The English

[dune]

Whilst on my hols I got talking to a Turk, not a nice Turk i may add, and he stated that the English are the unfriendliest people he'd met. It turned out that his wife was living in bury St Edmonds with his children and he'd been refused a work permit. He went on to say that when he was in England he got black looks and people didn't smile at him to sum up. Like a fool I sympathised with him at the time, but then I thought to myslef WTF, the English are among the friendliest and must humourful and most generous people nationality there is. This view was compounded by witnessing how rude most (not all) the Germans were where we stayed and how they were so tight with tipping and so selfish with their early morning raids on the sun loungers, and then I saw that contrary to what i'd been told - the Turks (looked like a gang set up) who controlled the prime snide gear shops were wolves in sheeps clothing and scratch the surface and they' be the sort who slit your throat should you have an altercation down a dark alley. And then I picked up a book from the hotel Library and it was written by a yank, but he made an observation that I thought yeah that's bang on. He wrote that whereever you go in the world and you see germans, or frenchmen or any other races meeting as strangers you see them chatting, but wherever in the world two Englishmen meet within seconds we're laughing and joking. And this is true. Considering we live on such a grim, cold drizzly outpost we're the ****ing best.

[dune]

I should also at the conversation with unfriendly Turk happened on our second day and we were eating in his fathers basic (but bloody expesive and crap food) cafe thing. If you ever go to a muslim country be very careful on your first day at 12.55 lunchtime as this is when it happens. At first I thought someone was strangling a cat and then i felt the giggles coming on (which hasn't happened since wiggy put a condom over vacum cleaner pipe in first year biology) and keeping a forced straight face told my missus that when in Turkey theyre well devout and don't start laughing, which made it worse so i forced myself not to look at her as i could sense she had the giggles too and i'd just crack up if she started. And then thank **** it stopped and i starting talking **** to try and banish my demons, and then it ****ing started again and we both just couldn't help cracking up. I think this may have upset him and we didn't eat there again.

 

An example:

 

 

Please tell i'm just a slightly right leaning liberal, and not a shletered bumpkin

 

Ha Ha, just listening to that brings it all back, funny as **** - but i guess you needed to be there.

Edited 4 October, 2010 by dune

[dune]

Thinking about it I was a right cvnt on my hols, especially when during the battle of the lounger, i told the german you all should have been gassed after the war. But in my defense i also visited a mosque and bought some tat off the stalls and gave little poor kid 10 liras and a bag of sweets, so i'm not really a bad person. And i was always very generous with all my tips, although i mus confess i did it mostly to show the germans up. In fact i'm a model abbassador for britishness when overseas right down to requesting milk in my tea and never attempting to speak their language, but instead advising them on how to improve theirs. And I also made friends with all the dogs especially toffee who i coaxed over from the german bar and who now speaks english and is -pleased we won the war..

Edited 4 October, 2010 by dune

[hypochondriac]

British people are extremely unfriendly in comparison to a lot of European countries. Italians for example. Your second post just comes across as racist.

[dune]

British people are extremely unfriendly in comparison to a lot of European countries. Italians for example. Your second post just comes across as racist.

 

I genuinely didn't want the second post to come over like that. In fact it makes me look ignorant (but that's my sense of humour), but i'm actually not racist as you'd know if you saw the stuff i did to help poor people when abroad.

 

And British people are not as you describe. Yes some are, but not most.

[Saintandy666]

I think every country has polite and nice people as well rude and horrible people. So you know...

[hypochondriac]

I genuinely didn't want the second post to come over like that. In fact it makes me look ignorant (but that's my sense of humour), but i'm actually not racist as you'd know if you saw the stuff i did to help poor people when abroad.

 

And British people are not as you describe.

 

Well living in Britatin, people in general are a hell of a lot less hospitable than in places like Italy, where people will put their lives on hold to make you feel welcome. It's not that British people in general are unfriendly, just that what they do pales in comparison to our European neighbours. I mean have you walked around London? It's like the unfriendliest place in the world!

[hypochondriac]

I think every country has polite and nice people as well rude and horrible people. So you know...

 

Obviously. That's why my post above says in general.

[dune]

Well living in Britatin, people in general are a hell of a lot less hospitable than in places like Italy, where people will put their lives on hold to make you feel welcome. It's not that British people in general are unfriendly, just that what they do pales in comparison to our European neighbours. I mean have you walked around London? It's like the unfriendliest place in the world!

