OH I THOUGHT OF ANOTHER THING PEOPLE GET WRONG
Australia isn’t just deserts and beaches. We also have rainforests, mountains, glaciers, grasslands, regular forests, wetlands, swamps, and alpine areas. We also have plants and animal species that aren’t found anywhere else in the world, some of them only being found in certain parts of Australia 
how do I know this? I took yr11-12 geography in high school and live in a rural area so we got local environmental knowledge,too, mwahahahahahahaha
Well, Huntsmans will eat the smaller (nasty) spiders, like Redbacks, so they’re good to have around.
Also the Sunshine Coast University is a nature reserve for Eastern Grey kangaroos. Unfortunately, there is a lot of local council development so the roos’ living space is constantly shrinking.
I thoroughly recommend the Bush Tucker Man series for more info on this. At least for Australia’s north.
Also SBS used to broadcast footage from The India-Pacific and The Ghan rail journeys. They had good examples of Australia’s various landscapes.
Looks like a normal day at home, only with less roos 
They also miss quite a few landscapes because either they don’t have the interest or there is no working railway system, so for some of them it’s best to chat with the locals to learn more if you can. But those are decent programs even if they can put people to sleep at times
Another fun fact that people get wrong about Australia is the idea that everything here can kill you. That’s not actually true. We just like to exaggerate and it’s easier to say that than explain to every single person to visit what you shouldn’t go near because they never listen
The simple way of explaining is this: If it looks cute and cuddly, it can kill you (e.g., kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, brumbies, birds, all the things tourists want to see). If it is considered scary or dangerous, it’s probably harmless (spiders, sharks, most bugs). There is some overlap between these areas (so some things that are considered dangerous are dangerous and some things considered harmless are harmless) but that is how it generally works. If you don’t want to get attacked, leave the animals alone
Another example of cute = deadly, the photos of tourists holding Blue Ring octopus would make Charles Darwin spin fast enough to power Sydney.
I laughed wayyyyyyy too hard at that 
A somewhat related PSA. When treating protein-based stings or venom, use heat packs not ice. Heat is known to break the bonds of protein molecules and reduce the protein’s efficiency. One reason why Stone Fish stings are best treated with boiling water, which also nulls the sting’s pain.
Oof. I live in the US and there’s quite a bit that a lot of people from other places don’t quite understand.
The US is a massive country compared to many, specifically those in Europe. I often see people on social media asking why we have to drive everywhere, why we can’t just walk to the grocery store or wherever or how we can’t hop on a train to go to the next state. From Los Angeles, California to Virginia Beach is a 40 hour drive alone. And even if you try to travel to a state closer, it’s still a long drive. From Columbus, Ohio to Salem, Massachusetts, it’s roughly a 13 hour drive. Now, if you go even smaller, nothing is walking distances. Stores are miles and miles away from your home, and a lot of towns don’t have sidewalks along the main road because they’re built in a way to just drive there. Of course, some places (specifically bigger cities), this is a little different. In New York City, if you live downtown, you may live near a decent grocery store you buy all of your products from there. Some people have said they walk to it. Heck, some apartment complexes have grocery stores INSIDE them. I watched this one video of this girl who lives somewhere downtown in a luxurious apartment and her apartment complex was built in a way that looked like a mall. She just takes the elevator down to a specific floor and there’s shopping centers all on that one floor… which I’ve never seen in person. Didn’t even know they existed. But these kinds of things aren’t true for the majority of the country. We’re not like little England where you can walk outside your house and everything you need is right across the street from you. Wish it was, but that’s not our reality.
Truthfully, there is some truth to this. However, it’s not what you may think according to the media. The media portrays the US as this obesity problem because all everyone does is eat fast food and don’t go to the gym. There’s a lot more science, a lot more capitalism and greed and politics, and a lot more to the story.
First of all, there is a great percentage of Americans who eat healthy, who go to the gym or exercise regularly, and who are thin and or fit. So, that alone doesn’t mean nearly 100% of Americans are fat.
But secondly, there’s an unfortunate and sad truth to it: everything is a trap. Most, if not, all of our food is processed in some way or another. I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they eat specific foods here (even healthier types of food) and feel horrible and get sick, but then have that same exact thing in another country (somewhere in Europe, for example) and are completely fine. So in basic terms, our food is poisoned. Now, of course, I’m no expert on if it is or not, but if you read the back of any product at the store, the ingredients most likely includes some kind of scientific word… and well, that’s not a good thing.
