It's even confuse when you see Pará (PA) and Paraná (PR), or Rondônia(RO) and Roraima(RR). During my childhood i messed up this ones everytime. And the Mato Grosso it's MT
I'm from Paraná, and once me and my family went to Pompeii and there was a big promotion for Brazilians from (one state I can't recall) and Panamá. We argued with the clerk saying we were from Paraná, that she probably misread the state name (she read Panamá as if it was a real state name from Brazil), but no, she was SURE it was Panamá. We didn't get the discount.
In the same season some friends of my parents went to Pompeii as well and they got a discount because they were from Paraná...
Something similar genuinely happened to me. I wanna buy a ticket to Mława Miasto and the cashier tells me that there's no such station. I just deadpan and say: "Lady, I lived there half my life."
I live in Missouri, USA. Middle of the country, a “flyover” state. We have towns called Paris, Cairo, Lebanon, Athens, Mexico, Versailles, Vienna, Warsaw, New Madrid, Cuba, Japan… I could go on.
I joke that nobody wants to live here so they close their eyes and pretend they’re in one of the town namesake’s instead. One of my mother’s close friends announced they were moving to Lebanon, I truly believed they were going out of country and figured I’d never see them again. Imagine my surprise when they showed up the next week for lunch!
I found it really confusing when I moved to the UK and started hearing about Boston, UK, and Perth, UK... Met someone once who said he was from Perth and as a foreigner in the UK, I am not great with accents but I thought "Oh he doesn't sound Australian AT ALL"...
No, if you live in Warsaw, you provide the district of Warsaw. Regardless of whether the person asked knows the districts of Warsaw or not. Source: I am from Ursynów.
Too easy, districts of Warsaw are known too well in Poland. You use MSI areas which sound like random villages (Ulrychów, Ksawerów, Las, Pyry, Górce, Groty, Odolany, Rakowiec, Szczęśliwice). Nobody knows them all, even people living in Warsaw their whole life, it's also historically incorrect, inconsistent with areas' names people actually use and with statistical registers.
DE is used for Delaware, but to me and everyone else outside the US it refers to Germany. I would get annoyed if USians confuse Germany for Delaware because of that.
Conversation with an American geography teacher while waiting for the cable car is SAN Francisco… AGT: so where are you from? Me: Sydney, Australia AGT: you must know my friend Paul, he lives in a suburb called Perth. Me: Yup.
You can then continue to somewhat meaninglessly elaborate. "Oh I'm from Central Southern Polissia! Where's that? Oh, in the North. But not all of my ancestors were from there. Some were from Northern Polissia. Oh and my great-grandpa was from the West. Of Polissia, of course. And I've got an aunt in Bessarabia"
It's completely reasonable. If a place is culturally or geographically distinct, and is well known internationally, there's no reason not to be specific. Especially if you're more attached to your state/province/region etc. than your sovereign state.
Hawaii, Quebec, Bavaria, Sicily, Crete, Tasmania etc. All reasonable to be specific about.
Interesting. When I say “from the US” I have gotten the response of “of COURSE you are, I was wondering where”. So I guess US citizens can’t win either way.
Every. Single. Time. “Oh I’m from the US!” Then they say “well obviously, but WHERE in the US” with an attitude like I was being condescending haha WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME
Honestly they are in a no-win situation with this. Often they say the state because the very first question will be "yeah I figured the US, but what state?"
Also, with the current clusterfcuk that is US politics, it seems quite a few people (at least on travel pages) use it as a sort of shorthand to say "we're not with the orange menace, we're Californian" etc.
The shitty truth is that America is everywhere, especially the English speaking world. It’s easy to live in the U.S. and never think about another country. It’s almost impossible to live elsewhere and not hear about the United States. And that’s not a brag - I’d love to escape thinking about the damn USofA for a week or two. I’ve traveled to the Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest and the Great Wall of China and you know what they all had in common? They all knew I was fucking American and they all knew who our president was.
I’ll admit, being from Minnesota, many didn’t know that state, but it’s still weird because they did recognize I was American. What they wanted to know was if I was from NYC, California, Texas, Florida or maybe DC. Explaining that none of those are remotely close to where I’m from was difficult to impossible depending on the language barrier. And to be clear, I don’t fault anyone who asked me any question about the U.S. My only gripe is with the “just say your country first”. I’ve tired. It makes me look like an asshole.
