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u/DeepSeaDarkness 11d ago
Czechoslovenia
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u/SpiritualPackage3797 11d ago
We all remember when Hitler marched into Czechoslovenia, and the West stood by and did nothing... mostly because they couldn't find the country on a map.
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u/Large-Treacle-8328 11d ago
Which is ironic because America has a long history of doing things to countries not even the president can find on a map
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u/Sea-Kitchen2879 11d ago
Now he just tries to change the map
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u/Solarwinds-123 10d ago
Soon it'll be Slovenia of America
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u/cheshsky 10d ago
Sloverica?
They'd probably want Armenia to change the name to something like Armerica too.
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u/SpiritualPackage3797 11d ago
Except that, at the time, the US wasn't part of "The West". The US had dismantled its army after WWI and gone back into isolationism. "The West" was the superpowers of Britian and France.
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u/_Nocturnalis 8d ago
I've seen a lot of definitions of that nebulous concept. What exactly are you using?
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u/SpiritualPackage3797 8d ago
The US was isolationist. If you prefer, the US wasn't part of the Western Allies.
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u/_Nocturnalis 8d ago
Ok that makes more sense. I sometimes wonder about how isolationist we really were then. When you don't have any needs or interests outside of your country taking actions of minimal risk is just the only thing you can really do.
The US has had troops fighting in foreign combat zones for like all but 17 years of its existence cumulatively. I don't think I'd call that particularly isolationist myself. I don't think anyone from South America would either.
The caterpillar in a cocoon isn't isolationist its growing. It seems like a bit foolish to assume its natural level of interaction is that of a cocoon.
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u/226_IM_Used 11d ago
You sound like our current president trying to pronounce Czechoslovakia.
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u/YeahlDid 10d ago
Who are "we" in this case?
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u/226_IM_Used 10d ago
Apologies, I thought this group had user flair that displayed your country. I got my groups confused. I'm in the US.
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u/s015473 11d ago edited 11d ago
To be fair - our (slovenian) and their (slovakian) governents frequently exchange post that was mis-sent to one or the other.
Also a funny coincidence, slovenes and slovaks both call themselves "slovenci" while having a different name for the other (slovinci and slovaki) this was fake news, I was in Praga when the interaction happened and not Bratislava
Yes, i'm slovene how could you tell.
Vsem slovencem k to berete: nalijmo si cistga cvička. Slovenija je del balkana. Deloma
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u/Netvor78 11d ago
Slovakians (or Slovaks correctly) calls themselves Slováci, not slovenci.
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u/s015473 11d ago
Yo, thanks for the correction. I was in Praga a few years back and when asked if I was a Slovenec I said yes. But they meant slovak while I meant slovene.
I'm sure however that if you ask a slovak or a slovene what language (s)he speaks both answers will be "slovensko"
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u/marhaus1 10d ago
Let's not get started on slovenčina vs. slovenščina 😅
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u/Ur-Best-Friend 8d ago
My first experience with that was as a bright eyed 12 year old deciding to reinstall Windows on my own for the first time. Picked Slovenčina accidentally and it took me two weeks and a lot of digging through a dictionary to figure out how to fix my error.
Needless to say, I did not repeat that mistake since. On the plus side, I still know a few Slovak words to this day.
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u/Curt-Bennett 8d ago
You didn't just reinstall it again with the correct language? 🤔 I know older versions of Windows were slower to install but it seems like that would've take a lot less than 2 weeks.
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u/Saint_of_Grey 11d ago
Is this like how the Vienna (Austria) airport has a desk for people who intended to fly to Melbourne (Australia)
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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 10d ago
The country code for Tunisia is TN vs Tennessee is TN, and the country code for Ukraine is UK vs GB is for The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which can be confusing in databases if people are mixing things up.
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u/Solarwinds-123 10d ago
It doesn't help that the UK just needs to be special in everything. They're somehow four countries but also one country, yet only three of those countries have their own government. And Great Britain is somehow not a country at all, but the island that encompasses (most of) three of those countries.
So their country is called the United Kingdom of Great Britain (an island, not a country) and Northern Ireland (a country). And lots of them get mad when being called British, even if they live on the island of Great Britain.
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u/Cesum-Pec 9d ago
You don't know what the hell you're talking about. UK is the University of Kentucky.
And yes, I'm a not particularly attractive American. Why do you ask?
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 11d ago
We used to joke in Nepal that our missing mail had gotten sent to Naples by mistake
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u/TelenorTheGNP 11d ago
Canadian here. What are your nations' views of each other?
