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 »

Whoever published did not have a clue about Poland.
According to research the two nations Poles like most out of all nations all over the world are Czechs and Slovakians. Apart from that Poles have loads of jokes about Germans and they love to take the piss out of them. They are not scared…
I dont know where u got ur information from but according Poland its crap

Comment by PolefromGermany — February 13, 2012 @ 5:01 pm
I am Greek and when I read the topic about the Greeks I just laughed…you see this is the truth about us…Europeans never really liked the Greeks for reasons that I’m not able to know as a simple citizen.and now that we are dealing with such huge financial problems and we have to tolerate the Germans,whose actions and choices are extremely fascist,Europeans do NOTHING to help….

Comment by antigoni — February 16, 2012 @ 11:43 am
Big parts of this are sadly pretty true as far as I experienced. But don’t be too prejudiced against german humor! Might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it’s not like we don’t have any… (look at our chancellor)

Also I have to add that, it’s only been the French who tend to use the word “Nazi” when I tell them I’m german and not the British. I’ve lived in the UK for 5 months now and haven’t heard it once!

French people are considered rather stupid in Germany; the language too silly-sounding to learn and the food consisting of snails and frogs’ legs. Don’t blame me, I love pretty much everything about France!

Talking about the Dutch, german people think of weed-smoking, cheese-eating windmill-owners that talk “german in a funny way”. The part about the language is really not far from the truth: A German and a Dutch could easily have a conversation without more than 10% or 20% of the words being misunderstood!

I must agree with you saying that Germans don’t think very positive about polish people but if you ask a German in private, he will name you at least one friend (I’ve got two) with polish roots or tell you about a holiday in Poland (I’ve had a lovely time in Masuria, Warsaw, Gdansk and along the Baltic Coast) or, in my case, will tell you that her granddad was forced to leave his village in north-east germany during WW2 when the Polish occupied it and killed his brothers and sisters in a concentration camp. But that’s individual storys, the main trend is probably the clichée of car-stealing pissheads.

The sad thing about Germany is, that the heritage of WW2 is causing a major lack of self-esteem. Most of the Germans feel ashamed to the point of not being proud of anything “typically german” and consider every fellow citizen who prefers a german product over a foreign one for whatever reason, a racist.

I discovered this article 4 years too late but thanks for making me laugh!

Comment by Swetlida — February 20, 2012 @ 3:17 pm
FACT OF THE MATTER IS MOST IRISH LIKE THE ENGLISH, APART FROM A FEW DIE HARD REPULICANS BUT THEY ARE PRETTY SCATTERED…NOWADAYS !!! In Ireland 2012 we read all the British newspapers watch all the British TV & Shop in British stores and follow British sport. I in particular like the English people their mannerly cultured and reserved and say it like it is.Im 100% Irish born and bred here and .alot of my family are married to English people and all get on like a house on fire.. I dont on the other hand like the Scots or N. Irish as much… AS REGARDS POLISH AND EASTERN EUROPEANS COMING INTO IRELAND …They dont mix or integrate with us and nor us with them and are very CLIQUE AND NOT REALLY LIKED BY US !!! They are a different culture … But the people DISLIKED MOST BY IRISH PEOPLE ARE THE IRISH AMERICANS WHO PRETEND THEY ARE IRISH… CANT STAND THEM …..REALLY ANNOY US

Comment by Steve G — February 21, 2012 @ 7:16 am
LOL in reading Alexandros Efstathiou comment about Cyprus. Well, i always had an impression Cyprus is somehow a excentric country, a Greek Island with a Turkish ”bit” claimed by Turkey. Lefkosia (uhhh, Nicosia) looks like a beautiful city to me. A weird thing is that ”line” by U.N. that divides the country … a sort of ”Berlin Wall”. And the donkey thing… i even had falled here, imagined they climbing the island mountains xD

As for the Greek, as i said, Brazilians always had good relations with them. My own city has many greek descendant people, and even a Neolea/ traditional dance club.

Well, that’s it. Europe, put your hope (and money) in Ellada. Europeans, stop being such a blind nationalists. Greece and Greeks, hope is the last thing that reamained in Pandora’s Box. Don’t give up.

Na ‘Se Kala! Agkalies apo Vrasilias! 😉

Comment by BrazilianSurfer — February 22, 2012 @ 3:28 pm
I am an American, and have had quite a bit of interest in Europe in my life, to say the LEAST. Admittedly, I still have a rather romantic view of Europe due to several reasons, I blame Disney… 😀 (Just kidding, Disney is awesome. 😀 I think Europe needs to be more like it used to be in some respects though, and I am referring to WESTERN Europe here, NOT Eastern Europe, Most of Eastern Europe is still, thankfully, not too “Americanized/modernized” (I hope)…) I’m roughly half British Isles (Scotland, England and Wales) and half German (mostly Bavarian and Swiss German) regarding my ancestry. So, from my limited perspective on Europeans, having known people of most European nationalities, some more than others (German, English, Celtic and Scandinavian folks/cultures/general dispositions are pretty familiar to most Americans from the west (Plains and Rockies to the Pacific Ocean), also the Italians and Dutch to a certain extent), here is what I think of the Europeans:

1.) English: As a general rule, I LOVE the English, everything about them, but not modern England so much. (I’ve pretty much always been this way.) I don’t like it when the English try to be “American” in a certain sense, it kind of just… doesn’t… feel completely “right” to me… 😀 Though I keep those thoughts pretty much to myself, most of the time. I LOVE Medieval England (the fantasy element, of course, same thing for the rest of Europe, etc.), and the way England seemed to be to me before 1960 or so… Maybe 1965. (I’m NOT a liberal hippie, in case you didn’t pick that one up already…) Victorian manners/customs, etc. are AWESOME, but sure, I’m not completely fond of them all the time… Being a musician, I am EXTREMELY fond of Sir Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, lots of those guys. Love the whole “spit and polish” thing… But I don’t dress in a suit and tie everyday. 🙂 Incidentally, If you go to Utah, Idaho, Arizona, etc., you will likely meet many, many Mormons (I am Mormon), and you will no doubt encounter a LOT of Mormons who are QUITE fond of the English as well as other surrounding peoples, the Celts, Germans, Scandinavians, etc. We tend to talk a lot about family history, but it has more to do with being “connected” with ancestors and those we are close to, etc. in a very emotional/spiritual sense, more that kind of thing, than most anything else. Other things about the English… Generally more friendly than cold, a little “ritzy” or sophisticated sometimes, more conservative than most Europeans (still), highly Christian and connected with old customs, creatures of habit, but intellectually VERY curious, moderately adventurous, polite/well-mannered, a little nerdy sometimes, hmmm… The soccer hooligans are pretty rough, sure… The English overall are very intelligent, perceptive, peaceful, and shrewd as a general rule, and can be crafty and scheming just as easily as elegant, refined and virtuous, etc. I like the elegant and refined/virtuous thing MUCH more, go figure… And yes, there are a LOT of English youth that are very, very aggressive, vulgar and intense, sure… Not sure why it has to be like that in modern times, esp. in the cities of Europe…

2.) Scottish: I still feel like I should understand the Scots more, its kind of this ongoing feeling I have… I feel, very strongly, like it is hard to define the Scottish “character” without having some kind of relation to the English “character”… But, I can say with some degree of certainty, that the Scots are more “rustic”, like their Welsh and Irish cousins (compared to the English), and tend to be lovers of nature, animals, plants, farming, the outdoors, music, crafts, the “simple” pleasures, etc. There is a deep sense of justice, fairness, personal liberty, dignity, etc. that the Scots have, that I believe many other peoples share as well-the Welsh, the English, and so on… (Though the English government has not been very kind to the Celts over the years, to say the LEAST.) The British Isles is a bastian of Christianity and liberty, really… And Scotland is brimming with a deep, DEEP love of Christianity and living an honorable life, etc. Very few other peoples value freedom so highly… Other things… Ruggedness, toughness, stubbornness, going with your “gut”, imagination, warmth, kindness, courage, following the path of a “different” drummer/being different from everyone else, a certain “taciturn” aspect, showing and feeling particularly strong emotions, the conservative thing (like the English), being creatures of habit, hmmmm… Yeah, I think that kind of sums up the Scots, its kind of like, they are similar to the English in many respects, but still, not at all like them (very much a rich vs. poor or urban vs. rural thing still…).

3.) Welsh: Not as knowledgeable about them, but the Welsh are very close to the Scots and Irish, also the English… Also the Britons in France. I see the Welsh as being very peaceful and easy going overall, very musical and imaginative as well. 🙂

4.) Irish: The Irish make me feel like I am too “stuffy”… I love the Irish in general, they are just great, GREAT people, but some of them are pretty wild and crazy… 😀

5.) French: Haven’t known too many French… They’re ok, I’m pretty sure the snobby thing is very overrated… I like their VERY “artsy” culture, I always have… French culture is kind of a culture of indulgence and taking the time to enjoy life, with a bit of eccentricity… Live the good life… 😀

6.) German: The other VERY familiar culture to me in Europe, other than Britain. Germans are best defined by their regional origins and cultures (Prussian, Rhinelander, Bavarian, Saxon, etc.). But overall, I tend to not joke much with Germans, only when I feel like I have a good sense of what they find humorous (which is, often, very similar to my own sense of humor, as it is…). 🙂 Germans want to get things DONE… Otherwise, they feel kind of useless or a burden on society, etc. Actually, its also kind of an intellectual “boredom” thing, I really believe that some cultures (like the German culture) are almost driven by independent thought, imagination, innovation, attention to detail, the constant drive to improve and make stuff better… There isn’t much tolerance for laziness, esp. LONG TERM laziness… There is the scientific, calculating, scrutinizing, highly detailed thing about the Germans, sure… To me, Germany feels very much like a second homeland, more especially, Bavaria and Southern Germany, Switzerland as well…

7.) Polish: The Poles are like the Germans, just a little less “intense”… 😀

8.) Russian: The Russians, like many other Northern and Eastern Europeans, are rather stubborn about their notions and opinions on things. This being said, I still love Russians, quite a bit in fact, but they can be kind of intense in a very similar but “different” way than Germans… Both peoples have this REALLY intense “stare down” thing, the Finns, etc. prob. do it too sometimes. The evil eye, the icy look, etc. Sometimes, its just a matter of pride or a defensive mechanism. …Sometimes, not too often, it is actually more of a loathing thing, or meant to “size up” someone, have them “measure up” to you, so to speak… Basically, to MANY folks north of the Alps and east of the Rhine, talk is cheap and actions are what counts, and its best to be polite, but still not have to “back down” so to speak, from being assertive, even aggressive on occasion, etc. I think the Russians tend to be people of few words, but are very sincere, emotional, tough, determined, intense, sober-minded, good, no-nonsense people on the whole.

