I’ll go first. I live in Australia and have lived here all my life. Born and raised! Here are a few things that a lot of foreign people think about Australia that always make me laugh.
• Please don’t say “g’day mate” or “shrimp on the barbie”. Firstly, not many people actually say that here. Secondly, we don’t call them shrimp. We call them prawns.
• No one says Crikey or Blimey either.
• Unless you live in the bush, you’re not gonna come across that many spiders and snakes.
• Vegemite is NOT a chocolate spread so PLEASE don’t eat it with a spoon. (I’ve seen many people from the US “try Australian food” and use a spoon to eat Vegemite thinking it’s chocolate. It’s not.) And you’re also NOT supposed to smear a lot of it on. A light spread over some buttered toast is the way to go.
• Most of us don’t have that really strong accent that you see in movies like Crocodile Dundee.
• We don’t ride kangaroos to school.
• We’re not all surfers. I live right near a beach and funnily enough I still don’t know anyone who can surf.
• It’s not actually that common at all to see a Koala in a tree in your backyard.
• In most places, you won’t see kangaroos jumping around in streets and on roads. Where I live though, which is surrounded by a lot of trees, you actually have to be really careful while driving around 4-5pm because it’s very common for kangaroos jump across the roads and if you hit one, it’s obviously not gonna be very great.
• An Aussie accent is NOT the same as a Kiwi accent (New Zealand). They may sound the same to non-Australians/Kiwis but to us the difference is huge.
This is even hardly of Italian origins, so you can guess how many of us are called Dimitri…
I (and lots of other people in my area) almost never say it, sooo yeah. ‘Mamma mia’ is for children
Nah nah. Say it well. Pretty much no one is in the mafia. Like, we’re talking maybe 1% of the entire population? Or even less than that.
Something else:
We’re not dark skinned. Stop making us as if we’re POCs. We’re white, and authors are being ridiculous. Yes, some of us do look slightly darker, but we’re light years away from being as dark as BIPOCs.
We’re not all that close to our families, few of us actually have large families (I’m talking like 4 children, 15 uncles and aunts, and a gazillion cousins). Majority of couples nowadays only have 1 to 2 children, and lots of people choose to have none. Also, we’re not that devoted to our families either. Maybe our grandparents who worked in farms to support the family and barely went to school. But it’s 2022 in Italy too. We typically meet at family reunions (for a cousin’s birthday, or festivities like Christmas) but otherwise we barely see each other.
We’re not that religious. I mean, if you ask me, the younger generations barely know what it’s like to go to church, let alone pray and have a faith.
This feels stupid, but we’re not all good looking and not everyone is romantic. Not everyone knows how to cook either. Because you know, we’re humans too, not some kind of divine species.
No, we don’t call our girlfriends creepy nicknames like ‘bella’, ‘bellissima’ and others you may have seen in mafia stories. If someone calls you that way, they’re a creep and you better stay away. Yuck!
Majority of us does not have a second name. Just because it was customary for our great-grandparents (reason why those who emigrated still continue this tradition) and just because in countries like the US second names are popular, doesn’t mean that we use them too. Some of us do have two names, but overall it’s considered an old and totally unnecessary practice. Oh, and where did the double last names thing come from?? Seriously, isn’t one enough? Why two?
I’m Finnish and Nigerian but I’m more in touch with my Nigerian so let me clear up a few things about Nigeria, and yes quite a few of these apply to African portrayal in general: Misconceptions about Nigeria:
WE DONT ALL LIVE IN HUTS YEAH. ~a lot of ppl do this to all of Africa, not just Nigerians. If you don’t understand this by now
We have cities, states, towns and “villages”
→ Villages doesn’t necessarily mean huts and sand etc. I come from Umaukwu village (I think I butchered the spelling ) and over 20 years my family have built themselves a big ass house that we all can live in together at Christmas time.
→ However, ofc in certain areas that are more desolated and further from the cities you mind find beautiful villages and smaller communities with deeper, more physically prevalent tribal roots.
A vast majority learn English in school. I’m second gen immigrant so I live in the UK and have a ldn accent but when my parents first moved here, yes they had a bit more of a Nigerian accent.
Tribes: This acc in general refers to the language you speak which can depend where you grew up. So ppl from the Igbo (pronounced EE-BO) Tribe (like me) speak Igbo, they are Igbo ppl. So PLEASE do your research on what tribe the mc is from to see what language they speak.
AFRICAN IS NOT A LANGUAGE. PERIOD.
We eat “Normal” food too, obvs if you live in Nigeria you’re going to eat more Nigerian food like puff puff and Abacha etc. than burgers.
We don’t have bloody pet monkeys and lions and shi. Goats, chickens? Yeah that’s common but cmon now, lions??
