International > South Africa
Misconceptions about Africa/ South Africa
Gansie:
Sorry to vent, but here goes...
Usually I really enjoy telling people about South Africa and how great this and that is. But sometimes I just get really tired of people who have absolutely no clue about the place. Granted, I don't know everything about every culure or country, but I have a reasonably good idea of what to expect etc. and I would certainly try not to offend someone.
Today my co-t and I were talking about random things and we happened upon Nobel prizes as a topic. She mentioned that Korea won a Nobel Prize for peace and I mentioned that we have also only won a few. She then sceptically and very seriously asked me whether I was sure that we have won any. I then showed her on the internet that indeed we have won a few (and not just for peace, also for literature, science and medicine). Even afterwards she was still a bit unsure. I guess I'm just in a grumpy mood today, but sometimes it gets really annoying when people think all of Africa is utter poverty and misery.
Ok, so instead of making a thread where I rant, could anyone tell me about the funny misconceptions they have heard about Africa/South Africa?
Jozigirl:
From a parent of one of my campers at summer camp in the US: Did you have to buy clothes just to come to America? (because we don't wear clothes in Africa)
Again from a parent of a camper at summer camp: You speak English very well! Have you been studying it long? (It's my first language!)
From several people (in the UK and France): How long was the boat ride? (because we don't have airplanes in Africa)
From many people in Europe, America, Canada & Korea: You can't be from Africa; you're not black.
From one of my students: Are you sure you're from Africa? You're white and you speak British; you must be from England.
And, my personal favourite:
From a "cheeky" high school boy at my school: Will you wear traditional African dress to the school festival? (while pointing at a picture of unmarried Zulu women who wear only grass skirts and beads...) :laugh:
novalis:
From a hairdresser in Myeong-dong: You're too pale to come from Africa (and I'm not even white :laugh:)
Andyroo:
My predecessor was South African but I don’t have any funny South African stories to tell.
Quite a few students didn’t know who Mandela was but that’s all I have got.
Africa is one of those continents that does not get a lot of press. Apart from Egypt, South Africa and Ghana (because of the chocolate) I wouldn’t be confident of them knowing any other countries.
Perhaps the boys could name Nigeria and the Ivory Coast due to footballers.
What might make you feel better is it’s not just a South Africa thing, some of them are fairly oblivious to all countries. There are plenty of people like that in Australia too, but I kind of expected better from university educated teachers. A lot of them think Chinese food consists of just 3 dishes and that country is just next door!
The funniest was one of the ex English teachers at our school who was quite young (around 25) and had even lived in America (Utah) for a year.
She thought Rain won that time magazine award because he was genuinely popular in America…. because of some Ninja movie apparently.
The best was that she thought most people in America couldn’t read or write.
I suggested that was “probably just a Utah thing” and looked up the literacy rate for her (99%). She had to double check on Naver though because you can’t trust Google 8)
Starting to miss her now....
ovid:
The world is a big place, so it should be easy to understand that there will be misconceptions everywhere. I mean, how many people, when telling friends and family that you were going to Korea, even knew where it was or asked "Is that the good one or the bad one"?
I didn't know much about Korea when I came here except from the common misconceptions I heard from my friends. When I first came to Korea, I wanted to make sure that my pizza had no dog meat in it :laugh:
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