• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Misconceptions about your home country.

Canada -

A lot of people seem to think the country is low tech and doesn't have big cities. Often when Americans and Europeans visit Vancouver, they seem surprised to find skyscrapers instead of log cabins. And they're shocked to find almost half the population is Asian. A Japanese student once told me she felt "scammed of the Canadian experience" because there were so many Asians around. She expected everyone to be white.

Canadian truths:
  • Not everyone speaks French but there is French everywhere. every product label in Canada is required to be in both French and English and most of the time when you call a service line or automated number in Canada you will hear "Press 1 for English Press 2 for French"

  • I'm not sure this is true for all products. I have bought tons of English-only video games new in Canada over the years. I figured the packaging law only technically applies to Quebec but companies often make bilingual labels so they can sell across the whole country. Factory-made food labels are always bilingual in my experience.
 
Canada -

A lot of people seem to think the country is low tech and doesn't have big cities. Often when Americans and Europeans visit Vancouver, they seem surprised to find skyscrapers instead of log cabins. And they're shocked to find almost half the population is Asian. A Japanese student once told me she felt "scammed of the Canadian experience" because there were so many Asians around. She expected everyone to be white.


.

idk, comparatively canada cities are pretty small. Toronto is like the size of metro phoenix. When I think big city I think LA, Tokyo, Mexico City, Karachi, you get the idea. Sorry Montreal or whatever.
 

BruceCLea

Banned
The American South is pretty racist, but there are a ton of great cities that are very progressive and a joy to visit. The people are wonderful and welcoming, the food is great and the weather is nice as long as you avoid the dead of summer.
My experience:
NC: Asheville, Boone, Raleigh, Carborro, Durham, Chapel Hill, Wilmington, South Port, Triad Outer Banks
SC: Charleston, Greenville,
GA: Athens, Atlanta
 

Suntory

Neo Member
Most common misconception: our country is called Brussels.

Others:
- all of us speak French, Dutch and German fluently.
- we are a boring country with little to see or do
- our national dish is waffles -> Nobody except tourists eat waffles, our national dish is actually Belgian fries ( the french claimed the name, but all of us know it's actually ours and we don't care)
- everybody here loves the E.U. because it's institutions are located here
 
- our national dish is waffles -> Nobody except tourists eat waffles, our national dish is actually Belgian fries ( the french claimed the name, but all of us know it's actually ours and we don't care)

Nah it's the Americans who slapped the ownership of fries to us, we never claimed it.
 

HMD

Member
Saudi Arabia

I keep hearing about how the government is bribing us to put up with their shit and stop potential revolutions from happening. The truth is, revolutions are never going to happen, we are in no way happy or okay with the way things are, but we've seen what happened to our neighbors and we know the alternative is much worse than what we currently have.

I don't wanna sound like things are hopeless or nothing is ever gonna change, because things are changing rapidly right now, we have a much younger king (unofficially) and he's willing to change things up.
 

Leynos

Member
In Portugal they think we have a 3 hour mid day break "La Siesta" like in Spain.

I'm not even sure if people even do that in Spain themselves.

When I went to Fayal in the Azores in 1995, just about all of the stores, and restaurants closed during the mid-day for a few hours. My mother said that this was a bit of a hassle, but normal there.
 
The main one about the US just reading NeoGAF is that nobody really acknowledges that the the country is fucking gigantic and has as many variations in culture between Jersey and Long Beach as the difference between Wales and Bucharest.

-- there are regional cultures
-- there are city-by-city differences
-- there are state-to-state differences

and we're not just talking accents, though those are the primary identifier. we're also talking about regional foods, personal identity and outlook, consumed media, and on and on.

yes, what unites Americans is typically more than what divides us, but outsiders looking in should know that texas is as different from new york as ireland is from spain.

Okay, I'm sorry but no. And I'm not singling you out, because this has been bothering me about US gaf for a while now.

You have the same language, the same general culture, and consider yourselves the same ethnicity (the vague umbrella of American) in the sense of your identification with your country, even if your 'roots' are different. And obviously racial stresses do not disappear under that umbrella, but at least it keeps people from considering others of a different nation.

