Written by Marc Lamberts
Britain
What Europe said: Drunken
semi-clad hooligans or else snobbish, stiff free-marketeers
What Britain replied: “How can Britons simultaneously be both
self-controlled and prone to rip our
clothes off in a drunken haze?”
France
What
Europe said: Cowardly, arrogant, chauvinistic
erotomaniacs
What
France replied: “When it comes to our sex life,
studies put us in the middle of the pack; but after the DSK affair our
neighbours are unable to listen to this argument without cracking a smile”
Germany
What
Europe said: Uber-efficient, diligent, disciplined
and prone to steal the best sun loungers on holiday.
What
Germany replied: “It’s all true… we have highly
efficient, diligent and disciplined about ensuring the proper upkeep of these
clichés.”
Italy
What
Europe said: Tax-dodging, Berlusconi-style latin
lovers and mama’s boys, incapable of bravery
What
Italy replied: “Our worst defect is something
you’ll have picked up while reading this article: it’s smugness.”
Poland
What
Europe said: Heavy drinking ultracatholics with a
whiff of anti-Semitism and an extreme dexterity for plumbing.
What
Poland replied: “These stereotypes of Poles are
true but only partly. Poles drink average amounts of alcohol, they are Catholic
but not really bothered by what the church says and they dislike Jews just
slightly more than the average European.”
Spain
What
Europe said: Macho men and fiery women prone to
regular siestas and fiestas, so that nothing ever gets done.
What
Spain replied: “The pictures Europeans have of
Spain in their photo albums may be souvenirs of a country visited on holiday.
But what happens there the rest of the time? The statistics tell us that there
are Mondays too.”
These stereotype are over the top and can
be somewhat offensive, but they are a reflection of what people think.
What do
you think?
Have you ever experienced dealing with a stereotype?
Let us know!
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