Silly questions asked by yanks

stevenmu

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.

We only have this thread because we're bored to death of talking about how stupid Irish people are, looking at other people's stupidity is refreshing for a change.

patneve2

lizt wrote: »

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.

that's actually true, american is considered a language

Krusader

lizt wrote: »

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.

There's plenty of truth in that

LizT

Crosáidí wrote: »

There's plenty of truth in that

I see where he was coming from, there are of course different dialects. The stupidity, I thought, was to say we both spoke English but we spoke different languages.

Darsad

Funglegunk wrote: »

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

Sorry I should have said I was chatting by phone from Ireland !

texasgal

Okay, freakin' hilarious thread!

I was, at first, surprised to know that you were referring to ME as a Yank! You see, I'm born and raised in "The South", USA.. lol. To me, the term Yank refers to those scaliwags that live in "The North", USA .. Bwa ha ha

At any rate, it seems no matter where you go, people are people. There are smart ones, dumb ones, nice ones, mean ones, and those that make sweeping generalizations about large groups of people.

When I read the "why did they build it so close to the road" and "in America we don't let the blind drive" .. I laughed my @ss off. You see, my dad has a wicked cool sense of sarcastic humour and I could absolutely see him saying both of those things .. with a perfectly straight face .. in jest. The irony is that it is still taken seriously ..

At any rate, I'm now a Yank .. that considers herself to be American-Irish although I have never been to Ireland. I know where "my people" come from and am planning a trip to "connect with my roots" ..

Who knows, maybe after my visit, ya'll can trade these tired old stories in for some fresh texasgal-inspired stupid yank-talk!

onlyrocknroll

Solair wrote: »

I actually find some Irish people shockingly thick and lacking in knowledge about other parts of their own country, never mind overseas destinations.

I remember working with someone from Dublin who was absolutely flabbergasted to discover that there was an airport in Cork. She'd only ever heard of "The Airport".

We were having a chat with a colleague from Belfast one day and she was telling us about how she'd grown up on the Falls Road. My Dublin colleague's response was "Ah it must have been great growing-up down the country with all dem cows and stuff..."

Then a very stuck-up Cork guy I know was actually worried about going to Croke Park to watch rugby as he had heard horror stories about Dublin's Northside and was basically expecting to be carjacked the moment he crossed the Liffey.

Another Cork colleague of mine when someone introduced herself (in a strong Donegal accent) as being from Ballybofey asked her was it strange being down in the Republic!

and I had someone from Belfast ask me if a lot of people commute from Cork to Dublin!!!! When I questioned him a bit further, he actually thought that Cork was a suburb of Dublin and had only a very vague notion that it was "South of the Border"

I remember another incident with Aer Lingus at London Heathrow. We were due on a flight to Cork which had been cancelled and we asked if we could be transferred to another flight. The guy suggested that we fly to Belfast and get the train! I asked him how long he thought that would take and he said "oh, about an hour!"
Clearly they're using ground crew who have no idea of Irish geography.

Also, I have French family members and the number of times that both Irish and British people ask them if they really eat frogs legs or make terrible jokes about garlic is just unbelievable.

If you've ever dealt with the general public you'd very quickly realise that about 30% of any population, be they American, Irish, French, German, British, or whatever, are just completely thick and are confused by everything outside of their own living rooms!

I think you've conclusively proved that we ask at least if not more stupid questions than Americans do.

I would say though, that I can't tell the difference between a Donegal and a northern accent. Once a girl I know from Donegal (also from Ballybofey, and living in Cork!?) did an impression of a Derry accent for me. Tbh I think I'd struggle to tell the difference now if I heard both again.

kylith

Ah, the Americans.

Some of my cousins were over from the states last year. One was charmed by the fact that I spoke 'Gaelic' and pointed at a sign on the street. "How do you say that?" he asked "Shraid I Chonnaill", I enunciated. "What does it mean?" he asked, on tenterhooks. I just pointed to "O'Connell Street" written under it.

He also asked for directions to Gal-wee and Slig-o, bless 'im.

southsiderosie

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.

Oh lord. Are people insulted by everything these days? Yank, Yank, Yank-ety Yank.

And, yes, I'm a Yank.

Krusader

southsiderosie wrote: »

Oh lord. Are people insulted by everything these days? Yank, Yank, Yank-ety Yank.

And, yes, I'm a Yank.

You're an awful Yanker :pac:

southsiderosie

kylith wrote: »

Ah, the Americans.

Some of my cousins were over from the states last year. One was charmed by the fact that I spoke 'Gaelic' and pointed at a sign on the street. "How do you say that?" he asked "Shraid I Chonnaill", I enunciated. "What does it mean?" he asked, on tenterhooks. I just pointed to "O'Connell Street" written under it.

He also asked for directions to Gal-wee and Slig-o, bless 'im.

