Common misconceptions about your country?

[theannehedonia]

Canada:

We don't all speak french

We aren't all obsessed with maple syrup

We don't say aboot (Though we do say eh, lol)

Though we value politeness, not all Canadians are polite

Canada is not some liberal bastion, we have a lot of conservatives and right leaning citizens

We are far from an egalitarian society and our healthcare doesn't cover eye or dental care. So stupid. 

[Itachi]

i really can't think of anything cause pretty much almost every stereotype about our country and its people are accurate, but i guess i'll mention some that do not apply to me:

• i don't practice Filipino time
• i don't eat balut (duck embryo)
• i don't bargain
• i can survive a day without rice
• i'm not obsessed with skin whitening

the country itself:

• Mindanao isn't entirely dangerous
• we don't have the best president in the world right now, in fact we have the stupidest, most corrupt, and ugliest
• we aren't like Singapore, we are million miles behind them

[autumngoodbye91]

I'm from Belgium and I never eat waffles 

I do like beer though, that stereotype is mostly correct 

[Busybee]

I'm in the US  the biggest misconception is that we are the land of the free 

[Paolo94]

That we touch people when we talk

That we are loud

That we eat pizza every day

(Note: we eat pasta every day, pizza is more like a weekend treat)

[DjRobney]

Norway

Americans: Ohhh Norway, the capital state of Sweden 

That the polarbears lives in the streets... ummm we don't have polarbears in Norway

The one about we all being  vikings... That's true 

[babyimmafreak90]

It’s kind of expected that Aussies keep up the illusions but: 

there is no such thing as drop bears

not every animal here is trying to kill you (just most of them) 

the Simpsons Australia episode is like sooo far from reality. Most of us 95% live within an hour from the coast line and have annoyingly close neighbours like in any other developed cities  

it’s hot and sunny year round - this is very untrue for the bottom half of Australia. Currently 3°C where I am and with frost everywhere 

Vegemite is popular, but it’s not a way of life or anything 

Fosters is considered the “quintessential” Australian beer but no one here drinks it. Like ever 

 

[babyimmafreak90]

7 minutes ago, Paolo94 said:

Note: we eat pasta every day, pizza is more like a weekend treat

Where is this magical place? I could eat pasta every day! 

[Paolo94]

28 minutes ago, babyimmafreak90 said:

Where is this magical place? I could eat pasta every day! 

Italy of course 

[babyimmafreak90]

7 minutes ago, Paolo94 said:

Italy of course 

I didn’t want to assume. Italy is totally on my bucket list. I’m pretty sure I was Italian in a past life tbh, my love of pasta and wine runs deep 

[theannehedonia]

57 minutes ago, Paolo94 said:

Italy of course 

You guys have the best food. I visited rome when I was 17, and I still fantasize about it. :') I wanna marry someone from EU so I can live there. 

[PablitoXS]

Brazil

Not everybody can dance samba or play soccer well;

We do not live in forests or jungles with snakes crossing the streets;

Rio de Janeiro isn't the capital of our country.

[10pm24]

Turkey

Not everyone in the country is muslim (this is a misconception of our president )

I heard some people think we ride camels but no that’d be useless in city traffic 

We don’t eat doner kebab or something everyday 

and no Istanbul isn’t the capital 

[jossy12]

We drink all the time

We marry our cousins (ew!)

Everyone knows each other 

We say "top o' the mornin"

We eat Lucky Charms (we don't even have those here)

[Trentals]

Australia

1. That if you come to Australia you may accidentally get killed by our wildlife.I’m 30 and have seen one snake in my entire life, and I grew up inland in the “country”.Our cities are no different to those in other countries.

2. I’ve never eaten shrimp and I don’t own a BBQ.

3. That we hate Britney due to the negative coverage her Circus tour got here. You need to realise that we have two main media empires that own all the newspapers, tv stations and press in the whole country. We have a bigger land mass then the US, yet have a population of 27million. One newspaper reporter had a negative experience at Britney’s Perth show, so that was reported right across the country. In reality, she was warmly received and her Sydney show BROKE ATTENDANCE RECORDS THAT NOT EVEN THE 2000 OLYMPICS HAD. 

4. We aren’t all Steve Irwin. I’ve never said Crikey in my life. I’ve never worn camo. I’ve never seen a crocodile. 

5. We have one of the best system of government in the world. I work in politics and can tell you we are envied by people in other countries. Universal healthcare, social security and many other safety nets are things other countries dream of. We are one of the top 3 countries to live in for quality of life, and Melbourne has continued to top the list as the worlds best and most liveable city for the past decade.

