National stereotypes

[Ville]

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Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

You need to read Scandinavia and the World, a stereotype webcomic by a Dane with the Nordic countries as the main characters:

 

http://humoncomics.com/scandinavia-and-the-world

 

I'd say the Danish stereotype is that we're the most tolerant of people and customs that are "different". We were the first to legalise porn, for instance, and we're very tolerant towards ethnic minorities (with the exception of the current government's support party, the Danish Folk Party, but we don't like them), different sexual orientations, etc. We love to party and get drunk, and we do those things A LOT! It may be a little hard to get under our skin, but just get us drunk (which is easy as pie) and we're the most friendly people in the world.

[jayseven]

I was having a chat with my dad the other night about stereotypes. He told me about the difference between tourists and locals, and i pondered on how the world stereotyped teh english.

 

But we were both drunk so i don't have anything to add to the discussion except that all stereotypes have a root of truth to them!

[Arnieboy]

I was having a chat with my dad the other night about stereotypes. He told me about the difference between tourists and locals, and i pondered on how the world stereotyped teh english.

 

But we were both drunk so i don't have anything to add to the discussion except that all stereotypes have a root of truth to them!

 

Bad teeth, fish and chips, cockney accents, bowler hats, drinking tea and eating scones.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Bad teeth, fish and chips, cockney accents, bowler hats, drinking tea and eating scones.

Don't forget our drive-by arguments.

[Rummy]

Don't forget our drive-by arguments.

 

Posting on a forum are ya? Yeah fookin looks like it an' all.

[Jonnas]

@Ville: ...That doesn't sound right...I thought you guys always carried knives with you?

 

National stereotypes can be fun as long as you're open minded about it (and don't strike some sort of serious issue).

 

 

In Portugal, we tend to love our portuguese heritage, but hate how the country is run, because every other european country seems to be better off than us. While this is often correct, we exaggerate this far too much.

 

Other than that, we love football to a sickening point, we love all kinds of food (especially cod), we love not-being-Spanish, we love our historical figures (for inane reasons, sometimes), and we love self-national-depreciation (except when in the presence of foreigners)

 

 

As for how we see other specific countries:

 

-Nordic countries: Besides the usual stereotypes, the nordics are seen as some sort of utopia, and the countries we often compare ourselves to whenever we're talking about economy, society, education, politics, etc. Especially Norway. I think this has to do with their Cod;

 

-England: A fine city . They're all pale, so their inhabitants tend to come to Algarve and get burned, hence our nickname for them "bifes" ("steaks/beefs");

 

-Spain: On general terms, they're our rivals. We think their language sounds ugly (though this is more about their accent), and this is hammered down by the fact that they dub everything. Horribly. We tend to dislike the Spanish, except for the Galicians. They're cool.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Jonnas

[Frank]

-England: A fine city.

 

Am...not to burst your bubble or anything but you do know England is a country, don't you?

[EEVILMURRAY]

Posting on a forum are ya? Yeah fookin looks like it an' all.

[Jonnas]

Am...not to burst your bubble or anything but you do know England is a country, don't you?

 

a.k.a. No one here knows anything beyond London.

 

Maybe I was too subtle

[Frank]

ah...I see what ya did there

 

As for my country...

 

 

Pretty much sums it up ( + a lot of nana's who say "love" all the time)

 

EDIT:

[The fish]

I'll get the obvious one out of the way - Americans.

 

Fat.

Stupid.

Ignorant.

Arrogant.

Obnoxious.

Can't drink for shit.

Deeply religious.

Firearms. Lots of them.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY, THE CONSTITUTION SAYS (insert issue here), SO THERE!

[Ville]

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Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville

[jayseven]

Germans digging up whole trees?! Where on earth does that stereotype come from! Sounds brilliant :P

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Thanks for the reminder, that comic is awesome...makes Scandinavia feel like a family.

 

YES! It's seriously one of my favourite things ever.

 

Btw, here's something I remember seeing as a postcard, the "Perfect European":

 

 

"Discreet as a Dane", love it!

 

Check Christiania is in Denmark, right? Other than that, what comes to mind is smørrebrød and strong salmiakki (salty liquorice). Btw, quite weird that salmiakki is not popular in the whole of Europe, just in select countries...

 

Yup! Christiania is actually a great example of the Danish stereotype, I'd say. :p Smørrebrød is another "famous" Danish thing, but I've never heard about "salmiaklakrids" being typically Danish.

