Thanks to cultural exchange projects, like
Comenius, we are nowadays in touch with
other nations and other cultural realities: this
shows us how wrong expressing prejudices is,
because, after getting to know someone
better, we often find out we were completely
wrong.
20 years ago, rumors were the only way to
know something about those who lived in a far
away place.
We asked our teachers
and our relatives and
we collected the
commonest
stereotypes from some
years ago about
German, Polish,
Finnish, Portuguese
and Greek people:
A German:
• was fair-skinned, blondhaired and blue-eyed;
• was serious, very
organized, disciplined and
efficient;
• was always punctual and
conscientious;
• hated disorder and loved
rules;
• loved beer, ate
potatoes, sausages and
sauerkraut;
• drove a Volkswagen, a
BMW or a Trabant;
• wasn’t very fashionable
A Polish person:
• was conservative, strictly
catholic and nationalist;
• lived in the centre of Europe;
• was hospitable and patriotic;
• was lazy and always
complaining;
• used to love Vodka and
cucumbers.
A Finnish person:
• Lived in a freezing isolated
place, in contact with a
beautiful nature and rare
fauna;
• was very tall, blond and
pale;
• spent the time in the sauna;
• was introvert, reserved and
not very loquacious;
• was ecological,
practical, well organized
and clean;
• Finnish is considered a
very difficult language.
How can you tell the difference
between a Finnish introvert and a
Finnish extrovert?
When he's talking to you a Finnish
introvert looks at his feet.
A Finnish extrovert looks at yours.
A Portuguese:
• was more or less like
Spanish people;
• was a nostalgic person that
sang fado;
• was very family oriented;
• was a little bit sparing
A Greek:
• had traditions of values;
• were similar to Italy;
• were dark-haired, had
dark eyes and had a
peculiar nose; was
family oriented,
conservative and
religious;
• were hot-tempered;
• loved feasting and
merriment.