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?

Quebec

Oh, just dug up some webpages. Sounds cute. I've never gotten on that well with francophone films, truth be told ... I quite like Le Declin de l'Empire Americain. And Delicatessen, and la Cite des Enfants Perdus. But otherwise, I have seen a lot of stinkers. (Lola Zipper? Les Amants du Pont Neuf?) Oh, I saw a good one on a plane once, but I forget what it was called ...

\link{http://www.cinemaclock.com/aw/crva.aw/p.cm/r.que/m.Montreal/j.f/i.8020/f.C_R_A_Z_Y_.html\great little film}

Did you see it in France? Was it subtitled?

Some of it was subtitled in French! But think it will be out on general release subbed in English.

Some of it was subtitled in French! But think it will be out on general release subbed in English.

Was the accent that hard? It sounded like it was set in Montreal, which has a pretty clear accent. Better than Saguenay Lac St Jean, anyway. (They say "biere" like "billet" and "Saguenay" like "saignant")

Hang on, let me get this straight. You're saying Canada is not actually part of America, NQC?

I'm always annoyed when tele 5 shows Canadian films without subtitles because I can't understand them :(

Coolmama ... that is HILARIOUS!!!!

Most NZers that I have met have been to the UK BUT I have been asked if I went fox hunting regularly when I lived there

• How do we keep kangaroos off the streets
• how do we speak English so well
• do we have electricity
• our men are very sexist
• we are all convicts (or would care if descended therefrom)
• that we drink only orange juice (??!!)

'Hmm, I bet Spanish folk have (or worse, people who've just learned Spanish with a Spanish accent) a slightly sniffy attitude towards South American Spanish. '

I haven't experienced that, but my mum and dad have whilst travelling in Spain. They are native speakers of Mexican Spanish, and although they could understand Spaniards perfectly well - excepting some colliqualisms and different idiomatic expressions, of course - they did find some Spaniards making a big show of pretending not to understand them. My dad was most displeased, especially, as his father's parents were Spaniards.

You can also find some reverse snobbery.

Personally, I prefer the sound of Latin American Spanish to Castillian. :)

That there is a deadly spider, snake or something waiting around every corner ready to BITE you. Lived there for almost 30 years and never got bitten once

Bloss sorry but don't get the orange juice thing either??? I think that if we did, then someone would be sure to build a Big Organge, iykwim

That everything stops for tea
and that we've all met the Queen

Unfortunately I reinforce both of these - years in NHS and academic labs have imbued in me the importance of tea as a critical component in the running of the country,
and I have.

We had a themed competition in work during the coomonwealth games and the guy organising it included Ireland. I sent an e-mail asking if he didn't mean 6 nations as it was around the same time. He said no as France and Italy wasn't on the list, I told him I was confused though and pointed out Ireland wasn't a part of the commonwealth - he argued. I stood my ground and gently reminded him about 1916 and the War of Independence and the fact that we have a President and our own government etc etc. Because of this they all think I'm a Brit-hater, eh no - but I'm Irish and don't try telling me otherwise!

Funny thing is, I later found out he studied GEOGRAPHY in college!!!!

Was told recently in Australia that its never sunny in the UK....(maybe they did have a point) but what about North-South divide misconceptions? Would like to think these are dying a death but London-centric magazines drive me mad.

I remember before we moved over here from Australia throwing out all of my suncreams, because I thought that I wouldn't need them over here. A few weeks into our first summer here and I was in the suncream aisle at Boots.

SueW - IIRC - Mandela was released around 1993, I think - which would be about 13 or 14 yrs ago - give or take a year - I actually left SA in 1991.

Mismatch - there is a big orange - I have seen it with my own eyes

bloss that convict one used to drive me mad - because unfortunately we are relatively new comers to Australia - maternal grandfather was welsh, maternal great grandfather came from wales, rest came from england including my father - but I am an aussie and therefore of convict stock - wouldn't have minded if I was

There's really a Big Orange............no way!!!

I've been in this country too long.

Exactly eidsvold - it's the double assumption: that we are all recently convicts but FAR more revealingly IMO, that we would be ashamed of it if we were. An amazing snobbery in action...

I think the orange juice thing came from Neighbours - this person commented that all they ever did was walk inside and drink OJ.

When I went to Australia 14 years ago (from Germany) this middle-aged couple asked my host family whether I'd ever seen a fridge before!!! (with me hailing from the artic circle and all, evidently)

Oh, and of course Germans don't have feelings and are all hard as nails - and eat sausages ALL THE TIME (that's what my A-level theatre studies teacher kept telling me and the rest of the class at my UK sh*thole boarding school -my mum ended up phoning the school to complain about racial harrassment)