What USA-gaf in general does not understand is that nationalism == racism in its entirety. Calling an Irishman a Spaniard is a great way to start a fight with either or both, because they, like all nations in Europe, consider themselves different on a ethnicity (racial) level. Not just food and culture, but language, and a lot of other (though subjective) human qualities. Wars have been a constant in European history, and that includes more than a few rousing bouts of genocide. Try imaging Jersey going full "Lebensraum" (wholesale destruction by genocide of the local people) on its neighbors or Texas for a moment, and how absurd that suggestion sounds.
But that IS the reality of the European nations and the primary reason why things like the EU and NATO as projects of diplomacy are necessary to ensure the survival and safety of pretty much every nation on the continent. Because we would start shit again if nothing held that back. And don't mistake those of us identifying as 'European' for the general population either, because that is not the common view, and the threat of something like fascism rising is a real concern here. Pretty much the reason why a 'right wing' government for the US may be considered somewhat normal, but is the equivalent of defcon 3 in Europe.

Additionally, a diplomat in the EU has to be able to speak and / or write somewhere between ten and twenty-five national languages, whereas Americans seem to think speaking a second language is already a big deal. So every time I see one of those 'but the EU is basically the same as the Federal US system' I am basically fuming at the screen. Then again, almost nobody in Europe seems to understand that the EU is a diplomacy project to prevent suffering either, so that's hardly your fault. :(

But it does occasionally make it hard for me to sympathize with complaints on Trump, when most of gaf seems to have a poor understanding of what actual diplomacy means and why it's vital for everyone, or how quickly things can escalate out of control if people stop playing the game.

Also, good luck using Welsh in Bucharest, or Romanian in Wales. (it's far more likely for another nation to speak English than it is for English-speakers to speak the other language). You wouldn't even get very far in Bucharest with English only either, unless you follow tourist instructions (last I checked two years ago, and I do not speak the local language either).


edit: I know my post is not in the playful spirit of the thread, but it does count as a major misconception in my view.
 
New Zealand:

- "NZ's a white country." Something I've experienced from a lot of Brits, particularly when it comes to sports, where they assume players are "poached" from other countries solely because they're brown. NZ is a multicultural country. Maori were not only here first but we also have almost as many Samoans and Tongans living here than there are in Samoa and Tonga. And even outside of polynesians, there are also significant Fijian, Indian, Chinese and Filipino populations here.

- "There's sheep everywhere." It may've been true once upon a time but it's a dying industry these days. The dairy industry, on the other hand, is the backbone of our country.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Ireland being part of the UK or Great Britain

I mean, I can see that, but... the name of the larger entity on the island (which does not encompass the whole island) confuses people who don't know the history.

800px-Ireland-Capitals.PNG

Seems sort of understandable that people who are generally unaware of the world wouldn't know the difference between the Republic, the island, and Northern Ireland. Somewhat similar to the Macedonia naming dispute.



And as far as I can tell, for political reasons the descriptor "Republic of" is discouraged by Ireland anyway.
 

Disxo

Member
Ok, this time for real:
-NO, foreigners cant buy marihuana.
-We really are divisive towards pepe mujica.
-WE ARENT A PROVINCE (Looks at argentina)
-We arent savages like Luis Suarez.
-We get along well with Argentina and Brazil.
-its undeveloped, wtf?
-"It has lots of corruption and inequality", we are miles ahead from every south american country in that regard, even the US.
-Its small (applies to us).
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Canada -

A lot of people seem to think the country is low tech and doesn't have big cities. Often when Americans and Europeans visit Vancouver, they seem surprised to find skyscrapers instead of log cabins. And they're shocked to find almost half the population is Asian. A Japanese student once told me she felt "scammed of the Canadian experience" because there were so many Asians around. She expected everyone to be white.

Sounds like she was looking for rural Canada or the Maritimes.
 
people thinking that everything in switzerland is snowy mountains

i can't forget this big bang theory episode where they go to geneva to go visit CERN! There's a scene where they're at an hotel in geneva, and at the windows it's snowing a lot, with a big ass mountain in the backgroud... right in the center of geneva, right!
 
Canada is not the uber-liberal perfectly integrated and tolerant society its marketing department would have you believe.

Plenty of racial and sociocultural divisions, and xenophobic racist yokels, wealth and wealth inequality.

Not to say it's a horrible place or anything. I lived in the U.S. in a few different communities and it isn't really different than the largely liberal communities and the so called conservative communities and the people there aren't all that different in worldview either. Also, man did I actually miss the Canadian healthcare system.
 
In Portugal they think we have a 3 hour mid day break "La Siesta" like in Spain.

I'm not even sure if people even do that in Spain themselves.


That we all know what chicken piri-piri is.
Im still to find out what dish they are talking about. Altough i suspect is just barbecue chicken with spicy sauce
 

RM8

Member
Not that I don't believe you, but define "cold" please?

