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Something happened to me today that i felt needed to be shared and hopefully prompts people to join in with anecdotes on the funny stuff tourists ask you or just say.
First let me preface my own story with some background information, I am a support worker from scotland my job involves me supporting people with learning disabilities get the best from their lives. Because im only 20 i was put into visiting support mainly with young guys who go to different clubs and sometimes just want to go out for today. Today i was with a young guy who is 20 like myself who i'll refer to as tom (not his real name).
Today tom decided he wanted to go to South Queensferry which most scots will know is on the south side of the firth of forth and sits underneath these two bridges:
![[image loading]](http://www.billycurriephotography.co.uk/images/The_Forth_Road_and_Rail_Bridges.jpg)
[[the suspension bridge is the road one and the meccano like structure is the rail bridge for those who dont know]]
Anyway tom and myself arrive in south queensferry and are walking around the town just about to stop for some lunch when two tourists (who i think are canadian? possibly american i cant be sure) stop me.
They start talking about how lovely scotland is even though theres some wicked winds throwing rain in their face, i agree and continue chatting politely with them when they mention the bridges. and the converstion goes something like this:
Tourists:"These bridges are lovely very iconic looking"
Me:"Yeah they're pretty nice"
Tourists: "what i dont get is if these are the forth bridges where can we find the first second and third bridges?"
me: "sorry?" *looking confused*
Tourists: " the first second and third bridges do you know where we can find them"
me:" uhhhh" *convinced im being trolled by 2 savvy tourists* "there is no 1st 2nd and 3rd bridges"
Tourists: "oh" * i know realise they are serious *
me: "they're called the forth bridges because the span the Firth of Forth"
feeling a little embaressed they kinda mumbled a thanks and left.
....tourists.
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Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there.
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OP Has never said something stupid.
True story.
User was warned for this post
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That's a perfectly reasonable mistake to make. Shame on you, OP.
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Takes the cake for most useless thread ever.
Actually, maybe just he OP is bad.
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On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there.
They had a map for the area (north edinburgh/south queensferry) that labelled the body of water the bridges crossed as the firth of forth i wouldn't go to the niagra falls and ask why the maid of the mist is called such or go to barcelona and ask why they built a really long bench.
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As long as I dont get asked where the all the mooses and polar bears are, Im happy to help.
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I could see this as someone trying to make a joke or a pun, but clearly it wasn't. My grandfather sometimes says things that are obviously wrong but only meant to be as a joke or play on words - though it may not appear that funny, perhaps that's what these people were trying to do and you just completely misread facial expressions and body language.
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On June 22 2012 01:05 Felnarion wrote:
OP Has never said something stupid.
True story.
I don't think that's the point here -.- He's not really making fun of them but just sharing his awkward moment with tourists. I mean I've helped people find streets that were right in front of them. It's nothing new but I'm pretty sure there are quite funny anecdotes about tourists out there, which the op is trying to bring out by talking about his own experience.
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On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there.
Agreed lol.
OP, "fourth" and "forth" are called homophones, meaning that they're words that sound very similar to one another, yet have different meanings.
Chances are, they heard the name of the bridge, but didn't see the name written out (or, quite simply, misread it). They obviously aren't familiar with the native attraction (as they're tourists), so it's probably not the rarest misconception in the world.
Is this just going to be a "making fun of foreigners" thread, because they don't understand things as quickly as natives, in home countries?
On June 22 2012 01:08 huStl.e wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there. They had a map for the area (north edinburgh/south queensferry) that labelled the body of water the bridges crossed as the firth of forth i wouldn't go to the niagra falls and ask why the maid of the mist is called such or go to barcelona and ask why they built a really long bench.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
+ Show Spoiler +http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
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On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there.
First reply takes the cake. I thought this was going to be clever and genuinely funny, but I didn't even smile. For shame, OP.
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this seems to have derailed quite quickly.
The point of the post and thread was just to share some funny things tourists may have asked or said to you.
