As an American, the only stereotypes I heard about England is that everyone has bad teeth and it is never sunny, always gloomy and rainy.

Stereotypes about American from India/Pakistan, Turkey - American is only the big, famous cities - they would ask me what city I was from. When I would try to explain I was not from a city, and that America is not just big cities and we have a big, midwestern area in the middle, they honestly didn't get it. They would look at me utterly confused! They thought America was only Florida, New York, and California. Some knew of Texas, a couple of New Jersey and Chicago, but that was it! I was floored. I kept trying to explain but they just didn't get it. At. All. When I told them my state, they thought I was lying and not really from the US, because it wasn't a "famous city or state". WTF?

The stereotypes I heard about America when I was in England were pretty weird. I had a guy tell me with a totally straight face that "Well in America there are gangs of black guys that go around and beat you up for no reason" and could not understand for the life of him why I would not corroborate this "fact" he "knew." I heard various versions of the "roving gangs of black dudes" story for the few months I lived there. The other one I think they thought was because they thought that America was as small as England so they couldn't believe I'd never been to Hollywood since it was so close (it's actually a shorter trip to London from my hometown than to LA, go figure).

Everything sounds better than an American accent.

One of the cool kids from HS posted on FB to pray for his brother as he was in a terrible car accident. I clicked on the brother's FB, then ended up googling him being nosey. The brother is a registered sex offender for soliciting a minor for sex. Woah. That was a shocker. This whole family is squeaky clean, all American kids. Well..or so they appeared.

I just finished watching this BBC documentary on the leaders in WWII. They did this in-depth look into the relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt. I had no idea what a dick Churchill was. I always thought the USA didn't get into the war until 1941 because they didn't want to unless they were involved (ie Pearl Harbor) but apparently the whole time Churchill was begging for American money and troops to help Britain keep its colonies, but offered nothing in return. He actually said "Empires don't make bargains." Wow.

LOL on the British person and the great American Breakfast. Reminds me...my grandmother is British... it annoyed me how my mother in law used to go around and say all British people have bad teeth. I had to explain to her that my grandmothers teeth were fine and in tact. It's funny how we buy into those stereotypes. I lived over there for awhile, and Americans always ask me if British people go around saying "tally ho" all the time and stuff like that.

I had a friend come over from Great Britain one time and expect to see Americans eating like pigs constantly. He was surprised that I didn't start the day with a "big American breakfast". In fact, one thing on his bucket list was to go to a diner and order a HUGE breakfast...eggs, panackes, toast, bacon, etc. That was his idea of America, huge amounts of food all the time!

I do live in Ireland and I think a lot of tourists are shocked when they come here. They expect flaming red hair and freckles in like 80% of the population, they expect us to be impressed when they talk about how they are "Irish" (FYI, even if you're proud of your heritage it's likely a lot of people will be insulted if you call yourself "Irish" when you're American, Canadian etc. I understand that it means a different thing to you, but you should try and show some sensitivity towards Irish culture), fiddle music in every pub, and so on. The worst thing I've heard from a tourist is that I should be "ashamed" of the fact that I have English friends because the English are all scum. This from a 5th generation Plastic Paddy. It's actually incredibly insulting. If I'm visiting another country I make an effort to find out about the genuine culture and attitude of the people there. I think everyone should give that a try.

Sorry, I must not be too up on the way Americans mangle language beyond any comprehension of standard English.