Silly questions asked by yanks

Dan133269

stevenmu wrote: »

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

Jesus Christ! :eek:

onlyrocknroll

Solair wrote: »

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

I can understand Americans who think this, or people from Africa or Asia etc obviously, but it's ridiculous among Europeans.

Anyone who would actually argue with you about it though is completely pig-headed.

Joe10000

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.

I'm not going back to count them all bit I think this is the fifth time someone has posted this story, must be true.

Solair

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

I can understand Americans who think this, or people from Africa or Asia etc obviously, but it's ridiculous among Europeans.

Anyway who would actually argue with you about it though is completely pig-headed.

You know how some HR people / taxation officials are though!
This lady just had a reputation around the office.
She was just a Spanish version of that "Computa says no!" sketch.

stevenmu

Dan133269 wrote: »

Jesus Christ! :eek:

The British Isles is a geographic region which does not take political boundaries into account. It includes the entire islands of Britain and Ireland (along with loads of other little ones).

Solair

stevenmu wrote: »

The British Isles is a geographic region which does not take political boundaries into account. It includes the entire islands of Britain and Ireland (along with loads of other little ones).

Or, to be politically correct about it from a French perspective it's called : The feckin' weird islands off the Northwest of Europe that drive on the wrong side of the road, insist on using big huge weird plugs and took 40 years to adopt the metric system and still haven't managed to quite get there yet!

Daegerty

Solair wrote: »

Or, to be politically correct about it from a French perspective it's called : The feckin' weird islands off the Northwest of Europe that drive on the wrong side of the road, insist on using big huge weird plugs and took 40 years to adopt the metric system and still haven't managed to quite get there yet!

There are quite a few places that insist on using huge weird plugs, i believe in India they use even bigger 15A BS-546 plugs but with a safety shutter like ours.

and there is nothing wrong with that. who says every country needs to do everything the exact same way?

Solair

Daegerty wrote: »

There are quite a few places that insist on using huge weird plugs, i believe in India they use even bigger 15A BS-546 plugs but with a safety shutter like ours.

and there is nothing wrong with that. who says every country needs to do everything the exact same way?

It was meant to be a joke

France itself has a specially designed socket with an earthing pin that sticks out of the face to ensure that German plugs cannot be connected easily Otherwise, it's identical to the German system.

The only problem I have with the Irish/UK system is that the plugs tend to wreck your laptop bag. They also have a horrible tendency to end up with the sharp pins facing upwards if you leave them on the floor which isn't fun if you stand on them

pmcd22

You guys from Ireland?

ya

My great-great grandfather, he comes from Ireland.
He comes from Co. Munster

Dan133269

stevenmu wrote: »

The British Isles is a geographic region which does not take political boundaries into account. It includes the entire islands of Britain and Ireland (along with loads of other little ones).

Says who? Wikipedia? There is no legal or political basis for the term "British Isles". It's the same as me referring to the same group of islands as The Irish Isles or Danny's Isles. And if it has nothing to do with politics, where did the adjctive British in "British Isles" come from? Ireland is not British.

Solair

Dan133269 wrote: »

Says who? Wikipedia? There is no legal or political basis for the term "British Isles". It's the same as me referring to the same group of islands as The Irish Isles or Danny's Isles. And if it has nothing to do with politics, where did the adjctive British in "British Isles" come from? Ireland is not British.

The simple politically correct term is "Britain and Ireland" or "Ireland and Britain" it covers everything and offends nobody.

johnr1

In 2003 I drove rich Americans around for a tour company.

Here are my best two : Coming out of Dromoland castle one morning, one of the guys had a copy of the SUN and the front page article was about how the Queen/King hadn't visited in 80 years or whatever. " Say Jaawn, does your queen not visit you if you don't pay your taxes ". - Cue screech of brakes and me turning round " Ireland....... England, USA...... Canada. Different countries buddy "
The other one was George Cohon - the guy who brought McDonalds to Russia, and outright owns the franchise for Canada, billionaire and on the board of McDonalds asking me after about a week here if this was an island.
Miserable bugger left me a copy of his book "to Russia -with fries" as a tip!

