No matter where you go in the world you’ll find that most people you encounter have a lot of misconceptions about the world outside of their own countries. What misconception about your home country do you keep hearing about from people in Japan?
Everyone owns a gun. I’ve never even seen a gun, other than on a police officer.
We don’t eat hamburgers every day. It’s every other day. :-p
I once asked a Japanese in their 40s if he ever went abroad. His reply was “No, I’m scared to get shot…” Even though I’m from Europe…
Another one “there are 4 seasons in other countries too!!!??? えええ~~~”
Scottish people all drink whisky. You’re lucky if it’s a shitty watered-down beer outside the pub…
All Canadians can speak French.
summer in Tokyo is significantly worse than the average day in Singapore
That everyone loves soccer. No, we don’t.
And we do have big cities… not only a vast forest.
That every time I went in a newsagents for cigarettes or a newspaper, I would bump into the late Queen or one of the Beatles…
The same misconceptions I hear from other countries…. I’m from South Africa (yes it’s one specific country not the whole continent) and no we don’t have wild animals roaming in the streets.
Teaching kids in America must be great!
Yeah no. My worst day here is better than the best day there. I have had 0 pieces of furniture thrown at me since I moved here. I have been cussed at, shoved, spat on, or bitten 0 times since I’ve been here.
No, I have not climbed and am not planning to climb Mt. Everest. And the air density feels the same too.
That it’s not England
Korean guys are all gentlemen and look like k-pop idols. A lot of my friends have come back from trips to Korea shocked that this isn’t the case…
Italians: -We only eat pizza and pasta and drink wine, everyday. -We are all fashionable and stylish. -Men are all buffoonish womanizers. All false, but the last point is the hardest one to cope with. Unfortunately, too many of my fellow countrymen buy into that clownish image and contribute to reinforce it, while complaining that they’re not taken seriously, which is hypocritical and moronic imho.
I have a friend from [*Insert random African and Caribbean country here*], maybe you know him/her?
I usually go with the flow and chuckle, “*Well, yes I do! It’s my cousin!*”, before pointing out later how cultural differences are what distinguish us more superseding ethnicity.
Country 1: We don’t all live in the 100万ドルの夜景, we have suburbs too. And it’s not Taiwan! Both of these places have kanji, it shouldn’t be that hard not to mix them up! This isn’t an Australia/Austria situation
Country 2: some of us can be east asian, and no it’s not basically the phillippines.
Telling people i’m hafu from two different, non japan countries: ‘Wait, so which of your parents is japanese?’
My student: “All Americans are blonde!”
Me, his American teacher: *stares in brunette Asian*
That I casually own 400 barrels of oil, live in a tent and commute by a camel to work lol
French people all wander on the Champs Elysées all day wearing Chanel and Dior dresses. France is Paris. Maybe Cannes. A bit Versailles.
We also eat croissants every single day, as well as foie gras and macarons (though macarons must be from Japan because there are macaron shops in Shinjuku…).
Men are all very romantic and well behaved while women are stylish and always elegant.
French language is the same as English.
To All the older japanese men i encounter from time to time. No the Times in ww2 werenr good and we arent a country full of nazis anymore
After conversations I often get “アメリカ人はとても優しいです – I am Canadian 🤷♂️
There is a tendency for Japanese people to assume that every country has an advanced, thousand year old food culture which is central to their identity like theirs is.
Many seem perplexed by me not being able to describe the theories, history and guiding principles behind Canadian cuisine when asked about it. Or even being able to name a Canadian dish that isn’t just french fries with gravy and cheese.
That all British men are perfect gentlemen. Lol.
That I don’t have afternoon tea and fish and chips everyday.
I’m from Thailand and I was asked a few times if we did ride elephants to school.
Genuine surprise when I say it can snow in winter in my hometown. They are like “Isn’t Australia hot?”. Not in the foot hills in Victoria its not in winter.
Not specifically in Japan or by Japanese people, but Bali is a part of Indonesia and not its own country.
I don’t eat curry everyday.
1)We aren’t a middle eastern eation. 2) We don’t eat curry all day. 3) We are not terrorists.
Any country other than the major, well known ones doesn’t actually exist. I’m from Cyprus and everyone here struggles to remember where I’m from and goes blank when I tell them that I’m from Cyprus. There isn’t enough stereotypes to ask a random question on the spot I suppose. My friends who are from other small obscure countries face the same struggle.
That we have coffee and oranges in the UK
The first time I saw flamenco was actually in Japan! Not in my home country of Spain. TBF It’s more common in the South of Spain, while in the rest you need to put effort to go to see one, it’s not something that just happens.
We also don’t eat paella everyday, it’s more on special occasions (around once every couple of weeks or so). But this is easy to explain since people in Spain also have the misconception that Japanese eat sushi everyday, so I just put that as an example.
This might be interesting.
About 40% of Hawai‘i’s total population has Japanese ancestry. Japanese culture dominated and influenced Hawai‘i from the early 1900s, but tapered down by WWII. So, we have staples like rice, shoyu, furikake, etc, practices such as no shoes in the house, chopsticks usage, mochi pounding, Bon dance every summer. But nonetheless they think Hawai‘i = American = endearingly ignorant about Japanese culture. Of course we’re no carbon copy of Japan, but they’re often dumbfounded when I mention Hawai‘i has received Japanese influence over the years.
