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.

@ZZTopGuitarSolo

The other thing I'm struck by is that people visit the US, see a fairly small part of it, then come back to the UK thinking that they are now the experts on the US, its people, its employment laws, its hospitals, its health insurance, its grocery stores... everything.

Or they have some colleagues in the US, and ditto. "Well my colleague says no one in the US EVER gets any paid time off and they must be right, and my colleague asks dumb questions so obviously all Americans are stupid, and my colleague eats packaged food with disposable cutlery every day so EVERY AMERICAN IS A CLIMATE KILLER."

It doesn't seem to occur to them that some of the states alone are more than twice the size of the UK, and there are 50 states each with its own government, and it has a population of over $350 million and they might actually not all be the same...

Yes! This drives me crazy!

The US is 350 million people spread across an entire continent. I don't even pretend to know what life is like in other parts of the US, it varies so much.

Maine? No idea!! Let alone Texas or Idaho or something.

My favourite was the poster who insisted we don't have pavements in the US.

Hi @Welikebeingcosy I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t eat meat, I don’t go to bars. I have the utmost respect for our nations first people. I’ve never heard anyone refer to them as brown people, but of course racism exists here as it does in other countries.

I love a holiday at the beach although I don’t get there often enough, I enjoy swimming very much & try to go often to a local indoor pool. We were taught to swim from an early age.

I never leave my door unlocked.
I love art and enjoy going to art galleries if there is an exhibition I am interested in. We have culture, it may just be different to what people expect.

@Downunderduchess

I’m Aussie born & lived here all my life. I’m not sure what stereotypes are in people’s minds. If you have any let me know & I will confirm or deny.

I guess Americans would say that Australians:

Love to party
Drink a lot
BBQ a lot
Play beach volleyball a lot
Don't take life too seriously
Have giant horrifying spiders in their houses all the time

On a similar thread a while ago,a poster said her mate from Poland thought all British women had "wide backs". That had me laughing everytime I recalled it.

The US is 350 million people spread across an entire continent. I don't even pretend to know what life is like in other parts of the US, it varies so much.

I agree completely. The more you travel around the US, the more you start to understand its diversity. When I’m in the North East, I feel quite at home. The scenery, the weather, the modest distances between towns with familiar names, even the accent. It’s called New England for a reason, after all.

When I’m in the Bible Belt, I feel like an alien who has just landed on fucking Mars. As, I imagine, would many Bostonians.

@Downunderduchess I guess you can't suss out an entire nation of people from a few backpackers working in a bar in London and a soap opera! Ha!

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale

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

This made me smile having been to guldborgsundlejer 16 years ago :)

An English male relative had a female American guest visit for a few months. She expected many men to be gay, everyone to have bad teeth and bigger houses. She anticipated visiting everywhere and had a poor grasp of geographical distances. She was shocked at not going to church on Sunday and the lack of respect for the Queen and Prime Minister.

@dreamingbohemian

Yes to the spiders I’m afraid to say.
Don’t drink, don’t barbecue and have never played beach volleyball, sand is hard enough to walk on &!in summer burns your feet!

I do love to have a laugh & try to be fairly laidback & philosophical about most things.

I have citizenship in 4 countries including America. There seems to be a widely held belief that if you’re not armed with super expensive health insurance then you can’t get medical care. This is 100% not true. If you receive what Americans call welfare (benefits) you get free health care. We also have Medicare and Medicaid for OAP over 65 as part of government pension. The folks caught in the middle are usually people like working jobs just over qualifying for benefits and their cheap employer doesn’t provide it. However even if you work12 hours a week at places like Starbucks they give you free platinum coated private medical.

It doesn't surprise me that so many people know little about other countries, as in my experience many have this kind of perception of other parts of their own country.
When we moved from a large city to a rural area about 150 miles away I heard some ridiculous comments. Lots of assumptions that there are only 2 kinds of country dwellers - the wealthy, land owning, Range Rover type and the country yokel, forelock tugging type - and that everyone has some kind of piractical/West Country accent in all rural places (despite the fact that we were moving North!). Everyone would be into hunting shooting and fishing and there would be no other form of culture or entertainment. Other assumptions included that there would be no crime at all, no drug or alcohol problems and absolutely, definitely no poverty. I wish!!
Then at the other end of the scale there were people who asked me where we would get food from and were genuinely surprised when I said " Tesco, I imagine" and lots who asked if we'd have electricity! FFS most of these people had visited the general area, if not my precise location so surely they should realise that whilst it is a bit different it isn't another planet!
My MIL is Spanish and has had a lifetime of explaining that she doesn't wear a ruffled spotty dress and live on a diet of paella and sangria. And that she was quite an accomplished skier when she was younger because yes, it does snow in the Winter in her home town. Spain is a huge country with numerous cultures, cuisines and languages but lots of people think they know everything after they've spent a couple of weeks in Marbella.

