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.

Comments (1,018)

1,018 Comments »

to JM

actually European do choose a Muslim, non-ethnic European, Moroccan (or is it Turkish) to their government. Check the current mayor of Rotterdam. Dutch people are less prejudice than any other nation in Euro.

Comment by Rizky — April 9, 2011 @ 9:58 pm
hey hey hey

firstly, excuse my English.

secondly, I’m from Jakarta, Indonesia, you know, once called Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, now a crappy congested city. studying in Holland/Poland for a total of 4 years. people from Jakarta (Batavians) are a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, Javanese, and Chinese, and also the Mardijkers (black slave). We have stereotypes about European too.

Dutch: generally they are nice, humble people, with inferiority complex (because their country is kinda boring, with polder and cows hanging around). the youngster forgots about Indonesia, and tend to act as if they know everything. The old one (and the history-aware one) thought Indonesia as their glorious nostalgic past. I also think that the Dutch stereotyped the Moroccan as lazy and a charmer, potentially corrupt one. a Dutch-Indonesian mix is called an Indo, and most of them are singer in Holland, of artistic mind. In Indonesia, we have this long pillow called guling in Indonesian and ‘Dutchwife’ in English, because they are round and lay fixed on the bed. In Indonesia, gays talk with Dutch slang, like saying “I” as “Ik” (pronounced as “Eijke”)

German: we still think them as ultra-racists. They resent helping foreigners if they speak non-Deutsch, even if they are tourists in emergency. If they do speak English, they will say “you are in my country, why don’t you speak German?”. They also walk very fast (tall body), probably because we Indonesians walk extremely slow.

Belgian: I don’t know, but I think most Belgian friend I have has this dark brown curly wavy hair. They are very friendly to international people, and are often ambassador for new international students to the university.

French: We though French men are very mellow, soft, almost gay, not your typical macho Moroccan. A french leader in an organization is not a good combination. They drive their car like crazy.

Spanish: very helping and nice people. They walk in group and celebrates with their own Spanish-speaking group, mostly with the other Spanish-speaking fellow from Latin America, so our stereotype kinda mixed with this Latin American people. It is not hard to join their celebration, because they will usually invite all international people to their small gathering (unlike the Dutch or German, who don’t care if you exist)

Portuguese: they colonize Indonesia back in the 16th century, so when I talked with them, they will always talk about how in the past they colonize the glorious archipelago of Indonesia, and slowly their mind will start to wander, and then awkward silent, lol. They are nice people though, very helping, not as loud as the Spanish though, kinda introverted.

Italian: We can relate ourselves with Italian: corrupted and not well-organized. If there is an accident on the street, everybody will get involved with, blocking the street, stopping everything that supposed to pass the road, jamming bus line, tram, basically creating another havoc on the street. Like Indonesian, Italian like to mingle, talk, and just sitting beside the street, looking at passersby.

Swedish: I have one Swedish friend. He is very nice, polite, and also very America-oriented. There are so many Swedish tourist in New Zealand and Aussie (2 countries close to Indonesia)

Russian: Russian women have this full sexy lips, voluptuous face (what’s that??), and kinda sexual. They act like they know everything (talking with their Eastern European accent spy accent). The smart one usually love communism, the idiot one are capitalist with jewelries all over her body.

English: I like discussing stuffs with an English. They often say “yeah…” or “right… ” with that typical English tone. They are also very commercially-oriented, not different with the Chinese people.

Bulgarian: stayed here for 4 weeks, I think they are poverty-stricken, religious, very traditional and love their ethnic culture, and their food sucks! I had this soup and it is cold and just gross, and they give me this stone, but no, it’s a bread(!)

Polish: love America, doesn’t speak English at all. I think they drink vodka to make them body warmer, walk coatless in the middle of cold night. they are also kinda horny and perverted.

etc etc

don’t get emotional over stereotype, it’s just a stereotype 🙂

Comment by Rizky — April 9, 2011 @ 10:45 pm
[…] links about European stereotypes I shared on Skype earlier and are very relevant to this thread. Hetalia must have been based on this one. IT EVEN FORGOT PORTUGAL More entertaining, much more offensive. But probably also true. In other […]

Pingback by English Teataliaville (#7) - Page 24 - D.Gray-divinityNET — April 14, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
The brittish have truelly the worst food.

Comment by samuel welsh — April 15, 2011 @ 1:43 am
The Scots hate the English but get very angry and go ballistic when we hate them back.

Comment by Maltshouse — April 25, 2011 @ 3:29 am
I am from Glasgow and am Scottish and can tell you right now only half of us are friendly, I’d consider myself one of them, some of us are very kind and helpful to anyone but there are some horrible people, neddish men and classless women with too much make-up on will shout abuse at people (Particularly the Polish) and it’s true alot of people hate the English for petty reasons.

Here’s my views on countries:

French – Im quite indifferent to them, I went on holiday when I was young there so can’t remember much but apparently the locals were rude (and as my dad put it “pussies” lol) but I don’t remember much.

Spanish – Went on holiday to canaries and it was full of Spaniards and can honestly say I couldn’t have met more lovely (and sexy) mild mannered people.

Germans – There were also alot of Germans at the Canaries and they were very loud, rude and obnoxious, I dared to run past one of them and I got the devils off them for the rest of my stay, nice. And also I held a door open for an old woman and she just walked past like she was god’s gift.

Polish – Seem like ok people but god they’re idiots, some are bus drivers and they drive down the wrong roads and I miss my stop.

Slovakians – Most of the holiday staff were Slovakian and they were all pompous, arrogant pricks who tried perving up every girl in site.

Can’t say I know any other culture really but I want to know more about the Dutch, they are the soundest nation of the EU 🙂

Comment by Jack — May 9, 2011 @ 6:10 pm
I’m Romanian from Bucharest. First of all we hate ALL Russians for stealing parts of our country and imposing us the communist rule. The Ukrainians are just another type of Russians for us. About Hungarians: we don’t like our Hungarian minority (it is too mean and aggressive) but may admire the Hungarians from Hungary, we like Budapest more than Bucharest. The French: we used to love them but now we dislike them because of Sarkozy not allowing us to join Schengen area. Italians and Spaniards: we like them (we know they don’t like us and understand that) because they took our gypsies and cleaned Romania of them. Of course we hate the Gypsies. The Germans: we used to admire them but no more because they joined the French position on Schengen matter. The English: we have nothing against them but hate their tabloids always saying Gypsy beggars, squatters and thieves are Romanians. The Austrians: we hate their biggest bank and biggest oil company (they are big investors in Romania) for being too greedy.

Comment by Petre — May 12, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
Petre from Romania again. About Bulgarians: probably because the language barrier is too much (we are Latin and they are Slav) we don’t have many things to say about them. We consider them to be poorer than us (that might not be true!) and we are not too happy about the West always putting us in the same place (“Romania and Bulgaria did this, must do that”), probably we think we are better than them or something. We used to like Serbians for no good reason (I was treated far better in Croatia and Slovenia as a Romanian tourist). Oh, and I forgot Americans: yeah, we didn’t love them, we didn’t even like them, we think they are very ignorant and we think they sold Eastern Europe to the Russians after WW2 but now maybe we must change our view: after all, they welcomed us in NATO (we like Bush for that, not Clinton!!!) and now, Obama is building an antimissile shield, which will surely make the Russians think twice before attacking us again, as they did in WW2 (BEFORE we counter-attacked with German help!). So yeah, I think we are starting to really like the Americans, because now they are wiser than they used to be!

Comment by Petre — May 14, 2011 @ 7:52 am
This is really entertaining!
I’m Portuguese, this is what the Portuguese generally think of other Europeans:

The British: we all love the UK, especially England, but we don’t really think anything, good or bad, about the British.

The French: we like Paris, the first thing that comes to our mind when someone says “France” is Tower Eiffel.
We think their language is weird as hell but we like their croissants and their crepes.

The Germans: we think they sound angry, and some jerks still think that Germany is full of nazis. However, most of us like them or don’t really have no opinion about them nowadays.

The Spanish: we call them “nuestros hermanos”, which mean “our brothers” in Spanish. We make fun of them sometimes but that’s because we love them. 😀 We always vote for Spain in the Eurovision, too.
They’re also known to be loud.

