Once I had an experience of intercultural negotiations with Americans and Germans at Potsdam University, and at the very beginning of our negotiations we had an interesting and rather funny task to come up with stereotypes about other nationalities which participated in negotiations.

Frankly speaking, I expected to hear that all Russians play balalaika every evening, have bears as domestic animals and atomic reactors to heat houses but it was truly surprising indeed.

The first one was about too serious Russians. Honestly, I had never noticed that my nation representatives are really serious (you can see it especially in public transport) until I started living in Berlin. Now I compared people and can see this great difference between people in Moscow and people in Berlin: Germans seem really happy, kind and open (even in the morning) in comparison with gloomy, serious and sometimes angry Russians. It may look like life in Russia is too severe and makes people so, but it is not the real reason for that! In fact, outside the home Russians think too much about work and how to manage all the important things and only at home or with friends they have an opportunity to relax with family and become happier!

This leads to the second stereotype: Russians always drink vodka. Well, I should say that Russians may also drink wine, beer, vermouth, etc. In addition, they do not necessarily drink all the time: the majority prefers to drink on special days and holidays only :) Moreover, there are example of other nations drinking too much (English, Irish, German, etc.)

The last one was about endless Russian winter. Firstly, it depends on the specific part of our country. And secondly, despite winter can last more than half of the year, we do always have very nice and warm summer!

To conclude, now I know few stereotypes which are not actually stereotypes, they are real facts: Americans always speak very loud and Germans sneeze even louder! :)