Silly questions asked by yanks

Sisko

The Agogo wrote: »

On a side note, having been to America, they aren't so different to us. I don't know why the Irish [THE WORLD] have such a dim view of them.

Its easy, due to the large amount of them that travel to other countries and make incredibly ignorant remarks with seemingly no concept that what they are saying is utterly nuts, and theres the hordes of americans that make a bad name for themselves on the Internet. I was an admin of a european games server a few years ago and holy jaysus could you tell when an american joined. N*gger this a fa*get that and seemed to instantly go out of their way to break any and all server rules. The ban list was 80% americans. It was like they intentionally joined EU server to be idiots.

Then there's the whole voting for bush twice thing and pages worth of stuff I could talk about in terms of American foreign policy and the average Americans twisted knowledge on said facts "We dun saved y'all in two world waaaaars" etc

They only have themselves to blame. This is the image they project to the world constantly. Nobody wants America to be like this, the reason people may be so harsh about it all is that if anything , the world would be a much better place as a whole if Americans were more culturally enlightened and aware of the world their country has such influence over.

The Scientician

I agree that most of us Irish people are wild ignorant about America and the rest of the world. We probably have a better knowledge of other European countries than people from outside Europe would have but that stands to reason. My only experience of "Dumb American Syndrome" that I recall was when I was asked "Do you have pizza in Ireland?" I know years ago we were underdeveloped etc but I found it hilarious because a) there's a rare country now you can't find pizza in and b) I would reckon pizza's maybe more popular in Ireland than it is in America. There are loads of pizza places all over the place here.

Floodric

Was asked "you're from ireland, does that make you irel-ish?"

And "I'm sorry to hear about your troubles" in 2005. One of them thought I lived in a house made of mud.

The King of Moo

Was once bringing an American cousin around the country. Once we were waiting at traffic lights. When he heard the beeping he asked "Isn't it great that you have the beeps for blind people?"

Then when we were arriving at Bunratty Castle he said "Isn't it lucky that the castle was built in an area which would turn out to be a suitable location for a highway to pass through, therefore allowing many tourists to access it easily?"

Joe10000

A bar man in Washington was annoying me going on about drinking an "Irish car bomb" cause he made the best ones. He asked me did we have "Irish car bombs" in Ireland and I said of course we do but call them 9/11s.

That shut him up.


A Frenchman asked me last week during a business meeting are we not part of the commonwealth and he took some persuading that we weren't.

I have no opinion on this I am just passing it on.

pauge2007

martic wrote: »

Are these the same dumb Americans that are proud of their ancestry that they make the big trip over here to see the country they still regard as home with the added bonus of when they are here asking their dumb questions they pump money into our economy and keep a lot of "real" Irish in work in the tourist industry. I've been in nearly every county in Ireland and by Jesus there is enough dumb fcks on our own door step never mind having to start threads about other nationalities

Never a truer word said. I love how smug we irish can get about ourselves and think we are the sh1t because we are 'Irish'! I am on my travels at the moment and have never met as much dumb irish and i don't say that lightly. Don't know what the Celtic tiger has done but it has made alot of stupid people think highly of themselves!!

Sisko

Sisko wrote: »

Then there's the whole voting for bush twice thing

As opposed to voting FF how many times?

old hippy

The King of Moo wrote: »

Was once bringing an American cousin around the country. Once we were waiting at traffic lights. When he heard the beeping he asked "Isn't it great that you have the beeps for blind people?"

Then when we were arriving at Bunratty Castle he said "Isn't it lucky that the castle was built in an area which would turn out to be a suitable location for a highway to pass through, therefore allowing many tourists to access it easily?"

:rolleyes::mad:

Bajingo

Foxhound38 wrote: »

They're not dumb, they just say wacky things sometimes. The Irish aren't dumb either, they just elect idiots to run their country sometimes. Everyone has their foibles

Are we not the two dumbest first world countries?

