Example:
USA 美国 - 美 mean “beautiful” and 国 is “country”
So when my mom told me we were going to move to 美国, I, having never heard of anything about this country ever before, already had a positive impression of this “beautiful country”.
France 法国 - 法 is one of the characters in 法律, law, so my first impression was, that these people probably have very strict rules and are law abiders
Britain/UK 英国 - 英 is one of the characters in 英雄, hero, so I just imagine British people like to help the innocent (this was before I learned about British colonialism lol, but I guess the 英 character still sort of partly relevent, as in they view themselves as “hero”, aka: they interfere with other’s countries bussiness a lot)
Germany 德国 - 德 is one of the characters in 道德, morality, so I had a subconcious belief they were very moral people. I didn’t even know about the holocaust yet. 💀
Mexico 墨西哥 - 墨 is ink, 哥 is brother, so I though these are dark-skinned people that value brotherhood, masculinity.
South Korea 韩国 - 韩 sounds like 寒, so I just assumed it was a very cold country (isn’t it tho?) Oh BTW, I was in South Korea… in the airport waiting for a transfer flight, never actually entered the country for real, that was 15 years go, the closest I’ve ever been to South Korea. Wanna go there someday, see the snow (cuz its a 寒国 “cold country” remember xD)
Japan 日本 - 日 is the sun, so I thought it gets like very sunny or something
These are the few on the top of my head. You can mention any below and I can tell you what my “subconcious feel” about the name is.
I hope you’ll see the contradiction between these lines someday. If you know that you think “weirdly” as a kid, that, by definition, means those ideas don’t apply to other native speakers, does that make sense to you?
So when your title make it sounds like some verified scientific research:
That’s what I would call misinformation. And that’s what rub me the wrong way.
Now from your reply I can see why you phrase your title that way. It’s not even for clicks. You really do believe the equation:
because: kid-you think…
and: You are a native speaker
equals: Native speakers think…
I wouldn’t mind if what kid-you think is some what close to reality.
I won’t even bat an eye if your title says it’s just your personal ideas from childhood. I’ll 100% find it adorable.
What I couldn’t stand is that you put your childish ideas, which is light years away from how others think, into every native speakers mouth, make it sounds like some interesting facts about Chinese people, and people are buying it without second thought. That make me feel violated, and my whole cultural being misrepresented.
You are still free to prove me wrong, that the majority native speakers do have these impression around country names, by start doing some research now. But we already know what makes you make those generalized claim in the post title, is all just kid’s weird ideas.
Side note: There’s one single comment in the whole thread that disagree with you and you are like:
Maybe online forum is not for you.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. While I agree there is a lot of hostility on online forms, I hope you will work with us to make Lemmy less hostile and more welcoming.
You seem mad at something…
I hate people state things about me and my people that’s ridiculously untrue as facts. Did I not make it clear in previous comment?