Cultures and national stereotypes

A nation is a group of people who share common history and usually a language and usually, but not always, live in the same area. Culture can be described as our everyday life: how we communicate, what makes us happy and sad. It also includes our language, religion, traditions, behavior, way of life – in other words, what we do each day. People that belong to various nations may differ and they always differ from one another.

For example, the Germans are regarded as scientifically-minded and industrious, they're always considered solid, intelligent and mathematical. There is a big amount of examples we can list about national character of different people. Proving the difference of the national stereotypes I want to compare Russian and English nations. There are a lot of features that vary. The Russians are industrious, tough, brave, progressive and suspicious. They are also considered to be over - patriotic (because of this reason they're good soldiers), we are willing to respect opinion of other people.

Speaking about Englishmen I may note that they're reserved, tradition-loving, courteous, honest etc. To my mind, they have a specific sense of humor. They say that they can't understand our jokes and anecdotes not only because of the different meanings of the words, but because their humor is more delicate. Looking at these features of the Russians and the Englishmen it is not hard to mark out the differences. The Englishmen are reserved, but the Russians are open-hearted and communicative. The Englishmen are tradition-loving and the Russians, to my mind, don't keep their traditions in such a degree. There is a great majority of factors that influence the nations stereotype and its people's character. People that live in the southern countries have less problems than those who live in the North and because of this they're more cheerful and artistic. The history also has a great influence on the national character.

The National Character exists. It is not a myth, it's a reality. But the National Character doesn't describe the character of every person, it describes the character of people of nation in general. Every person has its own character, but according to the person's belonging to some nation many traits of character are similar and these features may be explained as the national character.

3. a) Запишите все национальности из текста. Найдите и запишите прилагательные, которые описывают стереотипы в отношении этих национальностей. Ответьте на вопрос: What is your opinion, does national character exist?

b) Напишите 3 черты вашего характера (положительные). Сравните их со стереотипными чертами характера русских из текста/стереотипными чертами характера вашей национальности. Ответьте на вопросы: Are there any differences? How do you think, why? Can we judge people of the other nation, thinking only about stereotypes? Why? Используйте эти фразы: In my opinion/view…; To my mind…; It seems to me that…; I think that…