Also they’re kinda clueless about Native Hawaiians, which could be forgivable, except they can’t even think just a little critically about how the US basically colonized and ravaged our land. So if you mention “Hawaiian” language to someone in Japan, they’ll probably giggle and say, “You mean English right?” No, English is a European language, Hawaiian is a Polynesian language… “Huh? There’s a Hawaiian language?? How similar is it to English?” …
Daily struggle lol
That Canadians are nice and polite. I do by best to dispel these rumours.
Not a country but I’m from chicago. People are shocked that chicago pizza isn’t the staple food that I eat regularly
It took me far too many instances of people hearing where I’m from and starting to talk enthusiastically about skiing while commenting how good I must be at it (I am emphatically not) before I realised that there’s a significant minority of the population here that has managed to jumble the concepts of Ireland and Iceland together into one perpetually frozen Enya-loving chimeric horror-nation.
That Bali is in Indonesia not the other way around.
Americans do in fact take baths. I once had a real estate agent apologize for the apartment having a bath instead of just a big shower.
Yeah, my family has guns but we don’t carry them around. They’re for hunting. Hunting *animals*.
That while I’m from a northern part of a Nordic country, it doesn’t mean that I’m highly cold tolerant.
We just bitch a lot less when we’re cold because life isn’t easy and we know how to dress when it’s cold. No, -3°C is not cold at all.
Also then people start talking how they know how to layer clothes but still feel cold. Yeah you don’t know what the layers are for. Heattech doesn’t belong there.
Not a country but a state.
Hawaiians all surf, eat pancakes and loco mocos, and drink from a coconut using straws.
We eat nothing more than Burgers and Pizza in the US. Infact, while you wouldn’t guess it from the sheer amount of fast food joints, we actually have an extremely diverse food culture that changes between regions . You’ll find Scapple and farm pressed apple cider in PA, grits and shrimp on the Gulf Coast BBQ that’ll blow your mind in the south with collards and peach cobbler in the south east. Louisiana is on a whole different planet as far as food goes and whatever hipster trendy bs is going on in California, as long as it looks like on Instagram and TikTok.
Sorry to vent. I am a working fine dining Chef in Japan. The amount of times I’ve had these conversations with really well respected Japanese Chefs about this just blows my mind. If it has anything to do with France they know it well but their image of what we eat in the US is basically a deep fried nightmare…
That Tim Hortons is our version of 711 or family mart.
44 comments
台湾 and タイ is a different country.
Everyone owns a gun.
I’ve never even seen a gun, other than on a police officer.
We don’t eat hamburgers every day. It’s every other day. :-p
I once asked a Japanese in their 40s if he ever went abroad. His reply was “No, I’m scared to get shot…” Even though I’m from Europe…
Another one “there are 4 seasons in other countries too!!!??? えええ~~~”
Scottish people all drink whisky. You’re lucky if it’s a shitty watered-down beer outside the pub…
All Canadians can speak French.
summer in Tokyo is significantly worse than the average day in Singapore
That everyone loves soccer. No, we don’t.
And we do have big cities… not only a vast forest.
That every time I went in a newsagents for cigarettes or a newspaper, I would bump into the late Queen or one of the Beatles…
The same misconceptions I hear from other countries…. I’m from South Africa (yes it’s one specific country not the whole continent) and no we don’t have wild animals roaming in the streets.
Teaching kids in America must be great!
Yeah no. My worst day here is better than the best day there. I have had 0 pieces of furniture thrown at me since I moved here. I have been cussed at, shoved, spat on, or bitten 0 times since I’ve been here.
No, I have not climbed and am not planning to climb Mt. Everest. And the air density feels the same too.
That it’s not England
Korean guys are all gentlemen and look like k-pop idols.
A lot of my friends have come back from trips to Korea shocked that this isn’t the case…
Italians:
-We only eat pizza and pasta and drink wine, everyday.
-We are all fashionable and stylish.
-Men are all buffoonish womanizers.
All false, but the last point is the hardest one to cope with. Unfortunately, too many of my fellow countrymen buy into that clownish image and contribute to reinforce it, while complaining that they’re not taken seriously, which is hypocritical and moronic imho.
I have a friend from [*Insert random African and Caribbean country here*], maybe you know him/her?
I usually go with the flow and chuckle, “*Well, yes I do! It’s my cousin!*”, before pointing out later how cultural differences are what distinguish us more superseding ethnicity.
Country 1: We don’t all live in the 100万ドルの夜景, we have suburbs too. And it’s not Taiwan! Both of these places have kanji, it shouldn’t be that hard not to mix them up! This isn’t an Australia/Austria situation
Country 2: some of us can be east asian, and no it’s not basically the phillippines.
Telling people i’m hafu from two different, non japan countries: ‘Wait, so which of your parents is japanese?’
My student: “All Americans are blonde!”
Me, his American teacher: *stares in brunette Asian*
That I casually own 400 barrels of oil, live in a tent and commute by a camel to work lol
French people all wander on the Champs Elysées all day wearing Chanel and Dior dresses.