OK, to be fair to my people, Irish pronunciation has little to do with the spelling. I started watching RTE online before moving to Ireland because I couldn't for the life of me tell how you were supposed to pronounce "Dail" or "taoiseach"; "Dun Laoghaire" was an absolute mystery. And once I was in Ireland, I had to ask my colleagues all of the time how to pronounce certain names (Aoife?!?!?! Roisin?!?!?!?!). It's hard!

texasgal

Crosáidí wrote: »

You're an awful Yanker :pac:

Hey, I resemble that remark!

southsiderosie

Crosáidí wrote: »

You're an awful Yanker :pac:

Quiet, you.

BTW - how in the world do you pronounce your username?

Krusader

southsiderosie wrote: »

Quiet, you.

BTW - how in the world do you pronounce your username?

roughly
krus-aw-dee

Wackawacka

I find that making fun of Americans' silly questions is a tad over the top most times. Yes, there are dumb Americans, yes many don't know much about Ireland, but by the same token given that it's the size of Rhode Island only half way across the world in a different continent, I'd readily forgive it.

Plus, we're rather insignificant compared to the United States. They have to face a constant barrage of people around the world asking "what do you know about us", insinuating that reciprocal knowledge of eachothers' countries is possible. We live in the American Age, where all things American are commonplace in popular culture, so pretty much everywhere in the world their eyes are staring back at America. So I've always thought that it's unfair to expect individual Americans to know about every country in the world.

Plus, little island nation that we are, it's not like we're particularly knowledgeable about them anyway. We like to think we are, but we're not even close. Following this line of thought, check out this article, an A-to-Z of Ireland-US relations.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-visits/az-of-usa-amp-ireland-2653364.html

Check out letter Y:

Y Yukon Territory - where Irish emigrants flocked during the 19th century gold rush on the Klondike

It's not the article's only mistake (letter "V" implies JFK was assassinated in 1961), but this one's quite a major one: the Yukon Territory was (and is) part of Canada, not the United States. It's not like it's small either, it's roughly 7 times the size of Ireland... so one would expect you to get the country right. But then again, we like to think we know them and we're close to them while in reality it's merely a figment of our imagination.

Keep that in mind the next time an American asks if Ireland is part of the UK; we're not any better.

Donkey Oaty

Wackawacka wrote: »

Yes, there are dumb Americans, yes many don't know much about Ireland, but by the same token given that it's the size of Rhode Island only half way across the world in a different continent, I'd readily forgive it.

Wiki says:

Rhode Island: 3,140 km2

Ireland (26 counties) - 70,273 km2

Overheal

southsiderosie wrote: »

Oh lord. Are people insulted by everything these days? Yank, Yank, Yank-ety Yank.

And, yes, I'm a Yank.

Context. It's all about context. Just ask Chris Rock.

Wackawacka

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Wiki says:

Rhode Island: 3,140 km2

Ireland (26 counties) - 70,273 km2

So fine, something meant as an exaggeration is being taken literally and, -- surprise! -- it's not accurate. So it's more the size of West Virginia. Well, let me save you the trouble, if taken literally as well, neither is Ireland literally half way across the world.

Forgive me, but I really don't get the point of this intervention.

Donkey Oaty

Wackawacka wrote: »

So fine, something meant as an exaggeration is being taken literally and, -- surprise! -- it's not accurate. So it's more the size of West Virginia. Well, let me save you the trouble, if taken literally as well, neither is Ireland literally half way across the world.

From Hawaii, it's not far off.

Chairman Meow

lizt wrote: »

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.

wow that was nice and friendly of you! You shouldve farted in the place when you left too, thatll learn those damn yanks, trying to have conversations and ****.
And seriously, its not like dublinese is the easiest of accents to get your head around. Half the time i talk to Americans i cans ee them doing the 'smile and nod, smile and nod' cause dey dont know worrim bleedin talkin about jer know worrimean?

And re: Stupid americans, i think youll find there proprtinatley the same amount of stupid irish people. Most Americans are great, very friendly and seem genuinely interested if you tell them youre from here. Ive no problem with any of them.

Amerika

Had me a pow'ful hard time follerin' this hyar thread till ah stik’d some uh it in mah redneck translato'

http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/

Donkey Oaty

That redneck dialectizer is great. Here's the opening of the Easter Proclamation, which now sounds like an internal KKK document.

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In th' name of God an' of th' daid junerashuns fum which she receives her old tradishun of nashunhood, Irelan', through us, summons her chillun t'her flag an' strikes fo' her freedom, dawgone it.