9.) Italian: VERY friendly, social, chatty, fun loving, etc. Its hard to dislike Italians, though perhaps they tend to not take some things so seriously as the Germans, Russians, etc. I’ve noticed the strong desires to look “cool”, to have the latest and greatest designer clothes, car (sports car), jewelry, etc., among Italians… What can I say, Italians love to look GOOD. 🙂 Oh, and a little pizza pie here and there is really, really great too. 🙂 Also, I seriously think the Mafia thing is not a very big thing any more…

10.) Spanish: I don’t know very many Spaniards, but I have a VERY high opinion of them. 🙂

11.) Greek: Friendly, loud, fun loving, casual, relaxed, spontaneous, sporty, sophisticated, I love everything about Greeks and Greek culture. Though, like the Italians, I’m not sure how much “kidding” I could “endure”, dep. on who was the brunt of the joke… 😀 (I seriously doubt I’d ever “lose” it in a FRIENDLY setting anyway with any folks from the Mediterranean…) 😀

12.) Dutch: Neat and tidy, easy-going, often tall and thin (more the Frisians), intelligent, the Dutch are quite different from the Germans, for instance, regarding social interactions (the Dutch are bigger on the small talk thing perhaps, than the Germans, Germans tend to not go much for small talk), and there is a similar “reserved” or generally mellow, affable emotional state the Dutch tend to have in a social sense, much like many English, for example, compared with the more “driven” or “get to the point” Germans and Russians… I’ve always liked the Dutch, but often don’t feel to “close” to them, in the sense that I feel close to Germans and Scots…

13.) Danes: Kinda like the Dutch, but more like “in between” the Dutch and Germans… The Danes are pretty sharp folks, very similar to the English also, more the “fancy” or polished/debonair thing… Very musical/artsy, scientific and intelligent folks in general… I love Denmark very much, and still feel a drive to connect with the Danes a bit more in general in my life. And yes, I’m sure that many of them love sailing, the outdoors, etc.

14.) Norwegians: Yep, they’re a bit more like the country bumpkins, I know… But I love ’em on the whole. 🙂

15.) Swedes: I can’t, for the life of me, figure out the Swedish mind. I’ve really, really tried, believe me, I have. But it is a complete mystery to me. Someday I might understand them, I but I sure as heck don’t understand them well right now…

16.) Finns: I LOVE the Finns, they are great folks. 🙂 (But I don’t want to get on their “bad” side… 😀 )

17.) Czechs: Haven’t known many Czechs. But I’m sure they are a lot like the Poles and Germans.

18.) Balkans (Romania, Serbia, Croatia, etc.): Haven’t known many folks from these countries, but they seem to be decent folks overall. 🙂 (I think that guys tend to feel less “inhibited” in muslim countries, as well as much of the Balkans, by the way-women’s rights, etc., is not as “developed” persay, as much as in the west… Though the Balkans are prob. doing ok compared to a lot of other areas more in Asia, parts of Africa, etc.)

19.) Hungary: They’re a lot like the Germans too, just more “Central Asian/Turkic” like, I suppose, I dunno… Haven’t known too many folks from Hungary, but honestly, they’d fit right in in Bavaria, etc. Nice folks, from what I know.

20.) Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia): Kinda like in between the Swedes and Russians… Serious, sincere, blonde/blue-eyed, and kind enough overall, the key is to just be relaxed, kindly and non-confrontational, and they will tend to be as well. I think this can apply to Russians as well, quite often… Though I think sometimes Russians still get a bad rap regarding the whole “Anti-American thing”, not sure how much that is deserved sometimes…

Any other cultures in Europe, well, I suppose its a familiarity thing. I think I’ve got the biggies though. 🙂

Comment by Ben Gessel — February 25, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Interesting read…although I have to say that a lot of people seem to take the whole topic way too serious. Stereotyping people because of their origin doesn’t work, cause there’s no such thing as “the Germans” or “the Italians” etc.
I am German, from Bavaria to be precise, and the people here are very different from the ones in northern Germany, for example. I guess the same is true for any other country. So the whole prejudice thing is just something that should be taken for what it is: funny, but not true at all.

That being said, I wanna let you all in on some Bavarian stereotyping (may sometimes be the same for the rest of Germany, but I can’t be sure). And remember, it’s all just in good fun 😉

French: Kind of arrogant, but very elegant people, eat strange stuff like escargot and frog legs. Refuse to speak any other language than French, even if they could (witnessed that personally in southern France, some woman let my mom stammer out her request in her poor tourist French for about five minutes before revealing that she was actually fluent in German)

Italians: Very passionate people, kind of childish and unorganized, men are all machos with an unhealthy relationship to their mothers, love scooters, can’t drive safely, have great food

Austrians: Western Austria is virtually the same as Bavaria (there’s even a joke here that when God made the Bavarian people, he threw the ones that weren’t perfect back over the alps, so the Austrians are kind of second class Bavarians), eastern Austria is full of slavic people who speak a strange dialect

Swiss: Speak funny, are very slow, make great cheese

Belgium: Not much to say, make great chocolate

Dutch: Home of cheese and tulips, live in trailers, seem hardly ever to be home because they’re constantly jamming up the Autobahn

English: UK and Engalnd are pretty much viewed as the same thing, bad food, great sense of humor

Poles: Used to steal our cars, now many of them live and work here but have their cars registered with their relatives in Poland to avoid the higher German tax (even though many Germans are very angry about that, they would do the same thing if it were the other way round)

Czech: Not much to say, really…

Croats/Serbs/Slovenians: Seem to hate each other, but are generally viewed as nice people by the Germans

Spanish: Love paella and bull fighting; most peole only think of Mallorca when thinking of Spain

Portugese: no real opinion that I know of

Russia/Ukraine/Belarus: pretty much one thing. Very poor people, some filthy rich oligarchs, not nice countries at all. Russians in Germany are percieved as loud and ill mannered

Romania: Lags behind European standards, send their children to beg in Germans cities

Scandinavia: Admired for their better education, generally percieved as nice, beautiful people

Finnish: Strange language, very depressed cause it’s always dark there, love saunas and alcohol. Also envied for their education standards

I also wanna say something about Amercians, since they seem to be involved in this discussion as well: Germans think that a lot of American stuff is really cool (like music, movies, sitcoms, etc.), but hate American politics (G.W. Bush and Sarah Palin, anyone?) and think that a lot of Americans are very poorly educated and ignorant (knowing virtually nothing about the rest of the world, apart from what is discussed here), also superficial, lazy (drive anywhere, detest walking) and unhealthy (=too fat for their own good)

Maybe there’s some truth in all that stereotyping (I do think, for example, that some Germans are kind of robotic and not funny at all), but mostly it’s just crap. We’re basically much more alike than we’d like to think 🙂

Comment by Fine — February 26, 2012 @ 7:14 am
“DailyCandor: Actually, I wrote this several years ago, and you’ll probably find more and more Europeans who want Europe to have NOTHING to do with Greece.”

What does that even mean? First of all, you’ll find that most of what you describe as “Europeans” don’t think of themselves as Europeans. They think of themselves as Germans, Italians, etc. The homogeneity you assume is non-existent.

Second, Greece has been part of the EU since 1981. The real grievance at the moment is not with “Europe” (which is a meaningless term as far as I’m concerned unless you define what Europe is – if it’s a geographical area then it’s nonsense to talk about Greece being out of it since all maps of Europe include Greece. If it’s political then I say Greece has been in the EU since the 80s and AFAIK, there has never been any reason to exclude it from the Union) but with the eurozone – i.e. the common currency. The person you responded to didn’t mention the eurozone (of which it is true that Greece should never have been a member) but rather Europe which as I said is a meaningless term unless you define it though neither of you have done so far.

Third, If it is the case that most EU members (not “Europeans”) do not want Greece in the eurozone that doesn’t mean that “Europe” doesn’t want anything to do with Greece. Certainly, Greece can fix it’s economy and then a monetary union could be possible. In the meantime, Greece will remain in the European Union and AFAIK, nobody thinks that they should be removed from it (I fail to see what would be accomplished by such a bold move)

Fourth, you’re the epitome of what the world thinks is wrong about Americans. Supremely ignorant and superficial but very opinionated red necks. Good job.

DailyCandor: Tossing out a racist argument at the end undermines any attempt to sound credible, doesn’t it? You sound like a petty, bitter person, and bashing an American for telling you an uncomfortable truth will not make Germans and other fellow EU members who are paying for your collective fiscal incompetence like you any more.

Comment by EM — February 29, 2012 @ 10:49 am
1. “Your collective fiscal incompetence” – who’s “your”?
2. What’s the uncomfortable truth? that you fail to distinguish between the EU and the eurozone and the fact that the former has existed without the latter for decades and even right now the EU is comprised of 27 members only 17 of which are in the eurozone? Nobody is against, as far as I know, Greece being in the EU. Not now, not ever. It’s a non-issue and if you can tell me what would be accomplished by Greece leaving the EU, I may accept it. So far, you’ve only acted insulted (more on this below). “Europe” is a meaningless term and as I said, if what you mean by Europe is the EU, then you talk complete and utter nonsense as nobody wants Greece out of the EU. Some want Greece out of the eurozone but that doesn’t say anything about the EU or indeed, “Europe’. Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, etc are not in the eurozone. Does that mean they are not “European”?
3. I think I was careful enough to say that that is what the world thinks about Americans. I did not say what I, personally, think about them. I do not believe that these stereotypes are true at all but arguably the rest of the world does. What YOU do however, is make them credible through your own personal ignorance and superficiality. I do not think that people’s personal failings have much to do with their nationality. As I said, you’re the one making such arguments look respectful through your own behaviour. So please don’t act as though I’ve insulted an entire nation. That’s what you do though you don’t even realise it.

DailyCandor: This was really amusing tripe. Thank you for making my morning!

Comment by EM — March 1, 2012 @ 7:41 pm
Everyone, listen up… I’m very, very, German and proud of it, i believe all Germans are proud of their ethnicity. We make top of the line machinery and have one of the best economies in the world. Really the only bad thing that you can say about us would be about WWII(the Nazis). To tell you the truth I still don’t understand why everyone is mocking us out about that. Yes, I do understand that the nazis were very bad people and did very bad things. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I’m on their side. But what I am trying to say is not all Germans are that bad. In the 40’s, they were basically brainwashed by hitler. They had no clue what they were doing. In conclusion, all I’m trying to say is please spread the word that Germans aren’t all bad.

PS. For all u Germans out there… Alle anderen lander sind doch nur neidisch, dass wir Europa zu dominieren.

Comment by Greg — March 5, 2012 @ 12:45 pm
Hello!I’m Greek and i would like to say the stereotypes of the Europeans from Greeks

Italians:A nation very similar to us,especially the south part,great people,great language,lovely food,very loud

Spanish:Famous here for the ‘th’ sound (similar to greek sounds) and the very big names(that actually do noty exist in Spain but in Latin America)

French:Snob,very chic language,good food

Germans:Barbarians,bad people who hate Greece

British:loud only when they’re coming to Greece,London is a very common tourist place for Greeks,the center of Europe,celebrities home,awful weather

Cypriots:Our brothers

Portuguese:We feel we share the same things and we have the same problems and in general we have a lot of common things

Scandinavian:Norwegian/Danish the most don’t even remember them Swedish:beautiful girls and boys with blue eyes and very tall who come in Greece for sex :P,theu supposed to be very cold people

Balkans:Close to us,similar but not similar too,very poor.The most(unfortunately) dislike the most of Balkanians with the exception of Serbians

Russians:COOOOOLD PLACE,vodka place,sexy russian girls etc. 😛

I think that’s all i had to say.I still can’t understand why Greece has nothing to do with Europe and i would like Daily condor to answer me in this since i really could not say that Greece is in Africa or in Asia?Personally i believe Greece is for sure a European country who is been influeced by lots of countries :Arabs,Italians,Turkish,Bulgarians,Russians,Spanish,French even Germans
Great site! 😉

Comment by Constantine — March 5, 2012 @ 1:48 pm
Its really funny how the stereotypes are so old fashioned. British cooking is now up there with the best that europe can offer, we now have some of the best modernist chefs around, but no european would ever like to admit it.
I have travelled throughout europe and have really enjoyed spending time with french, spanish and germans. I have always found common ground with all europeans. I never actually hear a bad word about our european neighbours. Yes you might hear the stereotypes once but hardly ever, more as a bit of fun, not exactly for serious. I love both france and the US, but for different reasons, france for their way of life, their love of good conversation, and the US for its music and pop culture. So that fact is a bit hit and miss. You find that the uneducated in any country tend to drag it’s name through the mud. Intelligent brits love their european neighbours. Also the younger generation of brits living abroad only speak of positive experiences when I talk about their experience of another culture. Most brits now spend large periods travelling the world before they settle for a career, you will find they are open minded and always love a drink and a laugh. These stereotypes are really funny, but they will never present you with a true picture of reality.
On a personal note, I have never understood the whole italian thing, I have always found the men to be really old fashioned with macho image, trying to play the lover, I know that most women find them quite funny to laugh at and struggle to take their persona seriously.
I have found, french and educated english women the most appealing, as they are subtle and mysterious. They can also laugh at themselves which is extremely attractive.
But on the whole, never hear bad remarks about any of europe, only positives, maybe things have moved on.