The Italians: . We REALLY love their food, but many think they’re gay.

The Finns: we used to think of Finland as “Nokialand”, but now we think of it as “They-all-hate-us-land”, or “They’d-kill-us-all-if-they-could-land”. Wellll anyway it’s kind of justified.

The Russians: They drink lots of vodka, that’s all we know. We also associate them with communism. AND we think that their alphabet looks pretty cool.

The Romanians: Almost every gypsie that lives here is from Romania, so our stereotype is pretty obvious.

The Ukrainians: Most people think that the men are all poor and the women are all beautiful.

The Greeks: We never meet Greeks… ever. I guess they just don’t come to Portugal. So we don’t have an opinion.

The Dutch: Tall people…

And my personal view:

Everyone else is awesome and I was born in a small country that’s getting poor and that no one cares about. Hooray. 😀

Comment by Alice — May 17, 2011 @ 10:49 am
@Alice “The Romanians: Almost every gypsie that lives here is from Romania, so our stereotype is pretty obvious.” Alice, I give you four reasons/explanations why you should NOT think the Romanians are Gypsies and why you have so many Gypsies from Romania. 1) The Gypsies are nomadic, it’s NORMAL for them to migrate all over Western Europe, which is a magnet for them because it’s a rich land. Romanians are not nomadic and they stay at home, that is why you only see Romanian Gypsies and not many white Romanians (which are anyway harder to spot because they seem to be western). 2) The Gypsies couldn’t go to West Europe until a few years ago because the borders were closed because of communism. Their natural migration was stopped by the Iron Curtain. 3) Romania is a big country, so Romania had many Gypsies. Two million Gypsies make no more than 8 percent of Romania’s total population. And I think that over half of them are now living in Western Europe. 4) Watch sports on TV to see how Romanians look! Not football, it’s a sport for Gypsies in Romania just like basketball is for blacks in USA.

Comment by Petre — May 18, 2011 @ 5:43 pm
@Petre
Read the last part of my post! I never said I believed in any of those stereotypes – just what people think in Portugal. My great-great-grandmother was from Romania.

Comment by Alice — May 19, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
“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”

van Duitse bloed doesn’t mean from German blood. It means from ‘Dietse bloed’ and that is Old dutch so no reference to germany,
btw I really like German and dutch humor. I hate english humor stupid Mr.Bean slapstick..

Comment by lalila — June 13, 2011 @ 6:10 am
Allow me to add another point of view regarding Romania. First of all, anyone who is not in tune with history or geography, please make a clear distinction between Roman (Roman Empire/citizen of contemporary Rome) and Romanian (modern-day latin people residing in Romania/citizen of Romania/latin language spoken in Romania since antiquity).

As a Romanian, I must agree with the comments above stating that Romanians generally(!) admire the French and profoundly dislike the Russians and Hungarians. History plays an essential role in determining one regions’ sympathies for others, and for other countries and peoples.

As an inhabitant of Brasov, region of Transylvania (Sieben-burgen), I have observed some interesting attitudes within the country. Transylvanians (which declare themselves as 3/4 Romanian, 1/5 Hungarian, <1% German) are usually seen as softer, more polite and historically more industrious than Moldavians (East) and Wallachians (South), while people from these areas are known to be more rude, short-tempered and uncivilized, but more passionate. There is also a general enmity between the South, East and most of Romanian Transylvanians on one side, and Hungarians on the other. The latter claim that Transylvania is part of Greater Hungary, while the Romanians reject the ethnic Hungarians' claims and accuse their refusal to speak Romanian. The ethnics are seen as cold and distant towards Romanians, while these are said to be over-nationalistic and disrespectful towards said ethnics.

The environment of people is quite important. While in the countryside (characterized above as 19th-century like; I think that for villages not very, but rather near to cities, that is about right, while for more remote areas, it would be a mild description), people, living in small communities, having low incomes and much work to do, care less about these issues and cohabit relatively preacefully, while in the city, there is more room for debate over various demographical and historical arguments.

As someone passionate about the architectural heritage of my region, let me simply point out that, although Romanians currently are and historically have always been in majority in Transylvania, the largest part of what anyone describes as being beautiful in Romania, was built in Siebenburgen by the Saxons and Hungarians. The unification with Romania of 1918 has brought, along numerous positive aspects, many cultural losses. We must always consider, understand and respect the past, when analyzing the present. Only then will we be able to make good decisions. (Speaking of level of living) This, I suppose, applies to all of Europe.

Thank You.

P.S. @tats, (regarding Theo's March 28, 2009 comment quote "[…] Romania: near Transylvania […]" end quote) posted April 16, 2009, quote "I am American. […] Transilvania is a town in Romania not next to. Making it seem like Americans are that ignorant is harsh." : … why ?

Comment by BogdyBBA — June 17, 2011 @ 4:47 pm
From a Welsh perspective:

Germans – ok actually. Similar culture. Get on well with them.

French – Parisians generally arrogant, but getting better (based on recent trip).

Spanish – hot tempered,

Czechs – cold and yellow (capitulated to the Germans), weak and rude. Some are polite though.

Ukranians – polite and serious

Poles – hard working but friendly and open.

Dutch – liberal, sociable

Swedes – opem minded, tolerent, polite but a bit distant

Scottish – warm people

English – mixed; some friendly and genuinely warm and kind people. Others can be more cold, two faced and calculating

Serbs – got on with them. Friendly warm people but can be stubborn and maybe possess a complex

Bosnians – warm but tough

Croatians – mixed

South Africans – easy to get on with, proud and macho culture. Love their rugby.

Comment by Ant — June 20, 2011 @ 4:16 pm
What a bunch of ignorants! The few who talked about Portugal know nothing about the country (saying we love Brazilians and we have inferiority complex! LMAO) and some (AKA comment above) even think South AFRICA is European, but forget other countries! Oh well….

Comment by Me — July 3, 2011 @ 10:42 am
I’m Brazilian. Interesting topic, i couldn’t stop reading it.

About Portugal, i don’t know why the portuguese consider themselves ”shy” or ”introverted” – they were a powerful naval potence in the past, and brought many aspects of it’s culture. The vast majority of brazilians have portuguese blood in it’s veins, beyond that of indians and/or afro-descendants. And many of our writers, erudites and important cultural personalities were from the land of the ”fado”, or studied there.

We share the same language (portuguese) with some few differences, various kinds of food, cultural influences and the like.

Why some portuguese people just hate/despise us? We are a cosmopolitan and flourishing country, almost a continent. We are far from being racists, our slogan is ”a country for all” (um país de todos).

What i don’t understand is why the Portuguese don’t like us as England likes the US?

If we brazilians have jokes about portugueses, it’s only because of the Tordesilhas Treaty ( the one that would give Portugal a 30 per cent portion of Brazil, and 70 for Spain).

Some data on European influence on Brazil:

The South-Eastern region is the most developed, with Rio de Janeiro and it’s beaches (and portuguese influence)/ São Paulo and it’s a huge industrialized region (HEAVILY influenced by italian and japanese immigrants… they have the best pizza and sushi on Earth outside Italy and Japan!)

The South region (where i live) is all cold weather and a wannabe mini-Europe. Immigrants from all over europe came to this region: Italians, Germans, Poles ( my cousin danced at Wisla, a pole folcloric dance group), Czechs, Spaniards, Russian, Ukraine, Dutch, Belgium, Greeks (i myself know lots of greek ancestry friends), some French and English immigrants, too.

The capital city of my state (where i study) is Curitiba, a futuristic city with european architecture and high-tech bus stations with the shape of glass tubes.It has most of european immigrants from the rest of state (mainly the ones i wrote above).

I was born in a city called Paranagua, with DIRECT influence of Portugal. It was the first city of my state, with a giant harbor named Dom Pedro II. (Yes, the portuguese emperor came here) It’s a beautiful,historical, magical city, with portuguese architecture and great portuguese solars and fountains. ( my family is not portuguese though, it’s from direct Catalan ancestry). Most of the immigrants that came here were portuguese, lebanese, greek, german and italian. It’s 80 km far from Curitiba (Curitiba is in the mountains, Paranagua in the coast)

Unfortunately, many of us of the south region took the same racial / ethnic prejudice of the europeans: there are many southern brazilians that want the region detached from the country, being an independent territory. There are neonazi and racist and conservative scum, just like Europe. A truly SHAME brought to this country. For european standards , i would pass easy as white – i’m pale, actually; but i hate racial prejudice. (Race doesn’t exist, except the Human race)

The North-East region is dry and desertic, the poorest region in the territory. Except for Recife and Olinda, two cities developed by the Dutch and the French(when they invaded ). It has beaches with waters as blue as Greece’s.