Bajingo

Hazys wrote: »

Yup, its only about 60 or so millions of english speaking people use/know that expression, the hundreds of millions of other english speakers dont.

Loads of people may know the phrase but the vast majority of Americans wouldn't know that, they're locked up in their own culture, we're lucky enough to be able to snatch a bit of culture from every where.

Paddysnapper

A musician friend of mine was asked where he was from in Ireland, to which he replied Cork..The man's retort was "That's where they hate the Irish isn't it?)

Another musician friend was told by a yank "I just love Irish music, my favourite song is The fields of At Henry"

Both 100% true!:)

Solair

The one that really annoys me is that a lot of continental Europeans seem to get quite argumentative about the fact that the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK.

I had an incident in Spain where an employment contract said that I was a British national and a citizen of the UK. I pointed it out to the HR department and she said "yes, you are not in England but you are in the UK..."

I explained, pointed at my passport and she said (In Spanish) well I suppose that's a matter of your political perspective! i.e. she was assuming I was adopting a similar stance to Catalans / Basques who would be at pains to point out that they're not Spanish.

I've had similar incidents in other EU countries too where I was just stuck down as British on paperwork etc etc.

When it happened in Belgium, I just told the HR person how I loved this part of France. (I was in Flanders!)

Oddly enough, I have generally found with the English that when they talk about Ireland as being in the UK it's usually out of genuine confusion or that they are kinda embracing it as "not foreign" rather than out of some kind of weird post-colonial hangover.

They're also usually a bit more sensitive about the issue, even if they usually have the geopolitical facts wrong

AeoNGriM

watna wrote: »

I've had this too. "How do you speak such good English"? It was a said in a group of people and everyone else in the group laughed when she said it. They were all a bit embarassed for her.

In fairness, they don't learn about any other countries in school and things (so I've heard from American friends) and all the stuff they see on tv is an American idea of what Ireland is like so really, how are they supposed to know?

Google?

Nulty

giftgrub wrote: »

I was asked if Ireland was near Amsterdam...

Was it a cosmologist who asked? If so, the answer is yes.

Nulty

Theres a lot of defensive people here ruining a good thread trying to reason with people who are just trying to have some banter. Anyone competent enough to use a computer but still lacks enough common sense to see that there are major flaws in the generalisations being made here - and unable to take these for what they are - will never learn so stop trying to put things in perspective and just laugh.

Nuff said

Leejo

"Do you guys have Christmas over here yet?"

I shit you not...

blaze1

Me wearing a orange Polo t shirt in vegas some little hispanic matey makes his way over to me....

"ey esay i used to wear them colours"
me "ah cool mate yeah nice one"
" yeah esay i was locked up in clark county"

starts throwin up gang signs twisting the fingers up, i reply ah rite fairplay, and leg it off the bus

Another dude in the planet hollywood when I was in the jax takin a leak.
Matey reading a pron mag at the urinal starts craking one off standin in the middle of the bogs
"man shes got a great ass i'd love to f*ck that"

stevenmu

Solair wrote: »

Oddly enough, I have generally found with the English that when they talk about Ireland as being in the UK it's usually out of genuine confusion or that they are kinda embracing it as "not foreign" rather than out of some kind of weird post-colonial hangover.

A lot of English people seem to say 'UK' when they really mean 'British Isles' (which we are a part of).

The King of Moo

"Dude, that is an Iraqi tank, right?"

pickarooney

ClashCityRocker wrote: »

Another "friend told me" one....

Friend of mine was in Rome taking a tour. They were at the Colosseum and an American tourist asked the guide if the "Eyetalian" government had any plans to repair it.

They're in the process of repairing a number of Roman-era arenas. Not a dumb question.

kegg

Iwas in michigan a few years back and went onto a shop to buy fags. The girl behind the counter asked me for ID. Ya need to be 21 i think. I told her i was 29 but no joy. So i asked her what age she thought i was and she said 26! :eek: I just gave up and walked out.