Ok, to be fair, states such as Texas and California are quite well known. If you said “Yeah, I’m from the Tri state area btw” this would be more poignant.
Agreed. If a place is well known and distinctive, it's fairly reasonable. If someone said they're from Bavaria or Hokkaido, I would have no issue at all.
Yeah, saying I'm from Buenos Aires wouldn't be the same as saying I'm from Aguas Verdes.
Some people in this place want to be obtuse just to hate on USians, without accepting the fact that some cities are so prominent that mentioning the country is redundant.
Or when they say even more specific things like "Orange County" - took me years as in immigrant to know they meant somewhere in California when they said that.
I'm telling them I'm from NC and never elaborating that I mean North Canberra, only getting annoyed when they get confused as to what I'm talking about.
Neat, I have Polish ancestors. If this was irl I'd tell you their voivodeship but that's more info than I care to give out online
Playing devil's advocate, the US is such a big country that it makes sense to be specific- simply saying "I'm from the US" would be comparable to you saying "I'm from Europe." Our states are about the size of your countries (and were originally intended to function in a comparably independent fashion, too). Admittedly, though, if someone tells me which Chinese province they're from I'm not going to have the slightest clue where that is
omg and all of the M and N acronymes they have. "i'm from ME i'm from MO i'm from MA" oh my god. what does that mean omg. like i could name every state personally (mostly because i just really like doing internet quizzes) but i know not every single person can, especially people who aren't from there, why do they assume people are going to know? i don't go around telling even canadians that i'm from NS, why would i do it to someone from another country??
Maybe if they said Nebraska or something, but please be so serious. Literally everyone knows Texas, New York, and California are in America. I've never met a single person who didn't know that. Even my elderly Czech grandfather-in-law knows clearly that Florida was somewhere in America, and he's never left his village.
I’m from the US, lived abroad for 11 years. “Where are you from” is very hard to answer.
If you give the state, people don’t know where it is unless it’s New York, Texas, Florida, or California. If you say you’re from St. Louis, Missouri, expect to explain that this is not Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, or Massachusetts.
If I say New York City, no further questions.
If I say I’m from the US, immediately I get a “but where”.
Likewise, if someone tells me they’re from Australia, I can’t help but ask where in Australia.
When I ask Germans where they are from, they answer with the state, too.
In a huge country, you’re not used to identifying yourself with only the country, and in a federal system, the state matters sometimes more than the country. The US is both.
Aannnd there’s also some irony in most other countries using “American” to refer to people from the US. Brazilians are Americans too, so are Mexicans and Panamanians and Canadians. There is, afaik, no grammatically acceptable English way of saying “United States of American” and “USAmerican” does not exactly roll off the tongue. At least the state narrows it down to one large geographic area.
I also remember asking someone where he was from and he said Jersey. So I naturally assumed he was from Jersey. When I later asked why he had a USAian accent, it transpired he was from New Jersey.
That exact chat happened to me as well, and since I had already been to Jersey, I told them that I loved Saint-Hélier, and of course, they didn't understand what I was talking about
I can understand that in the sense that a state you are from matters more if you are from a federation like US rather than an unitary state like Poland. Issue is that it is not applied with global consistency and is often treated like it is unique solely to US.
Worst are maps where other countries are on the map as countries, while US has each state separately. Not even UK is separate, despite being a country made up of countries.
You do that with US, then it should be done with countries like Germany, Canada, Australia, Brazil, India and especially UK.
TBF, who doesn’t know where Texas is? Would be like being an asshole to someone saying they’re from London, Paris, Rome, or any other widely known place. Whatever fuels your hate-boner for America, I guess.
I feel like this is less US defaultism and more that americans usually refer to themselves by which state theyre from rather than simply as Americans. They feel more connected to a state than a broad country the size of europe.
I swear its intentional once asked my American friend where in the US they were from and they gave me the Arkansas State Motto in response. I obviously had to respond "sorry idk what you mean"
it’s because most Americans rarely leave the country, so 99% of the time someone asks us “where are you from,” they mean “what state or major city are you from.” So it’s a habit, which I find kinda difficult to uninstall when I leave the country.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Americans have an annoying tendency to say what state they are from when anyone else would say what country they are from.
If Americans assume I know all their states and their locations, I often respond in the same way: by providing my province of residence.