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u/s015473 11d ago
Hello future EU member
I think their language sounds funny. But otherwise as long lost cousins that got separated by those pesky germans and our own self-importance.
For the other way around slovenes are probably the black sheep - our former yugoslavia neighbours view us as wannabe/pretend austrians and the cehoslovaks as yugoslavians
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u/TelenorTheGNP 11d ago
That's interesting. Thank you.
Also, re "future EU member":
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u/Ur-Best-Friend 8d ago
Can't wait till I can just drive my car across the border and come pay you a visit.
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u/Curt-Bennett 8d ago
Technically we have a very short land border with Greenland (Hans Island) but it's much easier to catch a short ferry from France (St. Pierre et Miquelon).
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u/Above-and_below 8d ago
Canada has a land border with Denmark. Hans Islands is administered by the local governments of Nunavut and Greenland.
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u/Curt-Bennett 8d ago
Greenland is one of several "overseas countries and territories" (OCTs) that cooperate with the EU but are legally distinct and are not considered EU members. Being an autonomous territory of an EU member does not inherently give that territory EU membership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_and_the_European_Union
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u/Curt-Bennett 8d ago
Hello from a future "associate" member, whenever you guys decide what that means. 🇨🇦 I hear Australia and New Zealand may want in too. Population-wise, between the 3 of us, we'd make up for the UK leaving.
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
That's hilarious!
What would be the literal translation of slovenci, slovinci and slovaki? How do these names differ?
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u/s015473 11d ago
I mean, it's only a name so am not sure if translation is even possible. But the root of all three names is well, slav
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u/RandomQ_throw 10d ago edited 10d ago
Not sure if this info is 100% correct, but supposedly the it originates from "slova" - letter, word, meaning "people who speak" (sloveni). Tribes who could understand each other refered to each other as "the speaking people" and opposite of that, they called Germans "niemci" (the non-speaking, dumb people).
The perversion of slova into words similar to slave was a later "invention".3
u/Ur-Best-Friend 8d ago
The perversion of slova into words similar to slave was a later "invention".
It's not really an invention, the two aren't mutually exlusive.
People mistake the cause and effect when talking about this topic. "Slavs" doesn't come from "slaves", it's the other way around. Ancient Greeks and Romans talked about buying Slavs, about having Slavs work in their fields, etc. They were literally just referring to the ethnicity, but that eventually entered the English dictionary as the word "slave."
In a way it's similar to how someone might use "Gypsy" as an insult, to imply someone is a thief, or a cheat. If you had limited translation capabilities and were just talking to natives about their lives, you might go away from it thinking gypsy is just the word meaning "thief", or "person of low moral character".
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
Typical of names, being all mysterious, when I get curious.
Slav means glory, right?
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u/azhder 11d ago
Slavs. It means Slavs, just in different languages, like saying England and Anglia to both mean "land of the English", that's how you get Slovenia and Slovakia.
There are different similar sounding words, like "slava" (glory) and "slovo" (letter, word), so Slav might mean just "speaker" as opposed to the Germans called "mute" in some Slav places, because they didn't speak the same language.
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u/s015473 11d ago
Slava means glory, probably in all slavic languages. However a westerner once told me that the name comes from slave because easter europeans were commonly enslaved even during the early roman times. Not sure how true it is so a bit of salt would be wise
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
Checked my old book on Swedish etymology. It digs deep but it's an old book so new knowledge might have been gained. But it claims that the noun "slave" originated in an old greek dialect, and was the name for slavic prisoners of war who were sold.
(Bloody stupid westerner you met.)
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago edited 11d ago
I had heard the other way around, that it first was the name for the people, and since outside powers would enslave them, the name became a noun. But a quick look at Wiktionary makes everything murky and doesn't dive deep enough into the roots.
Edit: I'll stick to the "glory" definition until someone can dig up a proto- Indo European root. It's much nicer.
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u/MeasureDoEventThing 10d ago
It has the same root as "speak/talk". "Slava" is used to mean "glory" because glorious people/things are talked about. Slavs call themselves Slavs because from their perspective, they're people who can talk (everyone else is just talking gibberish).
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u/CubistChameleon 7d ago
And your flags are basically identical except for the coat of arms.
