What Europeans think of each other
This is a basic backgrounder for Americans, primarily, who might think Europeans do nothing all day but bitch about Americans. Don’t get me wrong—they do love bitching about Americans. But they also like bitching about each other, as well. Bordering countries, especially, have complex caricatures of each other, even when an outsider might think they’re more or less the same. The following is based on my numerous interactions with Europeans, having lived there for 4 years. Here’s a run down:
The French — Disliked by some Spanish (particularly the Catalonians), for being arrogant. One woman from Barcelona told me, “Come on, who really likes the French? Nobody!” The Swiss don’t like the fact that they have contempt for authority and are lazy. The Brits, of course, have the most mixed feelings about the French, though. One half the country hates them, the other half loves them. Those that hate the French tend to like the Americans, and vice versa. In the UK, they’re considered stinky, rude (they never line/queue up like decent people), and a bit yellow, based on their tendency to not fend off invaders like the Nazis.The French, in turn, dislike the British, look down on Belgians for being stupid, and don’t have much to say, in my experience, about Spaniards or Germans (oddly).
The Italians — Most of the stereotypes are positive, but mostly because of the food. Northern Europeans consider them lazy and flaky, and maybe incapable of managing anything right (mostly because of the 50+ governments they’ve had since WW2). One Dutch professor I had dismissed another Italian one, saying, “All the Italians care about are pasta and mamma.”Italians, in turn, don’t have strong feelings about other Europeans, but within Italy, the north-south divide is pretty strong. Northern Italians continuously complain that Southerners are lazy and unproductive, while Southerners complain that Northerners are devoid of culture or joie de vivre.
The Germans — Germans are considered industrious but uptight and humorless, by just about all the other Europeans. They know WW2 is a sore spot for them, so other Europeans will often mercilessly tease them about it. As much as Germany is considered an economic powerhouse, the vast majority of Europeans don’t really want to learn German or study there (or send their kids there to study). The food is considered uninspired, too, and only Berlin has some cachet among younger Europeans for its vibrant underground club scene. The most anti-German sentiments are among the Dutch and Danish, who just hate them from invading their countries too often. When German ask for directions in Holland, they’re usually given directions to the shortest way out of the country, or told “Give us back our bikes!”, a reference to the fact that Germans confiscated Dutch bicycles during WW2.Danes hate it when you pronounce their capital as “ko-pen-HAH-gen”, because this is the German pronunciation. Either pronounce it the English way (with “HAY” instead), or the Danish way, which is literally impossible to put down here.Germans tend to like their Western neighbors far more than they are liked by them, but they look down on their Eastern neighbors, particularly Poles. They, oddly, have some mixed respect for the Czechs, who have resisted German aggression.
The Scandinavians — Widely respected by most other Europeans, because of their high standard of living …and blond hair and blue eyes. However, within Scandinavia there are some persistent stereotypes. The Norwegians, Danes and Finns all think the Swedes are stupid and uptight. Norwegians are considered racist. Danes are considered more blunt than the others, maybe a bit more cranky, and the Finns are oddly introverted, even by Scandinavian standards. Except for the Danes really disliking Germans, and Finns really disliking Russians, they don’t really have anything against other Europeans.
The Belgians — Considered idiots by both the Dutch and the French. Belgians, in turn, consider the Dutch to be a bunch of cranky assholes, and French stuck-up.
The Dutch — The Dutch, like the Scandinavians, have an enviable economy and social order that’s admired by southern European countries. However, they do have a reputation of being self-righteous “know-it-alls” and very similar to their German cousins in terms of their rigidity. But they do not like any comparisons to Germans, and if you remind them that the Dutch national anthem makes a reference to the Dutch being “van Duitse bloed” (from German blood), you might quickly get the silent treatment. The Dutch are also disliked for being the biggest misers in Europe, and because of this they incur the wrath of the tourist industry wherever they travel. The Dutch have been known to stock up on water before they take their campers down to the south of France.The Dutch, in turn, kind of look down on just about everyone. Yes, there’s a bit of a reason for the “know-it-all” smart-ass reputation they have.
The Swiss — Considered extremely rigid, even by the Germans. Blunt to the point of being rude, the Swiss probably have the least likely reputation for being characterized as “friendly” or “warm”. Note that there is a big cultural divide between French-speaking Swiss, and the German-speaking Swiss. The former are almost exactly like the French, except having a blander cuisine and more respect for authority, the latter being more like the Germans except even more stiff, rigid and cranky. However, everyone knows Switzerland “works” so the fact that foreigners comprise 20% of the population (mostly from EU member states) should make this clear.Note that the German-speaking Swiss also speak their own variant of German, which sounds very strange if you’ve only been exposed to standard “hoch-Deutsch”.
The Spaniards — Honestly, very little antagonism against the Spanish or by the Spanish. No one really seems to dislike them, and they don’t seem to really dislike anyone else. (Yes, some Spaniards near the border to France don’t like the French very much) Not entirely sure why. However, God forbid you speak Spanish with a Latin American accent — there is still a lot of snobbery among Spaniards towards Latin Americans. Spaniards consider themselves white and European, and would be deeply insulted if you suggested they were Latin American of any kind.
The Greeks — Only nominally considered European by other Europeans, but the Greeks fiercely identify as European. Naturally, this is a huge irritant to Greeks.
The Poles — Not much seems to register about Poland and the Poles except that they’re quiet. They are a relatively big country (40 million people) so the supposed scare of being overrun by Eastern Europeans when a bunch of Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2005 focused in on the Poles. The Germans really don’t like Poles, and among Germany’s 9 neighbors, are disliked the most. Poland is considered a country of car thieves by the Germans. Really, the relationship between Germany and Poland is similar to that of the United States and Mexico, and often for many of the same reasons (differences in income, history of war, different languages, etc.).Poles really shore up their hatred for their eastern & southern neighbors, primarily Russia and Ukraine, although they don’t like Czechs, Slovaks or Lithuanians either. Oddly, they don’t really mind the Germans, and probably still fear them a bit — you never, ever hear jokes about Germans in Poland.
