By Kasey103 - 22/01/2013 23:39 - United States - Grand Rapids

Today, I had lunch with an attractive foreign exchange student from Dresden. After bombarding her with questions about Russia, she smiled and kindly told me that Dresden is in Germany. Everyone laughed. FML
I agree, your life sucks 13 236
You deserved it 49 497

Kasey103 tells us more.

In my defense, when she said, "Dresden is in Germany, Sweetie." I knew exactly where it was. My cousins are from Leipzig. I guess her accent just made the name sound funny. But thank you all for adding your two cents about the American education system.

Top comments

strawberrywine22 30

Geography? Ain't nobody got time for that!

Comments

oj101 33

I bet you're Dresden to hear what's everyone thinks of your ignorance now.

strawberrywine22 30

I hope he was Russian to a remedial geography class after!

mega20913 8

I've read your comment about 10 times and I still can't figure out what you were aiming for.

oj101 33

Pun intended guys. C'mon- it wasn't a typo or a typical 'aww OP FYL' or a LOLLLZ. I would dread what people would say and think about me if I said something as ridiculous.

Well come on guys, you've gotta at least give him credit for the effort.

I thumbs upped your comment, I understood it. So many people never heard of the word dread or dreading.

maybe because Dresden doesnt even sound like Dreading? ^

Should've googled it first ! well it'll blow over op, she seemed nice about it so still got a chance :)

That's what I was thinking. He should have found out where Dresden was before he started asking her questions.

He should've played it cool. Like, he shoulda said "um, I KNOW Dresden is in Germany, I'm not stupid. I was just asking about Russia 'cuz I'm really into Russia."

Dude, I dated a danish foriegn exchange student in high school (craziest girl ive ever meet, it was awesome) and when I first met her I went on a rant about how much it must suck to move from somewhere so hot (denmark is ******* cold) to somewhere as cold as the rockies (we can get perty balmy) she hated me at first but I read up and started asking her questions and talking with her, and id tell her about life in the states, we eventually hit it off, I still think about her sometimes, she was the one that got away.

strawberrywine22 30

I'm wondering the same thing. I've never heard of it before, but it doesn't sound even slightly Russian.

Yep. Foreign sounding name. Must be in Russia.

My thoughts exactly, it doesn't sound Russian, if she has an accent that probably doesn't sound Russian either and if your not sure, look it up before you make a fool out of yourself.

Comment moderated for rule-breaking.

Show it anyway
egc573 40

I'm too young to have experienced this myself, but is this possibly a mistake from the Cold War era? I think Dresden was part of the Soviet Union during that time (not sure though), and I could see Americans lumping all those territories as "Russian" just to save the effort. Maybe OP's mistake was based on that outdated concept, depending on their age. (Others will probably know for sure; it's been a few years since I learned about this. And yeah, it's a stretch, but I could see it happening.) Although OP, if that ISN'T the case, Dresden doesn't even sound a bit Russian, so I don't know how you came to that conclusion. You might want to brush up on your geography.

I do not get how OP could have confused a German accent for a Russian one.

perdix 29

#66, no, Dresden is in what was East Germany, a sovereign nation. It was part of the Communist Bloc that was dominated by the Soviet Union. Another common Cold War misnomer was calling everyone from the Soviet Union Russians. Russia was the biggest republic in that union, but Ukrainians, Georgians, Molodovans, Uzbeks, etc. were Soviets that weren't Russians.

Comment moderated for rule-breaking.

Show it anyway

Why does everyone insist on putting every American in three categories, fat, stupid, and lazy? Last I checked every country has their fair share of fat, lazy, and stupid people. American's are just loud about it.

Can you tell me each town that was confederate controlled during the civil war era in the U.S.? Don't Europeans have any education? Germany was a very divided country and not knowing which side of the line a town of little to no importance, on a global scale, isn't a lack education. Your comment shows your lack of logic and poor ability to realize perspective.

Compared to other developed countries, Americans now have shorter life expectancies and higher morbidity and mortality. This is due in large part to our obesity epidemic. Recent AMA news bulletin on this topic.

A few people making a stupid mistake doesn't make all Americans stupid. In a nation of 300 Million you are gonna find some stupid people. But that is not America as a nation.

Letting her tell you a bit about her life [hobbies, favorite restaurants back home] first could have helped you a bit. Or looking up on your phone...

strawberrywine22 30

Geography? Ain't nobody got time for that!

And suddenly, she has no time for him either.