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u/s015473 7d ago
That is true. But do note thag white, blue and red are pan-slavic colours and many or pretty much all slavic countries use them. See Russia Slovenia and Slovakia. Or Croatia and Serbia. Czekia being pretty unique in it's design
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u/Four_beastlings 11d ago
To make it more confusing Slavonia also exists (it's not a whole country though). And there are also like 3 Galicias
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u/19XzTS93 11d ago
Same energy as confusing Austria & Australia, India & Indianapolis, or Kansas City (KS & MO)
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u/cheshsky 10d ago
Maybe they're Czech and extra stupid? (in Czech, Slovakia is called Slovensko)
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u/theroguescientist 7d ago
Slovakia is also called Slovensko in Slovak, so they could actually be the dumbest person in Slovakia.
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u/thehitdog 11d ago
American is when bad at geography
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u/VibratingWatch 11d ago
I'm too busy with guns and cheeseburgers to learn the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia 😤😤😤
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u/thehitdog 11d ago
A man! Gobbless, borther. I'm crankin muh feral hawg 30-50 times while watching a Teump speech right now muhself.
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u/VibratingWatch 11d ago
Hell yeah. Gonna hop in my RAM 2500 CUMMINS DIESEL and take my AWFUL KIDS AND WIFE to WALMART for some more BUDLITE AND ZYNS ARROOOOOOO
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u/thehitdog 11d ago
Wait, yer wife dun didn't leave you? Karen dun took Kyle and the girl wen I invested all out munny in Monkey fungus tokens
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u/mahlerlieber 10d ago
I can tell you're one of them uptown know-it-all libs because Bud Lites are for them uptown know-it-all city folk.
If you were really one of us, the people of the land, the common clay of the Earth, you'd know we drink Natty Lite.
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u/DesignMysterious3598 11d ago
Just like Sweden and Switzerland, or Austria and Australia, we understand.
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
Uruguay and Paraguay.
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u/MattieShoes 11d ago
...fffuuuuu
I'm good at geography but Paraguay and Uruguay are like kryptonite. I know exactly which two countries, but I never remember which is which.
I thiiiink Paraguay is the landlocked one?
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u/miran248 10d ago
Uruguay is under Paraguay.
Alternatively you can draw an up arrow and you'll know which is which as well.2
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u/DesignMysterious3598 11d ago
No offense but I doubt the average American even knows about the existence of any of these 2 countries lol
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u/nutfac 11d ago
Can confirm. The only reason I know them is because my parents only allowed educational toys, and one was a globe with a stylus attached to it, and an automated voice would pronounce the name of whatever country you selected with the stylus.
In school I was taught the names of the continents, and had to memorize all the capitals of the European countries once.
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u/VexImmortalis 11d ago
Neither of them are states so I don't give a damn.
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u/asphid_jackal 11d ago
This sub will give you a million upvotes for "America Bad" regardless of how irrelevant it is to the conversation
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u/leela_martell 10d ago
It's not irrelevant to the discussion it's literally the point of the picture OP posted.
But apart from that yeah true.
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u/asphid_jackal 10d ago
I mean, bringing up America in the OP was completely irrelevant to that discussion
Also for what it's worth, I thought I was on r/cleverComebacks
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u/AirborneDJ 11d ago
There's 340 million of us, we're not all the same. I'm American and can name every country on the map.
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u/thehitdog 11d ago
I used to be pretty good at it. Had a lot of trouble with some of the African countries and the -stans and never really studied the island nations in school, but we did study them extensively in middle school
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u/AirborneDJ 11d ago
That's good. You should be. Everyone should be. It's also not very uniquely American to be bad at geography, although admittedly, some of us are REALLY bad.
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u/MattieShoes 11d ago
The funny thing to me is that a lot of that knowledge in Europe is based on watching soccer. Like I can tell you all 32 NFL teams and I'd recognize all their mascots including most of the old ones... they just don't correlate with countries.
But I'm also shit hot at geography. Not like the weirdos making youtube videos about it, but still.
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u/NewLibraryGuy 11d ago
Geography also isn't really much of a topic in schools here except for where it intersects with history classes
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u/MariaMapmaker 10d ago
As an American cartographer, this hurts my soul.
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u/Consistent_Foot954 8d ago
Eh, fuck em. Honestly I'm at the point where I've got no patience for these America bad idiots.
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u/nannabananapanda 6d ago
As an American cartographer, you were aware that we Americans are famously bad at geology, right?
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u/DerthOFdata 10d ago
Why is America catching strays from both sides in this?
