8. Общее и различное в странах и национальных культурах (English (topics for exam 2 sem in DOCX))

British nation is the most conservative in Europe. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up. The best examples are their queen, money system, their weights and measures.

There are many customs in Great Britain and Russia connected with different religious holidays.

In Britain Christmas is more popular than New Year’s Day. The fun starts the night before the 24th of December. Traditionally this is the day when people decorate their trees. Christmas is a family holiday. Relatives usually meet for the big Christmas dinner of turkey and Christmas pudding. And everyone gives and receives presents.

What about Russia, we celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. And in spite of New Year’s Day, usually Russians go to the church, but give presents to each other on the New Year’s Day.

For Christians Easter Sunday is very important day. In Britain chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs are given to children as presents. For Russians it is more usual to eat Easter cake and colour eggs.

There are some quite different celebrations in Britain and Russia. For example, in Britain Halloween is a day on which many children dress up in unusual costumes. Russians celebrate Ivan Kupala Day when young people build a big fire and jump across it, girls put a circlet of flowers on the head and everybody swims in the river and sings songs.

What about stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations or beliefs about people based on their membership in a particular group. Stereotypes can be positive, negative, or neutral.

There is a stereotype that the British are not emotional, they are stand-offish, reserved and hard-to-know. Of course, many people think that the British can talk only about weather, drink tea all the time. In the same time there are a lot of funny stereotypes about Russians. For example, we drink only vodka, play the balalaika, wear shapka-ushanka and there are a lot of bears in our streets.

But if a foreigner visits Britain or Russia, he can see that it is not quite true. Of course, the British drink tea very often and also there is a tradition called “5 o’clock tea”. But Russian people like drinking tea too.