The King of Moo

kegg wrote: »

Iwas in michigan a few years back and went onto a shop to buy fags. The girl behind the counter asked me for ID. Ya need to be 21 i think. I told her i was 29 but no joy. So i asked her what age she thought i was and she said 26! :eek: I just gave up and walked out.

Saw something similar in a supermarket in New York a few years ago. There was a guy at least in his 70s, maybe even 80s buying a bottle of wine.
The girl behind the counter asked him for ID.
When he said he didn't have any, she said she couldn't serve him as all people buying alcohol had to show ID! He pleaded meekly a few times, and she kept insisting that he couldn't have it.
He finally gave up and as he was shuffling away to leave the wine back the manager noticed and rushed over, shocked, apologising to the old man and giving him the wine.
Even if it were store policy to ask everyone for ID, I don't think it'd be giving the man too much leeway to give him the wine!

kegg

A friend of mine was goin out with a distant relation of mine from the shtates that was in ireland for the summer a few years back. My friend was driving her around, showing her the sights, when she asked what the L (L plates) was for she had seen on some cars. My friend told her that people here who thought thier cars were "lovely" put an L on thier car! :P She didnt think anything of it and just said "cool"!

Babalons

At a pedestrian crossing a yank asked:
'whats that beeping noise'
Answer:
'So blind people know this is a pedestrian crossing'
Yanks reply:
'You let blind people drive over here!!!'

Gas yanks, gotta love them.

Nhead

Babalons wrote: »

At a pedestrian crossing a yank asked:
'whats that beeping noise'
Answer:
'So blind people know this is a pedestrian crossing'
Yanks reply:
'You let blind people drive over here!!!'

Gas yanks, gotta love them.

There must have been some crowd around when the American said this:pac:

A_Border_Bandit

An American student in one of my geology tutorials asked approximately how many miles deep the lithosphere was! Oh man it was hilarious when she realized we are metric. You should have seen her face! Those crazy yanks!





:pac:

Bajingo

An Irish mate emailed me once while I was living in Austin, TX, and asked if I could meet him in San Francisco. I explained to him that he lived closer to Moscow than I did to San Francisco. He then asks in email if Las Vegas would be easier. I said 'if taking 600 miles off nearly 1900 makes it easy, then yes. See you for dinner.'

Well that's just inaccurate.

Sefirah

"Do people wear shoes in Ireland?"
"You Irish speak English so wellll!"
"Do you know a Seán Murphy? He's from Ireland too."
(I know the last 2 aren't questions but still.... mortifying... and one must imagine them being said in an incredibly patronising and neurotic yank accent...!)

Also, there was an incident in Israel where I was in Rabin Square (named after the PM who was assassinated)
Yank: "Isn't it, like, really ironic?"
Me: "What?"
Yank: "That he would get killed in his own square!"

Rented Mule

Bajingo wrote: »

Well that's just inaccurate.

Depends on which way you are traveling.

Donkey Oaty

As Bajingo has said, you don't know your distances. Moscow is several hundred kilometers further away from Dublin than San Francisco is from Austin.

But it's deeper than that. Let's say it's a week from now that your "friend" wants to meet you, or you want to meet him. And let's say it's an overnight stay.

Dublin to Moscow fare with Expedia: 390 Euro. 14 hours 20 mins there, 7 and a half coming back.

For 400 Euro you can have 12 hours there, 6 and a half coming back, and that gets you in at 0200h in the morning in Moscow.

Now. San Francisco to Austin: 215 Euro. Travel time less than 12 hours in total, there and back.

Oh, and you obviously need a visa for Russia as well, with all the expenses and hassle that that entails. (You can Google "visa" for details - it's a thing that us international travellers have to deal with occasionally.)

Now re-read your original contribution to this thread. Do you still think that Dublin-Moscow is similar to San Francisco-Austin?