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Come on, fable.. Don't you live in New Jersey? There has to be something you could say about Jersey! Didn't we have a thread about that once.

Here's one about New Jersey.. People there, in general, don't call it Joysee..

I will have to do this when I have more time. I have loads to say about Iowa and Florida since I'm from one and live in the other. America is far to big and diverse to generalize. It's a confederation basically.. It would be like saying, "what are the misconceptions about people in the EU?" Except, that might be easier.

jopperm2 wrote:Come on, fable.. Don't you live in New Jersey? There has to be something you could say about Jersey! Didn't we have a thread about that once.

Here's one about New Jersey.. People there, in general, don't call it Joysee..

That is the only misconception about New Jersey. All the other comments about value systems, income, attitude, etc, are dead on. It is a place where surly underachievement is considered an act of triumph, and where wrecking the environment is a sign of progress. It truly is a throughfaire between NYC and Philly, occupied by thugs who are just as happy mowing their lawns, screaming at sports games, or beating their children. There's only one good reason to go to New Jersey: to leave it again.

Oh yeah.. I forgot about all of that. The only things I really like about Jersey are Casinos and a comic book store in Red Bank.

Don't they even charge to drive on I-95?!? What kind of rackett is that?

jopperm2 wrote:People there, in general, don't call it Joysee..

And I thought that "Nanny" thing we use for interrogation here in our little totalitarian state was documentary! I'll have to tell the generals to use that "Queens"-something-or-other show instead.

Silur wrote:And I thought that "Nanny" thing we use for interrogation here in our little totalitarian state was documentary! I'll have to tell the generals to use that "Queens"-something-or-other show instead.

*shudders* I used to work with a tiny version of the female lead in the Nanny show. Same horrid voice and way of speaking, just packed into a frame which was half the size. It was torture.

New Jersey, eh fable? Oh my! The misconceptions about that place are almost legendary!

Well, I don't have much to say about Dutch people, but half of the things I read about Norway are said about Poland, too...
"Oh, I'd love to see those white bears!" or "It must be pretty cold, how are you coping with that?" by my mother's mother, Poland is NOT Workuta! We have really hot summers!
This one's authentic, too: "Hey, do you write that funny russian alphabet?"

And, of course, the first and only (apart from ice/snow/cold/polar bears thing) "link" with Poland is the pope. Aaargh! Just for once I'd like NOT to meet people saying "You must be so happy to be His compatriot". You can practically hear the capital H...

Moonbiter wrote:11. Santa is not Norwegian. Period. Just because we reached the North Pole first and have a lot of reindeers, that doesn't make him an ethnic Norwegian. In Norse tradition there is a species of elf called a Nisse. This critter is one of the "hulderfolk," the pagan spirits or faerie of Norse myth, and is related to trolls and other unpleasant beings. It is usually portrayed as a small man with a knitted red cap and a beard, living near farmsteads. That is basically where the resemblance to Santa ends.

That's right because Santa is from Finland!

Finland
1) We DO have other cities than Helsinki as well.
2) As Norway we don't have penguins, polar bears and such walking on the streets...
3) Nokia is actually Finnish company, not from Japan (as many foreigners suprisingly seems to think... )
4) We do not chase everybody with axe if they come 10 km or nearer of our home...

QuenGalad wrote:"Oh, I'd love to see those white bears!" or "It must be pretty cold, how are you coping with that?" by my mother's mother, Poland is NOT Workuta! We have really hot summers!

But I'm pretty sure they're called polandbears because they come from Poland!

Moonbiter wrote:New Jersey, eh fable? Oh my! The misconceptions about that place are almost legendary!

New Jersey is still thought of in some quarters as a Revolutionary war site, or a place of pristine universities famous for science and music. The first was when NJ was a wilderness, and the second refers to Princeton and Rutgers, two universities that have long been past their golden years. Both are non-entities at this time. The so-called "Garden State" (another error) is the most heavily populated state in the US, with many sections possessing no parks or "green spaces" within dozens of miles. It is often row upon row of low rent commercial and residential space, set up after WWII when vets got married and needed homes. The Allies may have won the war, but the Bauhaus won the race for architectural dominance.

Just about every area of the US has misconceptions attached to it. Because once again, our ideas of other societies are based on external media that treat us like mushrooms, and internal tendencies to sentimentalize or polarize. The best way to overcome all this is to travel. Get out there and actually dig into another people, see what they're like.

Kipi wrote:That's right because Santa is from Finland!

Finland
1) We DO have other cities than Helsinki as well.

