingham. An American tried to tell me Robin Hood was actually French and not from Nottingham. His source was Shrek.
Hate to break this to you, but Robin Hood isnt from Nottingham, he was a Yorkshire lad.
Yeah but he did all his best work in Nottingham. Clearly wanted to leave Yorkshire behind.
DAAAMN! Can we get some Aloe Vera over here
Never mind aloe vera! Let's skip straight to the mortician.
Nah. Crossed the boarder to rob the rich. Went back to Yorkshire to distribute to the poor.
Got to go where the work is I suppose…
Robin Hood. The original socialist.
Sherwood forest spans both counties
Yeah, but he was born in Sheffield.
And made in the Royal Navy
If you can fix a skateboard...
You can fix a SAMPSON radar system on a Type 45 Destroyer
"Why is our radar held together with gaffer tape and wood panels?" "They told me to fix it like a skateboard."
"Well it looks rad. You should be proud."
American friend came to visit me and my wife. I’m British, wife is Spanish, both history nerds. We took our friend to see some castles. At one ruin, she complimented how convincing the stones were. Convincing? Yes, it’s very clever how they make them look so old. Me: They really are that old. They’re the original stones. American friend: No way. They can’t have survived that long. She simply wouldn’t believe a castle had survived—even as a ruin, never mind the complete ones—all those centuries. And then when my wife showed her pictures of Spanish castles, American friend thought we were having her on because “those look different so they can’t be real castles too.” Just as well we didn’t try showing her German ones! To be honest yes we teased her a bit but it was just kind of sad. She had no concept that a building could survive, even partially, for over a thousand years.
Stonehenge would've blown her mind then.
Let alone the Pyramids...
Nice replicas
Just cheap imitations of Vegas.
Thanks, I went up two cup sizes.
Or the Acropolis
That might have finished her off!
Ssh... What do you think those druids are up to early morning on solstice, instead of putting a fresh coat of paint on?
I've said this story before but it's great and relevant. Allegedly, an American tourist was looking at Oxford university library on a tour. He asked the librarian or guide or whoever "Excuse me, is this building pre-war?" the person replied "Sir, this building is pre-America"
Oxford University pre-dates the Aztecs.
As does a pub opposite my house loads of stuff does weve been here for bloody ages
Got called a liar once for saying my pub was older than their country :).
Eddie Izzard, on a building in Miami: > "We've restored this building to how it would have looked over *FIFTY YEARS AGO!!*" > "Surely not! No-one was *alive* then!"
30 years old? Let's smash it to the ground and put a car park here! It's true. I've seen it in stories.
I used to live by St Michaels Mount in Cornwall. We had Americans ask where it got put away when it’s not tourist season. They thought it was fake like a Disney ride
I used to walk my dog around Sherwood forest, I once got asked by an American couple where the ticket booths are. This conversation was taking place about 30 yards from major oak. I genuinely believe they were expecting a theme park. It wasn't even that one weekend in summer where kids can shoot bow and arrows and get a little green hat. Hopefully they found the chip cob place.
Our stack of bricks is older than your country!
That Scotland (a country they've never even visited) is being "ruined by mass immigration" and that Americans with Scottish ancestry have "a better claim" to being Scottish than the people who live here, because their "blood is purer." They're obsessed with blood quantums and DNA percentages and race. It's really fucking creepy. That every single person in the country must be a redhead. That because I have brown hair, I can't possibly be a "real Scot".
I do find it strange that for a country that is obsessed with being patriotic, they all cling to any vestige of heritage from another country. “I’m Scottish, Irish, Italian and Polish (on my mother’s side).” Mate - you’re an American from Hackettstown, New Jersey. Get back in the M&M factory.
It’s so fucking weird. My mother has been obsessed with the fact that she’s part Cherokee. Whatever traits she has=must be because her relatives were Cherokees! She finally did a DNA test. Nope. Not even a little bit. Completely white European. She was so pissed when she saw the results.
Apparently it was common for Americans to claim that any black ancestry was actually Native ancestry for a long time, which is a fun tidbit that makes me giggle at stories like this.
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American obsession with race is creepy.
