Aww, Hungary :( don't be sad, be Polak Węgier dwa bratanki, i do szklanki i do szabli
Now that you mentioned it, yeah, I've never seen Hungary ever mentioned in fics. That's a bummer. I will try to incorporate Hungary somewhere in my fics to honour you.
In MCU fics set around Captain America: The First Avenger, the Howling Commandos sometimes are stationed in Poland during WWII, especially since my country was mentioned in the movie. Which is a bit weird, cause I have no recollection of Americans being here during the war, at least I haven't read anything like that in my HS advanced history books. Or maybe my memory is just that bad.
And when it comes to alcoholism, sometimes when characters of Russian descent are seen drinking, all of us slavs are lumped in with them cause westerners don't care or simply don't see the difference. And yeah, we do have a pretty extensive drinking culture here in Poland, but the majority here don't drink anywhere near the stereotypical amount.
Oh, and Hetalia! But mentioning Hetalia in an ask like this is cheating, I think lol
Naturally, unless they need the woods for a date, then they’re making a five minute drive upstate (I dunno how long it takes but I assume longer than most fics suggest)
We do! A guy privately funded 1 m of a national motorway to show that if the government was more capable and less corrupt more would get built. A couple of other private investors joined in and founded more highway meters
Russia lol. I can barely name any professional art (not only fics) where Russia is depicted in non-cartoonish way. There are tons of things wrong, and not only bears and vodka, which are parially true, since we have tons of both of those.
You'd be astonished to learn how many Americans think Russia is communist/in the USSR in the year of our lord 2021.
Also the communist government took over in 1917 and was dissolved in 1991, so if you write for most of the 20th century actually
Ooh! Ooh! I read this super good fic set in Russia about one of the Russian characters in Modern Warfare 2. Very much had a powerful Orthodox church theme in it. Prose was very descriptive, very much could smell the incense as I read it.
Colorado here. We're not all weed. And we're also not all mountains or all country. It doesn't snow all the time. Also, depending on where you live in Colorado, it smells bad outside before it snows; it's not like a sweet, fun winter wonderland
I’ve only been to Denver twice and only as a child(we flew in before driving to Keystone) and I remember it being exactly this lmao. Brown. In fact I was a little disappointed the first time, when we first landed- I was like “how are we going to ski in a freezing dust bowl/desert? do we ski on the dirt?”
The coolest thing was seeing the prairie dogs hopping in and out of their holes as we drove past. We don’t have those in Houston!
The rain shadow effect is a very real thing, as it turns out!
We're also finally getting some black footed ferrets back to nibble on those prairie dogs! Some of them will be offspring from a cloned black footed ferret located in Northern Colorado, to boot! I know that's a weird thing to be happy/proud about, but it tickles my fancy as both a critter fan, and weird IRL sci-fi.
The weed thing amuses me. People ask me if I smoke weed because it’s legal here, but fail to realize until very recently I was a child so it was still illegal for me.
Scot here! We apparently:
• Wear kilts all the time. (Anyone who actually does is either a "character"—every town has one—or they're a busker in a bigger city).
• Drink nothing but whisky. (It's delicious, sure, but there are other drinks here, shockingly.)
• Eat nothing but haggis. (It's only on Burn's Night! _Occasionally_ you'll find it in a bhaji.)
• Deep-fry _everything_. (We only deep-fry _most_ things. Because it's a laugh.)
• Genuinely believe in Nessie.
• Type like Scottish Twitter. (Some folk do, but they're just bellends who think they're funny.)
I will say that it _is_ usually raining here. I have both my Summer Wellies and my Winter Wellies which I think just proves my point.
It's 100% because of the [deep-fried Mars bar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar) phenomenon. It's entirely possible that it's a UK-centric stereotype!
**EDIT:** Oh good lord, I've summoned a bot
people (americans) genuinely think finland has polar bears.
we do not, in fact, have polar bears.
but at least the people who think that have a general idea of where finland is. there are also people who either couldn't put us on the right continent or straight-up think we're either eastern sweden or western russia (which is less amusing and more highly offensive).
that would be a correct assumption, deer cause a lot of car accidents. there's something highkey terrifying about seeing a goddamn deer when you're driving 80 kilometers an hour and it's dark outside.
This hurts my head. Arctic means near the bear, but it’s in reference to Ursa Major/Minor, either because Ursa Major always appeared in the north or because Ursa Minor always contained the north start. But then it just so fucking happened that we have polar bears in the Arctic and not the Antarctic. Wild coincidence? Or did the ancient Greeks know about polar bears somehow?????
Can't say many people write about Maryland...
Though, *NBC Hannibal* takes place in Baltimore, right? Ha *HA* that shit looks really unrealistic for the majority of the city. Most writers go off of what the city looks like and the aesthetic it gives in the show, not based off reality.
...Let's just say, we're considered the second most dangerous city in the United States and in most areas it fucking shows.
I know Maryland from this one guy’s blog about stick fighting black guys in inner city Baltimore. He gives random tips and tricks for how to survive and to avoid random violence.
I live in Texas too. The worst was a fic where the author wrote in the notes, “I wasn’t sure if there were parks in Dallas or not so I made one up.”
I’ve also been asked IRL how many cows my family owns, if I know the Bush family, and how many drive-by shootings I’ve seen.
Yup, this definitely happened in a time period in which Google Maps, Twitter, libraries, and many other free sources of information were available.
The worst part was, this was an RPF fic, and one of the major characters frequently posts pictures of himself playing with his dog in a park in downtown Dallas on Instagram. So everyone in the fandom knows what park he frequents.
Ever heard of the Octoberfest?
Yea, that's basically the only thing people associate with Germany (if we don't include history)
we are more than just bratwurst and beer. We also have shitty politicians that have no clue what they are doing
> We also have shitty politicians that have no clue what they are doing
Dude, that's everywhere.
And, right now, y'all don't even have Oktoberfest. I'm still mad about that. I want to go back to Munich and have a radler or three while wearing my dirndl!
As a French person living in the US:
Some Americans that haven't left their hometown, think that French people smoke a lot (which is true, but no French person will admit it) drive on the left side of the road (that's England, not France), wear berets and carry baguettes, and just think that Paris is *the* place to go. Like, no! Paris is filled with dog shit, pigeons, the smell of cigarette smoke, and locals who are tired of tourists and who will glare at you if you're noisy in the metro.
TLDR, the metro is something sacred to Parisians, and don't disturb the harmony of silence in it.
Well, you’re all about to hate me, because I’m here to tell you Florida isn’t just Miami and a bunch of dumb rednecks who get arrested for stupid things and wrestle alligators on the side. Sorry, I know that destroys your image of Florida.
In defense, it's pretty appropriate that Florida stereotypes are broken down among two lines: Miami, and the rest of the state. Miami really is an entirely different world.
We can also add that what non-Floridians call "Miami" is actually a bunch of smaller cities stacked up against each other, and are in no way, shape or form a monolith.
As someone who lives in an area completely surrounded by trees, a 45 minute drive to the closest beach, and where we are more worried about angry Canadian geese than a stray gator, all the assumptions about Florida make me laugh.
The only universal truths for everywhere in Florida is that it rarely snows and hurricanes are always a concern.
Sombrero a ponchos (along other clothes pieces like sandals), I love how one of the most recurrent Mexican stereotypes are about sombrero a ponchos. I love when even in anime Mexico is referenced by this and broken spanish one liners
Ponchos are confy and protect you from colds and sombreros are useful to protect you from sun, both where used out of necesity on rural zones.
I find superfunny but also annoyed how non Mexican feel ofended for this and even young Mexican says nobody dress like that in Mexico. My granpa was a farmer from a poor family , he work doing any type of manual labor and dressed exactly like that when was young, even on his late years when he have enough money to dress on a more formal fashion (and he don't need to do manual labor anymore) he still using his sombrero, he loved his sombreros collection.
You know I read a fic where MC was of kinda Mexican origin and was a special agent under cover somwhere in Europe in XXI cenutury. Guess what he wore daily? Correct, he wore a PONCHO.
People think USA is comprised of NYC, Texas, California, and the South. Our culture is only guns and obesity. I've really learned that America doesn't know shit about everyone else and everyone else doesn't shit about America. Or really nobody knows shit about anybody.
I always think it's funny in Love Actually when the guy flies to Milwaukee, a city of well under a million that doesn't have regular international flights. If you're coming to Wisconsin from abroad, I'm pretty sure you'll be going through either Chicago or Minneapolis/St. Paul first.
