Cultures and national stereotypes

A nation is a group of people who share common history and usually a language and usually, but not always, live in the same area. Culture can be described as our everyday life: how we communicate, what makes us happy and said. It also includes our language, religion, traditions, behavior, way of life – in other words, what we do each day. People that belong to various nations may differ and they always differ from one another.

For example, the Germans are regarded as scientifically-minded and industrious, they're always considered solid, intelligent and mathematical. And, for instance, Israeli are believed to be mercenary, industrious, shrewd, loyal to family, religious. There is a big amount of examples we can list about national character of different people. Proving the difference of the national stereotypes I want to compare Russian and English nations. There are a lot of features that vary. The Russians are industrious, tough, brave, progressive and suspicious. They are always considered to be nationalistic, over - patriotic (because of this reason they're good soldiers), we are willing to respect opinion of other people.

Speaking about Englishmen I may note that they're reserved, tradition-loving, courteous, honest, extremely nationalistic and etc. To my mind, they have a specific sense of humor. They say that they can't understand our jokes and anecdotes not only because of the different meanings of the words, but because of their humor is more delicate. Looking at these features of the Russians and the Englishmen it is not hard to mark out the differences. The Englishmen are reserved, but the Russians are open-hearted and communicative. The Englishmen are tradition-loving and the Russians, to my mind, don't keep their traditions in such a degree. There is a great majority of factors that influence the nations stereotype and its people's character. People that live in the southern countries have less problems than those who live in the North and because of this they're more cheerful and artistic. The history also has a great influence on the national character. The peoples in Asia are revengeful because their forefathers often were at war with others. In Africa many countries were colonies of the Great Britain, Holland, Spain and so on and they (Africans) were the slaves and because of this they're still hard-working and industrious. The National Character exists. It is not a myth, it's a reality. But the National Character doesn't describe the character of every person, it describes the character of people of nation in general. Every person has its own character, but according to the person's belonging to some nation many traits of character are similar and these features may be explained as the national character.

10 National Stereotypes Debunked: You Are Not Your Country

January 15, 2009 By Yoshke 78 Comments

Heaven is where the cooks are French, the police are British, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and everything is organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the cooks are British, the police are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians.

This is an old popular joke that never fails to make those who hear it cringe or laugh. National stereotypes have been the subject of many jokes for centuries. Even today when the international community promotes diversity and encourages tolerance, certain people are still tagged according to their nationalities.

image courtesy of msnbcmedia2.msn.com

Heck, I’m sure you already have heard or thought one or more of these stereotypes-turned-jokes:

• The Romanians are vampires.
• The Swiss love clocks.
• Japanese men have small dicks.
• (Thus) Japanese women love Caucasian men.
• The French have poor hygiene.
• The Chinese know kung fu. And so on…

To some, national stereotypes may provoke racism. To others, national stereotypes are harmless jokes based on the identity that a certain nation or people has established or projected towards other countries through the years.

But is there a sliver of truth in these national stereotypes? Or are they just inaccurate preconceived notions, which can be pretty offensive to many people? Whatever your views are, here are ten of the most common national stereotypes and why they are somehow false. Note that these are stereotypes based on nationalities and not race. Also, this list is in no particular order.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 1836