I’ll start. My mom is white, but has a tan, brown eyes and brown hair.
I was talking to a French girl, who asked me where she was from.
I said, “she’s American” and she said, “no, where is she really from”. I was confused, and she stated that “you can tell she isn’t American because she isn’t white”. My mom is fully of white German descent. She’s just not, extremely pale. She also referred to all East Asians as “Chinese” and all black people as “African”.
Go ahead, what’s the oddest conversation you’ve had with a foreigner?
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I was living in London in a big house with 11 people living in it from a bunch of different countries. Me and the other American are talking to the French girl. She says “You guys are very cool, unusual. It’s surprising, you’re not like other Americans.” My buddy asks her, “How many other Americans have you known?” “Oh, you are the only ones.”
I had a very odd conversation with a Brit who assured me we didn’t know how to brew Pilsner in the US. It was a very specific and wrong claim that they were really firm on.
I had literally brewed a Pilsner in my own home at this point so truly nothing would convince this guy.
It’s not really odd, but my dad is a judge.
And when I lived in Europe, some of the conversations trying to explain how his role is different than in (insert other country) was very interesting.
working at Crocs store in Boston and was checking out a couple from Alberta
Customer: do you guys like hockey
Me: yeah hockey is pretty popular here. I grew up playing pond hockey as a kid
Customer: You guys probably don’t like it as much as we do
Me: yeah I bet
Customer: does it get cold here?
Me: yeah it gets cold
Customer: I bet it doesn’t get as cold as it does in Alberta
Me: okay
Saw a Brazilian argue with 4 Americans that they didn’t know what life in the US was really like because they didn’t follow Brazilian news.
I have a good one for this! When I was studying abroad in Italy, a French guy that was also there found out I had had a few surgeries when I was a young kid. He was absolutely dumbfounded that I could afford to study abroad or even go to college. It was clear that he thought any medical condition meant guaranteed bankruptcy for almost all Americans. No matter how many times or ways I explained health insurance, he just refused to believe me. He threw out like a half-dozen theories about it, from back-alley surgery to well-hidden financial ruin to his ultimate conclusion that my parents are secret billionaires. I even showed him government websites, showed him my parents’ insurance plan, and shared a story of one of the surgeries almost not getting covered and costing my parents thousands as some middle ground. No matter what I said or did, he just refused to believe that medical trouble isn’t automatic financial ruin.
From visiting Germany….
An older geriatric hippie sort of guy, mostly nice and friendly, but wanted to know why the US is still occupying Puerto Rico. Like we’re imperialists or something. I explained that the people in PR don’t have a strong consensus about independence vs. statehood vs. status quo, so it’s status quo for now.
I’ve had more frustration and downright hostile conversations with foreigners about America. One odd conversation I had was explaining to someone why I was visiting Detroit in a few months.
I worked in the UK with a ton of Europeans. One Hungarian guy was particularly insistent that Americans were ignorant bigots, although he conceded he had never visited the US or gotten to know an American. The irony was lost on him.
In 2015 I told these British girls that I was pretty confident Trump was going to win and they started crying. Like literally crying at a bar in Croatia. It was so funny. I’m not even a Trump supporter… It was bizarre.
Not really a conversation but true story:
One time a french canadian guy came into my Sears store where I was a 15-year-old working in the men’s department. He was out of breath and sweating. In a heavy french accent he said, “where is your formal clothing?” I pointed and followed him over with the measuring tape.
By the time I got there he had his shirt off and his pants down, in his whitey tighties. He was taking the little pins off a dress shirt. I told him there was a fitting room but he just said, “No time!”
I didn’t get paid enough to deal with a naked sweaty frenchman so I went back to the counter and got the walky. I called LP and they just laughed and watched the guy get dressed from the cameras. He ripped the tags off and paid for everything, left carrying his old clothes.
I always wonder why that guy needed a shitty off the rack suit so badly that he couldn’t take 30 seconds to walk to the fitting room.
In Beijing, talking with a taxi driver and him not believing that we don’t have old people since they get shot and die before being able to reach an old age.
Related to cost of living. Some Mexican counterparts were visiting the mothership in Michigan, and the cost of living astounded them compared to similar things in Mexico. One of them mentioned specifically that before his trip he’d thought Americans were just overpaid assholes, but now understood the salary gap.
You can genuinely convince any foreigner under 18 that we all get government-issued guns in high school, like how text books are signed out. depending on the state there may be less regulation too lol
I’ve had to reassure a few foreigners that Texas has actual cities and we don’t just ride horses everywhere.
I had a conversation with an Australian lady on a bus in Sydney that stated she just got back from the USA where she door to door campaigned for democrats in Alabama. I said oh how did that go? And she said not very well, and she just can’t understand why because Alabama doesn’t even have a minimum wage so they can be paid a dollar an hour so why wouldn’t they want democrat representation. I said sure they don’t have a state minimum wage, but the fed has a minimum wage so they have to be paid the federal minimum wage. She disagreed, so I said do you think we would be manufacturing in Canada, Mexico, China and India if companies could pay Alabamians a dollar an hour? She got snippy in her disagreement, so I was kinda a smart ass and told her to spend five minuets on google researching a subject before flying half way across the world next time. It’s so strange as a democrat I seem to spend a decent amount of time defending republican states and politicians against misunderstandings from foreigners.
I’ve had Norwegians in separate occasions that said they thought no Americans had safe drinking water. They legit only drank bottled water when they visited as if we were some developing country
British friends insisting that all American chicken is horrible. Tried to explain that in the US we can get good chicken. They don’t believe it and refuse to believe there’s such a thing as Tesco Frankenchicken.
