Топик стереотипы о немцах на английском. Стереотипы об англичанах: домыслы и факты

Brits are portrayed as class-conscious binge-drinkers utterly obsessed with the war. It"s a thumbnail sketch, not the whole picture, writes Jonathan Freedland .

Говорят, что британцы считают, что в обществе "всяк сверчок должен знать свой шесток", к тому же они пьют запоями и очень любят разговоры о войне. Но это лишь приблизительный, далеко не полный портрет. Об этом пишет Джонатан Фридлэнд.

The stereotype is itself a stereotype. The European image of the Brit – either pukingly drunk football fan or snooty City gent, both living off past imperial glories, sullenly resenting being in Europe rather than ruling the world – is itself a cliche. Just as Brits know that every good Frenchman wears a striped shirt and beret, and that ruddy-faced Germans subsist on a diet of beer and sausage, so we know precisely what all those Europeans think of us.

Стереотип есть стереотип. Европейские представления об англичанах - это два штампа: либо пьяный футбольный болельщик, либо занюханный служащий из лондонского Сити. Причём оба живут воспоминаниями о былом имперском величии и еле скрывают неудовольствие, что им приходится жить в Европе вместо того, чтобы управлять всем миром. Также и у англичан есть штампы, по которым каждый настоящий француз ходит в полосатой рубашке и берете, а краснолицые немцы сидят на диете, состоящей из сосисек и пива. Так что нам прекрасно известно, что думают о нас остальные европейцы.

And, sure enough, drink, class and the second world war all crop up in the thumbnail sketch of the British (Europeans tend to use "British" as a synonym for "English", rather forgetting the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish) provided by our colleagues across the Channel. It would be nice to say that our neighbours have us all wrong – but, sadly, cliches only become cliches if they are built on a foundation of truth.

И, конечно же, когда говорят о британцах по ту сторону Ла-Манша, всегда вспоминают их любовь выпить, их фиксированность на своём социальном положении и их разговоры о второй мировой войне. (Европейцы часто считают "британца" синонимом "англичанина", забывая о шотландцах, жителях Уэльса - валлийцах и жителях Северной Ирландии). Хотелось бы сказать, что соседи совсем нас не понимают - но, к сожалению, штампы так просто не рождаются, они отражают правду.

Start with the bottle. Sure, we can cling to the statistics that show we are far from Europe"s heaviest drinkers. In fact, the last round of OECD figures ranked us 11th in Europe for alcohol consumption, far behind France in first place, followed by Portugal and Austria. But while the French, German, Spanish and Italians are drinking much less than they did in 1980, Britons are drinking 9% more.

Начнём с бутылки. Конечно, можно сослаться на статистику, которая показывает, что нам далеко до самых пьющих европейцев. На самом деле мы всего на 11-м месте в Европе по потреблению алкоголя (по данным Организации экономического сотрудничества и развития). Мы далеко отстаём от Франции (1-е место) и Португалии с Австрией (2-е и 3-е место). Но в то время как французы, немцы, испанцы и итальянцы стали пить меньше, чем в 1980-м году, мы, наоборот, стали пить на 9% больше.

Still, it"s not the volume of pints (or litres) consumed that has led to our boozy reputation. It"s the way we drink that"s the problem. The French figure may be high, but that"s driven up by a lot of people drinking moderately: the glass or two of red at dinner. The British disease has even entered the French language: le binge drinking is the preferred phrase for vast, rapid consumption aimed solely at getting hammered. It"s this falling-over, vomiting brand of drunkenness, visible in most city centres on a Friday night, that has become part of our national image. One study found that 54% of British 15- and 16-year-olds admit to binge drinking, compared to a European average of 43%. In other words, there is more than a little reality behind the image.

И всё же репутацию пьяниц нам создали не выпитые литры (или пинты). Проблема в том, как мы пьём. Хотя суммарно французы пьют много, складывается эта сумма из того, что очень много людей пьют понемногу: стакан-два красного вина за обедом. А британская болезнь даже получила своё название во французском языке: "le binge drinking " - это значит пить много и быстро с единственной целью запьянеть (интересные сведения о выражении "drinking binge" и о самом слове "binge" можно найти в статье "binge " из раздела "Английские слова и выражения " - прим. переводчика ). Именно такое пьянство, заметное у нас в крупных городах вечерами по пятницам, когда люди падают с ног и их рвёт, стало частью нашего национального имиджа. Согласно одному исследованию, 54% британцев в возрасте 15-16 лет признаются, что пили так (запоем, в стельку, binge drinking ), а в других европейских странах таких всего 43%. Другими словами, такой наш имидж имеет свои основания.

