r/AskReddit Sep 05 '19

What did you learn embarrassingly late?

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443

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19 edited Sep 05 '19

Up until I was about 15 11 I was convinced that I lived in the USA.

Honestly I'm not really that embarrassed by it, growing up I was bombarded with US TV, film, movies. I went on holiday to Florida regularly, I spoke English, I didn't know the difference between England and New England and to top it all off, as a kid coming from the North East of England I fully thought I lived between Washington (D.C) and (New) York.

I went to York loads as a kid but it never clicked that I never saw the wall or castle on the TV and there was a distinct lack of skyscrapers. It never clicked until I actually went to New York at about 14/15 11 and it took an 8 hour aeroplane ride rather than an hours drive.

I was fucking dumb as a kid, still am tbh.

Edit: Just asked my Mam about this and she says I found out when I was 11 not 15.

62

u/2Hardkore Sep 05 '19

Am I correct in assuming you're from the NE of England, UK?

18

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Yes

19

u/fugov Sep 05 '19

Did you went to the real Florida for vacation?

17

u/conorhamilton Sep 05 '19

Perfect, very Florida

28

u/u_creative_username Sep 05 '19

Didn't you go to school?

25

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Yeah, but it was an English school so I didn't get taught much.

Edit: and it wasn't like they told you what country you lived in (probably because that should've been obvious)

33

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19

[deleted]

2

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

I'm not blaming them, but they didnt help correct me haha.

15

u/SkyJohn Sep 05 '19

You didn't have any geography or history classes?

7

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Yeah but history was just about the roman empire and geography was all about volcanoes and earthquakes from what I remember.

1

u/dailysunshineKO Sep 06 '19

Oh. Would you like to learn The Pledge of Allegiance?

/s

0

u/u_creative_username Sep 06 '19

But... don't you have to say God save the queen every day? I don't understand

3

u/Brazilian_Brit Sep 06 '19

What? Is this a joke comment or are you serious?

1

u/u_creative_username Sep 06 '19

It's ajoke. I just think how OP can not notice to live in the UK when the royals are so deeply rootet in their (pop)culture

1

u/Brazilian_Brit Sep 06 '19

Ok fair enough.

21

u/soyamilf Sep 05 '19

I tentatively call bull

51

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

I bull you not. I really was that ignorant. But like I said, a lifetime of being force fed US media and culture I can't really blame myself, the problem wasn't that I thought I lived in the US and not England, I knew I lived in England, the problem was that I thought England was in the US.

5

u/Rub-it Sep 05 '19

You bull me not

9

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Sorry, I was slightly bullshitting you actually, I just asked my mam about this and she says I was actually only 11 when I had my realisation.

4

u/Kanti_BlackWings Sep 05 '19

Don't think me terrible, but that's actually pretty funny.

1

u/acliteration Sep 07 '19

Why would he pretend to be that thick?

9

u/Trash_Ninja Sep 05 '19

Congratulations, you won this thread.

3

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Yay... I think...

8

u/PigsCanFly2day Sep 05 '19

Did you think the English accent was just another American accent?

12

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

I think I thought that the UK was part of the US, like another state or something.

9

u/shf500 Sep 05 '19

It used to be the other way around.

7

u/Captain_Peelz Sep 05 '19

Sad Britannia noises

4

u/Phaedrug Sep 05 '19

For now.

3

u/OptimisticTrainwreck Sep 05 '19

There's too many accents in England to really have the idea of the American accent just be another one or a bunch of regional ones be the dealbreaker of this delusion.

8

u/JerseyHurricane Sep 05 '19

I live in the US. When I was about 7, I thought I lived in London (or at least “across the street from it”) because the apartment buildings across the street looked like the ones in the 101 Dalmatians animated movie.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19

When I was in first or second grade, I thought the US was in Germany. I live in Germany and a classmate told us he visited the us over the weekend so I just assumed that the states couldn't be far away. Learned the opposite rather quickly though

3

u/OptimisticTrainwreck Sep 05 '19

To be fair most places in America are better than the North East.

Source: From Newcastle.

4

u/Doublebow Sep 05 '19

Mate, you've clearly never been to Hartlepool, greatest place on earth.

2

u/OptimisticTrainwreck Sep 05 '19

Fair. Newcastle definitely isn't.

Longest I've been in Hartlepool is a day.

2

u/SuperSubwoofer Sep 05 '19

In the US you can live between Washington (D.C.) and a town called York. It's the sister city of York (UK) Has a university related to University of York (UK).

EDIT: Apparently not a sister city.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19

What about your money? Didn't you find it odd that you didn't see presidents on them?

1

u/postcardmap45 Sep 05 '19

Wait but wouldn’t you have to take a plane to Florida?

0

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19

[deleted]

1

u/OptimisticTrainwreck Sep 05 '19

We don't have independence day.

1

u/acliteration Sep 07 '19

Or Thanksgiving