IMAGES OF GERMANY/RUSSIA AND THE GERMANS/RUSSIANS IN THE HETEROSTEREOTYPED CONCEPTIONS OF RUSSIAN AND GERMAN STUDENTS

• Main Author: Sorokina Natalia Valeryevna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Science and Innovation Center Publishing House 2013-03-01
• Series: Sovremennye Issledovaniâ Socialʹnyh Problem

The article presents results of the surveys carried out in Germany and in Russia in 2000-2011 to research the Russians’ and Germans’ ethnic stereotyped conceptions. The research method is a free associative description, the respondents are university students. The article gives a comparative analysis of the most frequent associations of Russian and German students with the stimuli-words “Germany/Russia” and “Germans/Russians”. It also presents the results of the content-analysis of the associations based on their thematic belonging to the following categories – history, geography, people, politics, economics, culture, language, etc. The author states prevailing negative image of Russia in Germany, abundance of a little attractive conception about Russia as a country of eternal winter, disorder, poverty of the most people against the background of richness of the oligarchs, a rather authoritarian political regime. One of the central places in the image of Russia occupies vodka and drunkenness of the Russians. The image of Germany in Russia consists of a negative image of the military past and some idealization of the present. Most respondents consider Germany to be developed, civilized, successful, almost a fairy tale country. In dynamics however there is a trend to decrease this idealization. The results of the survey can be used to develop different Russian-German projects and to improve the students’ intercultural education.