Stereotypes of your city/state/region/country, and are they true?

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LongAndShort

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May 11, 2009
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Foxbat Flyer said:
deadman91 said:
I dont know where you live, but im from country NSW, and a couple of the things you say, i can object to...

We are not all urban, and alot of things do try to kill us (Snakes, Spiders, Kangaroos, even wombats...), alot of slang is used around here (although, that just feels normal). Some people around here are very Anti-multicultural, and worry about the country being taken over

But, I know what you mean when you say some city people have never seen a kangaroo or other wild life / plants. It should be compulsary for city people to come to the country, and see how we live and see the sights, they will be more open minded and more understanding that city life isnt always the best life (Id take the bush any day)

And yes, We are bloody drunk bastards, and im proud of it!

Oh, and the stereotype of us riding kangaroo's to work are true, I swear it... and drop bears are real too

Edit: I forgot to mention another stereotype for around here... I live near a town called Bogan Gate, the road I drive on to work is called Bogan Road, In town, there is a street called Bogan St, We are full of bogans in disguise!
Ha, country people are bogons.
Yeah, I know what you mean, and there are plenty of people who live up to the stereotype, live in the country ect. But when it comes down to it I think Australians are far more accepting than a lot of people (including a lot of Aussies) give us credit for. Well maybe not in Melbourne.
But the point I was more trying to make was that most of live in large cities, and many don't know (or wanna know) shit about the wilder, or more rustic parts of Australia.

But seriously international escapists, watch out for bloody drop-bears. Territorial, small (but built like brick shithouses) and generally not to be fucked with.
Then again some people might apply the same warning to Bundy and coke.
 

standokan

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May 28, 2009
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Young Marocco people, they are said to steal pretty much everything which I suppose isn't totally true. But they are assholes each and every one of them "what are you looking at"
"I'll knock your teeth out". And they all wear like these hats, coats with fake fur and bags around their necks. I don't know why pretty much every single one I met was an asshole.

Rumor has it that once you get to know them, they're not that big assholes. But they're still all assholes on the outside.
 

Korolev

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Jul 4, 2008
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Most stereotypes about Australians are no longer true. We don't hunt crocodiles. We don't all wear hats with corks hanging off them while we shear sheep. There ARE traditional Australian farmers, but they're a dying breed. The majority of Australians are city dwellers, and our cities are just like the cities in the US, with high-rise office buildings, traffic and air conditioning.

Also, we're not that laid back or very friendly any more. That's the image we like to project to tourists, but it's a false one. We're a pretty angry nation but we just tend to hide it better than the Americans. Also, the "she'll-be-right" attitude is mostly gone, I'm afraid. You'll occasionally find it in the country side, but in the city it's all busy-busy-busy.

I suppose the one stereotype of Australians that's even remotely true is our love of rugby, even though that's changing as well.
 

Heathrow

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Jul 2, 2009
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GrimTuesday said:
I can't count how many times I've gone to a concert in Portland and had a group of hipsters walk by scoffing at how mainstream we all were for going and seeing bands like the Decemberists and Spoon. Its like they find out who is playing shows where and go there just to act superior.

I didn't know that there were any about people from Vancouver, this is news to me. Unless you mean sales tax dodging, then yes I know about that one, and am guilty of that XD.
Only Washingtonians care about dodging sales tax, we Oregonians are just pissed because you use our public services and then dodge our property and income taxes. :p

As to music snobs, yeah but those exist for every category of music. I've yet to hear someone actually say my musical choices are too mainstream though, usually its just a matter of preference.

Still I'm sure many people do resent big bands that have an easy time when they know of much smaller operations that produce, in their opinion, better music, and which suffer from being obscure.

Really it's not a difference of opinion we both walk down the street, you see hipsters and I just see people: it's a matter of what we were looking for in the first place.
 

Bobbity

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Mar 17, 2010
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I live in Australia, and no, we're not all bogans. That said, it's somewhat telling that we have our own word for them...

And no, cracked readers, not quite everything is out to kill us, although it does sort of seems that way some times. :p
 

Vibhor

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Aug 4, 2010
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Korolev said:
Most stereotypes about Australians are no longer true. We don't hunt crocodiles.
You guys lost all awesome in my eyes.