Because I had an Algerian friend once tell me that it can get pretty cold in Algeria sometimes, but she had to wear gloves and a scarf at 17 Celsius and 10 C was "very cold" to her, haha.

How about La Rosilla, Durango:

Rosilla.jpg


That's absolutely not 17° :p Neither are plenty of cities in Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, etc.

My city (Toluca) never goes over 25° in the heat of the summer. I can't function correctly if it's hotter than that to be honest.

5802406c12c2d4a64a8af1cab90c336d.jpg

^ Icy Toluca.
 

StoneFox

Member
I'm going to be more specific to my state than country.

Arizona is not mostly desert.
But Arizona has four of them, the Great Basin, the Chihuahuan, the Mojave, and the Sonoran Desert.

All four are incredibly distinct by their plant live alone. You will only find Saguaro cacti in the Sonoran. The Chihuanhuan desert is roughly 3,500 feet above the sea level and contains wildflower and shrubs. The Mojave desert is the driest, and 1/4 of the plants there are endemic including the Joshua Tree. Lastly is the Great Basin desert, AKA, where the Grand Canyon is. It has the least amount of plant life and there is sagebrush for miles.

So I kinda roll my eyes when people take photos of the Great Basin and are like "the Sonoran Desert is so beautiful~"

That's right, the Sonoran is beautiful but you are 200 miles away from it!
 

RocknRola

Member
That we all know what chicken piri-piri is.
Im still to find out what dish they are talking about. Altough i suspect is just barbecue chicken with spicy sauce

It is a Mozambican dish I believe, hence the confusion with Portugal.
Right on both accounts but its done here as well, and for quite some time too.

Though here the piri-piri is an offset of jindungo. Smaller, mostly and likely not as "hot" I'd guess.

In any case, its grilled chicken with a spicy (piri-piri) based sauce.
 
Greeks are not miserable and worrying 24/7 about the economic crisis. We get along fine.
Most people think the Greeks couldn't care less and just sit on their ass waiting for money.
That's probably the image you should have corrected.
People were very hateful about all that money going towards Greece.
 
I do not speak for any Swede other than myself but people thinking they're being clever by 'pretending to be Swedish' by either just swapping out every a and o for åäö or by impersonating "The Swedish Chef" (bork bork bork) aren't being clever, original or funny. They're being racist.
 
I'm going to be more specific to my state than country.

Arizona is not mostly desert.
But Arizona has four of them, the Great Basin, the Chihuahuan, the Mojave, and the Sonoran Desert.

All four are incredibly distinct by their plant live alone. You will only find Saguaro cacti in the Sonoran. The Chihuanhuan desert is roughly 3,500 feet above the sea level and contains wildflower and shrubs. The Mojave desert is the driest, and 1/4 of the plants there are endemic including the Joshua Tree. Lastly is the Great Basin desert, AKA, where the Grand Canyon is. It has the least amount of plant life and there is sagebrush for miles.

So I kinda roll my eyes when people take photos of the Great Basin and are like "the Sonoran Desert is so beautiful~"

That's right, the Sonoran is beautiful but you are 200 miles away from it!

I was going to do the same thing but couldn't think of a misconception about Arizona. This is good.

Wonder how many people would be surprised to learn this:
9172120_G.jpg


And this:

Are about 2.5 hours apart.
 

valeo

Member
German here.

- no, we don‘t like Hitler, we do NOT appreciate your Asian or American ass shouting „Sieg Heil“ at us and doing the salute. Fuck right off.
- no, german women are not all blonde, they do not all have massive breasts and they do not all wear Dirndls. And if they do, they do not really appreciate being called „Fraulein“ and being groped at the Oktoberfest.
- no, we do NOT all live either in Bavaria or „the East“
- yes, there‘s Neo-NAZIs here
- yes they can speak their mind and have demonstrations on the street as long as they obey the law (don‘t show NAZI symbols, don‘t engage in hate speech, don‘t show the NAZI salute etc)
- no, we do not all think that Americans are really really stupid. But a lot of us don‘t like US foreign policy, including your foreign policy under Obama.
- no, we‘re not always drunk
- yes, we like beer
- yes, we have elevators
- yes, we have TVs
- yes, we have the internet
- yes, most of us speak english
- yes, a lot of us also speak french, so if you Teen French fuckers waltz around in Nürnberg or München or Berlin and comment loudly on women’s bodies in French said women will very likely understand what you are saying, you stupid idiots.
- yes, we have a lot of muslims in our bigger cities. Yes, they belong here. No, you don‘t need to be scared of them. Yes, some are assholes, as are some of the rest of us and some of you.
- no, dear brits, we do NOT appreciate you trying to start a fight in the streets over the football. Go fuck right off. And stop it with the goddamn NAZI salute when you’re drunk, god damnit. Also, most of us understand your slurs, even when you’re fucking drunk. And yes, we will judge your ass because of that, and this beautiful girl over there will NOT be oblivious because your foreign language is oh so complicated.
- yes, there is german humor, and we are fucking funny.

