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    26 Myths People Are Sick Of Hearing About Their Own Country From Foreigners

    It's not illegal to chew gum in Singapore???

    Recently, Reddit user u/orionve asked "What is a common myth about your country that is 100% false but many people still believe in it?"

    Now, I like to believe I'm a ~worldly citizen~, but I was super interested to hear what people said and maybe break some of my own stereotypes.

    Here are some of the most interesting responses!

    1. Singapore: "It is not illegal to chew gum, only to import/sell it or bring it onto the trains."

    "This is because dickheads used to literally gum up the train doors and make everyone late for work. The government put up with it for a few months and then said fuck it, no more gum for everyone, this is why we can't have nice things."

    u/notsocoolnow

    2. Australia: "Everyone thinks it's dangerous as fuck, that spiders, drop bears, snakes, feral cats, and dogs will rip ya fucking heart out every time you step out the door."

    "The truth is that unless you act like a halfwit [and] poke said snake/spider with ya finger, then you'll be fine. Battle echidna, dervish spiders, saltwater crocodiles, and drop bears don't live in suburbia; you need to go into the bush to even see a lizard, which usually promptly fucks off the moment a stone-footed oompa loompa waddles past."

    u/Cletus_Spooge_pants

    3. Brazil: "Everyone plays soccer and knows how to dance samba; there are monkeys in the streets; the capital is Rio de Janeiro."

    u/sadcagias

    4. Canada: "Everyone drinks maple syrup, moose [are] everywhere, and [people] saying 'sorry' all the time."

    u/Ugandan_Chungas

    5. France: "I’ve never seen a mime in Paris."

    u/simon_0404

    6. Mexico: "Mexico is a desert."

    u/slackfrop

    "I hear it's also entirely in sepia tone."

    u/Wu_Tang_In_a_Pouch

    7. Czech Republic: "[A] decent amount of people still think that Czechoslovakia still exists. We split apart in 1993...We are Czech Republic, not Czechoslovakia anymore."

    u/foodwithnoob

    8. South Africa: "When I visited the UK for the first time, the people there were terribly surprised to hear that we have universities in South Africa. And that we have internet and shopping centers also seemed to be mythical."

    "On the flight back, this lady who was sitting behind me was telling her companion that they had to be careful when they land at OR Tambo, as there are vicious lions walking around freely. It took everything in me not to make a remark about that."

    u/irmari01

    9. Germany: "All Germans have some secret knowledge of World War II they would love to share."

    "I always found that interesting when I lived in London and especially English people over 40 would ask me of some firsthand experience of the war (keep in mind that not even my parents were born at that time). ... We know the same as you do from history classes."

    u/slazer2k

    10. Australia: "That we say 'shrimp on the Barbie.' It was an ad campaign to appeal to Americans. It's the most successful tourism campaign still to this day, but literally no one in Australia says that."

    u/Fireo2sw

    11. Australia: "I had to tell my little cousins in the UK that no, unfortunately we don't ride kangaroos to school and work every day!"

    u/Eldylto

    12. Canada: "When I started dating my now-wife (who is from Oklahoma), she informed me that her friends and family were convinced that Canadians didn't have ice or toilet paper."

    "They wanted her to ask me about it, apparently because they were confused by that. I had never laughed so hard. I mean...it's Canada...we are ice 70% of the year, basically."

    u/SirensDeadlySong

    13. Canada: "As a reverse of that, we had some Americans turn up with snowmobiles on the back of their trucks and ask us how much further until they would hit snow."

    "We were in southern Ontario. It was also August."

    u/Illuminati_Spokesman

    14. Any country in Africa: "That Africa is a country."

    u/ta_ref

    15. Egypt: "I'm American, but I lived in Egypt for a while. It's incredible that more than one American who wasn't a child asked me if I lived in a pyramid."

    BP_Oil_Chill

    16. Brazil: "That Brazil is a huge tropical jungle in which people speak Spanish."

    "Brazil actually has several major cities and different environments. São Paulo, for instance, is a huge sprawling metropolis with as many inhabitants as New York and Los Angeles combined. In some southern areas of the country, it actually snows. And we were a Portuguese colony, so we speak Portuguese."

    guiporto32

    17. France: "We are all rude if you don't speak French, we don't shower/shave, we all like wine/cheese/baguettes, and France can be summarized as Paris."

    u/Mattt29000

    18. Australia: "That we all knew Steve Irwin. Like, sure thing, we've all shared many a bush chook tinnies with old mate Stevo down the local."

    u/gold_fields

    19. India: "Indians don't speak English. I was asked once how I'm 'so good' at English. Like, we are literally the second-largest English-speaking country."

    u/uhhalivia

    20. New Zealand: "That the only thing we care about is rugby and we all live in hobbit holes. I, for one, am absolutely terrified of rugby, but I'm Kiwi."

    u/GalactikNZ

    21. Turkey: "That we ride camels in Turkey. Short answer: we don't."

    u/Huntsound

    22. Germany: "Germans all wear Lederhosen...Except on the Oktoberfest (or the Wasn), it is a rare sight."

    u/Sarius1997

    23. The UK: "There are more than two accents in the UK. It's not just Cockney and the Queen's English."

    u/Thats_My_Moo

    24. Scotland: "Everyone in Scotland is ginger and wears a kilt."

    u/_pengu__

    25. The Netherlands: "All of our country is just weed and red districts. Yes, we have these things...but the Netherlands has lots of culture!"

    u/Gingyfiz

    26. And finally, Transylvania: "Dracula is often depicted as living in Transylvania."

    "While he was imprisoned there for a while, he was actually the ruler of Wallachia (another historic Romanian province that neighbors Transylvania to the south). As for the rumor that we are vampires, I neither confirm nor deny this statement."

    u/NextSentenceTextFix