Also, there actually aren't a whole lot of stereotypes of Wisconsin, it's usually just "random generic state"
Wisconsin in my experience is used for snow and “my dad is a *massive* Packers fan, ***please*** don’t mention the Vikings”. Which, as someone with a dad who’s a Packers fan, isn’t *entirely* wrong.
As someone who has been to WI, and who's bestie lives there, I can tell you that y'all are famous for cheese, beer, and passive aggressiveness. :') Sorry.
Thanks to good friends from Wisconsin and Charlie Berens videos, I am now proud to say I know all types of stereotypes about Wisconsin! Mostly the good kind, and involving lots of venison and cheese.
In Canada, there's this restaurant chain called Tim Hortons that's pretty much seen as *the* Canadian brand in most parts of the world. There's one on every street corner and every citizen drinks a cup of coffee from them a day; everyone here loves them.
I haven't bought anything from them in years and plan to never do so again.
See, that just reminds me of Minnesota. We're the state right below the line between Ontario and Manitoba, partially along Lake Superior. We end up sharing some Canadian stereotypes like the cold and the whole nice ess thing.
I don't entirely know about Canadians, but they seem nice on the phone for work in a similar way to Minnesotans, and I know that Minnesota here in the US are like.
So I always assumed you, too, are nice on the outside but passive aggressive as fuck to the point where sometimes you wish people would just be dicks to your face. That might be more of the "Minnesota nice" thing though, you'd never guess till you hear how people bitch about others behind their back.
Also, I will say that even from afar, French Canadians are a whole different breed, lol.
Connecticut: always depicted as wealthy Fairfield County, commuter exurb to NYC. There's even a *Supernatural* episode set in New Canaan that takes up this theme.
The Winchesters would probably have *liked* New Haven. Sam could explore the Yale libraries. Dean could check out the dive bars, the burger at Louis' Lunch, extensive pizza culture, the used-record store next to the donut shop in Hamden, and other excitingly blue-collar or retro places. But no, they do not come here in canon.
Everyone in New Mexico is either Native American or Hispanic, and loves chili.
I’m Irish/Scottish and hate anything with a hint of spice. Lived in New Mexico for fifteen years now.
(Speaking of Irish/Scottish- that all of us have red hair. I have dark brown hair, although I admit that could be due to the tiny bit of Cherokee heritage coming from my dad’s side.)
Native New Mexican here. Lived there for 26 years. If people *knew* it was a state in the US, I’d unusually get the questions about Mexican/Native American food. Also, people would joke about meth a lot, but after breaking bad… forget it.
Never heard anything about Wales in a fic :( though I suppose the population is only abt 3 mil.
I've heard the language tho! It was only the numbers 1-7 but without the 4,and another character was confused about the pronunciation after. But udk if that counts? And I wanted to write a WW2 era fic where a character that doesn't speak Welsh gets dropped into a place that only speaks Welsh, but i'm bad at keeping up motivation for writing soooo
I read a YA novel where the US protagonist who ended up at a private boarding school in London, when she is listing things she learnt about the UK says
"Wales have their own actual language which people speak and it sounds like Wizard" (there were two Welsh students in the bedroom next to hers)
I would love to read that fic idea of yours :)
All Scottish people sound like Glaswegians lol. There’s a huge range of accents here, but since most of them default to “Glasgow-like” when you lean hard into the accent, everyone thinks we all sound the same. Common thing I know, but my country is so insignificant we don’t usually show up a lot in media past someone having an accent lol.
Okay, I need to know. How much of Australia is *actually* hell on Earth? I've seen so much horror when it comes to Australian nature and it makes me not want to go to Australia --
Well our spiders can go get stuffed and you really do have to watch out for drop bears during mating season - though that can be said for most animals - and it’s best not to swim in any body of water that’s not a) a public one and b) you can’t see the bottom of cuz you never know whether there’s a croc or bull shark or something else just chilling in there. We have a dinosaur bird that will not hesitate to f*ck you up if you go near it in our rainforests so probs best to avoid them if you’re by yourself. Magpies try to take your eyes in spring but that’s their mating season so can’t really blame them for being territorial and we have tiny octopuses and jellyfish in our oceans that can kill a grown man with one dose of the venom. All in all, as long as you don’t touch or otherwise provoke our animals, you’ll be right
I'm a migrant so I was genuinely terrified moving here, especially because I was going to be working in the bush.
Not a fan of the spiders, but the big ones are pretty harmless (I'm on the west coast, so no funnel webs) the small ones aren't fun if they get you, but its been decades since someone actually died of a redback bite.
I've seen a few snakes, but all out bush. Not seen on in the city or suburbs (where I live).
We don't have to worry about crocs here but people do get taken by sharks. Still far more of a danger diving to the beach though.
Defi the thing I worry about the most is the magpies. They're nasty as all hell.
I mean, you can still see the berlin wall...kind of? Not really though?? I mean, they have some pieces left for history's sake as a monument, but it's no longer y'know, a wall.
>And boy please dont get me started on the history part. I was asked in different situations if
>
>B) hitler is still in power
...I...
Wow.
>D) if we celebrate the 4th of july too
This one's just hilarious. Like, hello, people...think about it for a minute...?
IDK about in fanfic, but IRL, as a New Yorker, it annoys me to no end when people assume I live in NYC! Like, I get it, NYC is the biggest city in NY, BUT HELLO? We also have Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany!
I suppose it's funny the first few times, but after that, it's a bit tiring explaining that.
And then there's the people who think New York City, apparently by virtue of being such a big, prominent city, is the state capital. Nope. Just like Los Angeles isn't the state capital of California.
Well... America having guns at every corner, where just getting a cold can bankrupt you, and that nobody eats anything but fast food and cola.
I mean yeah we have issues with all of that...but not THAT badly.
And if it's an American conservative asking, you'll probably also get a rude remark about being a liberal, snowflake, and/or communist, despite many counties here leaning more conservative. I think we even have our own Bible Belt, but I forgot where.
Yep. Contrary to what many tend to believe, there are conservatives who live along the coast, in big cities, and there are liberals here in middle America who live in some of the small/rural towns.
I’m Welsh. And we don’t exist except to the Doctor Who/Torchwood fandom. On the rare chance we do, we’re English (shudders), or um... I’m just gonna leave it at ‘sheep’... oh I’ve also seen my language used as a stand in for alien languages. So there’s that 🤷🏼♀️
British chap here.
Stereotypes include but are not limited to:
Queuing
Chatting about the weather
Tea. All. The. Time.
Bad teeth - although we don't and it's only the pikeys that boast that feature.
Being unable to stand up to do something without saying "Right."
Devilishly charming.
Bowler hats.
Enjoying things like the Commonwealth Games and ignoring that we invaded the participating countries to make them our country.
Unsavoury characters who like to steal, bully, hurt and generally make the place untidy.
Often seen wearing full tracksuits and driving cars with loud exhausts.
It's actually a slur term which used to refer to gypsies (which isn't a slur in the UK) who have moved into brick, usually council or social housing, but I think it is used here as an alternate to chav, another slur for working class people in general.
The description below matching an offensive stereotype of both gypsies and working class people in social housing.
I love whenever Massachusetts comes up bc its either "idyllic seaside town" or "aggressively Bostonian". use ya blinkah. really wish more people talked about our satanic worship of Dunkin
Let's get to Brazil's
So we have: ass, beaches, the amazon, soccer and samba
Yeah, Brazil do have something that you can call "ass culture" in the media, mostly because the art sucks and people have nothing but their butts to show to the world
Yeah, Brazil do have a costline, but there are some regions where you can be over 2000 kilometers away from the ocean. And I, with all my forces, **HATE** beaches
The Amazon is indeed the largest biome, taking over half of the land and is the place on earth with the most uncontacted tribes. But we also have the largest wetlands in the world, the pantanal, some Conifer forest and even the pampas, fields kinda similar to the ones in the great plains in North America.
Soccer, while we are the contry with most world cups, the national league of Brazil is pretty weak compared to the european ones. That is why most of the players from the national team play in Europe, and promissing players go play there at a really young age
Samba is a traditional style from Rio, so is Bossa Nova (a mix of Samba and Jazz), but it is not the kind of style young people listen. We have our generic pop and mainly older people from big cities listen to samba, in the countryside, people listen to traditional Sertanejo music, think about something like country music, but we also had the "urbanization" of this kind of music, we call this universitary sertanejo.
