Estereotipos: españoles y británicos

COURSEWORK 1


3. Many people use stereotypes to help them “make the unfamiliar familiar”. In your opinion to what extent are stereotypes useful and at what point do they become less so.


The word “Stereotype” comes from the Classic Greek [stereo (solid) + typos (symbol, sign)] and it means an over-generalized and preconceived idea or impression of what characterizes someone or something,especially one that does not allow for any individuality or variation.

Stereotypes are the result of our need to perceive our environment. We notice, remember and store the information that is the most noticeable about someone or something (e.g. most strange, different, pleasing or detestable), making useful simplifications which help us to understand the complex world around us.Stereotypes provide stock-information about what to expect and how to act concerning certain groups of people, but they are not always true because the direct contact with members of some group may prove that an excessive generalization is often unfair and stereotypes may be false.


There are deeply rooted stereotypes about almost all topics. The most common are conventional conceptions orimages based on age, gender, profession, religion, sexual orientation and, of course, on nationality and ethnicity.
They can be positive or negative, for example, black boys are supposed to be great basketball players, but at the same time, they are often seen as aggressive people and likely to take and sell drugs. So, the last one would be a case of discriminatory stereotype.

Stereotypesare very different for each culture and now that I am living in a foreign country (England), I can talk about it more than ever.

In my country of origin, Spain, there are some fixed ideas about English people.
Any Spanish that had never come here (especially if it’s an old person) will easily imagine an Englishman as a serious gentleman wearing bowler hat, reading the newspaper or walkingnext to the Big Ben holding his umbrella.
Speaking in general terms, it’s very usual in Spain to see English as advanced, reserved, cold and even boring people, with an extreme punctuality and taking tea at five o’clock in the afternoon, or as violent hooligans always fighting, watching football and drinking beer if the Spanish in question is a bit nasty-minded.
However, the reality is most ofthe times very different…


[pic] [pic]


In the first place, I have never met a man with bowler hat in the street (it only appears in the movies nowadays), tea is taken at anytime and of course, I have seen more crazy and funny people here in Liverpool than in any other place I have visited in my whole life.Youth goes out everyday of the week and they are almost always excessively drunk. Because of this, I can not say that the seriousness and the coldness are their main characteristics… In addition, I have only to look at my timetable or the evaluation method of the modules here to see the big difference between the learning system of both countries (in England there is half of lessons’ hours and manysubjects are passed without exams), so…can I really think that English people are much more intelligent and advanced than Spanish?




But it’s also true that not everybody here is like the terrible hooligans shown on our television. There are people extremely polite who open the door for you in public places (something that I had never thought before coming) and even I have met someEnglish people who hate football! Once more, generalizations or preconceived assumptions prove to be wrong.








On the other hand, I have discovered a lot of beliefs that English have about Spanish people since I got here. We are known to be lazy (mainly for the costume of “Siesta-time”), greedy (may be for the well known “tapas”), and very happy people always singing and dancing...