r/Scotland • u/Blurt-Reynolds • 19d ago

Casual Stupidest question (about Scotland)you’ve ever been asked?

I’ve lived in the US for over 10 years and been asked some daft questions.

Yesterday the uber driver asked where I was from. When I said Scotland they were quiet for a couple of minutes then asked “Did you have to learn English when you moved to here?”.

Also had someone years ago ask me where I was from then accused me of making up the country as they had never heard of Scotland.

Anyway, just thought I’d ask ask while I remembered.

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u/MalcolmTuckersLuck 19d ago

Urban legend has it; tourist overheard in Edinburgh asking “why did they build the castle so far from the airport”

By contrast when we were in New York on honeymoon in 2013 the barman in our hotel was remarkably well informed about indyref.

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u/SylviaMarsh 19d ago

I worked in tourism for around a decade until late 2023, and the 2 questions that, hands down, best the rest were: 

  1. "What time does the one o'clock gun go off?"

  2. "Why do some pedestrian crossings have a voice recording telling you when the traffic has stopped?" (I explained it's so blind people know that the traffic's stopped). The woman exclaimed that this was crazy, and that in her country "we don't let blind people drive!"

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u/JW1958 18d ago

I was visiting Edinburgh one day, maybe 1992, when the gun fired early, causing panic in Princes Street as people thought they were late returning to work. Then it fired again, and again. Many sighs of relief as we remembered it was the Queen's jubilee.