BBC World-Wide Poll: Germany Most Popular Country - Again!
Germans are serious, hard-working and punctual: the typical stereotypes are know and in most cases actually prove to be right.
Despite this image of the strict Germans, they have yet again topped the BBC poll as the most popular country in the world. Good news, isn't it? :-)
This year, the BBC interviewed more than 26,000 people world-wide. They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union whether their influence on the world was seen as "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".
Germany topped the list with a 59% positive rating, displacing Japan from the number one spot. Only 15% stated that Germany had a mainly negative influence on the world. At the bottom of the table were Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran.
Actually, only one country of the poll saw Germany more negative than positive. And this is not really a surprise: the relations between Greece and Angela Merkel's home country saw a number of tensions in the past years. In contrast to this stands Spain, where Germany has a 68% approval! Even higher scores come from Britain (78%) and France (81%). Highly interesting in this context is the press coverage of the poll in different countries -- here are some weblinks: BBC News, UK Haaretz, Israel
Shanghaiist, China
Sunday's Zaman, Turkey
And from the German side, here are two respective articles:
Spiegel Online: "The World Doesn't Actually Hate Germany"
Süddeutsche: "Liebesgrüße an den Gartenzwerg"
Whichever view you take, enjoy the different perceptions around the world! :-)
Andreas Hauser Management Consultant | Intercultural Trainer | Lecturer
www.developingculture.com
