Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

In China, I get, "but I thought most Americans have blue hair and blond eyes"

[zaneth]

I find Russians amazingly resistant to stereotypes. Whenever I tried to talk about stereotypes as a class discussion I always got answers like "Well everyone is different" or "It depends on the person, I guess." Very reasonable people, Russians.

That said:
in America:
people smile all the time, but they don't mean it (see earlier reference to scowling Russians)
anyone with a job has enough money
services for the disabled are very very good
the education system is rather sad, not really an education system at all
60% of the people who work at Microsoft are Russians and 90% of University physicists
Theodore Dreiser is one of our greatest and most respected writers, that is he would be if we ever picked up a book.

These are only the most benign. I think the Brits probably have it good, all told.

[Will.]

Nice input,
I can use this in class too.

Who is it that hides their money under the soap???

[Ben Round de Bloc]

Some of the general stereotypes I've heard from locals regarding people from the USA (my home country) --

~ everyone from the USA is rich due to good jobs and has lots of money to spend *
~ women from the USA are "easy"
~ unlike Europeans (local stereotype of Europeans,) people from the USA bathe regularly
~ when black people from the USA talk, their English is hard to understand
~ everyone from the USA should know everyone else from the USA (like we all come from the same little town and grew up together or something) **
~ people from the USA consider Thanksgiving the most important holiday of all

* Good jobs: I once had a fellow EFL teacher, a local guy, at the university say to me, "I don't understand why there's so much crime in the USA, where everyone can get a good job, make lots of money, and live very well."

** Should know everybody: I've lost count of the number of times a local has said something like, "Oh, you're from Iowa. When I lived in Guadalajara, my English teacher there was from Los Angeles. Her name was Lauri. Do you know her?"

[willy]

In Taiwan Americans are well like the teacher in TW said.

In indo I will be happy forever if I can marry a Whit man.!!!

cAnAdA A!

Aus BEER and the dole

Brits fish & chips/w beer &foot ball

What do you call someone that speaks two languages? Bilingual
and someone that speaks one? American

[zorro]

how about the germans putting their towels on the sun loungers at five in the morning to get a spot in the sun.

[dmb]

Or all English football fans are hooligans

[willy]

thks, Dmb but i allready know that!

[gugelhupf]

[dreaming_saturn]

And here are some from my Dutch highschool students:

- Yeah, I have an uncle in Canada. He's a farmer. I think he lives in Calgary. (every student has a family member in Canada and they all are in Calgary)

-Everyone in Canada has really big houses

- it snows for half the year in Canada, and everybody snowboards and skies, because there are mountians everywhere.

Besides that I just get the vacant shrug. Not interesting enough to commeent on. They are teenagers, after all.

[Asynca]

Here's some nasties about us Aussies:

~ All criminals, after all, it's a prison country, isn't it?

~ All below-adverage intelligence.

~ English? I wouldn't call it English...

~ All dole-bludgers.

~ Everyone drinks to excess, all the time. We can, because we've got nothing else to do -- we're on the dole.

~ No education system to speak of, unless you can, like, communicate via radio or something.

~Wow, they have the internet down there? That's so cool!

~ It must be pretty hot and dry!
(To someone who comes from Melbourne, that's a laugh-out-loud comment... *looks outside where it's 9C and raining absolute buckets*)

[debbie10864]

I'm from Canada Eh?

And my best friend is a Polar Bear...
I live on an iceberg and hunt seals!

[RVN]

When students realise I'm left-handed they tell me that most foreign people are left-handed. However in China if you use your left hand to write, use chopsticks or whatever else it means you're clever.

To those talking about all English football fans being hooligans, you're idiots who've probably never been to a game who should stop talking about things you know nothing about.

[Will.]

When did you last see a Brit in a bowler? or a Frenchman in a striped jumper on a bicycle strewn with chains of onions carrying a baguette under one arm and an accordian slung over his shoulder with a beret on his head and saying 'Ooh la la!' or 'Orh hee haw hee haw'
or an American shop assistant saying 'Have a nice day' and actually meaning it?

[Capergirl]