Bizarre misconceptions about your home country

[NotQuiteCockney]

As a Canadian, living in the UK, people are always sharing some very strange ideas about Canada:

• It's really cold. No it bloody well isn't, not in the summer. It's hotter than the UK. Really.

• We have loads of beautiful countryside. Well, kinda. It's a long way away from everything, the countryside. We have no right to roam, and no footpaths, so it may well be beautiful, but that doesn't mean you can go see it. And as we have loads of it, we can put up ugly warehouses made out of corregated metal anywhere we like.

• It's very ecological. No, it's not. It's more car-dependant than the UK. Organic food is harder to get. And electricity is cheaper, so we use loads. And it's more of a consumer culture than here - more adverts on the telly, for one thing.

• It's cheaper. Not really. The taxes are quite a bit higher than in the UK. (Yes, really!) And work/life balance isn't great.

Which misconceptions are you tired of dealing with all the time?

I'm not involved! I'm being frivilous with it.

I made popcorn yesterday morning for the DSes to take away with them with the nanny. Felt very domestic.

Considering some people have been kind enough to explain me how a traffic light works (couldn't believe my ears!), I really don't want to know what they really think about my country!

I had a couple of longhaul flights while pregnant so before going I dully asked a midwife if it would be OK and she answered: "As long as you have access to clean water you will be OK"

If I had not feared seeing her during the birth I would have answered something in the likes of "yeah, I will be fine then, because all the neighbours got together to dig a well in the middle of the shopping mall, so we could bring water home everytime we did the shopping!" Bloody ignorance!

But what I hate the most is people who condescendingly deal with you as if you were poorer than they are just because you come from a developing country.

Chandra, when I was growing up, my best friend's mom was from Tanzania. They would go back there, from time to time. My friend would get asked the best questions ... my favourite was: "Do people there live in trees?"

Granted, this was from a kid, but still!

trefusis, I've found a web cite that maybe explains?

"The Star of David gives an unusual religious dimension to Loyalism. One interpretation is that it is meant to highlight the point of view that the Ulster Protestant people are like the Lost Tribe of Israel who are continuously persecuted. Another theory is that the star was chosen because the six points symbolise the six counties of Northern Ireland."

Posting that because it sounded like you were just observing the phenomenon, and weren't clear on why it was happening. Didn't mean it to be me telling you how your country is working, obviously.

Ahh that would be my assumption also

Actually I'm positively surprised that the child knew where (or what) Tanzania was. I really find it interesting when people from Europe ask me "if it's winter there now?" during the middle of the summer.

Now about living in York, half the people know to my DH in Spain thinks that we are living in AMerica!

Oh, no, the child was told it was Africa.

I'm always depressed by how pleased Africans are when I exhibit a (very vague) sense of African geography. Just saying "oh, that's in West Africa" or whatever, as appropriate, seems to make them inordinately proud.

I think DH thought Mexico was in the southern hemisphere, too. Before we went, anyway.

We're all fat. We're all loud. We don't have passports & don't travel. We're "up our own arses." We're pro-war, pro-pollution, pro-Bush and pro-evangelical Christianity.

I'm the first to admit that Americans can be plenty annoying, but the ignorance about America herethe reliance on TV & the press & hearsay when forming opinionsastonishes me.

Well as an English person - that it's always raining in England (actually just lately that might be true)....that we are all repressed and buttoned up (I'm a hot headed firebrand, could do with a bit of repression as it happens), that we are all beer swilling lager louts (yes the chav contingent of our youth who visit Ibiza to rave, puke in the gutter and shag conspicuously might be like that but they are a minority)

Umm I don't live overseas but thought I'd but in anyway about misconceptions re my home country [slightly shamed emoticon about posting illegitimately]

Medea, I assumed that until I wentI met several wonderful Yankers as I affectionally term them
changed my view of the US as one ill intentioned nation....

Don't get depressed NQC, if Canada was not so big and near to the US you would also be smug when somebody actually knew where your country was.

I can see that Peru has a very rich culture but I don't see many people being able to find it in a map.

I was very (guilty admission here...) anti American until I actually visited the US. Totally demonised the US prior to then . Have really enjoyed visiting New York, San Fran, Las Vegas, Miami since though and am itching to see somewhere else ..(quite fancy Boston...)

I'm not fed up but just amused that every European I've ever met is convinced that as I'm English I must want either "4 o'clock tea" or in some cases "5 o'clock tea". WTF?

Born in Zambia - usual question "is that in South Africa?"

In North America, Wales does not exist. Really. I don't think they got a lot of Welsh immigrants. Certainly in lots of Canada, there are flags with the english rose, the scottish thistle and the irish shamrock in them. No leeks, no dragons.

Misconceptions about Brits fit in here, I really didn't mean it to be only about expats living in the UK.

NQC, you forgot that all Canadians carry guns and leave their front doors open

(it must be true, I saw it on Michael Moore )

I think the cold thing is because you have polar bears there. I mean it must be a bit cold.

Oh, god, that one.

Yes, we have some cold bits, up north. But all the bits we live in (oddly) are the warm bits, in the south. The inhabited bits of Canada are much further south than London, although they are colder in the winter, generally. They are much warmer in the summer, without any of this continual rain thing.

F&Z, I'll put an update on the poo-related thread ...