The Czechs — Considered a relatively bright spot of Eastern Europe by Western Europeans, but I think primarily because Prague is such a gorgeous city and a popular tourist destination. Czechs are a bit like Germans, though — a bit rude, blunt, and cold. Poles don’t have much good to say about them.
The Austrians — Considered a mix of the best & worst aspects of Germany and the Balkans, Austrians are considered laid-back but very nationalistic and racist. They’re said to be the birthplace of Hitler, but never came around to being fully apologetic about the Holocaust (unlike Germany). Neutral feelings from most ofWestern Europe, negative feelings from Germans (who consider them backwards, and not always the representing the best image of German-speaking people) and admired by Eastern Europeans (a throwback to the Hapsburgs).
The British – About half of the British would be really angry at being called European, so that should provide an apt starting point. The main beef with the Brits is that they’re considered the lapdog of the U.S., and are anti-European because the U.S. tells them to be so. They are considered polite, but maybe a bit two-faced (hence “Janus Britain”) and snobby. The Scots and Welsh are tolerated and liked, inasmuch as that no one really knows too much about them outside the UK, but the English are those that bear the brunt of negative sentiments among other Europeans. After all, London is in England.
The English also have a poor reputation in tourist traps, such as Amsterdam and Ibiza, for being loud-mouthed, obnoxious drunks.
The English, in turn, really seem to hate everyone. This is because it’s pretty hard to find an Englishman that has even, at best, neutral opinions about other Europeans (or Americans, or other nationalities). Europe is full of English expats, and the longer they live abroad, the more they seem to hate their host country. And yet they never seem to want to move home.
The Irish — A very small country, despite its exaggerated importance in Americans’ minds (just over 4.6 million in the Republic of Ireland) but considered polite and humble. They nominally dislike the English, but I have yet to meet an Irishman who really loathes the English. The sentiments towards the Irish and by the Irish seem to be positive, overall.
I personally don’t know much about how the Portuguese, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, and others are perceived, or how they perceive others, but if you have something to add, please do so in the comments below.
I’ll leave you with this poster I saw in an Italian office years ago, that helps sum it up in some ways:
In Heaven…
- the mechanics are German
- the chefs are French
- the police are British
- the lovers are Italian
- and everything is organized by the Swiss.
In Hell…
- the mechanics are French
- the police are German
- the chefs are British
- the lovers are Swiss
- and everything is organized by the Italians.
Update: Here’s my follow-up after this post got an avalanche of traffic and comments.
Another update: Here’s a related post on what Americans think about Europeans.
And another: 20 ways to slice up Europe.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
it’s NOT true we all bitch Americans. I find Americans friendly and open,, bit loud but nice people.
The reason most Europeans detest Germany is because of WW2. It’s been 65 years but the wounds are still sore. Here in Holland everyone knows/uses the invective ‘moffen’. Even children. Dutch people used to call the Germans ‘moffen’during the 2nd world war.
It’s true that we dislike neighbouring countries more than other European countries,, don’t know why..
But, still think Europe’s nice and beautiful and diverse. I love Cretan beaches and food and love Barcelona, Portuguese coast and Cambridge in England. Czech Republic is a great country too! And as for Germany,, great to shop and nice Apfelstrudel:D ! and cheap flights.lol. Italy has the best food and Rome is Europe’s ancient pearl.
Amsterdam is greaaat! and it’s not true dutch people are stoned– tourists are though. It is true Dutch people are cocky, but come on, that’s not a bad thing.
The country I personally dislike the most, is France. I’ve been there a lot and find them arrogant, and they won’t speak english.. so luckily we learn a bit French in school, which sucks, because the French don’t learn dutch so why should we learn French?
xoxo from know-it-all-Dutch-girl (your words)
Comment by Ava — March 7, 2010 @ 4:04 am
I’m a Canadian who has been living in Holland for 6 months so far and I love learning about the stereotypes Europeans have toward each other. It’s crazy to think people 200 km away are something different from you (coast to coast Canadians are all kinda the same by comparison!)
The Dutch are blunt, cheap and arrogant – but I love them! Germans are over-efficient keeners but they are very hospitable! Austrians have the best food, but the Viennese are ass holes. Most Scandinavians hate Sweden, but Swedes for the most part don’t care! The Swiss are slow, the Spanish always late and Italians can’t drive despite having the best cars. And Poles steal them!
Not everyone falls under a stereotypes, but they are still funny. I’m used to them too – after all Canadians are basically Americans in disguise. 😉
Comment by Liza — March 11, 2010 @ 9:07 am
So, here’s my turn to add my version of the facts:
I’m portuguese and I must say a couple of previous posters are bang on. We are obsessed with our history and the fact we once had a great Empire. This makes us look towards the atlantic much more than we look at other european nations.
We have a very ambivalent relationship with the spaniards
But it is true we are more quiet and reserved. Other tha that pretty much the same – both countries have great food, sun and a rich history.
We dislike the french and think of them as arrogant pricks.
We have strong ties with the english ( the oldest alliance in the world ).
We admire Italians due to romanization ( there was a time the whole of Iberia was under roman rule and that left a far bigger impression than the moors ( muslims ) which are generally detested. we tend to look at greek as suffering from the same ill as us ( a country with the burden of having had a magnificient history their present day reality fails to live up to ).
We have ideas about other countries in Europe ( but given their distance from us and the fact that we have traditionally not had much contact other than trade ) tend to disregards them.
As for Brasil, we both love their joie de vivre, but resent the brasilian immigrants – and we personnally despise the fact that they think they have nothin to do with us ( despite the fact they only exist as a country due to a portuguese king, who declared independence ). I have family there and look at them as having exactly the same culture, but in a warmer climate.
Among ourselves there is a big divide between north and south Portugal, due to southerners being under arab rule for much longer. However we have an 800 year history and we are one of the oldest nations in the world, so we have learned to overlook minor differences and embrace difference in general. And I think that is our biggest characteristic: a kind of weary ambivalence about everyone, as we carry the weight of our history, conquests and wars and as such tend to think in terms of “we have seen it all”.
It’s still an absolutely beautiful country to visit, with an hospitable people, breathtaking scenery, amazing food and year round sun.
