July 19th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
You won’t believe but I took this picture in Turkey a year ago. The pic below was taken by Mark Graves near the village of Applecross on the west coast of Scotland, UK. The river, stones, trees and even grass looks exactly the same! Funny but Turkey is supposed to have more sunshine than Scotland. Apparently we have exploded another myth;)
Were you amazed by the equal pictures in spite of the fact that they were taken in different parts of the world?
P.S. Learn more myths about vodka and spagetti in the previous posts.
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July 12th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
I begin posting series of pictures taken by different people in different countries. Sometimes you can not say by frirst sight what country is on the pic.
London Eye and Moscow Eye, which is which?
=
to be continued…
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June 29th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
Italians and gesticulation are convertible terms.
“We cannot speak in Italy without moving our hands. This is bad in cars. This is terrible on motorbikes.”
I love Italian humor;) No comments.
p.s. Champion of the world Mario Cipollini is a true Italian (see the pic)
Italians are coffee lovers.
“What we call coffee (and what foreigners call espresso) is very important to most italians. BUT we only drink cappucino in the morning, normally at breakfast. Only foreigners ask for a capuccino in a restaurant after lunch or dinner. ”
“yes, yes, yes!!! Most of us drink coffee two or three times a day”
Here is the formula of caffeine on the pic;) Tremendous, isn’t it?
Every nation has something to be proud of. I was surprised to get very reserved comments about pasta but VERY emotional comments on coffee. Seems like Italians like it indeed. Almost 2 billion people have coffee every day in the world. According to statistics Italy does not take the first place among the countries drinking most cups of coffee (Finland is #1!) but the quality does not always equal to quantity. There is a special faculty in Neapolitan University where students are taught to make espresso.
Did you know that the first coffee house in Europe was opened in Italy, Venice?
Every evening the Italians take a walk – passegiata vesperale.
“This is true in the centre south of Italy because it is a way of cooling down and a way of seeing other people and BEING SEEN!”
Sometimes I think that being seen is very important for Italians. They often go in for sports not to train the body but to go to the bar in a new stunning sportswear. Italians pay much attention to what others are wearing. In the times of World War 2 the English prisoners of war found it very hard to go unseen in Italy. Italians disclosed the runaways at first sight by their clothes (though the German didn’t).
Besides, there are more hairdresser’s in Italy than in any other European country. And certainly you need to walk somewhere to have your new haircut noticed 
Read the rest of this entry »
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June 21st, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
German drive fast
“Yes – can’t deny it.”
They drive fast but very safe. Only 5300 people died in car accidents in German roads last year. The numbers in Russia are 7 (seven!) times as much! By the way, according to statistics the safest roads are in France.
Eco car on the pic:)
Germans love safety and insurance. “Yes, there certainly is a mentality to mitigate against any possible risk and have someone else (preferably the government) to be responsible for any problems. This as well as your point against order probably relate to Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Index.”
Did you know that there are 20 000 000 of road signs in Germany? Sometimes you can meet 20 road signs in a 100 meters distance. Very safe indeed!
Germans get out early in the morning to block the best places at the pool with their towels
“I don’t know about it. The British complain we do it. I never did it but I don’t spend much time at the pool nor am I an early bird”
He-he, I personally experienced that in Turkey. My hotel was full of Germans and they indeed blocked the best seats near the pool every morning. But who didn’t? What surprised me more was the fact that Germans prefer to spend vacations near a chlorinated pool rather than go to the beach and enjoy the sea. This is absolutely incredible with Russians. They travel to the sea not to the pools or hotels, and the sea is supposed to the the most valuable thing in the vacation. We are different;)
There are certainly still many people to think of Germans as being racist
“I would like to say this isn’t true at all, but there certainly is still a hard core of right-wing idiots and a potential of maybe around 10% to subscribe to their ideas to various degrees depending on the current situation. However, I think this potential exists in most countries I know – maybe except for Canada (English speaking part) and Britain – if there are any exceptions at all. So I do not consider Germans as exceptionally racist, although I appreciate that we constantly have to fight these tendencies and keep the memory alife of what the consequences of racist ideologies can be. ”
The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. Friedrich Hegel
Germans travel a lot
The German are thought to be the most traveling nation in the world. And many think they are the best tourists: not exacting, very friendly, caring about others.
If you take all the people who sailed round the world you probably will be surprised to find that the majority are Germans. Otto von Kotzebue, Ferdinand von Wrangell, Friedrich/Friz Lutke are very famous seafarers.
Today many Germans prefer bicycles. People on bikes make 10% of all the German traffic. Guess the nationality of the cyclist in the Guinnes World Records book;) Everything that a German soldier failed to conquer surrendered at German tourist’s discretion.
P.S. You are most welcome to comment the myths;)
P.P.S. Myths about Italy are coming soon! Subscribe now to get a nice reading next week.
Special thanks to Sven Ringling
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June 15th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
So what are the first associations that come to your head when you think about Germany? Beer, order, punctuality? The text in italica comes from our German experts – people who live there.
The German are very punctual
“It used to be the case but there are still some people to whom this applies. I try to be one of them.”
“Punctuality is something that changes a lot. I think I’m very German in Germany, in other countries I get used to the difference. When you live in an environment where time needs to be organised every working day it is much easier to get around when you can rely on punctuality. Unpunctual people “steel” my time when they make me wait for them.”
Heaven is a place where the police are English; the chefs are Italian; the car mechanics are German; the lovers are French and it’s all organized by the Swiss.
The German love order and hate chaos
“TRUE”
“I think most Germans are as chaotic as others – at least – Europeans. I like order too, but when I have a good book or the sun is shining, I don?t care about cleaning up.”
“This one is SO RIGHT! I experience this all over again every day.”
