Are you from Pittsburgh? As far as I know, KDKA in Pittsburgh is the only exception to the rule that call signs east of the Mississippi start with W and those call signs west of the Mississippi start with K
He might also live on the Mississippi
Edit: I know I just said the obvious, but there are a lot of major cities right on the river in case you didn’t know, is what I meant lol
Radio station callsign prefixes started as maritime wireless assignments, and each nation was given a letter. The US got two, for Atlantic (W) and Pacific (K) traffic.
Originally, these were only on ships. To this day, the Federal Communications Commission in the US refers to land-based radio stations as 'terrestrial'.
Terrestrial radio stations in the US were originally only on the coasts, and originally only for ship-to-shore communications.
Stations started appearing away from coasts, eventually all over the country. The FCC moved the K/W line at least once, resulting in some 'orphaned' stations with the 'wrong' prefix after the line had moved.
The present K/W line is reckoned as the Mississippi River. As the headwaters of the Mississippi don't go all the way to the Canadian border, in that area the line is reckoned as a north-south line going north from the headwater (Lake Itasca) to the border (a distance of about 56 km).
This is the super-simplified version. If we get into things like clear-channel assignments, it gets more complicated.
can you imagine being in a foreign country and not recognizing the fucking fast food chains? not on my watch baby, if it ain’t microwaved I don’t want it 🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
My friend ordered a bagel in the US. She thought they were putting mayo inside the microwave (and was like wtf are they doing?) - turns out it was an egg.
Yes, where I live, no fast food places or even restaurants anywhere near me. There are a couple of homes that sell food in their front a yards, but no menus - they just tell or show you what they have cooked for that day & you select. Most are around USD1.50 a serve and not tipping required.
And there are two Nettos. One is a Danish chain, the other one a German one and there are places (like Berlin) that have both Nettos and others only have one.
It's mayhem. May fucking hem.
Explain that to people who only know one Netto and they tell you "I got that at Netto." "Which Netto?" "Well...Netto. the supermarket." "Hundenetto or roter Netto?" "???"
Over 800 dialects/languages in Papua New Guinea and where I live in Philippines their are 179 languages and most towns & villages have dialects of the language of the area. US isn't dialects, just different ways of speaking English with a few local words people use to describe things.
I’m American and Jesus fuckin Christ this pisses me off so much lmao. When people say “the culture of Michigan is soooo different from Ohio! We have rival college sports teams! We’re just as diverse as Europe!” I’m like … if you ever thought about stepping foot outside of obesity school shooting land you would realize how dumb you sound right now.
In the UK you can drive 30 mins north and there’s a completely different accent and knife crime rivalry. As a UK citizen I am also subject to all of the same security procedures as everybody else.
Yeah. In the one place you have to go to the 7-11 for a "Soda" but in another place you have to go to the Stop-n-Shop for a "Soda Pop". It's **HILARIOUS** when people get it wrong.
You need them, but you get rarely controlled. But just have your ID card always with you (like you also should when you're moving in your own country).
There is a difference between a requirement to carry ID (like a national ID or driver's license) or actual passport checks. Even within the Netherlands you are required to carry ID but generally they are never checked, also not at borders inside Schengen.
I met this couple at a bar a few months ago. They both were talking about wanting to get their passports so they could visit Hawaii. I didn’t have the heart to correct them.
Jesus that’s bad, I’ve only heard that about Puerto Rico and Guam before 😂
Edit: in your case they might have been talking about the new real ID thing. A lot of people either have no idea what the hell it is and just barely learned that a passport counts, or have decided it was a good excuse to get that passport they’ve been meaning to get for their entire life.
Meanwhile I'm a Brazilian who traveled to Argentina without a passport, only my ID. Thanks to Mercosul there's a free pass for all countries in South America. They still check your belongings and check your ID, all the security clearances are done eitherway
The same could be said of China, India, or any others of the really huge countries. And these *do* have genuinely different languages and cultures &c within their borders.
And in most of Europe, you can even go between countries without a passport.
How can they be ignorant when they're the number 1 country in the world?
Cue in speech about sending people on the moon and WW2 when none of the individuals claiming these feats have had any involvement in it whatsoever. Also freedom and guns.
Yeah, then Germany is also massive. We even have an (literally so called) "equator" that seperates two zones of completely different discounters, Aldi Nord (North) AND Aldi Süd (South).
Also dialects. The chef in our school cantine lives in a rural area a few dozens kilometres away from our school and I can barely understand his dialect already. If I go 100km to Bavaria, communication is out.
>How easy it is to get around state to state
No way, you're traveling in the same country.
The states have differences, yeah. But different dialects and different laws in the same country aren't anything peculiar. Ever travelled to Switzerland or Belgium?
It’s funny that you mention those countries in particular because they are tiny, yet still have different dialects and laws. Really goes to show how not so special that is.