5. We’ve only officially been a country since 1901. We aren’t as old as most countries. We also have a native population who was here for hundreds of thousands of years before the British colonised us.

6. We don’t always have the great weather everyone overseas thinks we have. During winter it gets quite cold in most of the southern states. In the mountains we get snow. 

7. We don’t have pet kangaroos or koalas. Koalas aren’t cute an cuddly. They are vicious mother fvckers. And kangaroos aren’t hopping down the main street. 

8. Kylie Minogue is actually our Queen.

9. We don’t want to be you. We aren’t jealous of you. And this especially applies to the US. We have more freedoms than you do. A recent Newspoll concluded that 87% of Aussies think Donald Trump is a terrible President. 

10. Yes, we have gun laws. LAWS. We haven’t taken away people’s guns. You need a license to drive a car, which you only get after you have proven you can drive it. Same goes for guns in Australia. If you get a gun license, you can have all the guns your little heart desires. We have not had a mass shooting since 1996 when those laws were introduced. And we’ve never ever had a school shooting.

 

[Marcanthony]

3 hours ago, jossy12 said:

We drink all the time

We marry our cousins (ew!)

Everyone knows each other 

We say "top o' the mornin"

We eat Lucky Charms (we don't even have those here)

Omg is it Alabama?

[Alxatc]

1 hour ago, Trentals said:

Australia

1. That if you come to Australia you may accidentally get killed by our wildlife.I’m 30 and have seen one snake in my entire life, and I grew up inland in the “country”.Our cities are no different to those in other countries.

2. I’ve never eaten shrimp and I don’t own a BBQ.

3. That we hate Britney due to the negative coverage her Circus tour got here. You need to realise that we have two main media empires that own all the newspapers, tv stations and press in the whole country. We have a bigger land mass then the US, yet have a population of 27million. One newspaper reporter had a negative experience at Britney’s Perth show, so that was reported right across the country. In reality, she was warmly received and her Sydney show BROKE ATTENDANCE RECORDS THAT NOT EVEN THE 2000 OLYMPICS HAD. 

4. We aren’t all Steve Irwin. I’ve never said Crikey in my life. I’ve never worn camo. I’ve never seen a crocodile. 

5. We have one of the best system of government in the world. I work in politics and can tell you we are envied by people in other countries. Universal healthcare, social security and many other safety nets are things other countries dream of. We are one of the top 3 countries to live in for quality of life, and Melbourne has continued to top the list as the worlds best and most liveable city for the past decade.

5. We’ve only officially been a country since 1901. We aren’t as old as most countries. We also have a native population who was here for hundreds of thousands of years before the British colonised us.

6. We don’t always have the great weather everyone overseas thinks we have. During winter it gets quite cold in most of the southern states. In the mountains we get snow. 

7. We don’t have pet kangaroos or koalas. Koalas aren’t cute an cuddly. They are vicious mother fvckers. And kangaroos aren’t hopping down the main street. 

8. Kylie Minogue is actually our Queen.

9. We don’t want to be you. We aren’t jealous of you. And this especially applies to the US. We have more freedoms than you do. A recent Newspoll concluded that 87% of Aussies think Donald Trump is a terrible President. 

10. Yes, we have gun laws. LAWS. We haven’t taken away people’s guns. You need a license to drive a car, which you only get after you have proven you can drive it. Same goes for guns in Australia. If you get a gun license, you can have all the guns your little heart desires. We have not had a mass shooting since 1996 when those laws were introduced. And we’ve never ever had a school shooting.

 

I’m from the US, and I don’t know anyone who thinks Australia is jealous of us or that you don’t have as much freedom...? All I hear are great things about Australia, and everyone I know wants to visit....

[Trentals]

14 minutes ago, Alxatc said:

I’m from the US, and I don’t know anyone who thinks Australia is jealous of us or that you don’t have as much freedom...? All I hear are great things about Australia, and everyone I know wants to visit....

It’s something that I’ve been accused of on twitter and Quora, especially when I answer political questions. I apologise for generalising.

[Alxatc]

5 minutes ago, Trentals said:

It’s something that I’ve been accused of on twitter and Quora, especially when I answer political questions. I apologise for generalising.

It’s ok. Maybe that’s a good misconception for me to put lol. But I get what you’re saying, because some Americans think other countries wanna be like us... I guess the misconception is that there are a lot of Americans don’t actually think like that... 

From my understanding it seems like Australians are happy there, because I never find people from Australia moving here, and I live in the most statistically diverse city in the US.

[Alxatc]

^ or maybe they just move other places and not so much to the US lol