Comment by chopzy — March 13, 2012 @ 3:00 pm
Hello everybody! I am SERBIAN..this is our view of europe:
generally Serbs:
Love : russians and greeks the most..we are orthodox brothers 😀

scandinavia: we dont know much about those countries, but we really respect them cuz they have good life standard

portugal/spain : nothing special..tourism… novelas are the first thing that comes on (but we know that those come mainly from mexico)

italy: nice clothes to buy there….boys mainly look like gay…….pizza

germany/austria/switzerland: hard workers, our ppl come there to work……..germans (and americans) are those who were responsible for the mess in balkans and break of yugoslavia (and with lil bit of our help :)) …because of their geo-political stuff and economy … if it werent for them yugoslavia would be today 4th economy and military in EU as it was before the break . Unfortunately serbs are mostly blamed for that mess……….but generally we dont hate germans, we really respect their country

eastern europe: just soviet , nothing more than that …RUSSIA the boss! hehe

france: i dont know…eiffel tower, sunny … good lifestyle, have money, ….ugly ppl and hard language ( they speak only french)

england: cold , fat, ugly ppl…..i dont know…seem to be very decent ppl…i love their accent….

and balkans lol : what a messy land …hahahha :
romania/bulgaria: they are OK, but they have lots of gypsies
Slovenia: respect, we love them…
croatia: :))) lol pussies who hide behind “their protectors” who just use them to make a mess in yugoslavia…very weak and coward, traitors…..We love so much beating them in sports and we do that always 😉 They EXTRIMELY hate us, but A LOTTT heheh … but generally we dont hate them (or there are very few ppl who do)…..they are inferior…no history and glory..

Bosnia and Herzegovina : love that land…cuz its half ours ( but soon Republika Srpska will be independent)…we dont hate muslims in bosnia ( they are just traitors, ex christians, who transfered to islam when turks were here cuz of misereable benefits) …i dont have an opinion

Montenegro: SERBIAN SPARTA! :D..very brave, lazy, love them..just politics separated us, but its better like this….we go there to the seaside, there are many russians there now, they bought all coast ..hehhe
FYROM or macedonia:call it however (sorry greeks)..they should change the name cuz macedonia is greece…. however: Serbs love those ppl….end of story

albania: miserable, insignificant, primitive, we have a big population of them in our south region kosovo because they interbreed like insects…what to say : KOSOVO IS SERBIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry to those countries i didnt mention: i dont have and opinion

And finally Serbia, what we think about ourselves: we love our country sooo much, we would do everything for our land..we dont hate anyone and u shouldnt listen to anti serbian propaganda(especially in USA), you will make sure that u were wrong in that ,when u visit serbia…we like sports so much and to be in competition… courageous, sometimes stubborn, warm, with a big heart, temperamental, someone would say that we are prepotent and that we overestimete ourselves and our country but its cuz serbia through the history was always in trouble and we always fought for indipendence and our goals no metter with WHO
…Its the country of sports, beautiful nature,mountains, churches,monasteires,art, famous for music EXIT festival and Gucha, and many other things to offer, good and hospitable ppl, its not very expensive for europeans and u could have an awesome time for a little money.

It doesnt metter where are u coming from, YOU ARE WELCOME! 🙂

Comment by dumaaa — March 16, 2012 @ 2:52 am
The followibg is the negative perceptions of the following countries:

English: Loud, arrogant, disrespectful of others,
French: Arrogant, rude, obnoxious
German: Boring, no humour,
Italian: lazy, corrupt
Spanish: racist, uncompromising
Portuguese: simple, too laid back
Greek: liars, con artists, hate everyone including their own
Balkans: dangerous, very unfriendly
Russians: corrupt, criminals
Scandinavians: no negatives
Eastern Europeans: uneducated, cold hearted

Positives:
English: Fun

Comment by Adriano — March 17, 2012 @ 2:34 am
Okay everything was true except the comment about the Greeks. Seriously? It’s the birthplace of your little western civilization. The English language is 60% Greek. Our history is monumental, and you DARE say that? Ignorant, rude, arrogant asshole. Uneducated too! Just because you’re bitter because you’re poor and are having a little debt trouble, doesnt mean you have to be disrespectful. Bye 🙂

DailyCandor: Translation – “All stereotypes are funny and true except those about us.”

Comment by Dana — March 21, 2012 @ 9:30 pm
Oh by th way giannis, beautiful post. I take my hat off to you.

Comment by Dana — March 21, 2012 @ 9:35 pm
Funny!! But the Greek one is kinda lazy 😛 can you please write something more about Greeks, daily candor? Surely you have more thoughts on them 🙂 pretty please? They ARE technically in Europe after all 😀

Comment by Elisa — March 22, 2012 @ 8:44 am
Okay I am a greek,First of all “europe” is a greek word,Herodotus was the first historian to classify europe,asia ect.Secondly,We greeks caused our economic situation,we should have been barred from entering the euro,don’t know why other countries kept lending our government money when our government is inadequate.

Turks:We don’t hate them!!!! Sick and tired of europeans asking me or assuming we hate turks.What happened in the past is the past,and now we are in the future.Come on guys! We are in the 21 st century!

Albanians:Majority of them are illegal immigrants,who have a reputation for thieving.To be fair alot of them were taken advantage of from us asshole’s. 🙂

Macedonians:Fake name,fake culture.Enough said.

Italians:Absolutely love the Italians! Adore them,their culture,they are like us,enjoy life so much.(Partly what got us in this crisis) Se latreuo!!!

Scandinavian Countries:Introverts,softly spoken,need to loosen up a bit,but have amazing standards of living.Plus love their effeciency.

Belgium,Netherlands,Switz:Grow a backbone! Stop being so neutral! Don’t you have an opinion on anything?Oh and stop bending over backwards for your immigrants.

Austria:Hitler was born here.

Germany:Caused ww2 and the holocaust.Amazing people.So effiecent,Powerhouse of Europe,yet are starting to be resented by us greeks because we don’t want the bailout or the euro.But love Germans!Even if they don’t love us anymore.

Eastern europe:Slavs,all speak a similar language,look similar and are known for: sorry guys :)….cheap women.

Brits: I like them,but when they come to my country the women turn into sluts,the men are all over the place and they are generally drunk most of the time.Don’t have much respect for local people.

Portugal:What portugal? A miniture spain.

Spain:Another mediterranean people who know how,and like to party.Are cultured people.

France:I like the people,love the food,nice culture,are a bit arrogent 🙂 refuse to speak english,when they can 🙂

And finally Greeks: We are loud,outgoing,assholes’,rude(especially athenians!),Friendly,love to party and enjoy life.We are proud due to historical reasons,have a strong culture,are close to our religion(Orthodox Christianity).We also have strong family ties.Sometimes the family can be a pain in the ass,but we are family,we love eachother,and stick together.We also stand up for what we believe in,and REFUSE to be bullied.We are passionate and strong willed.( Did I forget assholes?)

We generally get a long with most people.Our country is a HUGE mess in every aspect:economiclally,socially and politicaly.So sorry if we come across as a little crazy 🙂 We have a joke in greece. “When were were creating democracy,maths,science,poetry,theatre ect.They were all swinging in trees”. 🙂 Did I mention we are assholes?
Oh one more thing: Yes,we still practise anal sex,but now its done between men and women.

Comment by Anastasia — March 22, 2012 @ 5:08 pm
Well, this article is a piece of bullshit, at least as far as Poland is considered. I’m 100% Pole and this is simply lie that Poles don’t like Czechs, Slovaks and Lithuanians. Czechs are actually one of our favourite nations. Same about the statement that we like Germans. Most Poles (especially older generation) don’t like them. Younger Poles usually feel neutral about them, I’ve never heard “I like Germans” from any of my friends. I can just imagine that these notes about other countries are same bullshit.

DailyCandor: Never said the Polish like Germans. You admire and emulate them, and fear them a bit. As for supposedly loving Czechs, well, that wasn’t my experience.

Comment by Pole — March 24, 2012 @ 4:36 am
well from my northern ireland, i’ll gave our stance,

we hate being called either a) british or b) irish depending on what religion you are, protestants consider themselves being british and catholics being irish,

northern irish protestants hate being called irish by the english and hates it when other nationals, especially amercians say for example, belfast ireland, instead of belfast northern ireland, one island two countries,

northern irish catholics hate being referred to as british and part of the untied kingdom

in general to other nations, we see
english as twats
welsh people with funny accents
scottish as drunks or druggies
germans are humourless uptight and rigid, and normally the butt of jokes regarding the world wars.
french as rude cowards and arrogant
dutch as laid back and stoners
italians as sexy, good food
turks as perverts
swedish hot blonds
poles and other former soviet east europeans as untrustworthy and dangerous especially when drunk
spanish, portuguese, , danish, swiss, austrians, belgians no real opinion

just to comment on americans

we either hate them or love, nothing new there

Comment by marty86 — March 29, 2012 @ 3:02 pm
I’m sorry to have to correct you on this one but Swedes tend to feel strongly superior to most other countries especially when we’re abroad. All you who have visited Sweden didn’t you find us all just a little bit overly clear when you asked for help or directions? I don’t know how the other scandinavian countries are when it comes to this but they should have just as good a reason to feel superior… Denmark has a strong economy just like all northern countries, they were a big power in their past just likethe Swedes. The Norwegians have always been pushed around by Denmark and Sweden but recently they found oil and joined the other strong northern economies plus they always have this interesting feel of smugness towards Swedes. You were right about the finns though, they are kinda cold and actually really uncomfortable to be around at a party until they get drunk at which point they do tstrangest things ever.
So yeah Swedes act really condescending towards foreigners and are disliked in all the other nordic countries to the point where it can be hard to get a good drink in Denmark… luckily I’m from Skåne (scania) and we’re okay by most danes and norwegians and it’s fun to confuse them with our difficult to understand Skånska dialect

Comment by Ulf — April 1, 2012 @ 4:07 am
In my opinion, all the borders of the European nations are wrong. That’s why Europeans hate each other so much. For example: Nice and Corsica should be Italian, but they are French. South Tyrol should be Austrian, but it’s Italian. Northern Ireland should be part of the Republic of Irland, but is under the United Kingdom. Then, look at Greece vs Macedonia, Kosovo vs Serbia, Greece vs Turkey for Istanbul (Constantinople!!! \o/) or in Cyprus for the fake-Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus… etcetc.
In addition, we fought against each other all the time since the fall of the Roman Empire until 20 years ago.