Daegerty

Solair wrote: »

It was meant to be a joke

France itself has a specially designed socket with an earthing pin that sticks out of the face to ensure that German plugs cannot be connected easily Otherwise, it's identical to the German system.

The only problem I have with the Irish/UK system is that the plugs tend to wreck your laptop bag. They also have a horrible tendency to end up with the sharp pins facing upwards if you leave them on the floor which isn't fun if you stand on them

I remember seeing something about a fold-up bs1363 plug a while back. not sure if it went into production though

pickarooney

Daegerty wrote: »

who says every country needs to do everything the exact same way?

The European Commission (although I think in this case it's a good thing).

Daegerty

pickarooney wrote: »

The European Commission (although I think in this case it's a good thing).

yes in that case it is.
a shame they didn't bring out a selection of standardised batteries while they were at it

most laptop and phone batteries are in fact standardised but encased in a proprietary housing possibly with a little chip to tell the phone that it's an overpriced 'genuine' battery or else the phone will refuse to switch on.

onlyrocknroll

Dan133269 wrote: »

Says who? Wikipedia? There is no legal or political basis for the term "British Isles". It's the same as me referring to the same group of islands as The Irish Isles or Danny's Isles. And if it has nothing to do with politics, where did the adjctive British in "British Isles" come from? Ireland is not British.

Precisely. That's why there's nothing offensive about it. It's just a common geographic term for the group of rocks that are off the north west coast of continental Europe which we're walking on.

By analogy the people of Canada don't get offended by the name of the continent that their country is part of, because it in no way implies that they are part of the United States of America. They are part of Northern America, which is a geographic term rather than a political or legal one.

KetchupKid

I remember talking to an Irish person in a pub one night and when he heard I was from New York his first question was -"how many times a week do you get robbed?" Then he told me he had an uncle in New Jersey and asked me if I knew him. Then he said since the uncle had promised him a free place to stay, his aim was to live in New Jersey, but he was going to work in Florida, yes in Disney World. I tried to explain how far apart they were, but he said he didn't mind driving and petrol was very inexpensive in America.

I remember meeting another Irish person in NY and when I heard he was into hurling, was from Tipperary and he looked about the same age as my friend Donal Reilly also a hurler from Tipp. I tried to ask him if he knew Donal. Before I could finish he went into a rant that Ireland was a lot bigger than yee Yanks think it is, but when I finished my question and said Donal Reilly, he meekly replied, "Yes"!

While we talk about geographical Faux Pas, I wish I had a Euro for every time I heard an Irish person pronounce Chicago, - Chicargo! I once explained to an Irish person who pronounced it Chicargo that it got it's name because it was the Cargo shipping capital of America.

But don't get me wrong, I still love Ireland and Irish people!! Except when they call me Yank!

snooleen

'Do you know Colin Farrell?'

midlandsmissus

In Washington state: do you have music in Ireland? Do you have water in Ireland? I think he meant lakes as we were at a lake at the time. Another old woman told me a common thought was that we all lived in castles in ireland. Her romantic ideologies were shattered when she landed in belfast.

Solair

I remember being at a card phone in France, back in the days before mobile roaming was affordable. There was an English lady in the kiosk next to mine giving out about the "stupid French telephone system" that kept connecting her to wrong numbers.

She was trying to contact someone in Hull by dialing (01482) XXX XXX

Naturally enough she was getting through to Paris 01.48.2X.XX.XX

She'd absolutely no idea that you had to dial 00 44 for the UK.

Darsad

During the last General Election in the UK I was chatting to a senior colleague in our UK head Office and he asked me had I voted yet.
So to save his embarrassment I just brushed it off and said ah no , to which he started to lecture me on the importance of casting ones vote etc . So when he was finished I simply said I dont think we are allowed to vote in other countries elections !

Funglegunk

Darsad wrote: »

During the last General Election in the UK I was chatting to a senior colleague in our UK head Office and he asked me had I voted yet.
So to save his embarrassment I just brushed it off and said ah no , to which he started to lecture me on the importance of casting ones vote etc . So when he was finished I simply said I dont think we are allowed to vote in other countries elections !