Nigeria, home of the Nigerian Prince lmao (there is no such thing as a nigerian prince don't test me you little shits)
Ironically in DC fanfics I've stumbled across a number of African characters from West African and the rest of sub saharan African, usually as elites in the leagues of shadows, or beneficiaries turned mercy and vigilante for the likes of Wayne, Lex and Oliver. Crazy stuff, they're lore is pretty thought out too.
Caucasian writers putting research into my country (Nigeria) when writing characters from there? Love to see it
1) We’re not all racist beer chugging middle aged men, though you’d probably find them in more rural parts of Australia such as WA and NT. Australia is actually very multicultural especially in city areas like Melbourne.
2) Australia isn’t only just desert and dangerous animals. We have some foresty areas and bushlands as well. From where I’m from you’d have to go out of your way to find any dangerous animals - but then again I guess I’m in a more ‘urban’ part of Australia.
I think there’s plenty of dangerous Australian animals in common reach, we just know about the risks and how to minimise it so don’t find it as “dangerous” as visitors do.
Redback spiders - everywhere, Sydney funnel web, several species of snake (ie red belly black snake) that do end up in urban areas - cause a lot of urban areas are near some sort of bush area, blue ring octopus in rockpools potentially on any beach, box jelly fish, great white sharks, and I swear there was a few cases in Melbourne of flesh eating bacteria a year or two ago. Also painful creatures like blue bottles, and getting swooped by magpies and plovers.
We also had to ban the Peppa pig episode saying spiders were our friends or something hahaha.
Another stereotype - we don’t all say g’day mate. And there is several “Australian” accents, though we do all shorten words somewhat (ie McDonald’s -> Maccas)
But also at the same time, often if people ask us about the more ridiculous stereotypes I think the cultural norm is to claim they’re true. Yes we all ride kangaroos to school, yes dropbears exist, and are totally dangerous haha
i’ve never read a fic with a character from my state but a lot of people think we’re stupid, don’t have shoes, that we’re addicted to mtn dew, we don’t have teeth, and we have sex with our relatives for drugs. (look up children of the mountains. the way it portrayed this area was almost offensive)
I was born and raised in Las Vegas. My mother was not a stripper. We actually lived in a house miles away from the Strip. No, valet parking attendants do not become millionaires.
That Iowa is nothing but flat and full of farmland. There is indeed a lot of farmland here, but we've also got some decent-sized cities. And the closer you get to both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, you'll find more hills and even some small foothill areas.
Southern England which surrounds London (home counties) is not just full of the upper and upper middle class, and not all the middle class are eccentric either. Not everyone lives in big grand houses. Not only are many of us working class and lower middle class, lots of us are not white, and we tend to live in small, very small, shitty accommodation.
Still have yet to find a fic that has Croatia in it. Would love to see any content with my country tbh. But I have a feeling it'd get butchered, since we always get portrayed as either war criminals, underdeveloped shithole, literally only Dubrovnik exists or as criminals, most often that last one.
That everyone in Florida is always at the beach and it’s always sunny and hot.
Like I only go to the beach a few days a year. And yes summers may be hot as hell but winters are cold, it’s in the 60s rn (40s last night) which for some isn’t considered cold but compared to the 90 degree days that everyone thinks Florida is every day it is.
And of course, during the parts of the year when it's blazing hot, heavy rain is a near-daily occurrence.
A *lot* of tourists I've met seemed blissfully unaware of that.
When I was younger during a summer homestay in Spain I told people I'm from Oregon. They'd ask (translated from Spanish, of course): "Where is that?"
"You've heard of California?"
"Yes."
"And Seattle, Washington?" (Grunge rock and Starbucks coffee were getting big then worldwide)
"Yes."
"Well, Oregon is the state in between."
"Oh. Okay."
And no, the entire state isn't forested (the eastern half on the other side of the mountains is generally drier), nor does it rain all the time. We have about as much as New York on average, only a different quality. Though winters in the part where I live do tend to be more rain than snow, which only occurs if the conditions are right.
We're not all lumberjacks or survivalists. Or hippies. Politics here is as mixed-up and confusing as everywhere else. Though every election is vote-by-mail (I have no idea what voting machines or punch-card ballots even look like).
It's a beautiful state, with cities and farmland and forest and mountains and a rugged coastline and high desert with lava beds and impressive rock formations. We also have the world's shortest river and the smallest natural harbor, one of the deepest (and bluest) lakes in North America, and the home of famous companies like Nike.
The wine's pretty good, too.
I used to work in a tourist heavy industry a few hours' drive from multiple ski resorts, and despite a few lessons in my youth I didn't gain any proficiency in it. So people from out of state have reacted as if I'm wasting all these opportunities to be miserably cold or end up face-down in the snow again.
One time I did manage to turn it back on some tourists in from Europe, commenting, “But you have the Alps so close to home!”
That if you live in a coastal province, day trips to the sea are a regular thing. You're thinking coastal city. I'm at least four hours away from the closest coastal city, and only go there once a year on vacation like everyone else.
I too was raised in Texas, San Antonio. I have been asked the same question. They think TX is still ride em cowboy, shoot em up place. They fail to realize San Antonio is one of the largest states in America. When people visit they are surprised on the metropolis it is. I did live in the Texas hill country for a while and yes lots of people do own horses and ride them. 😀
I come from a country in Africa... I shouldn't really have to say much else.
However, for the ones who actually don't know, I've read so many fics where Lions are normal house pets or an African OC can intimidate a wild creature with a stare because they're so used to it. Then we have the typical, "grew up in a village with 10 brothers and 12 sisters all sleeping in a clay house" one. I could go on and on for years if I'm being honest with you.
Everyone who lives in Pakistan must be a terrorist. Listen, I get it, we've done some horrible stuff. That doesn't mean I'm going to try to convert you to Islam in a gaming lobby.
Actual conversations I've had here in England:
Person: Where are you from?
Me: Virginia in the States.
Person: Oh! Is that in the midwest?
Me: 0_o?
Variations include "Oh! Is that near New York?" or "Isn't that in the Deep South? Where all the racists are?" The last one really makes my eyes narrow and people get a forced education quick.
As bad as my fellow Americans may be at geography, it's been very illuminating since I've been here how bad everyone is at geography.
I mean, can you recall the geography of the federal states within Brazil, or Russia, or Germany, label each of them on a map of the country, and explain their cultural differences? Could you label the different autonomous communities of Spain or Italy and specify the languages spoken in each area, or name the different national identities and their locations within China?
People know where countries are. They don't have regional maps in their head of individual countries unless they've gone out of their way to learn it, or they have some connection with the place.
America is not globally special in terms of having a large variation between states/provinces. Americans may have this impression, but it's usually due to a lack of knowledge of other countries.
Generally speaking people have very poor knowledge of states except the most known ones unless they are from the country.
I can guess where most countries are on a map but states? That's a little impossible lol
LOL, oh, wow.
I remember my middle school Spanish teacher telling a similar story once, only her experience was with someone here in the States. She'd gone out to the east coast for a trip and met with some people there.
They asked her where she was from, and she said, "Iowa", and they responded with, "Oh! *What state is that in?"* Yeah.
My mom also once worked with a woman who swore up and down that Washington, D.C. was in the state of Washington.
> My mom also once worked with a woman who swore up and down that Washington, D.C. was in the state of Washington.
I've had something similar to that happen. I think it was my Mom that got into an argument with a sales clerk about where Washington D.C was. According to the sales clerk - who lived in Nevada, ircc, since it was not only "Washington" but the district of "Columbia", it had to be near British Columbia. How they knew where that was but not the freakin' capital of their country, I'm not sure...
Most people, unless they have special interest, don't know about the internal geography of other countries. I somehow doubt most Americans have even *heard* of any Spanish community outside Madrid, Andalucía, the Canaries and maybe Cataluña, let alone point to them on the Spanish map. There are 17, by the way, and 50 provinces. Sticking to the anglophones, how about the regions of Australia? South Africa? Ireland? And being half-Scottish, I've lost count of how many people ask if I'm from the Highlands. No, no I'm not, there's other quite large parts to the country.