I’m a Europeanist and I love all European countries and people. We should create a centralized state, not like shitty E.U., that includes all of Europe (from Portugal to Belarus / Ukraine [+ Russia if Russians wish], from Cyprus to Iceland, + Armenia and Georgia. Except Turkey, but before we have to take back Istanbul and Northern Cyprus, because they don’t belong to the Turks. These areas are European and Turks aren’t European, so to unify Europe, we must expel them from Europe, and confine them in Anatolia). I think that all the peoples of Europe have strengths and weaknesses, and only with the fusion of European countries into a single super-state and all citizens in one people, we can complement one another and we can create a superpower to dominate the world. As in the past, the world was dominated by individual european powers, in the future it will be dominated once again by Europe, no longer divided but united…and no one will stop us!!!

It’s true, we have different languages??, but we can learn a common language in a democratic way, for example, Esperanto for doing wrong to none about the common language to speak.

BTW Greetings from Italy, I love you all european friends (I’m not gay <_< I don't use gel and I dont' tan my skin like 20% of italian population…yes, in Italy who tans their skin and use the gel is a minority, they are objects of derision in Italy too.), and I hate all the scum that is immigrating from Africa into Europe (niggers and muslims).
Bye!! \o

Comment by EUROPE FTW!!! — April 3, 2012 @ 1:19 pm
I am scottish, I do agree on most parts of the post and coming from my point of view, we love mostly everywhere but ofcourse england. But I wouldnt say all of it just the north and another would be german for obvious reasons which as usual because of the past. Other than both of those countrys we dont have a reason to hate any other country or to be hated back but I dont know thats just my opinion!

Comment by Jason95 — April 3, 2012 @ 5:03 pm
@@@@Comment by marty86 — March 29, 2012 @ 3:02 pm funny as how you never mentioned how you northern irish see yourselves.. im souther irish co.cork born and bred and give me the english people who you refer to as prats any day … most southern irish dont like northern irish whatever side your on .. i find all northern irish accents grate on me and alot of them have a chip on their shoulders .. fact is most of the south dont really want northern ireland back and most people over in england dont give a dam about northern ireland either and would glady hand it back .. as for americans trying to be irish they are just the most annoying people of all more so then the norther irish !! ….. as regards some of the nicest people in europe give me the spanish any day ..

Comment by JAMES SMITH — April 5, 2012 @ 6:13 am
To be honest, this website is dead funny, but it’s annoying when some people are taking these stereotypes so seriously!! it’s wrong, to hate an entire nation, based of an old war or assumptions ect…

But yeah, as someone from england, I can definatly see, why we’re sterotyped as drunk and easy or whatever, and it’s probably because, when we go to another country on holiday, we often go with the intention to get drunk and party!! especialy if we’re holidaying in spain and portugal, there’s a lot of night clubs there!! (at least were i was staying!!)
What we think of the rest of europe?
To be honest, I’d say we didn’t have an opionion, on most of it, or at least we don’t think about it alot,…
but heres what I think of them..

France: lovely place, great culture.. but the people?..not so great. I’m sure most french people, arn’t snobby and arrogent ect, but when I went there, I found them to be that way… I think the nicest people there, were the asylum-seekers, and immagrents and homeless, who treid to con you out of money under the eiffel tower, because at least they were polite!

Spain: I LOVE spain!! The people are freindly, and the whole place is sunny, and there is a lot of night-life, according to hear, spanish people are racist, but I’ve never seen that myself..

Portugal: seem’d a lot like spain, or maybe it’s just because I visited a tourest area..

Germany: I’ve never really spoken to a german, other than online, they seem polite if not a little arrogent and uptight, a lot of the older generation in britaian hate the germans for obvouis reasons, but thats in the past now..

Italians; They seem kinda like a mix between the french and the spanish.. freindly but a little lazy, with good cooks and a rich colture.. The only italians i know are pretty much arseholes, but I’m not gonna base a country of them..

Irish: my ancestors where irish that came over during the potato famine,(the famine was basicly englands fault!) I see them as happy hard-working people, and i have a lot of southern-irish teachers at my school, there all religouse, but nice, as teachers go…

so yeah setoe-types, i wouldn’t take them serously, we’re all just people and we all seem to think our countrys the best
(I don’t i want to live in america, were its sunny, but they still speak english!XD)

oh yeah!! and I don’t care if the rest of the world hates it, british cooking is tasty!!! fish an chips forever!!XD

Comment by hannah o'brain — April 7, 2012 @ 1:47 pm
I try not to base people of there nationalities, some people here, are taking it all to seriuoriusly, and are maikng themselves look stupid, by bigging up there own countrys, and bellittling others, I hate it when people act arrogent! Just remember we’re all people no matter where we come from, were not so different from eachother!! stero-types are fine as a joke, but i don’t get why some people have so much hate!! yeaht his websites funny, and I’m not personaly offended by setroe-typees of my countyry, it’s just the attatude, of some people here really makes me cringe!!

Comment by alice k — April 7, 2012 @ 1:52 pm
The standard joke in Poland starts “Pole, Russian and German enter the bar(or anything else)…” hatred towards Ukrainians, Slovaks and Lithuanians is made up, I never met any sentiments like that in Poland.

Comment by BackyardAsshole — April 19, 2012 @ 4:26 am
Well I’m Indonesian and I have a German exchange student friend, his name is Felix. Well I must say that he’s a very nice boy with very nice sense of humor, even though he can be a bit cheeky sometimes. Felix and I used to play chess and bingo together in the class during recess, he cheated me during the game I can still recall 😛 that. He is also very knowledgeable, he knows quite a lot everything about Europe and Indonesia. I used to tell stories and asking everything about Europe with him, he also likes to show me all the good stuff from Germany and Europe. Me and my classmates love him so much, we really miss him when he went back home to Germany. We had so many nice memories with him, we used to joked about him, but we still accept him as a team mate, classmate, and as a best friend. There’s only one downside of him, he is extremely LAZY.

Comment by Tiffany Cheng — April 23, 2012 @ 12:45 am
Best Car: Germany and Japan (Audi, Toyota, BMW, Mitsubishi, Mercedes, Honda)
Best Cosmetics: France and UK (Lancome, The Body Shop, L’Oreal, Marks and Spencer, L’Occitane, MAC)
Best Fashion: Italy and France (Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Channel, Hermes, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana)
Best Chocolate: Belgium and Switzerland
Best Butter: Netherlands and Denmark
Best Furniture: Sweden (IKEA)
Best Engine: Japan, Germany, and USA
Best Musics: UK and USA

Comment by mary — April 23, 2012 @ 1:24 am
Fuck you! We Poles don’t fear the German pigs!

Comment by Pole — April 23, 2012 @ 5:32 pm
To commentator no. 609:

Americans are considered ignorant because of the brainwashing from the media they have back in their country. The media always try to succumb the American society to be the sheep in the line, following all the media that’s really saddening. Especially Right-Winger medias like the Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are brainwashing the American society. Also, you must aware with the fact that there is a very strong anti-intellectualism in the U.S which contributes the American ignorance, they always think that being smart is “not cool”. The phenomenon is being called “Dumbing down Americans”.

American are viewed as superficial because Americans are pressured to fit the “social standard”. So, they become more superficial due to the “social demand” in order to pursue the “social standard”. In America, if you don’t fit the social standard you might be shunned.

Americans are viewed as being ill-educated because of the education system in USA, which doesn’t support the needs of the American society. Poor teaching method, lagging minority student (such as: Hispanic students, Black American students, etc.), poor teacher ability, and the amount of the tenure teachers A.K.A short term teachers in American schools. But now, Americans are struggling to fix their education system.

I know my explanations are out of the topic, but at least I can give the answers of why some of the Germans view Americans like that.

Comment by Tiffany Cheng — April 26, 2012 @ 10:45 am
Greeks not Europeans? FAIL..even the word “Europe” is greek, anyway, here’s what we Greeks think of each nation:

Germans: Efficient and smart. We like their country a lot, but most of us now think they hate us and want to kill us all lol

Italians: Brothers! Many similarities and they are very cool people.

Spanish, Portuguese: “Crisis Brothers” lol Anyway, we like them a lot, they are like us. I’ve been to Spain and people there respect Greek culture and like us a lot. It’s my favorite country!

Turks: ENEMIES and Asians, don’t belong to Europe.

Russians: Vodka, hot girls.

Serbs: “Orthodox brothers” ! However, i see them just like any other slavic nation because i am an atheist…

Croats: Beautiful country. Don’t know any Croats though..

Albanians: Thiefs, immigrants, poor and muslims.

FYR Macedonia: HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE THEM! OUR NATIONAL ENEMY, THIEFS AND BULGARIANS WHO PRETEND TO BE MACEDONIANS.

Scandinavians: Rich, drunk all the time and cold.

French: A bit arrogant but OK. Much more friendly towards Greeks comparing to Germans. And a really really beautiful country. They must be really proud.

British: Love tea, love coming to Greece and having fun (too much fun, most of the time). Personally, i like them a lot, cool people.

Bulgarians: Poor. What we don’t want to end up like as a country.

Poles, Hungarians, Czechs etc: Nice countries….umm..that’s it 😀

Comment by El Greco — April 27, 2012 @ 11:12 am
i think we need a (european) group hug after reading this …… gather round now ……..

Comment by pottymania — April 28, 2012 @ 10:04 am
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 ?

@BogdyBBA , you made me laugh.

After two days going through this, this is the one I wanted to answer, even after so many years.

I assumed the first statement was a joke. My fellow Americans, Transylvania is “near” Romania the same way California is “near” the United States. It is PART of Romania. It is not a town. It is a REGION. Like a little kingdom, get it? Ruled over by Count Dracula and his army of Chernobyl mutant vampires, who sparkle in the sunlight!

Comment by Whygod — April 30, 2012 @ 8:28 am
I have impressions about European countries like this:

Austria: Home of the Mozart, Opera, and my favorite foods Chicken Schnitzel and Apple Strudel. But my friend told me that Austria is re-known for producing crappy musical Band Groups unfortunately. It’s mountainous area, Salzburg ever became the shooting location of The Sound of Music.

Belarus: Ex-USSR country, very cold like Russia

Belgium: Land of Chocolate, Beer, and The Smurfs. My friend said that Belgium has lots of tasty restaurants and places.

Czech Republic: Beautiful capital Prague, spectacular nightlife.

Denmark: Scandinavian country, produce nice Lurepark butter, my school shoes ECCO are made here. Famous for its Viking and Carlsberg beer, most of the people in Denmark are extremely happy go lucky from what I heard.

Finland: Nokia land, that’s what my friend from Germany calls :D, sauna freaks. My Dad said that Finland is extremely cold, also very good education system. Quite famous for its unique but colorful clothes named Marimeko, my mom has one at home. I also think that Finnish people must extremely smart and serious.

France: Very nice country with nice fashion and culture. French are arrogant, but their arrogant because of their nationalism sense, can a bit distance. Also, the French love good food so much, they always gather at the restaurant enjoying food while debating or discussing. I have some kind of special impression about France ever since I watched Madeline cartoon on the TV when I was young at Australia ( I was born at Australia). I also admire for their health care and quality of life. The women are re-known for being elegant, petite, and stylish. Famous for its perfumes and cosmetics, Eiffel Tower as well. My Dad ever told me that French are also very quality and culture conscious high class people, dad also ever said that city of Paris has the cleanest air among metropolitan cities that he ever visited, which is true when I heard that there’s a hot air balloon that can check the air condition, throughout the Eiffel light during evening . I wished if I could go to France next time.