 

London isn't an English city imo. It's far too cosmopolitan to to be used as an example.

[Saintandy666]

Obviously. That's why my post above says in general.

 

Oh right I see. To be honest, I didn't even read your post. Just read dune's.

[hypochondriac]

London isn't an English city imo. It's far too cosmopolitan to to be used as an example.

 

London is just an extreme example. I suggest you go to a remote area of Italy and see how they treat people they don't even know. Getting up at three in the morning to make food and giving up their rooms for guests and sleeping on the floor in the lounge because there isn't beds for everyone. I can't say I've ever had similar treatment in England. Even if I did, it would have been rare. In Italy it was a normal occurrence. Even in Muslim countries like Morocco.

[dune]

I think it's fair to say that real village people have the best communities and are the friendliest people, although that doesn't really apply in the south anymore as most village people are incomers who've made their money and want village life on their terms, amd also these people bring nothing to the villages which were traditionally communities where people provided little services like a man than sold parafin, and a man that mended bikes, a fruit shop, several pubs, a small garage and a petrol pump, and the "posh" houses were tied to farms and families that laboured on the farms lived in. My old man came from a very poor hampshire family with about 10 brothers/sisters, but for all the little they had i think they were probably happier than us who've got it all. I noticed that in turkey too - kids with nothing smiling and having impecable manners, whilst more and more kids in this country are spoilt materialist brats that we turn into c

[st alex]

Last time I went to France, as I was sat on a train on my way back to Paris, a girl sat next to me (pre designated seats), and said bonjour, quite taken aback I pretended I was french, used up all my best language skills to say bonjour back to her, I was sat in the wrong seat anyway so didn't really want to let on that I was foreign.

 

I've never had anyone say bonjour to me as they sit next to me on a bus or train in England. It could be that the french are more polite, or it could be that I'm so good looking that English people are overwhelmed wereas the french are used to seeing incredibly handsome individuals.

[hypochondriac]

I think it's fair to say that real village people have the best communities and are the friendliest people, although that doesn't really apply in the south anymore as most village people are incomers who've made their money and want village life on their terms, amd also these people bring nothing to the villages which were traditionally communities where people provided little services like a man than sold parafin, and a man that mended bikes, a fruit shop, several pubs, a small garage and a petrol pump, and the "posh" houses were tied to farms and families that laboured on the farms lived in. My old man came from a very poor hampshire family with about 10 brothers/sisters, but for all the little they had i think they were probably happier than us who've got it all. I noticed that in turkey too - kids with nothing smiling and having impecable manners, whilst more and more kids in this country are spoilt materialist brats that we turn into c

 

Yep. We have definitely lost something in the last 50-100 years. I would love more community spirit, especially in places like Southampton.

[OttawaSaint]

Lived oop north for a while and boy are that lot cold. They barely give you the time of day if you are not one of them...

[Whitey Grandad]

Hampshire folk are very friendly. We noticed this when we moved down here in 1971.

[dune]

Yep. We have definitely lost something in the last 50-100 years. I would love more community spirit, especially in places like Southampton.

 

Do you know a village called crawley, well thats where i've got some relatives is where i consider i'm partly from, although my dads family moved all over from farm to farm around the south from hants to sussex to kent. Sadly my hampshire family is now dieing as families of doing as there's isn't the same bonds with sons of sons of brothers (lets call them cousins) but Crawley was where two of my uncles lived and another uncle in mobile home park near baddesley ( he was a big saints fan in the dell days and used to go with him in his vw camper and park on the verge up hill lane - happy days). Now these people were real Hampshire countryside people and sadly these people are a dieing breed. That all said and i've touched on the "good old days" when they were growing up and even caught and ate blackbirds because there was no food, my old man always used to answer to anyone who pined for the good old days - they were good but i wouldn't want them back. Bless him, he was a lovely man.

[Whitey Grandad]

I know Crawley. I worked at the IBA from 1974 to 1982.

[dune]

Last time I went to France, as I was sat on a train on my way back to Paris, a girl sat next to me (pre designated seats), and said bonjour, quite taken aback I pretended I was french, used up all my best language skills to say bonjour back to her, I was sat in the wrong seat anyway so didn't really want to let on that I was foreign.

