Your country's Stereotypes

[BENZOOKA]

Like all other questions, I turn to Monty Python for answers

That's the best way to seek the truth(, Bruce). The equivalent of Finland is surprisingly flattering:

 

[Trotgar]

I don't know stereotypes about Finnish people, but some people actually seem to think that Finland is covered in snow for almost all the time, and when there isn't snow, it's still cold.

I don't know how many people actually thinks that this is the truth, but it's pretty far from reality. While the winters here are cold and long, the summers are pretty warm. Also, while the defined summer is quite short, the climate is generally very nice for most of the spring and some of the autumn, too.

A typical temperature for a normal summer day might be about 15-20 Celsius (not and average, of course), and on hotter days 20-30.

Oh, and probably that Finns drink a lot. Drinking is actually a problem here - some studies say that the most common causes of death in Finland are related to alcohol.

Also, according to a schoolbook the average Finn consumes 11 litres of pure alcohol annually. I don't know if that is much compared to other countries, but I'd say it's pretty high.

Though most of it is actually consumed by a small percentage who drink really heavily.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Spoiler

New Zealand

 

[rubinigosa]

<spoiler=snipped to a spoiler>My father was Swedish and I was born and raised here so I guess that makes me:

-blonde (I was blonde as a kid, does that count?)
-blue-eyed (Sorry, hazel eyes)
-really tall (I'm 167 cm so no?)
-polite (actually I am)
-private (this too. I've had to train myself to not freeze when being hugged)
-damn socialist (well, I prefer it to capitalism so I guess yes...)
-nudist (so not me. Unless I'm at at home with the blinds drawn, then I prance around in my undies =P)
-sexy (the only people who've told me that I am have been lecherous old(er) men, drunkards and, oddly enough, lesbians trying to get into my pants. Oh and my friends but they don't count.)
-arrogant (I've got too low self-esteem for that, but yeah we're arrogant)

My mother on the other hand was Irish so then I'm also:

-drunkard (don't drink at all. Have them in the family though, and my father was one)
-friendly (I think I am. But in all honestly, the majority of Irish people I've met are mean by my standards)
-believe in and talk about fairies and the like in everyday conversation (my grandmother would have probably disowned me if I did)
-Catholic (I was raised such, but I no longer consider myself that)
-eats potatoes (this is big in both Ireland and Sweden. Good lord, how I hate potatoes)
-great sense of humour (I can find something funny in practically everything. I don't know if that counts. I do enjoy Irish black humour)
-good looking (I've yet to met an Irishman face-to-face who I found attractive. Who didn't have a parent from somewhere else anyway)

Wow. That was long. Sorry about that =o

TL;DR Swedes = sexy, blonde, statuesque, polite bastards. Irish = Friendly drunks who see fairies dancing in their potato patch.

Never feel bad about making thorough posts. It's always good for the forums.

All in good spirits: The Finnish stereotypes about Swedish people aren't perhaps the most balanced gender-wise: Swedish girls are hot and cute, whereas Swedish guys are flimsy and feminine metrosexuals, who have self-tanned themselves to orange, wear white sailing clothes, sing drinking songs and so on.

Swedish-Finnish on the other hand are often referred to as "bättre folk", even by themselves, so it's not that serious.

I've never really got what the Swedish stereotype about Finns is, other than that we're supposed to be some kind of primitive woodsmen? Which doesn't make all that much sense.

The only Swedish stereotype about Finns I know about is that they have to talk weary long sentences to say one thing in Swedish but this may be true ? I can not really think about any stereotypes we have about Finns.

 

[BENZOOKA]

<spoiler=snipped to a spoiler>My father was Swedish and I was born and raised here so I guess that makes me:

-blonde (I was blonde as a kid, does that count?)
-blue-eyed (Sorry, hazel eyes)
-really tall (I'm 167 cm so no?)
-polite (actually I am)
-private (this too. I've had to train myself to not freeze when being hugged)
-damn socialist (well, I prefer it to capitalism so I guess yes...)
-nudist (so not me. Unless I'm at at home with the blinds drawn, then I prance around in my undies =P)
-sexy (the only people who've told me that I am have been lecherous old(er) men, drunkards and, oddly enough, lesbians trying to get into my pants. Oh and my friends but they don't count.)
-arrogant (I've got too low self-esteem for that, but yeah we're arrogant)

My mother on the other hand was Irish so then I'm also:

-drunkard (don't drink at all. Have them in the family though, and my father was one)
-friendly (I think I am. But in all honestly, the majority of Irish people I've met are mean by my standards)
-believe in and talk about fairies and the like in everyday conversation (my grandmother would have probably disowned me if I did)
-Catholic (I was raised such, but I no longer consider myself that)
-eats potatoes (this is big in both Ireland and Sweden. Good lord, how I hate potatoes)
-great sense of humour (I can find something funny in practically everything. I don't know if that counts. I do enjoy Irish black humour)
-good looking (I've yet to met an Irishman face-to-face who I found attractive. Who didn't have a parent from somewhere else anyway)

Wow. That was long. Sorry about that =o

TL;DR Swedes = sexy, blonde, statuesque, polite bastards. Irish = Friendly drunks who see fairies dancing in their potato patch.

Never feel bad about making thorough posts. It's always good for the forums.

