What is your country known for but you don’t want it to be?
September 6, 2024
So is there something that bothers you how foreigners perceive your country, or how your country is known for it but you would rather it being known for something else.
29 comments
Well, I am very much not happy with Cyprus’ reputation as a money laundering destination for kleptocrats.
And while we can argue that aspects of that reputation are undeserved for X or Y reason, there’s no smoke without fire.
I’d rather Cyprus was known for tahini pie, one of the best pies.
I’m tired on Sweden being used as a tool for online and media discussion, especially from the reactionary right.
Nazis. I feel like it happens less frequently nowadays, but like 15 years ago whenever I was abroad talking to someone there was like a 50% chance they’d bring up the nazis. The other 50% was Merkel, cars and football.
Pierogi. We have way better food. It’s not bad; don’t get me wrong, but there is certainly better to appreciate. For example żurek or groats with chicken. Mmmmm
Oh boy, where do I begin
* **Not being confused with italoamericans and italoamericans’ language, food, traditions etc.**
* Spaghetti – there are hundreds of pasta formats and people only focus on a single one
* Mafia – it’s a literal cancer that plagues the country, not something the country should be known for
* Living with parents for “too long” – it’s not our fault if finding a job and especially a home is a pain in the ass
These are the first ones that came to my mind, will probably add more
Cannabis. Every other foreign stereotype of a Dutch person involves smoking marihuana and it’s dumb. Stoner culture is a very niche thing in Netherlands and whilst the drug policy here was very liberal 30 years ago, marihuana is not legal here and never has been – unlike in several others countries and some US states.
The campy American movie „Sound of Music“ loosely based on the badly abridged/distorted story of a rather tragic Italian-Austrian family with many dark secrets (severe child abuse, invented biographies,…).
Hookers and cheap wine. A great match with our corrupt state.
Also, Pastel de Nata, why? It’s rather bland compared to many of our other pastries. And the Francesinha fandom too but I won’t too bash much since it’s an actual meal.
The so-called “bad weather”.
In reality, it’s a mild climate that’s hospitable because of the lack of extremes, and relative lack of natural disasters.
The cooler temperatures and abundant rainfall make our air cleaner and our landscapes vibrantly green.
We are lucky to be an island also, as the coast provides humans many health and economic benefits.
I find people complain a lot about the rain, but it seems disingenuous because nearly any other region/country that is rainy gets totally glorified (French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Norway, Ireland, etc…)
Ireland, feel Americans look at here as their holiday destination, that we love listening to them walking around like it’s a museum or something, and that we should and love to perform the ‘stereotypes’ up for them. The potato and alcohol thing is true, so can’t argue with that.
Weed. We don’t smoke any more weed than other European countries I think, it’s almost all tourists and internationals in Amsterdam. It’s not even that legal.
Congo and what Leopold II did there. Especially on Reddit you can’t find a single post about anything Belgian without some idiot having to mention that.
One that’s fair, and one which isn’t:
Fair: British tourists getting drunk while on holiday and behaving like idiots. I really wish this wasn’t what came to mind when picturing people from the UK, but unfortunately there are a lot of tourists who act like this. They’re almost certainly a minority (I’d bet the average group of British tourists is actually just a family doing quiet stuff and not being noticed), but they cause so much trouble that it creates a bad reputation.
Unfair: That the food in the UK is bland and crap. If you just paid attention to the memes then you’d think that people in Britain ate nothing but junk food or boiled meat and veg. Actually, the UK has a huge range of decent food available. In the average British town it will be easy to find lots of different types of restaurants, with food from all over the place. While there’s definitely crap restaurants out there, and plenty of people don’t cook particularly well at home, a tourist isn’t going to lack in options when looking for somewhere to eat.
I think the Muhammad cartoons and *hygge*.
The former used to be a very controversial subject, and although I fully agree with the right to satirize islam, it used to be something that Danes travelling abroad were confronted with.
For Spain in general would say Bullfighting, it’s a pretty niche thing that’s disliked by most, not at all mainstream like, well, media portraits.
for the basque country I’d say bombs and being shot on the back of the neck. Quite a difficult recent history difficult to forget.