& I suggest OP should make some time for that.

oj101 33

Russian places often have a long name with at least 4 syllables and used comparatively fewer vowels in ratio to consonants whilst German and other European countries like France, Spain etc tend to have a lot of vowels and are pronounced phonetically. Plus German names tend to sound short and quick (2 syllables)

Dresden only has two vowels in seven letters so I wouldn't rely too much on your theory (although it helps). Another thing, Moscow has only two syllables and it's a Russian city.

strawberrywine22 30

To be fair, #9 said 'often' and not 'always'

That's why I said to "not rely too much" and not "not rely at all".

19, there's town called "Moscow", located in Idaho. And several american cities are called "Paris". Also, there's state of Georgia which shares name with a country.

oj101 33

#19 - It's a general rule of thumb and not something to be followed by strictly. Whilst you're right with Moscow, other cities include St Petersburg, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg etc whilst Germany has Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt etc...

94yhy 8

"She smiled and kindly told me" implies that she wasn't offended by it and is understanding of your confusion with foreign countries. Just laugh it off; she might have thought it was cute. It'll be a good memory for both of you if you get together and reminisce how you two met!

And Americans still wonder why the rest of the world laughs at their geographic knowledge.

Well said. I have a friend that told me that a girl from America asked my friend's sister if the sun in Europe is the same one in America. And that's not even about Geography. Although I don't like stereotypes, I still think that it's something they could improve on.

strawberrywine22 30

I'm an American and in all my years of school I never once had a geography class. The only geography I learned was taught to me by my mother during the summer when I would travel the states with her.

#26 > Are you serious??? I thought that geography was mandatory from primary school till highschool graduation like in France and that it was just badly taught. Well that explains why when I was in college in the US, some people asked questions such as: "Is England an island?", "Is Florence in France", "Oh you're French, have you ever been to Amsterdam?"

Comment moderated for rule-breaking.

Show it anyway

CrazyManNo9 - Boise. Idaho is bordering upto Oregon. I'm from Greenland. Canberra, Australia. A mountain somewhere in Rocky Mountains. Alaska? It's been 20 years since I cared about US Geography. We aren't saying, we are brilliant and smart. We are saying we had geography.

you know, now that i think of it, i never had a geography class either! in history we would be shown more local country maps without hardly any relativity made known to the rest of the globe. and we never had any sort of overview on a world map, either. how strange! graduated in '07 in WA state.

50- Australia isnt that hard. What makes you think that nobody lives there? Typical American.

Who said nobody lives there? Hell, I am considering moving there myself. That doesn't change the question. Do you know the answer or do you have to Google it, too?

I never had a class just for Geography. We did have Economics, American History, World History, and American Government. All of which touched on geography a bit, but not in depth at all. Especially when it came to the rest of the world, outside of the U.S.. Its sad but, I know plenty of people my age and younger that don't even have a clue about how to read a map! With everyone plugged into their GPS too it doesn't look like its going to get any better. It's pathetic!

Our geography class in high school was called "senior world coloring" we litteraly sat around for an hour and a half and would color in printed off copys of maps and discuss them. The only thing I remember about that class was being able to make out reflections of the ceiling in mr.hafeli's bald spot.

Hmm that's strange, when I was in middle school (in Florida) I had an entire class dedicated to geography. My entire life spent assuming America had a standardized curriculum lead to me being wrong... Oh wait never mind I'm never wrong, I just make blatant mistakes.

CrazyMan, the capital of Australia is Canberra and there's no need to google that but I wonder why are you asking for the capital of Idaho, maybe that's where you come from and it's the only US state that u know the capital of? We don't need to know extensive US geography, it's enought to know that the capital CrazyMan, the capital of Australia is Canberra and there's no need to google that but I wonder why are you asking for the capital of Idaho, maybe that's where you come from and it's the only US state that u know the capital of? We don't need to know extensive US geography, it's enought to know that the capital is Washington DC and not NYC, it's enough to know that LA, Vhicago, Houston, Seattle, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas etc are major US cities and their lication (what state are they in and where are they on the map) Anything else is just beyond general knoweledge. BTW talking about general knowledge I guess you know Germany, a lot like the US, had federative states - bundesrepublik. I asume (as you're asking for the capital of Idaho) you're familiar with the number of these bundesrepubliks, their names and capitals? As of the American idiotism in geography (Remember Britney Spears adking to go to Australia by bus, the Turkey confusion, Hungary - hungry, Paris - country) I was recently asked if Bulgaria (my country) is in Germany. The person asking was American and I assume he had Bavaria in mind - the largest and richest of those bundesrepublics I told you of. With capital citi Munich (that's where they make BMW). But don't you worry, living in Western Europe for a few years now has showed me that some western Europeans are as much ignorant an idiotic about the world as some of the Americans. As we say in Bulgaria.'Stupidity lives among the people'of the countru is Washington DC and not NYC, it's enough to know that LA, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas etc are major US cities and their location (what state are they in and where are they on the map). Anything else is just beyond general knoweledge. BTW talking about general knowledge I guess you know Germany, a lot like the US, has federative states - bundesrepublics. I asume (as you're asking for the capital of Idaho) you're familiar with the number of these bundesrepublics, their names and capitals? As of the American idiotism in geography (Remember Britney Spears asking to go to Australia by bus, the Turkey confusion, Hungary - hungry, Paris - country) I was recently asked if Bulgaria (my country) is in Germany. The person asking was American and I assume he had Bavaria in mind - the largest and richest of those bundesrepublics I told you about. With capital city Munich (that's where they make BMW). But don't you worry, living in Western Europe for a few years now has showed me that many people are as much ignorant an idiotic about the world as some of the Americans. As we say in Bulgaria.'Stupidity lives among the people'