Germany: Nice cars, beers, and machinery that’s what I know about Germany. I always have good impression about Germany ever since I learn German at school, despite the fact that Germany had a dictator like Hitler. Hometown of my dear friend, Felix from Dresden of East Germany. My Dad ever told me if German food is too salty, too fatty, and too bland. Although I love German sausages like Bockwurst and Currywurst. Plus, I always heard from many people that Germans are usually “square-headed” just like what my Dad used to joke about Germans. The women are re-known for having big build and looked masculine.

Greece: Ancient western civilization came from here, lots of statues and monuments. Parthenon is my personal favorite, but I also like Mykonos Island shown from the brochure that my Dad brought for me. Love Greek food, Greek Salad and Feta cheese are my favorites. I have my first funny impression about Greece since I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie.

Hungary: Goulash and Bratislava, first impression about this country according to my friend. I always think that Hungary is famous for the meatball soup. My Grandpa had friend from Hungary, he told me that his friend was very intelligent and had a good sense of humor.

Iceland: Small, cold northern country away from mainland Europe famous for its Geyser and Banks. Nearly bankrupt, but has a very strong independence. Bjork always remind me about this precious country, from what I heard the capital of Reykjavik voted as the cleanest city in the world.

Ireland: Small country near Great Britain, far away at the northwest. Home of the redheads, drunks, Guinness, and green color obsessed people. Had a terrible history back during the Great Potato Famine. But Irish people always perceived as fun-loving, warm, and peaceful people. I also remember this country when I watched Leap Year movie stared by Amy Adams, my favorite movie.

Italy: Pizza, Spaghetti, and Lasagna are my first impression about Italy. Very beautiful and ancient country, I love Colosseum and Pisa tower. I always wished if I could go to Italy for vacation, to see all the things from Italy. Italians are famous for being loud, witness from my dad when he visited Italy, he said that almost everyone in Italy speaks loudly. But sadly, the government there is very corrupted and infamous for its Mafioso. This country also remind me of Lizzie McGuire film from the Disney channel.

Luxembourg: Mega rich European country, near Netherlands and Belgium forming Benelux group. Speaks a weird form of German from what I know. Luxembourgian also enjoy their wealth so much until they scared if they lost their money.

Monaco: Casino, Monte Carlo come up in my mind about this country. Small Monarchy country at Southern of France, paradise of the gamblers, and has beautiful beach. I always remember this country from movie Monte Carlo, starred by Selena Gomez..

Netherlands: Flat Northern European country below the sea level, always surrounded by the Dams and Windmill. Famous for its tasty cheeses like Gouda and Edam. Liberal people as well as tolerant with everyone, love flowers and weeds so much, they are also very tall, with the addiction of Beers. Wooden shoes all come from this country from what I know, also the national costumes are so admirable. Produces nice butters too, yummy.

Norway: Rich Scandinavian country, produces oil and natural gas, famous for the salmon fishes. Has the highest human development index in the world, stunning Fjords, as well clean environment. There are lots of blonde haired blue eyed people here. Fond of Fish and seafood.

Portugal: Mediterranean country, near Spain on Iberian peninsula. Crisis ridden, but has nice vacation spot for European tourist. Famous for its tea as well, very warm welcoming people, and they also love good music and dancing. Nice Port wine also come from here.

Russia: Emerging economy boom after the fall of communism, famous for the vodka and ultra stunning women, although the people there are overly racist, cold, and rude. Love Moscow, colorful St. Petersburg Cathedral, and tasty food called Borscht soup. Very cold, far at the north, almost like freezing all the time brrrr. Famous supermodels come from here, highly paid for magazines.

Spain: Matador, Paella, Flamenco, and Sunshine yup that’s Spain. Love the men, so handsome, romantic, and passionate. Sexy women all come from here from what I heard think about Penelope Cruz and Paz Vega . Very loud and welcoming people. But, most of them are very lazy, love to enjoy life, and never think about tomorrow. Fond of nap, look up siesta.

Sweden: Scandinavian country, famous for IKEA and its stunning blonde girls. Likes meatball, lingonberry jam and caviar paste. My favorite group band ABBA comes from here, also home of Roxette my mother’s favorite group band when she was young. Feminism is quite extreme here, there lots of women who become feminist in this country. Swedish are the master of hockey too, they always excel in hockey. Home of the political correctness and gender equality.

Switzerland: Rich country border to France at the west, Germany at the north, Austria at the east, and Italy at the south. Famous for its bank, cheeses, watches, and chocolates. People here talk very slow, clean, efficient, and precise. My dad always has a excellent impression about the Swiss (my dad has lots of Swiss co-workers), smart, and somewhat quite perfectionist. Has the most beautiful mountain called the Alps, famous spot for skiing. Nice Chalets are here, especially at Davos from what I heard. Wished to go to Switzerland if I have money.

UK: Famous for the Queen, The Beatles, Mr.Bean, Big Ben, and London Bridge. Has lots of top universities like Oxford and Cambridge, or others. Conquered so many countries in the 19th century, forming Commonwealth Nations. Fish and Chips, Roast Beef, and English Breakfast become the national food of this country. I also have uncle lives here with my aunt. My Dad always has impression that British people are somewhat stuck-up and old-fashion, but very open and friendly. Too bad, they always like to get drunk way too much and have very bad lifestyle.

Comment by Tiffany Cheng — May 6, 2012 @ 8:54 pm
We, Poles, are really oversensitive and generally suffering from severe inferiority complex, I must confess:-) Nice article, educating comments on it;-)

On the other hand – it’s a pity, that we were and still are recognised in Western Europe (Germany, Holland, UK, Scandinavia) mainly through our immigrants. To tell the truth: who generally has left our country and gone abroad? Not the intelectual elite at all;-) Scums, losers, semi-analphabets, fakers, thiefs – not able to cope with themselves here, in Poland, dreaming about a western paradise, going abroad without a penny and taking any job unseen – that is the main sort of our ‘ambassadors’ in the Europe. Of course, not all of them, but I’d say it’s ca. 60 per cent, unfortunately. With such an immigration, it’s really hard to have a better image in Europe:-) Unfair and generalizing, but true:-) The same refers probably to the Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and other similar post-communist nations, who must be often ashamed to hear or read bitter words about them, based on some immigration-affairs.
Reassuming to all: to get to know a country – just go to it, do not judge us by our immigrants:-)

Comment by Slavek — May 7, 2012 @ 1:31 pm
Someone asked what Finns think about Estonians. I would say we mostly like them. Alcohol is cheap (like everything, though not as cheap anymore) and we like to come there on a cruise and obviously buy HEAPS of it. We find their language funny. There are many Estonian cleaners in Finland.
I’ve heard stories of the “old Estonia”, when they couldn’t believe how high living standards we had in Finland.
I love that Estonians speak quite often Finnish with Finns, and they understand it much better than we understand Estonian. Some (young) Estonians are very rude anyway.

Finns hate Russia as a country. Yet we (most of us) don’t hate Russians. I have many Russian friends

Finnish guys think Swedish guys are gay pussies. Yet they think Swedish girls are damn hot.
Finnish girls think Swedish guys are gay pussies, but at least damn good-looking gay pussies. Swedish girls have carrot-orange skin, 10 kilos of make up and bleached yellow hair.
Swedes are polite, though in Stockholm they want to speak English to me though I speak fluent Swedish (Finnish accent).
It’s true that we don’t really care about winning, we just want Sweden to lose. Some Finns don’t want to admit it, but we kinda still like Sweden as a sibling.

And to all you Skandinavians who complain about Finland being counted in Skandinavia; in English language Skandinavia actually often is used as a synonym to Nordic countries. Does it really matter? Most people bit further away wont probably even make any difference between example Finland and Norway or Sweden.

Comment by suomalainen — May 18, 2012 @ 4:11 pm
@@@@638.We, Poles, are really oversensitive and generally suffering from severe inferiority complex, I must confess:-) Nice article, educating comments on it;-)

On the other hand – it’s a pity, that we were and still are recognised in Western Europe (Germany, Holland, UK, Scandinavia) mainly through our immigrants. To tell the truth: who generally has left our country and gone abroad? Not the intelectual elite at all;-) Scums, losers, semi-analphabets, fakers, thiefs – not able to cope with themselves here, in Poland, dreaming about a western paradise, going abroad without a penny and taking any job unseen – that is the main sort of our ‘ambassadors’ in the Europe. Of course, not all of them, but I’d say it’s ca. 60 per cent, unfortunately. With such an immigration, it’s really hard to have a better image in Europe:-) Unfair and generalizing, but true:-) The same refers probably to the Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and other similar post-communist nations, who must be often ashamed to hear or read bitter words about them, based on some immigration-affairs.
Reassuming to all: to get to know a country – just go to it, do not judge us by our immigrants:-)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> YOU JUST ABOUT SUMMED IT UP WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW BUT U DIDNT INCLUDE IRELAND IN IT.. WE HAVE SO MANY POLISH OVER HERE ON WELFARE FREE BENEFITS 188EURO A WEEK FREE HOUSES FREE MEDICAL CARD SAND FREE CHILDRENS ALLOWANCE YOU ONLY NEED TO GO INTO ANY BENEFITS OFFICE IN IRELAND TO REALISE THIS .. OUR POPULATION IN IRELAND HAS GONE FROM 1% NON NATIONALS TO NOW 17% NON NATIONALS IN 10YEAR AND VERY SCARY STATISTICS WE ARE OVER RUN WITH POLISH MAINLY AND YOU WONDER WHY MY COUNTRY IS SO IN DEBT .. WE CAN THANK THE EU FOR ALOT OF WHATS HAPPENING IN EUROPE AND IRELAND HAVING TO HAVE AN OPEN DOOR POLICY TO POLAND A COUNTRY WITH 52MILLION PEOPLE ,.. WHAT A JOKE ..

Comment by JAMES SMITH — May 21, 2012 @ 3:59 pm
********************************
***** G * R * E * E * C * E *****
*********************************
IS THE MOTHER OF EUROPE
And anyone who Doesn’t know
that is simply Uneducated !
Read what the BRITISH PROFESSOR
LIVINGSTONE says about
********************************
***** G * R * E * E * C * E *****
********************************
It’s Not only Europe’s Creator
It’s the Cradle of the Whole
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Worldwide ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Comment by MARK — May 23, 2012 @ 3:53 am
EVERYBODY IN THE WHOLE WORLD IS SPEAKING ***GREEK***
PROBABLY WITHOUT BEING AWARE OF IT ! ! ! !

For Example…. In Every Language Worldwide the Word TELEPHONE
Derives from the ***GREEK*** TELE Which Means DISTANCE
and PHONI which Means VOICE in the ***GREEK***LANGUAGE***

Another ***GREEK*** Word is EGOIST
EGO means I , ME, MYSELF IN ***GREEK***

OREXI IN ***GREEK*** MEANS APETITE
YOU ALL USE THE TERM ANOREXIA
(NON-APETITE IN GREEK)

And almost 45.000 other ***GREEK*** words
that EVERYBODY in the world is using daily !