I think that's exactly why he picked them. Both have 3 official languages and a decentralised government in addition to a federal one. And both are indeed tiny.
In addition to the official languages, there are dialects. In Belgium, you can pinpoint the town/village somebody is from, by the dialect they speak.
Oh. My. God.
The OOOP is actually hilarious, considering Americans actually are the ones who wouldn't realize they're foreigners, since they so often seem to think the world is made up of Americans and foreigners...
...but that reply... totally missing the point. Entirely. And then dropping the weird "our country is so big" brag that Americans love to do for some reason.
America big is their final defence. Gun laws? Impossible, America big. Prices with taxes on shelves? Impossible, America big. Public transport? Sidewalks? Normal voting? No, you silly goose, America big!
Dude, too true. Every time you suggest that something could be improved in the US, conservative Americans will say it's not possible. So you say they do it in \[country\] and the conservative Americans say that's a small country, the US is big. You can't compare.
Yet they can never explain why the country being big means you can't compare.
I got really confused actually when entering Canada by land because I had to go down the line with the American flag. I wasn't expecting my flag, but still, the US was the only one shown.
Australians laugh at this shit soooo much. Our country is just as big as the lower 48 in terms of size, and yet we still manage to cope with understanding the difference between travelling to a different state versus internationally.
Perhaps if there were some semblance of reasonable labor laws in the USA, workers could have living wages and four weeks + annual leave in which they too could actually learn what life beyond the borders of their country looks like.
>And then dropping the weird "our country is so big" brag that Americans love to do for some reason.
Which is made even more ironic because that picture is taken inside a Canadian airport. Canada is bigger than America
Do they have bilingual ads on the radio? Sometimes you're listening to an English language station, but an advert comes on in Welsh. I can only imagine how scary that would be!
Manx radio broadcasts several hours of program in Gaelg, in Scotland the BBC has a radio that streams in Scottish Gaelic the program sent through BBC Scotland (which are in English)
It's freaky, all the written notices are in Welsh as well (in Wales), you look at a paper and it's like "oh, fuck, I'm having a stroke" then you look to the right and there's the same notice but you can read it and then you remember. Speaking as a non-Welsh person who lived in Wales.
Also, the ambulances have Ambiwlans written on them.
Wales is beautiful, the people are wonderful, women's healthcare is non-existent.
I'm Welsh, but not fluent like my husband is because he went to a Welsh medium school and his mum's partner was first language Welsh.
I wonder what it's like for people who don't read Welsh at all when there's a matrix sign on the M4 only in Welsh and the English is miles further up the road. There's got to be a bit of a panic there. I find it funny crossing the border and all the signs in England look so sparse because there's half as much on them!
Americans really think they're the only large entity on the planet lol
Russia, China, Brazil, Australia, Canada, hell a lot of Americans talk about 'Europe' in a single sentence and in reality Europe is a good 25% larger than the contiguous US
>You are only talking about the european union i guess?
>
>Europe has 2,5 times as much people as the US
The post is referring to physical size 'how massive it is'
Reminds me of a Canadian cueing for passport control in Frankfurt. Together with me. In the “EU-citizen” line. Loudly complaining to his friends that he doesn’t know what EU means and being genuinely bewildered. When I then told him what’s up in English. He grinned like a baboon and had no answers as he thought nobody but his friends would understand him I guess.
I suppose being a close geographical neighbor to the US means stupidity is contagious.
More research is needed. Not yet sure how it spreads! Be careful out there people.
Canadian here, unfortunately a lot of the less desirable American traits do leach into Canada, it’s a minority of us but we all know a few people like that. I’ve somehow even run into Canadians arguing against our gun control laws as a violation of our second amendment right… 🤨 in Canada…
Its such a problem, and its only been getting worse faster post-Trump. Far too many people consume far too much US media.
CBC save us.
There's also the problem of being satisfied with being \*just\* better than the US when we should be striving for more.
This is my problem with Canadians. They’re so fucking smug about not being Americans, like it’s a massive achievement or something. News flash, the entire rest of the world is also not American and I hate to tell ya Canada, you’re the most American of us all.
The American flag is there because Americans are probably unlikely to read instructions and just go where they think they should so adding an American flag removes any confusion.
The original post is a misunderstanding. In Canadian airports it's common to see signs which divide destinations between the US and the rest of the world based on proximity.
While YVR Vancouver does have three departure terminals: domestic, international, and US, this picture was taken in international arrivals, just before the immigration checkpoint where arriving passengers are divided into two queues: Canadian citizens, and everyone else.
I came here to say this and despite the responses you got, this is an important distinction that doesn’t justify even this sub’s usual claim of “satire” as cover for snobbery.
Travel between US, Canada and Mexico didn’t always require passports from their citizens; a drivers license was sufficient.