Fml121785, if they don't know how to read maps how are they dealing with the GPS?

Australians will often have a bit better idea of general geography than Americans because we watch a lot more US etc TV. America's narrow focus has given us a great sport: "Fool the American." We make up all kinds of stupid stuff about our country and can usually convince Americans it's true! We value your education system, so don't go changing. (Did you really think we had a duck-billed mammal that lays eggs out its cloaca, babies lick its saliva - no milk, teats - and a venomous spike on its foot? Pshaw!)

Really? Im american and still in high school. I have taken 3 geography classes throughout my life: once in middle school and world geography (those were mandatory) and European geography..

I live in the US and geography was required especially in middle school and high school . They go over geography mostly in history/social study courses. If you're learning the history of a country you need to know where it is at. In fact your profile states that you from California ( my home state), a state where history is a required course. Especially since the state has tested on it the last 3 decades. Every student in California participates in the STAR Program and has to take the California standardized tests at the end of the year which I believe History-social science tests was mandatory for grades 8, 10 and 11. Either you didn't pay attention in school or you're just jumping on the " Americans are stupid" bandwagon.

Sorry this was in response to 26. Also, We had classes that were just GEOGRAPHY. In world history you memorized World maps.

81, use paragraphs, and break text into small chunks. To make a paragraph or move text to new line press "enter". Wall of text without any line breaks is hard to read, so most people probably won't even bother trying.

Sounds like grade 9 geography in Ontario... it was pretty much applied art :D

Whoa, JohnyLoca, you need to lay off the sauce, man. You're rambling all over the place. Actually, I live in Columbus but since it is our capital, that question was too easy even for me. I happen to like the blue field at Boise State, thus Idaho... Obviously, the term bundesrepubliks is foreign to me but it since it basically is the same as our state it is only a matter of linguistics. Generally, I agree that it doesn't make sense that you would know all of the details of our United States any more than I'd know everyting about Germany or Bulgaria. Given that agreement, it is ridiculous that you and others from Europe freely criticize ALL USA citizens because some people don't know the difference between a box and a car. That isn't everyone, that is only them. As you say, "Stupidity lives among the people."... Regarding the comments from Australia, hey, you have a beautiful country and you should be proud of it. I am sure you buy your board stretchers from the USA, since we make the best units in the world.

I'm honestly saddened to consider myself an American.

kathryn14 19

It makes me upset when Americans aren't proud that they're American. Sure we have a bad reputation, but you should still be proud that you live in a great country in general, with men and women laying down their lives for you. Be grateful. And about geography, I live in Texas and had to take a geography class in high school. We had to memorize where almost every country in the world is, along with their capital, and I still know it all; so I have no idea how all these Americans mentioned don't know geography! Everyone at my school does. Ask me a country and I can sure point it out, and I definitely know how to read a map. Oh, and I also know where my ass is.

I remember the STAR Tests. There was definitely geography included.

Not all Americans are stupid and uneducated. Where did you all go to school? You didn't have geography? Geography was required in my middle school, high school and freshman year of college.

strawberrywine22 30

I grew up in Oregon and had a 4.0 GPA :) the extent of my geography learning was states and capitols.

I bet you were Russian out of there, I would have.

He totally looked like a Turkey, but at least she was Swede about the whole thing.

Denmark your world maps now so you won't make the same mistake again.

Kenya believe the ingenuity of some people, marking stuff on maps...

Don't feel bad, she could have got up and left. Now, get online, order some german candy and give it to her as an apology