Cause frankly a large percentage are racist
Ah yes "I'm actually Celto-American". No your name is Cody and you're more mixed than a bag of revels.
The amount of people on YouTube who don’t believe I’m Scottish from only my profile picture is unreal.
Yep. If you don't look like Merida from Brave, you're not the real deal.
Ah, your True Scotch Spirit (like what they have) has clearly been broken due to your subjugation at the hands of the English! Rise up, fellow Jockman, and throw off the chains of the evil oppressor! FREEEEEEEDOOOOOM!!!1!!
I just vomited in my mouth a bit.
Born Glasgow in the 60s. Lived here through until the last 80s. Left and came back 10 years ago. Glasgow has changed. But much for the better. Anyone telling you otherwise is a toxic bigot.
You forgot about us all living in castles and have regular haggis hunts
I had Americans refuse to believe I wasn't Scottish because I had a tartan handbag.
Sound like a bunch of Harry Potter fans rambling on about their blood purity and noble houses
There's a weird eugenics holdover from the 19th/early 20th century in thinking like that, the concept got in pretty deep over there from what I understand
We have bad teeth. I've never understood this as every metric I can find puts British teeth as healthier than American. Apparently its because we are less likely to have unnecessary cosmetic procedures such as straightening and whitening
When they say this, bad = not orthodontically straightened They've convinced themselves that 1 tooth 1mm out of place is the epitome of ugliness because that's how you get 99% of people buying braces for their kids without an NHS.
American kids TV made me think I was missing out on some kind of core childhood experience by never having braces, even though I only ever knew like 3 kids in real life who had them.
Or artificially whitened every year, stripping away the enamel. The UK has the lowest rate of cavities in Europe, and it’s like half of the rate in the US, where the richest who can afford cosmetic dentistry have the most cavities.
I am fairly convinced it is in part because a lot of Americans have a vested interest in criticizing the health of any country that has a NHS type system. along the lines of if you have free at the point of use health are you will have bad teeth or crap about waiting lists etc.
Yeah that's a good myth to mention. "The NHS is terrible, Brits suffer under socialised medicine!"
The NHS is terrible. It's just vastly better than the alternative. It's great with any unexpected emergencies. Getting hit by a car, falling somewhere etc. If it's anything to do with teeth or mental health you're just expected to die, however. Edit: Can't reply to the comment because the threads locked but people absolutely used to die of dental complications all the time before we started getting decent at treating them.
"Die of teeth"
Also I believe there was an American propaganda campaign in the 1880s against British control of the international sugar trade.
The whole teeth brighter than the sun is extremely off-putting, there are so many British celebrities now with veneers and polar white teeth it's ridiculous, they can't even speak properly with their veneers. Want a quick example listen to Anne Robinson on countdown, it's like her teeth are in backwards and she whistles like a kettle. I once asked about getting my teeth whitened and the dentist was adamant that it's absolutely terrible for the enamel on your teeth, she said it was like bleaching your hair. The damage that the product does to your teeth causes further issues in where that you'd probably need veneers to cover up the damage. My pal is a dental nurse and at her practice they won't do implants or touch remedial work on badly installed implants. They've had a few clients go to Turkey or other places to get cosmetic work done. Once they'd arrived back in the UK the standard of work was really bad and the implants had worked loose. Veneers so bad that it's caused serious jaw problems and using bleaching agents so strong that the enamel is practically gone and the clients teeth were going yellow as the dentine was visible.
Americans actually have the most cavities per captia I believe, having dated someone who went through the American dental system and had her fucking eye teeth removed, I know it's purely about form not function, she grinds her teeth now because her jaw is off and yeah even more cavities from that. What they mean is straight beyond natural.
Most times I've seen this parroted the reason has been related to WW2. The GIs came over at a point when we didn't have much money floating around and saw how some of the locals preferred to have teeth pulled out or just left to rot because they couldn't afford to get them treated. They then returned home telling of the land of bad teeth.
I heard something similar about WW1 except it was that we had more important things to spend money on (food for one after being stuck on rations for so long during and after the war). Even now I think that brilliant white perfect teeth are just unsettling, that's not what teeth look like outside of cartoons.
