If we look at the pages of some old atlases or travel notes, we'll see, in addition to the actual descriptions of travel, also a 'selection of facts' about distant countries, where you can definitely meet, for example, people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops or completely bizarre animals, the degree of whimsicality of which depends only on the author’s imagination.
Today, many centuries ago, we have everything to have comprehensive info about almost any country. Google Maps, Wikipedia, numerous videos and books - sources for every taste. And yet, sometimes tourists give out completely wild phrases or questions about the countries they are traveling to, practically admitting their ignorance. And threads like this one in the AskReddit community collect these stories for us.
More info: Reddit
#1
Image credits: FiercelyDidactic
#2
Image credits: whatdoihia
#3
Image credits: pellojo
In fact, people quite often aren't very interested in the world around them - more precisely, the world outside their own town or country. In this case, travel really comes to the rescue - after all, Mark Twain wrote a century and a half ago: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.” Today, travel is accessible to many people (compared to the 19th century, of course) - so people willingly share their prejudices and fanaticism with others...
#4
Image credits: Shoddy_Bus4679
#5
Image credits: Lugbor
#6
Image credits: pigonthewing
It is always human nature not only to expand our horizons, but also to adjust the world around us to it, using the so-called 'availability heuristic' - that is, if we know some fact - about a person, animal, country or phenomenon, then we will unconsciously use it almost every time we encounter something like this.
An excellent example is a Canadian friend of mine who, having lived in Ukraine for almost ten years, sincerely believed that a resort village called Sanzheika on the Black Sea was actually pronounced San-Jacob. Simply because this kind of sound was much more familiar to his ear.
#7
Image credits: Unkindlake
#8
Image credits: ExpectedBehaviour
#9
Image credits: Legal-Software
The availability heuristic sometimes does whatever it wants to us. We may have, for example, read a book or watched an adventure film about the travels of heroes through different countries in the old days - and these clichés are firmly deposited in our heads. And then, when fate brings us to this country, the subconscious 'shoots out' a half-forgotten fact, forcing us to do an instant facepalm. Well, or the people around us do it, in case we're entitled enough not to notice our own gaffe.
#10
Image credits: FrenchManc
#11
Image credits: Hot-Blueberry7888
#12
Image credits: EnigmaMissing
Be that as it may, tourism and travel have always been, are and will be - which means that people with prejudices will continue to roam around the globe and sometimes confuse local natives with their unexpected judgments and wordings. And we'll read these stories, crack up at them and, perhaps, share our own narratives too. For example, why not in the comments to this post, huh?
#13
Image credits: gayscout
#14
Image credits: Madame_Kitsune98
#15
Image credits: picnic-boy
#16
Image credits: foxtongue
#17
Image credits: d_gorder
#18
Image credits: HiThisIsMichael
#19
Image credits: ConstableBlimeyChips
#20
Image credits: ascotindenmark
#21
Image credits: Ravnak
#22
Image credits: Past_Echidna_9097
#23
Image credits: hyllested
#24
Image credits: RomeVacationTips
#25
Image credits: tahsii
#26
Image credits: mrpithecanthropus
#27
Image credits: Hyadeos
#28
#29
Image credits: yesiamnonoiamyes
#30
#31
Image credits: devlingrace444
#32
Image credits: aiyowheregotlah
#33
#34
Image credits: jaunmilijej
#35
Image credits: Lazy-Tax-8267