Well here goes.
Country: India
Nobody is addicted to curry(it doesn't taste good anyway) and I have yet to see a snake charmer after the age of 4. Oh and I for once do not smell of spices. Do not know of others(I do not roam around smelling everyone, it is considered crazy here)
 

Mcmuffin

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Apr 15, 2011
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germany, when i moved to the US i was asked if i was a nazi and that has continued all my life most recently last week when i was asked why my countrymen hated jews. Ignorance runs thick through humanity, and no its obviously not true, germany condems nazis like no other country.
 

OutforEC

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Jul 20, 2010
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deshorty said:
I live in Shanghai, one of the most modern cities in the world and some guy asked me if I had ever seen a toilet before. Seriously. A toilet. Before that, a lady asked me if I lived in a house or in a hut made out of straw. Before that, some one who had been having a 15 minute conversation with me in english asked me if I could fluently speak english.

We have everything that makes a modern city modern.
We have houses.
People speak decent English here, even the local Chinese.

The one other stereotype that I will confirm is the massive amount of fake goods that are around the city. There is a fake market for just about anything you could possibly imagine. There is the basic market for goods that tourists buy, there is a computer fake market, there is a clothing fake market, a fake market for eyewear specifically and a fake market for mens shoes, among others.
But do you have fake toilets?
I keed! I keed!

Seriously though, one of my roommates in the military was from Laos and actually did grow up in a straw hut, and some of us 'Mericans aren't all that great when it comes to world geography, so I think it's just a case of the 'if it sounds foreign, it must be third-world' mentality that is prevalent among the ignorant.

Which I suppose is a stereotype of Americans, the reasons behind which I can completely understand. It still strikes me as regrettable that more Americans don't travel overseas, and it never fails to amaze me that I meet people in their 50s and 60s that have never even left their home town...
 

feycreature

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May 6, 2009
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Toronto: frigid, arrogant people, "goody two-shoes" general attitude, oppressive heat in summer and brain-freezing cold in winter, and horrible pollution.

The weather is about right, though I didn't realize til I moved here from the West Coast how often it's sunny. I've actually found people IN Toronto to be quite pleasant once you get talking to them. Yet I met mostly obnoxious people FROM Toronto long before I moved.

I can totally see how people here would seem cold coming from anywhere in the states, or most of Canada. The thing is, it's not that they're being frigid, they're just trying to be polite. If you walked onto a bus naked in Vancouver no one would do anything because they don't care. If you did it in Toronto no one would do anything because they'd never be so intrusive as to inquire why you aren't wearing any clothes.

Mainly, though, you don't run into a lot of people from Toronto. A lot from the smaller townships like Ajax, a lot from small towns in Southern Ontario, or who moved cross-country like me, but I can only think of one person I know here who really strongly identifies as Torontonian.

Though he can be kind of arrogant about it.
 

megamabu

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Mar 2, 2011
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Well I live in Victoria, Canada so some things like how we Canadians say "aboot" and live in igloos it sometimes gets annoying but it doesn't come up to often, now if you'd excuse me im going to go ride a polar bear.
 

Timmehexas

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Aug 15, 2010
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deadman91 said:
And, I understand that Sydney has the highest proportion of homosexuals in the world. This is an example of how open-minded and accepting Australia can be, but I should mention that our poofs could beat the shit out of your poofs any day of the week.
What?! Really? Why have I been living in Brisbane all this time? :(
 

WendelI

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Jan 7, 2009
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Yes the bronx (Its in new york for those whom dont know) Is incredibly dangerous. tons of violence tons or murders. waay too easy to get a gun and as a matter of fact, drugs (not just weed) are probably sold at almost EVERY corner. personally i blame it all on Section 8 housing affairs that the government handles. But hell someone heard my prayers and that shit got closed down.
 

guidance

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Dec 9, 2010
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I live in Vancouver Canada (technically Richmond but it's small and right outside Vancouver).

No we don't live in igloos
No we don't have polar bears
Vancouver there is much more rain than snow
And yes many of us like hockey but the rioters were random dicks who like rioting (apparently we have those too)
On the west coast I haven't met anyone with the stereotypical Canadian accent
 
Jun 23, 2008
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In San Francisco, we're all as gay as 1890s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Parisienne], except those of us who are not. (Most of us are not.)[footnote]A personal peeve: In the city of San Fierro, GTA: San Andreas, they obviously did their homework, but the Queens area looked nothing like the Castro, which is distinguishable enough to be a mimicable landmark.[/footnote] Plenty of us, however, are fringe, eccentric, weird, or look like we're in costume. That's because you can dress as you want and get away with it.[footnote]So long as you're not naked. (But you wouldn't want to be naked here; it's cold and foggy!) Thanks to our sex-positive communities, nudity in The City proper is associated with cruising for action and will get you arrested. If you want to be publicly nude as per naturism, you cross the Bay to Berkeley, and don't do anything remotely lewd.[/footnote] Not to be confused with a lack of style or concern, though as with any cosmopolitan urban center, some have more style than others.