Going along with that, healthier food is a lot more expensive than unhealthy food. Of course, you can try to budget it out, but most of the time, it’s a good 50 cents or a few dollars more than the unhealthier product. In some places, however, you can buy healthy products (like fruits and veggies) from farmers at a very cheap price. But you don’t always have that option in other places of the country. Like, I used to live in northern California near Gilroy and as you drove that freeway, you’d see like five different fruit and veggie stands from local farmers with amazing prices (like I remember one, I think, have a sale for 5 cucumbers for a dollar). And we used stop by a lot because it saved so much money. But where I live in Kansas, we don’t get these stands. You have to buy everything from the grocery store, and 5 cucumbers at the stores here cost about 3-5 dollars depending on where you get it from.
On top of that, fast food restaurants have also dominated the country. There’s so many of them, and there’s at least one in every major town no matter where you go it feels like. Most of them also have good deals, make it fast, and there’s no major clean up. The sort of science to this is the fact that a lot of people work very long hours, and there’s also a good amount of people who have 2-3 jobs. So, when they get home from work, they don’t feel like cooking and cleaning. I know I don’t. I absolutely loathe it. And especially for parents, a lot of them who do work long hours don’t often care about how unhealthy or healthy something is and just care about if their kid has food in their stomach. So, even if they do make something at home, it’ll often be unhealthy because they don’t take long to make. Otherwise, fast food is the next option because they don’t have to clean, they don’t have to cook, and it’s fast.
But going with that, though, when it comes to restaurants, a lot of people comment on how big our food is. This actually isn’t about our obesity problem, it’s a value problem—and why it’s considered a trap. The way most American minds work is that the bigger something is, the more value it has. So, if you’re going to a Mexican restaurant and you order a burrito, you’ll often get burritos that are like the size of your head… and the ones I often get are like 10 dollars or less. In an American mind, this is an amazing value because you’re getting a great deal on it. But if that burrito was the size of your hand instead, at that same price, most Americans will throw a fit because it’s too expensive for that little thing. No matter how good it is. Again, the bigger, the better. However, on that same token, you’re actually not expected to eat the entire thing in one sitting—something else a lot of people don’t think of. I’ve heard that in other countries, they don’t have what we call a to-go box which is basically a box you get after your meal if you have extra food on your plate that you want to take home. A lot of people here will get full fast so they get a to-go box to put the rest in and then they can eat it later, whether as a late night snack or a lunch the next day.
And one of the worst problems of all, it can also come down to science. The cause of obesity isn’t always black and white—it’s not always about “you’re lazy and eat junk food.” A lot of people have medical conditions where they end up gaining weight. Thyroid issues, PCOS, and other medical problems. Everybody’s body is different, especially when it comes to the science of it all, and even on a smaller scale, some people have fast metabolisms and others have slow metabolisms. I’ve been friends with stick-thin people who don’t exercise at all and eat junk food all day, and can eat an entire buffet without gaining anything. But then there’s me who, yes, is obese, and eats a salad and I gain two pounds the next day. But while I haven’t been seen for it, I do check a lot of boxes for PCOS.
One of the biggest things I see across social media is how everyone else says “Americans are so uneducated.” Especially when it comes to certain things like geography or some other thing, and honestly, this is not true. We do know that England is not a continent and is, in fact, a country. We do know that people in other countries don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We do know that we’re not the only country in the world. We’re not stupid. But there are stupid people out there, and people who aren’t educated. And they’re not just Americans either. I’ve come across people from other countries who also have asked dumb questions. So… don’t go there.
But the reason why I said there is some truth to it, besides the fact that some people are just dumb, is that a lot of our schools aren’t the best schools. This is because they’re not actually interested in teaching; they only care about memorization and if you’re attending school. Another reason why they force kids to come to school sick as you can’t have more than five to ten days worth of unexcused absences for an entire year. But once you’re done with a test, a lesson, with school itself, you don’t really remember what you learned. Not to mention, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I’ve never been great with math. I’ll admit, I’m almost 26 years old and I can’t remember how to divide or use fractions (I never actually knew how to use fractions), and I barely know my multiplication. My strongest subjects were English and history, and I aced those classes with flying colors. I may not know math, but I’m at least literate, which for a lot of people out there, aren’t, unfortunately.