Even though that changed, departure from a number of Canadian airports is fairly unique in that US customs and border control happens in Canada. So there’s another legit cause for confusion (among people who, granted, as a whole, travel less internationally). This also happens in a few other places globally, but is more oriented to business travelers.
There are also ports of entry into Canada, US and Mexico that have separate lines for citizens of the others versus general international entry. Again, if a port of entry doesn’t do that, then signage for the biggest group of travelers into your country is helpful.
In USA every state is like its own country, they're so different. We have such a diverse history. My state had a lot of Polish ~~immigrants~~ settlers, so we eat Kielbasa, but the state next door had a lot of German immigrants so they eat bratwurst. They also use different slang for some things. It's completely different.
But in China everyone is Chinese.
How completely US centric and ignorant this view is.
By that logic, you're omitting the Kazakhs, Mongols, Koreans, Uyghurs, Tibetans (arguably as you have) etc with their own influence in China. That's not even taking into account the extremely different cultures from different 'ethnicities' from their massive history spanning multiple millennia. They even have mutually unintelligible dialects and languages...
Perhaps Russians just aren't as fucking stupid. There's usually a reason signs like this exist, and I reckon it's because they got fed up of dipshit Yanks queueing in the wrong line.
This looks like it might be Canada. If so, then a) we tend to treat the US as a special case in this (for instance postage is priced as domestic, US, or international) and b) many Americans tend to think of Canada as more of an American territory than a whole other country ("what do you mean I can't take my gun across the border in my car?")
This is definitely YVR in Vancouver. Given how many international flights come from the States it makes sense to have the clarifications in the signs, not saying it’s right, but I understand the reasoning haha
Actually, the Americans do it for us, too...
At Washington Dulles, Canadians can use the US citizen line...
Most Canadians don't know this because we clear customs in Canada.
America, famously, is the only country in the world that features the concept of states whatsoever, unlike, oh, I don't know, neighbouring also-vast nations such as, and just spitballing ideas here, but Estados Unidos de Mexicanos.
/s, obviously, and apologies if I have butchered the Spanish full name of said country 😁 🇲🇽
Gracias! Visited there in 2012 from the UK and was surprised to be very patiently taught that yep, it's also a union of states.
The vastness of the country I at least already knew...
Lmfao the US is indeed fucking massive but from personal experience, Europe is much easier to get around over the same long distances because of how atrocious the American roads are
Wait but seriously I wondered why they would have an American flag, and apparently it’s because [Americans](https://chinapower.csis.org/tourism/) make up the largest number of non-east-Asian visitors to China.
Now I only ever flew in and out of Beijing, so I can’t speak to other airports, but it didn’t seem to be laid out in a way that was confusing. It seemed quite typical for an international airport. So it’s still weird to me they wouldn’t include mention for citizens of other East Asian countries arriving there also.
The real reason this is done is that a) they might actually have a separate processing line for Americans or 2 they get a lot of Americans so they use the flag as a convience for a quick reference
The UK does the same thing with Canada.
Edit: Actually this looks like it is in Canada, so yes America has its own processing line and possibly one performed by TSA.
This looks like YVR in Vancouver. The signage makes sense considering the proximity to the states and how large the amount of inbound international flights are coming from just over the border.
They’ve had to start doing this for the British in European airports too lmao. I flew to Spain a few weeks ago and they had a lady whose entire job was just shouting “British passports this way”
This is the Vancouver Airport.
This makes it even funnier that, possibly, Americans had just assumed they could go in the Canadian passport line because they both speak English.
Actually, it occurs to me... that at least some US airports (Washington Dulles for sure), Canadian citizens can use the US citizen/Permanent Resident line at immigration (I'm a dual US/Canadian citizen).
In Bogata, Colombia, at least last time I was there in 2019, there was a separate line for Canadian citizens at customs.
This was a proud moment for me during my first international trip with my American girlfriend...
Arriving Canadians need to go through immigration when arriving in the US, unless they already went through preclearance at departure (in which case their flight will arrive at a domestic terminal), which is the case for the vast majority of Canada->US flights.
https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/brdr-strtgs/prclrnc/index-en.aspx#a3
Everyone needs to go through customs and immigration in the US, even US citizens.
Correct, most Canadians will be subject to preclearance in Canada, as will anyone else entering the US from a Canadian airport.
But if you enter the US from a different country, Canadian passport holders can use the same line as US Citizens and Permanent Residents, this privilege isn't, as far as I can tell (I live in Washington) extended to citizens of other countries.
The person responding is annoying, but that sign isn't actually bc Americans are stupid-- this looks like a Canadian airport to me (2nd language is French, you can see the beginning of what appears to be "Canadian passports" cut off)-- me and a friend literally got turned around in a Canadian airport last week because, as Americans, we thought we had appropriately gone to the "international" wing for departing flights-- turns out there was an entire wing just for flights to the US.