And of course ALL the Terms in Sciences and Medicine are ***GREEK***
Gynecology ——> GYNEKA = WOMAN / LOGOS = ABOUT, WORD, FOR
Psychology ——> PSYCHE = SOUL, INNER WORLD, MENTAL
Biology ————> BIOS = LIFE

….. and so on……

Comment by MARK — May 23, 2012 @ 4:04 am
very interesting stuff… well there’s always a hint of truth in every joke… after all it wouldn’t be around if it’s total lie 🙂

i also see a lot of slavic stereotypes around here, and since i’m from Serbia (well, actually Vojvodina, northern province of Serbia… and i say it cause it matters 😀 ) i’m also gonna share some stereotypes with you folks…

well, first of all, my hometown is multiethnic, multireligious and kind of a, in the end, multicultural place (Serbs, Croats and Hungarians). as far as we talk about religion we have catholic, orthodox and protestant churches, mosque and synagogue. nobody’s really taking this too seriously… or at least a lot of people see it as a part of your upbringing, but not that serious to be considered a path in your life which you must follow… more like a tradition that got stuck with you…

like i said, i read a lot of stereotypes about slavic people, and i can just confirm them from my point of view… oh btw i’m what’s sometimes said to be a “real Vojvodinian”, or a little bit of everything (Serb, Croat + a drop of Hungarian background, raised in catholic religion)…

Yugoslavians – well like in every other nation you’re shaped by you’re surrounding, so that being said there’s a lot of difference between people born and raised in city, or a town, or a village… but setting this aside south slavs tend to show great hospitality as long as you pay respect to some usual, or let’s say universal, manners… actually this goes for all other ex-YU nations… being good host is expected from everybody… as far as drinking goes, south slavs are no different then anybody else, but maybe with slight alteration, when they drink, they usually end up being drunk, but i would blame this love for good times and celebrations… party maniacs in one sentence…. now smoking tends to be a bit more serious issue cause here almost every second person smokes… lower prices of cigarettes and loose smoking restrictions make this thing a nation spread habit… cuisine is pretty much similar in all ex-yu countries and it’s widely influenced by past ruling nations (Turkey, Hungaria, etc.)… it also takes a central part of people life’s… now some things that are more-less part of whole nation

Serbs – a lot of time tend to be very stubborn… this is usually the case with people that were raised in much more traditional way…. also things like bravery, religion and national pride play a vital part in traditional serbian family… also short tempered sometimes… this might be the reason why a lot of foreigners see Serbs as loud, violent, nationalists plus when you add some traditional-styled rituals…. it’s just exaggeration of things that every nation on this planet has….

Montenegrins – first thing that is said about every Montenegrin (which is actually part of every joke) is that they tend to be very lazy and to avoid all sorts of work…. in rural parts of Montenegro women will do a lot of physical work… there is a lot of emphasis on one’s and one’s family pride…

Bosniaks – tends to be described as dumb and naive (in jokes, even sometimes by themselves) but good hearted and positive people… and as first part varies from person to person, Bosniaks are usually very social and open to new people and will usually get along with everybody and show great hospitality (it is sometimes said that people from B&H with their mentality ones that were integral part in keeping Yugoslavia alive)

Croats – beside possessing very similar if not the same social mentality, Croats, especially from the capital city of Zagreb, are usually seen as uptight, looking down upon their eastern and southern neighbours but yet praising western nations like Germany, UK and USA… beautiful women, beautiful sea, love of song, wine and food especially on the Adriatic coast…

Slovenes – in Serbia usually seen as very quiet, reserved and serious… the richest republic in former Yugoslavia… people were much more influenced by Austria so their country is very clean, very well organized and they are somehow opposite side of their south-eastern neighbours… very liberal and art loving nation… because of some liberal views traditional people from Serbia will call them sometime gays…

Macedonia – pleasure loving people… devoted to food preparing, making and enjoying good music…. very beautiful women and social people… sometimes seen a bit distant…

some other countries

Romania – well since gypsies make up a large part of romanian population the whole nation ended up being called gypsies…

Bulgaria – usually underdeveloped… also older people will call them backstabbers… ther is a saying among older population “when war breaks out just attack Bulgarians, you won’t go wrong…”

Albania – well i guess there is a lot Serbs can say about Albanians, especially because of the recent dispute over souther Serbian province, Kosovo…. but, usually they are seen as poor, undeveloped nation, with family having at least 5 children… also they usually own bakery…

Hungarians – good looking and promiscuous women… excellent cuisine… beside that i can say few things more since i live in town that has hungarian ethnic majority… Hungarians are seen as very proud and somehow quiet (passive) nationalists… there is a lot of them born and raised in Serbia and yet they speak no (or very bad) serbian language… a lot of times they refuse to speak serbian even if they know it… also sometimes quiet and reserved… usually they have very thick accent when they speak serbian language, and on top of that they tend to mix some words (pronouns he/she/it cause they have only one pronoun) and mispronounce certain letters…

as far as we talk about some other countries stereotypes go like this…

Russia – big brother of Serbia… same religion, similar language…slavic brothers… very brave people… living mostly on vodka…

USA – dumb, fat, ignorant… tend to think that majority of americans get education from action movies…

UK – drunks…good music

Germany – good electronics, good cars, porn movies

Italy – Serbians tend to call them “frogeaters” …pizza, mafia…

Greece – brothers because of the same religion…

China – undeveloped… funny looking, funny talking… cat and dog eaters… rice eaters…

Japan – good electronics

Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Scandinavia, Canada,… – the true west for Serbians… bad weather, cold, but high standard…

Comment by marko — May 25, 2012 @ 6:43 pm
Ni hao, I’m from Tianjin, China and I have quite a lot impression about European countries. Since there are so many Chinese people go to European countries for holiday or living abroad. We love each of the places, even though some Chinese people abroad have bad reputation for being rude and impolite, I’m really sorry for that but at least Chinese people love to appreciate European countries, enjoy their time so much there.
We also have quite a number of influence from Europe here in China, especially at the coastal area where you can see quite a lot of European legacy in this area, we also have a very long and complex relationship with the Europeans since the ancient times, dynasty era, until now. The China is also connected to the Europe via Silk road which creates the Eurasia relationship, there are lots of Europeans traveled ( mainly Marco Polo) to the east and China particularly through this road in the ancient times, as you can see a lot of ancient European legacy. Created Sino-Europa relationship.
Here in China the Europeans are often being called lao wai (old foreigner friend) or yang ren (people from accross the ocean), but we also have a bad name for them like calling them guilao (a.k.a the ghost man).
There are some considerable amount European people living in China too, as far as you know. Here are what the Chinese people think about European countries:

German: Beer guzzling industrious people, they always come to Qingdao, Shandong province for studying, working, or living abroad. Since Qingdao is famous for its Qingdao beer, so Qingdao attracts so many Germans coming to China and note that the Germans were first time settled in China, arrived at Qingdao. There is a German influence in China particulary in Qingdao Shandong province from the German settlers in China, which can be traced back at the 19th-20th century, the Germans inherited the violin and the beer making industry to the Chinese people in Qingdao, Shandong and finally it became the part of the Shandong province “ancesteral treasury” for the violin and the “ancesteral culture for the beer industry” in Qingdao. They also give a bit of their influence to China in Hainan island, they gave the Hainanese people piano and finally became one of the “ancesteral treasury” in Hainan. We also had some bad memories with the Germans during the Opium War which can be explained why some of the Chinese elderly quite dislike the Germans. There some Germans living in Shanghai too for working and investing, but too bad most of Chinese people in Shanghai have a bit of bad memories with them, which is can be traced back during the Western and the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and Opium War years ago, the Germans also give their influence in Shanghai if you see there are quite a lot of old mansions of the German dwellers at the old town of Shanghai in both Puxi and Pudong. We also have a German influence here in Tianjin, since you can also see the German mansion in the old town of Tianjin. In ancient time, the German Johannes Gutenberg ever discovered the old Chinese printing machine, and brought it back to Europe and claimed it as his own invention. Germans also love to come to China visiting Forbidden City and Great Wall of China, I love the Germans they’re very nice although there are so many Chinese people complaining about them for being stingy and sloppy when they’re coming as a tourist. Germans are often admired for their industrial behavior and the German products are loved here since the products are always made in a very good quality.

France: The Chinese love the cosmetic and the fashion products, there are so many Chinese ladies of young and old age come to mall or the store for buying the products (as you note the considerable amount of the Chinese ladies coming out from L’Occitane and Channel). Chinese people also like to come to the French Supermarket, called Carrefour for buying food and snacks. The French are also highly admired for their culture here in China, as well as their way of life. Many Chinese people going to France for Holiday, and they’re also a lot of Chinese people living in France. Deng Xiaoping the Chinese leader ever studied politics in France, before he went back to China rebuilding China after Mao’s death. Chinese people always think that the French are very classy but a bit stuck-up and wearing too much perfume, however the Chinese admired their sense of style, we think the men are very romantic and the women are very elegant (they always associate french women with Carla Bruni :D). There is some French influence in Shanghai and here in Tianjin as you can see there are quite a lot French mansions, they also inherit the sense of the fashion that many of the Shanghainese posses now or the French restaurants in Pudong, Shanghai. However, we also have a bit of love-hate realtionship with France since the Chinese ever boycotted the French products during the Sarkozy visit to Tibet and during the Beijing Olympic in the year of 2008. French people also come to China as an Expatriate or as a tourist, they like Shanghai the most because Shanghai is considered as the Paris of the east, but they also like visiting Beijing. The Chinese people from Shanghai also have the same trait as the French people from Paris like rude, arrogant, fashionable, luxurious, and refuse to speak English when they actually can. Chinese people and Chinese ambassador always associate France with classy and sophisticated. Wo ai fa guo, vive la France:).

Italy: China had a very long relationship with Italy since the Marco polo ever traveled here to China during the ancient time, their food like Pizza and Spaghetti got influence from Chinese Shaobing (Flat bread) and Chinese Lamian (Hand-made noodles). Italy also has a very long history like China as well (look up Roman Empire), they also have a grand history and grand culture like China as well. There are lots of Italian explorers came to China, particularly Marco polo learning Chinese culture and Chinese Philosophy which created a somewhat historical ties with us. There’s also one Italian explorer who ever met Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in the real person. The Italians are highly admired for their history, culture, and fashion just as the way we appreciate the French. We also think the same about Italian men as the same thing we think about French men for being romantic, we also think the women are classy like the French women but more exotic and warmful. The Italian spaghetti is being called the Zha Jiang mian of the west, and the pizza is being called the Shaobing of the west in China. The Italians also give influence here in Tianjin as you can see there quite a number of Italian mansions here, as well as the Italian legacies. In Xi’an especially at the Silk Road area there a number of Italian influence too mostly because of the whole Marco Polo thing. I love Italians they’re awesome people just like the Chinese as well, they’re often come to China too for visiting Beijing and Xi’an. Chinese people and Chinese ambassador always associate Italy with exotic, ancient, grand, and well cultured despite the fact that they have mafioso. Italy is awesome, yi da li wo ai ni :).

UK: We also have somewhat a number of influence from the British since long time a go particularly at Hongkong S.A.R where the British colonized there, as well as memories with the British both bad and good. Here in China we also have British influence in Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Beijing, Dalian, Hongkong and Hokien province as you can see many British legacy and old British style mansions or building especially in the old city part. In Shanghai there are many British style building and British style mansion especially at Pudong area of Shanghai, there are also quite a number of British style garden, but sadly people in Shanghai often have bad memories with the British and quite dislike the British due to the Opium War during the fall of Qing Dynasty and the western occupation of China. In Qingdao the British gave the Shandong people piano and modern musical notes, then finally become one of the Shandong province “ancesteral treasure”, the British also ever established their British Navy port during the Qing Dynasty. While in Tianjin the British gave their influence to the Chinese Navy army by teaching the Chinese navy the skill of fighting, during the Qing Dynasty era, they even gave the Chinese Navy military ship during the Qing Dynasty, here in Tianjin you can also see a lot of British old mansion. In Beijing the British ever almost seized China during the Opium War, end of the Qing Dynasty, they fought with the Chinese but they won, until we had to give Hongkong to them, but we got Opiums, this is the major reason where was the Forbidden City originated. In Dalian, they ever settled there and established their navy port and taught the Chinese army about fighting skills, you can also see the British mansion in Dalian. In Hongkong, the British influence is very strong due to the British colonization, lots of Hongers easily associate with the British culture, you can see a a lot of British establishment and British legacy at Hongkong, the Hongers can speak English because of them. Hongkong was the proletariat of the UK before the Hongkong hand-out to China in the year of 1997, there are also a lot of British people living in Hongkong. In Hokkien the British ever settled there during the Opium War era, so that is why the Cantonese still a bit sour with the British, even the British (and the westerners as a whole) being called “Angmo” (a.k.a red hair) in Hokkien dialect. Other than that, I just love UK I wished if I could.