You sound very angry. Way to play into a common stereotype, man.
 

strafer

member
I do not speak for any Swede other than myself but people thinking they're being clever by 'pretending to be Swedish' by either just swapping out every a and o for åäö or by impersonating "The Swedish Chef" (bork bork bork) aren't being clever, original or funny. They're being racist.

What the hell is bork bork bork suppose to mean anyway? I dont watch the swedish chef.
 
Netherlands:

- we don't all smoke weed and bang hookers.
- we don't euthanise all old people (damn you fox news)

Yes we all have bicycles. And yes compared to the rest of the world we are pretty much communist socialists (thanks fox news)
 
What the hell is bork bork bork suppose to mean anyway? I dont watch the swedish chef.

From my understanding it's just a dumb catchphrase. The creation of the character as I understand it is basically 'Swedes sound funny when they talk, let's have a character that talks like my racist impression of Swedish!'

Netherlands:

- we don't all smoke weed and bang hookers.
- we don't euthanise all old people (damn you fox news)

Yes we all have bicycles. And yes compared to the rest of the world we are pretty much communist socialists (thanks fox news)
How are the winters there? In northern sweden it's only light out for maybe 3 hours in the dead of winter. It's better in southern Sweden but I still think it gets a bit too dark for me.
 

Chuckie

Member
How are the winters there? In northern sweden it's only light out for maybe 3 hours in the dead of winter. It's better in southern Sweden but I still think it gets a bit too dark for me.

Lately they seem to be extremely mild.
It's light for about 8 hours in the dead of winter.. Last Christmas it was warmer than it was on Easter :p
 

Kain

Member
Spain:

- We are not Mexico, we are european

- We don't take 3 hour long siestas

- We are not lazy bastards, in fact we work more than most of the other european countries (now, we don't work efficiently, but that's another issue)

- There are no toreros walking down the streets. Nobody dresses like that unless they ARE a torero and are performing. And most of the population hates corridas and bullfighting in general, it's seen as backwards and barbaric

- Flamenco is a thing of the south. Actually, pretty much most of the common stereotypes of spanish people come from people from the south, and even then, that's more or less a minority there. The south of Spain is huge, wonderful and full of diversity.

- The spanish from Spain sounds incredibly different than american Spanish, so much so that spanish from Spain (we call it Castillian) sounds rude to the american people lol. In contrast american spanish sounds incredibly polite to us. Though argentinian spanish is a thing and mexican is another, tbh, there's a lot of difference there. The point is I've been told by americans that I was not spanish because I don't speak mexican lol

- We are not eating paella and sangria all day long. Good paellas are not sold on cheap looking bars in the middle of Les Rambles. That's disgusting tourist bait. Sangria is good, but homemade Sangria is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better. I'm more a beer guy honestly.

- It is hot in here, and it barely rains (it's actually a problem), but Spain itself is like a mini-continent geographically wise. So while in the mediterranean is hot as fuck and summers are tourist paradise, in the north-northwest it's raining constantly and it can get cold anytime. Think of a little Britain there, with its rain, its funny talking fish eating people, cows and all that lol
 
How are the winters there? In northern sweden it's only light out for maybe 3 hours in the dead of winter. It's better in southern Sweden but I still think it gets a bit too dark for me.

Lol.. Winters just have a bit longer nights in the Netherlands. But we still have 10 - 12 hours of light to enjoy. We're not in that zone.
8 hours is probably the shortest day here.

Netherlands:

- we don't all smoke weed and bang hookers.
- we don't euthanise all old people (damn you fox news)

Yes we all have bicycles. And yes compared to the rest of the world we are pretty much communist socialists (thanks fox news)

Yeah we're a free-market country for the most part. But with a lot of social mixed in. In fact, i like us to be a bit more social and a bit less USA sometimes.
Thank god for our bicycles. Studies show that people on a bicycle feel more happy and free.
 
Top Bottom