What we don't know about your country

[Aunel]

we are not all standing next to a windmill with a shovel in our hand smoking pot.
and we do not all wear wooden shoes all day long.
our language is the only to verbally abuse someone with a disease.

 

[A random person]

We Americans don't all wear cowboy hats. We're also not all patriotic assholes, just a lot of us are.

 

[ZerOmega]

FINLAND was the only country that paid it's sanctions after WWII.

 

[Insanum]

Well if the daily mail are to be believed;

"Dont go outside, ITs full of blacks, Queers & muslims! Ooohhh if only diana were here."

Kudos to those that get the reference.

In all seriousness, in the UK everyone does drink tea, but doesnt wear tweed or sits in big stately houses.

Would that be Russell Howard on Mock the Week?

Epic Win.

+5 Internetz

 

[historybuff]

Did you know...
Not everyone in England wears a top hat?

Well, they ought to.



Back to the topic: Graham crackers were invented in New Jersey, USA.

Sadly, I live in America, land of the we-don't-care-about-other-countries-unless-we're-bombing-them, so I wouldn't know what other people think of my country!

Totally not true. I care about other countries! I love learning about other places. A lot of Americans do.

 

[wikicated]

america (utah stuff since no one has attacked it yet)
mormonism isnt a cult
mormonism and LDS are teh same thing
fundmental latter day saints are the people that practice polygamy not regular latter day saints
i like to consider utah the bubble state

58-72% of people in utah are LDS

The people of Utah volunteer more often than any other state in the nation. [4] And a recent large scale survey of Americans quality of life ranked Utah 1st in the nation, with their self reported life satisfaction being the second highest in the nation. (to Hawaii)-snipit from wikipedia

 

[electric_warrior]

We're not part of Spain.

who would that be? portugal? andorra?

anywho, the U.K. has the 2nd longest country name on earth; the united kindom of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. or something like that.

I wouldnt brag about the last bit.

that would be libya, i can't remember it's full name off the top of my head but its very long

 

[Spitfire175]

Is there something in your country that we foreigners don't know? Any inventions, that we think that come from somewhere else, any famous people from there, that people generally mistake to be from somewhere else, etc?

Here is one from my country, Finland. People seem to generally think that the molotov cocktail was a Russian invention. It was actually developed in Finland, against Russian tanks during WW2. We didn't really have any anti tank equipment, so we had to use logs and snow to stop the tanks, then scorch them with molotovs.

If there are any stories like that you would like to share, please do.

Actually Spaniards invented it during their civil war. We just came up with the name.

It's a good name though.

The idea of the Molotof cocktail is a bit older than the Spansish civil war, possibly hundreds of years. The most famous use of it just happens to be the winter war in 1939. The Spanish did use it quite a lot, as well as German shock troopers taking out French pillboxes in 1916.

About Finland: It is more likely to be hit with an axe in Finnish lapland than it is to be assaulted in South Africa(a very unspable and violent country, according to statistics, at least compared to Finland).
Finns have more guns than most other europeans, but still very few killings are committed with a firearm, an axe, a plow blade, a baseball bat or a car exhaust pipe are more common in killings. Finns get dead drunk, get into an argument and then pummel their mates to death. Happens frighteningly often in northern Finland.

 

[electric_warrior]

We're not part of Spain.

who would that be? portugal? andorra?

anywho, the U.K. has the 2nd longest country name on earth; the united kindom of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. or something like that.

I wouldnt brag about the last bit.

sorry, replying to another post and clicked the wrong one

oh, and i wasn't bragging, its just something not that many people know

 

[Adaephon]

Very few people that I've met know that Canada was at war with Spain in 1995(sort of)

 

[darkless]

Scotland, well we don't wear kilts unless it's a wedding or something, We only have haggis 2 times a year and thats Rabbie Burns day and St andrews day. We are not English . We can single handley stop a terroist because no one fucks with us we don't care if your on fire.

I thought it was noone fucks with a glaswegian who has a package holiday?

Anyway Ireland. I would love to start but there is too much to just pick so the basics.
1 We dont sound like we are from some crappy film from the 50's
2 We have the most complicated age of consent laws in the world
3 We dont all drink Guinness as it is horrible.
4 If you mention the British everyone has a different opinion.
5 Dont mention the civil war.
6 Dont mention the failed rebellions apart from 1798
7 We dont have leprechauns. We killed and ate all of them ages ago
8 Any further questions?
9 We all really hate tourists.
10 Our economy is so doomed we might get kicked out of the EU.