I'm Canadian. People seem to think (a) Canada is "just the same" as the US because our accents are similar; (b) Canadians all speak English and French is only an old relic you see in place names; (c) because Canada is very cold in the winter it must not be hot in the summer.

@fairypangolin. Someone told me years ago that parts of Canada (the wilder parts) are like a massive Scotland. 🤣

I'm English and I live in Europe.

Everyone thinks we have carpet around our toilet seats and that it is disgusting!

I have been lucky enough to travel extensively around the US. I have also been lucky enough to mostly come across polite Americans. It's one of the places I'm looking forward to going back to soon.

@dreamingbohemian

I'm American

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

I wish I could upvote this. I rarely, if ever, see a positive comment about the US / Americans on MN.

MNers love to set themselves up as experts about this topic.

@AlfonsoTheTerrible I've never been to America (would love to though), but I'm always pretty shocked at some of the comments I see on here about the US and Americans in general. MN is just really weird about that and I'm not sure why.

Although I had someone tell me a couple of years ago that all people in Scotland (where I'm from) speak Gaelic and that it's on the school curriculum throughout the country. Absolutely would not have it when I said that this was not the case because she'd been on holiday up there once fifteen years previously. 🤷‍♀️😂

Thanks, @MacDuffsMuff!

It wasn't long before this thread descended into what MNers launched into stereotypes about the US / Americans, which makes the discomfort about what other nationalities think about Brits even more amusing.

That was not to deride your message at all, by the way. My apologies if it came out that way.

@MrsAvocet My MIL is Spanish and has had a lifetime of explaining that she doesn't wear a ruffled spotty dress and live on a diet of paella and sangria.
*
I'd like to be like this please. Where do I apply?*

We're often on TV, mainly the news, as a representation of pissed young women, not wearing very much, falling along the road in high heels. (North East England). I'm now 49, and it's true for me and my school/6th form circle of friends. I wouldn't dream of doing it now, but in your teens and early twenties (underage drinking wasn't a problem in the past, we were never checked. It wasn't really on our radar) it was just what we did. You grow out of it and move on with your life. I look back on it fondly.

I think there's a perception abroad that British food is boring/bad. I think that's untrue - we have incorporated food from lots of different cultures and traditional British dishes are also lovely apart from black pudding and haggis

@Downunderduchess really interesting, thanks!

How DO you all cope with the spiders?? And snakes and giant flying things?

There's a whole genre of YouTube videos that people share in the US that's basically OMG!!!Australia is terrifying nope nope nope

@GothamGirl1970

I have citizenship in 4 countries including America. There seems to be a widely held belief that if you’re not armed with super expensive health insurance then you can’t get medical care. This is 100% not true. If you receive what Americans call welfare (benefits) you get free health care. We also have Medicare and Medicaid for OAP over 65 as part of government pension. The folks caught in the middle are usually people like working jobs just over qualifying for benefits and their cheap employer doesn’t provide it. However even if you work12 hours a week at places like Starbucks they give you free platinum coated private medical.

Thank you! MN threads about healthcare in the US are so frustrating. Yes there are serious issues but we're not all dying or going bankrupt.

I had amazing healthcare even when I was a waitress. And yes lots of people worked at Starbucks because their health insurance was so good.

People think Americans are stupid for not wanting their own version of the NHS but it's more that a lot of people are fine with their current setup and fear big change.

@AlfonsoTheTerrible

Thanks, *@MacDuffsMuff*!

It wasn't long before this thread descended into what MNers launched into stereotypes about the US / Americans, which makes the discomfort about what other nationalities think about Brits even more amusing.

Totally understand that, I noticed it myself tbh!