Ireland

Heavy drinkers and red hair catholics?

The most quoted stereotype about Ireland is as a nation of heavy drinkers. The Irish are also considered to be
very religious, because of their history and the fight for the emancipation of Catholics. However, statistics
show that the number of atheists is increasing quickly. The Irish are also said to be bad tempered –
perhaps the result of their fight for autonomy, from the time of the ancient Celts to the struggle against
England. Last, the Irish are often portrayed as ginger. This conception of the Irish most likely comes from the
popular 1952 movie “The Quiet Man” which starred a fiery Irish redhead and a wide array of other inaccurate
Irish stereotypes.

United-Kingdom
Class-conscious binge-drinkers?
According to The Guardian, “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 cliché”. Other common beliefs about Great Britain are that British people are seen as being very polite,
proper and sophisticated with an unhealthy tendency to be stiff, snobbish, unemotional or obsessed with class
and status. Other common depictions include plenty of rain, bad food, and red telephone boxes and double-
decker buses, which are common (tourist) attractions. Not to mention the regional stereotypes about the
Scots and Welsh …

Belgium
Lovers of chips and beer – but don’t ask about the politics?
Belgians are the subject of a huge amount of jokes and clichés in Europe, and especially in France and the
Netherlands, with whom they share common languages. Belgians are said to eat chips, mussels, chocolate and
waffles at every meal, have beer running through their veins and only read comic books. A common picture
about Belgium is also that its political system is a mess. The political system is difficult to understand, mainly
because of the constant fight between Flanders and Wallonia, or between the Flemish and French
Communities. Even within the country, Flemish and Walloon parts tend to have stereotypes about each other:
French speakers are depicted as lazy, monolingual and football fans, whereas the Flems are regarded as hard-
workers, bilingual and ambitious. But the funny thing about about Belgium is that the Belgians play right along,
and feed their own stereotype.

Albania
Paprika lovers and Heavy smokers?
Albanian stereotypes that formed amid the creation of an independent Albanian state, and stereotypes that
formed as a result of massive immigrations from Albania and Kosovo during the 1980s and ’90s, although they
may differ from each other, are still both considered Albanophobic and anti-Albanian by many authors. For
some, the Albanians are all thieves, for others, they are all poor people who live with nothing. For their direct
Balkan neighbors, Albanians are regarded as patriotic, play soccer like every other sport, and love dancing,
whatever the age. They are said to love Croatians, Slovenians and in particular Italy where they feel they know
more about Italy than Italians themselves. On the contrary, they are said to dislike Greeks and Serbians. Other
stereotypes include the picture that they are very traditional especially with families, they start smoking at a
very young age, wear weapons, eat paprika every day and drink a lot of tea. Last, most of them call themselves
Muslims but curse on other Muslim countries
Slovakia
Bad-tempered heavy drinkers?
The most common stereotype associated with Slovakia may not be a stereotype in a truly sense, but
Europeans sometimes still tend to thin that Czechoslovakia is still existing as an unique country.  Another
stereotype is the one of being bad-termpered and easily offended. Their humor is said to be dark and sadistic,
albeit a bit slow-witted and dumb. They are however said to be a bit sexist and not friendly to strangers.
Slovak people are also often stereotyped to be big drinkers (Borovicka, Slivovica, etc are some common local
drinks), and also Slovak girls are often considered very pretty.

Italy
Football addict and talkative fashionistas?
According to The Guardian, Europeans say Italians are chatterboxes, and bad listeners interested only in the
sound of their own voices. It is also said that Italians are good-looking, crazy about fashion, or football addicts
who never pay tax. Other common associations include the incredible coffee culture, or the love of pizza and
pasta; with spaghetti almost sacred. It is also commonly stated that Italian people often say: “mamma mia!” or
“va fan culo!” and that the Italian Mamma rules the roost. Who would believe that? Last, a funny stereotype,
of course false, represents most Italian men as dark-haired, olive-skinned plumbers who spend the working
day jumping on turtles, eating mushrooms, and saving princesses…