What's the oddest thing you've heard or been asked about the uk in your resident country?

[redexpat]

I've heard more than once in denmark that the UK is a catholic country

And today i was stopped in the supermarket and asked to settle an argument about the origins of halloween.

Does anyone else feel like a sort of cultural ambassador?

Yes! But there are also lots of people in Africa who live quite "western" lives. Which is the point often forgotten/ignored.
Some live in deserts, some live in lush farm land, some live in rain forest etc. It is a place of vast resources, not just some charity case. In fact some charity may do more harm than good.

I watched a documentary once, following an American family visiting Britain for the first time. The teenage daughter confessed that they had brought all their own food as they were scared because "English people eat squirrel and possum". Behind her, on the coach, as she was being interviewed were row, after row of American fast food joints: KFC, MacDonalds etc.

We had to eventually concede, to a lovely family we met in India, that we did indeed live in North London (because they equated London with Britain and thought Scotland was a suburb of London). We live in the far North West of Scotland - approximately 600 miles from "North London".

lol I must be in central London then aka the central belt of Scotland.

Where as I am definitely Sarf London, down here in the southern hemishpere

My DH (white Scottish, born in Africa) moved back to the UK when he was 8. His primary school classmates assumed he would be black and teased him for not being black. He told them that a prominent freckle on his arm was the start of "becoming black" as all babies are born white but they blacken in the sun. In 1970s Scotland, this was accepted as the truth for several days until a parent told them different.

My house got burgled when I lived in Hong Kong. One of my very kind, lovely HK Chinese neighbours saw the police arriving, screeched off in her car and returned 20 minutes later with a bag. She said she knew I would be busy with the police all morning, so she'd brought me "an English breakfast" - a slice of pizza, a sachet of instant coffee, and a Mars Bar

She was right, I was busy all morning, and I ate them all!

Many Japanese people believe sleeping on the train is a uniquely Japanese trait, I have no idea why. An elderly lady whom I teach English was extremely surprised to find out that British people get paid monthly, just like Japanese people do.