Topic stereotypes. Topic Cultures and national stereotypes. Americans are obsessed with fast food, so they are overweight

Nationality stereotypes

A stereotype is a fixed set of ideas that is generally held about the characteristics of a particular type of person which are wrongly believed to be shared by all the people of that type. In my opinion it is a dangerous 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. Results of such studies of the whole agree well with what might have been expected. English are said to be prim. Weather is the most important topic in the land. In English this is an ever – interesting, even thrilling topic and you must be good at discussing the weather. You must never contradict anybody when discussing the weather. Should it hail and snow, should hurricanes up root the trees, should someone remark to you "Nice day, isn't it?" – answer without hesitation "Isn't it lovely?" On the continent people either tell you the truth or lie, in Britain they hardly ever lie but they don't tell you the truth either. The British like people of every country tend to be attributed with certain characteristics which are supposedly typical. However, you should be careful about accepting such characterizations too easily. Societies change over time while their reputations lag behind. Many things which are often regarded as typically British are no longer representative of modern life. One example of this is the popular belief that Britain is a land of traditions. This is what most tourist brochures claim. The claim is based on what can be seen in public life. And at this level - the level of public life it is undoubtedly true. However in private everyday lives the British as individuals are probably less inclined to follow traditions than other people of most other countries. According to the stereotypes English are also thought to be reserved, conservative, shy of strangers, suspicious of change and slow to accept new ideas, responsible, honest and unemotional. But I think this stereotype pictures are far from true, especially in today's world.

Nationality stereotypes are often described in anecdotes, humorous stories, private diaries. For example, American westerns are dynamic and thrilly. They show us men strength in fights, gun fighting and horse riding skills, but to my mind it was various that made American character. You can easily spot Americans abroad by their toughness. It comes from their sense of individual freedom. Americans realize that individuals must rely on themselves, otherwise they risk to loose their freedom. So, self-reliance is usually the second trade and moral value supposed to be obligatory to a true American. The third national value accounts for their confident and unaffected manners. The fourth American value is competition. Sixty percent of the Americans believe in competition and so desire to win is healthy. In spite of the fact that society can't consist only of winners the Americans are optimistic. They believe that every problem has a solution. The fifth national value is material wealth. Most Americans believe wealth is a reward for hard work and that it's possible to have a good standard of living if a person works hard. God helps those who help themselves – says the proverb. The sense of humor is often the most revealing aspect of a culture. Surely, humor has never been valued more highly in any other civilization than in this one.

The Russian are considered to be industries, tough, brave and progressive. These stereotypes are derived from books, films and other cultural media. As any 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. This is my point of view on this problem.

I would also like to say stereotypes are a part of human life though they may present one sided exaggerated view of religion, racial ethnic groups of people as well as of classes of people. Stereotypes are certainly not reliable description of individual people but they still exist.

Nationality Stereotypes A stereotype is a fixed set of ideas that is generally held about the characteristics of a particular type of person which are wrongly believed to be shared by all the people of that type. In my opinion it is a dangerou

Great Britain! The edge of thatched houses, red telephone boxes and Hugh Grant. Or not?

Not certainly in that way. Here is a small selection. These are the most common stereotypes about english, some of which are not true.

True stereotypes about the British

The English love tea. No, they can drink tea all day long! Many English people really like to drink a cup of tea (or 20) a day. They also prefer to take a break for tea rather than coffee.
They love queues. It means waiting in line. It's a little strange, but the British love this kind of pastime. There is something inexplicable about this.
They love to talk about the weather. If there is an awkward silence in the conversation, a favorite topic comes to the rescue - the weather. You can talk about rain, snow or just a gloomy sky.
All English people have pale skin. For some reason, the British are destined to be so pale that if they didn't wear clothes, one could see through them. They didn't have much choice but to make it the fashion.
The British have problems with alcohol. Big problems. I already wrote about . This is already a national problem on the brink of disaster. I don't even know what else to add. Read.
The countryside in the UK is amazingly beautiful. You can verify this by looking, for example, an article about.
The English are damn polite. In a conversation, especially with a stranger, it is very difficult to get an Englishman to be rude to you. There are, of course, exceptions, but in general this nation is very polite.
They often apologize. Probably, in order not to inadvertently offend or say something superfluous.
The English are terrible snobs, secretly condemning you. There are no comments here.
National is not particularly ... refined. I think everyone who has visited this country is not enthusiastic about the everyday food of the British.

They all live in luxurious mansions. Unfortunately, it is not. A lot of people crowd into rented odnushki with a friend from college or with a childhood friend.
... Or in the village, in a very beautiful house with a thatched roof. Alas. Hollywood movies and Google pictures are to blame.
littered with red telephone boxes, black cabs and men in bowler hats. These things, of course, are symbols of Britain, but not to such an extent. Something like bears on the streets of our country.
All English people have bad teeth. They themselves cannot remember where this stereotype originates from, but their teeth are the same as those of other nations.
They are all very smart. This is not true. Not everyone studied at Oxford or, and a beautiful British accent does not automatically make them so. The British blame Sherlock Holmes for this stereotype.

Nationality stereotypes

The Culture and National Stereotypes topic describes concepts such as nation, national culture, and ethnic or national stereotypes. For example, the concept of “nation” is described as a historically established, stable community of people that arose on the basis of a common language, religion, territory of residence, traditions, and way of life, manifested in a common culture. Of course, a national character exists and, depending on a person's belonging to a particular nation, many character traits are similar, and these features can be explained as a national character. The topic compares the national character traits of the Germans, Israelis, Russians, the British, the peoples of Asia and Africa, southerners and northerners.

A nation is a group of people who share common history and usually a language and usually, but not always, live in the same area. Culture can be described as our everyday life: how we communicate, what makes us happy and sad. It also includes our language, religion, traditions, behavior, way of life – in other words, what we do each day. People that belong to various nations may differ and they always differ from one another.

For example, the Germans are regarded as scientifically-minded and industrious, they’re always considered solid, intelligent and mathematical. And, for instance, Israelis are believed to be mercenary, industrious, shrewd, loyal to family, religious.

There is a big amount of examples we can list about national character of different people. Proving the difference of the national stereotypes I want to compare Russian and English nations. There are a lot of features that vary.

The Russians are industrious, tough, brave, progressive and suspicious. They are always considered to be nationalistic, over – patriotic (because of this reason they’re good soldiers), we are willing to respect the opinion of other people.

Speaking about Englishmen I may note that they’re reserved, tradition-loving, courteous, honest, extremely nationalistic and etc. To my mind, they have a specific sense of humor. They say that they can't understand our jokes and anecdotes not only because of the different meanings of the words, but because of their humor is more delicate.

Looking at these features of the Russians and the Englishmen it is not hard to mark out the differences. The Englishmen are reserved, but the Russians are open-hearted and communicative. The Englishmen are tradition-loving and the Russians, to my mind, don't keep their traditions in such a degree.

There is a great majority of factors that influence the nations stereotype and its people's character. People that live in the southern countries have less problems than those who live in the North and because of this they’re more cheerful and artistic.

The history also has a great influence on the national character. The peoples in Asia are revengeful because their forefathers were often at war with others. In Africa many countries were colonies of the Great Britain, Holland, Spain and so on and they (Africans) were the slaves and because of this they’re still hard-working and industrious.

The National Character exists. It is not a myth, it's a reality. But the National Character doesn't describe the character of every person, it describes the character of people of nation in general. Every person has its own character, but according to the person’s belonging to some nation many traits of character are similar and these features may be explained as the national character.

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