Class conscious? "Всяк сверчок знай свой шесток"?

What, though, of this description of us as "awfully class conscious"? It"s tempting to say that that"s out of date, that most Britons now belong in the vast, sprawling middle class. But the figures are much less comforting. The OECD put Britain at the bottom of the social mobility league table, finding that children born into poor families here have a lower chance of getting on than they do in Italy, France, Spain or Germany.

А что ответить на то, будто мы "чрезвычайно классово фиксированы"? Подмывает сказать, что это уже устарело, что теперь большинство британцев относятся в огромному и растущему среднему классу. Но статистика показывает несколько иное. По данным Организации экономического сотрудничества и развития, Британия относится с странам с наименьшей социальной мобильностью населения: у детей, родившиеся в бедных семьях, больше шанс остаться бедными, чем у их сверстников в Италии, Франции, Испании и Германии.

Second world war obsession? Одержимы второй мировой войной?

Nor can we easily deny our obsession with the last war. When David Cameron wielded his veto at the December save-the-euro summit, the speed with which he was compared to the British Tommy in the legendary 1940 cartoon – stoically declaring, "Very well, alone" – testified to a nation that still views Europe through a wartime lens.

Нелегко будет отвергнуть и нашу одержимость второй мировой войной. Когда Дэвид Кэмерон (премьер-министр Британии) воспользовался правом вето на саммите Евросоюза по спасению евро-валюты, его сравнили с британским солдатом Томми на легендарной карикатуре 1940 года, который стоически кричит: "Хорошо, останусь один" - и сочли это доказательством, что наша страна до сих пор смотрит на Европу через очки времён второй мировой войны.

For reasons that are not all bad, we have turned 1939-45 into a kind of creation myth, the noble story of modern Britain"s birth. We vote for Churchill as our Greatest Briton and revere the Queen in part because she is a direct link to that chapter in our history, the moment when we were unambiguously on the side of good.

По разным причинам, не всегда плохим, в годы второй мировой войны (1939-45) возник современный миф о благородной Британии. Самым великим британцем мы назвали (по опросам) Черчилля, а нашу королеву мы уважаем отчасти за прямую связь с этой главой нашей истории, когда мы однозначно встали на сторону добра.

That, of course, is a key difference between us and our fellow Europeans, for whom that period is anything but simple or unambiguous.

И в этом, конечно, ключевая разница между нами и остальными европейцами, для которых те годы были непростыми и неоднозначными.

And yet no Brit could accept the caricature of us without some dissent. For one thing, it"s contradictory. How can Britons simultaneously be both self-controlled and prone to rip our clothes off in a drunken haze? (One answer might be that we"re repressed and need alcohol to loosen up, but then go too far.) But it is also incomplete.

И всё же ни один британец не согласится полностью с такой карикатурой. Прежде всего, она противоречит сама себе. Как могут британцы быть одновременно и предельно самостоятельными, и склонными рвать а себе рубаху в пьяном угаре? (Возможен ответ, что алкоголь нужен нам, чтобы расслабиться от напряжения, просто мы заходим с ним слишком далеко).

More tolerant? Более терпимы?

For the stereotype captures much of what we were and still are – but misses out who we have become. We are now a much more diverse and varied society, especially in our big cities, than the hooligan/City gent image allows.

Этот стереотип хорошо отражает, какими мы были и есть - но упускает, какими мы стали. Ныне наше общество намного разнообразнее, особенно в крупных городах, и давно не укладывается в альтернативу "хулиган или служащий Сити".

There is a vibrancy to modern British life that eludes the cliche"s grasp. There"s a hint of it in that Polish suggestion that the Brits are "kind and friendly to immigrants".

Жизнь в современной Британии не укладывается в рамки такого штампа. И показателем этого служит мнение поляков о том, что британцы "по-доброму и дружески относятся к иммигрантам".

Compared with other European countries, it"s probably true that Britain is, generally, more tolerant. Some of our public services – the NHS, the BBC – are still cherished. We are not merely a mini-America of let-it-rip free-marketism.