Comment by Carlos Cidrais — March 16, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
Im from london, but lived in finland for a whole year.. and the things i heard the most was that all swedes are gay..but very good looking tho 😉
Comment by claude — April 8, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Dude, this has been quite a long, yet worthy read. I bursted into laughter quite a few times due to the swearings, angry comments and whatnot posted on this page.
I am not European, in fact I was born in South america, yet have lived around 3 years in this beautiful continent, which I like much more than my homeland. Some of the traits about certain nations are accurate, others are ,in my opinion, the result of stereotyping of minorities.
I don´t really consider the Greeks of nowadays as Europeans. They don´t quite behave or excel like their “ancestors” did. Same goes for Albanians, even though they never did something meaningful in history.
For what it´s worth, here´s a handful of European nations which I consider top and the reasons :
-Germany-The country I am currently living in. People are reliable, civilized, punctual and polite. Food sucks, but hell, the country has many nice things.
-Slovakia,Czech Republic and POland: About the nicest people you´ll ever meet. Great food, great alcohol and cultures.
-Austria: nice landscapes and architecture.
-Holland: Cool food, and the people are nice.
Some traits I have noticed:
-Finns: Introverted, silent, shy .Great metal.
-Swedes: Arrogant, self-absorbed.
-Norwegians: Attractive, tall, polite, serious, funny
-English: arrogant, self-absorbed, loud, unpolite, silly.
-Spaniards: Racist, intolerant, under-developed, slow, unpunctual, funloving, outgoing.
-Portuguese: Who the hell cares?
-Italians: Silly, inmature, macho, lazy
-Albanians: not European. should be living in Turkey.
Comment by MiguelISaacs — April 10, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
as an englishman i love England and very very proud of what we have contributed to the world,as with every other country there are aspects of which we should be ashamed.that said i feel we have done more good than bad,with regards to the rest of europe i have never felt european we are an island nation as for the people who dislike us then why are we the most popular country in europe for immigration destination
Comment by Keith Kilbourne — April 11, 2010 @ 5:34 am
In the part of Sweden where I live, there are people who blames the Polish for everything. And I really mean EVERYTHING! They mean that they screwed up the Swedish economy, and that they began ww2. Weird!
btw: God bless la France! <333
Comment by swe — April 11, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
All these comments about British food being terrible are nonsense. I for instance, am well known for my delicious ‘Sheep Brains on Toast’, wash down with four pints of warm beer and ‘voila!’. See, I even speak foreign!
Comment by James — April 21, 2010 @ 7:38 am
\Poles really shore up their hatred for their eastern & southern neighbors, primarily Russia and Ukraine, although they don’t like Czechs, Slovaks or Lithuanians either. Oddly, they don’t really mind the Germans, and probably still fear them a bit — you never, ever hear jokes about Germans in Poland.\
I’ve never heard such rubbish in my life. Germans and Russians are the ones most hated by Poles, and they also get to have the most jokes being told about them (A Pole, a Russian and a German come into a bar…). Poles do like (or are indifferent about) Lithuanians and Czechs, without reciprocity, though.
Comment by Linda — April 21, 2010 @ 2:56 pm
I just wanna add something that is quite important for most Scandinavian people (I myself am Danish) Finland is NOT nor will it EVER be a part of Scandinavia! 😛 Cool guys and all… but Scandinavia is made up of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Comment by DPKOG — April 23, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
Wow Luis, looks like a hit a nerve.
I insists: It’s not arrogance my friend, it’s just INDIFFERENCE (which isn’t hate either, btw).
In Spain we don’t care about Portugal, just like France, England, Germany, Italy, USA etc. doesn’t care about Portugal (or even us). Do you think that all these countries are arrogant just for the fact that they don’t care about your country? Is the author of this article an arrogant because he didn’t take Portugal into account in the first place?
Let’s face it, you can’t stand the fact that the world completely ignore your country after being an Empire. Portugueses are always talking about their “glorious” past and how they traveled all along the world… they haven’t still faced their current reality. Now that’s arrogance.
Fortunately, we (spaniards) left our past behind along time ago, we concentrate in our future and ourselves. The spanish children can learn about the Spanish Empire in school.
And we don’t make a fool of ourselves by whining or calling “arrogant” to everyone who doesn’t paid attention to us. I recommend you to do the same.
Truth hurts Luis, I know. Also, these days spanish hospitals are taking care of a lot of portugueses cause Lisbon have closed a few hospitals in the portuguese regions near the border with Spain. I guess this doesn’t help either to make us look like humble people, huh?. Let’s face the real problem here, people like you feel deeply humilliated by big the gap in quality of life between Spain and Portugal. Blame on your politicians not us, please.
PS- And I almost forget about Olivenza, a spanish region who was portuguese in the past.
Comment by byteme — April 29, 2010 @ 7:53 pm
Fun article 😀
I am french and, though some stereotypes you point at are outdated or just \traditionnal jokes\, reading your text we get a good global picture
About french people :
-We dont dispise Belgian people, we just love to make fun of them. In kids jokes, the belgian guy is always the sutpid one. But about Belgium, seriously, I think most of us respect this country for being the heart of UE
-We seriously don’t know how to queue XD (that’s WAR, man)
-We see the german people as anal, but we do like Berlin. No one wants to speak german because it’s not a language, it’s a throat disease. WW2 is a trauma, even for the younger generation. But nowadays, in Europa, France & Germany are the closest countries.
-We see italians as you guys (american) see french people (in the movies) : romantic lovers with a moustache, who cook GOOD food. We also think they’re the worst people ever when they drive a car.
-We are VERY proud of our gastronomy. Too proud.
-We have a political opinion about everything, it’s not to piss you off, we just can’t help.
-We don’t hate brits. Well, we hate brits when they’re america-lovers, that’s true (for most of the people, and this is intense since G.W. Bush, I don’t remember anything of that kind before Irak \^^) and we do see England as America’s pet.
-We are late. For everything : even important meetings start 15min late.
