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Odd Stereotypes of other Countries
I just realised that I have no idea what people outside of England think of England and especially what they think of London. The only comment I have every heard about London from a non-London visitor was a comment that they thought it was still like Oliver Twist times.
So what do you think of London and the UK guys. Curiously waiting..........
Granted, my knowledge of Finnish culture stems almost entirely from my study of Finnish metal, so I may have a skewed perspective.
And here I thought Finland was a province of the Soviet Empire. Good coctails, though. Bread baskets were surprisingly disappointing.
Before I met my cousin from Oslo, I thought church-burnings were just a weekly occurrence.These comments, the state-tan thread, and my fascination with various gijinka comics has made me decide that it would be interesting and fun to hear peoples odd impressions of other countries, that may or may not have been proven wrong to them. I'm not talking about xenophobic stuff, or common stereotypes, but strange little ideas you might have had about a country, state, or region, and maybe how you get that impression? You may have unlearned it at some point, but it would be fun to share.
The 5 boroughs of NYC before I moved there:
Manhattan: This is where all the stuff is! It is full of Neon! Lunch Counters and Delis? It can be dangerous, so don't go out at night by yourself. There are lots of bars and everyone goes to Times Square when they are drunk.
Queens: This is where all the families live and a lot of immigrants raise kids. You grow up in Queens.
Brooklyn: This is where the tough guys who speak with the accents and the artists who are poor live. Also Orthodox Jews?
Bronx: This is the scary neighborhoods. Baseball?
Staten Island: These are annoying suburbs that are like New Jersey. You have to get to them by boat.
Sweden: They like primary colors, and a lot of the stuff they make is bright, because everything else is grey there. I think I thought this as a kid, because of Duplos (winking rabbit is actually Danish, but I was mistaken), Hanna Aandersson clothes that my mom would buy for us, and Swedish modern furniture. I also assumed that since they were up north, there was always snow and grey winter skies. Now I know that isn't totally true, but when I think of Sweden, I think of bright colors.
Italy: All the small towns are on steep hills and they have tiny, tiny streets with lots of stairs. (I think I thought this because of pictures I had seen of Southern Italian towns built on hills near the sea.)
France: Almost everyone lives in an antique house or (in Paris) antique retro apartment, and there are few shiny new apartment high rises. I think it was because a lot of the movies I had seen were either 1. old 2. set in an old country house. 3. Set in a cute old apartment building (ala Amelie).
Comments
1. Alps, lederhosen, yodeling
2. Kangaroos?
3. What country now?
Anyways, I try not to have a preformed opinion of countries, but I can't really tell whether I have them or not.
Getting into extreme metal has actually made me appreciate the somewhat more subtle differences between seemingly similar cultures.
My impression of Germany is that pretty much everyone there is srs bsns. Every German I've known has been very driven, highly motivated, tightly wound, and a bit of a rapid perfectionist. It's OK, though, because German stuff does tend to be pretty awesome.
I'd like to think that Spain is a place where beautiful people do beautiful dances against beautiful sunsets all the time. My knowledge of Austria again comes from the perspective of a metal band: Belphegor. Thus, Austria is a fucking weird and outlandish place to me.
There's a festival in my family's birthplace of Valencia called Las Fallas (lit. The Torches), where for five days, art collectives build BEAUTIFUL paper mache sculptures (the eponymous Fallas) many stories high, in outrageous heat. Everyone sets off fireworks all day. The culmination is "La Crema" ("the burning"); the citizens take up torches and lighters and set off fireworks adorning the sculptures and then ignite them. The entire city glows with bonfires all night long, and the streets are filled with celebrants (street traffic might actually be rerouted around the city, I dunno), and Valencia parties all night long.
I think I might have a pretty realistic view of London, simply because I watch way too much British TV. That being said, I wish London was actually like Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere."
The only thing I know about Paris firsthand is that De Gaulle airport is a rank, festering den of iniquity that forces even the proudest gentleman to cower in fear and despair.
Also, the same first morning in the USA, when I went downstairs at the hotel for breakfast, people were eating bacon on pancakes with syrup. I thought this only happened in 1950's movies.
German = Like weird porn
Japanese = Like weird porn
Finnish = Drunks
Russian = Drunks
Australians = REALLY drunks with muscle cars
Canadians = Pushovers
British = Bad taste in home decoration
Netherlands = Crappy food
Greenland and Iceland = Awesome landscapes with vikings
*Goes outside.*
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