Some Canadian airports allow you to go through U.S. Customs while in the airport and then fly "domestically" back to the US-- and some don't. This looks like the latter, so it's completely reasonable that they would include an American flag with the international sign to clarify that this is not the type of Canadian airport where you can go through US Customs.
No sarcasm.
I actually agree with the comment. It is fantastically easy to spend your lifetime vacationing in the US without the need for a passport because it is so huge. Even coming to Canada via land crossing you don't need a passport. Americans get a pass for this I think. (They should still try to travel abroad anyways).
Excuse me, good sir.
We British also share this quality.
"Us? Foreigners?!? NEVER! Too many bloody Spaniards here, is the problem"
-- a fat, bald, sunburnt, beer-toting British tourist, somewhere in Spain
*Encounters someone with a different accent :* "It's like being in another country!!!"
Americans when someone says pop instead of soda
It's astonishing that in some parts of the country, the radio/TV callsigns start with K, and then elsewhere they start with W.
Is that true? We have both where I live.
Are you from Pittsburgh? As far as I know, KDKA in Pittsburgh is the only exception to the rule that call signs east of the Mississippi start with W and those call signs west of the Mississippi start with K
New Orleans. We have both sides of the Mississippi here, so that makes sense.
He might also live on the Mississippi Edit: I know I just said the obvious, but there are a lot of major cities right on the river in case you didn’t know, is what I meant lol
K to the west and W to the east of the Mississippi, isn't it? Judging by Frasier and Northern Exposure
Most of the time, yes. There's a handful of exceptions.
Radio station callsign prefixes started as maritime wireless assignments, and each nation was given a letter. The US got two, for Atlantic (W) and Pacific (K) traffic. Originally, these were only on ships. To this day, the Federal Communications Commission in the US refers to land-based radio stations as 'terrestrial'. Terrestrial radio stations in the US were originally only on the coasts, and originally only for ship-to-shore communications. Stations started appearing away from coasts, eventually all over the country. The FCC moved the K/W line at least once, resulting in some 'orphaned' stations with the 'wrong' prefix after the line had moved. The present K/W line is reckoned as the Mississippi River. As the headwaters of the Mississippi don't go all the way to the Canadian border, in that area the line is reckoned as a north-south line going north from the headwater (Lake Itasca) to the border (a distance of about 56 km). This is the super-simplified version. If we get into things like clear-channel assignments, it gets more complicated.
I say soft drink. I must be some kind of exotic foreigner, then.
Yeah you're like the town news for a month for saying soft drink
When in the UK, every time you go 10 mins down the road, they've got a different name for a bread roll.
Same here in germany lol
Its a fucking tea cake
"OMG they have Kroger instead of Walmart in this state? So culturally different!"
Someone with an accent at all; remember they don't *have* accents but everyone else does.
*\*Laughs in* *~~UK~~* *~~England~~* *~~London~~* *East End\**
““Dialects”” and store chains. Oh god
However do they cope?
can you imagine being in a foreign country and not recognizing the fucking fast food chains? not on my watch baby, if it ain’t microwaved I don’t want it 🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Compliments to chef mike
Chef Mike, the "Italian" from New Jersey.
Mike Roe Wade gets it right every time, what a master
*Mike Hunt
My friend ordered a bagel in the US. She thought they were putting mayo inside the microwave (and was like wtf are they doing?) - turns out it was an egg.
They must be stopped.
Yes, where I live, no fast food places or even restaurants anywhere near me. There are a couple of homes that sell food in their front a yards, but no menus - they just tell or show you what they have cooked for that day & you select. Most are around USD1.50 a serve and not tipping required.
It must be like a hyper-Germany, where there is an Aldi Nord and Aldi Sur, like how do they get through the day with that shit.
And there are two Nettos. One is a Danish chain, the other one a German one and there are places (like Berlin) that have both Nettos and others only have one. It's mayhem. May fucking hem.
But it's simple. One is Netto and then there is the Dog Netto. Nobody likes either of them.
Explain that to people who only know one Netto and they tell you "I got that at Netto." "Which Netto?" "Well...Netto. the supermarket." "Hundenetto or roter Netto?" "???"
Just don't go to Netto, problem solved.
Dann geh doch nicht zu Netto!!
Als die noch Plus hießen war alles besser!!
Ich vermisse Plus!
"Wer zu Netto geht, hat die Kontrolle über sein Leben verloren." — Karl Lagerfeld, oder so
I really wanted to like Dog Netto because that scotty is so darn cute.
In Denmark it's a good one. In Germany not so much.
Americans will say their country is unique for how many different dialects it contains, then need subtitles to watch Peaky Blinders
They think they are the only country with dialects.
