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Most Infuriating Myth about your Country? | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 177 20 June 2009 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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What stereotype about your country (held by foreigners) irritates you the most, and what would you like others to known is a false or misleading myth about your country and language.... ?
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 177 20 June 2009 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm from Germany. Have a guess. =D
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| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 3 of 177 20 June 2009 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can guess and I sympathise... Furthermore, the winner writes the history and everything is not completely black & white. In England it's a national sport to bring it up at every possible opportunity, totally depressing. Enough said about that topic.
For Sweden I think it's: 1) The idea that Swedish girls are "easy". Not true! At least not more than elsewhere... 2) People think that everybody in Sweden likes cheesy pop groups like (Abba) and other kitschy Euro-pop. 3) Many Danes believe that everybody in Sweden is a drunken hooligan who wants nothing more than go to Copenhagen, get wasted, be a disgrace and pass out on the pavement. Only a small minority want this :-) not me. Although I have lived in the UK for quite a long time, I don't know what stereotypes English are against: I think maybe the portrayal of English people in US films. (usually evil, snobbish or ridiculous in some way) Not sure if this topic is too controversial - if so I'll try to delete the thread. It just seemed like a fun idea to give people the opportunity to vent and set the record straight :-) Just for fun! Edited by cordelia0507 on 26 June 2009 at 12:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 177 20 June 2009 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am pleased to take this opportunity to address an erroneous and dangerous stereotype about Canada: that Canadians are safe from being eaten by polar bears only when we are safely inside our igloos.
Truth be told, our igloos offer scant protection from a hungry polar bear. If it were not for the mighty lumberjack axes we are obliged to carry, most of us would have been turned into polar bear pooh a long time ago. Potential first-time visitors: don’t bother packing one, you will be provided a complementary axe at customs. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 177 20 June 2009 at 10:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is really annoying when people assume that everyone in the USA is really rich.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 8 of 177 20 June 2009 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
This is not completely wrong. The Scandinavians I've met where comparatively more open and direct about sex than most other people, especially after a couple of drinks. Not that this is very different from other countries in Western/Northern Europe, but there's a huge difference to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or India. I haven't encountered much stereotyping towards Germans based on WW2 or the Nazis (if that's what Bao meant to suggest). The typical stereotypes I've been confronted with were: - Germans are very disciplined and organized. - Germans drink a lot of beer. - Germans are distant/cold/unfriendly/etc. I believe there is some truth to all of those... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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