‘Not that We’re not Hard-Working Ourselves, but Germans are the Model’: mediatising Germans as the national other in the video project Easy Languages

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present paper focuses on the analysis of four videos which portray the ways British, Italian, French and Greek people talk about Germans as the national other, within the context of a video series project aiming to promote multilingualism and foreign language learning (Easy Languages). Contrary to traditional views on national stereotypes from social psychology, and on cultural categorisations of countries from intercultural communication as universally fixed entities, a Critical Discourse Studies perspective is adopted, which views them instead as hegemonic discourses, which sustain particular power relations with the excuse of ‘cultural’ difference. The analysis discloses that the mediatisation of Germans as the national other aligns with the well-known national stereotypes of competence and warmth, as well as with the widely held cultural categorisations distinguishing monochronic from polychronic countries. Yet, viewed as dynamic discursive resources, it is shown that discussing national matters is a delicate topic, requiring a positive impression management, especially within a context with ‘clear’ intercultural objectives. Moreover, these discourses lead to the neutralisation of politics through culturalisation.