Monday, February 25, 2013

Stereotype the World

Today's post is not funny; it's amusing.

Nationalities according to Google
I asked two questions: one beginning with "Why are ~" and the other beginning with "Why do~", hoping I would get a "snapshot" of a nationality from Google's algorithm related to how many people ask a question. Some of the answers have been linked. Additionally, since my computer is in a foreign country, the answers I get are probably different from those resulting from a similar search in – say – the United States. I noticed, for example, that many of the answers came from UK rather than US sites, suggesting that the default search in English from a foreign country might direct you to the UK. Additionally, a repeat of some questions often generates another result, though the one on the list below was among the top few. (Unfortunately you cannot add a table easily to a blogger file, so you will have to live with my lousy columns.)
The questions: 
Why are...                                                                           Why do...
Americans so stupid?  (maybe there is a connection to >) Americans love guns?
Argentinians so white?                                                       Argentinians say 'che'?
Australians so hot?                                                             Australians say 'mate'?
Brazilians so bad at video games?                                     Brazilians have one name?
Canadians afraid of the dark?                                            Canadians say 'eh'?
Chinese people so loud?                                                    Chinese people wear masks?
Dutch people so tall? (It's true)                                          Dutch people wear clogs?
English people so pale?                                                      English people say 'bloody'?
Finns so shy?                                                                     Finns hate the Russians?
French people called frogs?                                               French hate America?
Germans so smart?                                                             Germans hate America?
Greeks dark skinned?                                                         Greeks hate Turkey?
Indians so rude?                                                                 Indians worship cows?
Iranians so rich?                                                                 Iranians think they are white?
Italians called guineas?                                                      Italians have dark skin?
Japanese people so healthy?                                              Japanese wear masks?
Koreans so rude?                                                               Koreans hate Japs? (Japs!?)
Malaysians obsessed with crabs?                                      Malaysians say 'la'?
Mexicans short?                                                                Mexicans stare?
Mongolians nomads?                                                        Mongolians hate Chinese?
New Zealanders called 'kiwis'?                                         New Zealanders hate Australians?
Nigerians so tall?                                                               Nigerian scams work? (The first entry for the people themselves was #3 after "Why do Nigerian men lie", "Why do Nigerians speak English?")
North Koreans starving?                                                   North Koreans defect? (#2 was "Why do  North Koreans cry?",  similar to the Japanese question.)
Norwegians so happy?                                                       Norwegians speak English? (#2 was interesting too, "Why do Norwegians look Asian?")
Pakistanis so tall?                                                               Pakistanis marry cousins? (!)
Polish people so strong?                                                    Poles come to the UK? (But "Why do Polish people drink so much?")
Russians so mean?                                                             Russians drive so bad? (This was #2 after "Why do Russians have dash cameras?" as a result of the many videos related to the meteor strike.)
Saudis so rich?                                                                  Saudis look Indian? (?)
Spaniards so racist?                                                           Spaniards lisp?
South Africans white?                                                       South Africans say 'bru'?
(also "Why do South Americans look Asian?")
Swedes so tall?                                                                  Swedes scream? (Who knew?)
Swiss people dark?                                                            Why do Swiss stare?
Thai people so dark?                                                         Thai people love their king?
Turks so nationalistic?                                                       Turks have blue eyes?
Vietnamese called gooks?                                                 Vietnamese do nails?
And finally
people gay?                                                                        people yawn?

In Japanese
In Japanese Google search it was not possible to ask the "Why are ~ , Why do ~ questions so neatly because of the Japanese language, so they are combined below with a generic question like: Why (nationality)? For many of the nationalities in the English list above, there were no clear results to the search.

Why are Americans fat?      #2 was "Why do Americans like bacon so much?" (kinda explains the first one, no?)
Why do Brazilians dislike Facebook? 
Why do Canadians like hockey so much?
Why do Chinese hate Japanese?
Why don't the English use their umbrellas?
Why are the Finns so strong in WRC competitions (car racing)?
Why do the French hate Americans? (similar to the English search result)
Why do so many Filipinos speak English?
Why do Germans have such a high environmental consciousness?
Why don't Greeks work?
Why do Indians lie?
Why are Japanese so childish?
Why do Koreans like plastic surgery so much?             Why are Koreans so ugly?
Why do North Koreans grieve so elaborately?
Why are so many Malaysians Japanophiles?
Why don't Mexicans get bald?
Why are Mongolians so good at Sumo (Japanese wrestling)?
Why are New Zealanders called 'kiwis'? (only one that was the same as in English)
Why do Nigerians cause so many crimes in Japan?
Why do Pakistanis like the Toyota Mark II so much?    #2 was "Why are Pakistanis so egotistical?"
Why are Russian women so beautiful?
Why don't Singaporeans say Japanese are bad?
Why are Spanish good at soccer despite being small?
Why are Swedes good at English?
Why do Swiss people ask the question, "Why did Japanese kill so many Chinese?"
Why do Taiwanese like Japan?
Why won't Thai people get into a hot bath (Japanese-style)?
Why are Vietnamese so often named 'Guen' (Japanese pronunciation of Nguyen)?
And finally
Why do people run?

Analysis
Naturally there is an interest in appearance with both the English searchers and their Japanese counterparts, curious about why people look the way they do. Japanese tend to focus more on their own culture as others in the world relate to it, but this is probably simply a function of the broader nationality spread among English-language web surfers. English searchers seem to be more interested in racial qualities (white or dark) than are Japanese surfers.
I have no clue why English readers seem to think so many other nationalities stare: Mexicans and Swiss on the list, but also Germans and others in the #2 or #3 position. Eye contact is an important point of body language, and how long we hold that connection and its meaning is determined by the culture we live in; think of our expression "shifty-eyed", so maybe these nationalities have a different eye contact "time limit" than we do in our culture.
Some of the peripheral information that was generated by these searches WAS actually funny. In the result "Why are Australians so hot?", for example, one answer explained what was needed to "get a hot Australian woman". Included in the requirements was "making a mean BBQ" and "be a social alcoholic" because "it's un-Australian not to have a binge drinking problem".




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