That a lot of foreigners think our country’s name is Holland (this misinformation is sadly spread by some of my countrymen)
The blue and white houses. Generally speaking the average non-Greek thinks that they are a staple of Greece as a whole but they are far *far* from right, because those houses that everyone and their mother has seen and just slaps onto anything Greece related, exist in some specific islands in the Aegean and literally nowhere else. The rest of the country is just regular good, old houses for better or for worse. I think what pisses me off about it so much is firdt of all, that this is all people bother with when it comes to anything Greece and second because I know examples of 1 American couple and 2 French women who all came to Greece, Athens and Crete to be specific, and all pretty much said they ‘looked for the little white houses’. It really put into perspective how everyone thinks that these darn houses are like, all over the country and if they are disappointed to not see them if they go to like 90-95% of the country (because again, these tiny houses are exclusive to some specific islands on the Aegean, literally nowhere else)
Well, the obvious one is probably Hitler. I mean, yeah he’s Austrian, but that doesn’t mean that you have to mention him everytime. The same goes for Austrian=Australian. I’m getting tired of all the “Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie” and “Do you have kangaroos?” jokes. It was funny a few years ago, but it’s too overused.
Lederhosen and Dirndl. Those are traditional clothes which only are worn in one single German state (Bavaria) and only on special/traditional occasion like the Oktoberfest. The problem is that foreigners often see Bavarian things and assume that all of Germany is like this.
HITLERRRRR, the Nazis, two world wars and having no humour.
And driving as quickly as you want on the Autobahn.
And Dirndl and Lederhosen. This clothing is more or less only typical and traditional in Bavaria, a federal state in southern Germany, and both are hideous.
One of my pet peeves is that a lot of the times when you read about Estonia from foreigners, or watch a video about Estonia, they will say/imply that we gained our independence in 1991, when in reality, we REgained our independence. We GAINED our independence as a result of the independence war in 1918-1920 and remained that way until occupation in WWII.
I feel like this is important because we are not a new country that was somehow created in the 90s in the ruins of the Soviet Union, but have a tradition of statehood since the beginning of the 20th century around the same time as Finland, with a period of national awakening happening in the middle of the 19th century during the age of nationalism and system of nation states
Another thing might be the “Estonia can/can’t into nordic meme”
Nobody really cares in real life, and it’s mostly foreigners online that seem to think that all Estonians lay in bed at night and dream about having a flag with a cross on it
Bullfighting the main one.
Cheap touristic destination, I mean the kind of tourism based in beaches, parties, being drunk far away from home doing crazy stuff.
We are a country of astounding natural beauty and strong cultural weight and history that influenced the world in many ways with archaeological remains since almost 16k years ago paleolithic era non stop to now, home of a lot of different peoples, cultures and civilizations.
But we only get the drunktards that wants to party, kill themselves jumping from balconies and basically doing the same they do in the pubs in their country but with sun and next to the beach.
Church burnings in the 90s
Varg Vikernes. See above. Murderer. Nazi.
22 July and Anders Behring Breivik
Swede here. ABBA. Not only is it not my type of music, the group had its heydays decades ago, before many of us were even born.
I’m proud of anything you associate us with
Wine cheese food culture, rioting, rudeness, fine with all of it
Being invaded by Russia and have largest war in Europe since WW2 (by scale).
Chornobyl.
Volunteraily give up 3rd largest nuclear arsenal
Corruption.
I’ll start by saying, this is not a terrible thing to be known about, but it’s also not exactly true and paints the wrong picture of our country.
Finland has been painted to be this land of unicorns and rainbows, because it has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for quite a lot of times now. And don’t get me wrong, I love living in Finland, but it’s not all that. There’s a lot of opportunity to be happy here, and I personally am, but there’s also a lot of things wrong. Mentioning a few here, I’m sure my fellow Finns can chime in.
The Finnish drinking culture is terrible and alcohol is way too involved I most traditions. The politicians are corrupt as fuck and do whatever makes them the most money, while claiming to do what’s best for the people. Finland has one of the highest suicide rates and mental health is not treated properly here.
I don’t even know what we are known for besides that anymore. We used to just be the little brother of Sweden, which I was kinda fine with.
Romania is known for Andrew Tate and Drscula. Most of us don’t give a fuck about Andrew tate and while dracula is good for our tourism, we have had Kings with way more impressive achievements than Vlad Tepes, such as Stephen the great and Michael the brave.
My country is known for looking like an Eastern European country in almost all statistics, but we’re actually a Western European country.
29 comments
Well, I am very much not happy with Cyprus’ reputation as a money laundering destination for kleptocrats.