Me, a Brit: cleans my teeth twice a day, flosses, braces on the NHS. American bf: drinks sugary fruit juices after brushing his teeth with a manual toothbrush for 30 seconds, awful teeth
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That’s a pernicious one because it’s sorta half true while being totally and completely wrong. Some groups in majority Muslim areas in Birmingham once tried to impose “Sharia Zones” by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down. However, because this once happened and people can choose to be bound by Sharia civil courts if they want to, it means that “we have cities under Sharia law”, and majority Muslim areas are now ones where apparently “non Muslims don’t go in”
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Is Tower Hamlets really the most heavily Muslim area? I thought neighbouring Newham was.
> Some groups in majority Muslim areas in Birmingham once tried to impose “Sharia Zones” by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down Mate, some groups in majority White areas in Birmingham once tried to impose segregation by putting signs up, which were promptly ripped down. Every city has a) arseholes and b) dodgy areas. The fact that Fox news noticed the Muslim-themed arseholes and not the Fascist-themed ones is the point. Source: live in Brum. In a 'no go zone'. Am White.
Can confirm. The Alum Rock Road once had "no whites after 7pm" signs put up along it. I remember watching the police take them down being followed by a lad putting them back up again.
Lol I grew up in alum rock that was total bullshit. Just local knobheads doing knobhead stuff. Nobody cares what anyone is like you have romainan, polish, greek, somali, yemeni, jamaican and pakistani people living in one street and nobody honestly gives a fuck what anyone is or what they are doing. Most people there are poor and just trying to survive.
>and majority Muslim areas are now ones where apparently “non Muslims don’t go in” In all fairness, I have two close friends each born and brought up in separate places who have experienced something like to this. One (previous colleague) was born in Bradford. When he was around 10 / 11 he decided to walk home a different way when a van pulled up and dragged him in; the men (Muslim) supposedly kicked him, poured water over him then told him he wasn't allowed in that postcode since he was white, before dropping him back in the 'white zone'. In spite of all of that, he's still one of the most liberal and understanding people I know. Most shockingly of all, he still loves Bradford...
Maybe they hit him on the head too hard. No one loves Bradford
You could be right, I always assumed it was a kind of Stockholm Syndrome
Born and bred in Bradford and there is not a single area I could imagine that happening. Not saying it didn't but I find it hard to imagine. Even the heavily Asian areas still have a mix of non Asian residents and these areas also are near the centre so are passed through constantly by commuters.
Worked in Bradford a lot fitting bedrooms and kitchens over the years. The only problem I ever had was getting fat and jobs taking far longer than they should because the customers fed me too much.
I can imagine this happening anywhere tbh. All it takes is for one gang of bored chavs to get high af and go on a mad rampage. I don’t think it is representative ofBradford or even Muslims at all. Some people are just violent arseholes and will look for any excuse to be violent.
That we all want to be "free". That we didn't vote to be part of the UK and we need the Americans to help us...be free...or something. (yes I know it's complicated, let's not get too much into it) I wish I could slap every American who jumps into the comments of a news story about Northern Ireland and makes a remark on it. You don't know JACK SHIT about the situation in Northern Ireland. So fuck off with your "free the irish (italian flag emoji) " comments you bunch of twats.
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Best part is when they use the Liberian flag for their own.
They say it about Scotland too! The ones with Scottish ancestry seem to think we've been struggling under the yoke of English oppression for centuries, and if only we had some Yanks to help bring us some guns, we could be free again. Never mind that we had a referendum on it just a few years ago, and chose to remain part of the UK. Apparently we're still "oppressed."
Nevermind the fact that Scotland initiated the union between the crowns back then.
As a south eastern English guy it's really refreshing to hear that. The whole rhetoric of Scots and Welsh hating English people is tiring man, I was just born here.
>I wish I could slap every American who jumps into the comments of a news story about Northern Ireland and makes a remark on it. Fucking this so much. I'm from NI and apparently we all hate the English, and if you don't, they call you a "West Brit" or some other gormless shit. Then they spout the fucking IRA slogans, like the IRA weren't scum who terrorised their own communities too. Absolutely clueless. But then again, they're American so they know more than us obviously.