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u/LordJebusVII 10d ago
Because that's how science works. If all of the evidence suggests one thing, that thing is considered true until proven otherwise. There hasn't been a whole lot of evidence to the contrary in a very long time
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u/DerthOFdata 10d ago
That's not science. That's confirmation bias. That's the opposite of science.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs, values, or decisions. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, emotionally charged issues and deeply entrenched beliefs
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u/TheFumingatzor 10d ago
Brudda.....
YugoSLAVIA
CzechoSLOVAKIA
I know you don't got 2 Brain cells left, but come on....
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u/BissmarkMC 10d ago
The Slavia part of Yugoslavia does not help explaining the argument. It means „Land of the South Slavic people“ and both Slovakia and Slovenia have ethymologic relations to that word. It is not like Slovenia as one of six Yugoslav republics is the base for the second part of the name.
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u/lev_lafayette 10d ago
I feel like going to imaginarymaps to create czechoslovenia.
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u/Worried-Rub-750 8d ago
I wish "Imaginary Maps" was shop. It's where all the cool kids (nerds) go
You made me chuckle on a cold wet day in SW of England, have a free award because I'm poor
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u/PierreTheTRex 11d ago
Most people in the balkans and slovenians themselves don't really consider them to be balkan but yes they were of course part of Yugoslavia
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u/Usagi-Zakura 11d ago edited 10d ago
To be fair even Europeans get those mixed up... but the clue is in the name CzechoSLOVAKIA is a union of Czeckia and SLOVAKIA. Slovenia just sounds similar.
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
I learned Eruopean geography in fifth grade, fall 1988 and spring 1989. Guess what happened in the fall of 1989. 😉
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u/No_Accountant3232 11d ago
I had to do a geography report on Germany and was required to have a map... But the only German maps we had still were east/west Germany. I got marked down for using the only map I had access to.
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u/Lifeacrobat 11d ago
That's harsh.
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u/No_Accountant3232 11d ago
The annoying thing was it was 1992! The USSR was collapsing on live TV and we had Yeltsin visiting the States by then. But fuck me for having to add a photocopy of a map they were using from the 60s as my only option.
I was annoyed.
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u/Usagi-Zakura 11d ago
I was born in 1988 and it still took me a while to learn about it... mainly cuz Czechia and Slovakia were mainly mentioned in history class when we were learning about WW2...
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u/Sarke1 11d ago
Slovenia just sounds the same.
No it just starts with the same few letters and some people give up at that point.
Same with Sweden and Switzerland, they do not sound the same but certain people mix them up all the time.
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u/Dudu_sousas 11d ago
I always find it interesting when English speakers mistake Switzerland for Sweden, it's a very different word. In portuguese it's a common mistake because Suiça (SWI) and Suécia (SWE) are very similar words.
Now Slovenia and Slovakia are almost the same word (only two letters), and the flags are also similar.
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u/Usagi-Zakura 11d ago
Starts with the same four letters (Slov), end with ia. The difference is "En" and "ak"
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u/TreacleOk7265 11d ago
I don't know anyone who mixes them up but they are both our neighbors so it's easy 🇸🇮🇸🇰🇦🇹
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u/Usagi-Zakura 10d ago
As a kid I would get them confused sometimes X3 But its not like they're often mentioned around me... Like I said in another comment I heard about Czechoslovakia in history class, I think maybe at some point I was wondering if it was a different name for Slovakia?
Heck my mom even admitted she doesn't know all the countries that used to make up Yugoslavia.
Not everyone's a geography nerd.... but if they're not they probably shouldn't be posting about it as confidently as Orange here is...→ More replies (2)2
u/enilix 10d ago
It might be because I'm from Croatia and Slovenia is a neighbouring country, but I've never mixed them up with Slovakia.
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u/Usagi-Zakura 10d ago
I would be very (un)impressed if someone from the area mixed them up... (Especially since the names are not that close in their native language)
I never said all Europeans mix them up all the time. Just that it can happen.
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u/cokolesniik 10d ago
I also don't confuse Slovakia and Slovenia. Might be because I am Slovenian. Little bias there.
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u/Usagi-Zakura 10d ago
Are you SURE you haven't been Slovakian this entire time and just...didn't know? /j
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u/Comfortable_Salt_792 8d ago
As a Pole, same. Idk if it is because we are both Slavic and neighbour them, or it is more a western European problem.
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u/LordWoffleII 10d ago
how hard is it these days to open a map online and go
"huh. that's where that country is"
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u/Ze0nZer0 11d ago
I love how calling someone American is now used for uncultured or un educated.