The North region is the stereotyped image of the country: heavy rain forests, the Amazon, swampy houses, dangerous rivers and the like.There was the influence of some english immigrants, but they were few.

The Center-West is full of plains and pasture.

Overall we receive well immigrants and tourists from every country, and we don’t hate anyone. We tend to love Italians ( parties, wine, dances, festivals, art, PIZZA / LASAGNA/ pasta in general) ; like the German (in south, mainly) : they’re honest and work hard (sausage, beer, chucrute, kukka, oktoberfest, chopp) the portuguese ( fado, bolinho de bacalhau, pastelzinho de belém, azeite de oliva, navegação, catholicism (ok, some of us. not myself), all of our architecture, bohemia, literary culture, belle epoque …the Dutch ( Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen developing the science and arts in Pernambuco) and many oyhers. Well, in abstract, we are cosmopolitans, that’s it 😉

As for me, personally… i LOVE Greece! Se agapw, ellas! Teleia, ourania, wraia! Land of the art, political science, architecture, beauty, sciences, the Byzantine Empire, orthodox church, the beautiful islands (Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos and lots of them), warm, kind and romantic people; the forefathers of our western civilization!

Na se kala, Ellas 😉

(and a fraternal and sincere hug to all europeans here, i wish the Old World overcome its differences and become a truly Union , rich of beautiful cultures and ethnicities developing each other, a cosmopolitan and friendly continent in the near future )

Comment by BrazilianSurfer — July 21, 2011 @ 9:02 pm
It’s safe to say that Brazilians adore Europeans. I have yet to meet a Brazilian who really cared about anything except European culture. This is probably related to the obsession with white skin in their culture. Sorry, but it’s true.

Comment by JM — July 22, 2011 @ 1:32 pm
JM, not that much. Remember, we live in a paradise. In the past, every trend or fashion came from Europe. But we are developing our own trends,fashion and culture, and exporting it to the rest of the world.

The Old Word no longer is our ”model”, the US neither.

There is a general feeling of pride in being a Brazilian, and that has nothing to do with ”white skin”.

Our supermodels, by the way, are the epitome of mixed origin 😉

as i said, we’re a cosmopolitan country, without racial prejudices.

Comment by BrazilianSurfer — July 23, 2011 @ 10:32 pm
“Without racial prejudices”? You mean unlike every other country on the planet?

Of course I’m joking. Brazil has TONS of racial problems. It would do your country some good if you were to recognize and confront them, instead of pretending they don’t exist. I think Brazil is a terrific country, with a wonderful culture, but maybe a little delusional when it comes to its internal conflicts around race.

Every Brazilian I’ve ever met – including you – seems to gravitate towards Europe as a cultural touchstone. Brazilians overwhelmingly travel to Europe and care what Europeans think of them. The Brazilian mind hasn’t yet become decolonized. And your supermodels are all very European looking (maybe some a bit more tan than others, but still overwhelmingly European-looking); despite most of your country having African blood, you have no Tyra Banks or Naomi Campbell. Have you ever wondered why that’s the case?

But I do agree Brazilians are very proud of being Brazilian. But they are really concerned with Europeans knowing and understanding this. See what I mean?

Comment by JM — July 25, 2011 @ 12:16 pm
JM, you have a point.

( unfortunately, yes, many of our models do come from the south region; for the same reason you told )

But about the ” I do agree Brazilians are very proud of being Brazilian. But they are really concerned with Europeans knowing and understanding this. ” , the pride is not because of exaggerated nationalism or/and ethnic prejudices.

We may have some cases of racial problems, but it isn’t the HUGE ( xenophobic) view that many european citizens showed in this topic.Hell, they discriminate even people from their own continent! We don’t discriminate Colombians, Venezuelans, Chileans, Bolivians or the others. We even call the Argentinians brothers, despite the (fool) historic rivalry on soccer.

But speaking of Europe, I saw a research that showed 1/3 of europeans wanted non-europeans out of their country (mostly muslims, gypsies, jews, and other ”scapegoats”). They let the ”identity crisis” or old resentments take their minds and blame all the [ethnic ] minorities for unemployment, financial crisis, crime levels and the like. Worse, some radical-right parties even use that feeling as parasites uses its hosts.

(I’m not talking about ALL europeans… but about a big part of them).

Think for a moment, what would be if you was a muslim with gypsy origin and black skin , living in an european country?

I admire Europe, but i really despise the open xenophobia that many european citizens have. For a ”civilized” , ”metropolitan” continent, it haven’t evolved much in the last centuries, in this issue at least.I wouldn’t exchange Brazil for Europe because of that.

But i (as any Brazilian) would receive well any european. Why don’t Europe do the same with non-european peoples? Isn’t it fair, to ask for the same respect / friendly treatment?

I invite the participants of this forum ( Portuguese included) to show their opinion, or ”stereotype” about Brazil , for a matter of curiosity (and NOT inferiority complex or something like that).

Comment by BrazilianSurfer — July 25, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
A czech point of view

The Germans
There is still some dislike for WW2 although Czechs do both respect and mock German tendency to have things in order. Czechs also dislike the notion they surrendered in 1938 without a fight because they feel it was either surrender or a crushing defeat. There is some envy towards the Germans in terms of the better living conditions.

The Austrians
The Austrians are hated for their snobbism and about 400 years of control of Czechs. The fact that Hitler was Austrian and the eagerness with which Austrians jumped to bed with Germans also don’t help. It can be said Czechs observe the situation where nobody cares about Austrians anymore very gleefully. It’s also quite possible that strong support for nuclear energy is a czech way of spiting the Germans and the Austrians.

The Slovaks
The Slovaks are seen as younger brothers. But as brothers, they are also mocked for they nationalism and hotheadness. Czechs feel superior to Slovaks because of the state Slovaks were in when Czechoslovakia came to be.

The Hungarians
The Hungarians used to be hated but with the split of Czech Republic and Slovakia, the hate is probably only a relict of Good Soldier Švejk. Hungarians are mocked for their language.

The Poles
There isn’t really an interest in Poles in Czech Republic. While Poles seem to like us for the way we view life, Czechs view Poland as a country where you can find peasants and God, neither of which is very appealing to Czechs. Poles are thought of as religious fundamentalists and nationalists who fought everytime and got horribly slaughtered but are mostly harmless to Czechs.

The Russians
Russians are hated as a nation. An individual who moved here is usually welcomed as someone who got some sense and moved out of Russia. The hate stems from the 40 year long communistic reign, invasion in 1968 and coup of 1948. Overall Russia is viewed as a country with imperialistic tendencies that can never change and which will always treat its dictators as heroes.

Comment by Karel — August 11, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
I am japanese and I live in france for 2 years. I travelled a lot in europe. In my personal opinion, I like british and french, the culture and food.Besides the french peope are very warm-hearted, and serious as well, but it’s true some of them are lazy.
And then I respect Italy, it’s the most beautiful country I habe ever been to. I don’t like the swiss and the germans, too arrogant, very rude.The germans always treat others like they are from a third world country. What do the germans have? nice cars, technology. Come on the french technicien make airplanes. well one more thing, The germans decided to quit nuclear energy (claiming protect the environment) before 2020, after came back from japan (by the way they are the first to quit) but they still buy nuclear energy from their neighbours. To me they are very hypocritical…

Comment by Kiroro — August 14, 2011 @ 11:24 am
I am another Romanian and I would like to break the stereotypes about my country a little.
First of all, we should not use the word “hate” when we talk about our neighbor countries, we don’t hate anybody, we – as showed above – like to express ourselves in this way but at individual level, we do not care where anybody is from, as long as they are educated.
Secondly, Romania always loved the Americans (and not because Bush helped us get into NATO, that is one of the biggest nonsense I ever heard), just because after the revolution everything media was American and obviously we were very much influenced by them. Most of Romanians speak very good English.

