Must be a Norniron thing; my wife's father, brother, and sister all use their middle names.

As the name suggests, I`m Dutch and oh boy, is that fun when out and avbout in the world. Because, even though we no longer seem to all fit bill of wearing clogs, eating cheese, living in a windmill, growing tulips and sticking ones fingers in dykes (which is a story fabricated by an US author), we apparently do all of us do drugs. Just an example.

Me, 15 on a school trip to Düsseldorf, where we had a meet&greet of sorts with German pupils.
German boy: Do you like drugs?
Me: I don`t know, I never tried it.
German boy: But you have drugs?
Me: Uhm, no.
German boy: Yes you do! So, you smoke marijuana? Because I know everyone does.
Me: Uhmm...so were your family nazi?

That shut him up for a bit.

Being a tiny country, it can sometimes be a bit confusing as to where we are in the world.

Me 17 with my mum in London, talking to a protester outside our hotel.
Man; So, where are you from then?
Me: Holland.
Man: Oh, up in Yorkshire.
Me: Uhm, no, the on on the other side of the pond .

Surprisingly, when on holiday in the US, most people al least knew the Netherlands is a country. Though apparently for some it`s a bit difficult to grasp what language they speak in England.
Standing in front of a counter in a fast food restaurant near Fort Worth, Tx my husband and I were discussing in Dutch what we would want to order. As I switched to English to actually order, the guy interrupted me after 2 words.
Guy: Are you from England?
Me: No, the Netherlands.
Guy: Oh
Me: How so?
Guy: I thought you were speaking in that language
Me: That was Dutch, they tend to speak English in England

Another language conundrum.
Niece of AirBnB host: So what language do you speak in the Netherlands?
Me: Dutch.
Niece of AirBnB host: Shouldn`t your language be called Netherlandish.
Me: Yeah...no!
Niece of AirBnB host: That is just strange!
Me: You don`t speak American, do you?
Niece of AirBnB host: Yes I do!
Me: No, you speak English.
Niece of AirBnB host: Ooohhh....right!


I could go on and on and on....

He was only partly wrong: Holland is a part of Lincolnshire.

Just to be annoyingly pedantic...
Oh, Holland, Pennsylvania then. No wonder your English is excellent.

Yeah, the American porn industry is everywhere.....

Asked if i speak Swahili is quite amusing to me.

My parents lived in Uganda and took me there when i was five months old, supposedly i spoke fluent Swahili at the age of two.

Forgotten it now, except for a few words we use in the family.

The same thing i heard from one Ukrainian man...
"Where you from?"
"I from Ukraine"
"Oh, Russian, yes?"


))) All have the same shit...

Lol! This may well be applicable in Switzerland
I met some folks acting similar when switching DE to EN

If anyone is curious about why the SwissPost is confused about the UK, refer to this document:
https://www.post.ch/-/media/post/pk/...pdf?la=en&vs=3

There is no United Kingdom
(so remember to label your letters/parcels as "Great Britain")


I'm realising that it's a miracle that letters to "Angleterre" didn't end up in Angola.

As I wrote, they didn't know where Großbritannien was either!

yeah where Boston is innit?

They told me to put United Kingdom ( well Royaume Uni) at the post office here but I usually just put Angleterre. I don't know anyone who would put Great Britain and Northern Ireland on anything.

Lala salama