-We do think english food sucks, and german one too. We keep thinking english people cook everything in the microwave hoven, when they dont cook it in boiling water
About british people :
They do have a mixed feeling about France and french peope : it’s a love-hate feeling. They would love to live in France, but without the inhabitants ;P
But french and english people love to tease each-other, it’s been centuries… Before Germany, England is our ancestral enemy.
About Spanish people :
We see them as caliente, warm and welcoming people, good cookers, but yeah, racists. They have a 3h nap in the middle of the afternoon and start living again around 6pm.
About scandinavians :
We think they are perfect.
About greeks :
We don’t think they are european.
About swits :
Hey, dude. This is NOT Europa ! 😉
Comment by Julia — May 20, 2010 @ 12:21 pm
Hi, just want to comment and add something to your list (add the stereothypes I know of. it does not mean I share them).
Czech/German/Poland – sry but Czechoslovakia failed to resist Germany and immediately surrendered to Wermacht. On the other hand Poland fighted for almost three weeks.
Czechs – I don’t know about any tensions between Poland and Czechs. They usually consider Czech people as funny (due Czech language, which sounds funny to them). Czechs still don’t give a shit about Poland, even though there is existing polish minority in Silesia.
Some of the oldtimers have mixed feelings about Germans due WW2, however younger generation consider them as closest way to the western world (especially Berlin as the most impressive city in this area).
However there is still some tension between Czech and Slovakia (but it’s nothing hot, some of the tensions existists still from the start of the 20th century, when the Czechs were considered asi colonizators and oppessors, however some of the Czechs consider them as traitors who deserted to Hitler during WW2 and ended federation in 1992 – but these feelings are not very often in younger generation).
In regards of alcohol consumption they consider Germans and Danish as their biggest rivals.
Throughout the East there is common tensions towards Russia as general invadors. Czechs generally hate them due their 20 years long army pressence, invasion and arrogance
Ukranians – cheap laborers often confused and hated as Russians
Romaia – poor land full of the gypsies where you have to put a paper which you’ve used to wiper your ass into a special bin (general problem in some of the Balkanian countries due inadequate pipes system).
Hungary – some of the central Europeans does’nt consider tham as pasrt ofthe continent due their strange language. There is still some tension with neighbour countries, especially Slovakia (tension goes back to WW1 and end of Austria-Hungary)
Portuguese – considered as Ukrainians of Western Europe in both ways: cheap laborers and some of the Europeans thinks their language is similar to Russian.
Greek – part of Europe, but nobody gave a shit about them until fiscal crisis 2009/2010. Almost all Europeans hate them now and have to pay their debt.
Comment by PHM — June 3, 2010 @ 1:01 pm
May I ask why Norwegians get described as racist?
Comment by DumbAsses — June 11, 2010 @ 2:37 pm
Lol, I didn’t know Greeks were regarded as non-European. Which is fine with me btw (I’m Greek) as I don’t particularly care for ethnicities or nationalities.
Anyways, I think the Greeks in general are friendly towards Europeans. However, I do know for a fact that immigrants and particularly Albanians/Romanians/Bulgarians were not and are not treated very well by some Greeks. Which is why most of the “anti-Greek” comments in this post come from Albanians, I guess. And probably the same is true of “Fyromians” – because of the whole naming dispute not because of immigration. So, yeah, I understand why they wouldn’t like us very much.
With regards to some of the stereotypes. I personally love British cuisine- I don’t know why it has such a bad rep. In general I love British culture – although probably not comtemporary British culture… I have mixed feelings about the modern British people too.
Love the French, the Spanish, the Italian, the German, the Austrian and the Russian cultures. Unlike the British people however, I don’t know any French or Spanish, etc person intimately. But I do admire lots of historical figures from these countries.
I have no particular feelings towards the Scandinavians, the Portuguese (Figo was great :p), the Czechs (some pretty lovely women), the Belgians, the Dutch (I like their liberal reforms though), the Hungarians (Dvorak ruled), etc.
Lastly, I have to say that when I was growing up 2 of my best friends were Greek-Finnish so I have friendly feelings towards Finland despite knowing very little about it.
Comment by Cerberus — June 12, 2010 @ 8:45 am
Someone once said to me: “The Swedes make jokes about the Danes, the Danes about the Norwegians, the Norwegians about the Swedes and they all together make jokes about the Finns.” (Not totally true.)
Swedes and Norwegians make jokes about each other, very often the same jokes about just changing “Swede” to “Norwegian” and vice versa.
Finland is somehow the outsider in group, having a language totally different to the languages in the rest of Scandinavia (which are very similar). On the other hand, many Finns also speak Swedish (with an extremely obvious accent though).
Also, it’s commonly “known” in Finland that all Swedish men are gay.
Generally:
In a West European´s eyes, East Europe is just a bunch of former Soviet countries which are less developed and have cheap workers. Sometimes the Czech Republic is incorrectly seen as a former Soviet country.
The longer to the south you get, the lazier people and hotter temperaments.
Comment by J — June 12, 2010 @ 7:04 pm
THE LITHUANIANS
The entire 20th century so-called “west” Europeans hated and prejudiced east Europeans ignoring them along with south americans, africans and asians, and now, when they screwed up importing too many muslims into their so western Europe, now they turned to so much prejudiced east Europeans for help!
When approaching a western European woman during 1980s or 1990s I’ve been turned down or ignored, now those “western” “European” (muslim-looking French, Italian etc. can go and date muslims and leave us, eastern Europeans alone! We can’t help you “get rid” of muslims from your so muslim western Europe.
Lithuanians are known for being slow and quiet, but they are more hot-headed than the other Northerners. We are considered the “Italy of Northern Europe”. Comparison of us to Russians immediately makes the Lithuanians unhappy 🙂 Russians were/are considered second class citizens in Lithuania. Lithuanians usually are very proud of themselves, our country’s history and architecture and even if our economy is mediocre (not poor, not very rich) we can’t imagine being anyone else. Many (but not all) Lithuanians are racist or prejudist towards not only Russians, Africans and Asians, but also towards South Europeans and “even” towards some West Europeans. (About 50% of) Lithuanians usually dislike Russia(ns). Some also dislike Poles, Belarusans, Central Asians, Muslims and Africans.
Yet in general most Lithuanians do not hate anyone and are very friendly towards all countries, all nationalities and all races.
