CuriositiesAPR 16, 2021

"What Is The Dumbest Thing An American Has Ever Said To You?: 40 Non-Americans Deliver

Mindaugas Balčiauskas and Liucija Adomaite

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It’s no secret that to an outsider, Americans often look like a quirky bunch of people. Red solo cups, free refills, and bulk shopping are all just the tip of the iceberg where it does get much weirder. But what the rest of the world finds particularly interesting about Americans is how bold they can sometimes be in the ways they approach foreigners.

So when an Aussie TikToker, @Voidable from Brisbane, asked people “What is the dumbest thing an American has ever said to you?” it blew up immediately all over the social platform, with people spilling the beans big time.

From questions like “Do you speak European?” or “Asian?” to genuinely wondering if a person from Egypt lives in a pyramid, these are some of the most “seriously?” queries thrown at non-Americans. Get ready to chuckle, and then make sure to check out our previous post with Americans being clueless to the moon and back.

Image credits: voidable_

#1

“She went to Europe”
“What country?”
“Europe”
“Yeah what country in Europe?”
“The country Europe”
“Europe is a continent”
“What's a continent?”

me_chase_blossom

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268points

#2

Got asked if we have electricity in Germany, I replied that in Germany we have to run in our giant hamster wheels to generate power.

Leavo

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256points

#3

My grandma went on a European cruise and came back complaining that there were too many foreigners. LIKE ??? YOURE THE FOREIGNER.

grace

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255points

Bored Panda reached out to social media influencer @Voidable from Brisbane whose TikTok video has gone viral. The creator now has 36.2K TikTok followers and 1.8M likes on the TikTok platform but his audience is ever-growing.

“At the time these kinds of videos (the asking people questions) were all over TikTok and I noticed that no one had asked about this topic which as someone who is not American I hear a lot,” he explained about the idea for the TikTok.

#4

They asked if I lived in a pyramid. I’m from Egypt. It has happened multiple times.

Akrammakar Makar

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233points

#5

"I didn't know Alabama had its own language." After I said I speak Albanian.

drocopio

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230points

#6

I have a foreign ID card and my date of birth is written as 18/04/95 and I had someone ask me once “you guys have 18 months in your country?”

christina

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230points

“When I hear some of the ways they do stuff it just makes me feel uncomfortable,” TikToker told us and added: “like how they microwave water instead of using a kettle, that one hurts.”

When asked how in his opinion Americans differ from the rest of the world, @Voidable said: “I think they differ as they are brought up and taught blind patriotism. I like America but you can’t sit here and not acknowledge its flaws.”

#7

"Why do YOU care who runs OUR country, it's not like it affects you"
Pretty sure WWIII affects the planet, bud.

Jen GM

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225points

#8

"Netherlands? Isn’t that where Peter Pan lives?"

Sanne

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213points

#9

“Your English is so good, how long have you been learning it?” Ummm as an Aussie, my whole life.

Klad

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211points

And when it comes to the dumbest thing @Voidable has heard an American saying, it’s “when I had an argument with an American who told me that the US had 40 states. Still plays back in my mind,” he laughed.