It isn’t sunny ALL year round, there are rainy periods, Hammertan season, New Yam Festivals etc.
Kings and Queens aren’t common, we have a president, although certain tribes or areas might actually have one!
-That’s just all I can think of for now. Any other Africans who see this wanna add?
Psssh my kangaroo is filled up on grass and parked out the front ready to be ridden into town lol.
I’m kidding guys, we really don’t ride them. I mean, I’m sure a bogan or two has probably tried, but that doesn’t count.
Not gonna lie, I still struggle to differentiate between an Aussie accent and a Kiwi accent, I can only tell the difference when they say certain words, like “six” (comes out like “sex”), “fish” (comes out like “fush”), “pen” (comes out like “pin”) etc.
Lol, it can definitely be difficult for people with a more subtle accent, but I have a Kiwi teacher and his accent is so strong it still blows my mind whenever he speaks It’s like the equivalent of an American listening to an Australian talk (in my experience they often say ‘wow! Your accent is so cool!’). It’s so strange to me but it’s such a cool accent.
It always makes me laugh though when non-Australians think they’re the same accent. But then again, it’s the same for me with American and Canadian accents, I can’t tell the difference. I guess it’s just all to do with being unfamiliar with the accents.
A lot of people, not just Italians, have double last names
Typically because the parents both have different last names and decided not to change it, but instead just give their child both of their last names
I, for example have two last names, and im not Italian lol, and in my opinion no, one isn’t enough, I like my last name
Its not really an Italian thing
I’m saying the exact opposite actually. Having two last names in Italy is not common at all Yet I’ve seen stories where Italian characters (from Italy, not expats) have the whole package (two given names and two last names). I’ve never seen an Italian with that long of a name in my life
Yes well, in Italy no one changes their last name when they marry. That’s also not a practice here. A person born with a last name, 99.99% of the time they’ll die with that name, unless it’s terrible/other particular instances that push them to want to change it. But their children only typically inherit one last name (usually the father’s). Not both.
That’s what I was complaining about.
Obviously, I know having many names is not unusual in other parts of the world. I was only talking about Italian characters also having that many names, which actual Italian people typically just do not have.
I mean, you haven’t met every Italian ever born or most likely even 1%
I have 5 friends who are Italian, different parts of Italy, such as Sicilian, etc. but Italian nonetheless
And 2-3 of them have double last names.
I feel like saying that you’ve never seen it so it’s not common is like saying since you’ve never seen a brown cat its not common, it doesn’t really make sense
Perhaps it is still somewhat of a custom in the south (I’m from the north), but on average it’s still not common. Not as common as Episode stories make it out to be anyway. Then again, the Italian law does allow parents to give their children whatever and however many names they see fit, so I’m sure Italians with longgg names exist. I’m just saying it’s rare. The city where I live welcomes Italians from all parts of Italy. I’ve visited a lot of Italian regions, yet I’ve never met a single person with two last names. Perhaps you were lucky
Exactly, they most likely do exist since you haven’t met every Italian to ever exist or that exists now
Its rare according to what you’ve seen
It isn’t really fair to say its rare in general when you don’t know, like I said, you haven’t met every Italian
Just because you haven’t met many, doesn’t mean many don’t exist
I doubt you’ve met even half the Italians that exist today, so great, you’ve never met one with 2 last names, you still can’t say its uncommon bc out of the maybe 200 Italians you’ve met, they didn’t have 2 last names
Okay, I really don’t understand why you’re continuing this. Anyway, the law that allowed couples to give their children two last names came out in 2014, it’s been a little less than 8 years. Meaning, most of the people who can (by law) have two last names are at most 8 years old today. Others who decided to add their mother’s name at a later age (but still after 2014) are probably less than those who were assigned two names at birth starting from September 2014. Data from 2016 said that only 3% of the entire population asked to add a second last name. Say that number has grown since then, maybe to 7%? 10%? That still makes the majority of the Italian population with just one last name.
I may have only met 200 Italians, as you say, but you only know 5. Have they provided you with their IDs to prove they actually have two last names? I always say I have two given names, but I’m only registered with one on my ID, and that’s the one that counts anyway.
Are we done now? I’m sure you have better things to do now, as I do too.
im also Australian and you pretty much took the words out of my mouth. I agree with all of that
and Nigerian 
but I’m more in touch with my Nigerian so let me clear up a few things about Nigeria,
) and over 20 years my family have built themselves a big ass house that we all can live in together at Christmas time.
Yet I’ve seen stories where Italian characters (from Italy, not expats) have the whole package (two given names and two last names). I’ve never seen an Italian with that long of a name in my life 
