Geography Fail

I like it when people think I‘m from Australia when I say „Austria“ – but this time it was a little bit different.

Since I‘ve been in Brazil for the last 4,5 months I met a lot of new people. Almost every time I introduce myself by saying „Oi! I‘m Ulli. I‘m from Austria“ or „Oi! Eu sou Ulli. Sou de Áustria“ Then usually I get the answer „Wow, Australia!“

In both languages Austria looks and sounds pretty similar to Australia. Only two letters are different. (I always wanted to print a Tshirt saying „AUSTR(AL)IA“)

I started to like it, when people think I‘m from Down Under;

because firstly (unfortunately) I don‘t have an Aussie accent and then people think Aussies sound like me :) and secondly I will live there in some years anyway.

But this time it was a different situation:

I was talking to a 13 year old brazilian girl – in English. (She was pretty good for her age.) She was a really nice girl. The conversation went like this:

girl (I forgot her name cause almost every Portuguese name sounds very strange): „Where are you from?“

me: „I‘m from Austria.“

girl: „ah... cool... [...] To how many countries have you already been?“

me: „I was in Germany, Spain, Czeck Republic, UK and Australia. I have relatives in Sydney“ (I intendedly said Australia last cause then I could go on talking about it. Why? )

girl: „You have castles there, right?“

me: „???“

girl: „Castles; You know, old buildings with knights and stuff“

me: „I know what a castle is but where do you mean?“

girl: „In Australia“

me: „well... I guess the country is too young to have castles“

girl: „But I thought you have Vienna?“

me: „In Vienna there are lots of castles, yes. But Vienna is in Austria, not AustrALia. I‘m from Austria“

girl: „oh... sorry... I‘m not very good at Geographic“

Now my question is:

Is she too young to know that Austria is in Europe – faaaaar away from Australia?

I mean it sounds similar but Australia is a continent. Hello???!!! With 13 years she should at least know the continents.

But then again, she is only 13 years old.

Did you know, when you were 13, that Austria is not Australia? I did, of course, for I live in Austria and know the difference (would be funny if I didn‘t).

I can only hope that this girl will learn about Europe and Australia at school.