Spaghetti,mandolino, mafia, musical accent, gestures, romantic, loud, fashion, chaos, Berlusconi- these are all words often used to describe Italians.
In every Uber that I took here in Philadelphia I had to speak to the driver of at least one of these topics!!!
However, Italians are much more formal than most foreigners imagine and Americans should tread carefully to avoid offending anyone.
For example Me…I am very permalous!!!
If you ask 10 more Italians to try and explain who they are, you will get 10 different answers; but then again we do like a good argument over some even better food!
So what’s true in the stereotype?
· A good meal should always be shared with someone else.
· The Mafia is real: we are not proud of it but it does exists. Obviously not every Italian is a Mafioso .
· Yes, the way we speak is completely original. We simply cannot talk without our hands.
· We like to travel a lot, but do not speak many foreign languages – maybe because we trust body language more than words.
· Yes we do enjoy romance (just like everyone else – more or less) and maybe the stereotype of the Italian romantic lover is not completely dead.
· We are chaotic. Nothing in Italy is well organized or easy-to-use. You have to fight to get the smallest scrap of information.
· You won’t ever see an Italian wearing sporting short pants combined with long socks: it’s simply against our fashion rules (let alone our sense of style)!
talians stay at their parents’ home until they have saved up enough money to pay for a flat. This can take a while, which is why many Italians leave their homes when they’re already 30 years old. This, by the way, has earned Italians a reputation of being mummy’s boys.
However, being Italian takes a lot more than that – we are not really pasta and pizza mafiosi.
On the contrary, in Italy there are some stupid stereotypes about Americans, one of these is definitely on language. We say that Americans “eat” the words.
I must confess that this stereotype is quite true (obviously not for everyone). In fact, I found some problems in understanding people especially in crowded places……….
In conclusion I can say that Stereotypes always tend to have some truth mixed in with a few generalisations and a bit of exaggeration.