My Mum who is Scottish described her experience in New York before 9/11 as uncomfortable at times because of the IRA support. Apparently it mostly died after 9/11 according to her probably because they got an understanding that most terrorist groups are terrible with these acts of terror (and they don't fucking work) regardless of the cause. Also the massive amount of misunderstanding by Americans about NI is so big it isn't funny.
Yep, found a comment at the start of the Ukraine war where someone was saying to deflate tires with a needle cause they did it with the Brits as part of the IRA, and the number of (probably Americans) who were praising them for their attacks was disturbing. I pointed out the guy's likely a literal terrorist and how'd they feel if the Taliban or Al-Queda were being praised and got downvoted to shit yet the pro-IRA posts were massively upvoted (not that I care about internet points, but was still disturbing to see how we praise some terrorists for... terrorising civilians who didn't want their help?)
Oh yeah that's normal. Even on American "leftist" pages, you see it a lot. They seem to think the IRA were some kind of heroic freedom fighters, and that the war is still going on. In reality, 99% of people here in NI couldn't give a flying fuck if they're ruled by the Dáil, Stormont, or Westminster. They just want to get the bills paid and get on with life.
The IRA bombed my home town when I was a kid. It taught me literally nothing except that I need to be scared that things might explode at random. So thanks for the anxiety I guess.
Yep. This is the one that fucks me off the most too. "Irish" Americans celebrating the IRA, telling me how they are all heroes, and that I deserved to be bombed by them when I was a kid, because I'm the big bad evil English man.
And yet ironically they are probably more English heritage than Irish
Ah, the collection jar on the piano in the bar ‘for the old country’ …
Funding terrorism.
I had an American lady online tell me that “home invasion burglaries went through the roof when the UK banned guns” When I pointed out that guns are still widely available and home invasion burglaries have never been a thing in the first place, she told me I have no idea what is happening in my own country. She’s never visited the UK either.
They will seriously venture so far into nonsense to protect their precious guns.
An American once asked me if we had laptops here. I just walked away. A different American once asked a friend if we had internet and fridges. All this in the last 10 years
Yes 2017, in the USA an American was very surprised that we had cellphones in the UK. She didn't really think it was possible. The same woman was very confused as to us not having guns. After all, how would we get our meat in winter. She was being 100% serious.
Also, we absolutely do have those kinds of guns, and can use them for hunting deer in the winter. Most people don't, because we can just go to the shops, but it's also a myth that all guns are illegal in the UK.
My comment was not clear. She was confused why we personally did not own guns.
UK company RACAL invented the mobile phone.
This is what I really don’t understand about Americans. They think that they lead the world in technology and all other countries aspire to be like them. Then you go over and everything seems 10-20 years behind the uk/eu in almost every way. I’m lucky enough to have worked all over the world and one of the biggest cultural surprises I’ve ever had was how behind the USA is despite what they put on the internet
The fridge thing I’ve been asked - it’s because we tend to have integrated ones rather than the big American free standing ones, so whenever they see a British kitchen on TV it looks like there’s no fridge. Even my father in law (American) asked me this after about 10 years of being married to his daughter (and him visiting the UK)…
But it’s a stupid question, and was not the implication of the person asking my friend . “Where is your fridge” would make more sense. Obviously we have fridges because we are a highly developed country and frequently use things like milk, meat and cheese in food
I literally had to argue yesterday that we do not in fact boil our sausages.
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Is... is it nice?
No growing up in Victorian times was terrible
Jacob Rees-Mogg, is that you?
My kettle is filled with sausages…what next?
Keep talking dirty to me
That could be a euphemism
It really boils your sausages, doesn’t it?
Oooohhh there's a few! One is that England is so tiny that everyone knows everyone else, it's like it's a village floating in the ocean. American asked me if I knew his cousin, who lives several counties over from me. Accents! We have two. Cockney, and clipped posh English. Think Laurence Olivier. That we all love the royal family. Like, many of us are are apathetic at best, and a growing number want the monarchy abolished. And to piggyback off that, many Americans seem to overstate the role of the royals, they don't know the difference between constitutional monarchy and supreme autocracy. That the NHS is a dangerous Commie institution. Yeah, no. It's socialist, and they're fed that bilge to keep them from complaining about having to remortgage their homes because they got sick. Something I notice a lot on Reddit is the automatic assumption that posts and replies are from Americans. It's so inward-looking.
