Crazy misconceptions about your country.

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āruscio

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Post the weirdest/funniest/craziest misconception people have about your country.

To kick things off:
I met a German in a students' chatroom (which has since closed), and once I told him that I was American, he started typing in English and asked how his English was (we were typing German before). He had a lot of questions about America, some of the typical ones ("How does your government work, it's so different!", "Are people really that fat?") and we got on the topic of the Bill of Rights.

He asked if buying and owning a gun was really as easy as the second amendment implied. I said "No, how easy do the Germans think it is?" He then went off on how in Germany a lot of people think that here in the US everybody owns a gun, they're really cheap and there's a gun store in every town and there are lax gun laws.

I told him how people usually have to wait a week or so after buying a gun, (ten days in Cali, if I'm not mistaken. I think it's 3 days in my state) and that we have very strict gun laws, and that the second amendment is pretty much the only thing that makes some states stop short of banning the damn things. He was really surprised.

Also, I know several people from New England and New York who believe that in Pennsylvania (my state), drive fifty miles from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Philly, Pittsburgh, or Hershey/Harrisburg and you're in the middle of Hickland. Whilst this is not true at all, replace the hicks with conservatives and you've hit the nail on the head.
 
Tea.

We don't all literally have social meetings and sip it down. It is pretty much the dullest drink going. Any Brit on holiday will show you what kind of drink we like best :p
 
We in the Netherlands are not all drug addicts thank you very much. It's not even legal to smoke it in public or buy it from unauthorized people.

Also those people who think there are tulips and mills everywhere here are really living under a rock.
 
Annoys me when people get simple facts about Canada wrong:


.Canada’s capital is not Toronto; it’s Ottawa. We don’t have a president, and the country is not ruled by Queen, but by a Prime Minister

.Winter is not the only season in Canada. It’s not always cold here and the bears are not walking freely in the streets

.We don’t fight in wars not because we’re weak, but because we’re peacekeepers and wise. There are other ways to solve the issues between countries and communicate the message besides attacking another country

.It’s not true that Canadians say “eh” after every sentence. Perhaps every 10 sentences or so, eh :p

Thanks.
 
Time for some more USA ones.

Dear world: Contrary to popular belief, a majority of Americans no longer support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's just that our bureaucratic clusterfuck of a government doesn't do anything about the decade-long wars that we started out of crazy 9/11 hype. Here's a quote from the Simpsons that sums up the passing of any important bill through Congress pretty well:
The Simpsons Movie said:
Newsanchor: With our utter annihilation imminent, our federal government has snapped into action. We go live now via satellite to the floor of the United States Congress.
Speaker: Then it is unanimous, we are going to approve the bill to evacuate the town of Springfield in the great state of --
Congressman: Wait a minute, I want to tack on a rider to that bill: $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts.
Speaker: All in favor of the amended Springfield-slash-pervert bill?
Everyone: BOOOO!
Speaker: Bill defeated.
Kent: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Democracy simply doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Also, we're pretty much the UN's lapdog for any peacekeeping mission.

In other words, the fact that the wars keep going is not our fault. Totally.

Secondly, while our healthcare system is also a clusterfucked mess, if you don't pay your bills you are still entitled to emergency medical care. Dialing 911 and telling the correspondent where the injured person is will likely get an ambulance from the nearest hospital moving in about ten seconds. And, at least in my state, by law all drivers must yield to ambulances, and ambulances don't have to obey the speed limit or traffic signs.
 
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People have a misconception about New Yorkers, that is for sure. They think they are all stuck up people only interested in their work day and nothing else. I say this because I work at a place that does Phone Surveys. The recent one is a radio survey for NYC. The guys programing the survey said the time period should be longer because New Yorkers would rather not waste 5 minutes on a survey instead of going about their work day.

As for in Florida where I live, we all seem to think once you get near Alligator Alley, there is really nothing out there except sugar cane farms, or cod farms.

As for the OP, I would hate it if everyone had a gun, and the laws prevent that from ever happening. The fact that you need to take a class to wield a gun on you deters people from buying them, as it means they would only use it for in home use.
 
Not a country, but the state that my cousin descends from, California : The people are woman who are just dumb blondes that have big breasts and tan and men are just macho bodybuilders who go to the beach all day and party all night.
 
Watching mock the week made me realise that people think everyone in Belgium is a pedophile. Not so, that's strictly confined to the catholic church, it seems.

Not to mention the stereotype of us being drunks because we have great beer. We have great beer, but we hold it well.
 
rebornrocks said:
Not a country, but the state that my cousin descends from, California : The people are woman who are just dumb blondes that have big breasts and tan and men are just macho bodybuilders who go to the beach all day and party all night.
Click to expand...

When that is all they show on TV ...

I blame shows like Beverly Hills ... and other shows centered in LA for that. The same way I blame New York conceptions on Law and Order and other shows like it. It makes NYC look like a very dangerous place. When really it isn't that bad.
 
Just one -- we're not as great as everyone believes.
 
Indian Streets are NOT filled with cattle.

Not all Indians speak in that wierd accent that most western media depicts. The urban folk are fluent in english.
 
As I am from Georgia, U.S.A, that makes me a sibling-fucking, Bush-loving, deer-hunting, truck-driving, minority-hating, filthy backwards redneck, doesn't it?
 
That all of us know Kung Fu.
We eat spring rolls & fried rice all day.
People spit in the streets all the time.

That we all have this flu virus.. Seriously!
 
In Finland
1. It isn't winter all the time, there is 4 seasons, summer being very hot (especially at the moment. Ugh.)
2. No polar bears. At all.
 
Jugon said:
In Finland
1. It isn't winter all the time, there is 4 seasons, summer being very hot (especially at the moment. Ugh.)
2. No polar bears. At all.
Click to expand...

Finland Land of the Rising Sun? Or is that Norway/Sweden?
 
Everyone says we're all fat and no brains. ;-;
 
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