A cheese-loving race

OXFORD, ENGLAND -- All English people love cheese. English Northerners are friendlier than Southern English people -- an interesting flip in the otherwise identical American stereotype concerning Northerners and Southerners. English people look down on dining guests who put their knife down at any point in the meal. Germans are assertive. The Swiss are boring. An English person will never complain if someone cuts in line in front of them. An American always will. These are only a few of the pearls of wisdom jovially dropped into my foreign lap since my arrival in England six weeks ago.\nSince I arrived in London, it seems I have talked to at least once person a day trying to explain the English people and their differences from Americans. Tour guides make a killing by making substantiated generalizations that may prove helpful to travelers or at least confirm their already deep-set suspicions and stereotypes. Guides who are citizens of the target country seem most likely to confirm unfair stereotypes. \nThe welcoming speeches at the Butler study abroad program's orientation meeting warned students visiting Oxford University that British students hide from fellow students the fact that they are doing work in order to create the impression that they are able to succeed without much hard work. However, most students I have met at Oxford work hard and complain about their work load, as well as how long it took them to complete it, along with their American counterparts.\nSome American students fall into the trap of trying to fit into stereotypical molds in order to better uphold the version of the world their conversation partner has constructed. For example, Jonathan Rhodes, an English student at Oxford University, told an entertaining story expressing admiration for the Americans' unwillingness to tolerate injustice. As a result, I think that the next time someone cuts in the queue, I may be more likely to speak up about it. Alternatively, American students may use the generalizations as a challenge to contradict the English version of the "American" identity. When one of the more common generalizations about Americans concerning the loud volume of their voices emerges, I could be careful to talk softly for the rest of the conversation.\nGeneralizations are amusing, entertaining and even useful to the extent that they can challenge us to re-examine our own identities. They are also inescapable.\nPicture it: an average college room in a well-known British university. The normal accoutrements of an Oxford student's college room litter the desk and floor -- \nliterature books, computer cords and opened bottles of wine. What is missing from this picture? That's right, all English people (as well as French people, so I hear) share a common obsession with cheese. Cue: Entrance of a large 1 kilo (that's 2.2 pounds) package of soft white cheddar. Fast forward one hour, when four English literature students have succeeded in reducing the block of cheese to a sliver. Lesson learned: four English students, a block of cheese and a discerning analytical mind are an instant recipe for an indigestible generalization.