A lot of schools also don’t have great teachers who are present in the classroom, and many don’t have courses on life lessons like learning to do taxes, how to budget, how to buy your first home, and more. But then you get a lot of people who say that parents need to teach this… but then a lot of parents either don’t know it because they, too, were never taught it or they’re not present in their child’s life. In fact, when I first started my library job, I had to turn a family down with tutoring (because we don’t offer tutors and as employees, we’re not allowed to help with that) because the daughter, a fourth grader, was still learning how to read and write in English and her mother couldn’t speak or read in English. They had just moved here from a whole other country. And I see this a lot, mostly within the Spanish communities (as the majority in my town are Spanish-speakers) because most people don’t know how to read or write or speak English, but their kids do because of school, because of their friends, and because of social media and movies. Heck, whenever I’m working the front desk at the library, I’ve had 5-10 year old kids needing to be the translator because their parents didn’t know how to speak to me, even in broken English. Of course, this isn’t always a bad thing. But it also means, as a child, you’re on your own and that can often be terrible because they may be slower than other kids simply for this setback. 
But when a parent doesn’t know something, regardless of what it is, they can’t teach it… and what are you left with? Having to rely on school to teach it. Even when the parent isn’t present in their lives, you still have to rely on school to teach it. I’ve met kids who grew up with their sickly grandparents, in unstable foster homes, in abusive families, and more. Not everyone has the ability to teach their kid everything, so schools need to provide that but they can’t or don’t want to. And when this goes on for a long time, you often grow up being uneducated in that particular topic. Now some may argue and say that they can teach themselves, but it’s not always that simple. The problem with our society, specifically here in the US, is that once you’re an adult, everyone assumes you know everything. And many are afraid to ask questions because they feel awkward and stupid for asking them. And some may still ask, but then don’t know how to go through it. I’ve had to teach people how to use a computer, how to email someone, how to print something off, how to mail something… things that the majority should know. But they don’t… because they don’t have the privilege of knowing. I remember meeting one guy and having to help him fill out a job application because he didn’t know what to do with it and he couldn’t read or write which made it harder for him. He was severely abused growing up, was “homeschooled” but his parents never taught him anything, and he ran away from home at fifteen and had been living on the streets since then.
Circumstances like this happen way too much here.
The other side of the argument is another simple fact: quite a few of the uneducated people are often the ones who are religious… crazily religious. My sister works at a church, and there’s a few of them, some being the Elders, who think the Earth is flat. One of them told my sister that they think NASA is a Satanic company because that red line thing on their logo “looks like a serpent’s tongue.” 
I’ve even met a few people who thought that masks didn’t work… and their arguments made no sense. Like, he said, “It’s not going to do anything.” I then asked, “Then why do surgeons wear them when operating on a patient.” They replied, “They don’t want to contaminant the body.” Riiiight. So, using a mask does work because if it didn’t, they’d still contaminant the body with the mask on because masks don’t work? 
When it comes to the religious people, too, you’ll often find them using God as an excuse to everything. Like, the light turns green because God told it to turn green. And then they hide behind the bible whenever something racist, homophobic, sexist, or other pops up in conversation.
A lot of people from across the pond tend to ask why our currency is green and how confusing it is. It’s actually not confusing at all. If you actually read what the number says on the bill, you’ll be able to know how much money you have. But they’re also not the same color. They’re various shades of green, have different styles to them, and you can definitely tell what is what by a single glance, too.
Whenever you watch a movie or show, it feels as if you only see one small part of the country, and it’s usually the same, and a lot of people outside think that it’s weird that we don’t travel outside the country.
First of all, many don’t travel outside the US simply because of money. A plane ticket from where I live to nearly anywhere outside the US is about 2,000 dollars. That doesn’t count anything else. That right there, alone, is more than two paychecks for me. Most people who do travel are either going to Canada or Mexico, they’re rich, or their job allows them to travel outside the US.
But anyway, when it comes to the US alone, when you travel quite a far distance, you do find yourself in places that don’t feel like you’re where you used to live. Every state acts as their own country, and even some towns as well (since some towns are allowed to create their own laws). You get every season, various environments, and many places have different accents and slang. It’s wildly different living in southern California to living in northern California, and it’s wildly different living in Michigan to living in New York, and it’s wildly different living in Kansas to living in Louisiana. So a lot of people don’t really have to travel outside the US because they get forests, deserts, mountains, oceans, snow, rain, sun, and various food choices in one country.
Now, yes, truthfully, it doesn’t necessarily excuse people from not traveling beyond the oceans, but again, money and even a lack of vacation time from work tends to be the main causes for many. Otherwise, we would travel outside more. It’s a lot different than living in Europe and being able to hop on a train and go through five various countries in a single day.
We don’t really have a train to do that. Some places do, like my small town has a train that you can hop on and go to New York or whatever, but ticket prices are the same as plane tickets, and it’s actually a lot cheaper to just drive there… most of the time.
