Survey With this survey I tried to find out what German and Chinese think about the other country and what stereotyped might exist. It was in writing but I was there in person to answer questions. They answered the questions on a scale from 1 to 5 - 1 means "definitely" and 5 "not at all". All in all 63 persons filled in the survey. They were between 16-36 years old, the avarage age was 23,66. Most of them were students at school or university or had a university degree. Because of this this and the few participants this survey is not representative for the opinion of all Germans and Chinese. Besides as I am German some Chinese might have given Germans better "marks" then they would have, if I had not been there in person. However there are some intersting results, which are intresting and might give us an idea about the self- and foreign perception and also the influence of the media on our perception of each other.
Results The Germans see themselves as very on time, accurate and duteouse (avarage mark:1,7), but they also think they are not relaxed, full of spirits or humorouse. The foreign perception of Germany is identical concerning them being accurate and on time but people also think that Germans are also quite relaxed, full of spirits and humorouse. The Germans got also a 2 for their hospitality, while they see themselves as less hospitable. While the Germans think they are quite individualistic if not even egoistic other participants give them a 3,1 and 3,3 for these charateristics. However everybody seems to agree that Germans are very self-confident. The Germasn think that they are avarage open-minded, tolerant and polite. They gave themselves marks between 2,4 and 3,0, while other participants gave them better marks. Everybody agrees that Germans hold to rules. However not-Germans think that they also believe in authorities while the Germans don't agree, the same accounts for Germans queuing up. The Germans think that they work a lot and that the career is important to them, while others didn't agree on us working that hard ;). Although everyone thinks that work and career is important to Germans they also agree that family and friends play and important role. Everyone agrees that the economy is important to Germans, however they see culture and polictics beeing less importnat to them then other people do. One stereotype was shown by everyone: Germans drink a lot of beer and they don't get easily drunk.