#9: G’Day, Mate

Some Americans have an unfortunate tendency to think that we invented the English language, which is pretty silly if you remember that there’s an entire country called England, the name of which suggests a closer tie to the English language than “America” does. (Although to be fair, the Anglo-Saxons brought the language that became English with them from continental Europe, so I guess England can’t claim it originated entirely from their sceptered isle either.)

So no, we didn’t invent the language, and we don’t have a sole claim on it either; countries all over the world speak English, a fact that would clearly shock this person. I wonder if they ever saw Hugh Jackman in a movie and were baffled as to where he came from.