Our whole country is not one magical, spiritual island filled with exotic people whose sole existence is to cater to your “eat, pray, love” fantasy. The locals were not put on earth to help whyties “discover” themselves.
People being kind because they rely on tourism doesn’t mean their lives revolve around you. Something as benign as pissing on the wrong tree can end VERY badly for you, so do some research and respect local wisdom before coming here.
(lest anyone takes offence, “you” here is used in the broad sense of the word, not a direct reply to anyone in the thread)
I honestly can’t add anything new that AMMeyers hasn’t already said very well about the US as a whole. What I can talk about are the misconceptions I often hear about my state Kentucky.
No, we are not inbred. No, we don’t think it’s acceptable to marry your siblings. No, we are not uneducated. No, we are not the ‘land of the racists’ where you bump into a racist every second of every day. No, we don’t have one single accent; there are different ones. No, we don’t walk barefoot everywhere.
I live in a very small town of about 300 people. We have white folks, black folks, Hispanic folks, and I’ve met a few Arabic folks. I’ve also had the great pleasure of meeting an older trans woman when I worked at Walmart; as someone under the trans umbrella, that made me so happy to see her so happy and just living her life.
Some areas are certainly a lot more tougher. When I worked at Walmart, though, and changed my nametag to Simon, no one cared and no one tried to start anything; in fact, I started noticing more people stopped calling me Ms to get my attention. I had, however, lied and just said it was a nickname but I’m pretty sure my managers knew but didn’t press it because I wasn’t ready to come fully out.
Kentucky can be pretty harsh at times. It really depends on where you live, but it’s more common with the older generation. The ones that believe in physical discipline; my mother and her siblings for example were forced to pick their own switches.
West Virginia isn’t some land where you bump into a mothman every ten seconds like some people on Tumblr think. In truth there is a lot more abandoned hollers and quiet country roads.
You might not be aware that a lot of italian immigrants settled down here in the Early 20th century, and the Italian-Americans here are very different than the Italian-Americans you’d find further North in New Jersey and New York.
That every Japanese person likes and knows all anime and loves sushi.
Some of us don’t.
Some people just don’t get that such Japanese exist. I once had a conversation with an American friend of mine when I went abroad 10 years ago. It went like this:
American to-be friend: You’re from Japan? Oh, I like anime. I watch a lot. Do you like “such and such” anime?
Me: Oh nice, well, haha, I actually don’t watch anime much. Not really familiar with that one.
The friend: 
And sushi! 
I really like sushi. Do you have a favorite?
Me: Oh 
I’m not really into sushi much. I’m not big on fish in general.
The friend: Oh well… I…like sushi. A lot.
Me: Nice 
The friend: yeah… So you’re here for a year?
And that’s the first conversation I had with that friend XD
Yeah, that is the common thought when it comes to Japan.
I love anime/manga/I wouldn’t touch sushi with a ten foot pole even though I like fish.
It is interesting how people automatically assume EVERY SINGLE Japanese person watches anime and reads manga.
People forget that everyone is different and nobody is the same.
I heard a while back from someone that most Japanese hate anime/manga.
So, yeah, you got your different people liking different things.
That’s also wrong XD
Yep, exactly.
Oh yeah! So, it is like a 50-50 type thing…right?
I don’t think so? I think there’s an equal amount of obsession here as there is elsewhere. We’re just not so loud about it because liking it is kind of looked at as a not very likable trait sometimes. People will think you only care about your precious anime characters or manga characters. They might think you are part of the kind of obsessive fandom even if you’re not. They give you a long look like “okay, so you’re that kind of person. I see. You read MANGA, I see.”
So, typically you stay quiet about how much you like anime or manga unless you’re around people who understand that you’re not THAT obsessed, or people who like it at a similar level as you.
Kind of like if you like BTS but you’re not into the fandom. You know if you mention you like BTS people might assume you are in the fandom and see you a certain way. So, you might be quiet about liking BTS.
Interesting. Thanks for letting me know.
Yeah, about BTS, I like some of their songs, but I am not crazy about them like the diehard fans out there.
There are only a few K-Pop songs I enjoy, but I am not batshit crazy about the genre. I am more into J-Pop than K-Pop since I am an anime fan after all.
So, there you have it. Replace that with manga, and that would be some Japanese like me. Not a diehard fan of anything to be honest. I like it a lot, but not so much that I memorize character birthdays or something.
Similar thing! Harry Potter lovers. You might like HP, but not as much as some other person. Not to that obsession.