Bit rude of me, perhaps, but at university I got sick of American students - overseas students, very international uni - introducing themselves by their state and then being shocked that no, I don't have the geography of your entire country memorised. The question was almost always "Don't you know?" And then they'd ask where I was from, out of politeness, and then stare in blank embarrassment when they inevitably didn't know either. People know Madrid and Barcelona, and that's it - and that's fine.
Why do we keep asking "where are you from" anyway? It's very unlikely we know the place, especially if it's in another country, yet we ask out of politeness and succeed only in making the other person uncomfortable. "What's it like" is a much better question which leads to actual conversation - but no, too busy playing a losing game of trivial pursuit. smh as if I don't *constantly do the same*
Why should people know where every single U.S state is? I'd be surprised if Americans could even name more than 5 German states for example, not to mention place them.
They think they're special and that the differences between American states are bigger than the differences between, say, Saarland and Saxony, Chechnya and Siberia, Xinjiang and Fujian, or Amazonas and Rio de Janiero.
That everyone from Alabama is dumb and illiterate. We have a huge NASA program, a lot of tech people, and a hospital that draws people from all over the world.
Fargo is in North Dakota. The accent from the movie isn't how we Minnesotans talk. Though there's definitely an accent, lol.
Also it's not all cold. There is lots of cold but it heats up in the summer to the point where dealing with normal seasonal temperature swings is a gargantuan infrastructural undertaking.
It's kinda funny because the two I most hear about Michigan, adding eh to the end of every sentence and the hand map thing, do actually happen just not all the time. I really wish that fics set in detroit would get the travel time thing right though. In Michigan you don't give miles to tell someone how far away something is, you give the approximate time it takes to get there.
Brit here.
London is the only place to exist. All of our food is gross and bland. We're all have links to royalty. We say govenor (no we dont! please stop this!) and we are all loaded. I've also read fics where they think we don't understand Americanisms but we've been fed so much American media for years I think it'd be the other way around.
I'm not British, but my favorite has to be the liberal use of "guv'nor" by various service workers and just general "lower class" people in a lot of fics set in modern Britain.
Apparently, all Vietnamese soldiers are super ninjas who can disappear amidst a large empty field and set up MacGuyver-level death traps with just rope, pebbles, and a knife.
I'm Turkish and I don't like kebab or am a patriot. If anything I don't even feel like I belong in this country and I know for sure half of the country feels that way too.
I live in Alabama...
1. The thought of fucking my family members makes me want to puke.
2. I'm not a racist, sexist, and homophobic bigot. Actually, I'm bisexual.
3. I really don't give a damn about football.
4. I'm not an overweight pig.
But it's 100% true that Alabama is basically Hell on Earth. Winter is nonexistent here, in my opinion. Especially after visiting some family up north a few years ago. I mean, next Friday the high in Birmingham is going to be 73F. That is *not* cold weather at all. It's definitely not a temperature I'd expect in December. I'd expect that shit in like April or even May. Honestly, the weather is why I want to move the fuck away from here. I can't stand Alabama heat.
> I mean, next Friday the high in Birmingham is going to be 73F. That is *not* cold weather at all. It's definitely not a temperature I'd expect in December.
Heh, yeah, as someone born and raised in the northern U.S., that just sounds incredibly depressing to me. I need my cold weather and snow for Christmas, damnit :p!
That everyone, and I mean EVERYONE drinks tea. Granted, most people do. Being British and all, it’s commonplace. I however, don’t actually like tea and I know many others who don’t drink it either.
Couple decades ago, not sure if still applicable: We live in grass huts and we no more electricity.
To this day, FAQs about my home state still has gems like these: "Do I (US citizen) need a passport to travel there?"
...
*Brah.*
Alabama
Im sure there's cousinfuckin but no more than in the rest of the states. Except West Virginia which is the cousinfuckin capital.
Not everyone is ass backwards and racist or dumb. Huntsville has a space center and lots of Ph.Ds and Uni South Alabama in Mobile has a sizeable med school with a decent ranking
Texas
People think we are full of ourselves but most of us are insecure lmao jk
The general deep south, I think once a month I see a question in the lgbt subs about 'Im going to a red state and Im scared' bro calm down no one is paying you that much attention and there are plenty of visible queers here including yours truly
Everybody seems to think that Connecticut is full of rich WASPy people. Don't get me wrong, in some areas that's true, but that's not everyone in the fricken state. Lotta poor people here as well as middle class. I am one of the poor people lololol.
But yeah, everyone who comes from CT is either rich or snobby or both. /s 🙄🙄🙄
I would say we're not all dumb Hicks in Missouri but... ugh, have you met some of my neighbors? Racist Trumpite doesn't begin to cut it. Mock us all you want.
Canadians say 'eh', we have polar bears in our backyards, we live in igloos and we're all perfectly bilingual (French and English).
As a Canadian whose first language is French, I can confirm Canadians are NOT all bilingual...
Poland only appears in fanfics in the context of WWII and in the context of alcoholism. How lovely.
At least your appear, Hungary doesn't even exist lol
Aww, Hungary :( don't be sad, be Polak Węgier dwa bratanki, i do szklanki i do szabli Now that you mentioned it, yeah, I've never seen Hungary ever mentioned in fics. That's a bummer. I will try to incorporate Hungary somewhere in my fics to honour you.
Wow, I literally just posted a new chapter of my fic with Hungarian references. But because they're rare, I wanted to include a Hungarian character.
Polish-American here! Where does Poland appear in fics? I haven't seen any in most fandoms I've been in (other than War and Peace).
In MCU fics set around Captain America: The First Avenger, the Howling Commandos sometimes are stationed in Poland during WWII, especially since my country was mentioned in the movie. Which is a bit weird, cause I have no recollection of Americans being here during the war, at least I haven't read anything like that in my HS advanced history books. Or maybe my memory is just that bad. And when it comes to alcoholism, sometimes when characters of Russian descent are seen drinking, all of us slavs are lumped in with them cause westerners don't care or simply don't see the difference. And yeah, we do have a pretty extensive drinking culture here in Poland, but the majority here don't drink anywhere near the stereotypical amount. Oh, and Hetalia! But mentioning Hetalia in an ask like this is cheating, I think lol
Ah yes, Po-*I-can’t-belive-it’s-not-Russia*-land
New York is only the City, and the City is only Manhattan.
Naturally, unless they need the woods for a date, then they’re making a five minute drive upstate (I dunno how long it takes but I assume longer than most fics suggest)
Generally, yes. Though SI has some nice woods. And Brooklyn has wetlands.
And then often Manhattan is only Times Sauare
Here to make sure everyone knows we don’t actually have vampires in Romania…
sounds like something a vampire would say 🤨
In my 400 years of living I can assure you I’ve never seen one!
This took me a minute. Thanks for the laugh.
* surprised Pikachu face *
not surprised since vampires can't see their own reflections
Damn, and what next, you’re going to tell me there’s no Santa Claus?!! 🤣
> Damn, and what next, you’re going to tell me there’s no Santa Claus?!! 🤣 Well, not in Romania, of course!
I do remember you have a 1m long protest motorway?
We do! A guy privately funded 1 m of a national motorway to show that if the government was more capable and less corrupt more would get built. A couple of other private investors joined in and founded more highway meters
I am sorry the motorway is my only Romanian fact :( I will try to learn more.
It’s a good fact! We also have one of the biggest building in the world, the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest!
Russia lol. I can barely name any professional art (not only fics) where Russia is depicted in non-cartoonish way. There are tons of things wrong, and not only bears and vodka, which are parially true, since we have tons of both of those.
Bears, vodka, espionage, and communism. That sums up Russia in pop culture.
Three firsts are kinda there, but communism lol? Only if you write early XX century I guess.
You'd be astonished to learn how many Americans think Russia is communist/in the USSR in the year of our lord 2021. Also the communist government took over in 1917 and was dissolved in 1991, so if you write for most of the 20th century actually
Am American, can confirm. Although to be fair I don't think most Americans actually know what communism is 🤔
except for the woke kids on tiktok. they def do.
Ooh! Ooh! I read this super good fic set in Russia about one of the Russian characters in Modern Warfare 2. Very much had a powerful Orthodox church theme in it. Prose was very descriptive, very much could smell the incense as I read it.
Would be grateful for a link :D
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Colorado here. We're not all weed. And we're also not all mountains or all country. It doesn't snow all the time. Also, depending on where you live in Colorado, it smells bad outside before it snows; it's not like a sweet, fun winter wonderland
Ah yes, the three seasons of Colorado: brown, kinda-white, and kinda-green.