Russia: China also share the same history with Russia especially in the China communism era, where Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin maintained a close relationship. Russian are the ones who introduced communism to China in the end of World War 2, we had the same ideological view with Russia as well that time. Here in China, there are a lot of Russian live especially at the Northern China and the Western China border with Russia, I’ve seen quite a lot of them here at Tianjin. The Russians are often worked in China as a labor, they’re quite hardworking but sadly enough the women of Russia are known for being highly promiscuous here. And there are also Chinese people living in Russia, but they’re in minority. China and Russia always try to maintain a good relationship since we have the same background with Russians. Chinese men always find Russian women are extremely attractive, they always seek a Russian wife to live with.

Sweden: Chinese people always come to Sweden for shopping, they also like the Swedish IKEA, buy the furniture in IKEA. There’s IKEA here in China too particularly in Beijing. Swedish people also like to come to China for holiday, I just really love them they’re very nice people as well as intelligent.

I always read that the Europeans have somewhat a bad view on China, yes I do understand that’s because of our government. You should know that the Chinese society is now facing the oppression from the government. However, I still love Europe and I do believe that there are some Europeans who love China as well.

Comment by Xinmei — May 27, 2012 @ 7:06 am
I forgot, I have more explanation about Europe once more. My Goodness!

The Germans together with the British are the ones who taught the Qingdao population of beer making, even though we made beer in the ancient time, but the Germans together with the British taught the modern technique . The French also taught the Chinese of modern wine brewing, although we also made wine from rice and grape in the ancient times but the French gave us the modern technique. The Russians also taught the Chinese of how to brew beer as well, especially at Harbin province along with the Germans.

Bonus

Greece: Same with Italians, awesome people with awesome history and culture just like China, they along with the Italians are the one who created the great European civilization. There is always a saying like this “the world would not ever exist without the Egyptians, the Italians, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Indians, and the Chinese”.

Switzerland: Watch making Alpine dwellers, the Chinese like to come to Switzerland for holiday and skiing, we also like their Rolex and Tag Heuer watches. The Swiss also discovered the Chinese clock invention and they brought back to Switzerland then claimed it as their invention. Note that Chinese also ever made clock, water clock to be excact, if you believe it or not it’s up to you. But then the Swiss made it even perfect, after that they brought it to China and introduced it to the Emperor, the Emperor loved it so much. They also ever brought their first watches to China, the Chinese loved it so much, and the Emperor even highly praised for it.

That’s all my impression about Europe, xie xie da jia have a nice day 🙂

Comment by Xinmei — May 27, 2012 @ 7:48 am
I am English and first want to point out that in EVERY one of these countries, the views of other countries will be DIFFERENT depending on the class of the people you are asking. The young working class in England will not even be able to tell you where most of these nations are. The old upper class will have views directly influenced by the world wars.
I have traveled to many countries in Europe as well as outside of it, in fact, I’m living in the USA now , (I’m not a drunk trouble maker, though I accept this stereotype as many English people are) so here is my view on our continental cousins.

The Welsh – Meh. People forget they’re there. They only come up in conversations about rugby, but they’re known on the negative for being too rural and having questionable relations with sheep, however on the positive, they are known for not causing trouble like the Scots.

The Scots – Trouble makers, mainly due to the independence talk, which would be the final blow to the “empire” and a betrayal. Stereotyped as being kilt-wearing, log-tossing french-lovers. Also, they get a bad reputation for Glasgow having a lower life expectancy than Baghdad. Seen as universally unhealthy.

The Northern Irish – Pretty good relationship, although this depends on religion. I have had a protestant Northern Irishman thank me for my country coming to make sure those nasty Catholics didn’t make them bow to the pope. Personally, I think they should readopt their previous flag, so as to set them apart as one of the four nations within the UK. They’re good people.

The Irish – Luke warm relationships here. Much like the Scottish, our relationship mainly involves more hate directed at us than from us. The Irish potato famine and nail bombings are still a sore spot, as well as Catholic Irishmen who complain about treacherous protestants in Northern Ireland. They are known for their drunkenness (mainly because we have to have someone to point to and say “they’re more drunk than us!”). Some bad feeling for them not helping in WWII.

The Spanish – Not quite as good as our relationship with the Portuguese. They’re seen as a little too laid back, and we envy their football victories. Other than that, not much to say, although any self-respecting Englishman will take a Spaniard to task if they try to “negotiate” the Gibraltar issue. Some might bring up their lost armada.

The Portuguese – Great relationship. They’re seen as not being as lazy as the other Southern Europeans, and are fun loving people who forgive Englishmen of their many faults.

The Andorrans – A combination of the best Spain and France have to offer. They’re not too consequential.

The French – Very complicated relations. I agree with what someone above said. Totally opposed in culture, but we’re both self-involved and pretentious, so there is some common ground. They are stereotyped as cowards who surrender a lot, drink coffee and smoke to no end, although we’ll admit their cooking is much better than ours. Paris is also a nicer city than London. I think our tensions are more playful than most people think. It’s not real hatred anymore. It’s teasing and poking.

The Monacans – There’s no such thing. Everyone in the country is a rich billionaire dodging taxes.

The Luxembourgers – The most self-obsessed people in Europe. Will not ever stop telling you how rich and famous they are while they do that Zoolander “Blue Steel” look. We don’t like them much, but will tolerate their presence.

The Belgians – We like the Belgians. We hate the Belgian government. It’s unfortunate that our historical love-in with the Belgians, who are ace chocolateers and spirited fighters, has been strained by the EU body in Brussels. The Belgian people themselves are nice, friendly, humble, and even if they can be dim, it allows us to dominate the conversation, which we love doing, because we’re arseholes like that.

The Dutch – Mixed feelings. We admire their Germanic efficiency, but consider them the filth of Europe because they are associated with prostitutes and heavy drug use. It is considered to be common for the Dutch to give dildos on Christmas because they are horrendously open about things like that, which makes us uncomfortable because it is not ‘proper’. At least they are not as uptight as the Germans though.

The Germans – It’s strange, but like a magnet, whatever major historical differences, something about Germany makes us love and envy it. We wish we were as efficient and hard-working. Yes, we fought in WWII (which does come up), but the French get more WWII crap than the Germans from us. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we are Germanic in origin. We find German to be our favourite of the European languages because it’s easy to understand, and we find the harsh authoritarian sound the accent has rather hilarious. We do wish the Germans would lighten up and not be so aggressive however. They’ll look for a fight with anyone.

The Danes – We like the Danes, but don’t recognize them as real Scandinavians, or of Viking descent. They also refused the Euro, so we have a kind of kinship there in that neither of us thinks the Euro will succeed, and laugh a little as things fall apart. Danes are regarded as humble, although they have a strong dislike of Germans. We can mediate between the two.

The Swedes – Literally, the Swedes are only known for having beautiful women and great furniture. There are no other feelings apart from arousal and a desire for well-made chairs when it comes to Sweden.

The Norwegians – One of our favourite neighbours. We consider ourselves closer to the Northern European, Scandinavians than to the French or anyone else, and Norway is our favourite. We don’t remember the Vikings, and regard the Norwegians are rather placid and fun-loving, if a little traditional for our taste. They wear too much knitted clothing, and look alike, but we salute them for the Christmas tree they send us every year as a thanks for helping to liberate them from the Nazis. I’ll tell you this. I think the English get along with the Norwegians better than any other European.

The Finns – Seen as very introverted, quiet, have Russia’s drinking problem, but aren’t violent. We recognize their strong hatred of Russia. We kind of like them, and will defend the FACT that they are Western European, even if geography says otherwise.

The Swiss – We do secretly love the Swiss, even if we won’t say. They’re good at making clocks and are always neutral. They have great mountains and are really good at saving money! If we’re being politically incorrect, it is widely known that if you find a Swiss Jew to be your accountant, you’ve struck gold.

The Liechtensteiners – Not much is known about them.

The Italians – Terrible at fighting. We compare them to the French. Great cooks, but cannot fight a war to save their lives. We see them as lazy, incapable, and almost child-like, having to be taken care of constantly. Other than that, we can have a good time with Italians.

The Sammarinese – Italians under a different name.

The Vaticans – Italians who serve the Pope fanatically.

The Austrians – Ethnically obsessed pianists who we have a reasonable relationship with. We like their accent because it sounds pretentious, like ours, but they’re nowhere near as efficient as the Germans. Vienna is known by all because of the Ultravox song, “This means nothing to me…. ahhh, Vienna.” Austrians are seen as rather friendly to other white people on the continent, but Heaven help you if you are a minority.

The Hungarians – For some reason, they’re always hungry, and they have a very, very, very, very strong hatred of Romanians, particularly of the Roma persuasion. We can relate a little, because we don’t like gypsies, who short-change us on the Helter Skelter every time the carnival comes to town! We get along well with Hungarians.

The Czechs – We regard Prague as one of the best cities in Europe, and the Czechs are people we feel a little indebted toward because we didn’t help them when they were invaded by Hitler. I guess we’re kind of indifferent beyond that.

The Slovaks – Crazy, murdering former-commies. Yes, our stereotype has been completely coloured by the film, Hostel. But hey, it’s probably true. Slovakia has beautiful women, but is apparently devoid of men, and everything from the burned out factories to the corrupt police make it a depressing country, with some depressing people.

The Slovenes – For some reason, they are thought of as ugly. I’m not sure why. This was probably a vicious rumour spread by Croatian immigrants wanting to discredit their neighbours. They are seen as friendly however, if a little introverted like the Finns.

The Croats – There is a bad feeling towards all of Eastern Europe when it comes to the Eurovision song contest, and it mainly falls on Croatia. We feel they all vote for each other and cheat us out of a win (even though our entry is usually terrible) Croats are seen as kind of bland and uninteresting, if a little more confrontational than the Slovenes.

The Serbians – Troublemakers. We don’t like them because they are more confrontational and angry than the Germans. They might just be our least favourite Balkan nation.

The Kosovars – Very indifferent. We never meet any.

The Montenegrans – They are a nicer version of Serbians, but aren’t very interesting at all.

The Bosnians/Herzegovinians – Another group of people who we are largely indifferent towards, but we generally do not like countries that are overly friendly with Serbia.

The Albanians – An Islamic enclave in Europe. Beyond their cool flag, we see them as sneaky, underhanded, and inherently evil.

The Macedonians – We don’t know much about them. They seem to be a hybrid of Greeks and Slavic people, which makes for an interesting group who are both laid-back, but depressed. They do mention Alexander the Great a lot, and don’t like Greek laziness, which gives us some common ground.

The Greeks – We don’t view them as being Balkan. They are fun and great to be around, but they are extremely lazy and demand the government cater to their every need. This means we will have a great time with Greeks, but will not form long-term friendships with them, as they become clingy scroungers after a while.