Most of Romanians speak English and at least another foreign language – French & German are the most popular, as Austria is basically the biggest investor here.

About our neighbors, yes we have some animosity for the Russians but for the new generation it has absolutely no sense (I am 30 so I lived through the revolution), it slowly dissolves.

We like Americans and their culture and freedom, a lot of Romanian young entrepreneurs choose US to develop their businesses, as they find support and assistance there, so there is a general appreciation of the States and everything they represent (technological advancement, science etc).

Comment by Andreea — August 27, 2011 @ 11:27 am
An old Brit ( 60 yrs ). I stumbled onto this site which is a great read. My grandparents on my mums side were from the Irish republic, so seen those cultures from both sides, I live in London, and sorry to spoil people’s misconceptions but generally we get on just fine with the Irish. One post said that the English dislike the French, sorry, afraid this is generally true, but we always make exceptions for individuals. As for other world citizens we generally find them interesting from a distance because being an island we are culturally isolated from them with the exception of the english speaking countries, (which is quite a substantial proportion of the world). As for the Germans, we just find them a bit machine like, my dad was a WW2 (which we won by the way) veteran and was taken prisoner in France, but never disrespected them. What we Londoners find amusing about the countries that slate us is the massive amount of their citizens who find this terrible place hard to leave once, strange thing hate.

Comment by Alan — August 29, 2011 @ 8:45 am
As an english girl im fed up of stumbling across sites like these and seeing the amount of stereotyping and hostility.And you wonder why we prefer countries like the US ,Canada and Australlia……..Out of all the countries in Europe it always seems to be the UK who gets tons of abuse and I dont see why.You all seem to be looking at our problems insted of your own.We dont hate most of Europe we just dont like being part of it because we like to be independant and different its in our culture,we love being unique and like the fact you look at us like were strange and dont undertand our humour its all part of the joke.Plus you guys say we have weird humour when the Us ,Canada and other countries all understand it and we can have a laugh with them.We like to take the make jokes about other countries but its all part of the humour its something europeans have to learn to understand.We are definetely not arrogant or snobby have you seen the amount of british people putting their own county down?I have travelled a lot and I can say that Britsh people are definetely the best and most friendliest people i’ve met who else calls eachother pet,sweetheart,love when they dont even know eachother.The Scottish and Welsh dont hate us there in the same country as us.How dare people come on here and think they know everything about the UK when most of you know nothing you dont understand Britain and you never will.We have the same banter as the Scottish and Welsh its all fun and games,yes we might take the piss out if eachother but its all in the humour.Ive seen a number of people label us an ugly and unclassy which is completely untrue I can walk about in and town in the UK and see hundreds of gorgeous girls and handsome men not to mention all our actresses and models.Yes we do tend to let go a bit on holiday but hey its not only us.One minute you label british people as too uptight and then the next minute they are easy and unclassy.Make your mind up.Its only the minority of british people that are either of them stereotypes and believe me i’ve seen my fare share of that in every other nationality.Even of some of us are arrogant we have a right to be we live in one of the most beautiful and fairest countires on the planet.Just because you dont understand Britain and its culture doesnt mean you have the roght to label it and make fun out of it.Yes London may be full of ride people but thats what happend when your in massive busy cities and loads of people in London arent even british! I find it hilarious how some people can say we have no culture hmm… the best music in the world even in todays time just look at all of our indie and folk bands,we have great films James Bonds,Harry Potter,fashion,literature!,individualtiy ,humour …… .You wonder why we dont like most Europeans well just look at some of the comments we get on the interent it only seems to be Europe that offends us.We may be the U’s lapdog but they love it when they all come over here and get excoted over our accents and culture we get along with them and its the same for other non-european countries including China and Japan we respect them.And about that drinking sutff look on all the listd ofr the heaviest drinking countires and Britain is not on that list and ven if some of us are so what we like to have fun.Thats why we like being weird :).We could sit there and say just as much bad things about you guys but we decide to keep out mouth shut.Because were british we have some sense.Most of you dont give us all the respect that we desreve you may think that sounds arrogant but its true,we didnt have to join in world war two we went in becuase Poland was under attack,Many people thought we would lose but we kept the spirit and won for the sake of Europe.We’ve gave Europe inventions,scientific discoveries,culture, Tv,film and a good laugh :)If it wasnt for us whether you wanna belive it or not Europe wouldnt be as great as it is.No matter what you think we are actually very emotional and deap people read our poetry and books and see.You can say what you like about us but when you want to come over to the Uk for living and studying its all fine and dandy.The best thing is we could sit there and take the piss out of you but you’d never be able to tell because you dont understand our humour .We say bad things aobut your country when you say bad stuff about ours.All that rubbish about us not trying to learn languages is just an excuse necause you know damn right that its easier for yours to learn english not only for english people but fot the redt of the world you cant communicate with anyone outside of Europe if you dont speak english you think anhy americans or aisans are gonna speak german or french.Strangely enought the world doesnt revolve around Europe alone.

We have good and bad impressions of countires in Europe
Scandanavians-We tend to like them they make good music and there nice and good to have a laugh with.Also they dont have many bad things to say about us.Also there scenery and geography is amazing.
Spainairds-There nice,we dont think there lazy I think they know how to enjoy life,they have a beautiful country in terms of culture and scenery.They can be a little bit up themselves in a sense that they think there all so handomse and look down on us as typical british tourists.I’ve seen the same amount of unattractive spainairds as I have seen brits.
France-We dont hate them it all depends on the individual you’re talking to.Older people tend to be negative because of the fact there older and are more intact with history and the older ways.We love their culture, food,fashion although sometimes they seem a bit all show and so substance.They quit in world war two which is something we dont like there seen as a bit cowardly and un-cooperative and tend to run away and cry when times get hard.But that might just be our strong british fighting spirit.It is mainly a love hate realtionshipwhen you see British people coming out of Tesco with bottles of french wine and booking holidays to France you can probably see why.I think in general we get along with them in person and I think were getting better.Were also not that different with them,theres a bit of competition we have the best literature closely followed by France,Paris and London are both some of the most visitied cities in Europe,were both known for fashion ect but in different ways.ours is bold and theres in chic :).I have a sneaky suspicion that they dont hate us all that much aswell 🙂
There is a thing about them being rude and arrogant which sometimes is true a frined of mine went to Paris and said the people were horrible but I think otherwise.I dont listen to tales and stories.When you look at the amount of french people living and studying in England you can come to the conclusion that we dont hate eachother,however when theres a rugby or football match on we do.Its like you always have to rival and have competition with the ones closets to you and they are close to u geographicallyMy secondary school was full of french teachers(from France).Brits dont hate people because of history otherwise we’d hate Denmark and Iceland because of the Vikings and Italy because of the Romans.
Germany-They dont have a good reputation with us but we always make room for the indiviadual if your good to us were good to you simpe as that-its common sense.Obviously theres the whole world war teo thing but they only happen thorughout secondary school when kids are immature like that.One thing we do think about them is that they are cold, arrogant and unfriendly .They never smile and dont seem to make an effort to talk to you i’d prefer a drunken brit anyday.On their own there very nice but in a group there horrible.How can you call British people arrogant?have you seen Germans.There seen as ugly aswell .Germans are just as bad as us aboroad and yet we get all the blame.At least were nice drunk and sober.
Italy-Nice food and culture,arrogant players take adavntafge of women,like to think there the best looking people on the planet when there not,far from it.
Eastern Europe-Yes you are seen as immigrants but at least we let you into our country in some parts of the world it would be a whole different situation believe me.and Poland we went into world war two for you remeber that next time you slag us off.But in general as people you are seen as nice.Although we are a bit scared of Russia.Then again we dont have much contact with you guys so we cant say much and you cant say much about us.
However Americans we do not hate yes I think everyone admits they can be a bit annoying but all the stuff aobut them being fat is just secondary school talk like what the teengae boys to on Call of Duty.You seem to like us and we like it when then buzz over our accents and say nice things about our country which they do a lot of,we may be their lapdog but sometimes it seems like there theonly people who would ever stand up for us.