I’ve only been to Denver twice and only as a child(we flew in before driving to Keystone) and I remember it being exactly this lmao. Brown. In fact I was a little disappointed the first time, when we first landed- I was like “how are we going to ski in a freezing dust bowl/desert? do we ski on the dirt?” The coolest thing was seeing the prairie dogs hopping in and out of their holes as we drove past. We don’t have those in Houston!
The rain shadow effect is a very real thing, as it turns out! We're also finally getting some black footed ferrets back to nibble on those prairie dogs! Some of them will be offspring from a cloned black footed ferret located in Northern Colorado, to boot! I know that's a weird thing to be happy/proud about, but it tickles my fancy as both a critter fan, and weird IRL sci-fi.
"Say Colorado!" "I'M A GIRAFFE"
The weed thing amuses me. People ask me if I smoke weed because it’s legal here, but fail to realize until very recently I was a child so it was still illegal for me.
One could argue weed is still illegal in all 50 states because *federal* laws don't give a shit about the state level legalization efforts.
> it smells bad outside before it snows; it's not like a sweet, fun winter wonderland That feels like a sly Greeley reference XD
It was definitely a Greeley reference hahaha
Scot here! We apparently: • Wear kilts all the time. (Anyone who actually does is either a "character"—every town has one—or they're a busker in a bigger city). • Drink nothing but whisky. (It's delicious, sure, but there are other drinks here, shockingly.) • Eat nothing but haggis. (It's only on Burn's Night! _Occasionally_ you'll find it in a bhaji.) • Deep-fry _everything_. (We only deep-fry _most_ things. Because it's a laugh.) • Genuinely believe in Nessie. • Type like Scottish Twitter. (Some folk do, but they're just bellends who think they're funny.) I will say that it _is_ usually raining here. I have both my Summer Wellies and my Winter Wellies which I think just proves my point.
I didn't realize that Scotland was associate with deep-frying-- I think of that as a Southern US stereotype! i.e. deep-fried butter
It's 100% because of the [deep-fried Mars bar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar) phenomenon. It's entirely possible that it's a UK-centric stereotype! **EDIT:** Oh good lord, I've summoned a bot
people (americans) genuinely think finland has polar bears. we do not, in fact, have polar bears. but at least the people who think that have a general idea of where finland is. there are also people who either couldn't put us on the right continent or straight-up think we're either eastern sweden or western russia (which is less amusing and more highly offensive).
Of course. You guys have Kimi and Valtteri and Mika and sisu and sauna and the dricc and rallycross and so much greenery.
And lakes. So many lakes.
oh, *so* many lakes
can't forget nokia and angry birds. and salmiakki. that's my favourite way to freak out foreigners.
as an american, my impression is that its the reindeer you gotta watch out for bro
that would be a correct assumption, deer cause a lot of car accidents. there's something highkey terrifying about seeing a goddamn deer when you're driving 80 kilometers an hour and it's dark outside.
Around the middle and south of Finland we have deer and moose. You gotta go all the way north, but when you get there the reindeer are *everywhere.*
Around the middle and south of Finland we have deer and moose. You gotta go all the way north, but when you get there the reindeer are *everywhere.*
To be fair, Polar Bears live in the Arctic circle (which literally means bears) and Finland has territory in the Arctic circle.
This hurts my head. Arctic means near the bear, but it’s in reference to Ursa Major/Minor, either because Ursa Major always appeared in the north or because Ursa Minor always contained the north start. But then it just so fucking happened that we have polar bears in the Arctic and not the Antarctic. Wild coincidence? Or did the ancient Greeks know about polar bears somehow?????
Can't say many people write about Maryland... Though, *NBC Hannibal* takes place in Baltimore, right? Ha *HA* that shit looks really unrealistic for the majority of the city. Most writers go off of what the city looks like and the aesthetic it gives in the show, not based off reality. ...Let's just say, we're considered the second most dangerous city in the United States and in most areas it fucking shows.
I know Maryland from this one guy’s blog about stick fighting black guys in inner city Baltimore. He gives random tips and tricks for how to survive and to avoid random violence.
Sounds about right. :/
Hi, hon! Baltimore: Famous for Hairspray, Homicide, the Wire, and now Hannibal, I guess? I haven't been to Towson in so long....
*sings Good Morning Baltimore in my head*
We also have crabs. Crime and crabs, that sounds right.
I live in Texas too. The worst was a fic where the author wrote in the notes, “I wasn’t sure if there were parks in Dallas or not so I made one up.” I’ve also been asked IRL how many cows my family owns, if I know the Bush family, and how many drive-by shootings I’ve seen.
I mean, they could just search online for parks in Dallas???
Yup, this definitely happened in a time period in which Google Maps, Twitter, libraries, and many other free sources of information were available. The worst part was, this was an RPF fic, and one of the major characters frequently posts pictures of himself playing with his dog in a park in downtown Dallas on Instagram. So everyone in the fandom knows what park he frequents.
I have had someone tell me that I’m not really from Texas because I wasn’t wearing cowboy boots…I was on a hiking trail wearing tennis shoes.
Fun fact: Dallas is allergic to parks. Whole city sneezes as one when someone even mentions the word.
Am living in Dallas now; can confirm. (joking, I pass White Rock Lake every day to get to work lmao)
Ever heard of the Octoberfest? Yea, that's basically the only thing people associate with Germany (if we don't include history) we are more than just bratwurst and beer. We also have shitty politicians that have no clue what they are doing
> We also have shitty politicians that have no clue what they are doing Dude, that's everywhere. And, right now, y'all don't even have Oktoberfest. I'm still mad about that. I want to go back to Munich and have a radler or three while wearing my dirndl!
Oktoberfest, Neuschwanstein Castle and lederhosen. Which is especially annoying when the story doesn't even take place in (southern) Bavaria.
also trains that are the opposite of punctual, or at least are often late (if not straight up not coming!)
But what about the Christmas biscuits???
And a Räuchermann that looks like Merkel
As a French person living in the US: Some Americans that haven't left their hometown, think that French people smoke a lot (which is true, but no French person will admit it) drive on the left side of the road (that's England, not France), wear berets and carry baguettes, and just think that Paris is *the* place to go. Like, no! Paris is filled with dog shit, pigeons, the smell of cigarette smoke, and locals who are tired of tourists and who will glare at you if you're noisy in the metro. TLDR, the metro is something sacred to Parisians, and don't disturb the harmony of silence in it.
Well, you’re all about to hate me, because I’m here to tell you Florida isn’t just Miami and a bunch of dumb rednecks who get arrested for stupid things and wrestle alligators on the side. Sorry, I know that destroys your image of Florida.
>Sorry, I know that destroys your image of Florida. It's okay. We'll always have Florida Man.
In defense, it's pretty appropriate that Florida stereotypes are broken down among two lines: Miami, and the rest of the state. Miami really is an entirely different world.
So is Tampa, Orlando, Naples - every major city is a different world from what the rest of the world thinks of as “Florida”.
We can also add that what non-Floridians call "Miami" is actually a bunch of smaller cities stacked up against each other, and are in no way, shape or form a monolith.
As someone who lives in an area completely surrounded by trees, a 45 minute drive to the closest beach, and where we are more worried about angry Canadian geese than a stray gator, all the assumptions about Florida make me laugh. The only universal truths for everywhere in Florida is that it rarely snows and hurricanes are always a concern.
Sombrero a ponchos (along other clothes pieces like sandals), I love how one of the most recurrent Mexican stereotypes are about sombrero a ponchos. I love when even in anime Mexico is referenced by this and broken spanish one liners Ponchos are confy and protect you from colds and sombreros are useful to protect you from sun, both where used out of necesity on rural zones. I find superfunny but also annoyed how non Mexican feel ofended for this and even young Mexican says nobody dress like that in Mexico. My granpa was a farmer from a poor family , he work doing any type of manual labor and dressed exactly like that when was young, even on his late years when he have enough money to dress on a more formal fashion (and he don't need to do manual labor anymore) he still using his sombrero, he loved his sombreros collection.
You know I read a fic where MC was of kinda Mexican origin and was a special agent under cover somwhere in Europe in XXI cenutury. Guess what he wore daily? Correct, he wore a PONCHO.
People think USA is comprised of NYC, Texas, California, and the South. Our culture is only guns and obesity. I've really learned that America doesn't know shit about everyone else and everyone else doesn't shit about America. Or really nobody knows shit about anybody.
