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Theresa May still has time to 'improve Brexit deal' | ITV News

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You do realize we can understand you when you talk, right?

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Clichés say that when you give a map of Europe to the Brits they are totally lost and do not know how to place the capitals of each country

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Every country have a really long list of stereotypes, and Finland is not an exception. Going in an other country can be a possibility to verify the stereotypes that you believe in which can be wrong or true.

First, to be fair and realized how we can be judged by the other countries, let's see the clichés of each country where we, the Erasmus students, come from :

Dutch people are constantly stoned, they don't hesitate to dare to say to people what they have in their mind, they are rude and they become really attentive when it's about their money.

The French people are really nationalist and the cheese is their God. Their jobs are always related with arts and cooking, and they are food and wine lovers , maybe for this reason they are life enjoyers.

If I say to you these following words : hot blood, fury, passionated lovers, laziness, procrastination. Can you tell me about who we are talking about ? That's the Spanish people who take everything easy and enjoy their life with sangria and paella.

What to say about German people? Beer, wurst, beer, wurst, beer, wurst, ... But even though they drink so much they are really serious and they don't laugh a lot. Be strict and well-organized is running in their veins.

In Belgium the people are kind, naive and they are considered stupid at the same time by their neighborhood countries. They seem younger in appearance but not in mind ... Drink a lot of beers and make a good chocolate are the best abilities that they have.

Now let's talk about our adopted country for our Erasmus experience : FINLAND.

Before coming to Finland, we didn't know a lot about the social culture of the country and its people. We didn't know how the people from Finland are communicating with each other, how they express their feelings or how their friendships and family relations are. Nonetheless we were expecting to find a person according to these next stereotypes.

All the Finnish people are introvert, don't show their emotions and never smile.

This is one of the bigger stereotypes about the Finnish people, but when you spend every day with them, you realize that they are no like robots. Of course they can not be compared with the people form south Europe, but you can perceive something from them..

All the Finnish people don't talk to strangers.

It's not so easy to accost Finnish people because they look serious. And one thing to consider is : they don't like to be near people, you have to keep a distance between you and them. But..but when you learn more about them, then this distance can be destroyed and you can talk to them easily.

F-A-L-S-E, completely false. If you live with them you can hear shouts all the day at all hours. Something that surprised and impressed us.

Finnish guys and girls are good-looking.

Before coming to Finland, we can imagine that people are handsome and attractive. In fact, it's not completely true but it can be consider by many different point of view. It depends if you like tall blond-haired and blue-eyed persons! Oh...wait.. that's a new stereotype!

All the Finnish people are tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed.

Most of them are like that. If you get bored in the transport, you can play a game and try to count how are they. It can happen that some of them don't want to belong to this figure and try to hide these scandinavian attributes by different manners.

All the Finnish people are depressed.

Cold and darkness. What could be more depressing ? It's less depressing for them when they are drunk.

All the Finnish people are alcoholic.

We can corroborate that this stereotype it's more true than false, Finnish people drink a loooooooot, and where can they find so much alcohol? In Tallinn of course, you can't find cheap alcohol in Finland, so let's go to Estonia! But there is a good new, there are studies where is said that the consumption of alcohol is decreasing in Finland.

It's quite strange if you describe to someone who doesn't know what is a sauna. "Well, in Finland, I am sitting naked in big hot box and I throw water on stones..." Sounds weird. But it's the temple of the Finns and it become ours as well because there is nothing better than relaxing and sweating in a sauna after a long day.

In every country there is honest people and dishonest people, and in Finland as well.

All the Finnish people respect the rules

They are not so different to the other european people, they also cross the road when the traffic light is red! But one of the things that impressed me, and in a really good way, is that they respect a lot of the nature, and they have a lot of rules to conserve it. Hopefully all country had the same consideration to the nature.

All the Finnish people speak good english.

Another false stereotype. Not everybody speaks good english, it's more, not everybody speaks english, and you can find it out, for example, using public transport or going to the supermarket. If you take the right bus: congratulations!!
Can you approve these stereotypes ?
As we can see, all these stereotypes are not completely true but sometimes you can discover a little part of the truth. We encourage you to verify these stereotypes by yourself and see if they are right. BON VOYAGE !!!!!!

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Are the stereotypes real ? Let's make an investigation about the clichés ! - Humakbeings

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Every country have a really long list of stereotypes, and Finland is not an exception. Going in an other country can be a possibility to verify the stereotypes that you believe in which can be wrong or true. First, to be fair and realized how we can be judged by the other countries, let's see ...

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Nine mostly ex-communist states have joined the Schengen zone

Forty-eight hours of celebrations are taking place to mark nine new states joining a European border-free zone.
The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across the area, now embraces 24 nations.

Some 2,000 people celebrated in the town of Frankfurt on Oder at Germany's border with Poland, amid fireworks and the EU anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the zone.

Speaking in Zittau, close to where Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic meet, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a "truly historic moment".

Mrs Merkel was joined by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Crime wave fears

On Thursday a checkpoint between Austria and Slovakia was dismantled in one of several events marking the enlargement from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer sawed through a barrier at the Berg border crossing.

Mr Fico said: "From midnight tonight you can travel 4,000km (2,485 miles) from Tallinn in Estonia to Lisbon in Portugal without any border controls."

