I'm sure wherever you live, you've heard people make some wild comments about your country. Some people just don't have a filter! When Reddit was asked, "What's the most ignorant thing a tourist has said about your country?" people went off in the comments. Here is what some of them had to say:
1."In Thailand, people berate locals for eating Italian food because Thai food is 'so tasty.' Boo, Thai people eat Thai food every day. Going out for Italian is like you going out for Thai food in your home country."
2."A tourist in London once said, 'Everyone here speaks such good English!'"
3."I was talking to a lady in a bar in NYC once and told her I grew up in Malaysia and she genuinely asked me 'Do you guys use money there or trade stuff?'"
4."Someone compared Canadian money to Monopoly money and then asked if we had Monopoly in Canada."
5."I've been here three days and haven't heard the British accent yet.' Yeah, that's because you've heard several. We have a multitude of accents and dialects, like every other country. There is no one 'British accent.'"
6."'So, I'll be able to make it to New York in a few hours from here.' Ma'am. You are in Southern California. You're talking about driving to New York. That is the complete opposite side of the country and is a long way from here. You have no concept of the scale of this country. You'll be really upset when it takes you six hours to get across Riverside County, let alone the other five days, maybe six or seven, to drive to New York. No, you cannot get to New York in a few hours without flying."
7."These were overheard in a souvenir shop in Amsterdam. Cashier: 'That'll be 30 euros, please.' American tourist: 'What's that in real money? (Different) American tourist: 'What do you mean you don't accept dollars?'"
8."An Australian asked me when the igloos would go up and did we have to move our work and school into them every year while in Vancouver, BC, a location in Canada with similar weather to Seattle."
9."This is kind of the inverse, but I think it still counts. I’m an Australian, and I went on holiday in America. I ended up at an Outback Steakhouse for shits and gigs. The menu had a seafood dish associated with Toowoomba. Toowoomba’s inland. Also, I was talking to the waitress, and for the longest time, they had the flag upside down and it took another Australian to point it out. Like surely they saw a picture of the flag, they had to. And it was still upside down."
10."I was a tourist, and I was told by many concerned coworkers and friends that I shouldn't travel alone as a woman to dangerous Eastern Europe because I was going to get trafficked or something. The dangerous Eastern European country with criminals waiting behind every corner to snatch away Spanish women? Slovenia."
11."I lived in Costa Rica for several years, working in tourism. Once, a woman said what a lovely island it was (not an island at all) WHILE THERE. Also, a woman said she was 'going to complain to Congress' about the state of the roads. Costa Rica is not part of the US, congress has nothing to do with it."
12."'Wow, I'm surprised at how modern and up-to-date everything is around here, they even have Apple stores, I thought everyone would ride around in horses and hats.' I am from Mexico City and work in an area where there are more foreigners daily (USA and Europe). I can easily hear how surprising it is that we are not technologically behind."
13."When visiting LA, I was chatting with a girl at a party, and when she asked where I'm from, I told her London. She then said, 'Omg, I hate London.' I was slightly confused and asked if she'd ever been, and she said 'No.' I was like, 'Okay, nice chatting with you!'"
16."'Where do you keep the Vikings?' An American tourist visiting Denmark asked. I left him very confused and a little disappointed by telling him the truth about Vikings and that we did, in fact, not have reservations or anything."
17."I overheard an American woman saying that she was surprised at how well we Australians spoke American, although the accent made it a little hard to understand."
18."My own wife in Tokyo looking at a map of all the towers in Japan: 'Let's go visit them all!' Me: 'Honey, that map represents the size of the whole US Eastern seaboard. We are only here for three more days.'"
19."I met an American once who was under the impression that suburban Canadians all lived in wood cabins in the wilderness. At first, I thought he was kidding. Then he asked if we had winters all year round and was astonished to learn we have lengthy summers."