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u/FullMetal_55 10d ago
that's partially why i'm not afraid of the US annexing canada, they can't find us all small and tucked away down there... they'd end up invading florida or some shit...
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u/NewLibraryGuy 11d ago
I think it's specifically true when it comes to Geography, which is something we're often bad at.
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u/JoeBrownshoes 8d ago
Apparently the Slovenia and Slovakia postal services have a weekly meetup to exchange mail addressed to the wrong nation.
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u/Electronic-Call-911 11d ago
I think if I ever made a mistake like that in an online argument I wouldn't just log off, I'd permanently swear of ever accessing the internet again & go join an isolated monastery in the Caucasus or something.
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u/danimagoo 11d ago
I hate that we have become synonymous with ignorance. It’s accurate, but I still hate it.
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u/azhder 11d ago
Do you think that "we have become" is something recent?
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u/NewLibraryGuy 11d ago
As in over the course of the last couple decades? Yeah, I think so. The internet changed a lot.
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u/Imaginary_Grass9674 10d ago
we're using "american" as a euphemism for "re*arded", that's all that matters
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u/Bosya_123 11d ago
Slovenia is not in the Balkans though
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u/Obvious_Serve1741 11d ago
They wish
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u/myneighborscatismine 10d ago
Eh, they got those damn beautiful Alps, they'll be fine. In fact as a third party observer, It's kind of an awesome, unique location, one of a kind crossroad. Adriatic sea, Alps, Central Europe, Balkan, Panonnian Basin all in one tiny country. Kind of incredible!
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u/Swedelicious83 10d ago
Gotta love it when someone's so aggressive about correcting someone, yet are themselves incorrect.
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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 10d ago
well that answers that question, I was just wondering the other night whether Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia :)
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u/Round-Claim5420 10d ago
This is why they have different names in the german language (Tschechien and Slowenien), we also couldn't tell them apart.
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u/Global-Management-15 10d ago
Well.... He doesn't know his geography....
But...
I mean, it sits right above the Balkan peninsula, so even though he's an idiot, he's not technically wrong that Slovenia isn't Balkan.
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u/synonym_mara 10d ago
Letters and words are difficult, duh
There’re still people who’re able to mix Austria and Australia which imo are more distinct words from each other. Same goes for Lithuania and Latvia (but I’m not sure people like these are even aware of their existence….).
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u/Ze0nZer0 10d ago
The USA is full of Trumpery! Trumpery is a noun and adjective that means something showy and attractive on the outside, but completely worthless, useless, or false on the inside
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u/RecommendationFar807 10d ago
In today's day and age of a lot of the world's knowledge at your fingertips, why do people not do a quick fact check before posting?
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u/Hot-Plenty-4559 6d ago
Lazy, probably. I once told a friend a completely false and made up origin of peanut butter. It sounded just plausible enough that he was impressed. Next day he came back with the real history. These days I just say I don’t know and look it up if the person really wants to know.
Just say no to peanut butter.
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u/Coturnix_CZ 9d ago
Ah I got you. It indeed may sound mean and there would be minority triggered by it. But I am ready to explain even to those. Majority would see this as a chalenge rather than offense. It’s kind of like siblings relationship. Children may love each other but they still fight. When they grow up, they would still poke each other but it can also trigger all good memories end up in most beautiful and sentimental talks. I was actualy sitting with my Svk colleague in our company canteen short while ago. We both laughed on what I did with that earlier comment and ofc I got a poke back. Majority of us respect and love each other and doing these little pokes very often when we are together. There is kinda clear red line in this relationship. Czech starting to crack jokes about Slovakia vs Hungary relationship is where it can get spicy as some of those are really mean and offensive. I would never use those in public conversation though. Those are reserved for confirmed friendly relationships.
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u/violet-kasumi 9d ago
To be fair, Slovenia probably doesn't want to be called part of the Balkans considering their more Alpine influenced culture.
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u/snakeravencat 7d ago
I think I'm too American to understand which person we're meant to be mocking... I'm guessing it's the red guy, but it's a genuine guess. (Cries in US education system)
Edit: before anyone tells me to look at a map, this is the initial reaction and I fully intend to look at a map.
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u/JackOfWinterfell 6d ago
This is why you know who is changing the name of stuff, so he remembers what goes where easier
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u/Intelligent_Hand4583 6d ago
Americans - continuing to exemplify ignorance AND arrogance about their ignorance.
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u/Subtubes 5d ago
Is the term “American” now being used as a substitute for “fool”.
How’s that Tarot card gonna look like now. I bet there is a meme for that now.
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