If not Russian occupation, we, Lithuania, could have been like Denmark or Switzerland today. The Baltic countries today are not called “eastern Europe” anymore. Yet anything “eastern” is resent in Europe and beyond by simply being ignorant and not intelligent enough, but China/Japan/India are very Eastern countries and almost everyone loves them.
There are always people who dislike someone, because they are insecure themselves. The Turks are hated, because the Euros are weak, afraid to defend themselves. etc. The Afros are hated because they are well built and look good, etc. The poor are hated, because they are free of any obligations and scams and therefore are freeer than the “free west”. I believe they should have left Africa in stone age conditions instead of colonising and “civilising” it which ended up in massive, hunger, greed and scams. I think, “we” White People were the reason why the world today is an imperfect place out of harmony. While we live in “developed” countries, we feel that going back to our roots, leading natural life hurts the environment less. The Whites brought Africans to the “Vespuccia” and now they complain how of a pain those folks have become. If a country has “lower standard” it is shunned. I agree, most people like to live in rich, highly taxed countries, like modern slavery of some sorts. It depends.
Very few folks know that Lithuania was world’s first democracy and the largest country in Europe during middle ages. I am watching the politicians and wondering how good the East is becoming today when China, India and even Russia are slowly but surely becoming rich economies. Suddenly, one day soon, everyone will be loving The East. Very few know that countries like Slovenia, Czech or Estonia have much higher standards of living than Greece, Portugal or even Ireland.
Just like it is popular in the USA to claim having some Cherokee blood, so in the future it will become popular to claim having some Russian or other east European blood/genes in one’s body, Chinese, indian, Indonesian, you name it.
No more West and no more East Europe, but just Europe. I’m saying this before Eastern Europe becomes richer than the Western part, which was already very visible before this world economic crisis hit.
Sorry for the messy writing.
Comment by Jonas — June 19, 2010 @ 11:41 pm
Norwegians don’t really like swedes. We don’t really care how we do in cometitions (like skiing, olympics etc.) aslong as we do it better than them 😉
Finland and Iceland isn’t really a part of Scandinavia.
I, personally like Iceland, because they are former Norwegians (moved over there during the viking era), and I see the germans as hard working, disciplined people who can get anything done, due to their view of order, discipline and respect.
East Europe is seen as really poor, sad place with alot of air pollutiong. (watch Eurotrip, when they get to Slovakia;)).
Comment by Norwegian guy — June 20, 2010 @ 2:47 pm
Here some bits on what Russians (of capital area) think of Europeans
Dislike:
Many dislikes are due to the fact that we know that some nation dislikes us. Hard to say who started disliking first. The WWII has a large role here.
* Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians (in fact, nobody bothers to separate Latvians from Lithuanians). Anyway, all three are modern Nazis. It is because they not allow their Russian-speaking citizens (25% or more of population in Lat and Est) to use their mother tongue language, also they support those veterans who during the WWII were in the pro-Hitler and Waffen-SS troops. Additionally, Estonians have a special role. They are considered to be extremely slow-witted. They are very popular objects in jokes, anekdotes, etc. because of that.
* Ukranians (specifically, Western Ukranians). Greedy and miser. Eat salo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salo_(food) all the time. Also, they took away our Crimea peninsila and are not going to return it back, bastards! And, nowadays they continue to misbehave by stealing our gas and oil 🙂
* Romanians. Sneaky and treacherous. Don’t really know why there is such perception. The participation of Romania in the WWII on the side of Hitler Germany has definetely something with it.
Complicated:
* Finns. Very honest, calm, quiet, rational people. Don’t speak much and a bit slow but in a good way, just don’t want to be in a hurry. Behave badly after consumption of small amounts of alcohol. And we know Finns dislike us. Also, for people of Saint-Petersburg Finns are likely to be the most disgusting creatures on the world (this is due to the so-called alco-trips to St.Petersburg Finns did a lot in 1990’s)
* Germans. Very organized, accurate and punctual, extremely law-abiding. Great engineers. And you can only dream of their cars and beer … Well, I think, nowadays we generally have a rather good perception of Germans. However, because of WWII, evil and dark people are still likely to be Germans; also, their are often referred to as nazis or fascists.
* Poles. Can’t really say much. We know they dislike us. (maybe it is not common but still) Polish women are gorgeous, have the beauty and charm rank 2, right after French women.
Like:
* Bulgarians
* Belarussians
* Serbs
Not enough data:
* Czechs. I would say we have positive perception of them. Somewhat funny (because of Hašek’s Good Soldier Švejk book which is well-known in Russia?) though.
* French. Best lovers. Men are very galant, women are very classy and charming.
* Italian. Speak and gesticulate too much. All guys are like Adriano Celentano 🙂
* British. Very snobby. The best sense of humor ever. Russians often use the phrase “to take French leave” but we say (if translated) “to take _English_ leave” 🙂
Comment by MoscowRussian — June 21, 2010 @ 12:34 am
Finns make joke about swedes and norwegians make joke about us. Swedes kinda like us but think we are drunks. Norwegians and Danes don’t think we are part of Scadinavia.Well the western side is close as the east side is more Baltic. Genetially most west and southern finns are related to dutch! (prob.due to mass immigration of dutch workers to sweden-Finland from 1600s onwards, dutch intermarried with finns far more than swedes).
Dutch all are daredevils who smoke pot, danes are odd and norwegians are “rich bastards”. When are you yanks gonna blow them up for their oil btw?
We tend to copy from germans their culture (Agricola, Nationalist ideas from late 1800s, cuisine (consists of wurst and potatos) and Lutheral church) We make gentle jokes about burning lapland but secretly we are proud of our “former warbuddies against the reds”. We see them as our “big brothers” sort of? Olds aying accord to my dad “All the things the germans invent!”
We tend to be strict followers of EU-rules to get recognision from other countries (Notice us! Pwease) And we constantly are curious and fret “what others think of us”.
Most of us flock to Spain and are greatful if someone mistakes a drunk finn as “english”. English television is well loved here and we get as lobster-red in the sun as well (mostly).
