Since no French dude has done an answer yet, I'ma do one (I took Vaan's format).
1.) What do you think others think about Germans?
Mhm. Well, WW2 let huge traces as many know, and such traces can not go so easily. We have a quite "military" image of you guys : strict, rare smiles, short hair, well-organized and stuff. And beer. And sausages. That's the image.
I do not believe in it. I don't have any German friend though.
2.) What is the eating habit of a regular person in your culture?
We sit around the table, fork and knife, individual plates, bring the dishes, someone serves everyone, once this person is done, you start eating, etc. Most of the time, the meal is split in 3 parts : entree, main, and dessert. Sometimes, you put cheese before the dessert. French people eats bread during the whole meal.
3.) What do you think about black EU people?
We got so much other problems to deal with.
No seriously, no problems with black people in France. Recently, we had a bit of troubles between Jewish and Muslim people but that's all.
4.) What are the most popular sports in your country? Is it common for kids/ teenagers to do a sport?
Football without a doubt. We have what we call "beauf" : ~35+ years old, big belly, sat in his chair in front of the TV with a beer, watching football, injuring the referee. Basically someone that watches sport but that can hardly climb stairs.
We got a very good Handball team, good swimmers and judokas. We used to have a very good fencing team.
Teenagers do less and less sport.
5.) does your country adhere strictly to laws in your culture?
As Vaan said, and I don't see how it could be very different when it comes to "Northern" countries : don't break it when you could be caught and you're good.
6.) What do you think about your country's school system ?
Our system is the following :
Infant school (3 years)
Primary school (5 years)
College (4 years)
Highschool (3 years)
You get the Baccalauréat (or bac) at the end of highschool. It used to be a very good diploma but now, it was made easier and easier so everyone could get it, and thus, it lost a lot of value.
After Highschool, you go to something very specific. There is a university/school for almost every field : law, sport, physical mesurments, languages, biology, chemistry, etc.
The most prestigious studies are considered to be engeneering schools : you enter them after a competitive exam AFTER two hard years of studying, the more prestigious the school you want to enter, the hardest the exam is ;
And medicine studies : a very tough competitive exam after one year of studying with about 10% of the people that get selected for the next year and you can only try this exam twice. The whole France is missing doctors, but the government isn't really acting : so we get foreign doctors instead of forming more French ones.
At the moment, the tip is to make your studies last as long as possible, unless for a few fields, since it's very hard to find a job.
1.) What do you think others think about Germans?
Mhm. Well, WW2 let huge traces as many know, and such traces can not go so easily. We have a quite "military" image of you guys : strict, rare smiles, short hair, well-organized and stuff. And beer. And sausages. That's the image.
I do not believe in it. I don't have any German friend though.
2.) What is the eating habit of a regular person in your culture?
We sit around the table, fork and knife, individual plates, bring the dishes, someone serves everyone, once this person is done, you start eating, etc. Most of the time, the meal is split in 3 parts : entree, main, and dessert. Sometimes, you put cheese before the dessert. French people eats bread during the whole meal.
3.) What do you think about black EU people?
We got so much other problems to deal with.
No seriously, no problems with black people in France. Recently, we had a bit of troubles between Jewish and Muslim people but that's all.
4.) What are the most popular sports in your country? Is it common for kids/ teenagers to do a sport?
Football without a doubt. We have what we call "beauf" : ~35+ years old, big belly, sat in his chair in front of the TV with a beer, watching football, injuring the referee. Basically someone that watches sport but that can hardly climb stairs.
We got a very good Handball team, good swimmers and judokas. We used to have a very good fencing team.
Teenagers do less and less sport.
5.) does your country adhere strictly to laws in your culture?
As Vaan said, and I don't see how it could be very different when it comes to "Northern" countries : don't break it when you could be caught and you're good.
6.) What do you think about your country's school system ?
Our system is the following :
Infant school (3 years)
Primary school (5 years)
College (4 years)
Highschool (3 years)
You get the Baccalauréat (or bac) at the end of highschool. It used to be a very good diploma but now, it was made easier and easier so everyone could get it, and thus, it lost a lot of value.
After Highschool, you go to something very specific. There is a university/school for almost every field : law, sport, physical mesurments, languages, biology, chemistry, etc.
The most prestigious studies are considered to be engeneering schools : you enter them after a competitive exam AFTER two hard years of studying, the more prestigious the school you want to enter, the hardest the exam is ;
And medicine studies : a very tough competitive exam after one year of studying with about 10% of the people that get selected for the next year and you can only try this exam twice. The whole France is missing doctors, but the government isn't really acting : so we get foreign doctors instead of forming more French ones.
