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I was asked, on a handful of occasions throughout my stay, whether or not it was true that we had polar bears walking the streets, etc.
Not only did I confirm the multitude of polar bears present all around Norwegian society, I also divulged to them the traditional manhood ritual of wrestling an adolescent polar bear cub in order to proceed from boy to man.
Unfortunately, with the rise of HSE, we had to cancel these rituals in recent times.
#3
Just how many forms can this kind of ignorance take, and how far does it stretch? To find out, Bored Panda reached out to one of the Redditors who contributed to the thread, AllHailSkynet, to hear about his experiences.
He shared that, on one occasion, someone insisted that South Africa—where he’s from—isn’t a country, but just a direction. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
“I’ve had to explain that South Africa is a country more than once,” he said. “I’m a South African of Dutch, German, and English descent, but I consider myself to be South African and nothing else. I often get asked where I’m from, and it usually ends with me having to explain where South Africa is—then convincing the person that I’m actually from there.”
For example, during a trip to Şanlıurfa in eastern Turkey, where European tourists are rare and English isn’t widely spoken, he encountered a familiar struggle. “I ended up trying to explain where South Africa is to a couple of curious teenagers,” AllHailSkynet recalled. “Eventually, I had to show them on Google Maps that it really is a country, but they still seemed a little dubious about the fact that I was actually from Africa.”
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Not knowing where South Africa is—despite the name being a massive clue—is one thing. But some people also seem to think life there is straight out of The Lion King.
“From my experience, and that of many other South African travelers, the most popular question we get asked is if there are lions in the streets,” AllHailSkynet shared. “For white South Africans, the most common question is, ‘How can you be from Africa if you’re white?’ I’ve been asked that in Germany, France, Belgium, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.”
#7
No joke.
He was American and actually being serious. I lost more faith in humanity that day.
I'm from Ireland (in case it's not obvious).
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But when it comes to the root of these misconceptions, AllHailSkynet believes there isn’t a single explanation. “I’m sure people’s ignorance of South Africa is driven by many different reasons. Sometimes the question is purely out of curiosity, and sometimes it’s not,” he said.
“Most people will recognize Nelson Mandela’s name, but they won’t know he was president of South Africa or be able to point to South Africa on a map. If they’re soccer fans, mentioning the 2010 FIFA World Cup was held there sometimes helps.”
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A Canadian hears me, knows I'm Swiss (we we were at a camp and wore badges with our nationalities)
"If you're from Switzerland, why don't you speak Swiss? "
I was dumbfounded a Canadian would ask me this because for f***s sake they speak French (although a bit modified) too.
I just responded with
"if you're Fron Canada, why don't you speak Canadian"
And she went *ohhhh right? ".
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He was hugely disappointed when i said none.
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So I told them a story about how every German has to undergo a rite-of-passage kinda ritual upon hitting adulthood, whereby we have our Lederhosen fitted to our bodies permanently and just use the front flap when using the toilet.
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