And while we can argue that aspects of that reputation are undeserved for X or Y reason, there’s no smoke without fire.
I’d rather Cyprus was known for tahini pie, one of the best pies.
I’m tired on Sweden being used as a tool for online and media discussion, especially from the reactionary right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden-bashing
Nazis. I feel like it happens less frequently nowadays, but like 15 years ago whenever I was abroad talking to someone there was like a 50% chance they’d bring up the nazis. The other 50% was Merkel, cars and football.
Pierogi. We have way better food. It’s not bad; don’t get me wrong, but there is certainly better to appreciate. For example żurek or groats with chicken. Mmmmm
Oh boy, where do I begin
* **Not being confused with italoamericans and italoamericans’ language, food, traditions etc.**
* Spaghetti – there are hundreds of pasta formats and people only focus on a single one
* Mafia – it’s a literal cancer that plagues the country, not something the country should be known for
* Living with parents for “too long” – it’s not our fault if finding a job and especially a home is a pain in the ass
These are the first ones that came to my mind, will probably add more
Cannabis. Every other foreign stereotype of a Dutch person involves smoking marihuana and it’s dumb. Stoner culture is a very niche thing in Netherlands and whilst the drug policy here was very liberal 30 years ago, marihuana is not legal here and never has been – unlike in several others countries and some US states.
The campy American movie „Sound of Music“ loosely based on the badly abridged/distorted story of a rather tragic Italian-Austrian family with many dark secrets (severe child abuse, invented biographies,…).
Hookers and cheap wine. A great match with our corrupt state.
Also, Pastel de Nata, why? It’s rather bland compared to many of our other pastries. And the Francesinha fandom too but I won’t too bash much since it’s an actual meal.
The so-called “bad weather”.
In reality, it’s a mild climate that’s hospitable because of the lack of extremes, and relative lack of natural disasters.
The cooler temperatures and abundant rainfall make our air cleaner and our landscapes vibrantly green.
We are lucky to be an island also, as the coast provides humans many health and economic benefits.
I find people complain a lot about the rain, but it seems disingenuous because nearly any other region/country that is rainy gets totally glorified (French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Norway, Ireland, etc…)
Ireland, feel Americans look at here as their holiday destination, that we love listening to them walking around like it’s a museum or something, and that we should and love to perform the ‘stereotypes’ up for them. The potato and alcohol thing is true, so can’t argue with that.
Weed. We don’t smoke any more weed than other European countries I think, it’s almost all tourists and internationals in Amsterdam. It’s not even that legal.
Congo and what Leopold II did there. Especially on Reddit you can’t find a single post about anything Belgian without some idiot having to mention that.
One that’s fair, and one which isn’t:
Fair: British tourists getting drunk while on holiday and behaving like idiots. I really wish this wasn’t what came to mind when picturing people from the UK, but unfortunately there are a lot of tourists who act like this. They’re almost certainly a minority (I’d bet the average group of British tourists is actually just a family doing quiet stuff and not being noticed), but they cause so much trouble that it creates a bad reputation.
Unfair: That the food in the UK is bland and crap. If you just paid attention to the memes then you’d think that people in Britain ate nothing but junk food or boiled meat and veg. Actually, the UK has a huge range of decent food available. In the average British town it will be easy to find lots of different types of restaurants, with food from all over the place. While there’s definitely crap restaurants out there, and plenty of people don’t cook particularly well at home, a tourist isn’t going to lack in options when looking for somewhere to eat.
I think the Muhammad cartoons and *hygge*.
The former used to be a very controversial subject, and although I fully agree with the right to satirize islam, it used to be something that Danes travelling abroad were confronted with.
The second is more harmless, but *hygge* is [treated](https://studiohafnia.dk/en/products/new-mags-the-little-book-of-hygge-hardback-meik-wiking-9780241283912?srsltid=AfmBOopNTnF8o5z1MnkCjNsdSValjseJBHqiRHuxuPXKr_xrZ59USBE8) like some sort of Danish philosophy or way of live, when it’s simply just a word describing a good time or coziness. It gives a false impression of what being Danish and Denmark is.
For Spain in general would say Bullfighting, it’s a pretty niche thing that’s disliked by most, not at all mainstream like, well, media portraits.
for the basque country I’d say bombs and being shot on the back of the neck. Quite a difficult recent history difficult to forget.