 

I've never had anyone say bonjour to me as they sit next to me on a bus or train in England. It could be that the french are more polite, or it could be that I'm so good looking that English people are overwhelmed wereas the french are used to seeing incredibly handsome individuals.

 

You missed a brilliant chance to pull. Learn a few foreign words and then struggle to say them and make her laugh. You're halfway to a **** in the bog.

[dune]

I know Crawley. I worked at the IBA from 1974 to 1982.

 

I had an uncle in a farm bungalow down hacks lane and another in a council house on cricket close. Unfortunately by this time all the old farm cottages had been taken by the yuppies, and the pub turned into a poncey bistro type affair.

[Whitey Grandad]

I had an uncle in a farm bungalow down hacks lane and another in a council house on cricket close. Unfortunately by this time all the old farm cottages had been taken by the yuppies, and the pub turned into a poncey bistro type affair.

 

The pub always used to close on Mondays. Something about previous owners dying on Mondays.

[dune]

The pub always used to close on Mondays. Something about previous owners dying on Mondays.

 

That's strange, but i'm not cynic and wouldnt dream of thinking the fact mondays are always dead would have any bearing.

[dune]

Whitey do you remember the old days in winchester? My old man was one of the best darts players in the county and that time and played at some big venue in winchester.

[Durleyfos]

If you go out for a walk in the countryside in Britain, you always say 'hello' to someone you meet along the way.

 

Do it in the city, you get looked at like you're a simpleton. Or you'd get a slap.

 

I know it isn't practical to say 'hello' to everyone you meet walking down the street, but you barely get eye contact from anyone, let alone get a friendly greeting.

[Robsk II]

Dune, I think you're mental. I occasionally enjoy your bizarre skittering tracks of thought. On this thread: "Thinking about it I was a right cvnt on my hols, especially when during the battle of the lounger". I can't quite decide whether you're a total pr*ck in real life or actually sort of funny.

[Verbal]

Wgaf.

[Sheaf Saint]

Lived oop north for a while and boy are that lot cold. They barely give you the time of day if you are not one of them...

 

I find that fairly odd because my experience since living oop north has been quite different. I find Yorkshire folk to be (in the most part anyway) much friendlier than in urban Hampshire. I like the fact that I can go into a pub on my own and strike up a conversation with a complete stranger, whereaas I never felt comfortable doing that when I lived in Southampton as I would invariably get the cold shoulder.

 

I think if somebody was to compile a list of the friendliest countries in europe then the UK would be way down it I'm sorry to say. I spent aweek in France recently and despite being brought up to believe that the English and the French have come kind of simmering hatred for each other, I found quite the opposite to be true. All of the local people I encountered were warm and friendly towards us. Even the people working in the supermarket near where we were staying seemeed to actually enjoy being there. Contrast that to some of the ignoramuses (ignorami???) that work in my local sainsburys who look like they have a million and one better things to do than serve you.

[Saint Billy]

The trouble with the brits is that they have formed a bad rep pretty much universally and are treated with contempt by most abroad because of this.

 

I lived in Spain for 6 years and the most obnoxious, badly behaved, rude people were the brits and I was embarrased to be associated with them.

 

Conversely, get away from the cities and I find the brits in their own back yard to be really friendly but as someone else has posted, the italians, spanish, french, germans etc take some beating for friendliness in their own place as well.

[Lighthouse]

Pretty sure the Germans were voted as being the rudest people in Europe in some poll once. Conclusive evidence I know, but I've seen some pretty rude Germans abroad. Once was on a school trip where we were visiting Burg Eltz Castle. We were all (12 year old kids) stood waiting for the mini bus to take us up quite a long steep hill away from the castle and a succession of German adults were just barging past us onto the minibus. When our teacher complained to the driver (in fluent German) he just shrugged and drove off.

[Robsk II]

Sometimes it's ahrd to judge what 'rude' means, because different countires and even local areas have different rules and expectations. I have found Germans to be friendly as a rule, sometimes very, but have also had some bad experiences including one in a mountain town where everyone seemed to not do the 'norma;' move out of the way thing when walking down the road. How that was supposed to work I don't know, because there seemed to be no concession at all. Everyone in this country at least shifts course or whatever passing others, but here they didn't. I couldn't understand how they didn't all just end up at an impasse, stood eyeballing each other, chest to chest until they died of starvation. it wasn't only me who experienced this, and they didn't specifically know we were 'foreigners' either. But I had to just put it down to some strange local way of doing things that wasn't the same as my own, even though it seemed, from an English perspective, very bloody rude indeed.

