People Share The Surprising Truth About Their Countries
When you think about a country you've never visited before, what comes to mind? Most of us will probably think of their local cuisine, or perhaps fall back on stereotypes - but in some cases, we're barely aware that a given country exists at all.
Redditors from various countries chimed in on a thread asking about misconceptions that people have about their country. Read on and you'll learn a little more about some of the places you've never been.
Malta exists?!
"Malta. That it doesn't exist."
"A student I tutored told me that he was Maltese and I thought he was telling me that he was a dog. Safe to say that I now know that Malta is indeed a country."
Under African skies
"Kenya. People have somehow got it into their heads that this country is made up of wild animals and runners."
"I think Kenya is a pretty well known country. But people seem to group all of Africa like it's one big country. Also poverty misconceptions yadda yadda yadda."
Number one potassium exporter
"cough Kazakhstan cough Borat cough"
"Gateway to the stars! Launch point of the first human to leave Earth. A proud people that also support the only colony of humans living off Earth (in the International Space Station). Seeing the pride the Kazakhs take in recovering returning astronauts from space is really cool."
Can't be on island time on the mainland
"Costa Rica is not an island."
"I visited Costa Rica once. I couldn't understand why the person we were riding with from the airport thought it was an island. I'm ashamed to say I didn't even correct him."
Update your world atlas, folks
"From Czechia: some people still think we are still Czechoslovakia, we split in 1993."
"Ancestors from Czechoslovakia: not sure whether I'm Czech or Slovak."
Well, it has some desert
"It's all desert and it's full of hunger. I'm from Tunisia if you're wondering."
"Tunis is one of the most beautiful looking cities I've ever seen. I was browsing Airbnb and man, that place is gorgeous. The vibrant blues and everything."
Country versus city
"Indonesian here, tourists always thought Bali is a country."
"I'm British but I've been living in Jakarta for a while now and I absolutely love it here. It still shocks me how nice people are here. If you're lost and you ask someone for directions they will stop whatever they are doing and walk you to wherever you are going."
A true city-state
"Singapore. We are our own country, not part of China or Malaysia."
"We got expelled by Malaysia. Although I'm aware that in recent times there have been evidence suggesting that it was engineered by leaders from both sides. Not totally true of the veracity of these claims though."
(They're talking about Wales)
"We are NOT a principality and have not been one for hundreds of years. We are a country."
" I don't know when Wales became considered a 'country', but I suspect that's just a convention that developed over time. Legally you guys have been part of England in most ways for a long time, which is why so many laws that are passed specifically say that they apply to "England and Wales"—before 1967, they just said England, but it was automatically accepted that they applied to Wales too."
Close, but no
"Portugal IS NOT a place in Spain. My ancestors did not fight the Spaniards for 300 years for people to think we say gracias."
"If you play Plague Inc. and click Portugal the whole peninsula will be highlighted as Spain :/"
Not so neutral
"I know Switzerland may not be that unknown but people actually believe that we were innocent and neutral throughout both world wars but we really did some bad stuff."
"I am from another 'neutral' country, Sweden. We traded heavily with Germany during most of the war, especially iron."
The Dane game
"Denmark is not a socialist nation, or communist.."
"Whenever people say 'socialist' I think they mean socio-economically left of America's way of doing things when talking about the Nordic countries"
A unique situation
"We don't speak Mandarin despite writing in tradition Chinese and we were the reason that China wasn't sanctioned to death after cultural revolution and Tiananmen Massacre."
"We are from Hong Kong, a former colony that was stripped away the rights to claim independence once China joined the UN."
It isn't all alpine hijinks
"Austria, we don't run around in lederhosen all year round and drink beer all day. Also 99% of the people here can't yodel."
"And even though we're known for the alps, not all of Austria has high mountains. We don't have kangaroos and we're truly sorry for a certain someone who was born here."
A filming hotspot
"I'm from Malaysia. We actually have developed cities with skyscrapers, lots of nice beaches, and great food."