For people getting all pissy about it i was incredibly polite to them and infact i have never tried to make any tourist who doesn't understand how to get from a to b or asks a question about the area feel stupid, because thats a dick move. I quite regularly take photo's for tourists (me taking photos of them at landmarks when they ask) and try to be helpful in giving directions.
gj at nosediving something i perhaps thought could become an amusing thread though
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How can people's mind be that twisted. Op's not making fun of anyone just talking about his experience with tourist making an honest mistake, and how funny it can sound or seem when you're native from the region. I'm French from Paris, I can tell you dozen of these but for one to actually believe I'm making fun of tourists or calling them stupid is seriously twisted.
People on TL should seriously stop trying to read between the lines and just read what's written, no need to play the smart ass "I got your hidden message" guys.
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So I was talking about javascript with my mechanic, and he totally didn't know the difference between 0, null, undefined and false. What a maroon.
Edit: If the point of your thread wasn't to make people who didn't know something that shouldn't be terribly obvious to them look stupid, why end the post with "...tourists"? The point of the OP is to tell a story about a stupid question some stupid tourists asked, except the question wasn't all that stupid, so now you're getting mocked a bit. I think that's a reasonable response.
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All the questions I'm getting from tourists are about where the nearest coffeeshop is.
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Stop bitching at the OP. Its not that easy a mistake to make, if they had even once glanced at a map or a road sign in the area, or looked up the place they were going, they would have instantly realised what up. Either that or they didn't know that fourth =/= Forth.
And he wasn't even nasty about it.
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My one tourist story just makes me look like the moron. In NYC an older couple, who clearly didn't speak much English, asked me where the "Sport Authority" was. I thought it was a rather odd question, but i was in a rush, so i just pointed them to where "Sports Authority" was, a sports goods store. It hit me like 20 seconds later that they obviously meant "Port Authority" the main bus hub in the city. So i sent some nice old people from like Greece to a place to buy a basketball when they probably needed to catch a bus...
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Hmm, I don't think I've ever been personally asked anything silly. I do like tourist-watching at the Mall of America when I'm there though, and overhearing complaints about the temperature/snow in the winter.
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Lol @ people not being able to jokingly share humorous and harmless misunderstandings. Clearly, there's no bad intent within the OP. The author doesn't imply that these tourists are bad or ignorant people, but what they said was funny regarding the circumstances.
And by the way; if I was one of the tourists, I would reflect over why two bridges would be called the "fourth bridges" since obviously only one of them can be the fourth. : )
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So I am in Amsterdam as some friends invited some other friends. We are at some pub on the no.1 square for pubs/clubs.
I don't like busy places very much and it was very crowded inside with loud music that makes any worthwile conversation impossible anyway so I go outside for a bit.
There was some ad board near the side of the square advertising the achievements of some third world country development charity.
So some English/Bitish tourist approaches me and asks me if I can read 'that'. So I say 'yes it's about how many people die of malaria and how much many people are saved, bla bla'. So his next question is 'Where is pub X?'
I couldn't really help him but I had a vague idea that that pub was indeed on that square. So he walks away and I walk away from that board. Then I start to think how funny his question was. Then it dawns on me that that board must have been in English and he saw I read English so he figured out he could ask me. Pretty strange someone would think I wouldn't be able to speak.
British tourists in Amsterdam... But who knows what the 'Firt of Forth' or whatever is?
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Tourists: "Excuse me, where is Times Square?" (possibly European I can't be sure)
Me: "42nd and Broadway"
Tourists: "I'm sorry I don't understand"
Me: "Just look for the bright lights"
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On June 22 2012 01:16 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
So I was talking about javascript with my mechanic, and he totally didn't know the difference between 0, null, undefined and false. What a maroon.
Edit: If the point of your thread wasn't to make people who didn't know something that shouldn't be terribly obvious to them look stupid, why end the post with "...tourists"? The point of the OP is to tell a story about a stupid question some stupid tourists asked, except the question wasn't all that stupid, so now you're getting mocked a bit. I think that's a reasonable response.
I was discussing quantum mechanics with my plummer, suddenly this guy turns around and tells me he doesn't know what a complex separable Hilbert space is.. what a scrub, kicked him out immediately.
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Good thread! I love little funny stories like this
people need to lighten up ! I am sure i have asked some proper dumb questions whilst being a tourist...
I definantly know i have got lost in london a few times because of station names and ending up on LONNNNNNNNNG walks >.>
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One time somebody asked me for directions.
