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This is a discussion thread.
Latest post Thu, Sep 17 2009 9:40 AM by Emmeladelyn. 7 replies.
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alproud
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Sat, 16 May 09 07:41 AM
We have all been taught to not use them when we were young, but unfortunately we happen to use them but also to become subject of them. The types of stereotypes vary from place to place, person to person, country to country, ethnic group to ethnic group and many other distinguished social, racial or ethnic divisions.
In this post I would like to ask you in particular about the European Stereotypes, meaning what are the stereotypes about Europe as they might be perceived from other countries or continents.
If you wish you might go ahead and talk about European stereotypes about others, Americans, Asians, Africans or Australians. But my desire is to particularly focus on this first.
Here I will post this as a good start:
In Heaven,
The police are British,
The cooks are French,
The engineers are German
The administrators are Swiss
And the lovers Italian.
In Hell,
The police are German
The cooks are British
The engineers are Italian
The administrators are French
And the lovers Swiss."
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Sat, Sep 20 2008
New Member
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Forgive your enemies, but don't forget their names.We make a living with what we get, and make a life with what we give.Be the change you wish to see in the world.
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Tanit
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Sat, 16 May 09 01:56 PM
Hi,  alproud“ In Hell,
The police are German
The cooks are British
The engineers are Italian
The administrators are French
And the lovers Swiss." ”
Prejudice is a really bad thing, you know?  Thank you from an Italian engineer ... 
Just joking, I didn't take offence. 
I shared my flat with students from China, Taiwan and France. My classmates came from the UK, the USA, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Syria, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nigeria, Pakistan, India and -- sure enough -- some of their nationalities are now slipping my mind. So I think I have overcome my prejudice, if I ever had any.
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Mon, Jul 31 2006
Senior Member
3,030
There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. (Dante)
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HolyBrat
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Tue, 19 May 09 03:46 PM
The stereotypes you've mentioned possess a very true core! In Hell the cooks are definitely British!
Another prejudice would be that the French always make fun of you in front of you, assuming you're too stupid to notice ;)
Joined on
Wed, May 13 2009
New Member
22
Having an orgasm, in nineteenth-century English slang, was not 'coming' but 'spending'. (Susan Sontag)
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Emmeladelyn
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Fri, 04 Sep 09 09:16 AM
I have to protest about this stereotype of the British. There are not enough bad English cooks to deserve such a bad image. When you try foreign food, you either like it or you don't but it's often a question of habit. I live in France and when i first came here I didn't like much of the food very much because it was so different from what I was used to, in spite of their brilliant reputation. But now, I'm used to it and I don't get sick anymore.
I think a lot of stereotypes are based on first impressions and people keep them because they don't want to take the time to go deeper. It's an easy way of living when you can generalise, but it's not representative at all.
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Tue, Sep 9 2008
New Member
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Zerox
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Mon, 14 Sep 09 11:25 AM
I don't think that the British example is actually a poke towards the cooks per se, but to the whole British cuisine.
Joined on
Wed, May 10 2006
Full Member
295
-It is rational that the irrational contradicts with the rational-
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Emmeladelyn
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Mon, 14 Sep 09 03:43 PM
True, but doesn't that make it even more insulting? A lot of people I meet who have this cliché of British cooking actually go to Britain and find that things aren't as bad as they expected. It's like saying Germans are very organised, logical and cold when it's actually impossible for them all to be like that.
The whole idea of being good or bad depends so much on each person's likings anyway, and in a similar way saying that people are organised, logical and cold is such a relative thing. If you're really disorganised or you come from a culture where people are often quite relaxed and deadlines aren't very important, you're going to think that anyone who works towards deadlines and keeps a schedule etc. is really extreme. If you're used to thinking that you need to work to deadlines but you won't be penalised if you don't, then you'll think it's less extreme.
Oh, and for those with a 'typical' image of the French - they don't wear strings of onions, they do wash regularly as well as shaving and garlic bread is only a regional speciality, unknown outside those regions. ;)
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alproud
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Wed, 16 Sep 09 09:21 PM
I think that the truth can never be told in simply this few words especially when it involves a society, a country or a large number of people. For instance, there has never been a better engineer than Leonardo Da Vinci who had Italian origins himself. So saying that Italians are that terrible doesn't really fit the reality.
I think that the judgement is based more on the fast thinking reality such as the Italian cars compared to the German ones who are not as good (again, some of them, still Ferrari is the best car in the world designed by Italians).
I think that these stereotypes hold some truth in them but we have to be remainded that they are very generalizing and not very accurate sometimes.
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Emmeladelyn
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905477
Thu, 17 Sep 09 09:40 AM
I agree. Stereotypes usually have some truth (just look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa :p) but should never be used all the time and people shouldn't let themselves become narrow-minded just because it's easy to believe in them.
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