Germans love Order. Little children are taught to keep diaries to schedule all events and things to happen or to buy. There are lots of rules that they never break. Tourists from other countries are shocked to see a German waiting for the green light to cross the empty street.
There is a person that is considered to be the father of order establishment. It was Fridrih Wilhelm 1 (1740 – 1888). He grew up in officers’ quarters and by the time he took the throne Fridrih became a real martinet. He loved the army regulations and did everything in his power to habituate the whole nation to it. The soldier’s values became most important. A soldier mustn’t waste money. Fridrih’s crowning ceremony cost 2547 thalers (his father spent 6 million thalers!). A soldier must obey the regulations. And Wilhelm issued lots of them that every subject had to obey. The punishment was severe. His own son tried to take the flight to England but was caught. The man who helped the boy was hung right the opposite the window of the boy’s room. A soldier must not be very learned. Fridrih Wilhelm drove out of the country Gotfrid Laybnits, a great scientist, saying: “We do not need a scholar that can not stand guard.” But all this led to the flourishing of the country. They say judge the flock by its priest. The people had nothing to do but to obey and got accustomed to the new life style. Sure Fridrih Wilhelm 1 is not alone responsible for what the German are now but he contributed his mite.
The German are not emotional
The comments I got to this were: “False”, “Absolute nonsense”, “A sheer stereotype”. Sounds convincing?
“We are not as direct as Italians, Greeks or Spanish people – but not as buttoned up as the English. But – I know English people who are very open, direct and emotional, and closed up Greeks… it all changes, and that’s good…”
How about Cologne Carnival – Fastnacht? Over 2 million people have great fun in carnival processions. There are hilarious performances here and there. Everybody wears carnival clothes. Women cut the neck ties from men and rule the whole city that time. This enchanting sight of so many joyful people kills the idea of emotional lack in German people.
The German are sober-minded
“Germans are people as well and all people are different and same at the same time.”
“Yes, we are sober-minded. That includes the German who knows everything better than others, but also Germans who organise quickly and effectively to help. German women are usually better in reflecting how they act against other people, men are often mindless and even like to be the “ugly” German.”
Probably that trait of character makes the Germans produce thing of highest quality, that other nations are glad to use. For example, 90% of all hard cash in the world (including American dollars and Russian rubles) is typed on German printing-presses produced by Koening & Bauer company.
The German can’t live without beer
“I know a lot of German men who like to drink beer (so do German woman as well sometimes), but definitely are able to live without it. You grow up with it, it’s quite cheap and when you drink your first you start to “count”. And by the way it’s practical this usually small bottle.”
“That’s really hard to tell. Almost all German men like beer, but it’s not that all of them couldn’t live without it. My boyfriend drinks one glass of beer maybe once a week, at the most. So, generally, I wouldn’t agree with this one.”
The statistics say that an average German drinks 146 litres of beer per year. During the beer festival Oktoberfest they drink 7 000 000 litres of beer in less than 3 weeks! To tell the truth a few millions of tourists help them in that;) Every year lots of lost things are found after the festival. There are some weird thing among them like a quail in the coop, a wedding ring (the bride lost it next day after the wedding;), and a set of false teeth.
Special thanks to our German experts:
Carola Eschrich
Monica Korycinska
Leo Zukov
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June 6th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
PsyBlog recently published the results of the research “Which culture most controls their facial emotions? According to some research it’s Russians! And the least control over facial emotions? Americans.” He-he:) Now I know who made this research;)
Sure the research is done by professional people but the picture of that article itself makes me smile! Most common myth – a Russian man in a fur cap with ear-flaps. They are not very popular today in Russia and you can probably find more people in such hats in America than in Russia. But the myth is still alive.
Now about hiding the emotions. Russian people are in no way taught to control facial emotions. The best thing that we have the same myth about Englishmen – in every book about England for children you will find a note that Englishmen are very reserved and never show facial emotions.
Naturally Russian people are taught to smile when greeting foreigners – when you do not know a person suspect the best. That can be taken for controlling emotions. But the situations of fear or anger are quite different. People are encouraged to show the emotions they feel and this is not considered to be bad in Russia. Myths are still very strong:)
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June 6th, 2007 by Olga Victorovna
Well, due to the cold war there are lots of very strong myths about Russia. They survive in books, newspapers, cartoons and movies (a typical Russian girl in a Hollywood movie: called Natasha, beautiful, wears a fur hat, and is very dangerous).
Russia is covered with snow
It’s partially true if you mean winter time. Syberia is covered with snow for almost 7 months a year. But Russia has a large territory (indeed 17075200 km2!). It doesn’t snow much in the south of the country, where the summer temperature is often near +30C. But there are huge snowfalls in winter in almost all part of the country. I was shocked to learn that the lowest temp in winter is -68C and the hottest one is +38C. Sure it all depends on the region and the season.
Russians drink vodka in large glasses
I am afraid that’s true. Historically distillation became widespread only in the 16th century. But eventually it became very popular. Today the statistics show that Russian people drink 3-4 times as much as Europeans. Not everybody drinks vodka: 37% prefer beer, 36% drink vodka, 29% wine. Anyway it comes to 40 litres of vodka per person each year. That’s extremely bad and today many things are being done to prevent people from drinking.
Bears on the streets
Hey, man! You have to go to the zoo today to see a bear. And to tell the truth, bears never walked along Russian streets. The myth comes from the times when certain people earned their living making bears dance on the streets – kind of animal show. But those bears were trained and certainly not wild. In fact the statement that Russia is a country full of bears is not a complete lie. The population of brown bears in Russia today is the biggest in the world (though not as big as it used to be due to hunting. You can kill:( a bear for $2000-$3000 today)
Do you know more myths about Russia? Tell us about them
P.S. Subscribe to RSS feeds, myths about Germany are coming soon
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