Crazy but true.
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On June 22 2012 01:21 Derez wrote:
All the questions I'm getting from tourists are about where the nearest coffeeshop is.
And they are always suprised when I dont know. For some reason all the british tourists here think that all dutchmen constantly smoke pot day in day out.. :D
EDIT: red light district is also a popular one.
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On June 22 2012 01:08 huStl.e wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there. They had a map for the area (north edinburgh/south queensferry) that labelled the body of water the bridges crossed as the firth of forth i wouldn't go to the niagra falls and ask why the maid of the mist is called such or go to barcelona and ask why they built a really long bench.
They didn't ask why it was called Forth, they were looking for the "other bridges"
....tourists.
and that doesn't help your cause either. It's nice that you were polite to them but that line especially gave everyone the impression of whats going on in your head. Seriously I too was confused while reading the OP about you being trolled. I had to google a bit to find out why it was a funny question to you.
Also, notice how everyone defending the OP has a UK tag.
Personally, I don't mind laughing at tourists at all, if they were geniunely stupid. Like how the "Reggae Bar" right in Chinatown is always filled with white guys. And amusingly one white woman was laughing her ass off and taking a photo of the whole scene.
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Before I was able to speak proper English, I was in London and got trolled hard.
I wanted to order a bubbly water, asked a friend of mine how to say that "bubbly" part in English and proceeded to order water with jizz in it.
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On June 22 2012 01:40 JieXian wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2012 01:08 huStl.e wrote:On June 22 2012 01:03 Lightwip wrote:
Yeah, they must be really clueless not to know something that would only be obvious to someone who lives there. They had a map for the area (north edinburgh/south queensferry) that labelled the body of water the bridges crossed as the firth of forth i wouldn't go to the niagra falls and ask why the maid of the mist is called such or go to barcelona and ask why they built a really long bench. They didn't ask why it was called Forth, they were looking for the "other bridges" and that doesn't help your cause either. It's nice that you were polite to them but that line especially gave everyone the impression of whats going on in your head. Seriously I too was confused while reading the OP about you being trolled. I had to google a bit to find out why it was a funny question to you. Also, notice how everyone defending the OP has a UK tag. Personally, I don't mind laughing at tourists at all, if they were geniunely stupid. Like how the "Reggae Bar" right in Chinatown is always filled with white guys. And amusingly one white woman was laughing her ass off and taking a photo of the whole scene.
i think i had intended to put a rolleyes style smiley or something at the end of that post and i was only trying to think up situations to compare
also im seeing a pattern of those who attacking my post have the US tag (not saying every us post has been this way before some shitstorm i can see coming my way) i wonder what would happen if i perhaps claimed i thought they were new zealanders or australians or something.
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On June 22 2012 01:08 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
OP, "fourth" and "forth" are called homophones, meaning that they're words that sound very similar to one another, yet have different meanings.
They were just tourists that made an innocent mistake, no need to be a bigot.
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Not really something stupid, just weird/crazy:
So, a guy who was drunk or high or both approaches me as I was walking home from the Central Station in Amsterdam.
Drunk: "Do you guys speak American?"
Me and this girl look at each other confused. "Uhh, yeah?"
Drunk: "Do you guys mind if I hang out with you Canadians for a while? Because that guy back there is following me and I think he wants to mug me" (We're both not from Canada and have no clue why he would think that)
We look back and there is nobody behind us, the street is completely empty. "Uh... Yeah, sure"
So he walks by our side for like 2 minutes, then thanks us for helping him escape the imaginary guy and goes away.
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United States7488 Posts
Tourist: "Are those squirrels?"
I realize that squirrels may not run rampant in all corners of the world, but was completely taken aback by this question regardless.
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I really don't understand the hate he's getting. If you're visiting/touring the area you generally have a map, which would make it apparent that the Forth Bridge spans the Firth of Forth. Maybe if they're not English natives then they don't know that Forth =/= Fourth so that could be their excuse? The title of the thread is "Funny things tourists ask" not "the stupidest thing tourists have ever said to me", so clam down a notch.