At the moment, the tip is to make your studies last as long as possible, unless for a few fields, since it's very hard to find a job.
xIchi wrote:
Yeah, but germany also has some good Handball :D
and Dirk Nowitzki....
@emoriam: I think it would be a good idea to put all the questions in the op post, so that one does not need to search through the thread pages to find them.
Answering as a Portuguese
1.) What do you think others think about Germans?
I've known some Germans myself and they were easygoing and friendly. However, I think that part of the European people resents Germany's EU presence in the sense that they believe the Germans have way too much power. There's also this thing where basically Germany is projecting itself to the Germans as the saviors of the economics of countries such as mine, Greece and Spain versus the fact that these very same countries where used to safeguard european banks, a lot of them German. I think that the resentment we feel is directed at Germany when it should be exclusive for their leaders.
I also believe people see Germans as great fans of beer and sausage (no ****).
2.) What is the eating habit of a regular person in your culture?
Portuguese cuisine is very heavy, based around a lot of hydrocarbonates and meat. Our traditional dishes often involve A LOT of different stuff in the mix, but that means it's also pretty varied. Because we live by the sea, we also include a lot of fish in our cooking, sardines, codfish, octopus and seafood being right there at the top.
A traditional portuguese dinner usually revolves around people serving each other at will (usually adults offer food), drinking wine (also a tradition) and stuffing yourselves as much as possible. Entree (often also soup), main dish (in christmas there's also a second entree), dessert (fruit and/or some sweet stuff; we also have a high variety of desserts).
A lot of "being Portuguese" revolves around food :P
3.) What do you think about black EU people?
Not much to think about, I don't have that many black friends (there's not many in my city) and I know little of the struggles faced here in Europe. My country doesn't have a lot of racism either way. However, I do know that there are central europe countries where this isn't so, which is understandable since many of these countries have a stronger extreme right wing minded people.
4.) What are the most popular sports in your country? Is it common for kids/ teenagers to do a sport?
Pretty much just football, which is sad. My country has the whole "King of Sports" mentality, has wasted a **** ton of money on the 2004 Euro which still has consequences today in our Economy and it barely supports other sports, which is sad. We have great sports practicioners in areas like Judo, Karate, Athletism (not sure if this is the name but it's the category including people running/thriatlon/jumping/etc).
The only sports where we also have decent support are related to sailing.
5.) does your country adhere strictly to laws in your culture?
Same as what Vaan said
6.) What do you think about your country's school system ?
Context:
Basic school - 9 years [although it separates the first 4 (starting age is usually 6, but can be 5 or 7 depending on the month you were born) and the final 5]
Highschool - 3 years
College - After the Bologna treaty it tries to be 2-3 years but some courses (like mine) are still 4, or even more (Med school is really long)
From then on you can do Masters and the thing that follows which I have forgotten how it's called.
Currently, the Portuguese school system is overflown with a lot of either antiquate material or unnecessary exams, as far as pre-college period goes. You have exams that count for absolutely nothing as early as the 4th year of school, then around the 7th and the 9th. These are purely statistical, supposed to help know how the system is working and help prepare for the real exams in highschool (11th and 12th grade), but they're childish, inconsistent and unchallenging, pretty much only to try and make us look good on the EU statistics.
During highschool, you pick an area of studies (arts/languages/science/sports) that has some more specific studies but still feels like the quality of the teaching body is employed for the Scientific Department. These picks are slightly uncompromising, because in the end it doesn't matter what subjects you had to enter college, all it matters is the average of your 10th-12th year school grades (which in turn implies some schools basically "offer" grades to have better rankings, specially true on private schools) + specific subject exams they require (per example, I did the Scientific department highschool but the exam I entered my Design College with was a Geometry one, which I had to do on the side since I couldn't take Geometry classes as they were restricted to the Arts department).
On the upside, we have incredible colleges, both very demanding and with great international projection.
7 - How does your people perceive itself?
I've already written tons, so summing it up: the typical Portuguese perceives his people as heartwarming, welcoming, loud, "lazy" in the sense that many rely on what we call "desenrasque" - the act of only doing things really on top of the deadline and employing crazy inventive means for it or the act of doing things that would require more specific techniques/materials but you don't have them so you'll make do with something else - somewhat disheartened by the financial crisis but still positive and happy.
1.) What do you think others think about Germans?
I've known some Germans myself and they were easygoing and friendly. However, I think that part of the European people resents Germany's EU presence in the sense that they believe the Germans have way too much power. There's also this thing where basically Germany is projecting itself to the Germans as the saviors of the economics of countries such as mine, Greece and Spain versus the fact that these very same countries where used to safeguard european banks, a lot of them German. I think that the resentment we feel is directed at Germany when it should be exclusive for their leaders.
I also believe people see Germans as great fans of beer and sausage (no ****).
