What do people think about your country or culture that just isn't true or is inaccurate?

[NwaNaija]

I read a funny thread somewhere else on the myths/misconceptions about different countries. What are yours?

We're loud - Ok, Ok yes we are, especially when on the phone. This one's not a myth but not everyone is.

We all speak one language and understand each other - No we don't.

Am Irish and actually I think most people have moved on from the stereotypical irish thing, however when I was younger I was on holiday and people asked me to get up and do an irish dance like from riverdance. Didn't happen!

I'm Welsh and although most people know about the Welsh language, they tend to be surprised that there is an entire culture that is completely different to Britishness. We have our own music scene (and it's not all folky stuff with harps!), our own tv channel with brilliant dramas and soaps, art movements, literary trends and theatre. It's a huge and vivacious cultural movement, and people think we're all about Welsh cakes and Tom Jones...

Im nearly a danish citizen. Brits seem to think that Denmark is a bastion of equality and the benefits are generous. Theres a massive #metoo movement happening, and benefits have been capped and reduced for recent immigrants. The gap between rich and poor has widened over the last decade.

Danes think Brits are ugly, and that we all live in houses like in Midsommer Murders.

Danish girl guides think british girl guides are very good at singing. That is most definitely true

When most people hear that we have 'tribes' or 'tribalism', they automatically think 'all Hunter-gatherers, living with wild animals and often dying from malnutrition; fighting with spears and bows' but tribe/tribalism is just the same as ethnic group/nationalism (Like you have between the English, Scottish, etc)

NwaNaaija - which country are you personally speaking about? When I read the "loud" comment immediately thought American! And yes, I do realise this is a massive stereotype but there is a grain of truth .....

South Korea. People think all Koreans eat dog meat, live in fear of war, all foreigners are English teachers, PSY is the highlight of Kpop, all Koreans eat and like kimchi. Its no to all.

It's funny because as soon as I saw the title I thought of Nigerian people and a lot of the misconceptions- I am white British but my ex husband is Nigerian. I definitely think the loudness is true (said with affection, except when he was talking over my programmes)!

@SWnewstart oh sorry. I mean Nigeria. Didn't realise that about Americans too.

@smallandimperfectlyformed It's a good thing I didn't deny it. I think I'd be easily caught out

Yeah I think you would! One of my favourite memories of a very loud phone call was on a suburban London bus where a Turkish man was talking in English about some kind of immigration thing he was planning, it was so loud I could hear it word perfectly even though he was at the back of the bus and I was near the front. I got off 2 stops early because he was so loud and so did a Nigerian lady who said to me she had never heard such a loud phone conversation! I didn't say to her my observation about Nigerian people being so loud on the phone in case I offended her but it did make me chuckle a bit to myself!

A lot of Americans seem to think all the English live in a country cottage or mansion and speak like the Queen.

@smallandimperfectlyformed I think if the Nigerian lady complained of the loudness, it must have been double that of Nigerians😄 unless she's never heard one or doesn't realise how loud we can be. Frankly I don't like the loud phonecalls either but didn't realise how loud I was until my daughter started pointing it out! Have been working on it ever since.

I have a white African friend and she's often told you can't be African, you're white, then start asking her about animals on the street, how dangerous it is and if people hate her because she's white. They still talk to her like white person living in African country but not like African person who is white.

I'm American

Where do I even start! MN threads about the US are delusional

Americans are all rich. This is the one I encounter constantly from all nationalities. Even Americans have poverty blinkers about each other. During the 1990s LA riots, an American colleague said "But that can't be a poor neighbourhood. They have palm trees!"

tbf, when I go to US Embassy in London I encounter a lot of very wealthy Americans. I don't relate to them, either.

Brits say Americans are loud but I think that is British issue with Yanks, not international perception. Most cultures are a lot more assertive than British, so don't perceive Americans as relatively pushy at all.

Americans think the English are either very cute or astounding snobs. Scots are scary, Irish are rough but fun & Welsh or anyone with a northern English accent is just inexplicable.

@IIjkk I agree, even many Nigerians think Americans and British people are all rich until they come over and are often heavily disappointed by the poverty and lack of streets paved with gold. If you live in either of these countries, you'll be expected to become a multimillionaire. You'll often hear someone ask you why you left America or the UK to come back to Nigeria. That stereotype is slowly dying out now though as people are becoming more aware that there's also economic inequality in the west as there is in Nigeria.

That we’re all red headed drunks who wear kilts and have pet haggi on leads!

Likewise, most westerners still think Nigerians are all poverty-stricken, live in squalor and famine. They think food is nowhere to be found so they resort to eating whatever they can find from the forests.

On the contrary, we have abundance of food because we grow most of our own food - fresh produce, crops, etc and import the rest. Food is not in short supply at all but it's the access to this that a lot don't have due to low or no income/poverty; the gap between the rich and the poor is wide, the rich govt leaders don't look out for the poor citizens and there's nothing like the benefit system which means no trickling down of wealth so if you're rich, you get richer, if poor, you remain poor except by sheer luck.

The poor work extremely hard day and night but there's very little room to grow if you have no connections or luck to meet someone who can help you. A typical poor family only needs access to farmland and food will never be a problem for them due to the richness of the land.

Besides that, many Nigerians are very rich. Those who can afford food - including the average working class - do so in large quantities much more than you'll see in a typical British household and don't live a typical "third-world" lifestyle as is expected.

I'm Scottish.

DH was asked not two years ago (by an American I think) if we had shopping malls. I mean, ours are not huge by American standards but we recognise the concept pal!

Forgot to add there are many poor families who own farmlands mostly in rural areas and food is never an issue for them. They're just cash-poor.

Irish- that we're all big drinkers. I rarely drink and my husband doesn't drink alcohol at all.

I'm American (by birth, don't live there anymore) and British people, in particular, all seem to think Americans are really friendly. They aren't (I find them particularly unfriendly), but they are loud and talkative and they like to know lots of information about people in order to size them up. So people misinterpret all the questioning and talking as a sign of friendliness. It's almost more of an assertiveness thing, which is hard to explain.

I'm Italian, I know lots of people my age that still live at home (early 30s) that live at home/moved out when they got married - they are all perfectly normal functioning adults with jobs/hobbies/who go on holiday etc.

English are not patriotic..... Yes we are.

Britian we all have :- carpeted bathrooms, single taps, washing up bowls, dirty houses, our children eat different meals and at separate times ...... No to all (for me and I’d say everyone one I know).

@mindutopia

I'm American (by birth, don't live there anymore) and British people, in particular, all seem to think Americans are really friendly. They aren't (I find them particularly unfriendly), but they are loud and talkative and they like to know lots of information about people in order to size them up. So people misinterpret all the questioning and talking as a sign of friendliness. It's almost more of an assertiveness thing, which is hard to explain.

Don't agree with this at all. I mean I agree that not all Americans are friendly (I lived in one of the rudest cities in the US!) but I don't agree friendly Americans are being this cynical about it. I think it's mostly genuine.

I'm Kenyan and dh is half Egyptian, half British.

For Kenya, no we don't all run fast, no we don't depend on foreign aids, we don't have animals roaming the streets - we have parks for that, we don't all wear traditional Maasai clothes, I don't know your friend who lives in Malawi, you won't become ill or catch ebola once you arrive Kenya, we're ever growing and haven't deteriorated ever since the Europeans left the country, we're not all black but the majority is.

For Egypt, yes it rains in Egypt, sometimes it even snows! We don't all ride camels, mainly tourists and rural farmers, no we're not all alladin and jasmine, it's not all carpets, belly dancers, pharaohs and tents in the desert.