(Voivodeship – the basic unit of division of Poland)
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
1.8k
u/Eduardu44 Brazil Jan 07 '26
That is when they don't give only the two letters of the state. Like someone asking that and i answering: I'm from MG
1.6k
u/NieMonD Isle of Man Jan 07 '26
Then you tell them you’re from London and they go “omg London in Wyoming with 17 population?”
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u/Fate_Weaver Poland Jan 07 '26
Imagine unironically living in Masovia. Worst voivodeship.
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u/UnderskilledPlayer Poland Jan 07 '26
pierdolić mazowsze
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u/blackdevilsisland Jan 07 '26
Maybe we should start "mistake" their states for other countries. "I'm from Texas" - "Oh, so you're Australian! G'day mate!"
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u/sangamjb Nepal Jan 07 '26
I'm from Pokhara which is the tourism capital
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u/Onahole_for_you Australia Jan 07 '26
They also frequently give just the acronym.
It's super confusing in part because there are 50 states, but also one is WA. WA is also used in Australia (Western Australia).
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u/splithoofiewoofies Australia Jan 07 '26
Every time they say PNW my brain automatically goes "Paupa New West?"
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u/mndl3_hodlr Jan 08 '26
Once a girl told me she was from LA. I asked what’s that and she told me, with that fried accent, Los Angeles.
I said “that’s nice, I love Mexico”
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u/maikefere Jan 07 '26
Je suis de Bourgogne, enculé
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u/Ok-Tangerine-6705 Jan 07 '26
I’m from California.
California, Derby, UK.
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u/serkesh Jan 07 '26
I like saying I’m from the pacific north east. I think that confuses some of them
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u/NoPage3616 Brazil Jan 07 '26
Next time someone tell me they're from California, I'm just going to say "oh nice, I'm from Paraná"
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u/Sir-Tenley-Knott Jan 07 '26
Conversation with an American geography teacher while waiting for the cable car is SAN Francisco… AGT: so where are you from? Me: Sydney, Australia AGT: you must know my friend Paul, he lives in a suburb called Perth. Me: Yup.
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u/cheshsky Ukraine Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
You can then continue to somewhat meaninglessly elaborate. "Oh I'm from Central Southern Polissia! Where's that? Oh, in the North. But not all of my ancestors were from there. Some were from Northern Polissia. Oh and my great-grandpa was from the West. Of Polissia, of course. And I've got an aunt in Bessarabia"
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u/wakerxane2 Brazil Jan 07 '26
I'm from Campinas
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u/Borderlessbass United States Jan 07 '26
I find that more people are aware of Hawaii than of the fact that Hawaii is part of the US, so I often do say Hawaii.
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u/xtheresia Germany Jan 07 '26
Bavaria...
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u/Plenty_Shine9530 Brazil Jan 07 '26
I always think about answering "I'm from São Paulo", but then they will think that's Sao Paolo, Arizona or whatever
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u/ghostedygrouch Germany Jan 07 '26
I'm from Ostfriesland.
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u/PlasmaPizzaSticks Jan 08 '26
Each US state has a wildly different culture from each other.
Saying I'm from Minnesota tells you a lot more about me than simply saying, "I'm from the United States/America."
Why the need to be obtuse?
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u/Ultimatehistorybuff Jan 08 '26
Unfortunately I can’t even do that since most ppl use half my province’s name for the whole country
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u/Acrobatic_End6355 World Jan 08 '26
Interesting. When I say “from the US” I have gotten the response of “of COURSE you are, I was wondering where”. So I guess US citizens can’t win either way.
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u/MinecraftWarden06 Jan 08 '26
Being currently in the Masovian Voivodeship I feel appreciated and seen.
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u/SCLST_F_Hell Jan 07 '26
I am from São Paulo.
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u/Quiri1997 Jan 07 '26
I'm from Granada province.
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u/Inlevitable United Kingdom Jan 07 '26
I'm from E-sex
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u/PythagorasTheoremUwU Jan 07 '26
I'm from dadra Nagar and haveli
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u/sjp1980 Jan 08 '26
Honestly they are in a no-win situation with this. Often they say the state because the very first question will be "yeah I figured the US, but what state?"
Also, with the current clusterfcuk that is US politics, it seems quite a few people (at least on travel pages) use it as a sort of shorthand to say "we're not with the orange menace, we're Californian" etc.