You do? Oh, yeah, there's Helsingfors as well

Kipi wrote: 3) Nokia is actually Finnish company, not from Japan (as many foreigners suprisingly seems to think... )

By now I thought it was the other way around... Finland is a part of Nokia. Some day I am going to try too get support for my antique rubber boots at a Nokia repair shop.

Kipi wrote:4) We do not chase everybody with axe if they come 10 km or nearer of our home...

I thought knife was the weapon of choice. That, and death by Sauna. I know the Swedish sauna champion from a few years back, but she's a Finnish immigrant, so I guess that's cheating. Besides, the rules are different here... only 100 degrees C and water on the stones once every two minutes. In Finnland it's 110 degrees C I believe. For all you who dont get this at all, Sauna in Finland is no joking matter - people can sit in a small room full of scalding hot steam for up to an hour. If you put a chicken in at the same time, it's cooked well before they come out. If that isn't enough - when they do come out, they throw themselves into the water of a frozen lake.

Well, jut like Terry Pratchett wrote:
"There isn't a stupid enough thing for not to be done by some foreigner somewhere"

WARNING: It's a JOKE

QuenGalad wrote:Well, jut like Terry Pratchett wrote:
"There isn't a stupid enough thing for not to be done by some foreigner somewhere"

WARNING: It's a JOKE

...And next day she was found from sauna, driep to death... :devil:

Silur wrote: I thought knife was the weapon of choice.

Yes, in some part of Finland. But there is those "myths" that earlier times when finnish man piece of wood in river he grapped his axe and went to hunt the intruder... Also, in one myth one peasant called Lalli killed a priest of some sort with axe when the priest had entered their house, eaten their food and payed with coins. In that time the normal peasant didn't even understand the term money, so the peasant thought it as a robbery...

Kipi wrote:Also, in one myth one peasant called Lalli killed a priest of some sort with axe when the priest had entered their house, eaten their food and payed with coins. In that time the normal peasant didn't even understand the term money, so the peasant thought it as a robbery...

Too bad you didn't keep it up. Money and priests have been nothing but trouble ever since.

Moonbiter wrote:Yes, I know! PATHFINDER It's unbelievable! I don't know any ancient culture that is so insultingly misinterpreted, twisted and falsified in popular culture absolutely all the time as the Vikings. Just check out the synopsis: "An action-adventure set in the time when Vikings tried to conquer North America..." What??????:speech: :speech: :speech: When they make films about ancient Rome, Greece, Macedonia, Africa, etc. they try to make them as historically accurate as possible. Not the Vikings. Hell, no! In fact I can't see any improvement at all, it actually seems to get worse!

As Fable said, practically no film is historically authentic (Kingdom of Heaven did some nice work on the combat and equipment). You should watch a film just for it's entertainment value (but Pathfinder looks like it's gonna be bad in a wrong sense ).

On the Netherlands: almost nobody uses wooden shoes (only people in the tourist business) (AFAIK farmers use an improved model, made of leather and steel or something) and not everyone in Amsterdam is stoned 24/7.

Norway is not satanic and Varg Vikernes is not the king.

Fiberfar wrote:Norway is not satanic and Varg Vikernes is not the king.

YES WE ARE, you hippie! :laugh:

Actually, that's a great number 13:

13. Black Metal music is not the most popular genre in Norway, in fact it is astonishingly more popular abroad than it is here. No, Black Metal musicians are not 7 foot tall Viking wraiths fighting an eternal battle against Christianity, sunshine and Vitamin C. When you strip away the corpse paint, the studs'n spikes, the black leather and the corsets (yes, corsets) they're usually podgy, anonymous roleplaying nerds, working dead-end jobs to pay the rent or living on the dole in the basement of their parent's house at the age of 25. That's where most of the aggression comes from. Their fans are not the "Rampaging Hordes of Hell" but rather the "Spotty Hordes Who Will Meekly Return To The Classroom When The Bell Rings."

Moonbiter wrote:YES WE ARE, you hippie! :laugh:

We? We as in "We are satanic and Varg Vikernes?"

New Zealand:
1. We don't shag sheep!
2. we aren't exactly like our Australian counter-parts.

So yeah.

Sir moosalot wrote:New Zealand:
2. we aren't exactly like our Australian counter-parts.

My impression is that the differences and similarities between Australia and New Zealand are somewhat analogous to comparisons between Canada and the US.


I am from Canada..
As has already been mentioned:
1. It does not snow everywhere
2. We do not live in igloos and drive about in dogsleds

3. We don't end every sentence with "eh?"
4. The Canadian Royal Mounted Police do not generally wear red uniforms with silly little hats


I'll probably think of more, but that's for starters.