I travel a lot, so I never really get to be on the side of tourists asking me things. And I also try to avoid doing very touristy things whilst on vacation or travel, ie: I hate group tours of things. I always find it amusing when American tourists speak English very slowly and deliberately to try and help non English speakers understand. I guess if they do speak a little English then it works but when they don't it's funny to observe.
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On June 22 2012 01:53 semioldguy wrote:
Tourist: "Are those squirrels?"
I realize that squirrels may not run rampant in all corners of the world, but was completely taken aback by this question regardless.
I was kind of surprised that my brother-in-law from South Africa most wanted to see, of all Canadian animals, a chipmunk when he was last here. It was cute.
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I try to convince americans that Toronto is the capital of Canada, trust me I should know, I live there.
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I went to highschool in Texas... lots of the northeastern tourists, and even more foreigners, asked me where we kept our horses and magnums. Another time a man in a pinstripe suit walked up to me and asked me where he could find the nearest saloon... so he could "have a duel before his time came."
I love tourists, they're so cute xD
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I have the opposite happen to me: I get asked about a street, I tell them "I am sorry I don't know" even though I walk there every day, they walk 10 meters and find the street, which was right in front of us the whole time ... That's embarassing, but not the other way around.
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On June 22 2012 01:56 Antiochus wrote:
I try to convince americans that Toronto is the capital of Canada, trust me I should know, I live there.
Thx for that Canadian Bacon......
Once when I was working at Value Village some Japanese tourist came in and started pointing around the store wildly while thrusting his hips back and forth. It took me a while, but it turns out he was looking for the bathroom.
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the key here is they couldn't differentiate FOURTH from FORTH.
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An australian couple asked me some stuff when I was waiting for a (train)ticket replacement and I talked to em a bit.
some minutes later he asked me: "where do you live."
Me: "in this city!"
He: "Where were you born??"
Me: "in this city!"
He: "Oh, you're german?"
Lolz, tbh, I didnt think he was being stupid, actually he flattered me a bit <3
Ohoh, another funny thing actually...
In Germany, depending on where you grew up, one may speak a more or less heavy dialect.
I am living in southern germany and so we speak a dialect here.
One day, a guy in his car stopped beneath us and asked for the way. Well, we told him were to drive to 3 times...he looked kinda confused and started once again with: "Do you speak english??" xD
Damn german tourists!
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On June 22 2012 01:27 solidbebe wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2012 01:16 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
So I was talking about javascript with my mechanic, and he totally didn't know the difference between 0, null, undefined and false. What a maroon.
Edit: If the point of your thread wasn't to make people who didn't know something that shouldn't be terribly obvious to them look stupid, why end the post with "...tourists"? The point of the OP is to tell a story about a stupid question some stupid tourists asked, except the question wasn't all that stupid, so now you're getting mocked a bit. I think that's a reasonable response. I was discussing quantum mechanics with my plummer, suddenly this guy turns around and tells me he doesn't know what a complex separable Hilbert space is.. what a scrub, kicked him out immediately.
I was discussing plumbous ions with my barber, suddenly this guy turns around and tells me he doesn't know what the difference between and ionization and oxidation number is.. what a scrub, kicked him out of his barbershop immediately.
I don't have any funny stories, no such thing as tourists in Iowa.
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Once worked for the Tourist Information in Scotland and we were asked a variety of wonderful question. Probably the best one:
Why did they build the castle so far from the train station?
Priceless.
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I live in Utah. Big skier. Sitting on a chairlift, talking to the man next to me. He's in from out of town.
Tourist: So...one thing that surprises me about Utah is that I haven't seen any Mormons yet.
Me: ...I'm pretty sure you have.
Tourist: No, I don't think so?
Me: *starts pointing at people all over below us* I bet there's a good chance that he's Mormon, and he is, and she is...
Tourist: But they look normal!
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On June 22 2012 02:16 Eisregen wrote:
An australian couple asked me some stuff when I was waiting for a (train)ticket replacement and I talked to em a bit.
some minutes later he asked me: "where do you live."
Me: "in this city!"
He: "Where were you born??"
Me: "in this city!"
He: "Oh, you're german?"
Lolz, tbh, I didnt think he was being stupid, actually he flattered me a bit <3
Ohoh, another funny thing actually...
