let me add something...,

Could I just apologise for some my fellow English countrymen?
I know this thread was started in a light-hearted way - but some of the questions asked are so ridiculous, it is hard to believe people can be so ignorant in this century.
Unfortunately there are a lot of rude and ill-educated people in my country - I am sorry on their behalf

I have also encountered some strange (silly questions abroad (in fact in the Netherlands) These are my real experiences that come to my mind.

- I saw you patted a dog.
- (me) : Yes, I like dogs very much, in fact all the animals. why is it strange?
- yes, I was surprised when you patted a dog, I thought turks hate animals.
- (me)what??


- Ohhh, don't you write from right to left?!
- (me)No..! ofcourse not. it's arabic not turkish!
- Oh!


(while I'm sitting with friends from france, the turkish channel is open on the tv and it shows the scenes from turkey, then one of the girls:
- what?!! Does it snow in Turkey?


- another time (with Dutch people,I'm talking about the high oil prices in Turkey)
- ehehehe you're very funny. it's cheap in Turkey.
-(me) No, I swear that it's one of the most expensive in the world.
- hehehehe, no it can't be, you know it wrongly. You're very close to Iraq. It must be cheap. We're very far, that's why the price is very high here.
and I could never make him belive me...

And I don't know why, but when an arabic music plays, people ask "is this turkish?"
I can't understand whether turkish sounds arabic because it's my native language, so I would like to ask you, does turkish sound like arabic? How does it sound?

Apologies from the English for all their very funny and ridiculous comments! The English get this as well though.

When I was working at a conference in Texas a man said to me "are you English?" Yes, I said. "ahh I have a cousin in London, John Reed - do you know him?"

Hmmmmmmmmm big place London.... :-S

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and to all my friends whether they are celebrating or not, I share my Christmas wishes of health, happiness, peace, prosperity, success and good blessings

Before you frown upon the fact that people in some parts of the world do eat rice with their bare hands, you should see the kind of spoon they will bring you in a remote Saudi desert restaurant, if you insist that you must absolutely have one.. You will join the Fingers Club, immediately.

Eating rice with fingers is a tricky affair, which takes a lot of practice to master. First of all the rice is usually too hot to touch for the inexperienced and, unless you are well trained in this antient ritual, you might easily end up with most of the rice in your nose and eyes. That does not look dignified at all.

You will get friendly smiles of encouragment from the Saudis, but no help !

(No offense to Saudi, They also have some of the finest restaurants of the world)

When my mum and i were in Turkey in October we saw a dog that looked like Lassie, she said to Serhat 'Is that an import?', He replied 'no, we have dogs in Turkey too!!'

Bless her!!