Verbal forms:
Simple (lexical level) Nouns (ethnonyms), Adjectives (attributes), Verbs, Idioms
Compound (sentence level)
Affirmative sentences, comparisons, phraseological units, folk sayings
Large (text level) Fairy tales, legends, jokes, songs
Ethnonyms – Xenophobisms
Spaghetti, Kiwis, Krauts, Aussis, dagos, Allis, Squareheads, Bolly, Piefkes, Amis, Teutons
Generalization particles “Always”, “all”, “only” All Russians are drunks
Attributes English breakfast, English melancholy,
German comb
Sayings
Englishman’s home is his castle
Precedent texts Literature: Oliver Twist Lyrics: Yellow Submarine, Lili Marlen
Street signs can also give information about national character…
What role do stereotypes play in cross-cultural communication?
Stereotypes are transmitted via generations as a part of “common knowledge”
Communication failures often occur due to miscorrelation of two communication codes – cultural and linguistic
Clash of different national stereotypes can lead to difficulties in communication, failures, and be a reason for culture shock
Stereotypically, the English are viewed as
reserved, Polite Weather –talk Hooliganism Hypocrisy privacy
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Anti-intellectualism Queuing Compromise Humor Eccentrism
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To be born English is to win the first place in the lottery of life→ mistrustful of abroad (dodgy food/ water/ plumbing/ foreigners)
The English are moral,
The English are good and clever,
And modest and misunderstood
Stereotyping other nations
English and French are sparring partners = low hate relationships, they love food and climate of France
Italians are too emotional
German are too serious
Spanish are cruel to bulls
Russians are gloomy
Dutch are solid and sensible
Scandinavians, Belgians, Swiss are dull
Indians, Pakis, Bangladeshis play cricket
Special affinity with Americans and Australians
The English have a developed sense of individual personal freedom
Every English person is an island with his/ her own right to personal freedom,
privacy and personal space
Do not touch = physical contact is still reserved
Hand gestures are viewed as suspicious
‘Englishman’s- home- is- his- castle’ belief
Home is a castle with a moat and drawbridge
Home improvements- nestbuilding -DIY→ DITer
Love affair with homes and gardens is the expression of privacy
Obsession with crosswords and puzzles
Reading is even more popular than DIY and gardening = 100.000 new books annually:
‘bogside reading’ piles of books, magazines near the loo – humorous, entertaining, sport-related
Shopping as a chore, shopaholics, retail therapy
Taking pleasure of shopping is regarded effeminate
Pet rules = Petiquette :
House is a castle, a dog is the king in a castle
Two-facedness = hypocrites
Common sense “Be prepared at all times”
Inventiveness & initiative But
No revolutionary changes
deeply nostalgic as they value customs and traditions
Ceremony is smth English are good at
English weather-speak
English weather = English weather-speak
When you can tell the difference between scattered showers & showery outbreaks or intermittent rain you will know you have finally arrived at a state of complete Englishness
A simple greeting
An ice-breaking breaker leading to a conversation on the other matter
A filler in case of uncomfortable silence
TV forecaster adopt apologetic tone for rain and rueful to predicted cold
Snow is also socially and conventionally a specific and awkward case, aethetically pleasing but practically inconvenient
Moderation rule – too much snow is deplored
The English VS Americans
‘Oh, with Americans it’s always mine’s bigger than yours, with the weather or anything else. They are so crass, bigger steaks, buildings, snowstorms, heat, hurricane.’
Hummer brand!!!!!!
English CLASS System
They say now that ’Karl Marx spent years in England writing about class struggle, but he did not grasp it is mainly within upper, middle, working not between them’
Placing each other accents
Not showing off behaviour
Minding your own business
Class in England has very little to do with money, very little with occupation.→ speech and terminology are important
There are other class indicators – taste in clothes, furniture, decoration, cars, pets, books, drink, meals, but speech is immediate and obvious
Food is the new sex
Books about sex – blank pages:
There’ll be a short chapter!
That won’t take long!
No sex. Please, We are British
We do not have sex, we have hot water bottles
Lie back and think of England
Will you explain the mystery how English manage to reproduce
Low-sex drive, but sexless image is inaccurate: highest rate of teenage sexuality in industrialized world is among un-sexy English
Linguistic Class Codes
Emerging talk rules= new set of unspoken rules = the mobile rules or SMS-speak:
in case of inappropriate mobile phone:
Low-status people give phones during lunch
High-status keep it switched off or apologize in embarrassed and genuine way
Germans
Unification
Wessies =former West Germans
Ossies = former East Germans
Cementing two nations does not come cheap especially if one of them ‘needs attention’
Viewed by some as the nation of square-jawed robots whose language sounds like something awful,
Whose cars outperform all others
Whose football team never loses
The Germans seem unassailable
Neighbours see Germans ‘at your knees or at your throat’ = emotions vary from admiration to fear
Brits like cleverness & thoroughness
The only people to whom the Germans readily conceal unquestioned superiority of Teutonic virtues are the Swiss.
No German would argue their supremacy in their fields of order, punctuality, diligence, cleanliness, thoroughness.
They have never been at war with the Swiss
Germans hate breaking rules
Efficiency
Organization
Discipline
Cleanliness
Punctuality
Order must be = Ordnung muss sein
Germany is the land of Angst
The Germans are fond of escapism
Gastarbeiter
Why do the Germans still envy the Chinese? Because they still have their wall.
Obsessions:
What’s going wrong with Germany?
Death of the German novel
Crisis is the life’s blood
Guidelines in Germany. It is guided by three S - savings, simplicity and stoicism.