National Stereotypes,
We know most foreign cultures, and much of our own culture, by reputation only. Actually, we have an "image" of the English, Scottish and Irish, Belgian, French or Spanish national character. Even though we personally may know a handful of people from those countries, we cannot evaluate how "typical" these persons are as representatives of their nation. But many people have no problems in recognizing certain temperamental attributes as being "typical" for certain nations: the Scottish reputation for stinginess, the Belgian reputation for stupidity, the Spanish reputation for pride are well known for us from jokes and stories which rely on a knowledge of those attributes. As a result we consider all the Scottish to be tight-fisted, the Belgian to be foolish etc. I judge most of the national stereotypes to be concocted. Once perceived
reality is not reality itself, but is a mixture of fact and fiction, if not total fiction. On the other hand we cannot say that the English, Scottish and Irish, Belgian, French and Spanish are the same. There are some differences between nations and we could make some generalization, but I think we should be more accurate and take into account many facts. We should also take the attitude of the "author" into account. A representation of Britain by a Frenchman or by a Dutchman or by a German may differ because of the nationality of the respective authors. Any representation of cultural relations is a representation of a cultural confrontation; and the author's own cultural values and presupposititions are without doubt involved in this confrontation. I think that in many cases generalization has some negative traits. Unfortunately,
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 565
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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