In Germany, depending on where you grew up, one may speak a more or less heavy dialect.
I am living in southern germany and so we speak a dialect here.
One day, a guy in his car stopped beneath us and asked for the way. Well, we told him were to drive to 3 times...he looked kinda confused and started once again with: "Do you speak english??" xD
Damn german tourists!
Are you from Bavaria? ^^
I asked this guy who lives in my area, "Where are you from?".
He gives me a confused look and hesitantly points at a direction where I think his house is.
After clarifying, "I meant what country are you from."
"Germany."
Can Germans explain this situation? Does "woher bist du" mean something else as compared to ''woher kommst du"? I was speaking English the whole time btw.
On June 22 2012 02:31 Sanctimonius wrote:
Once worked for the Tourist Information in Scotland and we were asked a variety of wonderful question. Probably the best one:
Why did they build the castle so far from the train station?
Priceless.
hahahahahaha
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happend to me in düsseldorf germany.
tourist:"where can we finde the Cologne cathedral (is it the right english term? i think you know what i mean...)"
me:"in cologne"
tourst:"oh we aren´t in cologne?"...
![[image loading]](http://www.facepalm.de/images/facepalm.jpg)
düsseldorf isn´t that far away from cologne but it´s another city ; )
User was warned for this post
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Some american tourists have actually asked if trolls were an indigenous species of Norway. True story. + Show Spoiler +A friend of mine knows a guy who heard it from some other guy, so it's legit.
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On June 22 2012 01:08 huStl.e wrote:
i wouldn't go to the niagra falls and ask why the maid of the mist is called such or go to barcelona and ask why they built a really long bench.
Kinda thread relevant! Its Niagara Falls. Not Niagra Falls. As someone that lives in the area, it stands out when it's misspelled. but I can understand most people spelling it that way as that's how it sounds.
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On June 22 2012 01:08 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. + Show Spoiler +http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Oh man i have to quit getting high. Seeing real random shit now.
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On June 22 2012 01:56 Antiochus wrote:
I try to convince americans that Toronto is the capital of Canada, trust me I should know, I live there.
What's even funnier is that I had no idea what the capitol of Canada was until I googled it just now; even so I've never heard of Ottawa before^^
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Lulz there are never any tourists where I am from cause its just a shitty little city. Especially around my area in particular XD
The story that OP says it pretty good if you know what the Forth is but obviously no one knows. I don't even think other people in the UK would know.
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Last Christmas I was at my parents house in Hollywood playing some basketball in the driveway with my brothers when a nice Mercedes stopped in front of our house. A guy was driving with his beautiful wife in the passenger's seat and 2 kids in the backseat. He rolled down his window and called out in a thick European accent, "Hello! We are tourists and we are looking for the Hollywood sign, can you tell us where that is?" I felt bad breaking the news to him that he was in Hollywood, Florida, and not Hollywood, California, so the sign was about 2,500 miles west of where he was. I hope they were just vacationing for the beach and decided to look for the Hollywood sign since they were in "Hollywood" and not that they came all this way to see the Hollywood sign and chose the wrong city.
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I've done stupid questions and got asked funny questions.
The stupidest I asked was in Porto (Portuguese city im not from).
Slightly drunk I ask a policemen where the "Torre dos Clérigos" was.
We were standing right in front of it. Its a freaking tower, not really hard to miss, but I managed to.
One time, when I went to the airport to pick up a friend, while waiting for her, I got approached by a tourist couple.
They asked how could they get to Madrid.
I had absolutly no idea how to answer them. They had just arrived at the wrong country, there is no amount of directions I can give them that will correct that.
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On June 22 2012 03:15 JCare wrote:
I've done stupid questions and got asked funny questions.
The stupidest I asked was in Porto (Portuguese city im not from).
Slightly drunk I ask a policemen where the "Torre dos Clérigos" was.
We were standing right in front of it. Its a freaking tower, not really hard to miss, but I managed to.
One time, when I went to the airport to pick up a friend, while waiting for her, I got approached by a tourist couple.
They asked how could they get to Madrid.
I had absolutly no idea how to answer them. They had just arrived at the wrong country, there is no amount of directions I can give them that will correct that.
