# What impressions of other countries would you get soley from looking at their media **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 23, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148 "2021-09-23T00:09:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/1 "2021-09-23T00:09:47Z")
Riffing off some of the current discussion in [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pit-thread-for-asahi/828944), what are the impressions you would get about a country if all you knew about them was based on their media (tv, movies, music) My impressions: The British spend at least half of their waking hours in pubs. All housing consists of either London flats or country houses dating back to the 1700’s Japan has at least as many guns as the US, possibly more, but its not too much of a problem since any 80 year old grandma can hold her own against 30 men in their prime. India is in the midst of a giant epidemic of choreomania, with frequent uncontrolable bouts of highly choreogrphed routines breaking out spontaneously. Nothing good ever happens to anyone in Russia, and most Russians would probably kill themselves except that it would require them to take their attention away from brooding about the meaninglessness of their existence. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/2 "2021-09-23T00:14:31Z")
I’ll subvert this a bit: judging from American media, Germans are all pretzel eating, beer drinking, lederhosen or dirndl wearing, yodeling Bavarians. And to stay on topic: judging from German media, we are a technocratic, bureaucratic , existentially brooding society of engineers. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/3 "2021-09-23T00:21:39Z")
Why not both? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/4 "2021-09-23T00:26:01Z")
Beer drinking, existentially brooding and engineer fits in my case. Bavarian, not so much. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/5 "2021-09-23T00:39:15Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > And to stay on topic: judging from German media, we are a technocratic, bureaucratic , existentially brooding society of engineers. I have something to add to this: We may come over as all which I wrote, but the other side of the coin is: hopeless romantics. That also has long been a theme in German media, to this day. Think the films of Wim Wenders for a relatively current example. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/6 "2021-09-23T00:46:24Z")
Ok, this is fun, so what I gather from having watched hundreds of French films: French people are either always on the brink of nervous breakdown, or tough as a nail. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/7 "2021-09-23T01:46:00Z")
From watching anime, I’ve learned that Japanese people have enormous eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/8 "2021-09-23T02:21:46Z")
Is “pornography” considered a subset of “media?” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/9 "2021-09-23T03:21:51Z")
Speaking as an American, who has watched a fair amount of Canadian TV: Canadians are all very nice, but most of them are kind of quirky (in a mostly-harmless way), and hockey is the state religion. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/10 "2021-09-23T03:57:44Z")
Watching British cop shows, I get the impression that the small towns and villages there have murder rates that rival that of any major American city. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/11 "2021-09-23T04:18:01Z")
I’d think that would be a genre. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/12 "2021-09-23T04:52:47Z")
Korean teenagers are so intense! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/13 "2021-09-23T04:59:27Z")
Russians drink vodka, hug bears, go shirtless in winter, smoke, are mafia-ish ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/14 "2021-09-23T05:04:54Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Speaking as an American, who has watched a fair amount of Canadian TV: > > Canadians are all very nice, but most of them are kind of quirky (in a mostly-harmless way), and hockey is the state religion. And earnest…so damn earnest. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/15 "2021-09-26T20:26:17Z")
Having grown up there and still having family there, all I can say is: 1. Not entirely wrong 2. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/16 "2021-09-26T20:27:42Z")
Oh, and Canadians also apologize for everything. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/17 "2021-09-26T21:26:54Z")
Are you mixing up Georgians and Geordies ? To the best of my knowledge Geordies don’t hug bears. j (OK, I don’t know if the word Geordie is known in the US. Inhabitant of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Well described in @Velocity ’s post. Apart from the bears thing. ) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/18 "2021-09-27T00:36:26Z")
There are a LOT of murders in the Cotswolds. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/19 "2021-09-27T01:21:43Z")
Every window in Paris has a view of the Eiffel Tower. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148/20 "2021-09-27T07:10:32Z")
Italians are ridiculously loud around the dinner table and are usually arguing. j [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-impressions-of-other-countries-would-you-get-soley-from-looking-at-their-media/951148.md?page=2)