Polish stereotypes of other nationalities!?

Yer... "if only".... I can imagine most men on here groan!

Why do Brits & Western Europeans in general have such big mouths?

Alot of them have more buckteeth too

trying to keep your race "pure" has its shortcomings.


Haha boy your arrow usually finds its mark. It did with us Americans I can say. ( Well nobody really hates Russians anymore)

Hehe, the Swede was spot on unfortunatly... ;)

Greek stereotypes:
1.French:dirty,high nose,women not shaving their armpits,pompose and dumb
2.English:Gay,two-faced hypocritical
3.Germans:Robotic,workahholic nazis
4.Swedes:Peace loving socialists nothing bothers them
5.Italians:Una faca una raca(one face one race with Greeks)
6.Russians:Bear from the North,powerful red tribe coming for our liberation
7.Poles:Some drunk people from the North,very good workers,classy women
8.Czechs:Industry,beers,they are descendants of the Czechoslovaks
9.Hungaryans:Descendants of Attila with horses
10.Romanians:Gypsy crooks
11.Albanians:Wild tribe,thieves,the worst possible denomination
12.Bulgarians:Stoneheads,very slow
13.Austrians:Cultured folks who clap with hands on concerts
14.Finnish:Totally boring,completely drunk,very white and red with fat cheeks
15.Turks:Barbarian folks from the East,ready to succumb us,a constant threat
16.Serbs:Holy people,orthodox brothers always suffering in their glorious fights
17.Swiss:Rich,indifferent,sb who doesn't give a fek,noone knows where their land is located

In Greek expressions:
Talk French:means swearing heavily,it is an ephemism because French was considered the language of the culture.For example he heard his French,he dropped his French etc

Play the young dutch woman means pretend the ignorant.I told him that and he played the young Dutch woman.Or He played the Chinese.He pretended not to understand.

English means gentleman-like.He is English on his dates means he comes always on time.
Small American:means dumb.Leave him the small American.Do not try to explain to him he is completely dumb
Bulgarian head is the stonehead:Bulgarian head,he never changes his opinion.
Albanian means the shabby.He looked like an Albanian:He looked shabby with cheap clothes sold in bazar
Become a Turk means become very angry.When I heard the news I became a Turk.(I started shouting).
Russian roulette is when sth becomes unpredictable and deadly.The game became a russian roulette( both teams had chances and the one who would score would win).

funnily enough the same thing is expressed in Polish with an expression 'to play a Greek - udawać Greka'

Serbian expressions:

He is complaining like a Greek in the prison- for somebody not willing to accept inevitable.
Don't pretend to be English- when somebody is trying to present that he has nothing to do with problem he created. Cunning ;)
He smokes like a Turk - uncivilized in smoking, but it tends to spread to complete persona
he likes Bulgarian policy - two faced, deceiving

I can't recall more now, I have to look online.

We have here he smokes like a Negro.
He is screaming like a duck in Capitolium(he complains a lot it is a memory from Roman times when Etruski attacked Rome by surprise in night and ducks of Capitolium started screaming and woke up the Romans who managed to fight the Etruski out of Rome).

Interesting insight.
Now, I tried to find ethnic stereotypes (or social distance research) about European nations, I remember I read about it...
In last ten years there is a hyper production of auto and heterostereotypes research within Balkan circle, like it is an isolated island. Complete Balkan. Nothing found about prevailing local stereotypes about Germans, English....west

I doubt that it is accidental, having notions of the ways those research are financed and initiated ( department of Psychology inclines heavily to one side, those research often are conducted with the goal of mutual regional reconciliation, EU direction ).

Now, it came to my mind, that this semi isolating policy has its roots in Bismarck's era, and some people keep doing that. There is one interesting idea, it came from a Westerner (forgot who it was), and is repeatedly reinvented by many others, that is that Europe partly projects its interior and sees it as Balkan exterior. (aggression, chaos, fears)

Sort of splitting. Black and white.

Sociologists are responsible for the idea, and I think that to some extent it makes sense.

Not to be misinterpreted by Poles, word Europe is used to designate the western Europe here, I am just accepting the established practice...term is confiscated long ago....;)

Nice job McCoy.....lol.

Southern I think this saying confuses the geese sacred to Juno Monetas with ducks. Her temple was where the gold was kept, hence the word "money", and her geese squawked during a clandestine raid by Celts, not Etruscans, and thus alerted the Romans who then repelled the Celts.

DE's right. Gauls attacked the Capitol in 390BC. Here's the story from Livy
elfinspell.com/PrimarySourceGeese.html
The Etruscans never entered Rome because Horatius Cocles saw them off at the Tiber bridge (and then sawed down the bridge to deny them entry to the city.

Reliability of sources correlates positively and significantly with Slavism, and with closeness to me (not only geographically):

1. Southern (In we trust)
2. Des Esseintes
3. Alexw68

It has to be like that, Greek with love for Slavs, American Slav and then comes somebody who is just Slavicized. (no offense Alex)
Cruel world ;)

None taken.