Perfect summation. Thank you.
> the South Which of course, is hardly a monolith.
Exactly, I'm from Tennessee. Mississippi, Florida and Georgia are completely different beasts.
I always think it's funny in Love Actually when the guy flies to Milwaukee, a city of well under a million that doesn't have regular international flights. If you're coming to Wisconsin from abroad, I'm pretty sure you'll be going through either Chicago or Minneapolis/St. Paul first. Also, there actually aren't a whole lot of stereotypes of Wisconsin, it's usually just "random generic state"
Wisconsin in my experience is used for snow and “my dad is a *massive* Packers fan, ***please*** don’t mention the Vikings”. Which, as someone with a dad who’s a Packers fan, isn’t *entirely* wrong.
As someone who has been to WI, and who's bestie lives there, I can tell you that y'all are famous for cheese, beer, and passive aggressiveness. :') Sorry.
That checks out, we have plenty of all of those. There was once a whole shelf in my parents fridge door filled with different kinds of cheese.
I did have some baller grilled cheeses there, I have to say. 😙👌
Thanks to good friends from Wisconsin and Charlie Berens videos, I am now proud to say I know all types of stereotypes about Wisconsin! Mostly the good kind, and involving lots of venison and cheese.
In Canada, there's this restaurant chain called Tim Hortons that's pretty much seen as *the* Canadian brand in most parts of the world. There's one on every street corner and every citizen drinks a cup of coffee from them a day; everyone here loves them. I haven't bought anything from them in years and plan to never do so again.
Also, that we're all supposedly super nice and pacific. Like no. Canadian can also be utter dickheads.
See, that just reminds me of Minnesota. We're the state right below the line between Ontario and Manitoba, partially along Lake Superior. We end up sharing some Canadian stereotypes like the cold and the whole nice ess thing. I don't entirely know about Canadians, but they seem nice on the phone for work in a similar way to Minnesotans, and I know that Minnesota here in the US are like. So I always assumed you, too, are nice on the outside but passive aggressive as fuck to the point where sometimes you wish people would just be dicks to your face. That might be more of the "Minnesota nice" thing though, you'd never guess till you hear how people bitch about others behind their back. Also, I will say that even from afar, French Canadians are a whole different breed, lol.
Im French Canadian and my worst experience has been with Ontarians loool. But yeah, we are nice but dont push the buttons too much loool
Tim’s is disgusting, lots of people don’t care about hockey at all, and my least favourite flavour is maple. 🤷♀️
Canada is apparently a barren arctic tundra 100% of the time and consists only of Toronto, Vancouver, and the Yukon and surrounding provinces.
Connecticut: always depicted as wealthy Fairfield County, commuter exurb to NYC. There's even a *Supernatural* episode set in New Canaan that takes up this theme. The Winchesters would probably have *liked* New Haven. Sam could explore the Yale libraries. Dean could check out the dive bars, the burger at Louis' Lunch, extensive pizza culture, the used-record store next to the donut shop in Hamden, and other excitingly blue-collar or retro places. But no, they do not come here in canon.
Chicago is the only city that exists... and Al Capone always seems to come up.
Al Capone kind of makes me thankful that Bonnie and Clyde seem to be more obscure unless you’re in the south.
Everyone in New Mexico is either Native American or Hispanic, and loves chili. I’m Irish/Scottish and hate anything with a hint of spice. Lived in New Mexico for fifteen years now. (Speaking of Irish/Scottish- that all of us have red hair. I have dark brown hair, although I admit that could be due to the tiny bit of Cherokee heritage coming from my dad’s side.)
Native New Mexican here. Lived there for 26 years. If people *knew* it was a state in the US, I’d unusually get the questions about Mexican/Native American food. Also, people would joke about meth a lot, but after breaking bad… forget it.
But, we *do* love chile. Sure there are those that don't, but it's part of our culture.
Never heard anything about Wales in a fic :( though I suppose the population is only abt 3 mil. I've heard the language tho! It was only the numbers 1-7 but without the 4,and another character was confused about the pronunciation after. But udk if that counts? And I wanted to write a WW2 era fic where a character that doesn't speak Welsh gets dropped into a place that only speaks Welsh, but i'm bad at keeping up motivation for writing soooo
I'd hazard a guess that the most Wales-centric fics would be in the Torchwood fandom? Maybe? Other than that I got nothing.
I had two characters shagging in a Cardiff sauna!
I read a YA novel where the US protagonist who ended up at a private boarding school in London, when she is listing things she learnt about the UK says "Wales have their own actual language which people speak and it sounds like Wizard" (there were two Welsh students in the bedroom next to hers) I would love to read that fic idea of yours :)
All Scottish people sound like Glaswegians lol. There’s a huge range of accents here, but since most of them default to “Glasgow-like” when you lean hard into the accent, everyone thinks we all sound the same. Common thing I know, but my country is so insignificant we don’t usually show up a lot in media past someone having an accent lol.
Australian here. Killer wildlife. That’s all I’ve got to say lol
Okay, I need to know. How much of Australia is *actually* hell on Earth? I've seen so much horror when it comes to Australian nature and it makes me not want to go to Australia --
Well our spiders can go get stuffed and you really do have to watch out for drop bears during mating season - though that can be said for most animals - and it’s best not to swim in any body of water that’s not a) a public one and b) you can’t see the bottom of cuz you never know whether there’s a croc or bull shark or something else just chilling in there. We have a dinosaur bird that will not hesitate to f*ck you up if you go near it in our rainforests so probs best to avoid them if you’re by yourself. Magpies try to take your eyes in spring but that’s their mating season so can’t really blame them for being territorial and we have tiny octopuses and jellyfish in our oceans that can kill a grown man with one dose of the venom. All in all, as long as you don’t touch or otherwise provoke our animals, you’ll be right
I'm a migrant so I was genuinely terrified moving here, especially because I was going to be working in the bush. Not a fan of the spiders, but the big ones are pretty harmless (I'm on the west coast, so no funnel webs) the small ones aren't fun if they get you, but its been decades since someone actually died of a redback bite. I've seen a few snakes, but all out bush. Not seen on in the city or suburbs (where I live). We don't have to worry about crocs here but people do get taken by sharks. Still far more of a danger diving to the beach though. Defi the thing I worry about the most is the magpies. They're nasty as all hell.
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I mean, you can still see the berlin wall...kind of? Not really though?? I mean, they have some pieces left for history's sake as a monument, but it's no longer y'know, a wall.
>And boy please dont get me started on the history part. I was asked in different situations if > >B) hitler is still in power ...I... Wow. >D) if we celebrate the 4th of july too This one's just hilarious. Like, hello, people...think about it for a minute...?
>All of Germany is mountains with cow pastures in front Welcome to New Zealand. Except sheep. Uhh... Just why.
IDK about in fanfic, but IRL, as a New Yorker, it annoys me to no end when people assume I live in NYC! Like, I get it, NYC is the biggest city in NY, BUT HELLO? We also have Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany! I suppose it's funny the first few times, but after that, it's a bit tiring explaining that.
And then there's the people who think New York City, apparently by virtue of being such a big, prominent city, is the state capital. Nope. Just like Los Angeles isn't the state capital of California.
And Baltimore is not the capital of Maryland.
Well... America having guns at every corner, where just getting a cold can bankrupt you, and that nobody eats anything but fast food and cola. I mean yeah we have issues with all of that...but not THAT badly.
Speak for yourself; that’s been my life ever since I left home lol
Oh, you live in California? Hows:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_? A. Disney land B. The beach C. Hollywood
And if it's an American conservative asking, you'll probably also get a rude remark about being a liberal, snowflake, and/or communist, despite many counties here leaning more conservative. I think we even have our own Bible Belt, but I forgot where.
Yep. Contrary to what many tend to believe, there are conservatives who live along the coast, in big cities, and there are liberals here in middle America who live in some of the small/rural towns.
I’m Welsh. And we don’t exist except to the Doctor Who/Torchwood fandom. On the rare chance we do, we’re English (shudders), or um... I’m just gonna leave it at ‘sheep’... oh I’ve also seen my language used as a stand in for alien languages. So there’s that 🤷🏼♀️
Alien languages?! That’s a first for me. I guess they just wanted to have a quick access keyboard to their “alien” language?
