When I mentioned that Americans believe that Germans are averse to shaving, it was revealed to me that it is considered perfectly acceptable for German men to shave their armpits. So that stereotype, for instance, is wildly off the mark. Wildly. The stereotype that states that Germans love bureaucracy, however, is still valid.
2.5.09
Stereotypes
People are always asking me for some stereotypes that Americans have of Germans, or of Europeans in general. Then, if I come up with one, they like to laugh at how stupid it is. Unfortunately, I am not very good at coming up with stereotypes. Is anyone better at it? Please everyone tell me what sorts of stereotypes you believe are widely (or narrowly?) held about Germans or Europeans.
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germans = beer, blonde, punctual, good with money issues
ReplyDeleteeuropeans = socialists, fashionable, awesome, really cool, the bomb
Efficient? Great at machinery and those kinds of things?
ReplyDeleteIn heaven the cooks are French, the police are British, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Swiss. In hell the cooks are British, the police are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.german-way.com/intro.html
My stereotypes are Russian as well as American, but I used to think of Germans as clean, straight-laced, neat, holding materialistic/bourgeois values, boring.
ReplyDeleteEuropeans in general - well-dressed, multilingual, more cultured on average.