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In spite of the mass of information circulating in media most people in Europe do not know much about other nationalities. Below there are the results of the survey (as regards Italy) carried out by administering a questionnaire devised by the Scottish teachers involved in our Comenius project. The sample group was composed by 90 students (aged 14-16) belonging to the first two classes of IS Galilei school. Read and wonder! |
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Most Italian students do not know much about Scottish geography: they believe Scotland is part of England!!! |
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Even ideas on the matter of Scottish way of dressing are a bit confused: almost all students are convinced that the Scots wear a kilt as normal clothes. Obviously teachers have not investigated if they also believe the Scots still wear kilts in the *traditional way*... |
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Some Italian students identify the average Scotsman with the hero of "The Highlander", Christopher Lambert starring. |
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We confess that nobody, both teachers and students, knew what a haggis was. The first guess was "a sort of deer". After a bit of *googling* we found out it is a Scottish dish. |
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No doubts as regards Scots' generosity: the Scottish people are certainly very considerate with their money! |
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As concerns the Scots' inclination to heavy drinking the students even have less doubts: Scotland is a country of heavy drinkers. No matter if Italy is often at the top in the surveys about alcohol addiction, unfotunately. |
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Nobody knows what a haggis is but everybody is convinced Scottish cuisine is horrible. |
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The same: nobody has ever been to Scotland but, for some mysterious reason, they think it is not an expensive place where to live. |
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Here the number of young people who think the Scottish can speak a foreign language is level with those ones who think differently. |
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Also to this question answers seem not to be really significant. Probably young people have never taken this aspect of Scottish culture into serious consideration. |
| Why carry out a survey about misconceptions
regarding the Scots, just at the beginning of our Comenius project? First of all because THEY EXIST, and the results in Italy have shown that. Secondly because it will be interesting to compare students' ideas now with their knowledge at the end of the end of the Scottish phase. We hope that most misconceptions will be overcome and true understanding of other European countries' cultures will take their place. |
Now read the German results of the survey!!! |
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