I Don't Love Vodka

It is important for stereotypes to exist because they provide a common ground for different groups of people. However, we have a tendency to use these stereotypes as entertainment or as a means to dominate a person or group (for example, Hitler and the Nazis). Now, what do you do when a young teenage girl is the subject of such stereotypical judgements? The answer is nothing. You do nothing. Stereotypical humor is often the favorite kind of humor among teenagers (after sexual jokes, of course).  Take for example, one of the countless reactions when people find out I speak Russian.

“Wow, you know another language? You must be so smart!” they say.

“Thank you…?” I respond. I don’t mean for it to be disrespectful, but it often seems that way. Once they’ve mentioned commented on my intelligence, I anticipate the stereotypes that are bound to come my way.

Everybody is familiar with the traditional Russian stereotypes, right? The most popular one believes all Russians have unlimited supplies of vodka in their homes and can drink bottle after bottle effortlessly.

“You must love vodka, right? Can you hook me up with some?”

I know they are joking, so I laugh. For a moment it’s funny. Yet, after hearing the same vodka jokes again, and again, and again, somehow they just cease to be funny. It’s hard to believe, right?! Other stereotypes state that Russian parents are perpetually angry and strict, as opposed to the rational and loving American parents. If they’ve expended all of their brilliant vodka jokes, they’ll usually go for parental stereotypes.

“Huh, your parents must be so hard on you!!” they assume.

Cautiously I respond, “You could say that.”

Other stereotypes state that Russian parents are perpetually angry and strict, as opposed to the rational and loving American parents.

It is absolutely bewildering to me that people can make such wild assumptions just because of the language someone speaks. From my own experiences, I see that strangers and friends equally stereotype me and my family just because we speak a certain language. In this case, that language is Russian.

Languages, dialects, accents, and slang all indicate unique characteristics about a person. Often, we assume that if someone speaks in one of the aforementioned ways, they are foreign to us. Therefore, it is assumed that that “someone” has different beliefs and behaves differently.

In the documentary “American Tongues” several people from the northeastern states were asked for their opinions on people from the southern ones (American Tongues). They blatantly stated that southern dialects and accents indicate that they are stupid and inferior. Such stereotyping  about a person’s intelligence or behavior based on their accent is a well known and common phenomenon in American culture. Northeasterners claim that the “Southern Drawl” and their strange slang is what leads them to believe that Southerners are dumb. Though they were not mentioned in the documentary, some stereotypes about Southerners say the men all drive pickup trucks, or that they have sex with their cousins. These ideas rarely applicable to any individual (as most stereotypes often are), but still they fuel hatred and judgement from other people. In such ways, people use the differences in others’ dialects to form judgements and stereotypes.

Linguistic stereotypes are not limited to southerners On the other hand, many people from the south perceive northeastern English speakers to be pretentious and hostile.  Northeastern English seems curt and rough to southern Americans in comparison to their style of speaking. A prime examples of the type of person they assume we are would live in a big city (New York, for example) and would work in a big corporate office with little to no emotion. Obviously, we are not all like that, and yet when someone hears a New Yorker speak, they create that character that fits into all the stereotypes, and they apply that character to the speaker.

This has happened to me far too many times. I have encountered racist stereotypes because of the languages I speak or because of the accent I have. Many of the judgements people make about individuals are based off little more than what they hear them say in a couple of seconds, and this simple baffles me. In conclusion, such quick cultural stereotypes that are based off of nothing but linguistic differences are just one way stereotypes damage our society.