Comment by Anna — September 3, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
Yes I know Scandanavia isnt one counry but we dont see much difference in the countries xxx

Comment by Anna — September 3, 2011 @ 3:54 pm
And for all those poeple saying how badly trat they were inLondon well thats London its not the whole of England

Comment by Anna — September 3, 2011 @ 4:38 pm
Everyone likes the scandinavian ; )

Comment by Norwegian Girl — September 6, 2011 @ 6:13 am
I have found this thread very entertaining.

I am a southern English woman so I am hated by everyone according to this thread.

I have learnt French, Spanish and German to conversational levels but what puts me off going to the European mainland for extended periods of time is all the stereotyping I face from ignorant people.

It’s always about our food, our teeth or it’s something else. Btw, I LIKE our traditional dishes, we can cook, our teeth are fine and we do have dentists!

Yet, we have a staggering amount of people wanting to live, study and work in England from all over the world. For a nation that seems so disliked on the internet, it seems really bizarre!

It’s almost like people just want to ‘bash” the English just because they are English!

Yet, I hardly hear any reference to all the things that the English do well. Such as
– our music scene,
– our literature ie. Harry Potter,
– our shows such as Mr Bean, Dr Who etc
– universities such as Cambridge and Oxford
– overall policing skills,
– our stunning varied countryside
– etc

Entertaining though this thread is, I hate it when people believe in stereotypes and not recognising that people are people no matter where you go.

Btw, I am English and I LIKE the French – especially when they refuse to speak English as I can then practice my French – LOL!

Comment by Ana — September 6, 2011 @ 6:17 am
Personally I like the UK. Great music, beautiful country, unique culture and sense of humour. Been there many times.
I’m from Greece.

Comment by John — September 8, 2011 @ 1:05 pm
How dare you say Brits are lapdogs of the bloody Americans?!

Study more and bs less.

Greetings from Hong Kong.

Comment by Caxton — September 11, 2011 @ 12:37 pm
I’m Croatian, so I’m gonna write a few words about our opinion of other nations. Croatians generally hate everyone, but when you come to Croatia, you can see that people are very hospitable and very welcoming to everybody because of their Balkan mentality. (but they’re not hospitable as for example serbians and Bosnians). Croatians generally don’t like to be regarded as Balkan people because we like to think of ourselves like we’re western modern country. We tend to hate everyone.

Serbs- Balkan tribe, concidered as slaughters, fighting in wars but always losing, very self-loving, and proud of their heroic past (they were 500 years among Turks) but very funny, with great films and great sense of humour. Their music sucks because they listen to turbofolk music which is very annoying and very unlistenable in other parts of europe. Generally, they are very hospitable and kind people. After the war they are very hospitable towards Croats because they feel guily about what happened, but Croats are also kind to them. (I’m not speaking of right-wing haters, but normal people) Lot of time jokes are told about their desire for territories, and their heroism in wars. Generally there’s sexual tension between Croats and Serbs. Croats think of Serb women as one of the most beautiful. We like to make fun of their opinion about Russians, they like to think that Russia is their “mother”, and keep their interests, orthodox church is similar, they write cryllic letter like russians etc. – they have saying ” We and Russians 300 millions of us”

Slovenia – called Alpian Serbs because they like Serbs more than Croatians. Croatians don’t like them very much but have nothing against them. Croatians like to compare to them because we left Yugoslavia together. Slovenians like to think of themselves like they’re better than other parts of yugoslavia, and croatians like to joke with their size of the country. Slovenians are also mentioned as ass-kissers of austria and italy. Generally nice people, they love coming to our sea, and generally they don’t have problems with us, nor we with them.Jokes are told that only Serbians and Bosnians live there and that there’s no true slovene anymore.

Hugary – nothing with them, beautiful women, and lately they come to our sea, and have a lot of money.

Bosnia- They are very nice and hospitable, have good food, great sense of humor, generally considered as non working, funny, construction workers. Country that has a lot of problems, economical, and religious. Forces of UN are still there, and they have High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is main authorithy. Jokes are made of them, but they also make jokes of themselves, and are very funny, and have great alcohol – rakija, which makes them great for company. One part of Bosnia ( Hercegovina) is populated with lot of Croatians that came to capital of Croatia, Zagreb, and are known as religious, falmily – connected, nepotists, have strong connections, work as directors, smugglers, not very good opinion of them eventhough they’re croats.

Montenegro – Lazy non – working complaining people, generally we don’t like them becuase of their connections with Serbs, and attacking of Dubrovnik, but lately there are good connections between two nations.

Macedonia – nothing much, except they have a lot of problems with Greeks about name of the country, they have similar language as bulgarians. Generally we like them.

Italy – Cheap, rude and loud people, don’t speak any language but italian (which I learnt in school and know it), they are arrogant, and their guys seem to be like homosexuals, very fashion people, they always want to cheat you, disrescpetful to other cultures, think of themselves as of great nation. there are execptions that are very nice people and like to apologize of the majority. Croats think of them as of cowards, they’d like to have Istria and Dalmatia, and during the history they tried to conquer it, (WW2)

Germany – country that croats like to think of as of their mother, like to think that everything that is german, that functuons, like their order, people like their sense of organization, Croatian consider them as hard working people. Very, extremly polite people, educated, with manners, speak english, generally nice and calm people.

Austria – similar to Germany, but have a lot of interest in Croatian banks, telecommunications, etc. Croatians are considered like “wienna horsemans” because of their rule over Croatia for centuries.

French – cowards that don’t deserve to have that power.

Spaniards – we don’t know a lot about them, but we think of them as of singing nation, flamenco nation, beuatiful women.

Greeks – arrogant, balkan nation, very dark, have great history, people consider them as lazy, non working men, they used all EU money and did nothing, they have high salaries for little work, they spend all EU fonds and money, and expect EU to rescue them.

Romania – gypsy country, peasant country, country of securitate, and Causescu,

Bulgaria – same as Romania, we think of them as of Balkan country, a lot of gypsies, with pop folk music, generally black skin people , peasant country, but very nice and hospitable people, balkan style, not a lot of connections with them,

Russians – peasant country, they drink a lot, have no style, think of themselves like of great and though nation, country of great artists, writers, musicians,

Slovaks – nice country, nice people, similar languages,

Poles – chubby, funny, nice looking ladies, good hearted, big nation with sad history, lot of people, nice wodka,

Czechs – most beautiful women, ugliest and most unstylish men, have no money but like to travel a lot, they like to come to our seaside equiped with thteir food, water and gas because it’s cheaper in their country, they are countryside men, they look like fashion was delayed for 20 years, like to wear white socks and sandals, croatians like to make fun of them, and like to chase their women because of their beauty and easyness, croatians women think of their men as of peasent farm unstylish boys with ugly haircuts, very cheap, think of croatians as of bunch of stealers, a lot of them die on sea because they underestimate it, croatians make fun of them because they always have sunbursts because they want to show that they’ve been on vacation when they return to C. R. , don’t speak english, ….. etc. but generally they tend to be nice, waiters don’t like them because of their untiping,….

English – dominant, impeaialist country, ugly people with ugly theets, bad food, very arrogant,

Irish – people like them because of their history, and their opposition towards english, chatolics,…

Americans – bunch of retarded idiots, ignorant and fat nation in general, imperialists,

Daily Candor: Croatians = ass-kiss the Germans (still!) and hate everyone else (probably comes from loving Germans so much)

Comment by Goran i Gabrijela — September 14, 2011 @ 7:44 pm
I see much ‘bla bla’ around here, so let me say something about some countries:

FRENCH = Stinky snobs who don’t shave. Narcissists and megalomaniacs too.

GERMANS = Ich will beer. Many nazis. >:) Great sado-maso porn, too. Don’t mention the mustache guy.

SPANISH = Torro! Stick some swords in a bull! Say Mexico and you’re burned.

ENGLISH = Other snobs who were punks in the past. Merlin and wizardry source.

ITALIANS = Pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta, tomato sauce, some perverted gays around there.

IRISH = Poor, but happy, cause they’re drunk all the time. The cats scare me.

SCOTS = Scary medieval views. Many ghosts.

ROMANIANS = Very, very, very stupid and the ugly, barely human. Real embarrassment to real Europeans. (This is no stereotype but the actually truth)

NORDICS = If you go there you risk meeting Santa Claus and Vikings.

