The way countries see each other + stereo types

What can I say aboot Canada that hasn’t already been said eh?

Well, I don’t say ‘aboot’ really, but it’s true that we do have a different accent that our neighbours to the south…or neighbors…silly Americans always taking the ‘u’ out of words
…anywhoo, to someone not from around here it probably does sound a little like aboot.

Indeed, we do have the same kind of jokes - for example we use the very joke you mentioned

LOL, the mafia…
Well, The Godfather movies could have something to do with it.
I wish I could go to Italy…

Americans:
Mostly bad tv and films
Either very fat, or very thin
Very religious
Lots of closed minded people
Say “aint” and “like” too much

French:
Pretentious artists that drink lots of wine

Japanese:
Very strange, work too much, perverted

Canadians:
dinosaurs stomp on tiny people
say “eh” a lot
better than americans

British:
Patriotic, friendly (except for chavs), like football, drink lots of tea, great sense of humour, talk about the weather

The finns also tell jokes about swedes Two against one, not fair!

You did just describe a good portion of my school.
I remember once in middle school, we were having a discussion about oil usage, and I mentioned that NASCAR uses a lot of oil and should probably be stopped. A redneck boy wearing a NASCAR hat and shirt stood up. He was on a special mission to spread the gosbel of Dave. He surveyed the class, puffed out his chest, and announced that, “NASCAR uses gas, not oil!”

Is that what you called that stuff?!

What you guys think about brazillians?

When I think of Brazil, I tend to think of sprawling jungles, super-high humidity, lots of small towns, plenty of ancient ruins, and giant snakes. Haha! I know it’s not really like that, and I’m sure there are modern cities there as well, but stereotypes are always more widespread than realistic views. No matter how small they are, it’s always the unique aspects of a country that are commonly associated with that country, never the normal aspects that it shares with every other place in the world.

Well, I know that some people think that Brazillians speak spanish, but in Brazil the national language is Portugese, right?

Aren’t there a lot of festivals and such in Brazil?

Okay, let’s talk about the United States of America Some things are just true, and others are sort of exaggerated/ stereotypes…

• There are flags everywhere
• If you go to a restroom in a café or restaurant you always see a note with “employees must wash their hands before returning to work”
• “Free get-fat-togethers”. If they want you to come somewhere you always see “free food” or “free something else” on the poster. I also heard from a friend from my parents that when he gave a lecture they put candy in the auditorium so people would actually come.
• Commercials for medicine. I noticed Q also said this in another thread, but I also noticed it myself. The commercials are so different here.
• Related to the previous one, people tend to use drugs earlier. If there’s something wrong, people tend to want to use drugs. If you have a cold and don’t do anything about it will last one week and you will go to the doctor it will last 7 days.
• Everyone has a tattoo.
• You can’t enter the platform for trains before they enter the train station. Plus your ticket is for a specific train at a specific time, rather than just the train from one place to another place at the time you want. The tickets are also huge, as if you’re using a plane.
• Tax is not included in prices. If you ever see these weird prices, you have to remember they are not that weird with tax included. (Although that’s not always true)
• When you’re driving people pass you on both left and right.
• When people are on the phone, they can still start talking to you without notifying the other person. Neither do they say bye when they hang up, well not always at least. (Picking up the phone is different as it is in the Netherlands as well, but I’m sure that’s also in other countries)
• “like, you know” I believe this is discussed before because I think I read before about this. I’m not sure about that though.
• Peanut Butter, seriously you can see it everywhere in everything such as candy, and everyone loves it.

And about the Netherlands:

• We live in the Netherlands, Nethercountry, Dutchland, and maybe some other places as well. It just depends on the person. We can speak Danish, Dutch, Netherlands, German, and English. Again, it just depends on who you meet. (Most of the people do know I live in the Netherland and we speak Dutch, but this are just things I or people I talked to noticed)
• Chocolate Sprinkles aka Hagelslag is typical Dutch
  An American guy looked weird at me today when I got the chocolate sprinkles from the ice cream place and put it on a slice of bread.
• Other things that have already been said.

Russians:

No one speaks english (Some people do though- But a 10 year old speaks better).
They like to drink… Vodka… Alot…
You can’t mention homosexuality or they will freak (I have no idea were I have gotten this from )
A normal family lives in a home which can be compared to a home in an American ghetto.

If a Russian person speaks english it is in this lovely russian accent- If they speak good english then they are not real Russians…

British people:

Polite at day - Americans at night (Ouch).
TEA!!!

Wow, I’ve gotten so used to having medicine commercials non-stop… It never even crossed my mind that there was a faraway land without them on, being annoying every few seconds. It surprised me when Q mentioned the same thing. My parents said that it actually used to not be as common 10 years ago, or so.