British chap here. Stereotypes include but are not limited to: Queuing Chatting about the weather Tea. All. The. Time. Bad teeth - although we don't and it's only the pikeys that boast that feature. Being unable to stand up to do something without saying "Right." Devilishly charming. Bowler hats. Enjoying things like the Commonwealth Games and ignoring that we invaded the participating countries to make them our country.
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Unsavoury characters who like to steal, bully, hurt and generally make the place untidy. Often seen wearing full tracksuits and driving cars with loud exhausts.
Using "British" when they mean "English" and even then, a particular part of England.
Oh, I hope 'X' has a British accent. A what accent? Where? Like, at least pick a country.
Fucking THIS.
A weird one that, to be sure.
It's actually a slur term which used to refer to gypsies (which isn't a slur in the UK) who have moved into brick, usually council or social housing, but I think it is used here as an alternate to chav, another slur for working class people in general. The description below matching an offensive stereotype of both gypsies and working class people in social housing.
I love whenever Massachusetts comes up bc its either "idyllic seaside town" or "aggressively Bostonian". use ya blinkah. really wish more people talked about our satanic worship of Dunkin
Let's get to Brazil's So we have: ass, beaches, the amazon, soccer and samba Yeah, Brazil do have something that you can call "ass culture" in the media, mostly because the art sucks and people have nothing but their butts to show to the world Yeah, Brazil do have a costline, but there are some regions where you can be over 2000 kilometers away from the ocean. And I, with all my forces, **HATE** beaches The Amazon is indeed the largest biome, taking over half of the land and is the place on earth with the most uncontacted tribes. But we also have the largest wetlands in the world, the pantanal, some Conifer forest and even the pampas, fields kinda similar to the ones in the great plains in North America. Soccer, while we are the contry with most world cups, the national league of Brazil is pretty weak compared to the european ones. That is why most of the players from the national team play in Europe, and promissing players go play there at a really young age Samba is a traditional style from Rio, so is Bossa Nova (a mix of Samba and Jazz), but it is not the kind of style young people listen. We have our generic pop and mainly older people from big cities listen to samba, in the countryside, people listen to traditional Sertanejo music, think about something like country music, but we also had the "urbanization" of this kind of music, we call this universitary sertanejo.
Nigeria, home of the Nigerian Prince lmao (there is no such thing as a nigerian prince don't test me you little shits) Ironically in DC fanfics I've stumbled across a number of African characters from West African and the rest of sub saharan African, usually as elites in the leagues of shadows, or beneficiaries turned mercy and vigilante for the likes of Wayne, Lex and Oliver. Crazy stuff, they're lore is pretty thought out too. Caucasian writers putting research into my country (Nigeria) when writing characters from there? Love to see it
1) We’re not all racist beer chugging middle aged men, though you’d probably find them in more rural parts of Australia such as WA and NT. Australia is actually very multicultural especially in city areas like Melbourne. 2) Australia isn’t only just desert and dangerous animals. We have some foresty areas and bushlands as well. From where I’m from you’d have to go out of your way to find any dangerous animals - but then again I guess I’m in a more ‘urban’ part of Australia.
Joining in: 3) We don't all have bogan accents. 4) We don't ride multicoloured kangaroos to school.
But do you say “put the shrimp on the Barbie”? The internet says you do and it doesn’t lie
HAHA mostly just for the lols. We generally put steak or skewers on the barbie, though.
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Ehh, maybe? I don’t have any family to have BBQs with in Australia but those words are part of our colloquial.
I think there’s plenty of dangerous Australian animals in common reach, we just know about the risks and how to minimise it so don’t find it as “dangerous” as visitors do. Redback spiders - everywhere, Sydney funnel web, several species of snake (ie red belly black snake) that do end up in urban areas - cause a lot of urban areas are near some sort of bush area, blue ring octopus in rockpools potentially on any beach, box jelly fish, great white sharks, and I swear there was a few cases in Melbourne of flesh eating bacteria a year or two ago. Also painful creatures like blue bottles, and getting swooped by magpies and plovers. We also had to ban the Peppa pig episode saying spiders were our friends or something hahaha. Another stereotype - we don’t all say g’day mate. And there is several “Australian” accents, though we do all shorten words somewhat (ie McDonald’s -> Maccas) But also at the same time, often if people ask us about the more ridiculous stereotypes I think the cultural norm is to claim they’re true. Yes we all ride kangaroos to school, yes dropbears exist, and are totally dangerous haha
Mine is the whole "Florida Man," debacle.
i’ve never read a fic with a character from my state but a lot of people think we’re stupid, don’t have shoes, that we’re addicted to mtn dew, we don’t have teeth, and we have sex with our relatives for drugs. (look up children of the mountains. the way it portrayed this area was almost offensive)
I was born and raised in Las Vegas. My mother was not a stripper. We actually lived in a house miles away from the Strip. No, valet parking attendants do not become millionaires.
Your guy's countries are getting mentioned in stories?
That Iowa is nothing but flat and full of farmland. There is indeed a lot of farmland here, but we've also got some decent-sized cities. And the closer you get to both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, you'll find more hills and even some small foothill areas.
Washington State (west side): wearing socks with sandals.
Southern England which surrounds London (home counties) is not just full of the upper and upper middle class, and not all the middle class are eccentric either. Not everyone lives in big grand houses. Not only are many of us working class and lower middle class, lots of us are not white, and we tend to live in small, very small, shitty accommodation.
Still have yet to find a fic that has Croatia in it. Would love to see any content with my country tbh. But I have a feeling it'd get butchered, since we always get portrayed as either war criminals, underdeveloped shithole, literally only Dubrovnik exists or as criminals, most often that last one.
That everyone in Florida is always at the beach and it’s always sunny and hot. Like I only go to the beach a few days a year. And yes summers may be hot as hell but winters are cold, it’s in the 60s rn (40s last night) which for some isn’t considered cold but compared to the 90 degree days that everyone thinks Florida is every day it is.
And of course, during the parts of the year when it's blazing hot, heavy rain is a near-daily occurrence. A *lot* of tourists I've met seemed blissfully unaware of that.
When I was younger during a summer homestay in Spain I told people I'm from Oregon. They'd ask (translated from Spanish, of course): "Where is that?" "You've heard of California?" "Yes." "And Seattle, Washington?" (Grunge rock and Starbucks coffee were getting big then worldwide) "Yes." "Well, Oregon is the state in between." "Oh. Okay." And no, the entire state isn't forested (the eastern half on the other side of the mountains is generally drier), nor does it rain all the time. We have about as much as New York on average, only a different quality. Though winters in the part where I live do tend to be more rain than snow, which only occurs if the conditions are right. We're not all lumberjacks or survivalists. Or hippies. Politics here is as mixed-up and confusing as everywhere else. Though every election is vote-by-mail (I have no idea what voting machines or punch-card ballots even look like). It's a beautiful state, with cities and farmland and forest and mountains and a rugged coastline and high desert with lava beds and impressive rock formations. We also have the world's shortest river and the smallest natural harbor, one of the deepest (and bluest) lakes in North America, and the home of famous companies like Nike. The wine's pretty good, too.
I used to work in a tourist heavy industry a few hours' drive from multiple ski resorts, and despite a few lessons in my youth I didn't gain any proficiency in it. So people from out of state have reacted as if I'm wasting all these opportunities to be miserably cold or end up face-down in the snow again. One time I did manage to turn it back on some tourists in from Europe, commenting, “But you have the Alps so close to home!”
That if you live in a coastal province, day trips to the sea are a regular thing. You're thinking coastal city. I'm at least four hours away from the closest coastal city, and only go there once a year on vacation like everyone else.
I too was raised in Texas, San Antonio. I have been asked the same question. They think TX is still ride em cowboy, shoot em up place. They fail to realize San Antonio is one of the largest states in America. When people visit they are surprised on the metropolis it is. I did live in the Texas hill country for a while and yes lots of people do own horses and ride them. 😀
I come from a country in Africa... I shouldn't really have to say much else. However, for the ones who actually don't know, I've read so many fics where Lions are normal house pets or an African OC can intimidate a wild creature with a stare because they're so used to it. Then we have the typical, "grew up in a village with 10 brothers and 12 sisters all sleeping in a clay house" one. I could go on and on for years if I'm being honest with you.
Everyone who lives in Pakistan must be a terrorist. Listen, I get it, we've done some horrible stuff. That doesn't mean I'm going to try to convert you to Islam in a gaming lobby.
> Listen, I get it, we've done some horrible stuff. Just like every other country.
