I’m English and when I moved to Russia everyone I met was convinced of three things:
No matter the circumstances, at 5pm everyone in the UK stops to have tea
We all love the monarchy
We all love the Beatles
I was happy to disabuse people of these - on point 2, probably a bit too vociferously. A smaller subset of people assumed I was from London.
As for Russia:
Russians, as a people, don’t consume an inordinate amount of alcohol (there are many countries that, per capita, consume more). What alcoholism there is is based not on vodka but on cheap beer
Actual Russians sound nothing like Hollywood Russians; Hollywood flatly cannot do a Russian accent
It’s not always cold; in summer it can be +50 degrees in Siberia and they grow watermelons in the south
So, 'Nauts, what’s assumed, yet complete bollocks, about where you’re from?
I have to say, a lot of stereotypes about germans are true in my opinion. Its a stereotype, it dosent mean, that we are all like it, but if i put me in a alien perception - yes there are some truth in this generalizations.
We are very direct in our communication, and that clockwerk attribute we recieve is found in many people. But i know a lot of exceptions. And there are also a lot of non order followers. Civil disobediance is rare. Well and most of germany is not Bavaria, which is one of best cultural exports sadly. Oktoberfest everywhere.
I wish we had more of the civil movement energy that is found in france. Hope we can grow together more in the EU in the future.
Hmm - that didnt help with debunking, I dont have much prejudice either way.
Marihuana, is hmm half legal, no shops, but up to 3 plants is legal, but if your neighbor hates you or you live in Bavaria (Beer county) you shouldnt plant on your balcony.
I keep disappointing Vietnamese people who expect me to conform to the regular Russian stereotypes: I don’t drink alcohol, I hate Putin, I hate Lenin, my accent is usually mistaken for Dutch, I haven’t played DotA since 2007, I don’t listen to hard bass and I have a very vague idea of what it is, I don’t hate Americans (but you guys are trying to catch up with us right now in terms of fucking up your country, though we’ve had a great head start, and you’re unlikely to ever reach our level of FUBAR).
That says, people here in Vietnam expect all Russians to be a bit crazy, in a funny way. That’s because they’ve always had lots of Soviet comedies on TV, and that formed peculiar stereotypes, summarized in the expression Nga ngố, literally silly Russian. Looks like I fit that stereotype pretty well.
Some Vietnamese stereotypes (most of them come from Vietnamese themselves, some are perpetuated by foreigners):
People in the South are more open, people in the North form stronger bonds. That’s true. Another variation is “date a Southern woman, marry a Northern woman”.
If someone is a piece of shit, they must be from North. Not necessarily, but Northerners in general look down on Southerners.
Southerners are lazy. Not really, but their dialect is definitely made for lazy people, it only has 5 tones instead of 6.
If you drive a Yamaha Exciter, it doesn’t mean you are a dog thief. But if you are a dog thief, you drive an Exciter for sure. Another variation is “dogs hide when they hear Exciter exhaust”. Can’t tell if it’s true, haven’t met any dog thieves (lucky for them). Unfortunately, the laws regarding dog theft are very lax, they only get some laughable fines when caught by the police. That leads to people compensating for that by lynching the thieves instead of handing them over to the police.
Vietnamese people like to show off. Well, people here love luxury items they can’t really afford, the iPhone market rate here is way way higher than in other countries with comparable income.
Ninja drivers are dangerous. A ninja driver is a woman who covers her face and body completely, and usually drives a Honda Lead. They can be unpredictable indeed, but that’s true for many other drivers as well, starting with drunk tourists without helmets, of course. A lot of people make fun of ninjas, but it all depends on the perspective: after all, it’s a woman who works hard all day to feed her kids, she just doesn’t have any fucks left to give about road safety.
Vietnamese people will scam you. That’s completely untrue, I’ve been living here for many years, and I’ve only been scammed once. That guy was selling an MPC One, by the way.
Vietnamese people eat everything. Well, almost no body part is wasted, that’s true, and they are proud of it. All kinds of intestines, chicken feet, skin, whatever. Also I’ve eaten pigeons, sparrows, worms here.
Vietnamese people hate Americans. I’ve only met one guy who disliked Americans, and he spent a good chunk of his life in the USSR and then in Ukraine.
Vietnamese people are terrible drivers. Some definitely are, but in general, if you adjust for the fact almost everyone is driving a motorbike, and that makes them 22-28 times more likely to receive lethal injuries in an accident compared to car drivers and passengers, the accident stats are not that bad. Bad, but not that bad. The traffic looks chaotic, but it’s organic and natural. You get used to it.
There are way more, but I’m tired of typing. Overall, in my experience most Vietnamese stereotypes about themselves are at least partially true, most foreign stereotypes about them are completely uninformed.
Those Soviet comedies are great. С Легким Паром, Спортлотто and Служебный Роман etc. are almost worth learning Russian for by themselves. But they definitely give a crazy impression of Russians. That’s like Americans judging Brits based on Benny Hill.
A few addenda to mine re: Russians:
Russians are obsessed with blood pressure. Every household I knew had its own testing machine.
Russian officialdom is sadistically obsessed with bits of paper. You need a “spravka” to do practically anything in Russia. When I was applying for residency, they bounced me hundreds of miles all over the region, to different institutions and hospitals, to gather these. And when my wife tried to go back to Russia after living in the UK for some time, they complained that the (correct) spelling of my surname name did not match the way they wanted to transliterate it. Sometimes you can’t win…
Ladas, despite their comical reputation, are sturdier than any car you’ve ever owned. Those muthas run in -30°C and just keep going.
So true. My father measures his blood pressure every day and writes it down in a table. Used to plot it, but turns out plotting your blood pressure makes you raise it subconsciously. My uncle only started caring about his health (a bit) because of high blood pressure.
Yeah the bureaucracy is famous. The Vietnamese bureaucracy follows the same model, by the way, but falls behind on digital tech, so everything takes way longer. It took us 11 months to get married in Vietnam.
I miss my Niva. It’s a liberating feeling when you can buy any mirrors you like, drill new mounting holes then fill the gaps with silicone. I had to use both hands for the lever that blocked its differential. Always had some gas and a funnel with me since I couldn’t trust the fuel meter. It probably wouldn’t reach 100 kmph even in freefall. It was a piece of shit, but it was a fun piece of shit. My current Chevrolet is a boring piece of shit.
All of the rumors you hear about Americans are true, every single last one of them: We really are the best, at everything, at all times. Also very, very humble.
