STEREOTYPES – Volunteers at La Mission Locale de Lille

During my English workshops with La Mission Locale, I love to discuss topics that are relevant to everyday life and draw attention to reality.  I therefore find discussing stereotypes particularly interesting.  We all have stereotypes about different countries / people / cultures etc…. About everything! It is important to understand what these stereotypes are.  We can then consider which stereotypes are actually facts and which are generally just stereotypes of a large group of people where in fact only a minority are concerned.  This is where prejudice and racism can stem from. 

Considering this, I spent a lesson discussing with a couple of advanced learners what they thought were different stereotypes associated with certain countries.  It's important to remember that stereotypes can be positive and negative.  See what you think of the ideas below: (Note they are not necessarily their own stereotypes, but stereotypes that others may have)

France

• Suffer from depression and stress BUT this makes them stronger – They use the rage to progress in life
• Shy and quiet
• Never smile, particularly in the metro
• Always thinking about earning money
• Always talking about holidays

United States of America

• They are all XXL – they love cheeseburgers too much (or fast food in general)
• Have lots of guns on the street
• Always have money on the mind
• Think that they are the best in the world
• Have good movies but naturally because they have lots of money to achieve this
• Love basketball
• “The American Dream”

Australia (easily the most positive stereotypes)

• Lots of kangaroos
• Love surfing
• Have lots of jobs
• Active and dynamic due to business

England (naturally this was the easiest category…)

• Proud of their culture
• The island is the centre of the world
• Very cosmopolitan
• Romantic (this is inspired from Shakespeare…hmm)
• Rock n’ Roll lifestyle – make good music
• Hardworking
• Mr Bean
• They drive on the left and believe that it must therefore be the same in the rest of the world
• Love singing “God Save the Queen”
• Not boring
• Nice accent (!)
• Very posh and clean

What do you reckon to these?? Do you agree? Do you have others to add... Really interested to know !!!

Take care everyone :-D