It's a prejudice that Americans are bad at geography. You might be confronted with the following dialogues or reactions in Germany as well, however, it's kind of funny to see what Americans think about Germans and other cultures:
- "Do you guys in Germany like Angela Merkel?" (I mean, that's not funny, it's an interesting question, but it seems like German politics would reduce to Angela Merkel ;))
- "Do you listen to songs in English in Germany at all?"
- "But there are universities in Germany, why did you come here?!" (Taking into account that there are no tuition fees in Germany, there's a point to think about it)
- "You're from Germany, I see! I know somebody from Sweden!" (or: "Ah, so you're from Europe!" - there's the US and there's Europe ;))
- "Yeah, Schnitzl and Leyderhousn, isn't it?"
- "I've been to the Octoberfest, I know!!"
In addition to that, there's been a brief dialogue a Pakistani friend told me: He was talking to an American fellow student and he just attended university in Pakistan.
So he asked: "How did you come here then?"
He said: "I took the camel."
She: "Oh, really?!?!"
He: "Well, first I took the camel to cross the country and then the donkey to get across the ocean."
She: "I see, that makes sense." ;)
Another Turkish friend of mine made up the "camel traffic" since he was talking to another American friend about the public transport in Turkey. So, be careful around 5 pm since that's the rush hour and even your BMW camel might get stuck, so catch the late-night-camel line or an early one ;)
