I don't mean this as a dunk, but usually what has to get taught about leftist politics isn't the specific claims of Marxism or what socialism is. Usually what western people have to be instructed with is current/former socialist countries are legitimate places and not cartoonish dictatorships. The nationalism brain worm runs far deeper than the capitalist one. And it's that kind of sentiment that will entangle itself with their understanding of what western socialists advocate.
It's pretty normal to accept anti-capitalist sentiment, even right wingers will use that kind of rhetoric, but it's far less normal to praise the west's enemies or to even view them as valid human beings. It's why it's so common for western leftists to first and foremost condemn the west's enemies as doing socialism incorrectly.
That's just what I experience most of the time when I get curious questions about socialism. I might get the odd question about how you motivate people without money, but the bulk of questions are about stuff like what haircuts are illegal in the DPRK.