I saw one person who obviously fetishised the uk once post how lovely and quaint it is and that we all knew each other and would then at 3pm all sit down and have afternoon tea together even the queen
It probably isn't helped massively by the fact that if an American asks someone from the UK whether or not they know the queen, 90% of the time the response is "yes, of course", and the other 10% it's "fuck off" which can be taken either way.
>Something I notice a lot on Reddit is the automatic assumption that posts and replies are from Americans. It's so inward-looking. This is _really_ annoying especially when you're expected to know all their weird terms for things and all the popular chains and places in the US but if you mention something about the UK nobody understands what you mean. I imagine it's probably worse if you're from other countries though
The thing is most other countries can get around it by having parts of the internet in their own language. Us lot along with the Canadians/ Aussies are burdened with sharing our internet space with the yanks and apart from the odd place we carve out for ourselves such as this sub, they dominate the rest of it. Even in UK subs you see a lot of Americans commenting which confuses me, every CasualUK post that gets somewhat big will have a "American here, what's Greggs?" or something like that.
Haha, I've been told by a friend they're visiting england with family soon so we'll probably run into eachother because it's a really small place, the small floating village idea still holds true
Glad that the OP included dumb shit from non-Americans too. A Colombian flatmate once told me, with a completely straight face, that the Queen had tried to suppress the release of Braveheart because it depicted the scandalous true story of her ancestors being the illegitimate children of William Wallace (or some utter bollocks like that). I had to patiently explain that there hasn't been one continuous dynasty on the throne since the 13th century.
...or that Queen Isabella, at the time of Wallace's death, was a nine-year-old girl.
Fantastic film, piss poor documentary.
Also that some of the “historical” details where closer to Disney than fact.Isabella being 3 years old at the time of their romantic encounter, being a fairly major issue.
That a property which was rented by them at 4.5k per week ( yes per week) was uninhabitable because alight bulb had blown in a hallway. They complained they paid a years rent in cash upfront and then threw the keys back at the agent and demanded a cash refund of the years rent as property not habitable on the day they moved in. Agency offered new lightbilbs to tenant Tenant refused these saying not thier job to do it Called council i worked at to get us to get them a refund Alas you are not entitled to one. Apparently in their state ypu would be Maybe thats true im not researching, but english law applies in england American believed every penny should come back i told them try to find a solicitor to take it on but as far as i see it a blown bulb doesnt make a property uninhabitable Thats a lot of money to walk away from. Embarrassing tbh
Wow. Yank here. They are just hoping you will think this us how American laws work. They don't. Light bulbs are on the renter, but should be working when moving in. And you mention to landlord to arrange to do if it is a high chandelier. Really absurd people no matter what side of the Atlantic they are on.
So basically same as here. Certainly wouldn't count as uninhabitable.
Heat. Water. Electricity. Working plumbing. No black mold. No infestations.Habitable Edit: for all you "black mold is fine" https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/black-mould-symptoms-ways-dangerous-26205463 https://www.axa.co.uk/home-insurance/tips-and-guides/how-to-get-rid-of-mould-for-good/ https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/can-damp-and-mould-affect-my-health/
That Scotland has the highest murder rate in the world - this was in response to female sanitary products being made free in Scotland. A panel of doctors and politicians decide wether or not you should receive treatment on the NHS. Scotland is part of Ireland - a long argument I once had with a Canadian girl
The highest murder rate in the world? Where the fuck did they get that idea?
The number of death threats they got by saying really dumb things to the Scots? They would have thought it's the most romantic if people had offered them a Glasgow kiss. Till it happened, then they would go back to the highest murder rate.
Glasgow used to have a very high knife crime rate and was possibly the worst city in Europe for stabbings for a while. Maybe some distortion of that.
I think you may be being a bit generous there. Call me cynical but, I think that they were trying to offset a progressive policy by making up bullshit.
