Stereotypes, slang, and colloquialisms in different countries.

I've had a few discussions in chat regarding what the title says. It's interesting to see what's valid or not. Some are pretty funny, others are far from the truth, or both. So discuss what your countries stereotypes, colloquialisms, and slangs are. Sometimes they apply to your country, but not to you particular.

Please do:
- list off some from other countries or your own.
- verify if it's true or not.
- Any cultural topics such as food, animals, and clothing are also good to discuss here.

Please DON'T:
- post anything rude.
- if something is offensive but it's pretty common in yours or another country, just don't post it.

Canada:

- I say eh
- we have no polar bears or igloos here
- we don't say aboot
- we say pop here not soda


Australian:

- say lollies for candy
- shrimp on the barbie
- dingo ate my baby
- sheila for a woman, bruce for a guy

Well I know alot of aussie slang, but most isn't appropriate to post.. Zel would probably be better at listing some aussie ones.

From here:
-Many a people's say g'day
- yes sakibuns we do put shrimp on the barbie.... because of its raw deliciousness
- Australia is as obsessed with sport as is stereotyped
- swearing is no where near as taboo as it is in other english speaking countries

Canada
-You say hoose instead of house
- You like maple syrup alot
- You like waffles and pancakes alot
- You combine your loves of syrup and waffles
- Bear wrestling is common practice
- All policeman are mounties

LordRemington wrote:Canada
-You say hoose instead of house
- You like maple syrup alot
- You like waffles and pancakes alot
- You combine your loves of syrup and waffles
- Bear wrestling is common practice
- All policeman are mounties

lol Remi
- no we don't say hoose
- I do like maple syrup, pancakes and waffles
- don't have bears here or wrestle with them
- not all the police here are mounties. But we do have the Royal Mounted Police. I haven't seen or heard about any in a very long time though


France:
- wine
- supposedly stuck-up
- Paris the city of love
- berrets

Switzerland:
- yoddling
- blondes with blue eyes

England
- tea and crumpets
- cheerio

Germany:
- beer and ale, and huge mug thingies
- Octoberfest

United States:
- supposedly obese and low IQ
- Texas area says y'all

More Australian:
- say mate
- overly friendly
- anything Steve Irwin said basically

England
- well, I do have tea and crumpets sometimes, but not normal.
- we do say cheerio
- we joke about Germany a lot

Norway:

- Sorry, but the Vikings have been dead for 1100 years.
- Even if half our country lies north of the arctic circle doesn't mean that we have polar bears here.
- We joke about Sweden

Great thread Saki

English:
-Supposedly bland taste in food

French:
-Amazing lovers

Haitians:
-All speaking Rastafarian
- all have dreadlocks

Swedish:
-jolly people
- rosey cheeks
- love chocolate

French: Surrendering cheese eating cowards.

Apparently.

A lot of people would say that is true, Trick.

Let's see...

Italy

- 'Cheeky Chappies' (Blame Berlusconi for that )
- Side with whoever's winning
- Pizza and Pasta

France

- Not too fond of the English
- Hate any government, even if they elected it
- Strike for the sake of striking

Russia

- Everyone is equal, but some more than others
- Corruption

South England:
- We do not say 'pip pip', 'cheerio', 'tallyho' or any of the stereotypical stuff.
- We do not have bad teeth, glasses, and are not cowards.
- We have a bad case of 'Stereotypical White Girls', as well as 'Chavs' and 'Pikeys'
- We do not eat tea and crumpets with a passion, sometimes we say Cookies instead of Biscuits and Lollies instead of Sweets, depends on what's in question.

Poland:
- Apparently it's on fire (according to Jakey)

Northeast America:
McDonald's main source of income.
Land of the Obese & Rifle Ownership
We all live in trailerparks.
We all own pickup trucks.
(surprisingly, all of these are TRUE)
We have a few intelligent people.

Slang:
To speak to a group of people, you must say "y'uns"
To refer to other things besides the subject you are on, say "an' at"
"y'all" is not only said in Texas, I hear it up here, too
Apparently, we say hot, "hawt"
Down south, we are all known as "Yankees"
We say 'pop' too.

Sakiara wrote:


Germany:
- beer and ale, and huge mug thingies
- Octoberfest

Germany:
- beer and ale, and huge mug thingies -> YES!^^ the correct name is beer mug
- Octoberfest -> YES! but it's only in munich....
- dirndels and leather pants -> ONLY at octoberfest in munich
- we love sausages -> yes
- sauerkraut -> omg, ugly! but some people love it

-pork knuckles -> delicious

any more things you think about germany?

