Job Discussion Forums

[gugelhupf]

The one about Brits getting lots of easy money on the dole is generally told by bitter and twisted expats. It was possibly true in the early '70s but certainly is not the case now. In recent years many Brit ne'er do wells have moved to Amsterdam where life on social security is somewhat rosier.

The perceptions about the Brits abroad that stick in my mind include a penchant for shoplifting and petty theft (picked up that one in Germany), while some Malaysians still think of the Brits as living/behaving like the old colonials - cocktails at sundown, pith helmets and starchy collars, tea and bread and butter.

There is an element of truth in both cases. A few colonial hangers-on (determined to be thoroughly "English" even though they wouldn't recognise dear old Blighty these days) remain in far flung outposts of the old empire having inherited plantations and the like, and compared to the law-abiding Germans the Brits are a very dishonest and troublesome bunch.

[gugelhupf]

...and doesn't it get sooooo wearing when that silly little silicon censor bleeps out words like c0cktails...

[once again]

Thanks for clearing up what the censor took out..I was having all sorts of fun trying to work out what was so objectionable at sun down...!!! Another one I have heard about us Brits is that we use bad language a lot..and it is rather like punctiation to us..and not to be taken offensively.

[scot47]

Yes, Brits are unspeakable. Why do you think so many of us have fled those benighted offshore islands ?

[enigma]

Wanna hear what my students (primary!) say about Canada?

-Canadians have yellow hair and blue eyes. (I have brownish hair and green eyes, but brown doesn't come up often in their textbooks, and any light eyes are classified as blue.)

-Canadians are friends of China because of Dr. Bethune.

-Canada is a very small, cold country.

Strangely enough, those are pretty much all I hear about Canadians from the adults around here. That, and our accents are easier to understand than the other western ones.

(Of course, the other foreigners I meet here only say that Canadians are really nice and really polite. Then they get to know me )

[biffinbridge]

In Poland most uni students seem to think that their native speaker teachers are on the lash constantly and only in the teaching game to spread their seed and and ruin their livers.Sounds about right to me.

[The Menace]

Let�s see�

The Brits have good manners bad food and crooked teeth

French have good food, bad manners and let�s face it we all hate the French

Americans are loud, obnoxious and have big teeth and big guns, except for African American men they have big�shoes

Italians like to shout and pinch women�s bottoms

The Greeks, there is also something about bottoms, must be something to do with olive oil.

Russians drink too much vodka and walk around with scowls on their faces

The Irish also like to drink, then fight, then sing, then cry, then drink again

Swedes like to walk around naked all day long and take saunas

Chinese are greedy

The Scotts prefer the word �thrrrrrifty�

Japanese are sneaky but polite

The Auzies (see the Irish but without the crying)

The Kiwis think they are better than the Auzies and view them as down-under Americans and are very sensitive about there non-Oz accents

And we Canadians are soooo booooooring

Sorry, don�t be offended if I missed you, but I got to go eh, hockey game�s starting and every single one of us Canuks will be glued to our TV sets with beaver fur coats on( things do get chily in igloos eh )
Go Flames!!

We may have fun with this but I was stunned to find a great many of my students in China to view stereotypes as absolute facts. I guess having a closed society for many years will do that

[JosephP]

The places where I woked.

In Taiwan Americans were generally looked upon favourably (at least when I was there in the early 90s).

I'm not sure if Koreans have a positive view about Americans. I suppose that is better left to the Korea forum.

I rather think as an American in Malaysia I was cut some slack as the politicos there seemed to have a beef with the British. However, the Malaysians still love Liverpool and Man United.

The Thai people love dollars (of all persuasions), Euros, yen, and probably even pesos. Nationality isn't really an issue with the Thais. It's more likely to do with race. As an American I was lumped together with all the other pasty frog-bellied Europeans and Antipodeans.

In Hawaii I was just another haole.

In New Zealand I wasn't given any particular grief by local Kiwis, only by snotty twenty-something Brits who find the homeland of my birth to be a horrible place. Usually these twits were from London. What's the deal with that place?

[Aramas]

"All Australians love sport" - from a book on sport that my mother edited to "Some...", much to the chagrin of the author.
"I thought that there were kangaroos in the streets in Sydney" - US exchange student
"I thought all Ozzies drove utes and loved Jimmy Barnes (a really bad singer from the 70's)" - English backpacker
"You're not a real Australian." - English backpacker
"Australia is a desert but the government takes people's houses away if they don't water their gardens" - Yugoslav airline magazine
"You live in Africa?" - Yank when told that I lived in Tasmania.
"I couldn't live in a communist country" - same Yank when informed that Tasmania was in Australia
"No, English" - English backpacker when asked if they were from an anglo-saxon background
"Could you come with us and translate?" - 2 Canadian backpackers that had trouble understanding 'Kiwi' in Auckland

[blackguy-n-Asia]

(may be offensive)
IN CANADA:

Americans are ignorant, gun-toting racists, just like Bush
Aussies are friendly and exotic
New Sealand? Where's that?
South Africans-Black- 'freed from oppression and needs help'
-White-'the oppressor' of Black South Africans

Europeans in general- Women-exotic
Men -weird and funny(eccentric)

This is my experience of the reactions of people around me.

I've dealt with alot of asians (I have an asian g-friend) and I think they buy into the sterotypes that TV brings. Blacks are dangrous, American women are loose, Aussies wrestle alligators, Europeans drive fancy cars....whatever cinema brings up to 2004. Very sad, maybe we should blow up Hollywood.

[struelle]

This is a fantastic thread!!! I am going to use this as a basis for a questionaire in my last series of classes for senior students. They want to learn more about Western culture, and I'm just asking myself where to begin.

I'm thinking of passing out a series of open-ended questions on topics that came up in this thread, then seeing what the stereotypes are that come up. Once they do, I can correct their mistakes and introduce parts of Canada on a topic-by-topic basis.

That way, every class will be different, and will be taught based on the answers they give in my survey! Far better than repeating the same content 25 times in a row.

Once again, Dave's ESL comes to the rescue.

Steve

[basiltherat]

dont marry a white man cos all white men have aids

[scot47]

And if they don't have it they will have it soon because they are all so promiscuous.

[gugelhupf]

From an Indian colleague: "The sun never set on the British empire simply because it is impossible to trust an Englishman in the dark".

[denise]