"We are often overshadowed by Singapore or Thailand in those terms. Crazy Rich Asians, the movie, had a lot of locations actually filmed in Malaysia."
A joke, maybe
"Ireland, were not drunk all of the time. Most of the time, yeah. But not all of the time."
"Lived in Ireland three years, and my wife is Irish. I have to admit you had me there for a second."
Don't worry about the potato situation
"In Latvia, the potato situation really isn't that dire. I have at least 2 potato."
"What is this joke about potato in Latvia. Like, in post-soviet countries we consider Belarus to be potato land."
Get the spelling right
"Colombia. No, we all aren't drug traffickers, we don't listen Despacito 24/7, we aren't 99.9% jungle and WE ARE NOT CALLED COLUMBIA."
"Colombia is actually a very nice place to live in, we have some gorgeous landscapes and the people are always happy. Violence, while strong, is not in its prime anymore. But the coffee bit is true though."
Hard one to remember
"A lot of people don't know Bahrain exists. People that do just think of it as a mini UAE (the country that Dubai is in)."
"It is the only country from the rich Persian gulf states that had major instability during the Arab Spring, ending in a Saudi military intervention."
They don't have vampires?!
"We don't have vampires. And some are really serious about it :)."
"Romania is awesome. I love it that your language is partly understandable by a person like me, who has studied Spanish, French and Latin. Plus, Romania has Nadia Comaneci. How cool do you have to be to have her? Meh, who needs the vampires?"
Groundskeeper Willie's home country
"Scotland. Probably most people have heard of us, but everyone outside of Scotland seems to have bizarre ideas of what life is like here."
"Hardly anyone eats haggis, (also, haggis is not an animal) kilts are reserved for important events, weddings etc. No one wears a Tam O' Shanter, ever. We are actually really nice and welcoming to foreigners, in Glasgow anyway."
Learning more every day
"Curaçao, technically an island."
No, we don't live in huts on the beaches. Yes, the majority of the population has access to decent internet. No, we don't speak English as our main language, and when we do speak it we don't sound like Jamaicans. Yes, we own cars."
Baltic confusion
"Croatia, it's not a part of Yugoslavia for a long time. Actually, Yugoslavia doesn't exist at all anymore."
"Explaining where Serbia is or what Yugoslavia was has never been fulfilling. Usually the other person will just go 'oh, k' and I'll say 'k' and we move on and I know they still have no clue."
Not Scandinavia, not Russia
"Estonia. People think that either we are all Russians, everyone speaks Russian or our language and culture is very similar to Russian."
"All of these are false, most young people can barely say a few swear words in Russian and the older generation knows some only because of living under the Soviet rule in their youth."
Highlands and lowlands
"Nepal. Not all of the country is mountains peaks and snow like you see in pictures from Everest."
"Although small, Nepal is geographically very diverse with elevations ranging from 70m to 8848m and temperatures from bloody cold to around 50°C."
Backhanded compliments
"In general my friends/family that have come to visit Poland usually say it's much nicer than they were expecting."
"I went to Poland last year and it's pretty neat. I'd say they would have to be careful because if everyone knew this they'd try to move there!"
They're also not Australia
"New Zealand is a tourist's and rich person's paradise, if you make an average wage your New Zealand will be mostly concrete cities."
"Also we are not a tropical island the size of Hawai'i."
India's a massive country
"We don't all watch Bollywood movies. Bollywood movies are not all song and dance. We don't all live in slums/deserts/forests."
"No one wears turbans anymore (unless they're Sikh). No one eats snakes. Snake charming was never big here."
Thanks, South Park
"Canadians don't live in igloos, we don't all say 'aboot'. We do say sorry a lot though, and I say eh multiple times a day."
"We also don't drink maple syrup. We just inject it directly into our veins."
Siestas, though
"Not everyone in Spain dances flamenco, bullfighting is not that popular and we don't eat paella every day."
"Many people come here on their vacations and that's okay. But it seems like they are all guided by just those three stereotypes. In Barcelona I've been asked about bullfighting (which is illegal here) and where to see flamenco (which is not traditional here)."
