Thread: country stereotypes

Americans in general:

No knowledge of other cultures
Moron Presidents
Think we're superior
Hypocrites
ect, ect, ect....

Now, lets see, how many of these are false. Well, ummm, errrrr..... I hate you all, leave me alone.

Well the rest of Canada assumes we're all fishermen down here in the Maritime provinces.

The main steroetype of Canidians that I use is that they're crazy. And from what I've seen (been to Vancouver Island 3 times) it's true.

....there were a couple more, but I can’t remember the exact lines

There's the one where the girls like "Oh your from Canada.... Do you know Glen... from Canada.... He works in a office... in Canada..."

"Oh. Office Glen. He's Dead"

How about the Saint Louisans?

If you've heard anything about Saint Louisans, you may have heard some of these things:

- that we're all big sports fans--the Cardinals (National League baseball), the Blues (NHL hockey), and the Rams (NFL football).

- that we were into soccer before soccer moms were even heard of (thank all the Catholic school CYC soccer teams and mass immigration from soccer-loving countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries).

- that we're not much for basketball (you must remember, the last NBA team moved out a long time ago)--"What's a 'Knick'?"

- that we like to eat concrete--a frozen yogurt desert, kind of like a Dairy Queen Blizzard (the concrete was probably an inspiration for the more recent Blizzard), served from Ted Drew's (two locations in the City!).

- that we have a strong disliking of hoosiers (unsophisticated, oafish rednecks/hillbillies/slack-jawed yockels (like Kleetus)); and, if you're not careful, you'll get called one, too.

- that all the hoosiers live in trailers in Arnold.

- that we have a metropolitan-wide "inferiority complex" with Chicago--"So what if Chicago has a bigger population, a downtown that is actually vibrant, more big business headquarters, more and possibly better restaurants, and more stuff to do? They don't have the Arch! Oh yeah, and Sammy Sosa didn't beat Mark McGwire in the home run race!"

- that we all pronounce words like for, forty, or, with an are sound instead of the more usual ore sound; this simply isn't true, at least for most of the younger generations, with older people it may still be true.

- that we pronounce sundae like "sunduh." Like the ore as are pronunciation, this nonstandard pronunciation is becoming increasingly rare.

- that the first thing we'll ask a person we just met what high school they went to. (I think we'll ask, "Hi, how are ya?" first.)

- that we don't come to a complete stop at stop signs--"Honest, officer, I thought I did come to a complete stop back there."

- that we are highly provincial--we got the City of Saint Louis; all the various municipalities like Clayton, University City (the U. City Loop), etc.; the Metro East (in Illinois); etc.--"We like it that way! Tell the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch to stop pushing its plans for urban consolidation/renewal/revitalization on us!"

- that our winters are cold and our summers are hot and humid (you won't get "mild" much in Saint Louis).

- that we are dull, average Americans; we're typically neither too conservative nor too liberal; we don't adopt the latest thing until the likes of San Francisco, New York, and Chicago have been the Guinea pigs first--"A few years back, Time magazine did an article about life at Webster High School in Webster Groves [a suburb in the County] because it was so incredibly average!"

well...

here's the photo gallery down at flashdaddee. if you look hard enough you can find 'em all.

here's a newer one of hillbillie... (i'll get to the gov't cow in a post or two)