# Sterotypes about your country(ies) that are true **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998 "2006-01-28T17:05:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/21 "2006-01-29T13:20:12Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > On average, we’re very fat. Very fat? Maybe a little husky or big-boned, but I doubt on average that we’re very fat. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/22 "2006-01-29T15:12:26Z")
Although not actually rich, Saudis as a group act rich as they spend their money on flashy cars and homes. Yes, Saudis are quite backward and xenophobic. Yep, they are defensive about the Crusades. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/23 "2006-01-29T15:52:21Z")
> [@glee](#): > > We do have some funny ways of pronouncing + spelling words (Leicester = “Lester”). So do we – Leicester, Worcester, etc. But that’s because we got it from you guys 😉 As much as I don’t like to admit it, there is a “snob” undercurrent in these parts. I don’t know if it’s an offshoot from all the area universities or from the original British class system. Probably both. Being a native, I never knew it existed until friends from out of town pointed it out: \* Everyone knows their place. Either you’re a “have” or a “have not”. There’s no intermingling between the two.\* After thinking about it, I reluctantly agree…to an extent. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/24 "2006-01-29T18:04:57Z")
German’s like beer. Brits like Beer. Aussies, Belgians, Swede’s, Swiss, Danes, Leichtensteiners, Yanks, Canuk’s…etc etc etc all like Beer. You are thirsty for beer. Sponsored by the World Beer Industries. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/25 "2006-01-29T18:23:14Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Perhaps what is being described is that virtually 100% of _households_ in the US have cars, not that 100% of _all adults_ own individual cars. Yes, again, that is what I meant. When I said everyone has cars, I didn’t meant that literally 100% of all adults have them. I just meant that compared to other countries, a very high percentage of households have cars for the adults to drive. Next time, I’ll have a lawyer draw up my post so no possible ambiguousness is left. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/26 "2006-01-29T19:36:57Z")
New Yorkers are assholes. Every last one. I’ll note here that if you don’t own a car here in Southern California you might as well be dead. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/27 "2006-01-29T19:41:49Z")
I’ll add that this article was just written at Xin Hua, China’s news agency. It states that 1 out of 10 Beijing Ren(Beijingers) has a car. [Beijing Cars](http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/29/content_4114760.htm) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/28 "2006-01-29T19:46:59Z")
Most Brits on vacation are insufferable drunks. I avoid others like me when away, as their singing, shouting, vomiting and fighting puts me off my booze. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/29 "2006-01-30T01:03:48Z")
> [@vl\_mungo](#): > > Canadians sound more polite… until you realize that a significant amount of the “pleases”, “thank you’s” and “you’re welcomes” acutally mean “f\*ck you” > \ This is actually true. We really do say “eh” a lot. A whole lot. Really, really a lot. But we don’t say “aboot.” Except Torontonians and Newfies. They say it a little. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/30 "2006-01-30T03:12:48Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > I think Canadians are seen as polite, not overly religious, and overall they know more about other places in the world from their basic education. And the country really is clean. That is the adjective I’ve heard most frequently to describe Canada, by Americans who had never been there before. And civilized. I remember visiting a friend in Canada. I lost the slip of paper with the phone number and directions. I thought if I could only find his phone number, I could call him and get directions from where I was. Then I remembered I was in Canada. I walked over to the nearest phone booth, and sure enough there was a phone book right there. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/31 "2006-01-30T03:44:58Z")
Yeah, I hear ya on that one. In eight years in the US, I’ve encountered maybe one phone booth that had a phone book, but most of the pages were ripped out. For instance, when you’re at the grocery store and you have to ask the courtesy desk person to call a cab for you because at the in-store pay phone there are neither white nor yellow pages in the book in the whole Taxi section. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/32 "2006-01-30T03:59:51Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > And civilized. I remember visiting a friend in Canada. I lost the slip of paper with the phone number and directions. I thought if I could only find his phone number, I could call him and get directions from where I was. Then I remembered I was in Canada. I walked over to the nearest phone booth, and sure enough there was a phone book right there. Huh? I don’t remember ever having trouble finding a phonebook in a phonebooth in the US. They’re not everywhere, but it’s not that uncommon. Actually, these days, with everyone having cellphones, it may be harder to find an actual booth, rather than just the book. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/33 "2006-01-30T04:02:29Z")
Japan The people here are generally smaller (shorter and thinner) than the average westerner. The trains in Tokyo do get packed so full that if you removed the floor, everyone would still stay in place. They’re like that every morning, for the most part. You either get used to it or you don’t last long. There is, in the general media (which I can only assume reflects the tastes of their readers and viewers), a marked fascination with schoolgirls and underwear that at times makes one think that McArthur’s “nation of twelve-year-olds” comment wasn’t so far off the mark. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/34 "2006-01-30T05:25:24Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > We really do say “eh” a lot. A whole lot. Really, really a lot. But we don’t say “aboot.” Except Torontonians and Newfies. They say it a little. Eh, on “aboot”: I had a Quebecois teacher (of English) in middle school who said it incessantly. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/35 "2006-01-30T05:26:30Z")
Southern California: Our heads really are full of air (but incredibly fashionably so). We really do look good all of the time, to the point of pathological disorder. We really do spend more of our lives in our cars than in our homes. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998/36 "2006-01-30T15:17:36Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Eh, on “aboot”: I had a Quebecois teacher (of English) in middle school who said it incessantly. To be honest, I couldn’t really tell you what the Quebecois say. It makes things a lot easier if we just consider the Quebecois to have gotten their fondest wish and they are a separate country from Canada. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sterotypes-about-your-country-ies-that-are-true/341998.md?page=1)