Not that many people eat granola and yogurt as a regular thing. We have awesome delis that have ridiculous selections of breads, wine and cheese. Even the Safeways have improved their spread to compete.

Yes, the place is overrun with homeless, given that transients migrate here from the rest of the nation. Our services network, run mostly through non-profits, is meant to help people recover and get reintroduced into society. And yes, we sometimes have stupid laws.[footnote]Right now, toys in happy meals are prohibited, and we still don't allow for plastic bags in grocery stores. At the same time a lot of people now bring their own bags.[/footnote] Weird legislation, such as curbside recycling gets tried out here, often, before it becomes trendy throughout the rest of the nation. Though we don't yet have a yellow bike program [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system] and could really use one.

Yes, we have a dildo store [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COYOTE] actually can advertise in the public, and does. (It's a very progressive store, though.)

The underground tunnels from Big Trouble In Little China have mostly toppled due to earthquakes. Yes, the tongs still run Chinatown, but they're nicer to the tourists, these days.

No, we're not all Neopagans[footnote]Most of the Neopagans and Wiccans have drifted out into Oakland and Berkeley, largely because rent is cheaper there.[/footnote] or atheists, and in fact have more than our share of street preachers and the cathedral that looks like a washing machine agitator [http://gowalla.com/spots/38768/photos/1746046].

No, age-of-consent reform [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nambla] activism these days takes place in northern Europe, and is more about matching consent laws to real-world sexual patterns of teens.

Yes, San Francisco laws would suggest we are terrified of handguns. A Concealed-carry permit requires a serious bureaucratic labyrinth run, and that has to be renewed every three months. It sure is easy enough to buy guns, though. Granted, they're marked up significantly.

Did I miss anything? Halloween? The People's Temple? The Maltese Falcon?

238U.
EDIT: Embarrassing typos.
 

Aglaid

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Mar 27, 2011
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Well I live in Washington and I remember my math teacher saying that while he was in Cali and was talking with some people they asked where he was from, he said "Washington" and they thought we had polar beads here and that it rained everyday. The rain part is true though and if it's not raining it's cloudy out.
 

commodore96

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Aug 31, 2010
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Uriel-238 said:
Though we don't yet have a yellow bike program [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system] and could really use one.
I think that is the coolest idea ever.
 

MaoExE

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Jun 3, 2011
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I live in the magini....... Kentucky. Yeah, the sad thing is most stereotypes are true. I more than one person who has a family like Dad=Brother, Aunt=Sister, etc.

So let's do a list.
Incest (True) Sadly
Racists (True)
Confederate Flag everywhere (True)

Yeah think of anymore and just ask me.
 

LongAndShort

I'm pretty good. Yourself?
May 11, 2009
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Timmehexas said:
deadman91 said:
And, I understand that Sydney has the highest proportion of homosexuals in the world. This is an example of how open-minded and accepting Australia can be, but I should mention that our poofs could beat the shit out of your poofs any day of the week.
What?! Really? Why have I been living in Brisbane all this time? :(
I don't know mate, but I don't know why anyone would want to live in any other state. NSW is obviously superior to all the others in all possible ways.
 

Foxbat Flyer

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Jul 9, 2009
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deadman91 said:
Foxbat Flyer said:
deadman91 said:
-snip-
Ha, country people are bogons.
Yeah, I know what you mean, and there are plenty of people who live up to the stereotype, live in the country ect. But when it comes down to it I think Australians are far more accepting than a lot of people (including a lot of Aussies) give us credit for. Well maybe not in Melbourne.
But the point I was more trying to make was that most of live in large cities, and many don't know (or wanna know) shit about the wilder, or more rustic parts of Australia.

But seriously international escapists, watch out for bloody drop-bears. Territorial, small (but built like brick shithouses) and generally not to be fucked with.
Then again some people might apply the same warning to Bundy and coke.
Hahaha, yeah. There are more city people i suppose... i think its like 90% or so of Australians live on the coast, and all our capitals (Apart from ACT) are on the coast, so I suppose you are right. From what i hear, we are very accepting of other cultures, some people from America who came out to a farm stay near-by which i helped entertain said that Aussies are some of the friendliest people they have met in the world (Except in brisbane they say...)