Ways of Coping With Stereotypes

According to the videos professor Insuasty asked us to watch, besides found each video very interesting and funny, I also found some truth about them that I can relate to Colombian people in the following aspects. 

Firstly, in the video about "Latin Americans React to Stereotypes" I can tell that here in Colombia we have many people who would agree with what the people interviewed said about the different stereotypes. In my opinion they are true for the majority of people, because as Colombia is a diverse country so is its people which means that there may be people who like to party every weekend, others whose personality tend to be noisy or even others who just cannot dance even if they are from a country where everybody usually knows and likes dancing. But also, there are some people who do not like doing those kinds of things and I am one of them. Why? Well, just because we are not the same, thank God. Because if we were, life would be so boring that the percentage of suicide would be the highest in history. Therefore, I, for one and personally speaking, do not agree with most of the stereotypes said and it is because I am a very simple woman who does not usually follows fashion or does what everyone usually does. Apart from that, there is just one thing that I totally agree with and it is that there are still many Latin men which are sexist and attack women. I tend to worried a lot about that fact, but a way of coping with it is to try to avoid men like those so that your wellness and your life are safe.

Secondly, the next was the video about "East Asians React to Stereotypes" and to be honest, I laughed a lot watching this video because as I know about the different Asian cultures, especially the Korean one, every single stereotype fitted perfectly with them. However, even though I am not quite like them, at all, there is one thing I really would like to acquire from their personalities which is the idea they have of working hard to achieve their goals always with responsibility and dedication and for their personal success. Ironically, the majority of Colombians are the opposite of Asians in this aspect and a way of coping with this is not letting pessimist people ruin your motivation and dreams. That is why in a near future when I become a professional, the place I would love to keep improving myself, living and learning would be South Korea.

Thirdly, the next two videos were about "Eastern & Central (Slavic) Europeans React to Stereotypes" and "French Women Stereotypes: French React"; they were good. However, I barely found similarities between Europeans and Colombians. Our personalities are just so different from theirs. There were only two things that caught my attention: 1) that they actually have a sense of humor despite the fact that they tend to be very serious and 2) that the way French women dress is a bit similar to how Colombian women who live in Bogotá usually dress. That means that they always look fashionable and trendy, well, most of them at least and if you cannot afford to dress like that, there is just one way of coping with what others may say about your style: LOVE YOURSELF. Apart from that, I think I will never ever fall for a European man. They are just so no my type.

Finally, the last video about "Arabs React to Stereotypes" surprised me and I liked it very much. On one hand, it surprised me because the people who appeared in the video were such nice people and very funny as well. In this part, I think Colombians and Arabs are similar in the way that most of the time we are misjudged by others, thinking that everyone is a criminal, a drug dealer or a terrorist which in reality is not true, at all, and I could prove it in this video. On the other hand, I liked it because of the personalities of each person of the video and how they treated between them, like they were family which again I kind of relate it to some Colombian families, not mine sadly but someday I know God will give me one as united as those Arabs were in that video. Meanwhile, if someone who is reading this post feels like me and do not know what to do with his/her life, well, a way of coping with it is to believe that there is always hope to make things better and change the world.

To conclude, I think that according to the videos, it is demonstrate that in most of the cases we tend to believe in what stereotypes say about us and even relate on some of them. But in reality, most of those stereotypes are just tall tale that are make up based on what its heard or seen on the social networks or through internet which some of them eventually might be disproved or confirmed either by having the experience within the country or by someone who truly knows about the culture of that place. That is why, as the American Proverb says: "appearances aren't everything" which leads me to say that we tend to judge everything by its cover and it should not be like that because we are not what others tell about us, we are much more than that; and if we were a bit more conscious about it we would realize how valuable and incomparable we are and we would treat each other in a more fair way.