Myths and stereotypes

Here are some common myths and stereotypes widely believed by my Frenchies:

- Puerto Rico is the 51st state of the U.S.
- Asian people are always born in Asia, are very good at math, and Chinese/Japanese/Korean is always their first language. It is technically not possible to be Asian-American, or Asian-Scandinavian, or what not.
- Jewish people have dark skin and dark eyes, are very very rich, have lots of relatives in Israel, and eat only Kosher food and no pork. Sometimes Jewish people are pale, but those are the ones who wear those funny black hats.
- The CIA put bombs on the ground floor of the World Trade Center - that's the REAL reason why the towers collapsed, and those planes didn't have anything to do with it.
- France is actually a very powerful and dominant country, and a force to be reckoned with on the global scene.
- American children don't learn much at school.
- All African people are illegal immigrants.
- Americans tend to be very obese.
- Eastern European women are usually prostitutes. Or mail-order brides.
- France saved themselves from WWII - everyone knows that the Americans and Brits didn't actually do anything during the war.
- Americans are vitamin and drug crazy because we don't need prescriptions - we self prescribe our medicine, and we can buy vitamins everywhere. This is because:
- There is no such thing as health insurance in America.
- All Scandinavian people are really, really good at all foreign languages.
- Everyone knows that the "American dream" and those "success stories" about Americans are not true. This is because nepotism is actually worse in the U.S. than in France, and all those success stories are fake, because it is not possible to be from the ghetto and then become rich.
- A woman must always cook and clean.
- French is the most important, and most widely spoken language in the world. This is why:
- More people watch the French César Awards than the Oscars around the world (César = French equivalent of Oscar); and:
- Lots of French TV shows are very, very popular and in syndication all around the world; and also:
- Everyone in the world knows who Johnny Halliday is.
- Eating couscous is solid proof that you are not racist against Arab people.
- Manual cars do not exist in America, so there is no such thing as an American who can drive a stick shift.
- America forced the French to consume Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and chewing gum.
- Belgian people are stupid.
- The French are much more medically advanced than countries like the U.S. Everyone knows that medical school is much harder in France than it is in America.
- An allergy is a very rare medical condition.
- America is a very religious country, because the president always says "God Bless America", but:
- France is an entirely non-religious country. The fact that Sunday is "a day of rest" and that Catholic holidays are imposed on everyone doesn't actually mean anything.
- Females from English-speaking countries are all Angry Anglo-Saxon Feminists.