[Johnny Bognor]

Sometimes it's ahrd to judge what 'rude' means, because different countires and even local areas have different rules and expectations. I have found Germans to be friendly as a rule, sometimes very, but have also had some bad experiences including one in a mountain town where everyone seemed to not do the 'norma;' move out of the way thing when walking down the road. How that was supposed to work I don't know, because there seemed to be no concession at all. Everyone in this country at least shifts course or whatever passing others, but here they didn't. I couldn't understand how they didn't all just end up at an impasse, stood eyeballing each other, chest to chest until they died of starvation. it wasn't only me who experienced this, and they didn't specifically know we were 'foreigners' either. But I had to just put it down to some strange local way of doing things that wasn't the same as my own, even though it seemed, from an English perspective, very bloody rude indeed.

 

 

I have just come back from Oktoberfest in Munich and I have never seen so many stupidly drunk people in any one place at any one time. I was shocked at how there was not one bit of bother or trouble whatsoever. When walking past people, they bump into you, push you and barge past. If I walked round any pub or nightclub here doing this, I would get into 5 scraps just going to the toilet.

 

The whole experience left me bemused as on the whole, they were rude, yet no one reacted with any form of violence or confrontation (even though many were blind drunk).

 

In the end, rather than getting wound up by it, I thought "when in Rome..." and so started pushing, shoving and barging people back. The whole experience was quite liberating.

Edited 5 October, 2010 by Johnny Bognor

[Whitey Grandad]

A lot of the town/country difference is down to sociological reasons. If you're waiting for a bus in London you might chat to the person next to you but you probably won't ever see them again. The same goes for the tube. Even people you work with will live in a completely diferent suburb and so you wouldn't see them in your local area. In this situation people shut themselves off from the outside world and hide behind their newspapers.

[Whitey Grandad]

Whitey do you remember the old days in winchester? My old man was one of the best darts players in the county and that time and played at some big venue in winchester.

 

Sorry, Dune, at that time I lived in Fareham and then Chandlers Ford. I had a wife and two young kids at home so I didn't go out much socially. I used to go for a drink in Romsey on Friday nights with my business partner until lung cancer got him.

[Joensuu]

IMO, the English are not especially friendly, in fact I would say from my experience there is about an equal mix of 'friendly' people in all nations. Having said that, the American's do seem to have mastered a strange artifical form of being friendly, which often makes it hard to tell how genuine they are being. Also, IMO, the countries of SE Asia, seem to have a higher than usual amount of friendly people.

If anything, IMO the English are rather insular, often have a chip of 'superiority' on their shoulders, and aren't particularly open when it comes to strangers.

As for your second post Chuck, if intepreted in a postive way, I can conclude that you have warped humour and are culturally immature. However if I read it in a less favourable way, I might conclude you have a problem with other races and religions.

[toofarnorth]

It is all down to individuals. I go to Germany a lot and the majority of people we meet are great but there is often one or two who aren't. I do also believe in what i call 'small country syndrome'. Wherever I have travelled in the world I have almost found the most hospitable and polite countries to be the smallest. When I was in Argentina people made little effort to help out with the language, despite my best efforts and were quite standoffish in many places. However when we crossed into Uruguay the people were completely different. They even stopped at Zebra crossings. Just one theory I have though.

[SNSUN]

On a semi-unrelated note, I went on a holiday to Kavos a few years ago and on the first night, after a marathon drink up, we went to one of the takeaway joints for some munch. The guy serving was possibly the worst behaved, rudest and most foul mouthed man in all of Kavos, no word of a lie, and I have to say I found it hilarious. There was no end to his barrage of abuse, everyone that went in copped a string of expletives, C--t seemed to be his favourite word of choice. My mate and I went back nearly every night of the week to see what would come out of his mouth next. We asked one of our reps, who said that he hated tourists with a vengence, because more often than not they would cause trouble in the establishment. Still, I found it funny, and he did make a mean burger. (Though God knows what he put in it if he hated us that much...)