Havin' o'ganised an' trained her manhood through her secret revolushunary o'ganisashun, th' Irish Republican Brotherhood, an' through her open military o'ganisashuns, th' Irish Volunteers an' th' Irish Citizen Armah, havin' patiently pufficked her discipline, havin' resolutely waited fo' th' right moment t'reveal itse'f, she now seizes thet moment, an', suppo'ted by her exiled chillun in South Car'lina an' by gallant allies in Europe, but relyin' in th' fust on her own stren'th, she strikes in full cornfidence of vicko'y.

metrovelvet

Ok this thread has pretty much covinced me that the next time Im home and some very pale nervous Irish tourists ask me for directions I'll send them straight to Harlem or the South Bronx and then come back here and make fun of them for being so stupid, start the thread with Stupid Things asked by Pale Tourist Who Drink too Much

Daegerty

Wackawacka wrote: »

I find that making fun of Americans' silly questions is a tad over the top most times. Yes, there are dumb Americans, yes many don't know much about Ireland, but by the same token given that it's the size of Rhode Island only half way across the world in a different continent, I'd readily forgive it.

Plus, we're rather insignificant compared to the United States. They have to face a constant barrage of people around the world asking "what do you know about us", insinuating that reciprocal knowledge of eachothers' countries is possible. We live in the American Age, where all things American are commonplace in popular culture, so pretty much everywhere in the world their eyes are staring back at America. So I've always thought that it's unfair to expect individual Americans to know about every country in the world.

Plus, little island nation that we are, it's not like we're particularly knowledgeable about them anyway. We like to think we are, but we're not even close. Following this line of thought, check out this article, an A-to-Z of Ireland-US relations.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-visits/az-of-usa-amp-ireland-2653364.html

Check out letter Y:


It's not the article's only mistake (letter "V" implies JFK was assassinated in 1961), but this one's quite a major one: the Yukon Territory was (and is) part of Canada, not the United States. It's not like it's small either, it's roughly 7 times the size of Ireland... so one would expect you to get the country right. But then again, we like to think we know them and we're close to them while in reality it's merely a figment of our imagination.

Keep that in mind the next time an American asks if Ireland is part of the UK; we're not any better.

Its only a bit of fun

Donkey Oaty

metrovelvet wrote: »

the next time Im home and some very pale nervous Irish tourists ask me for directions I'll send them straight to Harlem

Definitely worth a visit. The Harlem Heritage Tourism and Cultural Centre on 104 Malcolm X Boulevard is a good starting point.

LizT

Chairman Meow wrote: »

wow that was nice and friendly of you! You shouldve farted in the place when you left too, thatll learn those damn yanks, trying to have conversations and ****.
And seriously, its not like dublinese is the easiest of accents to get your head around. Half the time i talk to Americans i cans ee them doing the 'smile and nod, smile and nod' cause dey dont know worrim bleedin talkin about jer know worrimean?

And re: Stupid americans, i think youll find there proprtinatley the same amount of stupid irish people. Most Americans are great, very friendly and seem genuinely interested if you tell them youre from here. Ive no problem with any of them.

Wow, judgemental much? Obviously I exaggerated the bit about just walking out, I did say thank you and goodbye.

I'm not from Dublin so I don't have a strong accent. I've been to America 5 times, I've traveled from New York to LA and met a huge variety of Americans so obviously I know not all americans are stupid, as do most people on this thread. It's just a reputation they have, such as the Irish - drunk all the time, austrailians - all surfers, french - all wear berets and eat baguettes, germans - always on time etc. No one truly believes that these stereotypes define a country. Obviously no one is naive enough to believe that encounters such as the ones that have been posted in this thread define a country, nor would anyone deny that they could occur in any country.

LizT

Also I think a lot of the time it's just ignorance rather than stupidity. When I was in America I met loads of people who had never left their state and wouldn't even consider leaving the country.

They haven't had experience on non - american cultures so that would explain some things.

Donkey Oaty

lizt wrote: »

germans - always on time

In my experience, that one is true.

LizT

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

In my experience, that one is true.

Not in mine! The German guy on my trek last year was consistently last out of his tent every morning... We all had a heart attack when he was up before everyone else on the last day of the trip:D

Wackawacka

lizt wrote: »

Wow, judgemental much? Obviously I exaggerated the bit about just walking out, I did say thank you and goodbye.

I'm not from Dublin so I don't have a strong accent. I've been to America 5 times, I've traveled from New York to LA and met a huge variety of Americans so obviously I know not all americans are stupid, as do most people on this thread. It's just a reputation they have, such as the Irish - drunk all the time, austrailians - all surfers, french - all wear berets and eat baguettes, germans - always on time etc. No one truly believes that these stereotypes define a country. Obviously no one is naive enough to believe that encounters such as the ones that have been posted in this thread define a country, nor would anyone deny that they could occur in any country.

Of all these stereotypes, only the all Aussies being surfers and all French wearing berets aren't true. I lived in France for some time and did some travelling around and not once did I see anyone wearing a beret. No wait, I saw it on British TV. But we do a fair bit of drinking -- especially abroad and acting like idiots -- and Germans do tend to be very punctual. Many sterotypes are actually quite true.