Comment by Johanna — June 23, 2010 @ 10:50 pm
I write here what me (Italian) think about other Europe countries. Generally we like every country in Europe but:
– Scandinavia: generally for us it is all the same, I really don’t see differences between all nordic countries.. We think of them as beautiful, tall people blond and blu-eyed. But we think also they are a bit weirdos (gay?), perhaps simple people who like to live in woods and have best of architectures such as Ikea, without style and art.
– Germans: very precise and cold people such as robot. We have many jokes about Germans, we sometimes laugh of them, for example about their look in clothing.. We are totally different from them but we respect very much them and we usually love Germany. (there was also a part of history where Italy and Germany was same Holy Roman Empire)
– Austria: for us it is the same of Germans but we don’t like too much them for past wars
– Spanish\Portoguese\French: we see them as our latin
cousins\brothers and we like them very much. Perhaps a bit less the French, but only because they think they are superior to us and look down to Italians. (but it is a love\hate relation, we loves very much France and respect them so much for cultures and style, and feel them very close and similar to us)
– Greek: we like them much (especially for our glorious common past) but here in north Italy I don’t know if they are really seen as brothers, because they are more far and more exotic people than latin countries above, but perhaps only because I know very little of Greek people and dont know any greek personally.
– Romania: something we are related a bit but an exotic place, weird, with vampires and lovely women but with gypsies and criminals who comes in Italy to steal in our homes
– British: a bit arrogant nordic people who watch down to us and are european only when they want and are outside europe for all other things (such pay debt for Greece..), but want anyway to lead and command.. but also we respect them.
– Belgique: I don’t know, a mix of france and holland
– Holland: tall nordic people, very liberal, who goes always in bicycle, have a lot of flowers (to smoke also..) and have capital with bitches in shops
– Russia and East Europe: wonderful women but poor people, a bit mysterious and scary.
– Croazia: especially Istria and Dalmazia was a land half italian and half slav for many centuries, so we feel a bit close to them (the landscape of villages are very close to ours) but sometimes there is a bit of bitterness between nationalists people in both countries.
– Serbia and Jugoslavia: we like our neighbours in Adriatic sea, but they are sometimes seen as strange people, poor and warlike
– Albania: close to south italy but we see them as dangerous, poor and with much criminals
Comment by Aristide — June 30, 2010 @ 8:19 am
Who cares? Everyone wants to be American. Everyone also knows Mexican food is the best food in the world.
Comment by Nikki — July 6, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
We spanish don’t need to hate anyone outside our borders because we hate each other so much like if we’ve fought 100 wars between us hehehe, as we call it The Iberian Show.
Don’t even try to understand how a single spanish is without knowing what his real nationality is (basque, castillian, catalan, andaluz, galician, asturian, leonese, canarian …)
And regards the portuguese people, they don’t hate us or atleast not as much as we hate the frenchs, some even like the idea of a united Iberia while spanish people tend to be indifferent towards Portugal (except galicians)
Comment by Juanito — August 3, 2010 @ 2:41 pm
SUMMER IN PORTUGAL = FLOOD OF SPANISH PEOPLE (especialy in the south – ALGARVE)
yeah. keep saying you dont care about us. these days i have been listening to more spanish than portuguese in Portugal. LOL
Comment by golden — August 12, 2010 @ 5:15 am
swedes and norwegians love eachother – in general
There is no hate there. We get along very well and talk about how much we want the muslims out of our territory. atleast we youngster boys
We love the rivalism, and a typical norwegian sport attitude is “It’s okey to loose aslong as we beat the swe”
danes are abit different. I dont think many norwegian youngsters think of the danes as much as brothers as the swedes – but norwegian adults with slight more perspective love Denmark.
Comment by norwegian — August 17, 2010 @ 7:08 am
about portuguese i have to say that they don’t like spanish and for example when they go to Spain they try to speak Spanish but Spaniards when they go to Portugal they dont use a single portuguese word.
And Spanish people ignore Portugueses on TV, they can have a weather map of the whole Europe city except for Lisbon, they have places where they have lots of Europeans flag but no portuguese, in new year this year they shown in Madrid lots of european monuments but not a single portuguese
Also Spanish stole Portuguese the city of Olivença and they dont give it to us and both goverments ignore it
Brazilians think portugueses are dumb and Portugueses will have to change lots of their words to brazilian ones like \acto\ becomes \ato\
Comment by Numa — August 18, 2010 @ 12:39 pm
you didn’t talked about Portuguese because by not doing it you already stereotyped us as a insignificant country. (everybody does it)
Nobody knows about us, our language and about our history. Spain takes all credit about the discoveries and everybody thinks Portuguese is a country that separated from Spain or a Spanish province and thats not true, we were independent long before spain was formed, the known spain is the joining of other kingdoms like Aragon and Castilla, and we took the initiative to kick out the moors that invaded Iberian province making Spanish job easier
Some well known sayings
“Where the hell is Portugal?”, “Is Portuguese a language?”, “Portuguese speak Spanish”, “Brazilians speaks Brazilian”, “Portugal == soccer” , “What Portuguese did in World History? i Dont Remember!”, “We are going to a concert in Lisbon, Spain”
Comment by Sathold — August 18, 2010 @ 12:55 pm
HETALIA!
Comment by Arthur Kirkland — August 20, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
I’m Dutch and i like Germans most of the time – i love their weird habitats and we have a love-hate relationship whit them. We don’t think Belgians are stupid and dumm, we just love to make jokes about them! And i really hate French people.. They don’t speak English and are arrogant. So lame. But meh.. you are pretty right about the rest! Had a good laugh though. Good job!
Comment by Danielle — August 23, 2010 @ 3:03 pm
Hey
I’m Danish and I just want to say that it’s not the people of Denmark that are racist, but our government!…I know we elected the government, but many Danes now regrets that!…At the next election we will elect another government and then become a REAL socialist country:-)…I’m not very proud of our current way of doing things and many studies show that many Danes feel the same way!…
We don’t hate Germans!…We’re making money on them!…They spend their holidays here and pretty much keep our business going:-)…And we go to Germany to buy cheap beer and candy!:-)…So, no general hate there!…It’s kind of an outdated assumption.
