National Stereotypes

National stereotypes.

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.

The first question you could probably ask me what the stereotype means? And with the help of some sources and the Internet I can tell you what it is. A stereotype is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality. In my opinion it is a hazardous thing to judge about a people or a group of people by existing stereotypes but nevertheless a certain stereotype does exist. There are experimental ways of investigating stereotypes. One of the most obvious is to ask a group of people what trades characterize the British, the Russians, the Americans and so on. Results of such studies of the whole agree well with what might have been expected. Here you can see them. Please take everything below with a grain of salt. We all know that there are black and white sheep in every herd.

Dutch are said to be polite; open-minded; no commitments; boring, but provoking; organized and efficient; harmless; "a nation of rosy-cheeked farmers who live in windmills, wear clogs, have a garden full of tulips and sit on piles of yellow cheese". They can be stubborn and incurably mean; "Where a Dutchman has passed, not even the grass grows anymore" a Japanese saying goes; an English proverb says: "A Dutchman is a Lusty, Fat, Two-legged Cheese worm. A Creature that is so addicted to eating butter, drinking fat, and sliding that all the world knows him for a slippery fellow" - at this time the English language gained a whole array of new insults such as "Dutch courage.

French are good lovers; they have best cuisine in the world. French people are irresponsible; introverted; selfish; cultured; they are social "players"; do not like to work - prefer to strike; always surrender in war; don't speak English; rude to tourists; anti-American; ungrateful; live in a bureaucratic Socialist system, totally dependent on the state; don't use soap; arrogant and conceited; distant and difficult to meet; don't respect religious freedom.

Germans are organized; boring; have no sense of humor; conscientious; drink beer all day long; always shake hands; born with a monkey wrench in their hands, eating vast quantities of sausage; men have dodgy facial hair, women are icy Teutonic beauties with blond hair and blue eyes; both sexes loathe inefficiency, love the Fatherland, have never been late for anything in their lives, and would secretly like to invade Europe, even if they have to do it via the EU; eat about five huge meals a day; follow blindly rules and regulations like "don't walk on public lawn" and "before crossing the road, wait for the little green man to show even if there is no car in sight".

Two other nations made my particular interest. The first one is Russians:

The Russian are considered to be industries, tough, brave and progressive. These stereotypes are derived from books, films and other cultural media. As any other nation the Russians have both positive and negative qualities. On the one hand, people who belong to this nationality are hard-working, willing to respect the opinion of other people. They regard other racial or ethnic groups as equal. They are fond of being with other people, enjoying social life, hospitable to foreigners. On the other hand sometimes they are inclined to cheat and unwilling to respect the views, ideas, opinions opposite to their own.

Nearly all of us studies English. And have you ever wanted to know anything about the country and people who live there, to study their culture and people's character, to understand who they really are, because we know this little piece of information only from the films or the Internet. So, the British:

There are certain stereotypes of national character which are well known in Britain. For instance, the Irish are supposed to be great talkers, the Scots have a reputation for being careful with money, the Welsh are renowned for their singing abilities, and the English are considered to be reserved.