Greece was really the first time I got to talk to talk to
Europeans other than Italians. Although I had been to Switzerland, we didn’t
really get a chance to meet anyone besides other American students traveling
and staying at the hostel. Most everyone else was shut inside for the coldest
weekend of the year.
I mentioned that we made friends with a Brit, James, for a
couple of days in Athens. He made his opinion of Italians clear. “Ohhhh Italy.
Italian men.” Then he proceeded to mock the stereotypical over-sexed,
passionate Italian man. “Kissy kissy ohh mwah mwah mwah.”
It made me laugh, but it got me thinking about stereotypes.
Americans certainly have plenty of assumptions about European countries, but I
hadn’t really thought about the stereotypes formed within Europe of their
neighboring countries.
In contrast to the wildly inappropriate Italian men, James
also said people perceive Englishmen as cold and unfeeling. He didn’t see why
not being as showy as Italians made him cold. It was an interesting
conversation.
A few days later we ran into an Armenian man in Santorini. Now
I’ve already heard Italians’ general presumption about Armenians. “Stay away
from the Armenians.” People have said the inappropriate behavior and
disrespectful cat calls of “Ciao bella!” come from Armenians, not Italians as
American students often mistake. As a whole, they’re not a favorable crowd to
Italians.
Well this man didn’t have too many kind words to speak of
Italians either. When we told him we study in Italy, his immediate question was
“what do you think of Italians?” We didn’t really give him an answer before he
was telling us his own opinion. “They’re not helpful at all. In my culture, in
my country, if your fellow man needs help, you help him. They don’t ever help
me when I’m there. Not for directions. Nothing. They don’t like to help
people.” My best guess is this may be true, but the stereotype Italians have of
Armenians is probably largely to blame. Who knows though?
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