The Dumbest Questions Americans Ask Germans.. (American Reacts)

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[Headhunter-]

How is it possible for an American not to know about timezones? You have multiple timezones inside your country! 😂

[tw]

As a German, I was once asked by an American if we have electricity. I must have reacted kind of confused, so he added "you know, because everything is in ruins since WW2..."

[ZynoaPiano]

German who grew up in the USA here! Americans love pulling that "I'm half/quarter/eighth so-and-so" BS, so whenever someone would say they're part German, I'd start having a conversation with them in fluent German. Needless to say, they'd stand there silently with wide eyes and a red face. Works like a charm 🤣

[Joris.]

As a German, I was once asked by an American if we also see the moon at night

[HestabyFR]

When i was in the US, ordering food at a fast food restaurant, me and my friends were discussing our orders in german, the woman behind the counter was asking what language we speak and was very surprised to hear its german and asked: „oh you got your own language??“

[ulliulli]

I worked for a small tourism company in Berlin in the 90s and had a lot of contact with Americans as a result.... One of them asked me where we "hide" the ruins. I pointed to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which as a ruin is supposed to symbolise the consequences of the war. He just said "No, I mean the real ruins. It is impossible that you guys have rebuilt the city so quickly".
And another "stupid" American asked me why we Germans only drive US cars. I looked around... VW, BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc. I told him that they were all German cars. He then accused me of lying, because all his work colleagues drive such cars and they would never drive "inferior foreign" cars, because after all Ford invented the car. When I tried to explain to him that a German had invented the car, he became really insulting.

[deniskramer]

Refrigerators were invented in Germany, mainly by Carl von Linde. So for a German it is really annoying to be asked if we have refrigerators. Americans can be so ignorant.
But to be fair: Germans can be ignorant too.

[thorstenwestheiderphotogra]

"If they're 7 hours ahead why didn't they warn us about 9/11" - made my day...

[jemus]

When I was in Berlin with American exchange students we went to a remaining part of the Berlin Wall and told them about DDR etc. One girl asked "Aaah, DDR, it's there where Hitler lives, right". I didn't know where to start

[spexx]

I was once asked by an American if we have houses/ homes in Germany...I told her that we live on trees because of the radiation accident/ pollution caused by the Tschernobyl incident and she was like: "Yep, I see and I'm so sorry for you guys" #facepalm

[panther]

I once read a reddit post in which an American was seemingly unable to comprehend that he would be considered a foreigner in another country. No, according to him the term "foreigners" only applied to Non-Americans (regardless where they are) but never to Americans...

[baronvonjerch]

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that, in general, Americans are the most self-centred nationality in the world. And by self-centred I mean 'ignorant by choice'. I don't expect someone from a tiny village in rural Mozambique to know anything about the world beyond their local community. Americans have basically the entire world at their fingertips either physically through their melting pot of ethnicities and nationalities or the infinite library of the internet. It is literally impossible to not know even basic things about the world unless you actively choose to be ignorant.
This of course doesn't apply to all Americans, but we're talking in broad strokes here.

[rhysodunloe]

Regarding the many names:
Deutschland is the name Germany gave itself. The Old German word thiutisk means "belonging to our people".

Germania is the name given by the Romans as a collective noun for all tribes North of the Alps and east of the Rhine river that they couldn't conquer.

The names Allemagne, Almanya etc. which are used in South Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East come from the South German tribe Alemanni who were neighbours of the Galloromanic tribes in todays France.

The Finns and Estonians call us Saksa and Saksamaa, after the Saxon tribe that lived along the Elbe river.

And in the Eastern European countries they call us Niemcy, Nemecko or similar names which comes from an old word meaning "The silent" or "Those who just don't know how to speak". 😅 To be fair the Slavic people called all foreigners who didn't speak their language "niemc" (unable to speak).

[katerinagiannioudi]

Asked by American if we have cars in Greece. I replied, no we ride donkeys and he replied back: That must be really cool!!!

[johnkilcullen]

A former Dean of St Patrick's cathedral, Dublin, Dean Griffin told of receiving a letter from an American professor (of engineering, I think) addressed to Dean Jonathan Swift asking for permission to use quotations from Gulliver's Travels in a text book he was writing. Dean Griffin replied "Dean Swift left here on 19 October 1745 leaving no forwarding address."

[vridrich]

German here. Let me share my dumbest anecdote:
Second to last time we had a federal election (in Germany) I went out in the evening of election day. I got to know an american guy, and in conversation mentioned that today had been federal election day. He furrowded his brows and said: „I didn‘t know you could vote in Germany.“
Me: „Of course. Germany is a democracy, you know.“
Him, looking slightly peeved for being corrected: „Yeah! I knew that! I just didn‘t know you guys could vote!“

[madamemim]

That refrigerator question is really frequent. A friend of mine tried to explain, that Miele is a German brand, but it didn't help, they still thought there are no fridges in Germany.

[Linda-hslk]

I'm Dutch and an American boy (son of a friend) once told me he learned in school the Netherlands don't have any nature, it's all concrete.... I actually had to send him pictures of our country to prove we DO have nature. When he told in school what I said, his teacher got angry for 'talking back'.

[franziskaweie]

A friend of mine told me he was asked during his exchange year by a classmate in the US: "Is being German a religion?"
I laughed my a** off that day😂

[k.s.]

I can agree in so many things to that video. 1996, my first time with high school year in the US. First school day I had to introduce myself. Was standing in front of the class, I said that I am from Germany, the East German part of Germany and saw some irritated faces. I noticed that and asked if they are having any questions? Answer was: "You are having brown hair, brown eyes and a tanned skin and you are not wearing" Lederhosen" at school?!? You can't be from Germany. Where r u originally come from?" My answer: "Originally born in the former East-Germany part and not all German men having blond hair, blue eyes and white skin or wearing Lederhosen all day long." Reaction of the teacher to that conversation: "I'm so glad for you that you can never become a Nazi then!" Teacher noticed that I got irritated by his sentence and the teacher put on top: "... I mean only a blond guy can become a Nazi in Germany. And coming from East-Germany the former GDR being a communist you will be hate by them!" My reply to the teacher's stereotypes was:"So all Germans born in the former GDR are still communists and if you were born there with blond hair and blue eyes you will become automatically a Nazi and have to leave the East German part over the wall to West-Germany, because communists hate the Nazis??? "... quietness was in the room. And no, I am not eating everday a Schnitzel or Bratwurst with Sauerkraut... 😂😂😂