All in good spirits: The Finnish stereotypes about Swedish people aren't perhaps the most balanced gender-wise: Swedish girls are hot and cute, whereas Swedish guys are flimsy and feminine metrosexuals, who have self-tanned themselves to orange, wear white sailing clothes, sing drinking songs and so on.

Swedish-Finnish on the other hand are often referred to as "bättre folk", even by themselves, so it's not that serious.

I've never really got what the Swedish stereotype about Finns is, other than that we're supposed to be some kind of primitive woodsmen? Which doesn't make all that much sense.

The only Swedish stereotype about Finns I know about is that they have to talk weary long sentences to say one thing in Swedish but this may be true ? I can not really think about any stereotypes we have about Finns.

I suppose that's true for the most part. I've always used way too long sentences that push the appropriate grammar and practicality in a way, no matter the language, but I tend to do that abundantly in comparison to anyone. And it's not that surprising as Swedish is the, quite minor, second language. So it's mandatory to learn a bit in school, and as Finns are stiff and cold as a plank anyway; you can assume the use of another language, that's so very close, yet so foreign, to be rather stiff and weary as well.

 

[RuralGamer]

Scotland:

We all wear kilts (only in Edinburgh when performing for the tourists' money)

We subsist on oats and haggis (We are some of the most obese in Europe, with really bad, fast-food diets)

We all live in clans (The clan system was destroyed in 1745 (now exists solely for ceremonial (i.e. tourist and nostalgic) purposes)

We are largely ginger-haired (2 people in my year of 100 at high school, so no to that)

Where do people get these ideas from... oh wait


Don't forget -

We are all alcoholics (I don't drink but a good few I know are borderline)

We are all racist (I wouldn't regard myself as, but as is everywhere some are so ignorant and/or offensive)

 

[ChipSandwich]

Australia - Culturally inept and thick headed convicts, plus racism and generally being an insignificant version of the US with funny accents. That's the worst I could think of.

 

[Squarez]

Oh, heres a stereotype. Americans changing everything for no possible reason other than to be different.
England, drive on the left.
America, right.

As I understand it, that comes from what side wagons would pass each other on. The US being made of former British colonies (ish), used to do it the same way as the British, until a bunch of patriots decided it wasn't American enough.

Presumably the people doing it the other way ran of wagons due to crashes first.

I believe the whole "drive on the left" thing came from the way you'd ride a horse around back in the middle ages. You'd ride on the left so that your sword (if you were a knight, and thus far more important than everyone else) wouldn't be smacking people in the face constantly.

 

[pyramid head grape]

Irish: Drinks guinness and bushmills (I hate the both of them).

 

[MrShowerHead]

Finland...Umm....

We drink and yell alot. And we drink alot.

Now excuse me, there seems to be a polar bear outside my igloo...

also,telepor'.

Ah, man.... You have no idea how much I laughed

 

[Outright Villainy]

Cork: ... Bunch of dumb pricks who think they are hard? I don't know. Everyone who is not from here pretty much agrees it's a shithole, though.

The stereotype of cork would be that they think they're a country onto themselves.
People's republic of cork and all that.

Also, much more commonly: "Boy!"

That's not even a stereotype though, everyone I've ever met from Cork appends every sentence with "boy."

 

[Jon Shannow]

Scotland: So racist, alcoholic, drug-addicted, violent, unhealthy, ginger people
well i have at least 3 of those ticked

 

[Dancingman]

America: Awesome, the best at everything, amazing, hilarious, god-like, and patriotic.

I think he means how other places stereotype the country.

Actually it's an older stereotype but it applies, read the Eagleland article on TV Tropes, that goes under Flavor 1 with America as the paradise of prosperity, freedom, and traditional family values.

Now back on topic:

According to stereotypes...

I should be fat, lazy, boorish, and rude. I am little more than a bully who hides behind his big military and "world power" status to compensate for his nation's shortcomings. My own arrogance and flaws are exaggerated so as to allow other nations to play up their own historical preconceptions of their superiority and/or take out severe jealousy issues when in reality everyone's got different strengths, weaknesses and flaws despite whoever's "in charge" at the time.

Author Tract? Yes. Do I care? Not particularly.

 

[Saint of M]

Also In America

In the case of The Hill Folk.

Backwards
Moon Shiners
Inbred
Nascar loving
Gun totin
racist

 

[Alon Shechter]

Israel.
Child Killers, assholes, douchebags.
Two of the three are usually correct.

 

[R4ptur3]

English posh tea drinkers, or english cockney tea drinkers.

Norwich - Full of farmers and incest...lovely. First one is partly true though.

 

[Sharalon]

Sweden: Does anyone really care? Well ill give it a shot.. Boring and.. Secular?

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

I spent part of this past summer in Tanzania[footnote]Prettiest. Country. Ever.[/footnote], and apparently, it's a fairly common belief that most Americans are cowboys, regardless of whether or not you even live in the south west.

To be fair to African people, though, most of my relatives, when I told them where I was going, assumed I'd be staying in a mud hut dodging lions the whole time I was there. The first day we got to the host family's house, their kids were sitting on the sofa playing Halo.[footnote]The first Halo, on an original XBox. "Oh God! How do people live like this!?"[/footnote]

 

[FamoFunk]

Wales - we shag Sheep, lots of Sheep; we're covered in mountains and it always rains.

 

[emion]

norway:
- talks bad english
- death metal
- vikings
- eat lutefisk
- passive-agressive