Quite excited today because in two days I'll be in Paris hopefully standing next to the Eiffel tower, eating a croissant and doing all the other French clichés you can think of. Which, as a student, got me thinking about something we deal with every day, stereotypes, and you can lie to me and say that you haven't really ever believed or used stereotypes, which I do believe that some use them way less than others. But as human beings we can't help but kind of use these stereotypes when faced with something unfamiliar in life, especially other cultures.
I myself think it's a quite an icebreaker, but that's me being corny and humorless. I, myself heard quite a lot of Caribbean stereotypes, Antillean stereotypes and all kinds of Island stereotypes in my first year in the Netherlands, and I have never really gotten offended. Mainly because I am aware some people are just not knowledgeable of other cultures and everything they"know" about certain cultures are these stereotypes that are being presented in media or by others.
I was (or am) typically the same when I was faced with other cultures I was not knowledgable about. Best tips I can give about these certain situations is to keep an open mind, be willing to learn about different cultures from personal experiences (such as stories from your classmates etc.), and don't be afraid to ask questions ( but be careful what you touch upon, some questions can be out of line). In regards to hearing about stereotypes about your culture/country I can hopefully advise you to not be easily offended or take it as an opportunity to give them a little teaching.
A picture of "my outfit" for the Introduction party that was held in my first year. The concept was to represent your country in an outfit and boy did i get couple of laughs with mine.
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