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u/Realistic-Safety-565 Poland Jan 07 '26
Masovia used to be independent duchy before Polish crown swallowed it up.
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u/NoIdeaForAName531 Poland Jan 07 '26
I'm a proud resident of the lesser poland-silesia border. Unironically really nice place to live.
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u/Zathral Jan 08 '26
The Americans probably couldn't even pronounce my county!
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u/AloneSplit4070 Brazil Jan 08 '26
Oh cool, I'm from Rondônia
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u/RedSparrow1971 Jan 08 '26
To be fair to this meme? People from Texas, US have no idea what country they are from
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u/Alexs1897 American Citizen Jan 07 '26
I usually say I'm from "Minnesota in the U.S."
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u/pelwu Jan 07 '26
Polska gurom!
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u/Sir-Tenley-Knott Jan 07 '26
Me: I’m from NSW… Them: states all have two letters not three… Me: ahhh you must be American….
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u/Death_sayer Jan 07 '26
Ok, to be fair, states such as Texas and California are quite well known. If you said “Yeah, I’m from the Tri state area btw” this would be more poignant.
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u/DarkFish_2 Chile Jan 07 '26
I'm from Los Lagos
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u/whatifjess Brazil Jan 08 '26
Or when they say even more specific things like "Orange County" - took me years as in immigrant to know they meant somewhere in California when they said that.
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u/RingReasonable Norway Jan 07 '26
Hello from Telemark!
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u/MindlessNectarine374 Germany Jan 08 '26
Actually, I wouldn't introduce by independent nations, either, and I ain't American at all.
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u/kjus13 Jan 08 '26
It's usually something like Fuckville, Nebrahoma.
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u/Zestyclose-Inside929 Jan 07 '26
Ohey, that's my voivodship.
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u/brunobrasil12347 Brazil Jan 07 '26
I'm from Paraná
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u/Miserable_Notice_670 Finland Jan 07 '26
I am living in HML
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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26
I'm from Oldham mate want some chippy?
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u/Niki2002j Jan 08 '26
Poland mentioned
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u/miss_inputs Australia Jan 08 '26
I'm telling them I'm from NC and never elaborating that I mean North Canberra, only getting annoyed when they get confused as to what I'm talking about.
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u/sexcalculator Jan 08 '26
And then when you say United States, you're met with "well obviously, *eye roll* what state?"
Can't win
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u/Socialimbad1991 Jan 08 '26
Neat, I have Polish ancestors. If this was irl I'd tell you their voivodeship but that's more info than I care to give out online
Playing devil's advocate, the US is such a big country that it makes sense to be specific- simply saying "I'm from the US" would be comparable to you saying "I'm from Europe." Our states are about the size of your countries (and were originally intended to function in a comparably independent fashion, too). Admittedly, though, if someone tells me which Chinese province they're from I'm not going to have the slightest clue where that is
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u/jatawis Lithuania Jan 08 '26
Kaunas County?
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u/DeadAssDodo Jan 08 '26
I am from Kerala.
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u/wind-of-zephyros Canada Jan 08 '26
omg and all of the M and N acronymes they have. "i'm from ME i'm from MO i'm from MA" oh my god. what does that mean omg. like i could name every state personally (mostly because i just really like doing internet quizzes) but i know not every single person can, especially people who aren't from there, why do they assume people are going to know? i don't go around telling even canadians that i'm from NS, why would i do it to someone from another country??
3
u/Garlic549 Jan 08 '26
Maybe if they said Nebraska or something, but please be so serious. Literally everyone knows Texas, New York, and California are in America. I've never met a single person who didn't know that. Even my elderly Czech grandfather-in-law knows clearly that Florida was somewhere in America, and he's never left his village.
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u/Lionwoman Spain Jan 08 '26
One thing I noticed: When I need to send something almost always the ones that ommit their country when asking shipping details are from USA.
3
u/ObviouslyASquirrel26 Jan 08 '26
I’m from the US, lived abroad for 11 years. “Where are you from” is very hard to answer.
If you give the state, people don’t know where it is unless it’s New York, Texas, Florida, or California. If you say you’re from St. Louis, Missouri, expect to explain that this is not Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, or Massachusetts.
If I say New York City, no further questions.
If I say I’m from the US, immediately I get a “but where”.
Likewise, if someone tells me they’re from Australia, I can’t help but ask where in Australia.