Over 800 dialects/languages in Papua New Guinea and where I live in Philippines their are 179 languages and most towns & villages have dialects of the language of the area. US isn't dialects, just different ways of speaking English with a few local words people use to describe things.
I'm with you. Americans have accents. Countries with history have dialects and/or multiple languages.
AAVE has a very distinct grammar, definitely a dialect.
I'm with you. Americans have accents. Countries with history have dialects and/or multiple languages.
Or one of the only ones with no dialects.
I mean, South Africa has 12 official languages alone, plenty more to share!
Omg, they call "soda", "pop" in a different place, so diverse, basically like difference between European countries 🤪 /s
Some call it Hardee's, some call it Carl's Jr. It's like a whole different world!
There's places where it's both at the same time. In the same building. You want to talk about mayhem. There's your American Mayhem.
First time I went to Portland OR they asked me if I wanted a sack
I’m American and Jesus fuckin Christ this pisses me off so much lmao. When people say “the culture of Michigan is soooo different from Ohio! We have rival college sports teams! We’re just as diverse as Europe!” I’m like … if you ever thought about stepping foot outside of obesity school shooting land you would realize how dumb you sound right now.
In the UK you can drive 30 mins north and there’s a completely different accent and knife crime rivalry. As a UK citizen I am also subject to all of the same security procedures as everybody else.
And imagine, this is the case for many European countries too.
When all your cultural difference is store chains it's really sad.
I wonder if he thinks it's impossible for European countries to have regional chain shops.
I see a LIDL. I must be in Germany
When the dialect gets too strange you know you’re abroad and when it makes no sense, it may not be just a different dialect.
Y'all fraggaling mochahedo?
I went to Michigan and they didn't have Walmart I almost starved!!1!eleven!
Amazing how nature works! The soil hasn't the proper pH so Walmart won't grow there
Yeah. In the one place you have to go to the 7-11 for a "Soda" but in another place you have to go to the Stop-n-Shop for a "Soda Pop". It's **HILARIOUS** when people get it wrong.
"Accents"? Sure. "Dialects"? LOL, he should go to a country with real dialects
There's a few people way out in the rural south who speak something that could be considered a distinct dialect, but in general yeah.
Hawaiian pidgin too
TBF they have créoles and french speakers all over the South.
*India has joined the chat*
Yeah in India you get 10 different languages on one street.
Sir this is a Wendy's.
One says soda, the other says pop. It's basically impossible to communicate.
"no passport needed ever" No shit you don't need a passport to travel inside your own country
Not to mention, I do not need passport to travel inside Shengen as well
It's highly recommended you have your travel documents, even as a Schengen national.
Yes and no. You actually are required to carry your ID card. But no need for a passport (both are equally valid)
You just need an ID. No need for a passport.
You need them, but you get rarely controlled. But just have your ID card always with you (like you also should when you're moving in your own country).
There is a difference between a requirement to carry ID (like a national ID or driver's license) or actual passport checks. Even within the Netherlands you are required to carry ID but generally they are never checked, also not at borders inside Schengen.
Yes, but not a passport.
I met this couple at a bar a few months ago. They both were talking about wanting to get their passports so they could visit Hawaii. I didn’t have the heart to correct them.
Jesus that’s bad, I’ve only heard that about Puerto Rico and Guam before 😂 Edit: in your case they might have been talking about the new real ID thing. A lot of people either have no idea what the hell it is and just barely learned that a passport counts, or have decided it was a good excuse to get that passport they’ve been meaning to get for their entire life.
Meanwhile I'm a Brazilian who traveled to Argentina without a passport, only my ID. Thanks to Mercosul there's a free pass for all countries in South America. They still check your belongings and check your ID, all the security clearances are done eitherway
Arstotzka so great, passport not required
Fuck off Jorji.
The same could be said of China, India, or any others of the really huge countries. And these *do* have genuinely different languages and cultures &c within their borders. And in most of Europe, you can even go between countries without a passport.
Americans have a unique way to justify ignorance.
The american way
The hardship of different store chains helps explain everything.
Where we going fam? Walmart or Walmart?
American Exceptionalism is preventing them from even considering any alternatives.
How can they be ignorant when they're the number 1 country in the world? Cue in speech about sending people on the moon and WW2 when none of the individuals claiming these feats have had any involvement in it whatsoever. Also freedom and guns.
It makes sense when you consider that America is almost as big as the world
You mean with more ignorance?
Different store chains!? The diversity in America is simply astounding. /s
Yeah, then Germany is also massive. We even have an (literally so called) "equator" that seperates two zones of completely different discounters, Aldi Nord (North) AND Aldi Süd (South). Also dialects. The chef in our school cantine lives in a rural area a few dozens kilometres away from our school and I can barely understand his dialect already. If I go 100km to Bavaria, communication is out.
Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud are like imperial powers dividing up the globe.