What happened when you told them they were in the wrong country? That is hilarious, i would feel so lame if i landed in the wrong country and spent all that money to get there. Not to mention the time that i am sure is limited got wasted.
Oh yeah, all your people posting something about tourist are very very bad people. Just revert the comments on page one to yourself, thank you.
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On June 22 2012 03:15 JCare wrote:
I've done stupid questions and got asked funny questions.
The stupidest I asked was in Porto (Portuguese city im not from).
Slightly drunk I ask a policemen where the "Torre dos Clérigos" was.
We were standing right in front of it. Its a freaking tower, not really hard to miss, but I managed to.
One time, when I went to the airport to pick up a friend, while waiting for her, I got approached by a tourist couple.
They asked how could they get to Madrid.
I had absolutly no idea how to answer them. They had just arrived at the wrong country, there is no amount of directions I can give them that will correct that.
It would take longer to drive from Houston to El Paso (both cities in Texas) than it would to drive to Madrid from any point in Portugal. You never know what someone's reference point is.
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This wasn't really a tourist question for me, but a funny thing said to me as a tourist:
I was in South Africa at a very renowned sushi restaraunt. People from all over the world were vacationing here and sitting in the restaraunt, so the waiters were often very good at speaking multiple languages. But, through experience, they were also able to size up where customers were from by just looking at them. They would arrive at the table, and before the customers say anything, the waiter would be speaking their language.
So, when I was there, I watched as a man went down a row of tables to take orders. At the first table, he spoke Italian, and at the second it was german. He got through about 7 tables without any conflict, and then he got to my table.
He looked me in the eye, looked at me from top to bottom, and got out his notepad to write down my order. I was kind of embarassed, because I thought to myself, "Damn, what stereotypes do I give off that he could so quickly identify me as an American?".
He then started speaking Greek. I just looked at him for like 20 seconds, while he waited for my order, and I just said managed to grunt out, "...what?"
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On June 22 2012 03:15 JCare wrote:
One time, when I went to the airport to pick up a friend, while waiting for her, I got approached by a tourist couple.
They asked how could they get to Madrid.
I had absolutly no idea how to answer them. They had just arrived at the wrong country, there is no amount of directions I can give them that will correct that.
Those are considered drivable distances in places such as the US and Canada, for example. Madrid isn't very far from anywhere in Portugal.
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I once had a tourist (who looked kinda familiar) with a group of ~10 ask me directions for shops to buy clothes and stuff. Turned out he was a quite famous german rapper (Kool Savas) who had a concert in town that evening.
Got guestlist for me and as many friends as i wanted, win 
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On June 22 2012 04:32 andrewlt wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2012 03:15 JCare wrote:
One time, when I went to the airport to pick up a friend, while waiting for her, I got approached by a tourist couple.
They asked how could they get to Madrid.
I had absolutly no idea how to answer them. They had just arrived at the wrong country, there is no amount of directions I can give them that will correct that. Those are considered drivable distances in places such as the US and Canada, for example. Madrid isn't very far from anywhere in Portugal.
Distance is definitely relative to perspective. I don't blame him for thinking it's a great distance though being European. While I was over there it seriously spun me out how close everything is. The fact a few hours could get you from one end of the country to the other (let alone through multiple in some circumstances) was a new feeling for sure. Compare that to living in Australia.. I recently came back from a camping trip that was a 2200km round trip and we didn't even get anywhere near the border of my home state :D
One story comes to mind where I was the tourist. While visiting family in Ireland we were eating at a restaurant/entertainment type venue and I went up to the bar with my younger brother and sister. We tried ordering 3 lemonades and the barman just looked at us blankly before asking if we wanted 7up. We passed and asked for lemonade, he hesitated before pulling out 3 small mixer sized bottles of some weird lemonade.. the stunned look on our faces prompted another lady to come over who used to live in australia and recognised our accents. She explained the whole thing situation (differences in the meaning of the word lemonade it seemed) to both parties and lols were had etc.