11 We invented modern day urban guerrilla warfare during the Easter rising.

 

[darkless]

FINLAND was the only country that paid it's sanctions after WWII.

Also your countries military will eat us if we piss you off.

 

[mr man]

Germany here. We are not all bavarians. They are the ones with the "Lederhosen", white sausage, beer and strange festivals. (Although beer is good everywhere here). It is like thinking that all americans are like texans, or californians.

That's what I was going to say. Word for word.

Also, we invented the telephone. ^^

I thought that was Alexander Graham Bell. Maybe I just have my facts mixed up.

i heard that a frenchman came up with the idea of a telephone but he didnt patent(sp?)it.

 

[ZerOmega]

FINLAND was the only country that paid it's sanctions after WWII.

Also your countries military will eat us if we piss you off.

Oh yes, but we have to remember that most of the military victories were accomplished because of the incompetent Russians. They relied too heavily on their numbers, forgetting such key elements as morale, enviroment and that it's not a good idea to corner an animal that can bite back.

 

[Shambolic]

Did anybody know that here in the UK, the monarch is the owner of all whales (not the country, the actual species)? It's true, all whales are owned by the king or queen of the United Kingdom. Which means those damn Japanese fishing bastards had better watch out during the next state visit to Asia...

And here's the proof [http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?ActiveTextDocId=1517624], if anyone was wondering. Dates back to 1322, apparently.

all the swans also belong to the monarch and also Britain invented the lightbulb

 

[matnatz]

The American economy blows.... Oh, wait, everyone knows that. In some states, having sex with animals and corpses is legal.

I'm thinking of moving. I'd appreciate it if you listed these states.

 

[darkless]

FINLAND was the only country that paid it's sanctions after WWII.

Also your countries military will eat us if we piss you off.

Oh yes, but we have to remember that most of the military victories were accomplished because of the incompetent Russians. They relied too heavily on their numbers, forgetting such key elements as morale, enviroment and that it's not a good idea to corner an animal that can bite back.

It wasn't just the Russians, Finland is also one of the few country's to successfully beat the Germans out of the country on it's own during WW II.

In fact the only other country i can think of that did this to was Russia, who's ass you then kicked as well

 

[darkless]

England once used a picture of Oliver Cromwell in a foriegn office while meeting with Irish diplomats. Apparently the Irish didn't like that...


For those who don't know, Cromwell went to ireland and massacred a good deal of the population for being catholic

Cromwell is now my roll model

Same here!

On that note Britain was not always a monarchy or constitutional monarchy. In our civil war the parliament forces won and Cromwell became 'Lord Protector'. Kudos for the coolest name for a leader

I would like to know the reasons behind a man who ordered mass murder being your idol.

 

[ZerOmega]

It wasn't just the Russians, Finland is also one of the few country's to successfully beat the Germans out of the country on it's own during WW II.

Well about that...

I can't expect you to know this, since it isn't your nations history, but at the "fights" against the Germans were more or less a gentleman game. We couldn't just slaughter our old allies even if Staling had set it as an condition for peace. The fact is that we might have tipped off the Germans where we were going to attack next so that they could withdraw from those locations before we'd get there.

At some point, however, the Russians started to get suspicious and we had no choice but to start firing for real. Because of that, the retreating Germans burned most of the cities on Finland's Lapland.

 

[darkless]

It wasn't just the Russians, Finland is also one of the few country's to successfully beat the Germans out of the country on it's own during WW II.

Well about that...

I can't expect you to know this, since it isn't your nations history, but at the "fights" against the Germans were more or less a gentleman game. We couldn't just slaughter our old allies even if Staling had set it as an condition for peace. The fact is that we might have tipped off the Germans where we were going to attack next so that they could withdraw from those locations before we'd get there.

At some point, however, the Russians started to get suspicious and we had no choice but to start firing for real. Because of that, the retreating Germans burned most of the cities on Finland's Lapland.

Ouch, now that bit i did not now gotta hate that whole "Scorched earth policy".