The article describes the use of American set expressions, containing place names, in country studies. The author‘s suggestion to use set expressions for this purposes gives a new dimension to the problem. The article contains a list of set expressions, revealing the American mentality. This approach is supposed to help participants of communication to realize the existence of cross cultural difference between ethnic communities and to take it into consideration in speech acts to promote better understanding between communicants. The author suggests an on-line teaching alternative for developing cultural and linguistic competences.