Talking point: Stereotypes

This week's talking point revolves around the topic of stereotypes. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow more easily the day you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary issues beforehand.

Have you ever lived or worked or travelled outside your country?
Was it an easy or difficult experience? Why?
What were the main differences from where you live?

How easy/difficult is it for immigrants or vistitors to adapt to the lifestyle in your country? Think about these aspects:

• eating habits
• family life
• greetings
• hospitality
• personal space
• work-life balance
• showing emotions
• sense of humour

Think about typical stereotypes in your country about the relationships between: 
older and younger people
men and women
employers and employees

Which cultural aspects in your country do you think: 
visitors can begin to understand more quickly?
take longer to get used to?
you can only understand when you know the culture very well?

Geographical stereotypes:
name some nationality stereotypes
name some regional stereotypes
name some profession-related stereotypes
To what extent does your experience conform to these stereotypes?

To illustrate the topic you can watch the video below, which shows the way some European nationals view one another.



If you are really interested in the topic, Claudio Azevedo has a comprehensive lesson on the topic of stereotypes in his wonderful Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-ups.