Comment by MSS — September 28, 2010 @ 6:31 am
I’m American and here’s what we think of Europeans- you all need to buy deodorant.
Comment by Kyle — September 30, 2010 @ 4:32 am
Kyle:I am European an i think you all Americans need to buy brains…most of people in the world do,though.
I have more than enough deodorants,thank you very much.
Comment by M — October 16, 2010 @ 6:12 am
I´m sorry to remind you, that the Greeks are Europeans. Being European doesn´t make you superior nor inferior, as you all seem to believe. It´s question of culture, history, geography. Like it or not, Europe does not only mean lovely aryans with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Greece of course is a part of the Balkans. Greece has been isolated from the rest of the Balkan states during many years due to diferent political systems. Furthermore, the greek culture is really diferent to that of the Slaves.
Comment by valenciana — October 20, 2010 @ 4:38 pm
Hi, I’m Spanish (Galician, specifically) and I can say that Spain did not really dislike any European except the Catalans at times.
There are prejudices against the Catalans as there is a separatist minority and speaks of them worse than the Basques, although ETA.
The stereotype Catalan is stingy and punditry. Likewise, many Catalans consider the Castilians arrogant, rude and somewhat uneducated.
The media makes matters worse by continually reflect contempt in both directions.
For a Galician, people of central Spain is more direct, determined and proud. We are more quiet and diplomatic, we are similar to Portuguese. For Madrid we are villagers.
Andalusia is the country’s image outside of Spain. They are the most cheerful, loud and expressive of Spain. Andalusia is the Spain of sun, bullfighting, flamenco, siesta and relax at work. They’re the most religious. (Note: outside Andalusia flamenco is only for tourists and no worker sleeps two hours in the afternoon).
Now I start with other countries:
French: moody, proud, and seems they don’t like everyone else, especially the Spanish (from the Spanish point of view). They can be boring and not very expressive and when they speak seems to hardly open their mouths.
The French outside of France are more friendly. They are elegant.
English: politically correct but with an air of superiority. They keep talking about his empire. They do not reflect the emotions except when they are drunk. It is difficult to ascertain their feelings.
Their attitude is polite but distant.
We always talk about England but not in the UK. We don’t know how are the Welsh.
Scottish and Irish: they are similar. They have a reputation for drinking and being friendly and kind. They are warmer than the English and we consider them more like us.
Germany: we popularly call them square heads. We think they are very hardworking and practical-minded. They are unable to break the rules. They just work, eat and sleep. They change when they are in Spain.
We still believe that they’re something racist. We think that the Swiss and Austrians are somewhat like Germans.
Italian: very similar to Spanish, even physically. They are very concerned about their appearance and dress well. In general the girls love them. They have a reputation of not being sincere. They are more sexist than us but more attentive to women.
Portuguese: We were like them 15 or 20 years ago. They are very polite, melancholy and somewhat resentful of Spain.
The media never talk about Portugal. We always forget that they exist, when we speak about tha border we think in France border.
Although this is not entirely true, Galician pay attention to Portuguese (Portuguese less than us, they do not distinguish us from the rest of the Spanish). If Portuguese and Spanish are brothers, Portuguese and Galician are twins.
Greeks: if they are not Europeans, no one is European. They are noisy and impulsive. They’re like the Spanish.
Netherlands: a place where there aren’t prohibitions. The Dutch tend to be kind.
Sweden: no one in Spain speaks ill of Swedes. They are silent. The woman Swedes are tall, blonde and beautiful. We love the woman Swedes. (In general, we do not know what the rest of the people of the north).
Comment by Sala Vetera — October 28, 2010 @ 7:48 am
“Very few know that countries like Slovenia, Czech or Estonia have much higher standards of living than Greece, Portugal or even Ireland.”
Yeah that’s because they don’t have higher standards of living in any sense. The so-called PIIGS are more advanced countries than Slovenia or the Czech Republic or Estonia. In ANY sense. Whether we’re talking about HDI, or GDP per capita or whatever. Get a clue.
Comment by Jeeez — November 14, 2010 @ 5:55 am
You are so right!
I am Colombian, lived in Spain and yes, once they heard my Latin Accent they behave way weird and racist. Now I live in Germany.
Comment by Susy — November 21, 2010 @ 1:10 pm
I´m spaniard, i feel so bad for this attitudes between spaniards and portuguese people. We shoul be more united than ever. As spaniard, i don´t like that complacency wich Europe see us. Like us because we are associated with beaches, fun, friendly etc. I do´t like that because i think that isn´t the soul of spain, at all. Spain is the second country with the largest world heritage declared by UNESCO (behind Italy) and the world know us for the sangría, but i guess most of the world are dissapointed with it international image. As for the image that I have (i don´t want talk in the name of all spaniards) about my “hated and loved” european comreads would be:
Portuguese people: more introverted than us (apparently, because i don´t think that spaniards are extroverts in the background, just to go to the party), melancholy (i love the word “saudade”: no othe language has a word to express a word to express a mod between melancholy, longin and joy), polite people, but I like our rough frankness more than their hypocritical education.
French people: Stun me, have a mysterious halo, bothers me not knowing if I am treated with disdain or marke distances. The men who i knew are very affectionate, even helped me in bad situations (girls too, but i suposse i noticed more in males) have a facade of coolness but when they burst can are visceral and passionate. Great speakers. sometimes, i do not know how to treat them but i like french people.
English: I think interacting with them is much better than with other european nationalities. I like their originality and individuality, I love their affectionate expressions (like when they call you honey and things like that) and their extravagance even their neuroticism, but I hate the use of double meaning and the use of covert conflict who like to use.
Italians: They are simillar to spaniards in their sense of family and “good living”, i really think that they are more expressive, and extrovert, Spain feels great brotherhood with them and i think them with us too.
Greeks: proud, fierce, incredible culture, i think that in their character, they are the most simillar to spaniards, and sorry for u assholes, but are parents of western civilization, from the canon of beauty, to architecture, governance…all thanks to them, or thanks to granpas, but i´m sure they retain the soul of ancient Greece.