NETHERLANDS = You’ll get laid for sure. Lots of sex clubs. The source of waffles.

RUSSIANS = Weird and cold. Don’t wander too far, in Siberia.

AUSTRIA = Holy mother of Mozart. The statues are too freaky.

SWITZERLAND = You’ll get milky chocolate in the snowy mountains from the happy cows.

HUNGARY = Yucky people who think everything belongs to them. A goth girl stared nastily at me there.

BULGARIANS = Poor. They give nasty glares to the Romanians and Russians who go there and eat like pigs in the summer holidays.

GREEKS = Stinky, lazy lot that protests all the time.
Sparta is not real anymore, it’s a trick.

I’ll add TURKS= Barbaric, brownish people. Kinda like Arabs.

Howdy hoo, Mr. Hanky is out!

Comment by Perverted and offensive — September 22, 2011 @ 9:19 am
11. TO THE IGNORANT DUCH WHO WROTE ITEM 11.

First of all I am going to use my language because I love it… it is your problem little Dutch if you don´t urdestand… Just let you know that I am married to a Dutch man, have two children ..so I know very well what I am talking about, I have been living in Hollang for some years… luckily …may husband is not as ignorant as you …. and decided to live in Spain (North of Spain)–

Siesta: nap
Nadie en España puede hacer siesta si tiene que ir a trabajar, no tienes ni idea
Seguramente lo que conoces de España es algún Hotel barato al que has ido de vacaciones, hoteles pensados para vosotros, con mala comida pensada para vosotros, con sangría pensada para vosotros, lugares pensados para vosotros, es decir concederos lo peor, lugares malos para vivir por su excesivo calor en verano … pensados para vosotros que os gusta achicharros al sol. Y luego volvéis a casa y pensáis que sabéis algo de España.
Obviamente no tienes ningún interés por ningún país que no sea el tuyo, bastante pequeño por cierto y muy cerrado de mente pese a lo que se crea fuera.

Sois tan ignorantes que cuando a mí en tú pais se me pregunta de dónde soy y contesto : From Spain … directamente oigo Oleeeee,,, y sunshine !!
Hace falta ser ignorante. En el Norte de España llueve como promedio unos 134 días al año. La temperatura en invierno en España oscila tiene una media de 6 grados durante el día, por la noche bajo cero.
En España nieva mucho en invierno
En España se esquía, tenemos muchas estaciones de esquí.

España tiene 505.988 m2
01 Castilla y León 94.223 18,6%
02 Andalucía 87.268 17,2%
03 Castilla-La Mancha 79.463 15,7%
04 Aragón 47.719 9,4%
05 Extremadura 41.634 8,2%
06 Cataluña 32.114 6,3%
07 Galicia 29.574 5,8%
08 Comunidad Valenciana 23.255 4,6%
09 Región de Murcia 11.313 2,2%
10 Principado de Asturias 10.604 2,1%
11 Navarra 10.391 2,1%
12 Comunidad de Madrid 8.028 1,6%
13 Canarias 7.447 1,5%
14 País Vasco 7.234 1,4%
15 Cantabria 5.321 1,0%
16 La Rioja 5.045 1,0%
17 Islas Baleares 4.992 1,0%
– Ceuta (Ciudad autónoma) 18 0,0%
– Melilla (Ciudad autónoma) 12 0,0%
– Territorios españoles en el N de África 30 0,0%
TOTAL 505.988 100%

Unicamente en Andalucía hace calor insoportable, únicamente en Andalucía el folckore es flamento!

A ver si dejas de ser tan ignorante y comienzas a saber que nadie que trabaje en España (y somos muchos) tiene tiempo de echarse una siesta. Que eso pertenece al pasado, cuanlo la mayoría de la población erar rural (al igual que en tu país), los veranos calurosos hacían que la gente se levantase a las 4:00am. y trabajase hasta las 13:00 (es decri 8 horas seguidas de trabajo)…se iban a casa, comían y se echaban una siesta, lógicamente si te has levantado a las 4 de la mañana y entre las 13:00 y las 16:00h. el calor es insoportable. Eso forma parte del Sur de España… y de otra época.
El sur de España es un porcentaje muy pequeño. Es muy bello y tiene una cultura fascinante, baste diferente al resto de España-

Holanda es tan pequeño que tenéis una única cultura.

Es decir NO conoces nada de España

Hablas de España como si hablases de América como un todo, cuando hay un montón de países diferentes… diversidad de clima, diversidad de costumbres e ingluso leyes… al igual que en España.

En defitiva …. que puedes seguir siendo un ignorante o aprender un poco y luego opinar.

Creo que te puedo definir en dos pablabras : Kaas Koop !

Una española, y a mucha honra !!

Comment by Begoña — September 23, 2011 @ 3:46 am
it’s so important, that let me repeat it:
I said romanians = ugly and stupid, barely human. they’re considered the rubbish heap of europe by real europeans.

every part of the world has jokes about stupid people, in europe we make fun of stupid romanians.

Comment by Perverted and offensive — September 23, 2011 @ 10:53 am
535 ——> you are so boring …zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I beat you are the typical ugly British …. with ugly white skin …buaggggggggg red haired …. brown spots on your skin …agggggggggggggg you sting …like butter …..buagggggggggggggg ………

Goodness me! I was living in your boring and “reprimida” country … you are all dirty … and rarely use a daily shower ….

Bet you don’t even have “eyaculacion precoz” ….poor liitle rabbit !!! reason why … you look so much like a pig !

You make me sleep ……. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hve you already eaten your boliled potatoes…ha haaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Dag !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by begoña — September 23, 2011 @ 5:28 pm
By the way …. pink pig (535) … I have got a gorgogeous body ! beautiful big blue eyes beautiful silky whilte skin (but not your milky ugly skin) ….that gets beautifully golden tanned in summer….
When I was living in your ugly country …. if I walked down the stree …all men turned his head !!!..

Gorgogeus was the firts word I learned !! … I almost thought it meant “pleased to meet you” …hahhaaaaaaaa.. soon I realized … I was the gorgegeus !! smart … and lovely … were the other words to describe me …!

Thanks God I also met intelligent people… and still keep in touch !!

Get lost … ! your are too insignificant to tell you ” travel the word”

Comment by begoña — September 23, 2011 @ 5:37 pm
From Serbian point of view.
to start with neighbours.

Hungarians- very slow people with funny language. Many Serbs think they have inferiority complex toward all ex-yugoslavian people.

Romanians-good people, with rich history, but really poor.

Bulgarians- Some kind of Turks, stabbackers and we kicked their asses in every single war.

Albanians- They still live in tribes.

Croats-Catholic Serbs, German “horsekeepers”, no balls, no history, no wars , no culture, nothing. Just slaughtering serbian women and children when they have a chance. Nice coast.

Bosnians- Muslim Serbs, stubborn and stupid. They have big heads. They are often subject of jokes.

Russians- The only good world power.

Germans- Organised and honest. Many Serbs works there.

Italians- Nothing special about them(football, pizza,etc.)

French- Also nothing special, some people feel betrayed because of NATO bombing.

English- Cold people, god sense of humor, but EXTREMELY ugly.

Scandianvians- Cold, but they are rich.

Spanish- TV novelas, dark people.

Greeks- Brothers, sea destination. Nice standard.

Dutch, Danish, Belgians- some kind of Germans.

Thats it.

Daily Candor: See the comment from the Croat above. You can agree that you both adore the Germans.

Comment by sibica — September 23, 2011 @ 10:27 pm
Hi, I’m a guy from Greece. Europe (a name of Greek roots) is a very dysfunctional continent. Here’s what I think of Europe.

France – A country guided by feminine ideals. Although its culture is attractive, it is somewhat obsolete. Muslim immigrants have ruined France in recent years.

The Italians – Natural comedians.

The Germans – Good with technology.

The Scandinavians – Blond, peaceful introverts. Their society has been ruined by a serial killer and Muslim rapists.

The Belgians – The originators of multiculturalism.

The Dutch – Tall diary consumers. I would’ve liked them more if they weren’t so self righteous and critical of Greece.

The Swiss – Perfection Nazis with limited capacity to feel.