If you're Irish and live in the UK I'm pretty sure you can vote in the UK General Election and vice versa...?

ditzyfitzy

"The ring of Kerry...? Is that like a race track or something..?"

:pac::pac:

RMD

I was once asked "where can we go to see the Leprechauns (pronounced Le-preeshins) so I told them end of Grafton street outside Trinity. I'd guess there were pleasantly surprised when they saw the supposedly small Leprechauns were in fact a huge Polish man dressed as one.

Mammanabammana

I'm amazed, even in AH, that a thread with such a blatantly racist title (not to mention the subject matter) has gotten as far as 22 pages without anything being said by any posters and ESPECIALLY not by a mod. I wonder would a thread titled "Silly questions asked by ****" or "Silly questions asked by pakis" have lasted this long.

The King of Moo

Mammanabammana wrote: »

I'm amazed, even in AH, that a thread with such a blatantly racist title (not to mention the subject matter) has gotten as far as 22 pages without anything being said by any posters and ESPECIALLY not by a mod. I wonder would a thread titled "Silly questions asked by ****" or "Silly questions asked by pakis" have lasted this long.

In fairness, "Yanks" doesn't have the hateful connotations that those two words have.
I think the thread was started in a lighthearted tone, and there's been little anti-American hatred.
In fact, many people have posted that you hear equally stupid questions from Irish people, and that in some cases the Americans' questions are meant in a sarcastic way that some people don't pick up on.

Mammanabammana

The King of Moo wrote: »

In fairness, "Yanks" doesn't have the hateful connotations that those two words have.
I think the thread was started in a lighthearted tone, and there's been little anti-American hatred.
In fact, many people have posted that you hear equally stupid questions from Irish people, and that in some cases the Americans' questions are meant in a sarcastic way that some people don't pick up on.

I think you're on a slippery slope if you start arguing that there are degrees by which terms are racist or less racist. The fact is that it's a racist and abusive term. 'Paddy' is probably not as inflammatory as the words I used either but an American called me a paddy once and I immediately saw red. And I suspect that if you called Americans yanks to their face they wouldn't be terribly likely to find it very lighthearted.

The King of Moo

Mammanabammana wrote: »

I think you're on a slippery slope if you start arguing that there are degrees by which terms are racist or less racist. The fact is that it's a racist and abusive term. 'Paddy' is probably not as inflammatory as the words I used either but an American called me a paddy once and I immediately saw red. And I suspect that if you called Americans yanks to their face they wouldn't be terribly likely to find it very lighthearted.

Meanings of words are fluid though, and can vary from person to person. For example: "xenophobia" used to mean strictly "fear of strangers or foreign people", and now is mostly a euphemism for racism.
While "yank" might indeed be offensive to some Americans, when Irish people use it it's often just a synonym for Americans, occasionally with a slightly mocking tone.
Yet "paki" and "******" are well-known as being strong racist words and I can't imagine anyone using them in a way not designed to cause offense.
It's interesting you mention the word "paddy". Of course most Irish people find it offensive, but to people in other countries, it's sometimes seen as a fairly light, harmless word. Remember the controversy about the question on the British Who Wants to be a Millionaire asking which word is a nickname for Irish people? Whoever created that question clearly didn't see it as a very offensive word, and I think many others in Britain don't either, just like the way we use "Yank."

Chiggers

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Was in Upstate New York when I was about 9. And when I said to some locals that I was from Ireland. They asked me if that was the place where everyone went around wearing dresses.

I was dumbfounded.

A lot of peeps get Scotland & Ireland mixed up.

LizT

In a shop in Vegas


"so where are you from?"
"Ireland"
"Oh right, we get a lot of you guys in here. You know you speak really good English, I guess they teach you guys in school, right?"
"No, we actually speak English in Ireland"
"Oh right. But you guys speak a different English to us right? I mean cause sometimes you guys use different words to our English. It's not the same language."
"eh...." I just took my bag and left.