I had to explain to Indian software developers recently that Western Australia is not in Greece, and Alaska is not in France.
We had asked them to put some headings in on the pages of a new web site, so that users could tell where they were in the site. The headings were generated automatically, and this was fine, except there were some anomalies in the data.
Here are some examples of the type of headings generated: “Top Attractions – Greece – Western Australia” and “Accommodation – France – Alaska”.
Naturally I raised this with the developers: “The headings look good, but this one says ‘Greece – Western Australia’ …” and so on.
They responded as follows: “Can you please explain what the problem is?”
Apparently it wasn’t obvious to them, so I helpfully explained:
“Western Australia is not in Greece, Alaska is not in France, etc”
Priceless.
Of course, given that there is a Paris in Texas, perhaps there is an Alaska in France. Who knows?






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October 29, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Robert Hruzek
Given that there are several Eiffel Towers all over the place (including one in Paris, Texas - albeit a bit smaller than the original, mind you) it’s a wonder anyone can keep ‘em straight!
November 2, 2007 at 3:14 am
sebastienne
This is hilarious! But anyways, sometimes we need things like this to spice up our everyday-getting-boring work. So good luck with your geography lessons with your software developer. Lol!
November 6, 2007 at 4:23 am
Arthur Trueger
There’s also a London and Frankfurt in Kentucky. weird.
November 7, 2007 at 4:49 am
RickNHS
When you say Indian software developers, I’m assuming you are referring to developers from the country of India. We’ve had our fare share of interesting work compiled by Indians ourselves! Ever hired an Indian firm to write articles for you? We did, and they did a really good job on the content; however, their use of proper English was far from perfect.
November 15, 2007 at 1:56 am
dingmo Ed
lol that is funny. oh the power of human editing. Im glad you caught these or else there would have been some great confusion.
November 19, 2007 at 12:22 am
Emo
Alaska is a place where you can lose yourself in the vastness of nature, like in some parts of France.
November 25, 2007 at 6:55 am
Anand
@RickNHS
“We’ve had our fare share of interesting work compiled by Indians ourselves! Ever hired an Indian firm to write articles for you? We did, and they did a really good job on the content; however, their use of proper English was far from perfect.”
Before you trash people of other nationalities, first check if you are any good at it..Your first sentence should read
“We’ve had our FAIR share of interesting work…”
Perhaps it was your poor English that made you outsource content writing in the first place..
December 7, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Burlingame Kango
I’m in Burlingame, California, and you’d be surprise how many people think Burlingame is in the U.K. I guess it just sounds British?
December 16, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Rockdirt
That would be hilarious if someone like Lou Dobbs of CNN here in America got wind of this… He’d be bitching and moaning about cheap overseas labor markets for weeks… Oh wait, he already does.
January 1, 2008 at 12:13 pm
domeinregistratie
That’s funny but frequently happens I guess. I once used a developer from Ukraine to do some web research of Tasmania Island in Australia. All i asked for were some good quality pictures. What I got after a full weeks surprised me. He sent me a butt load of pictures alright, but all of them were of the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character!! I first thought it was a joke but soon realized that this dude had no idea Tasmania Island existed. I laugh when I look back at it.
January 9, 2008 at 1:23 am
Melbourne Mortgage Brokers
We have a tv show here called “The Chaser”. They recently interviewed a bunch of Americans about world famous landmarks and monuments. Most knew that the Eifel Tower was in Paris, but when the interviewer told them that this was just a ‘replica’ and that the original was in Brisbane Australia, several of them were very suprised and said things like “Wow! I never knew that”. Very amusing
January 14, 2008 at 6:30 am
El Yanqui
Given that there’s an Eiffel tower, pyramid, New York skyline, canals of Venice and much more in Vegas, I’d say that just including everything in Nevada is a safe bet.
January 23, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Tim
I’ve always wanted to visit France, but I had no idea I had to go through Alaska to get there!
January 24, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Architecture Talk
OMG, if Western Australia is in Greece and Alaska is in France, Beijing will be in Scotland! Hahaha… I can’t stop laughing!
January 24, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Jumpions
The solution: Don’t outsource your important projects. Or give them a test before. Funny stuff.
February 2, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Alabama
I didn’t know that there was a country that was less informed about geography then us Americans. Most of us can’t even find Iraq on a map. Oh well, It’s good to see that we aren’t alone when it comes to geographical stupidity.
February 6, 2008 at 12:41 pm
property sale
Yes out sorcing is cheaper but you get what you pay for.
March 3, 2008 at 3:44 am
Andrey Troy
Alaska it is not part of France, not even part of Canada or USA. Alaska- it is Russia, our queen made couple mistakes in one time but I supposed that someday Alaska will be part of Russia again.
March 14, 2008 at 1:05 am
Thai
Hah! Just stumbled on this and this is too funny!