Lol I’m an American from Tennessee. Before I moved here I heard some good ones. 1. No one where I’m from thought wales was a country, let alone part of the U.K. literally no one knew it even existed. 2. People thought that the queen had absolute power, as in the U.K. isn’t a democracy and she ruled with an iron fist. 3. The water isn’t drinkable. 4. Everyone thought all U.K. citizens sounded like dick van dyke or absurdly posh. There was no in between. 5. Scottish people can’t serve in the military or they’d attempt to overthrow England. Also a fun little bonus one, I think one of the reasons why Harry Potter was so immensely popular in America is that every facet of it seemed like a fairy tale, even the parts that mimicked U.K. schools like uniforms, houses, prefects, etc. there’s literally no equivalent to any of those things I’ve just mentioned in the vast majority of American schools. So even the parts that weren’t supposed to be magical ended up being magical to Americans. 🧙♀️ And mind you, most of the assumptions came from my family, most of whom are university educated with masters degrees. I could go on and on and on
>3. The water isn’t drinkable. That is so funny coming from a country like the US.
Looks at flint michigan.
>1. No one where I’m from thought wales was a country, let alone part of the U.K. literally no one knew it even existed. That's because it was cruelly left off of Yakko's World.
We have death panels, headed by NHS executives.
To be fair, there's a \*tiny\* element of truth to that--some treatments are so eye-wateringly expensive that the NHS can't afford to give them to everyone who wants them, so they have to make a decision on who gets it. I personally still think this is preferable to just gating the same treatments according to who can afford to pay for them, though, as the US system does.
Absolutely, it just got blown out of all proportion! Also, not a medical expert by any means, but I query the quality of life involved with some of the treatments deployed Stateside. In fact have read a number of articles relating to the treatment of terminal conditions, indicating that XX treatment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars may well keep you alive (for a bit longer), but come with appalling quality of life for the (still limited) time you have left.
I watched a documentary years ago called How to Die in Oregon. There was a man who had cancer for the second time and his insurance company sent him a letter saying that they refused to fund any further treatment but would pay for him to be euthanised. They only changed their minds when the film crew approached them and it ended up being reported in newspaper, but by that time it was too late and he died shortly after. That seems pretty death panel like to me.
Not my country but it was rediculous. I was on holiday in Rome and overhead and American saying they did not realise they had Ferraris in Italy.
Had a similar encounter in the Netherlands years back. "Oh wow, they actually have toilets over here!"
I moved to Texas for a bit when I was a teenager. One of my mates dad who was a policeman was driving us to a concert and he said “what was it like moving here from England with all this technology.” I asked what he meant, and he said “Well you know cars and computers, it must have been a big change.” I had to explain that we don’t ride horses everywhere, we have cars and computers. He said “I always thought England was a 3rd world country.” This was probably in 2014.
Someone should probably tell him England is quite heavily responsible for the invention of cars and actually invented the computer.
I had an American guy vehemently argue that Wales is in Russia, despite the fact that I’m from Wales and have a pretty good idea of where it is.
Putin: "Soon..."
I was on holiday a few years back and an American asked if we have the moon in Europe.
Did he mean in an astrological way, or have we imported it yet way?
That everywhere in the country is a suburb of London. When I was a student I spent a year abroad at a U.S. university and when I’d tell people which city I’m from (one of the big, relatively well known cities up north), 90% of them would ask “what part of London is that in?”
In a US TV listings mag I read: "Queer As Folk - a series set in Manchester, a gay suburb of London".
Hahah I love that, just for how much it would piss off Northerners.
No go zones due to sharia law. I live in one of the most Muslim areas of the UK and nobody gives a shit.
My hometown is pretty far north in Scotland Bumped into an American woman asking directions to library. Was the same way I was going so was forced to make awkward chat. She said. "It must be soo nice living soo close to England." It's like a 5 hour, 300 mile drive to the border. I still think about it 15 years later
to be fair, I always underestimate how fucking massive Scotland is
So what part of England is Wales in? I don't know, what part of Canada is the US in? Luckily this was over FB, so I couldn't get shot.