Spain – A strange land – especially Andalucia.

The Greeks – The spoiled brats of Europe. Assholes most of them.

The Poles – A victimized people who have been bullied by everyone.

The Czechs – Who are they?

The Austrians – Polite racists.

The British – Polite backstabbers who disrespect other European cultures but seem to like the Third World. The women are natural feminists while the men are somewhat emasculated.

The Irish – The Greeks of the North but with a drinking problem.

The Serbs – A nationalistic cult.

Thanks for reading.
Have a nice day/night!

DailyCandor: Thanks for the self-deprecating humor…it is always appreciated!

Comment by Giorgos — September 27, 2011 @ 10:35 am
Ive been reading all the comments and its a really funny site, I love it when you all slag each other off. Ime english and as you all rightly point out I hate everyone Lol. Ime going to have a go now and I will appologise in advance to all the politicaly correct sensitives types,

The Germans:- started 2 world wars and lost them both, they didnt accept the fact so became key players in the EU to conquer europe via the back door, the greeks, spanish, italian, portuguese and a few other lazy f****rs have dropped them and their french lackeys in it up to their top lips.

The French:- In 1066 the normans came to england and kicked our arses and made us part of their empire, our blood is mixed with theirs because the normans never actually left england and we our proud of this ancestory, we have loads of french words assimilated into own language. This makes it all the more strange to us that the french cant accept the fact that the brits, americans, canadians, aussies, new zealanders etc saved their arses from the Germans and that is the simple reason that the main international language is english, not german, which the french and the rest of the bloody ‘europeans’ would be speaking by now if we hadnt done something about it, on top off this it pisses us off no end to hear them and other european tossers banging on about their wonderful culture, in a nutshell they can keep it in france, at least the english dont piss in the street until they have had a few beers.Lol

The Americans:- Can you please f—ing shut up about how you saved englands arse during the war? learn your history and have some f—ing humility about the facts. Britain & france declared war on germany in 1939 we didnt see any of you f—ers over hear until the start of 1942, and wouldnt have seen you at all if japan hadnt bombed the shit out of you at Pearl Harbour. Meanwhile were we invaded? — errr no. Were we winning the battle of britain and had already sunk the bismark and taken tobruck against rommel in north africa by the time you lot arrived ? errr yes, you helped us save all the other b—–s but you deinitely did not save our arses because we showed some fight and didnt get our selves invaded no thanks to you.

The Spaniards:- another bunch of tossers basking in self adulation, if your climate was like ours you wouldnt know what an englishman looked like. instead of spending billions in your country over the years we wouldnt have spent a euro, we come over there to bask in the sun not your culture, most educated brits go to Portugal the people are much nicer and dont have the facist and racist mentality of the spanish. on top of this you are the biggest cheats at football on the planet, yes we admire the skills of barcelona, but we dont admire the diving and amatuer dramatics anytime they are touched by another player they should have diving boards installed round the pitch!

The Scandinavians, yes they invaded, yes we admired the vikings, but we also kicked their arses good at stamford bridge in 1066, you didnt fancy coming back after that did you? lol. Its only cos of you lot that the normans managed to invade us cos we couldnt get the army back down from up north in time. ha ha.

To the person who wrote 536 & 537 you are a true moron, you are having a go at england when the person who wrote the article you are so worked up about (533 & 535) is clearly an american, what a dick head.

The rest of Europe:- Sorry I havnt insulted you yet I will save for another time!!

DailyCandor: Are Americans European now? Ah well, you just felt the need to get a dig in against the Yanks. It’s your birthright as a Brit, I guess. And 533/535 were not posted by an American (remember, I can see IP addresses). If you look at the diction, you’ll see it’s not a native English speaker.

Comment by thorpey — September 27, 2011 @ 10:42 am
Hi, I’m a french (as obviously stated in my name).

About some things people thinks of us :
—————————————————

I could be hurt by those idea of us being rude and arrogant. (but years of net surfing made me insensitive to it)
Just for the arrogant part, (i’m not myself) I think there is some people that confuse some pride we have (cause we have many things to be proud of, like every country. It’s a fact. There is no problem with that. Every country and single person have their own things to be proud of.) with arrogance. Maybe because others grant us some really flattering adjectives made some people (and they shouldn’t, really) jealous ?…
Other state about that hurting idea that we’re arrogant and unfriendly may come to all those idiot US propaganda (that made nicely their way to just all around the world…) largely made by conservative american politics that stated things you all may know now : France = socialism (oulala…), french = coward (problem with iraq dear mister Bush?…). And everyone who get real interest in Europe history know that this last “coward”/”surrender” adjective is totally unfair.

If Americans french-bashers which express their stupid and insane hatred about us are WAY MORE present on the web (and even stupid US medias), HOPEFULLY, we know that there are still normal people that, at least, don’t disrespect us, or even like/love us. Obama’s presidency help to it widely too (in comparison of this idiot Bush and all his french-bashing friends). Unfortunately, that Sarkozy don’t help us to made a good image…
And some very popular and famous USA’s hard critic (don’t know if i translate right) like Michael Moore and Bill Maher (which I like much due to his humour) even defend us…

About other Europeans :
——————————-

Sincerely, I’ve nothing against other European. And I won’t pay attention of those theory or bad cliche of our neighbor.
I do love Europe and its inhabitants. Of course, by historical and geographical reasons, I feel more linked to our Belgians and Luxembourgish buddies (I’m from North France), and to German, Irish, English, Swiss, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Italian than others, but hey, should I follow bad cliche about others country’s people I don’t have meet yet ?

We French have a great luck, our country is , as I always say, greatly placed with its boundaries (directly or indirectly) with Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Swiss, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Monaco and Andorre ! (at least in our era, being so close to so much countries wasn’t always a luck some centuries ago…lol)

So don’t mistake of French being rude and/or arrogant. Some are, but they are definitively not the majority of us. 🙂 🙂
I know some Parisians are deeply idiot with stranger, but, you should know that they are also deeply idiot with other french lol.
And also, if i may defend them, we have also to know that parisians have to deal with WAYYY MOOORE strangers, visitors and foreigners that any normal city we may know, just by the simple fact that Paris is the FIRST and most capital city visited IN THE WORLD. And Paris is so crooowded some days xD, that I can understand some of them….

Although I won’t accept how rude Parisians can be. Being (apparently) one of (if not “the”, depending of opinion) the most loved city for its beauty and dynamism, it’s A SHAME to also being ranked in one of the worst city on “greetings quality”…

Another advice about French : France IS NOT Sarkozy, and ABOVE ALL, Sarkozy is DEFINITIVELY NOT France. Sarkozy is a deep idiot and a racist egocentric president ruling his country like a monarchic King of the 18th century …
If that guy had hurting you or you country, know that all normal french apologize for having elected (even if i didn’t vote for him myself) such a stupid president.

Last words :
————–

On such topics, i’m accustomed to really hard and offensive opinion and (false) cliche about us… (mainly, and strangely on US ones) But here, i’ve read some REALLY sympathic comment on us. And, as i’m not that accustomed to some nice opinion, i want to thank you all :). Such intelligent and respectful comment made me feel always nice, when, in some far lands, people can just yelling “dirty french”, “sucking french”, “surrending cheese eatings monkey”, “frog” etc, etc… (you probably know all this…)

That’s why and how I love my Europe !
People that are not stupid to fall in the game of stupid cliche against their own neighbours and old friends countries….

Vive l’Europe !

KISS FROM FRANCE 😉
Rémy

Daily Candor: As much as I don’t like French-bashing by the right-wing here, I can’t help but feel there’s some irony about a Frenchman complaining about Americans mercilessly bashing them.

Comment by FRENCH — September 27, 2011 @ 11:28 am
In case Americans are wondering…

Why does everyone in Europe hate Greece?

Answer:
They hate us because of our freedoms.

Giorgos Bushopoulos

Comment by Giorgos Bushopoulos — September 28, 2011 @ 12:12 am
Dear Daily Candour, re your comment on 540. The majority of americans are of european descent so by default they deserve some stick, of course this does not apply ( to the same extent ) in the case of americans who claim british descent. ha ha ha ha. As for 533/535, – its an american living abroad!! lol.