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Is Lisbon i've been asked many times by young europeans where they can find some "biatchesssssss" other then that i don't remember anything that funny/especial :\
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Hey just a general question .. I live in Vienna and there are a lot of tourists all of the year .. so when someone asks me what the name of something is or what subway station they need to exit to get to a certain object, I always tend to say its original name - and when I get a confused look, I take the original word and try to pronounce it in their language. Sometimes it seems to help, sometimes it doesn't. So ... does it help ? (also, I can only do that in French/English/Spanish .. what about the rest).
Should I write it down ?
Once a year there is the Vienna City Marathon and most of the trams do not work and this year a ~40 year old Irish man approached me (the marathon was already over and some of the barriers were lying on the floor and a lot of trash was on the street, on the corner you could see two cops who were stationed there in case something happens) and asked where he could find the riot because he always "seemed to miss them".
Had me laughing for a good 20 seconds (which is a lot, actually) and he looked disappointed when I told him about the marathon ..
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I consider what most people ask very reasonable, even though it might be very obvious (like difference between a train and a subway train). Just the way tourists say anything Japanese is pretty funny, like 'Sapporo' and 'Osaka', or 'Shibuya' and 'Shinjuku', but that's understandable.
But a lot of people get surprised by a lot of things:
1. cabs all have automatic doors
2. heated toilet seats
3. bidets
4. vending machines that sell cigarettes and beer, and just about anything
5. etc
I can probably go on forever...
edit:
On the note of butchering Japanese pronouns, I did something really dumb one time. I was trying to find a big department store called "MyLord", so I asked in various flavours of "My Lord" and of course no one knew what the fuck I was talking about. I eventually got fed up and decided to write it down, and turns out, it is pronounced "Me Lord" in Japanese. Go figure.
edit2 - a bit more:
This one I've never committed, but a lot of foreigners do: another department store chain is called 'OI', and they have various flavours of it such as 'OIOI', or 'OI City', etc. It's actually called 'Marui' (O is circle, which is maru), and foreigners often call it 'oi-oi', pretty funny to listen to, and I say it jokingly as well
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Ok... so funny story. I consider myself pretty damn fluent in French and English, and I live in a multi-lingual family, where we are constantly shifting back and forth between the two languages. So, when someone asks me a question in either language, I don't always stop to consider what language I'm hearing, I just respond.
I was at Père Lachaise, the gigantic cemetery in Paris, and I had a family of people walk up and ask where they could find a particular person. We were right by a map so I take them and show them on the map, explaining everything in French, but they still look totally confused, so I promise to lead them there, as it is only a hundred meters away. The entire time, they are following and smiling nicely, but not saying a word, and then about half way to the tomb, it dawns on me that they most likely asked me in English and didn't understand a single word that I had said. Pretty fucking embarrassing for me, actually, but I didn't really know what to say, so I pointed to the tomb and just awkwardly walked away without saying another word :D
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I haven't got any tourist related stories to share, but on the topic of distance perception:
I have been living in Australia for the past year. When I first got here I quickly realized that everything is veeery far away (including obviously Australia itself).
Starting of:
Australia is at least half a planet away from pretty much anything else:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zuk0W.png)
Mainland Europe would actually fit INSIDE Australia. Re-arrange the countries and you can fit entire Europe. Hell, the individual states are pretty much bigger than mainland Europe. The major cities are far enough apart to be capitals of individual countries.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/G4loB.jpg)
Oh, and someone mentioned Texas?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dAS0Q.jpg)
I was lucky enough to live just 3k from school, but soccer practice? 30 minute drive. Closest city? Brisbane, an hour away in good traffic.
Being used to ride my bike everywhere, I was quite annoyed being dependent on a car...
Anyway, hope I've provided some perspective
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I don't know why people were hating on the OP. It should be obvious to anyone that they aren't numbered bridges because you wouldn't have 2 'fourth' bridges if they were. It doesn't require local knowledge, just common sense.
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Russian Federation748 Posts
But we say "the two first" so why not "the two fourth" ?
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United States24676 Posts
The opposite also happens. Sometimes the locals say strange things to the tourist.
My sister visited family in Australia in the mid 90s. People would often ask her where she was from, to which she would say 'New York.' Technically, she lived in NY State, although people usually assume you live in NY City. This is not at all a big deal though. The funny part is that people would follow up with strange things like "do you live in the empire state building??"
