STEREOTYPES

It all started quite sublimely. Almost unperceivably, by tiny allusions, remarks, comparisons. It used to be innocent, “Do not sit like a lazy Indian “, “Look at ‘em smoking like Turks”, “If you don’t behave yourself a Gypsy will come and take you.”
Even thought I hadn’t ever seen an Indian, I was stone deadly convinced he must have been enormously lazy, the laziest creature in the world. If I ever imagined a Turk, he reeked of tobacco and if I ever had to fear anybody, it was certainly a Gypsy with a large jute bag with the darkest darkness in it.
Years by years I’ve been overtaking more and more stereotypes from the elder, from news, books, magazines. I learnt how cold and reserved Britishmen are supposed to be, how politely Japanese people swear (if they ever swear at all), how free in whatever ways people in Netherlands are or what you can never ask an American. Armed by all this knowledge I felt not only prepared to meet someone from abroad in a proper way but also armed against any danger lurking in a foreign culture.
However, a strange thing happened. I met an easy-going, plainspoken guy who would take a great pleasure in smoking cigars. He would prefer American fast-food restaurants, be punctual like a German, he would accost girls in the street in an Italian way and he would also pick quarrels on political issues and be quite wordy in them like a Frenchman. He was, quite logically, British. He would, moreover, sit all day and watch other people work and he would find the most important reasons for his watchfulness, which in our culture we had degraded into sheer idleness.
This encounter made me re-evaluate my stereotypes. I started to doubt their accuracy. The more, when I learnt what a word ‘sloven’ meant in English. I also made up my mind to find out how, actually, the stereotypes had been taking shape and how many of them were still up-to-date.
I came to know another guy from Netherlands and thanks to him I realised that Slovaks had also several attributes which I did not find fitting. For example, let’s take our very national meal bryndzové halušky. Most frankly, when did you eat them the last time? I know it perfectly well: when I met this guy and wanted him to know what a Slovak national meal was. (It was probably two years ago.)
Secondly, I was a little startled when Maurice asked me about several works of art that had been made during communistic era. Imagine the great memorials with azbuka on them, unsymmetrical decorations in school canteens made of iron or other cheap unidentifiable material. He asked me whether I liked them. Whether I liked the cages à lapin, box-like block of flats that embellished every postcard of that time. When I said no, he was perplexed and so I was. What must the Dutch think of our artistic feeling?
What’s more, when I met a girl from France, she was quite astonished over our radios. She asked me whether we understood all the English songs played from dawn to dusk. She must have made a weird concept of Slovak logic and Slovaks themselves who do not have to understand the lyrics because they like the music.
So I make a conclusion that stereotypes are not fair. It is not fair to suppose that no Dutch would pay you a drink (because a Dutch can only go Dutch), that no Slovak would like an appraisal (because of their modesty) or that you can let a girl from Moscow carry a heavy luggage (because she is as strong as a Russian). The stereotypes may be overestimating or underrating a person, they may mislead us in our evaluation. To belong to a culture may be a stigma you are born with or it may be, as well, a very easily earned coin. And still, we all are brothers and sisters by Adam and Eve…

meno a priezvisko: Ľudmila Hostová
škola: FiF UMB Banská Bystrica