Вероятно, правда, что по сравнению с другими европейскими странами Британия более терпимая страна. У нас до сих пор ценятся государственные системы здравоохранения (NHS) и средств массовой информации (ВВС). Мы отнюдь не являемся Америкой в миниатюре с её разгулом стихии свободного рынка.

Nationality Stereotypes

A stereotype is a fixed set of ideas that is generally held about the characteristics of a particular type of person which are wrongly believed to be shared by all the people of that type. In my opinion it is a dangerous thing to judge about a people or a group of people by existing stereotypes but nevertheless a certain stereotype does exist. There are experimental ways of investigating stereotypes. One of the most obvious is to ask a group of people what trades characterize the British, the Russians, the Americans. Results of such studies of the whole agree well with what might have been expected. English are said to be prim. Weather is the most important topic in the land. In English this is an ever – interesting, even thrilling topic and you must be good at discussing the weather. You must never contradict anybody when discussing the weather. Should it hail and snow, should hurricanes up root the trees, should someone remark to you "Nice day, isn’t it?" – answer without hesitation "Isn’t it lovely?" On the continent people either tell you the truth or lie, in Britain they hardly ever lie but they don’t tell you the truth either. The British like people of every country tend to be attributed with certain characteristics which are supposedly typical. However you should be cautious about accepting such characterizations too easily. Societies change over time while their reputations lag behind. Many things which are often regarded as typically British are no longer representative of modern life. One example of this is the popular belief that Britain is a land of traditions. This is what most tourist brochures claim. The claim is based on what can be seen in public life. And at this level – the level of public life it is undoubtedly true. However in private everyday lives the British as individuals are probably less inclined to follow traditions than other people of most other countries. According to the stereotypes English are also thought to be reserved, conservative, shy of strangers, suspicious of change and slow to accept new ideas, responsible, honest and unemotional. But I think this stereotype pictures are far from true, especially in today’s world.

Nationality stereotypes are often described in anecdotes, humorous stories, private diaries. For example American westerns are dynamic and thrilly. They show us men strength in fights, gun fighting and horse riding skills, but to my mind it was various that made American character. You can easily spot Americans abroad by their toughness. It comes from their sense of individual freedom. Americans realize that individuals must rely on themselves, otherwise they risk to loose their freedom. So, self-reliance usually is the second trade and moral value supposed to be obligatory to a true American. The third national value accounts for their confident and unaffected manners. The fourth American value is competition. Sixty percent of the Americans believe in competition and so desire to win is healthy. In spite of the fact that society can’t consist only of winners the Americans are optimistic. They believe that every problem has a solution. The fifth national value is material wealth. Most Americans believe wealth is a reward for hard work and that it’s possible to have good standard of living if a person works hard. God helps those who help themselves – says the proverb. The sense of humor is often the most revealing aspect of a culture. Surely, humor has never been valued more highly in any other civilization than in this one.

The Russian are considered to be industries, tough, brave and progressive. These stereotypes are derived from books, films and other cultural media. As any nation the Russians have both positive and negative qualities. On the one hand, people who belong to this nationality are hard-working, willing to respect the opinion of other people. They regard other racial or ethnic groups as equal. They are fond of being with other people, enjoying social life, hospitable to foreigners. On the other hand sometimes they are inclined to cheat and unwilling to respect the views, ideas, opinions opposite to their own. This is my point of view on this problem.

I also would like to say stereotypes are a part of human life though they may present one sided exaggerated view of religion, racial ethnic groups of people as well as of classes of people. Stereotypes are certainly not reliable description of individual people but they still exist.

Nationality Stereotypes A stereotype is a fixed set of ideas that is generally held about the characteristics of a particular type of person which are wrongly believed to be shared by all the people of that type. In my opinion it is a dangerou Societies change over time while their reputations lag behind. Many things which are often regarded as typically British derive from books, songs or plays which were written a long time ago and which are no longer representative of modern life. One example of this is the popular belief that Britain is a "land of tradition”. This is what most tourist brochures claim. The claim is based on what can be seen in public life and on centuries of political continuity. And at this level - the level of public life - it is undoubtedly true. The annual ceremony of the state opening of Parliament, for instance, carefully follows customs which are centuries old. So does the military ceremony of "trooping the colour". Likewise, the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace never changes.

