What Assumptions about your country by outsiders irritate you?

hollydolly

hollydolly

SF VIP
Location
London England
In this instance , as the USA is so huge and diverse, I'll also include ''State'' as well as your country?

Try and keep Politics out of it if you can , remembering the rules here..

For me it's the general assumption that the UK or Great Britain is ''England''... I live in England, altho' born and raised in Scotland, but it's very much more irritating for those who live in the rest of the Uk ..Wales, Scotland, Ireland.. to be continually referred to as England..when referring to the UK...

The fact we're ruled by one government, really is just where the similarity ends!! Wales speaks English and Cymraeg as their native language..Ireland and Scotland speak English and Gaelic

In a way, it's like the USA..being constantly referred to as Hawaii or similar

So what assumptions about you country or State irritates you... :)
 

A lot of people don't seem to know the difference between the UK, Great Britain and the British isles. Nor do they appreciate the difference between the Mayor of London and the Lord mayor of the City of London.

What really annoys me is when firms in England advertise free delivery to the UK and then want to charge more to deliver to Scotland or N.Ireland. It's even worse when they think that the Highlands start at Edinburgh or Glasgow.
 
One thing that comes to mind because it seems to be distorted, is how much land mass there is in Texas. .. the map below compares to Europe.
The rest of Europe would be filled by California. And then there is Alaska, largest of all.

We can't get in our cars and drive around Texas on a Sunday afternoon. It's a major trip N to S, and E to W ... like driving from the UK (if you could) to Southern Italy, or UK to Poland on a day trip.




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Bonnie said:
One thing that comes to mind because it seems to be distorted, is how much land mass there is in Texas. .. the map below compares to Europe.
The rest of Europe would be filled by California. And then there is Alaska, largest of all.

We can't get in our cars and drive around Texas on a Sunday afternoon. It's a major trip N to S, and E to W ... like driving from the UK (if you could) to Southern Italy, or UK to Poland on a day trip.




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I knew this, but I remember when i first found out how big the different states were I was astonished..
 
Pappy said:
Whenever one mentions, I live in New York, most assume that you mean NYCity. Get out out the city and explore the rest of a beautiful state. Adirondack mountains with thousands of lakes, beautiful camping sites, and great food.
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I have to hold my hands up to this, until I joined forums some years ago where Americans' posted, I didn't realise that there was a New York State and it was HUGe and different to NYC :giggle:
 
What really irritates me is some people's assumption that my hometown,Buffalo,NY is the 'snow capital' of the East Coast,NOT!!!
I say this because the city made national news in 1977 for a couple of days,when we had the'Blizzard of '77 which crippled the city and suburbs.
When a snowstorm is predicted to come thru Buffalo,some of the meterologists on the Weather Channel say'Buffalo is going to hit with lots of snow'.That is a misleading and false statement.Yes, in the city we some get snow,but the areas south of us known as 'ski country'{where the ski areas are located} get the bulk of it every winter
Jim Cantore, and Mike Siedel 2 of the veteran meterologists at the Weather Channel know their way around WNY, been here many times over the yrs.Whenever they are here broadcasting live,they will tell national audience precisely where the snow is going
One of the interesting things about living in WNY,not all areas gets snow at the same time. It could be sunny in Buffalo,5 miles away it could be snowing.It all depends on which way the winds are coming across Lake Erie Sue
 
Living in Australia, which one of our former Prime Ministers once referred to as "the arsehole of the world", I'm not too worried what foreigners think of Australia. Mostly they have no idea of the distance between tourist venues and underestimate how long they would need to see everything on their wish list. In the time most do spend here they cannot possibly form a realistic impression of the essence of the place.
 
When someone talks about a place other than where they're from, it seems ignorance is employed. Sometimes rife, sometimes insignificant.
Their comfort zone is they assume the listener is just as ignorant.

None of this bothers me, but for the time involved.
My shortcoming is not calling out folks on their absurdly deficient info.
I just stand there, with a weakening grin on my mug, silently hoping for closure.

We had a guy down the path that could expound...for eons. Most of the content was absurd.
One time he'd trapped me, at my own place.
No where to go.
A buddy came up...listened for about a half minute.....turned....and ran away.

I admire that....bastard left me...with HIM...alone

Anyway, when folks pronounce Oregon, as Oreeegone, it kinda bothers me, but not much.
I used to call N'awlins New Orleeens. So I can't say much.
.
 
Curiosity compelled me to compare the great state of Texas with some Australian states, sizewise.

Our two largest states are Western Australia and Queensland.
Texas is 696,200 km2; Western Australia is about 3.6 times as large at 2,525,500 km2
The area of Queensland is 1,852,642 km2. The area of Texas is 678,354 km2. Therefore, Queensland is larger than Texas.

I live in New South Wales, just below Queensland
New South Wales is 802,000 Km2 Texas is 696,241 Km2

Looking at a world map Australia looks smaller than it actually is due to the distortion of the Mercator projection. We are the smallest continent but still quite large in area.

I note the different figures for Texas in each comparison. Feel free to adopt the biggest one.
 
Pappy said:
Whenever one mentions, I live in New York, most assume that you mean NYCity. Get out out the city and explore the rest of a beautiful state. Adirondack mountains with thousands of lakes, beautiful camping sites, and great food.
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Yep. Me too. I had someone ask if I go to NYC all the time. I live 7 hours away , so no. Last time I was there was 35 years ago.
 
Marie5656 said:
Yep. Me too. I had someone ask if I go to NYC all the time. I live 7 hours away , so no. Last time I was there was 35 years ago.
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That's amazing... 7 hours ?..wow!! I don't think many of us who live outside the USA, or Australia can even comprehend the scale...

If I drove 7 hours from here I'd be in Scotland ( traffic permitting because our traffic is awful) .. and I'm down in the south of England...
 
toffee said:
nothing I may add - I live in England' its a nation that loves its true home no matter where they moved too !
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Toffee, were not discussing what our own countryman think of our country, we're discussing if there's anything that foreigners think about our country that irritates us because it's not factual..or it's a fallacy..:)

Like the old and very tired one about the British having bad teeth..not true...
 
New Yawk city, New York state and Long Island are 3 different places, and I refer to them by those different names to avoid any confusion.
There is a similar situation with Miami and the other regions of Florida.
Many folks believe that Buffalo is where snow was invented.
We greatly enjoyed our visit to Australia a few decades ago, but only got to scratch the surface because of time limitations.
 
I used to live in the Seattle area. Since I moved back east, every time I mention this to anyone, the response is, "Oh, I couldn't live there. It rains all the time."

Not true! It rains a lot in the winter and spring. The summers in the Pacific Northwest are glorious (and I wish I was there now!) - sunny, fresh air, low humidity, temps in the low 80's most of the time, etc. Everything you want summer to be!

I think that rain thing is deliberately perpetuated by the residents of that region, to discourage mobs of people from coming there.
 
People think because I live in Alabama I'm a redneck....

Have to correct them all the time and make sure they know I was raised in the Tennessee hills..

I'm actually a redneck hillbilly...might as well wear the badge.:LOL:
 

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