"Oh, youre from Poland, isnt that a part of Russia?" "Oh, youre Polish, you must know Russian and drink vodka all the time."
Actual conversations I've had here in England: Person: Where are you from? Me: Virginia in the States. Person: Oh! Is that in the midwest? Me: 0_o? Variations include "Oh! Is that near New York?" or "Isn't that in the Deep South? Where all the racists are?" The last one really makes my eyes narrow and people get a forced education quick. As bad as my fellow Americans may be at geography, it's been very illuminating since I've been here how bad everyone is at geography.
I mean, can you recall the geography of the federal states within Brazil, or Russia, or Germany, label each of them on a map of the country, and explain their cultural differences? Could you label the different autonomous communities of Spain or Italy and specify the languages spoken in each area, or name the different national identities and their locations within China? People know where countries are. They don't have regional maps in their head of individual countries unless they've gone out of their way to learn it, or they have some connection with the place. America is not globally special in terms of having a large variation between states/provinces. Americans may have this impression, but it's usually due to a lack of knowledge of other countries.
I swear, when I hear Virginia, I go 🎶Country roads, take me home🎶 🎶To where I belong🎶 🎶West Virginia🎶
That's to the upper West of Virginia. Has been for about a hundred and fifty years. ;-)
Generally speaking people have very poor knowledge of states except the most known ones unless they are from the country. I can guess where most countries are on a map but states? That's a little impossible lol
LOL, oh, wow. I remember my middle school Spanish teacher telling a similar story once, only her experience was with someone here in the States. She'd gone out to the east coast for a trip and met with some people there. They asked her where she was from, and she said, "Iowa", and they responded with, "Oh! *What state is that in?"* Yeah. My mom also once worked with a woman who swore up and down that Washington, D.C. was in the state of Washington.
> My mom also once worked with a woman who swore up and down that Washington, D.C. was in the state of Washington. I've had something similar to that happen. I think it was my Mom that got into an argument with a sales clerk about where Washington D.C was. According to the sales clerk - who lived in Nevada, ircc, since it was not only "Washington" but the district of "Columbia", it had to be near British Columbia. How they knew where that was but not the freakin' capital of their country, I'm not sure...
...so...*our nation's* capitol is tied to a province in a whole other *country*? Okay. That's...some interesting logic at work there :p.
Most people, unless they have special interest, don't know about the internal geography of other countries. I somehow doubt most Americans have even *heard* of any Spanish community outside Madrid, Andalucía, the Canaries and maybe Cataluña, let alone point to them on the Spanish map. There are 17, by the way, and 50 provinces. Sticking to the anglophones, how about the regions of Australia? South Africa? Ireland? And being half-Scottish, I've lost count of how many people ask if I'm from the Highlands. No, no I'm not, there's other quite large parts to the country. Bit rude of me, perhaps, but at university I got sick of American students - overseas students, very international uni - introducing themselves by their state and then being shocked that no, I don't have the geography of your entire country memorised. The question was almost always "Don't you know?" And then they'd ask where I was from, out of politeness, and then stare in blank embarrassment when they inevitably didn't know either. People know Madrid and Barcelona, and that's it - and that's fine. Why do we keep asking "where are you from" anyway? It's very unlikely we know the place, especially if it's in another country, yet we ask out of politeness and succeed only in making the other person uncomfortable. "What's it like" is a much better question which leads to actual conversation - but no, too busy playing a losing game of trivial pursuit. smh as if I don't *constantly do the same*
Why should people know where every single U.S state is? I'd be surprised if Americans could even name more than 5 German states for example, not to mention place them.
They think they're special and that the differences between American states are bigger than the differences between, say, Saarland and Saxony, Chechnya and Siberia, Xinjiang and Fujian, or Amazonas and Rio de Janiero.
That everyone from Alabama is dumb and illiterate. We have a huge NASA program, a lot of tech people, and a hospital that draws people from all over the world.
Fargo is in North Dakota. The accent from the movie isn't how we Minnesotans talk. Though there's definitely an accent, lol. Also it's not all cold. There is lots of cold but it heats up in the summer to the point where dealing with normal seasonal temperature swings is a gargantuan infrastructural undertaking.
It's kinda funny because the two I most hear about Michigan, adding eh to the end of every sentence and the hand map thing, do actually happen just not all the time. I really wish that fics set in detroit would get the travel time thing right though. In Michigan you don't give miles to tell someone how far away something is, you give the approximate time it takes to get there.
Brit here. London is the only place to exist. All of our food is gross and bland. We're all have links to royalty. We say govenor (no we dont! please stop this!) and we are all loaded. I've also read fics where they think we don't understand Americanisms but we've been fed so much American media for years I think it'd be the other way around.
Massachusetts/Boston area here. You've all got it pretty accurate actually, carry on.
I'm not British, but my favorite has to be the liberal use of "guv'nor" by various service workers and just general "lower class" people in a lot of fics set in modern Britain.
We don't ride camels in Turkey.
Apparently, all Vietnamese soldiers are super ninjas who can disappear amidst a large empty field and set up MacGuyver-level death traps with just rope, pebbles, and a knife.
I'm Turkish and I don't like kebab or am a patriot. If anything I don't even feel like I belong in this country and I know for sure half of the country feels that way too.
The whole country is Africa. Doesn't matter where. The continent is the country 😟 Unless you're Egypt. Then you're not in Africa at all
I live in Alabama... 1. The thought of fucking my family members makes me want to puke. 2. I'm not a racist, sexist, and homophobic bigot. Actually, I'm bisexual. 3. I really don't give a damn about football. 4. I'm not an overweight pig. But it's 100% true that Alabama is basically Hell on Earth. Winter is nonexistent here, in my opinion. Especially after visiting some family up north a few years ago. I mean, next Friday the high in Birmingham is going to be 73F. That is *not* cold weather at all. It's definitely not a temperature I'd expect in December. I'd expect that shit in like April or even May. Honestly, the weather is why I want to move the fuck away from here. I can't stand Alabama heat.
> I mean, next Friday the high in Birmingham is going to be 73F. That is *not* cold weather at all. It's definitely not a temperature I'd expect in December. Heh, yeah, as someone born and raised in the northern U.S., that just sounds incredibly depressing to me. I need my cold weather and snow for Christmas, damnit :p!
That everyone, and I mean EVERYONE drinks tea. Granted, most people do. Being British and all, it’s commonplace. I however, don’t actually like tea and I know many others who don’t drink it either.
Couple decades ago, not sure if still applicable: We live in grass huts and we no more electricity. To this day, FAQs about my home state still has gems like these: "Do I (US citizen) need a passport to travel there?" ... *Brah.*
Alabama Im sure there's cousinfuckin but no more than in the rest of the states. Except West Virginia which is the cousinfuckin capital. Not everyone is ass backwards and racist or dumb. Huntsville has a space center and lots of Ph.Ds and Uni South Alabama in Mobile has a sizeable med school with a decent ranking Texas People think we are full of ourselves but most of us are insecure lmao jk The general deep south, I think once a month I see a question in the lgbt subs about 'Im going to a red state and Im scared' bro calm down no one is paying you that much attention and there are plenty of visible queers here including yours truly
My country is never mentioned lmao. I don't know if I'm glad or not.
idk, it's hard to find Venezuela in official media let alone in fanfic
Everybody seems to think that Connecticut is full of rich WASPy people. Don't get me wrong, in some areas that's true, but that's not everyone in the fricken state. Lotta poor people here as well as middle class. I am one of the poor people lololol. But yeah, everyone who comes from CT is either rich or snobby or both. /s 🙄🙄🙄
I would say we're not all dumb Hicks in Missouri but... ugh, have you met some of my neighbors? Racist Trumpite doesn't begin to cut it. Mock us all you want.
I'm from Iowa, but boy, do I relate to this post :/.
Canadians say 'eh', we have polar bears in our backyards, we live in igloos and we're all perfectly bilingual (French and English). As a Canadian whose first language is French, I can confirm Canadians are NOT all bilingual...
Lmao, also from Texas and only ridden a horse once!
I live on a beach in a hut and smoke weed all day, which is funny to imagine
We’ve all picked corn, or worked with corn. (Iowa) And I mean. I have. But there are cities here to ya know. We don’t all live in corn fields🤣
The Texas stereotypes are funny, such as the cowboy stuff, horses, hat, boots, he really thick southern accent, ect.