The Cypriots – Good people in the southern area. Bad people in the north. In the south, they are like the Greeks, but not as lazy. In the north, they are crazy Muslims who swear allegiance to Turkey.

The Maltese – They invented Malteasers. What’s not to like?

The Bulgarians – We can relate to the Bulgarian wariness of the Islamic religion, so we’ll get along better than with most other Balkan countries. They are seen as more reliable than Romanians, and less likely to steal your stuff.

The Romanians – Stereotyped as all being Roma or vampire. Kids in Romania sniff paint and glue in public in the capital, and paedophiles prowl every urban area. They are known for being money-grabbing and untrustworthy, but not as inherently evil as the Albanians. We’ll side with Hungary in an argument, and we’ll sooner hire a Polish immigrant than a Romanian.

The Polish – Surprisingly, we have a lot of respect for the Poles, who work harder than most British people, but are a little more light-hearted than the average German. They have good fun, and I think we both like each other to some extent. We’ll fiercely defend Poland in a dispute with Russia.

The Lithuanians – Seen in a very sympathetic light. We instinctively defend them in an argument because they are very much an underdog country, suffering under years of Russian oppression. They are seen as very loyal and loving, but defenceless in every respect. They are a child nation, like Italy, but we wouldn’t put them up for adoption.

The Latvians – Very quiet, withdrawn, but lovable people. They are good natured, but shy, and like the Lithuanians, we feel a need to defend them. In fact, I once defended a Latvian who was being shouted at by some Russian supremacist.

The Estonians – The Most capable and independent Baltic state. They get on with it. They’re intelligent, resourceful and mature and will avoid confrontation with Russians whenever possible, unlike Latvians and Lithuanians, who usually put their foot in their mouths and bad mouth the Motherland. We like them, but in a cold, distant way.

The Belarussians – People who have no sense of national identity. They want to become one with Russia again, because it makes them strong. They are run by a dictatorship, and are generally more hostile than Ukrainians, who we like.

The Ukrainians – We like them, as I said. We feel sorry for how they were brutalized by the Soviets and we also regard them as being rather beautiful.

The Moldovans – Interesting little piece of information. Ukrainians HATE Moldovans. Especially if they live in the Crimea. They view them as identity-thieves and liars, as well as idiots. We don’t have much to say about them.

The Russians – Finally, our vodka drinking, communist Cold War enemies. We can get along with them sometimes, but will quickly be scared off by how confrontational and arrogant they can be. They also drink worse than us, having vodka with every meal. The girls in particular are cheats and are often spoiled. The boys are condescending and jealous most of the time. Whenever a Russian threatens one of our Eastern European friends, we’ll jump in and call them a commie wanker.

Sorry if these are TOTALLY false. We all have stereotypes. These are the ones I’ve found to be most commonly held among the people I know in England, but in all fairness. every country has good and bad people. That’s the way of the world.

Comment by Dan Savlot — May 27, 2012 @ 9:04 pm
here in Poland we hate the germans a lot! only the germans!!

DailyCandor: How come you’re posting from Germany, then? Maybe a German happy to justify hatred against Polish people?

Comment by 1488 — May 29, 2012 @ 1:16 pm
@1488 – I heard the Polish did not like the Germans. I guess I was right.

BTW, I’d like to retract what I said about Serbians. They can be very arrogant, aggressive and insulting, but after talking with a Serb, I understand why. They HATE Albanians, and anyone who supported Kosovo’s secession. This is why they’re pissed.

Comment by Dan Savlot — May 29, 2012 @ 2:57 pm
Once again

Netherlands: The Dutch ever settled in China during the 15th century in Hokkien province due to the spice trade along with the Portuguese, they also ever settled in Taiwan along with the Portuguese. And the Dutch were being called “angmo” (red haired) in Hokkien province and Taiwan just like the way they called the British, because lots of Taiwanese and Hokkien people associate the Dutch with reddish hair. They ever established the spice trade with the Spaniards and the Portuguese at the 15th century. Dutch people also were being stereotyped as a barbarian just like the way they stereotyped the Spaniards and the Portuguese. The Dutch like to smoke weed, just like the Chinese from Sichuan province.

Spain: In the 15th-16th century the Spaniards were being stereotyped as the southern barbarians or the “nanban” by the Chinese because the Chinese greatly disliked them due to their barbarian like behavior. The Spaniards ever did the spice trade with the Dutch and the Portuguese at the southern province of China ( Hokkien and Canton particularly). But they’re also seen as lazy and welcoming people, they like to enjoy life and enjoy all the good things.

Portugal: The Portuguese ever conquered Macau island as you can see the Portuguese influence in Macao and you can also see the Portuguese legacy in Macao,there are lots of Portuguese cathedrals too in Macau. Some of the Macanese also have Portuguese blood, they can associate themselves with the Portuguese traditions. Portuguese people also ever established a spice trade in the southern coastal area of China with the Spaniards and the Dutch. We also view the Portuguese the same like we view the Spaniards.

That’s all

Comment by Xinmei — May 31, 2012 @ 10:25 am
@@@Comment by Dan Savlot — May 27, 2012 @ 9:04 pm you dont seem to have a good word to say about anyone haha !! cheer up mate !, i know lots of english people and believe i dont think your views are typical english as most i know are the same as us irish and we do not like the polish people coming over.. also we irish are nothing like the scottish and you english drink as much as us,, i know lots of english and i have family married to english people and i think your way off the mark, for starters we irish have no problems with english people as we have a enough problems at moment sorting out the economy .. plus the queens visit to ireland last year also proved that.. ill agree there are a few irish who are anti british but they are a small minority.. in ireland outside of irish .. english are the largest non nationals living in ireland then the polish… why polish are drawn to a tiny country over here in the west of europe i will never know the culture is different the language is different and just about everything else is different …someone posted on here that as regards polish we dont get the doctors lawyers or accountants or the educated ones we get all the crap, druggies and low life polish who most love out welfare system.. in poliand polish get 50euro a week dole over here in ireland they get 188 free housing free childrens allowance .. so we know why they like ireland.. yesterday in our news we had 150 brothels busted by the police and most were run ny polish and eastern europeans today we had a 1.5million euro drigs bust again all by 3 polish were arrested.. you only need to look at our local newspapers and every second crime in there is commited by polish be it for drink driving drugs robberies or other things … i persoanlly hope the eu collapses and all these polish have to get out and go home … as we are sick to the teeth of them underming the culture of a small country like ireland ..

Comment by JAMES SMITH — May 31, 2012 @ 1:54 pm
My opinion as a portuguese is as follows. Spanish are equal to us and normally we don’t compare to them, but when comparisons are made we don’t like to fall behind, just like a younger brother. However, I never noticed any kind of real hatred between the two people. Regarding the rest of Europe, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweeden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lituania, and all the remaining northern countries are regarded as civilized and a role model. Germany is also considered to be very civilized, but at the same time powerful and intimidating. Italy and Greece are the nice cousins of Portugal. Concerning the eastern countries, we respect them as they seem to respect us. The only countries I have a strong opinion about are France and England, because we always had strong connections with them. They are both regarded as arrogant, but civilized and polite at the same time. I’m not sure if it is them that have a superiority complex or if it is us who have an inferiority complex. This crysis has really deteriorated our image and very few portuguese feel confortable in declaring their nationality outside of Portugal.

Comment by XAVIER — June 2, 2012 @ 2:12 pm
POLISH ATTITUDE TO OTHER NATIONALITIES
CBOS – POLISH OPINION RESEARCH CENTER

CBOS (2012 year):
WHAT’S YOUR ATTITUDE TO OTHER NATIONS
sympathy neutral negative don’t know
Czechs 58% 25% 11% 6%
Slovaks 57% 25% 10% 8% Italians 55% 27% 11% 7% English 54% 24% 15% 7%
Spaniards 53% 27% 10% 10% French 53% 27% 13% 7% Norwegians 52% 26% 10% 12% Swiss 52% 26% 11% 11%
Hungarians 52% 27% 13% 8% Swedes 51% 27% 13% 9% Americans 51% 27% 16% 6%
Dutch 49% 31% 10% 10% Austrians 48% 30% 13% 9% Danes 48% 27% 14% 11% Belgians 47% 29% 14% 10% Irish 47% 28% 14% 11% Japanese 47% 26% 18% 9% Finns 45% 29% 13% 13% Croats 44% 27% 18% 11% Germans 43% 28% 24% 5%
Greeks 40% 30% 21% 9%
Lithuanians 40% 28% 23% 9% Bulgarians 38% 32% 20% 10%
Georgians 37% 29% 21% 13% Russians 34% 27% 33% 6% Belarusians 33% 32% 26% 9% Jews 33% 30% 29% 8% Armenians 33% 28% 25% 15% Chinese 32% 27% 31% 10%
Ukrainians 32% 29% 32% 7%
Egyptians 31% 29% 24% 16% Serbs 31% 30% 26% 13%
Vietnamese 29% 27% 31% 13%
Turks 28% 25% 37% 10%
Libyans 26% 26% 32% 16%
Romanians 26% 26% 39% 9%
Roma 24% 20% 50% 6% Arabs 23% 20% 46% 11%

ATTITUDE TO OTHER NATIONALITIES
The best-liked foreign nationalities are Czechs and Slovaks: almost three-fifths have a positive attitude towards them. The attitude is only slightly worse in case of Italians, the English, Spaniards, the French, Norwegians, the Swiss, Hungarians, Swedes and Americans. Almost half of respondents sympathise with the Dutch, Austrians, Danes, Belgians, the Irish, the Japanese, and Finns. Sympathy to the nations mentioned above is several times more common than antipathy. About two- f i f ths of respondents express positive e m o t i o n s a b o u t C r o a t s ,Germans, Greeks, Lithuanians, B u l g a r i a n s a n d Ge o rg i a n s . Positive attitude is twice as common as negative. A b o u t o n e – t h i r d o f respondents express sympathy
to Russians, Byelorussians, Jews, Armenians, the Chinese, Ukrainians, Egyptians, Serbs
and the Vietnamese. Attitude to these nations is characterized by a small plurality of positive feelings, and in some cases
positive and negative feelings are equally common. I n c a s e o f f i v e
nationalities antipathy prevails. They a r e : Turks , Libyans , Romanians, Roma and Arabs. Antipathy to Roma and Arabs is
twice as common as sympathy. A t t i t u d e s t o o t h e r nationalities are shaped by national stereotypes, historical l e g a c i e s , c u r r e n t s o c i o – e c o n omi c e v e n t s , p e r s o n a l experiences, and many other factors. For many years, Poles have had better attitude to nationalities living to the north and west of Poland, than to those in the east. Feelings towards nationalities to the south are ambiguous. This distribution of sympathy is associated with the stereotypical image of the rich, developed “West” and poor, backward “East”. This stereotype is confirmed by objective measures of socio-economic development, such as UN Human Development Index. From a longer perspective, it is clear that the attitude to a vast majority of nationalities has improved. Neighbouring states and their inhabitants are increasingly seen positively. In 1993, Czechs and Slovaks were the only nationalities from neighbour states who enjoyed the prevalence of sympathy.At present, positive attitude dominates in attitudes

source: write in google: “ATTITUDE TO OTHER NATIONALITIES FEBRUARY 2012 – CBOS”

Comment by JACK — June 9, 2012 @ 8:16 am

Comments: Previous 1 … 11 12 13 14 15 … 21 Next

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

What Europeans think of each other

1,018 Comments »

Leave a comment

Most Popular Posts

Blogroll