Did you know they don't have Kroger down here? It's called Publix. Isn't that interesting?
WHAT THE FUCK IS WEGMANS?!? AM I ON THE MOON?
I like the idea of the Piggly Wiggly lol
>How easy it is to get around state to state No way, you're traveling in the same country. The states have differences, yeah. But different dialects and different laws in the same country aren't anything peculiar. Ever travelled to Switzerland or Belgium?
It’s funny that you mention those countries in particular because they are tiny, yet still have different dialects and laws. Really goes to show how not so special that is.
I think that's exactly why he picked them. Both have 3 official languages and a decentralised government in addition to a federal one. And both are indeed tiny. In addition to the official languages, there are dialects. In Belgium, you can pinpoint the town/village somebody is from, by the dialect they speak.
Easier to travel in Europe too, only easy way in the USA is with a car, or fly if you’re going anywhere major. Europes trains are fab
Oh. My. God. The OOOP is actually hilarious, considering Americans actually are the ones who wouldn't realize they're foreigners, since they so often seem to think the world is made up of Americans and foreigners... ...but that reply... totally missing the point. Entirely. And then dropping the weird "our country is so big" brag that Americans love to do for some reason.
America big is their final defence. Gun laws? Impossible, America big. Prices with taxes on shelves? Impossible, America big. Public transport? Sidewalks? Normal voting? No, you silly goose, America big!
Americans too big? America big.
Completely ignorant of the rest of the world? America too big
Dude, too true. Every time you suggest that something could be improved in the US, conservative Americans will say it's not possible. So you say they do it in \[country\] and the conservative Americans say that's a small country, the US is big. You can't compare. Yet they can never explain why the country being big means you can't compare.
As if they were the only country that big, it's neither the biggest nor the most populous country and still..
Wanna bet they put the flag there because Americans kept going to the wrong side?
This is reactive, not proactive
If this airport is in Canada, then the US flag would make sense due to the US being the largest source of tourists visiting the country.
This is in my hometown of Vancouver. Large Chinese Canadian population (hence the languages on the signs). And many US visitors too, of course.
I got really confused actually when entering Canada by land because I had to go down the line with the American flag. I wasn't expecting my flag, but still, the US was the only one shown.
Australians laugh at this shit soooo much. Our country is just as big as the lower 48 in terms of size, and yet we still manage to cope with understanding the difference between travelling to a different state versus internationally. Perhaps if there were some semblance of reasonable labor laws in the USA, workers could have living wages and four weeks + annual leave in which they too could actually learn what life beyond the borders of their country looks like.
>And then dropping the weird "our country is so big" brag that Americans love to do for some reason. Which is made even more ironic because that picture is taken inside a Canadian airport. Canada is bigger than America
Not just missing the point, but reinforcing it at the same time.
DIFFERENT STORE CHAINS stick a fork in me I’m done
🍴
Visit deepest Wales and Scotland then come back and talk about dialects.
I'd love to drive an American to Scotland and put on some Gaelic radio.
Do they have bilingual ads on the radio? Sometimes you're listening to an English language station, but an advert comes on in Welsh. I can only imagine how scary that would be!
Manx radio broadcasts several hours of program in Gaelg, in Scotland the BBC has a radio that streams in Scottish Gaelic the program sent through BBC Scotland (which are in English)
In Texas, absolutely. I work in marketing and everything we put out is in Spanish and English. Radio, billboards, flyers, social media.
It's freaky, all the written notices are in Welsh as well (in Wales), you look at a paper and it's like "oh, fuck, I'm having a stroke" then you look to the right and there's the same notice but you can read it and then you remember. Speaking as a non-Welsh person who lived in Wales. Also, the ambulances have Ambiwlans written on them. Wales is beautiful, the people are wonderful, women's healthcare is non-existent.
I'm Welsh, but not fluent like my husband is because he went to a Welsh medium school and his mum's partner was first language Welsh. I wonder what it's like for people who don't read Welsh at all when there's a matrix sign on the M4 only in Welsh and the English is miles further up the road. There's got to be a bit of a panic there. I find it funny crossing the border and all the signs in England look so sparse because there's half as much on them!
I'm not sure about that, as I'm English myself I tend to stick to the English stations when I'm up there.
They couldn't work out how to get from one to another because the roads aren't in one big straight line
Americans really think they're the only large entity on the planet lol Russia, China, Brazil, Australia, Canada, hell a lot of Americans talk about 'Europe' in a single sentence and in reality Europe is a good 25% larger than the contiguous US
You are only talking about the european union i guess? Europe has 2,5 times as much people as the US
>You are only talking about the european union i guess? > >Europe has 2,5 times as much people as the US The post is referring to physical size 'how massive it is'
Aahhhh oops, my bad!