Daily Candor: Yes, most Southerners claim British descent (you know, the racist, inbred, poorly-educated, Bible-thumping ones). Again, read the language he uses. American English is not his first language.

Comment by thorpey — September 28, 2011 @ 1:19 am
i feel disappointed by some of the comments about the english, pretty much by the english, i personally think a lot of the english are some of the most warm, funny, polite kind decent people i’ve met. The english always get a bad wrap but they are most probably the most tolerant and open minded people i’ve ever met.

Comment by Bob — September 29, 2011 @ 6:05 pm
bob you are a gentleman and a scholar. daily candour, touche! you are a master debator and a cunning linguist.

Comment by thorpey — October 1, 2011 @ 1:23 am
I’m dutch and we don’t look down on everyone,the dutch-belgian thing it’s true,but we do it as jokes,we dont hate or dispise each other.the german thing is true,most dutch people dont like the germans,btw duits bloed means dutch blood in the anthem,not german blood;)we dislike (not hate) germany,poland,and turkey and the dislike of bulgarians is starting to rise too and outside europe,holland strongly dislikes America.on the other hand the dutch really like spain,belgium, romania,scandinavia & italy and dont have a problem with the rest..

About the forgotten european country’s i think romania dislikes Hungary, Turkey and Russia, and as the saying goes 50% italian, 50% dutch is a 100% romanian friend. because Holland and Romania have a good & strong relation togetheras country and the people of both country’s like each other.
bulgaria likes turkey i think.
and from what i heared of a polish friend, poland dislikes russia,germany and turkey.
Ukrain dislikes poland.
Turkey dislikes Russia and Romania.

Comment by Mike — October 2, 2011 @ 12:09 pm
Ok, I´m Swedish and one interesting point is the relation between Scandinavian (Nordic) conturies. Historically there have been wars and occupations, where Sweden has played a major role as an occupant. Finland for example was a part of Sweden until 1809 and Norway was united to Sweden until 1905 and Denmark lost parts of their country to Sweden about 350 years ago and those southern parts are still Swedish.

That´s the background. Sweden has always been seen as the big brother, but nowadays the relations of course are friendly. We are Scandinavians and the languages are quite similar except for Finnish which is a totally different language but about 7 % of the Finns have Swedish as a mothertounge and Swedish is taught in schools.

The relation to Norway is very special. Swedes tend to look at Norwegians as somewhat behind when it comes to trends and modernity. Trying to keep the country pure, which is reflected in their language transcripting new foreign words into Norwegian, which for a Swede sounds odd and comical. But during the last decades Norway has become wealthy thanks to the oil and there has been a gradual change in the relationship. Norwegians nowadays don´t seeem to lack from the same inferiority complex towards Swedes. But a friendly rivalry still exist, which very much is reflected in sports and escpecially cross country skiing. In the Winter Olympics for example the main goal always is to beat the Swedish/Norwegian opponent.

But in general terms the relations between Scandinavian (Nordic) countries are very friendly. If you for example meet a Scandinavian abroad you immidiately feel a relationship, a cultural identity regardless the conflicts in the past.

Comment by Hans — October 7, 2011 @ 3:52 am
[…] […]

Pingback by National Stereotypes - Empty Closets - A safe online community for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered people coming out — October 10, 2011 @ 5:33 pm
I would say that the Brits have experienced immensely high immigration levels from all countries and traditional relationships with peoples on the Continent have thus changed. I have worked with all western European nationalities as a cultural awareness business consultant and you can practically tell how a country works by its zodiac sign (true, but not for discussion here) The Brits pretend hatred of the French for their being arrogant, smelly, indolent , a bit yellow-bellied and stuck-up but much appreciate their style, accent, sexiness, food, creativeness and quality of life. As most Europeans say, France is paradise except for the French. Once British and French education levels were comparable, but the English system now turns out some appallingly educated youngsters whose attitudes no longer “feel” English and certainly non-European.. Still, amongst the English and Scots certainly the division has been created politically. In the seventies, the animosity was not particularly evident, but the countries that make up the geographic British Isles are forging greater cultural boundaries between them. Scots are seen by the English as tight and ready to damage them, the Welsh are poetic, hard working, the Irish, genial, talkative, whimsical, a bit thick-headed (though not so much these days) and are similar to how the French see the Belgians. For some reason this country is seen as boring when in fact the Belgians have been good friends of the Brits and is actually very playful. Our true cousins are seen as the Danish, Norwegians and the Dutch and begrudgingly the Germans. All are admired for their efficiency, cleanliness, same earthy quality and stoicism, meat and potatoes approach. All have a passion for drinking too. The Poles were once considered a strong, goodly people. Now they have invaded the UK they are not seen in such a good light. Hardworking, but drunk and quite violent. Other East Europeans are seen as having gorgeous women but very curt attitudes, with practices changing as you go from the Scandinavian and Russian borders to the Balkans. Greek stereotypes are lazy, but museful, the Hungarians are polite and have excellent etiquette, the Austrians adroit and friendly in a non-commital way and the Swiss clean, cool, healthy and efficient. The Spanish are liked except they smoke too much and are beastly to animals, the Portuguese being the oldest allies of the English, are like the Maltese, outposts of faded mediterranean class that appeals to the English , whilst Italy is adored as a crazy, romantic delight. Unfortunately, the Brits as a whole had a wonderful reputation and were welcomed everywhere. Now all classes travel and little cultural education offered to the young, the continent’s view might be that we have become boorish, ill -mannered, ignorant drunkards. Again, I blame it on the governments.

Comment by TJ — October 12, 2011 @ 3:33 pm
English people know everyone hates us, but it doesn’t bother us too much. Its down to our empirical past.

UK+ Ireland
Irish- They hate us for not doing enough to help them during a potato famine 150 years ago. They also think that they have the right to impose their rule and religion on Northern Ireland, a different country which has no wish to join the Irish mainland. Overall, most English people are fine with Irish though.

Scotland- Hate us te most out of everyone. They think we are arrogant. But we are generally better than them at EVERYTHING.

Wales- Also hate English but English aren’t bothered by them.

Mainland Europe:
France- We have a long and complex relationship with the French. We’ve been at war with one another for 800 years. We have fought one World War together. France decided not to show up in the Second World War. Despite the fact we saved their ass, De Gaulle still cosied up to Germany. Its strange. In some ways we are very different e.g. culture, food, religion. In some ways we are very similiar: arrogant, obnoxious, pretentious (I admit). I dont think we do hate them, we just have to be better than them at everything. Love them or hate them, they are our closest European ally.

Germany- Fought 2 Wold Wars. Won 2 World Wars. We will never forget that, even if they have overtaken us since.

Portugal- We have a soft spot for them. Generally good people and not up themselves like their Meditarranean cousins.

Spain+Italy- Carry huge amounts of self importance. Europe carries them, not the other way around.

Poland- Very hard working, even if their English isn’t great.

Romanians+Bulgarians- Developed a reputation of thieving. Add nothing to our society.

Serbia- A bunch of neo-nazi dic heads who carry a huge chip on their shoulder, not to mention a superiority complex. Dragged us into a World War because they couldn’t keep their own house in order. Vile people who supported ethnic cleansing to ensure they would remain the numerically superior race in the region. Hated by everyone.

Croatia- See above. Shady people who in times of turmoil back the winning horse to save their own skins.

Comment by IG — October 19, 2011 @ 3:46 pm
“Spaniards consider themselves white and European, and would be deeply insulted if you suggested they were Latin American of any kind”

What a strange way to think!

Comment by Jackie Treehorn — October 22, 2011 @ 5:54 am
I’m English and I’m not cold, arrogant, snobby or ugly and I DON’T hate the French. Is that too much to comprehend for you??

It does annoy me when we get generalised in such a negative manner, ‘the English are all ugly’. You know there are over 50million people living in England, right? I am assuming, to make such a statement, you have stopped and looked at us all??

It also annoys me that the Irish think it is okay to hold contempt for us, about things that happened a very long time ago, by our ancestors which the English people of today had absolutely no control over.

People shouldn’t be judged on their nationality but rather on their INDIVIDUAL personalities and behaviour.

This forum is filled with so much negativity, why all the need for hate?

Comment by Adam — October 25, 2011 @ 3:11 pm

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