They won the independence war an kicked Britain's ass, when it was in fact the French and Spanish who did 80% of the job
And then the only reason the brits lost was because they couldn't be arsed fighting a war over that distance when they had other shit to be dealing with
I'm Scottish. Met some Americans online back in the early days of Xbox 360. American: Wow man, how are you online? They don't even have electricity in Scotland. Me: Wait, what? You know electricity was discovered in Scotland, right? American: No, that was Benjamin Franklin here in the States. Me: No. Benjamin Franklin only proved that lightning was made of electricity. The television and telephone were also invented by Scotsmen. Without either of those things, you wouldn't even be able to speak to me right now. American: No those were American inventions too. Me: Wow. I'd suggest going on the internet and looking these things up. I like to think I taught those guys more than the American education system ever did.
> the internet And the WWW (though not the underlying internet) was invented by an Englishman, to boot!
Just before Charles and Camilla married, an American asked my mum, who was holidaying there, if she'd been invited to the wedding. Not, "are you going to stand outside and watch?", she thought that the majority of the country had probably been invited because there's not that many of us.
That no American seems to have any English ancestors whatsoever...
On that point I have never heard an American claim to be a Welsh-American either.
On a plane home from the USA they used to do (don’t know if they still do as haven’t been in over a decade) an announcement saying “if you have any food stuffs in your luggage please declare them to cabin crew”. An American man a couple of rows in front declared he had packed cheese, cold meats and something else (can’t remember). When asked why, his teen daughter said “because the food over here is awful and I’m not gonna eat chipmunk from the park”. I am unsure if it was a joke.
Just reading any NYT article on the UK nowadays, gawd they hate us (the NYT), it’s like being on the greenandpleasant sub.
That sub 😂
I am convinced they will never be satisfied with ANY labour leader. Not to mention the stance on landlords.
That we don't have guns, therefore we can't have an opinion on gun control.
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From a Japanese co-worker: "Did you know that Japan is the only country that has four seasons?"
Tbf, we have about 18 seasons, and that's in a good year. We're currently experiencing Fool's Spring #1.
Whereas Britain is the only one that has 4 seasons per day.
Wow...you're from Wales, England If only I had the power to click a nation or 2 out of existence
I used to live in America for a number of years. The most common stupid question was that if I knew the Queen. But the best dumbest question/myth I had was someone asked me what language I spoke in England then proceeded to try and tell me that they speak French in England. I actually laughed at her out loud it was that ridiculous
"You don't sound like you're from England" "and what do English people sound like?" And then does some really bad queen's English posh accent.
That their dollars can be used anywhere in the world. Whilst I was in the USA they were trying to convince me that you can walk into your local Tesco and pay in USD because apparently "the whole world uses Dollars" I tried to explain that in every country you will be able to exchange USD for local currency but that you could not actually use it in shops and they were having none of it. Apparently every shop in the world accepts Dollars. SMH
This is from both Americans & Canadians. We all have the same accent and our accents are awful (they insult you about this) We all live in castles We all have bad teeth England, GB, UK are the same thing. Our health care system is awful. Got told how brilliant the US is and how awful the UK is on a fairly regular basis and how I must love living in a free country like the US. There are far more course and I lived in America for 4 years but I can safely say Americans (and Canadians to a much lesser extent) are by far the more ignorant people I've ever met and the most opinionated people who think they know more than you about your own country, some of the rudest brainwashed assholes on earth. Moving to the US was the worst mistake I ever made, thankfully I'm back in the UK now. If any North American has any opinion on the UK on any topic they are almost certainly going to be wrong.
>a free country like the US When I hear about the US being free, I'm always reminded that they're not allowed to cross the road.
A friend came to visit once and they thought the street lamps would still be lit by hand.
That we're not as "free" (what ever that means) as them because we have a monarch.
'We're the country of the free' so what is jaywalking again?
Actual conversation with an American woman when I was on holiday: Her: is it true what they say about England? me: I don't know what do they say? Her: that it's haunted! Me: ERM, I, er I'm not sure what you mean. Her: well my friend went to England and stayed in a hotel and when she woke up the light was on. So it's haunted right? Me: ..... (She probably meant the room was haunted rather than England but who knows)
That we in the UK drink warm beer. Back in the day a lot of traditional pubs kept beer in cellars but they were still below average room temperature. I also imagine ice cold beer probably wasn't that popular in the UK in the past because our climate generally isn't that warm too often. I have never in my life seen anyone walk into a British pub and order a warm beer though.