France is Paris. Maybe Cannes. A bit Versailles.
We also eat croissants every single day, as well as foie gras and macarons (though macarons must be from Japan because there are macaron shops in Shinjuku…).
Men are all very romantic and well behaved while women are stylish and always elegant.
French language is the same as English.
To All the older japanese men i encounter from time to time.
No the Times in ww2 werenr good and we arent a country full of nazis anymore
After conversations I often get “アメリカ人はとても優しいです – I am Canadian 🤷♂️
There is a tendency for Japanese people to assume that every country has an advanced, thousand year old food culture which is central to their identity like theirs is.
Many seem perplexed by me not being able to describe the theories, history and guiding principles behind Canadian cuisine when asked about it. Or even being able to name a Canadian dish that isn’t just french fries with gravy and cheese.
That all British men are perfect gentlemen. Lol.
That I don’t have afternoon tea and fish and chips everyday.
I’m from Thailand and I was asked a few times if we did ride elephants to school.
Genuine surprise when I say it can snow in winter in my hometown. They are like “Isn’t Australia hot?”. Not in the foot hills in Victoria its not in winter.
Not specifically in Japan or by Japanese people, but Bali is a part of Indonesia and not its own country.
I don’t eat curry everyday.
1)We aren’t a middle eastern eation.
2) We don’t eat curry all day.
3) We are not terrorists.
Any country other than the major, well known ones doesn’t actually exist. I’m from Cyprus and everyone here struggles to remember where I’m from and goes blank when I tell them that I’m from Cyprus. There isn’t enough stereotypes to ask a random question on the spot I suppose. My friends who are from other small obscure countries face the same struggle.
That we have coffee and oranges in the UK
The first time I saw flamenco was actually in Japan! Not in my home country of Spain. TBF It’s more common in the South of Spain, while in the rest you need to put effort to go to see one, it’s not something that just happens.
We also don’t eat paella everyday, it’s more on special occasions (around once every couple of weeks or so). But this is easy to explain since people in Spain also have the misconception that Japanese eat sushi everyday, so I just put that as an example.
This might be interesting.
About 40% of Hawai‘i’s total population has Japanese ancestry. Japanese culture dominated and influenced Hawai‘i from the early 1900s, but tapered down by WWII. So, we have staples like rice, shoyu, furikake, etc, practices such as no shoes in the house, chopsticks usage, mochi pounding, Bon dance every summer. But nonetheless they think Hawai‘i = American = endearingly ignorant about Japanese culture. Of course we’re no carbon copy of Japan, but they’re often dumbfounded when I mention Hawai‘i has received Japanese influence over the years.
Also they’re kinda clueless about Native Hawaiians, which could be forgivable, except they can’t even think just a little critically about how the US basically colonized and ravaged our land. So if you mention “Hawaiian” language to someone in Japan, they’ll probably giggle and say, “You mean English right?” No, English is a European language, Hawaiian is a Polynesian language… “Huh? There’s a Hawaiian language?? How similar is it to English?” …
Daily struggle lol
That Canadians are nice and polite. I do by best to dispel these rumours.
Not a country but I’m from chicago. People are shocked that chicago pizza isn’t the staple food that I eat regularly
It took me far too many instances of people hearing where I’m from and starting to talk enthusiastically about skiing while commenting how good I must be at it (I am emphatically not) before I realised that there’s a significant minority of the population here that has managed to jumble the concepts of Ireland and Iceland together into one perpetually frozen Enya-loving chimeric horror-nation.
That Bali is in Indonesia not the other way around.
Americans do in fact take baths. I once had a real estate agent apologize for the apartment having a bath instead of just a big shower.
Yeah, my family has guns but we don’t carry them around. They’re for hunting. Hunting *animals*.
That while I’m from a northern part of a Nordic country, it doesn’t mean that I’m highly cold tolerant.
We just bitch a lot less when we’re cold because life isn’t easy and we know how to dress when it’s cold. No, -3°C is not cold at all.
Also then people start talking how they know how to layer clothes but still feel cold. Yeah you don’t know what the layers are for. Heattech doesn’t belong there.
Not a country but a state.
Hawaiians all surf, eat pancakes and loco mocos, and drink from a coconut using straws.
We eat nothing more than Burgers and Pizza in the US. Infact, while you wouldn’t guess it from the sheer amount of fast food joints, we actually have an extremely diverse food culture that changes between regions . You’ll find Scapple and farm pressed apple cider in PA, grits and shrimp on the Gulf Coast BBQ that’ll blow your mind in the south with collards and peach cobbler in the south east. Louisiana is on a whole different planet as far as food goes and whatever hipster trendy bs is going on in California, as long as it looks like on Instagram and TikTok.
Sorry to vent. I am a working fine dining Chef in Japan. The amount of times I’ve had these conversations with really well respected Japanese Chefs about this just blows my mind. If it has anything to do with France they know it well but their image of what we eat in the US is basically a deep fried nightmare…
That Tim Hortons is our version of 711 or family mart.
That Kazakhstan is not Uzbekistan