I’m in a discord with mainly US and then western European folks. The subject got on food and on the different things names of foods that both places have. One person thought it was gross that we eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because they thought that (and to them it is correct) that Jelly = Gelatin Dessert (Jell-O for many of us) rather than just a clear Jam. And they would NOT be convinced otherwise. Like, no matter how much we tried to explain that in the US, Jelly is basically just what they think of as Jam, they remained convinced we ate peanut butter and Jell-O sandwiches.
Dated a French guy, sold everything I owned and moved to Paris to be with him. At first he was like “Sophie has an English boyfriend, but I beat her because I have an American girlfriend!” A few months later it was, “YOU ARE TOO AMERICAN!” Apparently, grocery shopping for the week instead of the day is unacceptable.
I was in Romania and when they found out I was from Colorado, they asked if we rode horses to get around, and asked me a ton about the “Indians.” It’s like they thought I was living in the 1870’s. I can speak Hungarian (but not well haha) and I am fluent in Spanish so I could navigate alright in Transylvania, but my Hungarian is better than my Romanian so some people refused to believe that I am an American at all.
When I was in Japan an older gentleman in the most stereotypical cowboy outfit stopped me and exclaimed in the most hilarious Japanese accent with a texas twang English ive ever heard that he was more American than me cause he dressed the part.
I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a monotone American flag on it.
Before I could do more than smile and cock an eyebrow he was off woth his buddies to another bar.
Being in Japan as anything but asian is wild, especially if you get slightly out of the touristy areas. This was in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Watching figure skating with a German and a Chinese woman. Michelle Kwan goes out to skate.
Both foreigners insist she can’t be American.
(If you’re obviously white, you’re American and can’t be Irish/French/whatever. If you’re not obviously white or black, you can’t possibly be American. Ah, the double standards!)
I visited South Korea with a friend and I met some of her family. She had a cousin (super smart, late 30s, proficient in English).
He was planning a road trip to the US and showed me his plans. He thought he could land in NYC and go all the way down to Florida (hitting major cities, big museums (DC) and visit Disney World for a few days then drive through the South and hit New Orleans and Austin and then go up to Amarillo and do Route 66 and manage to hit like 11 National Parks (Grand Canyon, Sequoias, Yosemite, Redwoods, Yellowstone) and hit Roswell, Santa Fe, fucking Telluride and the Rockies, Las Vegas, San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Portland Seattle and then go East.
All in four weeks. Which, yeah I guess is you could theoretically do if you just drive and sleep.
Craziest thing is he has booked a lot to places. He had one place booked in Austin and then the next day Santa Fe and then two days later The Grand Canyon.
He fought me hard when I tried to explain how challenging this would be.
When I was in Spain at my cousins house a friend who was part of my exchange program came with. My friend is ethnically Chinese but her family has been in America since the 1860s, so almost 80 years more than my family has been in America, they have no ties to China and it’s either her great grandparents or great great grandparents who were the last to speak mandarin as a primary language. Well my Spanish cousins and a friend of theirs could not comprehend how my friend was technically more American and knew nothing of China even though they considered her Chinese vs. American. They just couldn’t get how someone who looked Chinese could be American as American = white.
I tell this story frequently, because it still makes me laugh to this day, but the time an English guy lectured me about how a hamburger obviously contains ground ham – a ground beef patty would be a “beefburger.”
It never fails to crack me up when English people completely fail to comprehend how the English language works and make sure everyone knows it.
While pointing to a map “That’s not Florida this is Florida it’s up here” they were pointing to New York… they fought they knew where my home state is better than I do
I had a friend from school who was from Italy. Her father was working in the US for a couple years, and after highschool they went back. On my study abroad to Italy, they acted as my “sponsor” family and I spent time with them in a suburb outside of Rome. Her family and friends were absolutely lovely…except one.
She hated me. We were having lunch in this beautiful seaside town and this friend of hers kept glaring at me. I finally asked what was wrong and—through a very awkward translation from my friend—I was told she didn’t like me because Americans were all arrogant, greedy, out-of-touch, and bloodthirsty. I remember being both hurt and angry, but I kept it to myself because I wasn’t going to let this bitch ruin my otherwise fairytale trip. I think I just ordered another drink and smiled.
Come to find out, she was in love with my friend and thought maybe I was, too. Which is hilarious, because I’m gay and (apparently) she was a lesbian. Once she found out I was gay—she loved me. They’re married with two children now, and they’re both on my Facebook. Still…it might have all been said in jealousy, but I think that’s what at least a few Italians I know *actually* think of Americans.
When I was in the military my ship was docked in Monaco and I was giving tours in my dress uniform. I had a local girl insist that there was no way I could be an American and that I had to be a Spanish or French officer on an exchange tour because I spoke French to her. She thought my National Defense Service Medal ribbon bar might be a Spanish flag pin, and there was NO WAY an American sailor would know enough french to chat her up.
A Kiwi named Felix wanted to argue with me about American life, and that we were the most problematic country with no logic or common sense. That last part was key.
He stated 3 things:
1) Americans were fat and lazy.
2) All Americans were psychopathic for owning guns, and he insisted that only the government could be trusted with guns
3) Donald Trump was literally Hitler and wanted to kill the blacks and Jews.
Problems arose with Felix’s own logic.
A) We met each other at our local gym, where we would lift every morning, then we would go surf. I was the second American he had met. I was 6′ and 160lbs.
B) I did not have a gun on me, and governments are super irresponsible
C) Trump’s either literally Hitler, or he isn’t. Regardless, he at that point was in charge of the government, the same government that Felix wanted to just hand guns to, therefore, Felix argued we should arm Hitler.