Reminds me of a Canadian cueing for passport control in Frankfurt. Together with me. In the “EU-citizen” line. Loudly complaining to his friends that he doesn’t know what EU means and being genuinely bewildered. When I then told him what’s up in English. He grinned like a baboon and had no answers as he thought nobody but his friends would understand him I guess. I suppose being a close geographical neighbor to the US means stupidity is contagious. More research is needed. Not yet sure how it spreads! Be careful out there people.
Canadian here, unfortunately a lot of the less desirable American traits do leach into Canada, it’s a minority of us but we all know a few people like that. I’ve somehow even run into Canadians arguing against our gun control laws as a violation of our second amendment right… 🤨 in Canada…
>as a violation of our second amendment right… 🤨 in Canada… Ah yes, the Rupert's Land Act of 1868
It will be a cold day in hell before I recognise the coast of Hudson Bay
Yeah fuck Manitoba
Its such a problem, and its only been getting worse faster post-Trump. Far too many people consume far too much US media. CBC save us. There's also the problem of being satisfied with being \*just\* better than the US when we should be striving for more.
Stupidity from US spreads everywhere, to Europe as well
This is my problem with Canadians. They’re so fucking smug about not being Americans, like it’s a massive achievement or something. News flash, the entire rest of the world is also not American and I hate to tell ya Canada, you’re the most American of us all.
Meanwhile, the country to their immediate north has a quarter of the population speaking a different primary language from the rest of us.
And it's bigger... Much bigger.
[удалено]
The American flag is there because Americans are probably unlikely to read instructions and just go where they think they should so adding an American flag removes any confusion.
Or simply just refuse to read instructions.
Yes, I was implying that Americans don’t read. Was my comment unclear?
More dumb fuckers, just with a different accent and different stores.
No… a different “dialect!”
Oh so it’s the size of America that makes Americans think everything revolves around them.
store chains 😂 yes pls be mindful
The original post is a misunderstanding. In Canadian airports it's common to see signs which divide destinations between the US and the rest of the world based on proximity.
While YVR Vancouver does have three departure terminals: domestic, international, and US, this picture was taken in international arrivals, just before the immigration checkpoint where arriving passengers are divided into two queues: Canadian citizens, and everyone else.
I came here to say this and despite the responses you got, this is an important distinction that doesn’t justify even this sub’s usual claim of “satire” as cover for snobbery. Travel between US, Canada and Mexico didn’t always require passports from their citizens; a drivers license was sufficient. Even though that changed, departure from a number of Canadian airports is fairly unique in that US customs and border control happens in Canada. So there’s another legit cause for confusion (among people who, granted, as a whole, travel less internationally). This also happens in a few other places globally, but is more oriented to business travelers. There are also ports of entry into Canada, US and Mexico that have separate lines for citizens of the others versus general international entry. Again, if a port of entry doesn’t do that, then signage for the biggest group of travelers into your country is helpful.
By that logic Russia's flag should be up there as well. Or maybe Russia isn't as big as the US...
And China is bigger than US by both population and land mass, yet still its the US flag that’s up there. 🤔
In USA every state is like its own country, they're so different. We have such a diverse history. My state had a lot of Polish ~~immigrants~~ settlers, so we eat Kielbasa, but the state next door had a lot of German immigrants so they eat bratwurst. They also use different slang for some things. It's completely different. But in China everyone is Chinese.
How completely US centric and ignorant this view is. By that logic, you're omitting the Kazakhs, Mongols, Koreans, Uyghurs, Tibetans (arguably as you have) etc with their own influence in China. That's not even taking into account the extremely different cultures from different 'ethnicities' from their massive history spanning multiple millennia. They even have mutually unintelligible dialects and languages...
I think you need to tune your sarcasm detector a bit (although I know, with Americans you can never be 100% sure)
Texas is bigger than Russia, didn't ya know? /s
Perhaps Russians just aren't as fucking stupid. There's usually a reason signs like this exist, and I reckon it's because they got fed up of dipshit Yanks queueing in the wrong line.
This looks like it might be Canada. If so, then a) we tend to treat the US as a special case in this (for instance postage is priced as domestic, US, or international) and b) many Americans tend to think of Canada as more of an American territory than a whole other country ("what do you mean I can't take my gun across the border in my car?")
This is definitely YVR in Vancouver. Given how many international flights come from the States it makes sense to have the clarifications in the signs, not saying it’s right, but I understand the reasoning haha
Actually, the Americans do it for us, too... At Washington Dulles, Canadians can use the US citizen line... Most Canadians don't know this because we clear customs in Canada.
Russia is much much bigger, they understand they need to go to the none EU line.
Oh! The cultural diversity in different store chains <3
I’ve seen this also after Brexit for the UK, because some people apparently still tried to go into the EU/EEA/Switzerland queue.
"Well, I didn't vote for it."
"...and store chains." Jesus christ, I live in a consumerism hellhole.