Germans: Very differents than spaniards, but loved here. We don´t understand their mentality, I like more the idea of individual german than in society, say they have a hard shell, but deep feelings and very sensitive, are too direct, sometimes seem to feel superior and it is difficult to deepen but when u gettin, have a great sense of loyalty.
Comment by claudia — November 22, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
Hi, I’m from Norway and I must say this article was very funny to read. But it also makes me sad!
These are all prejudices and stigmas. For example, we love to call the Germans uptight and the Italians great lovers. However there are of course uptight Italians and great german lovers. These existing prejudices are just comic images we have of each other, not reality.
I strongly believe you can find all sorts of people, both with positiv or negative traits, in whatever country you visit.
With a scandinavian view, I’d say what really makes a difference in Europe is the degree of communcation you find on an open street. Mostly due to the the cold climate in northern Europe, people will be found walking fast from A to B, not really paying that much attention to each other. Whearas the further south you get, and the warmer the climate gets, the more people will sit outside, taking time to greet either friends or even strangers.
This is my opinion. What do you think?
Comment by NorwegianBlondie — November 29, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
I think these sterotypes are a a thing from the past. Europe has changed a lot in the last 20 years!
Comment by I love european culture — December 1, 2010 @ 9:42 am
I am an Indian… never been to europe..
But i do know a great deal about these civilizations..
Firstly.. great job!… laughes my a** off!..
Nex-tly i am a huge fan of the germans .. like most indians are.. for their industriousness and of course we know german efficiency.. kinda cliche!..
But i love the fact that how germany shaped many of these inter european interactions or conflicts.. and how the other cultures responded to the same…
but the biggest thing is.. how europeans take all this lightly and still continue cooperating striving to become the greatest nations on earth!..
Just an afternote: British food really sucks!.. big time!
Cheers!
Comment by IceKing — January 2, 2011 @ 11:17 am
The french are considered arrogant because they refuse to speak english 🙂
and italians are loud corrupt bastards.
Comment by Andreas — January 14, 2011 @ 5:54 pm
I’m italian and here are my opinions:
Hungarians – very educated (even the humblest bus driver in Budapest can talk to you about politics and culture of every country in the world) but poor people. Very hardworking and humble. They think that they can learn every language in the world because magyar is considered by many the most difficult language in Europe (although it is not an european language at all). They also like to remember their great footballers of the past, like Puskas and hate romanians, austrians, russians and every nation that invaded Hungary in the past. Hard drinkers
Portugal – Ive been there many times due to profesional and personal reasons (my fiancee is galician with portuguese family). Less friendly people than their spanish neighbours, Introverted, reserved and shy. Yes, they have a strong complex of inferiority towards Spain and other Western European countries (although they seem to like us italians). NEVER say to a portuguese that Spain is superior in any sense to Portugal NEVER. Ambivalent atitude toward their former colonies: they dislike Africans (feel superior to them) and love brazilians (except the immigrants) and brazilian culture (soap operas, movies, music, etc), although they strongly resent the way that brazilians portray them in the brazilian media like the sopa operas (as stupid and uneducated peasants due to the portuguese immigrants in brazil being from rural and poor areas) and that brazilians just don’t give a damn about them and don’t feel any conection with Portugal at all (i’ve been there many times too due to familiar reasons), which make portuguese quite preoccupied with their opinion about Portugal. They also think that they are good language learners, same as the hungarians.
Comment by Giacomo — January 26, 2011 @ 11:54 am
Andreas
“and italians are loud corrupt bastards.”
have you ever been in Italy or meet italian people or do you repeat what you heard somewhere?
Comment by Giacomo — January 26, 2011 @ 11:59 am
When a western european sees a Bulgarian they say:
“Damn, there goes another immigrant from that Slavic shithole”
when he sees a Romanian he says:
“Damn, another gypsy from Dracula land”
when he sees a Hungarian:
“Damn jew”
Comment by Teodor — January 31, 2011 @ 12:05 pm
Good, I’m Romanian. I’ve got to say smth … we are afraid of you all …. only do we manage to agree. What can I tell you about Italy…. honestly, I’m afraid to go there, ‘cause I don’t want to die there (a woman was killed in Rome because she was romanian), all of you think we are gypsies , everybody see us like idiots . ….we try a better life, but we can’t be accepted . and yet so primitive as we are, we went through a lot. We don’t live very well here…but we are used to this. And we know that you hate us….but we can’t choice…
Sorry….i don’t speak very well English…
Comment by Iulia — February 3, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
First, a declaration – from the south of England thus according to the above posts hated by just about everybody.
Second, as far as the comments between posters from established european countries are concerned this is all good fun and anybody who has travelled through Europe will know that the above stereotypes will not help at all in understanding the cultures or the people.
Finally, the comments about the Roma/Gypsies are sickening and poisonous and if anybody can be bothered to prevent another holocaust they should do a little research about attitudes held in pre-WW2 Europe. I’m afraid that’s where my apparent one redeeming feature, my sense of humour, fails me.
Comment by Tommy — February 19, 2011 @ 8:02 am
LOL, good article, at least if you take it in a more or less humouristuc context.
Being myself an Spaniard and traveling twice per month to deep France for professional reasons, I think Spain is a hugely popular country in France, as is Italy (even if, in both cases, stereotypes are common).
Comment by FU1800 — March 6, 2011 @ 9:30 am
There are ignorant people here, VERY ignorant.
First, the author of the post, who doesn’t talk about the Portuguese.
Second, the loser who said the Portuguese have an inferiority complex agaist Brazil? Are you freaking joking? I’m going to laugh all day long because of such an ignorant and ridiculous statement!
Comment by Raquel — March 17, 2011 @ 12:05 pm
Giacomo: we CAN’T STAND Brazilians!
You don’t know a thing about the Portuguese.
Comment by Raquel — March 17, 2011 @ 12:07 pm
I’m a Finn and i loved this hahaha 😀
It’s true that our relationship with russians isn’t so good. 🙁
And we make lots of fun about swedes but they are like brothers to us, messing up with sweden, messing up with us! 😀
Comment by Rebeccablack — April 4, 2011 @ 12:01 pm