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On June 26 2012 04:32 Kyrillion wrote:
But we say "the two first" so why not "the two fourth" ?
We just don't say that... Plus everyone visiting Scotland should know what the Firth of Forth is.
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tourists not knowing stuff in their non native country? what is this madness
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Cute story. Tourists are so adorable. Seems like an honest mistake to me. Not knowing the difference between "Forth" and "fourth" could happen to anybody who isn't familiar with a place. They may have genuinely believed "Forth" to be the "Scottish spelling" of fourth...
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Great place for this would be the tourists in NYC.
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Following DoomBox's post, here's another interesting size comparison pic I've seen before...
![[image loading]](http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/20101113_WOM943.gif)
pretty insane how big africa is
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I live in Las Vegas and have been asked on several occasions whether or not I live in a casino. Makes me laugh out loud every time
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Some tourists from across the globe asked me where the X restaurant was. I was like, *snicker snicker* you idiots, there is no X restaurant within 150 miles from here. Jeez. So then I walked off thinking how hilarious people who aren't from here are, like, not knowing all the details about my home turf and such.
Silly tourists!
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This one Nigerian tourist was all like "hey I'm a super rich prince and I need to transfer my wealth to the U.S." Which is silly because I'm sure it would be safer for him to go through the banks directly, but what's even crazier is he said he'd give me 10% of his fortune just to help him out! Lol, what an idiot. All I had to do was give him my SS number, Debit card number, Account number, and personal info (birthday, address, etc.). Tourists are so stupid.
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I am also Scottish, living in Edinburgh just next to these bridges, and I have had the very same question asked of me before...
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Some man had the audacity to ask me where he could buy milk that did not come in bags, so I threw my nose to the air and bid him a good day.
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My god a continent that is bigger than a bunch of countries, how shocking.
I remember seeing another map where someone showed you could fit 52 countries in Africa, the amazing thing was they all fitted perfectly!
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I could have made that mistake and I don't think I'm particularly stupid 
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i can understand the reaction from a lot of people on here, basically translates into "stupid things tourists ask" seeing as the people in the OP were not making a joke about a perceived common misconception between forth and fourth, but were genuinely confused.
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On June 26 2012 00:04 Cambium wrote:But a lot of people get surprised by a lot of things: 1. cabs all have automatic doors edit2 - a bit more: This one I've never committed, but a lot of foreigners do: another department store chain is called 'OI', and they have various flavours of it such as 'OIOI', or 'OI City', etc. It's actually called 'Marui' (O is circle, which is maru), and foreigners often call it 'oi-oi', pretty funny to listen to, and I say it jokingly as well
Yep, called it OiOi for months until someone pointed that one out to me.
Also those doors on taxis aren't automatic, the driver has a little lever by his seat he pulls to open and close it. I found this out when I closed the door myself after getting in and trapping the driver's leg between this lever and the door. This is also when I learned that 'itai' means 'pain!'
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True story:
One Fall afternoon my friend Omar and I walked out of a gay sports bar. I'm not gay, but Omar is, and he liked the place, so there we had been. Pretty decent place. I believe the Patriots won that day.
Anyway, a European man and his two female companions, all bicyclists, approach us after we cross the street. He asked, "Pardon me, but do you know where I can find a gas station?"
"A gas station, " I replied, "What do you need a gas station for?"
"We need air for our tires."
"Oh... air for your tires! Listen, there's no need to go to a gas station. Boston is a very bicycle-friendly city and every bar has a bicycle pump on hand. Just go to that bar there and tell them you need to get filled." I point to the gay sports bar.
"Get... what?"
"Get filled. We never say 'get air.' Just go up to the bar and tell the man you need to get filled and you're in a hurry."
"Oh, thank you so much, sir. Thank you!" His two companions thank us as well. We go our separate ways and I turn around to see these three Europeans trying to bring their bicycles into a bar.
Omar never understood why I did what I did, though he did admit it was pretty funny. I wish I knew what happened inside the bar.
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Living in Vancouver, it's mostly people asking if they know where to get some good pot. Come on man, don't stereotype, I don't know that dude.
.. next time someone does that I'm gonna go ".. who needs grass, have you heard about this thing called e-sports?!?!"
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EPT
