O. Voyachek

M. Golovushkina

Penza State University, Russia

The image of modern Englishman a according to the opinion of Russian students

Language is both an expression of culture and an instrument of communication. A common language for communication is indispensable both for individuals and for the society in which they live. Language is thus a precondition for effective participation in society. On the other hand the mother tongue and native culture are core components of a person’s cultural identity.

Each nation has its own views of the world around us, peoples, another cultures. Certain stereotypes appear in every community – concerning people themselves, about their behavior and traditions in their cultural space also about representatives of another language and cultural space.

The aim of our investigation is to find out the notion of stereotype in Russian and English languages, to show the peculiarities of reflection of national culture in stereotypes, to disclose how stereotyped perception of English nation by modern Russian students.

There are several definitions of the word stereotype:

1. A stereotype is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality. However, this is only a fundamental psychological definition of a stereotype Within and across different psychology disciplines, there are different concepts and theories of stereotyping that provide their own expanded definition. Some of these definitions share commonalities, though each one may also harbor unique aspects that may complement or contradict the others.

2. A stereotype: « a very firm and simple idea about what a particular type of person or thing is like; fixed mental impression»

Russian dictionaries give the analog definition :

«Стереотип – это относительно устойчивый, обобщающий образ или ряд характеристик (нередко ложных), которые, по мнению большинства людей, свойственны представителям своего собственного культурного и языкового пространства, или представителям других наций.»

Both in Russian and English languages the word combination “the national character” has the similar meaning. National character – the qualities that people from particular country are believed to have. He understood so much about our national character.

For our research we have used ideas of modern English anthropologist K. Forks. He includes into his notion of mentality three communication stereotypes which have in their background social dis-ease : 1)humour, moderation, hypocrisy; 2)empirisism, Eeyorishness, moaning, class-consciousness; 3)fair play, courtesy, modesty.

All these behavioural communication stereotypes are aimed at reduction of communical need. Perhaps the sense of social dis-ease can be explained by unconscious wish to correspond with gentleman code of conduct though democratized and simplified.

For our investigation we took into consideration ideas about the following stereotypes: punctuality, law-abidingness, dry sense of humor, businesslike character, self-control, accuracy, spirit of enterprise, politeness, scrupulousness, independence, diligence. The main method of investigation was chosen the method of multiply choice. Students were supposed to select the most typical English traits of character according to their opinion.

The results of the survey were to the following effect:

punctuality - 11%, law-abidingness - 9%, dry sense of humor – 15 %, businesslike character – 12%, self-control – 9%, accuracy – 9%, spirit of enterprise – 4%, politeness – 13%, scrupulousness – 7%, independence – 4%, diligence – 7%.

So the image of gentleman with all his inherent good qualities didn’t lose its historical meaning, according to the view of Russian students it exists in behavioural communication stereotypes.

The vast majority of respondents (13%) underlined the fact that Englishmen are very polite. However, K. Forks points out that English politeness is connected not only with the desire to make pleasure to the communicator but firs of all with the wish to prevent interrogation into “privacy”. That is why they use a lot of fine words: ‘Excuse me, sorry, but you couldn’t possibly pass the marmelade, could you?’, ‘Excuse me, I’m terribly sorry but you seem to be standing on my foot’.

Thus, the majority of Russian students mix up different historic prejudices, ancient traditions with new developing traits of character such as spirit of enterprise and independence, politeness and dry sense of humor, individual freedom and law-abidingness.

So according to the perception of Englishmen by Russian students there are many traditional stereotypes, narrow-mindedness, prejudice. They speak to the way we perceive the nature of the world, the nature of national character, and our power to intervene and transform modern society. But our perceptions are not constant. They are changing, developing and enriching while interfering into another culture. At its core, the process of penetrating into another culture is believed to improve today and create a better tomorrow.

Reference list

1. Фокс, К.Образ в стереотипах современных англичан // http://www.vekperevoda.org/articles/obraz-v-stereotipah-sovremennih-anglichan.html.

2. Oxford Dictionary of Current English / Под ред. Catherine Soanes, Sara Hawker, Julia Elliott - Oxford University Press, 2006. – 1104 с.