;)

Anyway we have this expression.

Other expressions in new Greek from ancient times:
1.Eureka eureka.When you find sth after a lot of thought.It is also used ironically when you search a lot and at the end you find what you searched for.First told by Archimedes when he found the laws of hydrostatic pressure in his bath.

2.Thalatta thalatta!(sea sea).When you get to the desired result place.First used by the 10000 mercenary Greeks who had fought near Babylonia when they reached Black Sea one year later having gone through numerous dangers and difficulties.

3.What is up to me I think...This means I have to repeat again that I find this significant.Told by the Roman Katon at the end of each one of his speeches to Roman senators ''What is up to me I think that Carthagena has to be destroyed''.

4.Everyone but Lacedaimonians.This means only you are out of this.First used when Spartans decided not to participate in Alexander the Great's campaign despite all the Greeks participated.So in each victory temple it was written ''here fought all Greeks except Lacedaimonians''.

5.Do not disturb my cycles.This means let me in peace,do not disturb me.First used according to legend by Archimedes when a Roman soldier after entering Syraccuses lifted his sword to cut off his head.Archimedes was so much absorbed by the geometrical circles he designed on the ground that he told him ''please do not disturb my circles because the shadow of the sword covered the circles.The Roman soldier did not understand thought Archimedes swore on him and cut off Archimedes head.

Actually in Belarus I lived the process of slavicization and it was quite frightening.Among slavic women and men drinking near the river I felt gradually losing my greek substance and dematerialize to air it was like being absorbed by slavic overflow.Vodka,river and slavic bodies and then greek substance goes puff and retreats.How not to get absorbed when there are no mountains?

Ah, Xenophon. Just about the only Greek historian it was a joy to read in the original. Thucydides, Herodotus - incredible pyrotechnics of language, brilliant narrative and insight, but I had to reach for the translation more often than not :(

Anyway - @southern, some (upper-middle-class) brits used to say, it's rare now, hoi polloi about their more numerous supposed social inferiors. Do Greeks use the phrase like that?

He is easy to read because he was marshall and as such he wrote in simple language.But Thucydides is far more interesting though lot more difficult.I can understand Ksenophon without dictionary because most of the words he uses exist in new Greek.Thucydides and Herodotus the terror of greek examinees in national exams when they asked to translate one of their passages the failure rate was too high.


Yes,we use the same.Oi polloi means in new Greek also the many.

Other expressions:
1.Either this or on this.(I tan i epi tas).This means either you do the job,succeed etc or you get fired,it is like dead end.It was said by the women of Sparta when their husbands went to war.They told them either you bring this(the shield) or you get back on this(the shield) that is do not think for a moment to surrender(they called this drop the shield when you dropped the shield you were considered that you stop fighting).

2.Tomorrow the important(es avrion ta spoudaia).This means leave it for tomorrow if you think it is too important it is used ironically.First said by the marshall of the spartan guard occupying Akropolis of Theba when sb asked to talk to him claiming to have important information.The Spartans had a symposium(like a party eating and drinking) at the moment and their leader told the messenger ''tomorrow you say the important news''.Spartans spoke in laconic style without many words so his answer was ''tomorrow the important.''It became classic because the news regarded the movement of 1000 armed Thebans under Pelopidas and Epameinondas who attacked the Spartans the same night during the symposium killed all of them and liberated Theba from spartan occupation.

3.Never say sb is happy before the end.(midena pro tou telous makarize).We use this in several occasions and meanings.It mainly means wait to see what happens because maybe things will change.We use it also ironically.First used by the King of Lydia Kroisos when the King of Persia Kyros had captured him and was ready to sacrifice him to the Gods.Kroisos then(the richest man of his age) screamed Solon,Solon and Kyros asked what was this.Kroisos told him that one wise man Solon from Athens had visited him while he was in his most glorious times having vast quantities of gold and told him ''never call sb happy before the end''.He had laughed then at Solon because he considered himself invulnerable but now he sees how right Solon was.

Then Kyros thought about it and decided to liberate Kroisos and let him live because he was afraid that maybe some day the same end would happen to him.

4.You go and come not in the war die.(ikseis afikseis ouk en to polemo thnikseis).We tell this when sb does not present one opinion but says two opposite things at the same time.For example when he has no idea or when he does not want to be accused of being mistaken.Told by Pythia in Delphi when kings,marshalls or soldiers asked for advice whether they would win or die in the war Pythia answered ''you come and go not in the war die'',so many thought it meant ''you come and go,not in the war die'' and went to war.When they actually died and their families accused Delphi of being wrong and cheating Delphi told them.Pythia said ''you come and go not,in the war die'' so she warned you about the outcome.

Suddenly I feel slightly less burdened by my hopeless failure to get my head round Pericles's epitapheion in those far-off undergraduate days. Thanks for the relief :)

I read Herodotus in Serbian, it was completely ok ;)

this is all greek to me. and straying from the topic.

I need that kind of Slavicization. As soon as possible. Batteries are leer.