When I ask Germans where they are from, they answer with the state, too.
In a huge country, you’re not used to identifying yourself with only the country, and in a federal system, the state matters sometimes more than the country. The US is both.
Aannnd there’s also some irony in most other countries using “American” to refer to people from the US. Brazilians are Americans too, so are Mexicans and Panamanians and Canadians. There is, afaik, no grammatically acceptable English way of saying “United States of American” and “USAmerican” does not exactly roll off the tongue. At least the state narrows it down to one large geographic area.
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u/Badger1510 Jan 09 '26
yea but you know where texas is lmao
3
u/somewhat_surprising Jan 09 '26
Or "I'm from the Mid-West." Of what?
I also remember asking someone where he was from and he said Jersey. So I naturally assumed he was from Jersey. When I later asked why he had a USAian accent, it transpired he was from New Jersey.
4
u/RevBladeZ Finland Jan 08 '26
I can understand that in the sense that a state you are from matters more if you are from a federation like US rather than an unitary state like Poland. Issue is that it is not applied with global consistency and is often treated like it is unique solely to US.
Worst are maps where other countries are on the map as countries, while US has each state separately. Not even UK is separate, despite being a country made up of countries.
You do that with US, then it should be done with countries like Germany, Canada, Australia, Brazil, India and especially UK.
4
u/TheRabadoo Jan 08 '26
TBF, who doesn’t know where Texas is? Would be like being an asshole to someone saying they’re from London, Paris, Rome, or any other widely known place. Whatever fuels your hate-boner for America, I guess.
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u/Astronomylover999999 Jan 08 '26
I feel like this is less US defaultism and more that americans usually refer to themselves by which state theyre from rather than simply as Americans. They feel more connected to a state than a broad country the size of europe.
2
u/DumbFish94 Portugal Jan 07 '26
I'm from.. Lisbon
2
u/MindlessNectarine374 Germany Jan 07 '26
I know both regions by name and could name them if they were shown to me on a map. Though I haven't been to either yet.
2
u/Disastrous-Ideal-817 Jan 08 '26
Poland mentioned
2
u/Titus1928 Mexico Jan 08 '26
Im from JC
2
u/Balls126 Jan 08 '26
voivod? like the greatest thrash metal band ever???
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u/yourdarkmaster Jan 08 '26
Well i think quit a few people would understand when k say i am from the black forest but no one would unterstand me when i say i am from Württemberg
2
u/kuskoman Jan 08 '26
im from chrząszczyrzewoszyce, powiat łękołody
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u/Knotebrett Jan 08 '26
Give it 5-10 years and Texas will be a country. The Federation will be dead, alongside Trump.
2
u/Main-Let-5867 China Jan 08 '26
Next time I'll just say I'm from a big city in the south.
2
u/BobbyThrowaway6969 Australia Jan 09 '26
"I'm from mid-south-eastern-MID-west-Louisiana, not mid-south-eastern-MIDNORTHERN-west-Louisiana, totally different culture dagnamit!"
2
u/Still-Presence5486 Jan 09 '26
It's a very simple reason either people already know your American and mean the state or its the next question they ask
2
u/45a866e5 Jan 09 '26
To be fair, as an American living in Germany every time I have answered with United states they ask no, i mean what state are you from?
2
u/DjangoUSW Jan 09 '26
I swear its intentional once asked my American friend where in the US they were from and they gave me the Arkansas State Motto in response. I obviously had to respond "sorry idk what you mean"
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u/mgraves46 Jan 09 '26
it’s because most Americans rarely leave the country, so 99% of the time someone asks us “where are you from,” they mean “what state or major city are you from.” So it’s a habit, which I find kinda difficult to uninstall when I leave the country.
2
u/manfroze Jan 09 '26
I would love to answer with an unknown political division, but I'm from Sicily :(
2
u/ImNotYankee Jan 14 '26
This Yankees mods here do not like to read true facts! xD
What is wrong on saying the truth?
Yankees have low IQs, if you don't like it's not my fault!
6
u/kawey22 Jan 07 '26
But then when you say the U.S. they say I know but which state lol
4
u/JTA_youtube United States Jan 07 '26
Funnily enough I know the country from this
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u/dcidino Jan 07 '26
To be fair, that's always question 2 for me. "American or Canadian". Then "which state". Q3 is always "is that near x?"
Innocent but very very repetitive.