2.) What is the eating habit of a regular person in your culture?
Portuguese cuisine is very heavy, based around a lot of hydrocarbonates and meat. Our traditional dishes often involve A LOT of different stuff in the mix, but that means it's also pretty varied. Because we live by the sea, we also include a lot of fish in our cooking, sardines, codfish, octopus and seafood being right there at the top.
A traditional portuguese dinner usually revolves around people serving each other at will (usually adults offer food), drinking wine (also a tradition) and stuffing yourselves as much as possible. Entree (often also soup), main dish (in christmas there's also a second entree), dessert (fruit and/or some sweet stuff; we also have a high variety of desserts).
A lot of "being Portuguese" revolves around food :P
3.) What do you think about black EU people?
Not much to think about, I don't have that many black friends (there's not many in my city) and I know little of the struggles faced here in Europe. My country doesn't have a lot of racism either way. However, I do know that there are central europe countries where this isn't so, which is understandable since many of these countries have a stronger extreme right wing minded people.
4.) What are the most popular sports in your country? Is it common for kids/ teenagers to do a sport?
Pretty much just football, which is sad. My country has the whole "King of Sports" mentality, has wasted a **** ton of money on the 2004 Euro which still has consequences today in our Economy and it barely supports other sports, which is sad. We have great sports practicioners in areas like Judo, Karate, Athletism (not sure if this is the name but it's the category including people running/thriatlon/jumping/etc).
The only sports where we also have decent support are related to sailing.
5.) does your country adhere strictly to laws in your culture?
Same as what Vaan said
6.) What do you think about your country's school system ?
Context:
Basic school - 9 years [although it separates the first 4 (starting age is usually 6, but can be 5 or 7 depending on the month you were born) and the final 5]
Highschool - 3 years
College - After the Bologna treaty it tries to be 2-3 years but some courses (like mine) are still 4, or even more (Med school is really long)
From then on you can do Masters and the thing that follows which I have forgotten how it's called.
Currently, the Portuguese school system is overflown with a lot of either antiquate material or unnecessary exams, as far as pre-college period goes. You have exams that count for absolutely nothing as early as the 4th year of school, then around the 7th and the 9th. These are purely statistical, supposed to help know how the system is working and help prepare for the real exams in highschool (11th and 12th grade), but they're childish, inconsistent and unchallenging, pretty much only to try and make us look good on the EU statistics.
During highschool, you pick an area of studies (arts/languages/science/sports) that has some more specific studies but still feels like the quality of the teaching body is employed for the Scientific Department. These picks are slightly uncompromising, because in the end it doesn't matter what subjects you had to enter college, all it matters is the average of your 10th-12th year school grades (which in turn implies some schools basically "offer" grades to have better rankings, specially true on private schools) + specific subject exams they require (per example, I did the Scientific department highschool but the exam I entered my Design College with was a Geometry one, which I had to do on the side since I couldn't take Geometry classes as they were restricted to the Arts department).
On the upside, we have incredible colleges, both very demanding and with great international projection.
7 - How does your people perceive itself?
I've already written tons, so summing it up: the typical Portuguese perceives his people as heartwarming, welcoming, loud, "lazy" in the sense that many rely on what we call "desenrasque" - the act of only doing things really on top of the deadline and employing crazy inventive means for it or the act of doing things that would require more specific techniques/materials but you don't have them so you'll make do with something else - somewhat disheartened by the financial crisis but still positive and happy.
Thank you Tsuki for the sig!
FalseoGod wrote:
Currently, the Portuguese school system is overflown with a lot of either antiquate material or unnecessary exams, as far as pre-college period goes. You have exams that count for absolutely nothing as early as the 4th year of school, then around the 7th and the 9th. These are purely statistical, supposed to help know how the system is working and help prepare for the real exams in highschool (11th and 12th grade), but they're childish, inconsistent and unchallenging, pretty much only to try and make us look good on the EU statistics.
The have such exams twice in year eight and year ten to compare the different German "states" with each other. In year 10 these ones are real exams being part of the actual grade but I think it's works pretty decently because we got prepared properly (generally the German states differ heavily from each other because there are the eastern states what are part of Germany only for twenty years now. I'm living in the populous state in the western part and the education level is pretty low compared to southern states. Every state uses the same basic school system but the things being educated aren't the same.).
The last two years (for me) nine and ten just have been preperation for the last two years of school which are literally pooled to one year of school.
Thanks to Natuhlee for this sig!
i am going to try to revive this thread...it was really interesting and fun. Plus I wanted to ask the following(could not resist): " what do you think about Greece and Greek people after the outcome of the elections(I assume you know something about it cuz it was one of the main topics in the news worldwide)? What do you think about Greece and Greek people in general?"
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