You get really, really used to it, I think. I never even notice how people use “like” in their talking. When I do notice it, I try to imagine how “like” could not be put in the phrase - usually I can’t imagine the sentence without “like”! Very weird… It’s entertaining to listen to someone that uses “like” in their talking a lot, and count how many tiems they say it. Funny habbit.

I should try that some time…

The U.S.A. sees Iran helping Iraq kill US soldiers by giving them deadly weapons.

Here are the reality levels of some stereotypes about Italy:

(1: utter bullshit, 2: rarely true, 3: averagely true, 4: quite real, 5: the Golden Truth)

Nobody speaks English: 5, every single student in every school has problems with English. Except me, of course. I still can’t figure out how in hell it could be, as English is way easier than Italian.

Everyone is a criminal: 1, and you know that. Unless you’re an idiot, that is.

There’s good food: 4, I can’t manage to eat abroad, but I wouldn’t be able to in some Italian areas too.

Easily offended: ?, I am. I don’t know about the others.

Affinity for cars and racing: 4, watching races (or anything else I don’t take part in, for that matter, see “TV”) bores me to the death, and I hate driving. Many others are the opposite.

Stylish and fashionable: 3, just because some of the most famous fashion brands are Italian, it doesn’t mean people always wear D&G, Versace, or Prada all the time. I have my moments, though.

Violent: 2, as if violent people are only in Italy. Yeah.

Proud of their culture: 4, I don’t see why not.

Want to remain with parents: 1, it’s that even renting a hole costs an eye.

Religious: 3, it’s dying down with new generations.

oh yes! I’ve met a guy at a party who insisted that dutch, german, danish, norish, swedish were all the same language. My attempts at explaining that those languages do indeed share the same root but aren’t the same language didn’t succeed

Things I notice about Netherlands/Dutch more and more after having been abroad:

• small small in thinking, small in building, small in everything If americans are having a party, they are having a Party. In Holland, well, as long as it doesn’t cost too much. They try to imitate the oscars with a dutch tv prize. It’s a bit sad - really.

• food. Dutch don’t pay attention to their food. (American food is even more horrible). Homecooked delicious meal, made from scratch, enjoying with the family, not dutch. Again - it should be fast, as little effort as possible and as cheaply as possible. Paying a good price for good food is something a few people do here. Even knowing what good food is. What kind of fish is fresh. (even cooking fresh fish) - very rare among dutch.

• in USA they add vitamins and additives they think are well for you in everything. Try finding just plain rice without added vitamin B. They even put fluoride in the drinking water because they think it’s good for you. I don’t trust the milk in USA. I always take organic.

• fast. In USA in a restaurant, even in a “normal” one (as opposed to a fast food place) the service is incredibly fast. In holland you can wait ages for your plate to arrive.

• diversity. you can find the most delicious food from all over the world in almost any grocery store in USA. (which makes sense in a way ofcourse) But here in Holland, which has multi cultural influences as well it would be nice to have those delicious pita breads or bagels (ooooooo bagels!).

• starbucks
  starbucks. I love it. One is opening in Holland soon. yay! On that note - it’s so normal for people to eat out in the US. Want some coffee? we go out to get some. Especially in NY. I don’t think anyone makes their breakfast at home there. You can get breakfast at any time of the day.

• 24 hour economy. Try that in Holland. Shops close at sunday. During the week everything closes at 6 (regular stores) or 8 (grocery stores). One day a week they are open until 9 pm. If you are lucky you will have occasionaly a “koopzondag” , that means some shops (not all) will be open on sunday. (In Amsterdam they are open every sunday but in most places it’s one sunday a month - if any sunday).
  In the US you can go grocery shopping at 3am if you need to. The downside is ofcourse that it means people have to work at that time, and also that it is kind of sad that people have to do grocery shopping at 3am because they work all day. But it is so convenient, to not have to worry if you have enough bc tomorrow is sunday.

ok, i’ll stop for now

And what I wanted to say too about Netherlands is that some people don’t know it’s a country. Like is that the capital from Amsterdam? And most people don’t know Holland is not the same as The Netherlands either. I have never lived in Holland! Q, however, does.

but if you have parties, as in going out, the United States end when the rest of the world starts. (okay, that’s kind of exagerating, but people from France, Netherlands, Chili, Germany, and perhaps some other countries agreed with me)

Never heard of it actually. But that’s so not true! misses the good-cooked food. Good fish melts

Obesity is an all too common problem in america, But americans being stupid is bullshit (the grand majority of people are much smarter then the president), we have about the same ratio as any other country. About a quarter to a fifth of people are obsessed with conspiracy theroies over here (they are often really strange).

When you get away from the fundmentalists, just about everybody is not that religious. Nobody really cares much about spirtuallty, or if they do, they keep it to themselves. Some people are religious and don’t even know what religon they are part of (the beliefs, I mean).

Swedes:

Introvert, polite, depressed, heavy drinkers! All true!
We don’t have the highest suicide rate in the world, that’s an American myth invented by Reagan to show what happens to Socialist countries.