NATIONAL AND CULTURAL STEREOTYPES OF SPAIN

Abstract

The article highlights the problem of national–cultural stereotypes of Spain. The current state of stereotyping of this country, the concept of stereotype and its types, which allows to differentiate and highlight the importance of necessary knowledge for those who study Spanish as this knowledge enriches intercultural and pragmatic-discursive competence as part of communicative competence to facilitate perception information for learning a language and getting acquainted with the country of native speakers of this language. Stereotyping – the process of forming and impression of a person on the basis of stereotypes; classification of social objects or forms of interaction as known or those that seem known; finding familiar traits in order to speed up or facilitate interpersonal communication. Stereotypes are established as stable standards that stand above people and are characterized by a certain abstraction. The scientific characteristics of the functional stereotypes in modern discourse are characterized. Emphasis placed on such important concepts as auto stereotype and hetero stereotype. The main aspects of types and functions of stereotypes are considered. When the word culture is mentioned, one often thinks of national cultures. Within each national culture there are cultural patterns. Spain is no exception. Since there are differences between cultures, there are differences within one cultural group. Cultural patterns create stereotypes when all members of the same cultural group differ even if they have the same characteristics. Stereotypes can be associated with any type of cultural affiliation, for example: nationality, religion, gender, race, age. Attention is paid to the influence of national and cultural stereotypes both outside the country and the perception by other cultures and within the state itself.