Compliments and cultural stereotypes

[jccub1]

 I have brief lull in my work day so thought I'd jump on here and throw some random thoughts down from the week so far...

Rare compliment for Clarkie!
I had a couple of random strangers stop me in the lobby of my office building yesterday and comment that I "always wear awesome T-shirts"...!!! Yayayay! Firstly a compliment *grin*, from complete

Comments

[bluebear2]

There are stereotypes that people have about other people but then there are stereotypes that people have about their own people. Look at how South Park shows Canadians, the two brothers on TV who have some sort of English accent as opposed to Bob and Doug MacKenzie on SCTV. One is a stereotype made by foreigners and the other is a stereotype made by Canadians about some of themselves.

When I was in Europe I didn't mind too much that some people thought I was American, after all the accents in the North of the U.S. are similar, but what was weird was that some of the Germans were under the impression that Canada was politically part of the U.S. I don't know where they got that idea from.

As a kid I used to get British and Australians accents mixed up. I've since learned the differences but have got confused again by meeting some Australians who had moved there from England as a teen and have a blended accent.
I still can't quite tell them apart from the New Zealand accent. I've learned to tell a South African accent from them too now.

[jccub1]

That's a good point - the stereotypes that people place on their own nationality can often be the strangest stereotypes of all...

I have to say that I've never been able to tell the Canadian and American accents apart. That said, before I moved to Australia, I couldn't distinguish between the Aussie and Kiwi (NZ) accents - now they're like chalk and cheese. I do an AWFUL impression of a NZ accent.

And the blended accents you mention - of which some people say I'm beginning to develop (:S) - still throw me sometimes, they're the most confusing of all.