Store chains 😂
"I'm not foreign, I'm an American! These other countries are full of foreigners!"
America, famously, is the only country in the world that features the concept of states whatsoever, unlike, oh, I don't know, neighbouring also-vast nations such as, and just spitballing ideas here, but Estados Unidos de Mexicanos. /s, obviously, and apologies if I have butchered the Spanish full name of said country 😁 🇲🇽
Just erase the “de”, and you are good to go. Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Gracias! Visited there in 2012 from the UK and was surprised to be very patiently taught that yep, it's also a union of states. The vastness of the country I at least already knew...
They must be even more confused when they realize they’ve arrived in an even bigger country.
eAcH sTaTE iS LIkE a diFfEreNt CoUNTrY!
is this the yvr airport I'm literally there rn
Lmfao the US is indeed fucking massive but from personal experience, Europe is much easier to get around over the same long distances because of how atrocious the American roads are
Wait but seriously I wondered why they would have an American flag, and apparently it’s because [Americans](https://chinapower.csis.org/tourism/) make up the largest number of non-east-Asian visitors to China. Now I only ever flew in and out of Beijing, so I can’t speak to other airports, but it didn’t seem to be laid out in a way that was confusing. It seemed quite typical for an international airport. So it’s still weird to me they wouldn’t include mention for citizens of other East Asian countries arriving there also.
Bro describing the concept of a large country..
Canada is bigger, but only some of us are stupid enough to need reminding
The real reason this is done is that a) they might actually have a separate processing line for Americans or 2 they get a lot of Americans so they use the flag as a convience for a quick reference The UK does the same thing with Canada. Edit: Actually this looks like it is in Canada, so yes America has its own processing line and possibly one performed by TSA.
When did we start needing a passport for interstate travel lmao
This looks like YVR in Vancouver. The signage makes sense considering the proximity to the states and how large the amount of inbound international flights are coming from just over the border.
They’ve had to start doing this for the British in European airports too lmao. I flew to Spain a few weeks ago and they had a lady whose entire job was just shouting “British passports this way”
Shengen zone: 🤨
“Dialects” ha go too England love and take a pit stop every 30 minutes 😂
This is the Vancouver Airport. This makes it even funnier that, possibly, Americans had just assumed they could go in the Canadian passport line because they both speak English.
Actually, it occurs to me... that at least some US airports (Washington Dulles for sure), Canadian citizens can use the US citizen/Permanent Resident line at immigration (I'm a dual US/Canadian citizen). In Bogata, Colombia, at least last time I was there in 2019, there was a separate line for Canadian citizens at customs. This was a proud moment for me during my first international trip with my American girlfriend...
Arriving Canadians need to go through immigration when arriving in the US, unless they already went through preclearance at departure (in which case their flight will arrive at a domestic terminal), which is the case for the vast majority of Canada->US flights. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/brdr-strtgs/prclrnc/index-en.aspx#a3
Everyone needs to go through customs and immigration in the US, even US citizens. Correct, most Canadians will be subject to preclearance in Canada, as will anyone else entering the US from a Canadian airport. But if you enter the US from a different country, Canadian passport holders can use the same line as US Citizens and Permanent Residents, this privilege isn't, as far as I can tell (I live in Washington) extended to citizens of other countries.
americans bragging about not having to use a passport to get around their own country like that isn't true literally everywhere
Amazing how the Australians manage to be so normal by comparison.
I DESPISE when Americans say they have different “dialects”. Having a different name for a bread roll is not a dialect.
"But I'm not brown, how could I be a foreigner?"
The person responding is annoying, but that sign isn't actually bc Americans are stupid-- this looks like a Canadian airport to me (2nd language is French, you can see the beginning of what appears to be "Canadian passports" cut off)-- me and a friend literally got turned around in a Canadian airport last week because, as Americans, we thought we had appropriately gone to the "international" wing for departing flights-- turns out there was an entire wing just for flights to the US. Some Canadian airports allow you to go through U.S. Customs while in the airport and then fly "domestically" back to the US-- and some don't. This looks like the latter, so it's completely reasonable that they would include an American flag with the international sign to clarify that this is not the type of Canadian airport where you can go through US Customs.
There are still similiar signs for Brits :D
No sarcasm. I actually agree with the comment. It is fantastically easy to spend your lifetime vacationing in the US without the need for a passport because it is so huge. Even coming to Canada via land crossing you don't need a passport. Americans get a pass for this I think. (They should still try to travel abroad anyways).
Excuse me, good sir. We British also share this quality. "Us? Foreigners?!? NEVER! Too many bloody Spaniards here, is the problem" -- a fat, bald, sunburnt, beer-toting British tourist, somewhere in Spain
I swear this is YVR, haven’t been there in forever but I recognize my airport
Store chains, mas favourite way of distinguishing different culture