However, in their private everyday lives, the British as individuals are probably less inclined to follow tradition than are the people of most other countries. There are very few ancient customs that are followed by the majority of families on special occasions. The country has fewer local parades or processions with genuine folk roots than most other countries have. The English language has fewer sayings or proverbs that are in common everyday use than many other languages do. The British are too individualistic for these things. In addition, it should be noted that they are the most enthusiastic video-watching people in the world the very opposite of a traditional pastime!

There are many examples of supposedly typical British habits which are simply not typical any more. For example, the stereotyped image of the London "city gent" includes the wearing of a bowler hat. In fact, this type of hat has not been commonly worn for a long time. Food and drink provide other examples. The traditional "British" (or "English) breakfast is a large "fry-up" preceded by cereal with milk and followed by toast, butter and marmalade, all washed down with lots of tea. In fact, only about 10% of the people in Britain actually have this sort of breakfast. Two-thirds have cut out the fry-up and just have the cereal, tea and toast. The rest have even less. What the vast majority of British people have in the mornings is therefore much closer to what they call a "continental" (i.e. European) breakfast than it is to a "British" one. The image of the British as a nation of tea-drinkers is another stereotype which is somewhat out of date. It is true that it is still prepared in a distinctive way (strong and with milk), but more coffee than tea is now bought in the country"s shops. As for the tradition of afternoon tea with biscuits, scones, sandwiches or cake, this is a minority activity, largely confined to retired people and the leisured upper-middle class (although preserved in tea shops in tourist resorts).

Even when a British habit conforms to the stereotype, the wrong conclusions can sometimes be drawn from it. The supposed British love of queuing is an example. Yes, British people do form queues whenever they are waiting for something, but this does not mean that they enjoy it. It would therefore seem wrong to conclude that their habit of queuing shows that the British are a patient people. Apparently, the British hate having to wait and have less patience than people in many other countries.

Топик Культура и национальные стереотипы описывает такие понятия, как нация, национальная культура и этнические или национальные стереотипы. Например, понятие “нация” описывается как исторически сложившаяся устойчивая общность людей, возникшая на базе общности языка, религии, территории проживания, традиций и образа жизни, проявляющегося в общности культуры. Безусловно, национальный характер существует и, в зависимости от принадлежности человека к той или иной нации, многие черты характера схожи, и эти особенности могут быть объяснены как национальный характер. В топике сравниваются национальные черты характеров немцев, израильтян, россиян, англичан, народов Азии и Африки, южан и северян.

A nation is a group of people who share common history and usually a language and usually, but not always, live in the same area. Culture can be described as our everyday life: how we communicate, what makes us happy and sad. It also includes our language, religion, traditions, behavior, way of life – in other words, what we do each day. People that belong to various nations may differ and they always differ from one another.

For example, the Germans are regarded as scientifically-minded and industrious, they’re always considered solid, intelligent and mathematical. And, for instance, Israeli are believed to be mercenary, industrious, shrewd, loyal to family, religious.

There is a big amount of examples we can list about national character of different people. Proving the difference of the national stereotypes I want to compare Russian and English nations. There are a lot of features that vary.

The Russians are industrious, tough, brave, progressive and suspicious. They are always considered to be nationalistic, over – patriotic (because of this reason they’re good soldiers), we are willing to respect opinion of other people.

Speaking about Englishmen I may note that they’re reserved, tradition-loving, courteous, honest, extremely nationalistic and etc. To my mind, they have a specific sense of humor. They say that they can’t understand our jokes and anecdotes not only because of the different meanings of the words, but because of their humor is more delicate.

Looking at these features of the Russians and the Englishmen it is not hard to mark out the differences. The Englishmen are reserved, but the Russians are open-hearted and communicative. The Englishmen are tradition-loving and the Russians, to my mind, don’t keep their traditions in such a degree.

There is a great majority of factors that influence the nations stereotype and its people’s character. People that live in the southern countries have less problems than those who live in the North and because of this they’re more cheerful and artistic.

The history also has a great influence on the national character. The peoples in Asia are revengeful because their forefathers often were at war with others. In Africa many countries were colonies of the Great Britain, Holland, Spain and so on and they (Africans) were the slaves and because of this they’re still hard-working and industrious.

The National Character exists. It is not a myth, it’s a reality. But the National Character doesn’t describe the character of every person, it describes the character of people of nation in general. Every person has its own character, but according to the person’s belonging to some nation many traits of character are similar and these features may be explained as the national character.

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