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Most Infuriating Myth about your Country?

  Tags: Stereotypes
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
177 messages over 23 pages: 1 24 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 22 23 Next >>
Dark_Sunshine
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5765 days ago

340 posts - 357 votes 
Speaks: English*, French

 
 Message 18 of 177
21 June 2009 at 2:08pm | IP Logged 
I'm British. The stereotypes don't bother me, they're usually true :-)
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Sunja
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6085 days ago

2020 posts - 2295 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Mandarin

 
 Message 19 of 177
21 June 2009 at 2:10pm | IP Logged 
Texas views itself as a unofficial republic so I'll add this one: While I don't find it so much infuriating as I do funny, a lot of people still remember the old "Dallas" show (J.R. getting shot). How many times did I have to suffer through an introduction with these references to "Dallas"! Yet when I tell people about Texas wine-making the Germans practically bust out laughing. Then again it's true! you can't beat the Europeans when it comes to bread wine and beer!

Other stereotypes that aren't true:

1. we all wear obnoxious boots
2. we all wear a huge, obnoxious cowboy hat
3. we all have a huge metal belt buckle

I have a pair of cowboy boots, black with a tall torquoise boot shaft, decorated cactus plants down the side. Okay - I grant them one out of three.



Edited by Sunja on 21 June 2009 at 2:15pm

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legasp
Newbie
Ireland
Joined 5673 days ago

23 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Greek, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 20 of 177
21 June 2009 at 2:17pm | IP Logged 
The Irish have weird stereotypes about them. Some are obvious: being drunk, lucky, and being able to talk freely or 'the gift of the gab'.

I guess its annoying for being known for drinking, but to be honest drink is a part of Irish culture, but for good reason (people together, singing, openness, chat etc are dear to us).

It helps that many women think we are Romantic poets ;-)

Edited by legasp on 21 June 2009 at 2:17pm

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stelingo
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5832 days ago

722 posts - 1076 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian
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 Message 21 of 177
21 June 2009 at 3:34pm | IP Logged 
Felixelus wrote:

On the topic:
Common English stereotypes abroad are very bi-polar! For example,
1: in many countries we English are considered drunken and disorderly lobsters who are just there to annoy the locals.  


I never knew foreigners might take me for a lobster!

Edited by stelingo on 21 June 2009 at 3:35pm

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Felixelus
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6838 days ago

237 posts - 244 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 22 of 177
21 June 2009 at 7:37pm | IP Logged 
"Felixelus wrote:

On the topic:
Common English stereotypes abroad are very bi-polar! For example,
1: in many countries we English are considered drunken and disorderly lobsters who are just there to annoy the locals.


I never knew foreigners might take me for a lobster!"

If you don't know how to use sun cream (and statistics for skin cancer in this country says most of us don't) then yes :P
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Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5956 days ago

1021 posts - 1714 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 23 of 177
21 June 2009 at 7:53pm | IP Logged 
paranday wrote:
Spanky wrote:

It's your brutal stereotyping of Newfoundlanders that's a concern for us.
Paranday,
May I take the liberty of confirming that you were not referring to me in your comment


Not referring to you. Somewhat tongue in cheek reference to the newfie joke phenomenon.


Glad to hear it, but honest to goodness, the newfies (God lov'em 'cause someone has to) kinda bring it on themselves - see for example the wikipedia entry concerning Nfld screech:

'Screeching' someone visiting Newfoundland for the first time is a longtime custom of many older bars in Newfoundland, in which the person is to drink a shot of screech, kiss a codfish on the mouth, and answer the question "Is ye an honourary Newfoundlander?" with the phrase "'deed I is me old trout, and long may your big jib draw."

yep, most of the Newfie jokes are all good-natured tongue-in-cheek stuff.   But seriously, don't drink screech.

Edited by Spanky on 21 June 2009 at 7:59pm

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Zeta
Diglot
Newbie
Norway
Joined 5692 days ago

31 posts - 31 votes
Speaks: Norwegian*, English
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 24 of 177
21 June 2009 at 9:31pm | IP Logged 
Norway got the everyone love skiing and hiking in the mountains stereotype. I guess it is kind of true. We have got loads of nice mountains so why not use them? But not everyone loves skiing (or is good at it.)

Since I am livving in the northern Norway I often meet stereotypes from people in my own country from the south. Like everyone up north is Lappish, we have polar bears in our streets, we havent got TV or internet maybe a radio, everyone owns reindeers, we are always drunk, we dont work (lazy) , we are always swearing, (compared to the south, this is true:)) and we live in lavvos.(Big tents)

Some of those are not true at all, but others I guess is a bit true. This is the stereotypes I have met at least. The only ones I met from foreginers is that they call us Vikings and some think it is always snow here. I read a book about what tourists had asked the tourist information about and someone had in the middle of the day asked where the midnight sun was, cause they could only see the normal one.


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