Mr Gusenbauer welcomed the extension of the Schengen zone, rejecting fears that it might create a crime wave in Austria.

The European Commission says that one billion euros (£720m) has been spent on beefing up security on the new EU frontiers, including the establishing of missions along the Polish and Slovak borders.

Initially the lifting of internal controls involves just land and sea borders, but that will be extended to airports at the end of March 2008.

Vast database

Although the enlargement allows passport-free transit throughout the area, travellers can be asked to carry documents by any of the countries concerned.

For non-EU nationals, a Schengen visa allows travel across all the participating countries.

Thirteen existing EU states have already been part of the Schengen accord as well as two non-EU countries, Norway and Iceland.

The UK and Ireland are not involved in the zone - which embraces 400m people - but they have signed up to agreements on security.

A significant element of the Schengen agreement is the Schengen Information Service (SIS) which features an enormous database in the French city of Strasbourg.

The SIS database enables police in any Schengen state to find out whether a suspect has been involved in any kind of crime across the EU.

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BBC NEWS | Europe | Europe's border-free zone expands

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Celebrations mark the enlargement of Europe's Schengen border-free zone to include nine more EU states.

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What Countries Are in the European Union?

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Formed in 1958 the European Union is an economic and political union between 28 member countries. It was created after World War II as a way to ensure peace between European nations. These countries share a common currency called the Euro. Those who reside in EU countries are also granted EU passports, which allow for easy travel between nations. In 2016, Brittain shocked the world by choosing to leave the EU. The referendum was known as Brexit.

The Treaty of Rome

The treaty of Rome is seen as the formation of what is now called the EU. Its official name was the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community. It created a single market across the nations for goods, labor, services, and capital. It also proposed a reduction in customs duties. The treaty sought to strengthen the economies of the nations and to promote peace. After two World Wars, many Europeans were eager for peaceful alliances with their neighboring countries. In 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon would officially change the Treaty of Rome's name to The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Countries in the European Union

Austria: Joined in 1995

Belgium: Joined in 1958

Bulgaria: Joined in 2007

Croatia: Joined in 2013

Cyprus: Joined in 2004

Czech Republic: Joined in 2004

Denmark: Joined in 1973

Estonia: Joined in 2004

Finland: Joined in 1995

France: Joined in 1958

Germany: Joined in 1958

Greece: Joined in 1981

Hungary: Joined in 2004

Ireland: Joined in 1973

Italy: Joined in 1958

Latvia: Joined in 2004

Lithuania: Joined in 2004

Luxembourg: Joined in 1958

Malta: Joined in 2004

Netherlands: Joined in 1958

Poland: Joined in 2004

Portugal: Joined in 1986

Romania: Joined in 2007

Slovakia: Joined in 2004

Slovenia: Joined in 2004

Spain: Joined in 1986

Sweden: Joined in 1995

United Kingdom: Joined in 1973. For the moment the UK remains a full member of the EU, however, it is in the process of withdrawing membership.

Countries Integrating into the EU

Several countries are in the process of integrating or transitioning into the European Union. Membership in the EU is a long and difficult process, it also requires a free-market economy and a stable democracy. Countries must also accept all the EU legislation, which can often take years to accomplish.

Albania

Montenegro

Serbia

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Turkey

Understanding Brexit

On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the EU. The popular term for the referendum was Brexit. The vote was very close, 52% of the country voted to leave. David Cameron, then Prime Minister, announced the results of the vote along with his resignation. Teresa May would take over as Prime Minister. She promoted the Great Repeal Bill, which would repeal the country's legislation and incorporation into the EU. A petition calling for a second referendum received almost four million signatures but it was rejected by the government. The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union by April 2019. It will take nearly two years for the country to sever its legal ties to the EU.​

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The 28 Member Countries of the European Union

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Formed in 1958 the European Union is an economic and political union between 28 member countries. It was created after World War II as a way to ensure peace between European nations. These countries share a common currency called the Euro. Those who reside in EU countries are also granted EU passports, which allow for easy travel between nations.

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Join the pairs that prove to be true, they can be countries, graphics, drawings, or texts.

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Quiz on European Countries

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to isabel perez torres.

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Europe is the second smallest of the inhabited continents. It is a part of the Eurasian land mass that includes Europe, Asia, Asia Minor and the Arabian Peninsula. As many large islands east and south of Asia are usually included in Asia, the Eurasian land mass extends from Iceland to New Guinea, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Indian Oceans. Just where to divide this mass into continents has long been debated. Traditionally the Ural mountains in Russia have been used as a division. This line then had to curve back through the Caspian and Black Seas to avoid leaving Turkey in Europe. The fact that this separated Christian Europe from Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist Asia is not coincidental. With the creation of many new countries from the collapse of the Soviet Union the division is more difficult as so many want to be included in Europe for economic reasons. In order to show complete countries only we have included Russia in Asia, where most of its area lies, rather than in Europe.

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Interactive Map of Europe, Europe Map with Countries and Seas

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Europe Map-online, interactive map of Europe showing its borders, countries, capitals, seas, rivers and adjoining areas. It connects to information about Europe and the history and geography of European countries. Europe is the western part of the Eurasian land mass, Asia is the larger eastern part.