The Germans are very similar to the English. Then again, we are virtually the same racially. Anglo-Saxons, and all of that.

yes you're right

oh i have some more things...

-we love football -> YES!!!!
- we wear sandals tennis socks and shorts together.... -> not realy
- we love malle (mallorca)-> OH YES! the island in spain is half flooded with germans and half flooded with british poeple

Switzerland
- Yodeling: only in rural areas but the really boring kind
- Chocolate: Cailler and Lindt and are two of the world's best confectionary brands
- Cheese: "Swiss cheese" is really Emmentaler, there's also Gruyère, Appenzeller, Tilsiter and Raclette
- Fondue: cheese fondue (half-and-half) being more famous, we prefer fondue Chinoise (on New Year's eve)
- Neutrality: only when foreigners are present, otherwise we're embarrassingly opinionated
- Coocoo Clocks: we have them but Bavaria is more famous for it
- Bi-Lingual: Most Swiss speak at least two languages, schools teach a minimum of three
- Punctuality: we are always on schedule. If the train doesn't arrive on time we panic.
- "Chavs/Scallies": Here we have "Yugos" filling in that niche, but they're generally well-behaved in public

Culturally, we're a peasant nation. Our traditions are very rural, the language coarse and to an extent we can get really defensive of our turf. At the same time, we [Swiss Germans] can be very inviting and flexible with foreigners. We always try to speak other people's languages (generally English) since we cannot expect everyone to know German or Swiss German.

There's a big difference between the Swiss and the Germans on the phone. While the German always get to the point and state their case, a Swiss caller always needs to turn it into a social affair, afraid they might waste the other person's time.

Bavarian comic Michael Mittermeier once said the Swiss are very indecisive going "Yes... no... a little bit..." about everything they're confronted with. He then asked his Swiss audience about it and that's exactly the response(s) he got.

The only time I have ever been to Switzerland is driving through to get to Italy. But it looked like a beautiful country in terms of scenery, although it always rains when I am driving through.

I should stay there some time.

Bulgaria:

-We are next to Russia
-All of us speak like Borat

@andy: yes the Coocoo Clocks are more famous in germany, we have the biggest of them world wide oh and i love michael mittermeier

I think we have those clocks as well. Though there only small little clocks.

Funny I come across this thread right now, I just had breakfast in which I thought about American stereotypes.

To my right and somewhat in front of me was a table of stereotypical Americans. There were two overweight boys acting like idiots and their sister who dressed like a... well... a... uh... I think you know what I was going to say there. But anyway, she constantly lifted the back of her shirt to reveal a playboy belt and underwear and her brothers (along with her as well) acting like complete morons. They had to be 15-17 and still throwing food and blowing bubbles in their drinks. All the while their parents talked unnecessarily loud on their cell phones. Oh, and did I mention the daughter was texting pretty much the whole time? At breakfast.

Then sitting directly in front of me was a family who gave reason for us not to be stereotyped. All in good shape, not obnoctious, very kind and just overall great people.

There aren't as many overweight people (at least where I am) as people make it seem to be. There are only about four kids in about 50 in my class at school that are out of shape. Not as bad as people make it out to be often times. Also, I find that generally, we don't have a low IQ either. The majority of the kids in my area test higher than at least 75% of the rest of the country. And that's an average, so the few who do have the lower IQ brought that down. The majority of people I know score higher than 85% of the country.

But that's all in my area only. There are parts of the country that fit the usual stereotyping. I find it that most people remember the bad more than the good, especially when it comes to groups of people.

America is a huge country, it can't be filled by only stereotypes. Most people are what you could classify as "normal"

But, there is always some truth in the stereotypes. Watch Miss USA and you'll see what low IQ is

@Banzai: I've been to and lived in the US for a few years in the past and I have noticed that, in general, Americans have a larger appetite when it comes to eating. Once I was at a seminar and some of the girls I was in the group with had a salad, a full main plate and dessert every day. The girls back home are usually full after the salad and still complain they overate.

I've also noticed that European men are much more slender than American men. Though, I can't tell whether that's because of the healthier food (i.e. using oil instead of butter) or because there's a bigger focus on public transport rather than sitting in a car driving from mall to mall all day.

Jamaica-- everyone is amazing at soccer

New Zealand-- Irritating accent

Alaska- Apparently you have a chance of seeing Russia from your house

lol, that's a lot of really good ones. I think there should be more disputing or validating if the stereotype, slang or whatever is true for your country. It's interesting to see what you guys say about your own country too!