Stereotypes are a funny and fascinating thing. Having lived as a Brit in Switzerland for just under 10 years, stereotyping was something that I faced on a daily basis. In the UK, it rains all the time, we all have bad teeth, we eat horrible food and everyone knows the Queen.

Needless to say, stereotypes are rarely very accurate by today's standards. Sure, they must all come from somewhere but I'm guessing it's the same place where people can get shot 20 times and still get up and fight and girls wake up in the morning with a fresh face of make-up.

So here are a few greetings from some stereotyped characters. I'm most interested in finding out which stereotypes are global and which are more local. For example, the 'typical' Frenchman wearing a beret and a stripy top was not identified by my Swiss friends.

The nationalities are :