That a lot of foreigners think our country’s name is Holland (this misinformation is sadly spread by some of my countrymen)
The blue and white houses. Generally speaking the average non-Greek thinks that they are a staple of Greece as a whole but they are far *far* from right, because those houses that everyone and their mother has seen and just slaps onto anything Greece related, exist in some specific islands in the Aegean and literally nowhere else. The rest of the country is just regular good, old houses for better or for worse. I think what pisses me off about it so much is firdt of all, that this is all people bother with when it comes to anything Greece and second because I know examples of 1 American couple and 2 French women who all came to Greece, Athens and Crete to be specific, and all pretty much said they ‘looked for the little white houses’. It really put into perspective how everyone thinks that these darn houses are like, all over the country and if they are disappointed to not see them if they go to like 90-95% of the country (because again, these tiny houses are exclusive to some specific islands on the Aegean, literally nowhere else)
Well, the obvious one is probably Hitler. I mean, yeah he’s Austrian, but that doesn’t mean that you have to mention him everytime. The same goes for Austrian=Australian. I’m getting tired of all the “Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie” and “Do you have kangaroos?” jokes. It was funny a few years ago, but it’s too overused.
Lederhosen and Dirndl. Those are traditional clothes which only are worn in one single German state (Bavaria) and only on special/traditional occasion like the Oktoberfest. The problem is that foreigners often see Bavarian things and assume that all of Germany is like this.
HITLERRRRR, the Nazis, two world wars and having no humour.
And driving as quickly as you want on the Autobahn.
And Dirndl and Lederhosen. This clothing is more or less only typical and traditional in Bavaria, a federal state in southern Germany, and both are hideous.
One of my pet peeves is that a lot of the times when you read about Estonia from foreigners, or watch a video about Estonia, they will say/imply that we gained our independence in 1991, when in reality, we REgained our independence. We GAINED our independence as a result of the independence war in 1918-1920 and remained that way until occupation in WWII.
I feel like this is important because we are not a new country that was somehow created in the 90s in the ruins of the Soviet Union, but have a tradition of statehood since the beginning of the 20th century around the same time as Finland, with a period of national awakening happening in the middle of the 19th century during the age of nationalism and system of nation states
Another thing might be the “Estonia can/can’t into nordic meme”
Nobody really cares in real life, and it’s mostly foreigners online that seem to think that all Estonians lay in bed at night and dream about having a flag with a cross on it
Bullfighting the main one.
Cheap touristic destination, I mean the kind of tourism based in beaches, parties, being drunk far away from home doing crazy stuff.
We are a country of astounding natural beauty and strong cultural weight and history that influenced the world in many ways with archaeological remains since almost 16k years ago paleolithic era non stop to now, home of a lot of different peoples, cultures and civilizations.
But we only get the drunktards that wants to party, kill themselves jumping from balconies and basically doing the same they do in the pubs in their country but with sun and next to the beach.
Church burnings in the 90s
Varg Vikernes. See above. Murderer. Nazi.
22 July and Anders Behring Breivik
Swede here. ABBA. Not only is it not my type of music, the group had its heydays decades ago, before many of us were even born.
I’m proud of anything you associate us with
Wine cheese food culture, rioting, rudeness, fine with all of it
Being invaded by Russia and have largest war in Europe since WW2 (by scale).
Chornobyl.
Volunteraily give up 3rd largest nuclear arsenal
Corruption.
I’ll start by saying, this is not a terrible thing to be known about, but it’s also not exactly true and paints the wrong picture of our country.
Finland has been painted to be this land of unicorns and rainbows, because it has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for quite a lot of times now. And don’t get me wrong, I love living in Finland, but it’s not all that. There’s a lot of opportunity to be happy here, and I personally am, but there’s also a lot of things wrong. Mentioning a few here, I’m sure my fellow Finns can chime in.
The Finnish drinking culture is terrible and alcohol is way too involved I most traditions. The politicians are corrupt as fuck and do whatever makes them the most money, while claiming to do what’s best for the people. Finland has one of the highest suicide rates and mental health is not treated properly here.
I don’t even know what we are known for besides that anymore. We used to just be the little brother of Sweden, which I was kinda fine with.
Romania is known for Andrew Tate and Drscula. Most of us don’t give a fuck about Andrew tate and while dracula is good for our tourism, we have had Kings with way more impressive achievements than Vlad Tepes, such as Stephen the great and Michael the brave.
My country is known for looking like an Eastern European country in almost all statistics, but we’re actually a Western European country.