 

What's The Matter With Denmark? Part 1

What's The Matter With Denmark? Part 2 - Military Arrogance

 

Videos posted by a friend on Facebook this evening. Quite hilarious.

Edited October 25, 2010 by Dannyboy-the-Dane

[mcj metroid]

ah...I see what ya did there

 

As for my country...

 

 

Pretty much sums it up ( + a lot of nana's who say "love" all the time)

 

EDIT:

 

..........um that's pretty much about it ya

[Frank]

And wouldn't have it any other way! :p

[Jonnas]

Brits bad at cooking? Also, where does the bad teeth issue come from? You do have dental care, right?

 

The Brits being bad cooks appears in several places. I remember that Asterix album describing British food as small salads with ton of vinegar, or

.

 

The bad teeth thing is a stereotype only Americans have, I think.

 

Btw, here's something I remember seeing as a postcard, the "Perfect European":

 

 

 

The picture implies that the Portuguese suck at technical stuff. First time I've heard this, any truth in it?

 

Hmmm... That's a surprise for me, too. I didn't know that's the image we had out there (especially since our engineers tend to get good publicity around here).

Honestly, I think that being lazy and disorganised suits us far better

 

Then again, that pic has a bunch of other stereotypes I hadn't heard before, like the "flexible as a Swede" or the "French Driver" (Italians are far worse).

 

The stereotypes that the Portuguese have out there (that I'm aware) include "construction worker/maid" in France, and "baker" in Brazil (funnily enough, every bakery I know has at least one Brazilian working there. Even one that I visited in Italy)

 

Wow, for some reason I find that quite funny...the Portuguese, dreaming of Norway and their cods

 

Lol Norwegian cod is the only cod we eat nowadays, anyway.

 

By the way, Finland is the second most-mentioned nordic country. Knowledge of your seemingly perfect education system is spreading around here, what with all the controversy regarding our own educational reforms.

[Ville]

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Edited September 12, 2021 by Ville

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Actually, we in the Danish education sector should be mad at you Finns. Your darn good test results made our government go crazy with tests and record-keeping of our education system in the ridiculous belief that it would improve our test scores. They have worsened our education system even more.

[heroicjanitor]

This:

[Jonnas]

Heh, quite interesting...I just completed my first pedagogic course and as the teacher pointed out, there still is a lot to improve. Too behaviouristic, just transferring clear-cut facts to passive students...

 

Miles better than the mess around here, though. Attempts at making schoolwork more accessible to poor students always end up full of obvious flaws and exploitations, alienating teachers and worthy students alike. And that's just the beginning.

 

Anyway, to get back on topic, what kind of stereotype to Portuguese people get in the UK, Ireland or the Nordic countries?

I know the stereotypes in France (construction workers/maids), Brazil (bakers) and Luxembourg (lazy immigrants), but certainly there are more, even if our country is usually undernoticed.

[jayseven]

I don't know about the nation, but my own stereotypes of Portuguese; they don't know whether tehy're spanish or italian and hate them both. They like cod and cork and tiles and roosters. These are hyperbolic and not meant to be offensive! I think Portugal is one of the 'lucky' EU countries that we don't have any negative connotations about (as far as I know)... We've got a good relationship, both hate the spanish (armada), etc. Other 'good' EU countries in UK's/my eyes are; all of scandinavia, holland, belgium... ... ... ... yeah maybe switzerland. I dunno.

 

I think there's some stupid percentage of americans who think portuguese speak Brazillian...

[Jonnas]

I don't know about the nation, but my own stereotypes of Portuguese; they don't know whether tehy're spanish or italian and hate them both. They like cod and cork and tiles and roosters. These are hyperbolic and not meant to be offensive!

 

Haha! This is all correct! *thumbs up*

 

I think there's some stupid percentage of americans who think portuguese speak Brazillian...

 

Rather that than believing we speak Spanish, honestly. At least we and the Brazillians share the same language.

[The fish]

Germans: they're slightly camp these days to avoid fitting with the menacing stereotype of the past, they still eat a lot of sausages and currywurst, and drink a hell of a lot of beer. They have tendency to invade Poland and/or Belgium, and always steal the sunloungers by swimming pools by means of towels. They were cooler when they were Prussia and Bavaria.

 

I think Portugal is one of the 'lucky' EU countries that we don't have any negative connotations about (as far as I know)...

 

The general rule of thumb is that we've been at war with pretty much everyone, so they have negative stereotypes of us. Portugal, however, has, with England/GB/the UK, the worlds longest running still in effect military alliance.