US defaultism is only getting worse by the day 😂 I mean, I was just out with a group of friends (in South Korea btw) and one of them ACTUALLY asked me why South Korea doesn’t accept USD if the USD is worth more than the Korean Won 💀. So what‘s the wildest thing one of us Americans has said to YOU??? Don‘t hold back!

Deutschland is not an alternative name for Germany. It is the actual name of Germany. Germany is the alternative name.

An American once told me he drove a BMW, and immediately followed it up with "Do you have cars in Germany?" I still think about him VERY often.

Our countries names are not 'alternate', they're the original names in the spoken language!
An 'alternative name' is the English one, for the English speakers. We each call countries different names, according to our language... 🤷‍♀️

Ok so, I'm British I live in England, in England I'm from a little village called Washington, the original Washington, when I was a kid I remember President Jimmy Carter coming to my village in 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of America, we were all stood outside of the family home of George Washington, and I over heard two Americans talking "isn't cute that they named this place after our capital". I was six at the time, I just stood there looking at them mouth wide open, I turned around looked at the house then back to the two women then back to them, my teacher must have over heard it as well because she ushered me away, whispering "I know, I know, don't worry they're Americans". That day has stuck in my head for 50 years (yes I'm that old 😂)

- What's the difference between the US and yogurt?
-- If you leave yogurt alone for a while it develops a culture.

One American complained how one restaurant keeps giving food poisonings to people. I said "crazy, here that restaurant would be closed immediately". He answered "well, we have freedom".

Freedom of getting poisoned?? 😂 How about the freedom of "get edible food which doesn't try to kill you"? Haha

In Austria, our alternate name is Australia.

Finland is actually Suomi. We use both but Suomi is the finnish name and really the true name.

being stupid is no disgrace, but staying stupid is.

Finnish Here. A year ago, an American who came to stay at our boarding house in the summer was amazed by our technology and said - How can you have cell phones? I thought you had horse couriers in Europe. Yep. Nokia's homeland, Finland.

The French literally won the American War of Independence for them.

The only reason people outside the USA believe there are schools in the US are the mass shootings.

Not knowing that there are different countries other than yours and your country is not the world is not a matter of travelling, it's a matter of learning and education

American tourist in London asked why people were speaking "American" instead of a European language, totally oblivious to the fact they were English people speaking English in England.

I was asked "Aren´t you Germans sad, now that Hitler is dead?" during a visit to the USA in the 2000s.
It was really hard for me to stay polite after that...

🇺🇲"You speak really good English"
🇸🇪"Yeah, we all learn English in school"
🇺🇲"Why?"

America is not a melting pot, it's the Borg from Star Trek. A lot of Cultures went into it but none of them survived

Defaultism is also thinking that the names of foreign countries in their own language are "alternative names"

I'm not well traveled but I know a lot about world geography. It's not traveling necessarily, it's EDUCATION.