Common misconceptions and clichés about life in Dominican Republic

Good topic!  Common misconceptions about life here:

1. Life is easy.
2. We spend most of our day at the beach.
3. It is hot and sunny all year long.
4. No one works for a living here.
5.  Life is easy.

Well Planner, being retired with a meager pension from Canada:
Life is easy.
1-2 days a month at the beach is great for us.
It is usually hot & sunny all year. (more than Canada)
Most everybody works here, except me.
Life here is good & easy, for me.

For me:
Life is easy as I am retired

I try (until the last 5 months) to get to the beach every week once or twice.

I find it hot all year long except for late summer when it is HOTTER. Remember I came from the mountains of Colorado

Most folks work and me as well for a while

Learn that manana had no relationship to tomorrow it just means not today.

Bob K

Yes  I love Manana............

This is a good topic. Misconceptions I hear from people back home that don't know me assume I travel to Punta Cana. Which when I inform them that we work close to the border of Haiti I get strange looks. Likewise, strange looks when I tell Dominicans that I work in Elías Piña, I always get "por quuuueee"
The other misconception is that everyone is poor except in Punta Cana. Again, people in Michigan. Also I get the question "how are things since the earthquake?" Which in context with our work makes sense, because we saw a giant leap on migrants to the border within our mobile medical clinics, but these people get Haiti and the DR confused. I always have to explain that the quake took place in Port Au Prince. Although felt throughout the island, damage was almost zero in the DR to my understanding.

Good points.  It is commonly assumed because we are an island it's small. Nope not really.  Almost 6 hours Puerto Plata to Punta Cana with realistic driving conditions and going the speed limit.  It's not that small!

And yes 1 island ....2 countries that are quite different!

Speed limit?  Lol

Hahahaha

Speed limit... you cannot go faster than your car is capable of going.  :

Bob K

Miss conceptions...
That I go the the beach everyday
That everyone is always partying nobody works
That we have Tunami's all the time
That it's nice and fresh here
That's it will never be cold here

1- Life is easy and fun.
2- Living in RD is cheap.
3- "I want to live in RD" after 1 week of vacation in Punta Cana 
4- RD is poor, people are very poor.

1- Life can be easy IF you don't have to work for living - Even with that, you have to cope with administration corruption and /or law application if you ever have an legal issue.

2- Life in RD is not that cheap. Common consent is to say it is about 30% cheaper than in USA and Europe. However if you don't want to take cold showers, live in a bad area and put up with electric and water shortage, you need some money..

3- is the widest common cliche

4- Not everyone is poor in RD. There is huge gap between very rich people (Government employees, Military, Politics and big owners) and the rest of the country. The main difference with western countries is that that there a few people who can be classified as "Middle class". However a middle class is slowly emerging in the 2 big cities S. Domingo and Santiago. Those people are not "rich" but they have nice houses, can afford to travel sometimes in USA and live decently.