Stereotypes are the very definition of sheep behaviour!
During my life, I have had the wonderful opportunity to travel around the world (mostly the continent of Europe) and visit many different countries. This has given me the chance to study new languages, to learn new cultures and to make new friends of various backgrounds.
One striking thing I noticed while living abroad, was that the countries and the people are much more different than what I expected them to be. For example, prior to going to Germany I was told that the country consists of xenophobes and greedy people. Little did I know, Germans are actually some of the nicest people I have ever met and will probably ever meet. Germans are hard-working, helpful and absolutely fantastic people to hang-out with. This is why I personally hate to generalize nations: you just can’t assume that if there is one case of xenophobia, that all Germans are xenophobes.
On the other hand, I have experienced stereotypes myself too. When telling people abroad that I come from Bulgaria, they sometimes immediately look down on me. They usually automatically assume that Bulgaria is the poor country in Eastern Europe with lots of Roma people that wants to steal the jobs of Western-Europeans. For them Bulgarians are the very definition of “parasites”. This is, of course, is a bold and generalizing statement that is just wrong and idiotic.
A person should, in my opinion, be criticized and judged based on their own attributes, like intelectual capacity or exression, individually. Every person is different and the country is not responsible for the individual’s personality or performance in life. This is why I think that stereotypes are STUPID and WRONG.
Before judging someone, don’t follow the others like a sheep: do your own research and make your own conclusions.