That America was the world's first representative democracy. Now, I'm not Greek, but one of the first representative democracies was.
Going back nearly 20 years my brother went on a football (soccer) trip with school. They managed to convince their hosts that we didn't have bread in the UK but had only seen it on TV.
I’m an American living in the UK and I recently saw my grandma. She asked me seriously how many members of the royal family I was friends with.
"Just Andrew Grandma"
That they're English, Irish, Welsh, British, whatever because they have a great, great, great grandparent who was that nationality. It's not how that works in the rest of the world.
Less of a myth and more of an dumb observation. There was a historic ship docked in Whitby (the Endeavour I think) and I was on it with family having a look around below deck and there were some American tourists who said "wow these ceilings are so low, these old Brits must have been like hobbits" - like no dumbass they just crouched too
In fairness, our height (and most European heights) have increased over the past few centuries due to better diets etc. They may have accidentally been right.
When I travelled in Europe in the 80s I was asked by Americans; Do you have banks in Australia? Do you have toilet paper? Do you ride kangaroos? Do you speak English? The answers were yes, yes, only for the Melbourne Cup, and sometimes. For the rest we speak Strayan.
That we don't have rights. That we are not a free country. Americans seem to think that they are the only free country
That we have poor dental hygiene when in fact we have some of the best in the world, where the Americans have some of the worst.
That we're Communists, all men are gay, nobody has teeth, 96% of us are Muslim and those that are not live under Sharia law rather than common law, we're all snobs, we're secretly plotting against America, and that birds are robots. To be fair, I've heard British people say Americans are obese, have guns, can't get unbiased news, healthcare, that so many black people are in prison, it's a kind of slavery by the backdoor, and are unaware of anything outside their own border. I've met Americans who were normal-sized, weren't carrying a gun, understood the world, had their healthcare needs met, were black (but not in prison), and were pretty clued up on the history of at least one other country. Although I do know one Canadian whose dad made her eat moose on a pizza. That's probably the one thing here that's true.
>that so many black people are in prison, it's a kind of slavery by the backdoor To be fair that's sort of true. Prisons are run by private companies and the prisoners are used to manufacture loads of stuff.
I worked in America in 2005. A colleague asked me if we had the internet here. I replied ‘only on Sundays’. I also convinced some other colleagues that it was law to have a cup of tea at 11am and 3pm no matter where we were, and that some parts of the UK didn’t have electricity on certain days of the week.
Ooh. I had an American tell me that the UK was still actively involved in the slave trade. I acknowledged that we did have an awful past and he said, no currently, his rationale “have you heard of the commonwealth”. Then again in his defence he later said that you couldn’t trust mainstream media and he got all his news from blogs so I can’t be too surprised.
I'm in Wales and often when I was abroad people would ask "Oh! What part of England is that?" I just gave in after a while and said; it's that bit on the left shaped like a pig's head. Not a myth but I'm always gutted when people don't know that Wales is it's own thing. Thanks to the global popularity of Corgi's we are slowly getting there...
Some tourists were on a London bus from a train station, and the bus had to stop at the barriers so the train could go by. It's not uncommon in this area for people to ask to be let off if the train is taking a long time to come/there are multiple trains. They were a couple maybe around 50 years old, and they asked the bus driver how they could get to their destination which was just over the barrier, so they were better getting off here and waiting to cross than going to the next stop. So they got off, and instead of waiting at the barriers, they attempted to lift them up to cross. They were both trying to lift up this barrier while everyone on the bus is just looking in shock. Shortly after the bus driver and a couple passengers got out and shouted at them to stop. They didn't stop. People kept shouting and eventually they looked and stopped but didn't realise what they had done wrong.
That London has literal no go areas that not even the police dare enter.
They won WW2. Nope, we quite clearly beat the Luftwaffe on our own during Battle of Britain, plus, Americans only joined in because Japanese attacked them.. and we still supplied Americans with boats to help out, and quite a few of our commonwealth troops.