Why do some british people behave badly when abroad?
I have often had comments along the lines of "so nice to meet you and you are so well behaved. I/we thought the british were louts".
Very sad.

I think the 'Brit's abroad' is true in Western Europe only.. Especially in the Spanish and French resorts and the Stag/Hen weekend destinations.

Where the budget flights can't reach, we usually have a very good reputation of being polite, friendly and well mannered. At all ages.

So I like to believe anyway

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I work in A&E, they aren't just badly behaved abroad!!

You deserve a medal..

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

would have to say the Poles do a pretty good show as well, send us a lot of business.

Had trouble chucking out a drunk Pole a while back. Spoke no English and my polish aint so good! A Polish Paramedic intervened and explained to the gentleman concerned it was time to leave. There followed a lengthy conversation in Polish, after which the man left, looking a bit sheepish. I suggested to the paramedic it was a lot of words for 'leave'. Apparently he had been telling him what a disgrace he was to his country and a whole lot of other stuff. He is equally ashamed of his countrymen.

In 1958 Burdick and Lederer wrote a best seller "The Ugly American" that was made into a movie in 1963 that starred Marlon Brando. It was fiction, but told both sides of the story, the "loud and ostentatious" type and those who lived with the locals and are not afraid to 'get their hands dirty'
by pitching in and contributing in meaningful ways to their host countries.

As a U S Peace Corps volunteer, I met the best and the brightest
of my country and each one dedicated his or her life - at least 27 months of their lives to try and help others survive.

As a returned Peace Corps volunteer, I have observed the following....

Let us not forget that behind the scenes, backstage, if you will there are thousands of volunteers living and working with the peoples of almost all 200 countries - not only US Peace Corps volunteers, but representatives of every nation - who, do not aspire to get drunk , and/or have meaningless sex, and offend the locals, but aspire to contribute time and energy to increase the survival potential of people, irregardless of the country, be it their own or a country they are visiting. Well, perhaps, once in a while they do get drunk and have meaningless sex, but they generally do not offend people in the process.

I have personally observed and "taken out"( with swift punches and kicks) that resulted in broken bones and worst, a handful of the "ugly" drunken , insulting Americans, but have admired the vast majority of my fellow countrymen for their good works and sensitivity.

I control my area,and you should control your area too.....

xfiltrate

xfiltrate

Hi, my first post since joining so I'll try not to make it sound too moany...

I like to travel further afield to not so touristy destinations so don't see a great deal of Brits and to be fair MOST nations have their share of embarrassing numbnuts, we just seem to excel at the 'fly and flop' destinations, though that could just be because of the number ratio.

I myself have also been seen cuddling lamp-posts after under-estimating the local hooch in certain far flung destinations.

Believe away Ted, but in Oz I can tell you we loath the pommy bastards who come down under. It's just as well you like to spend up, otherwise we would probably send you back where you came from!!! hehehehehe

I truly believe that we were lucky you poms sent us boat loads of Irish (and later Greeks, Italians, Croatians, Turks, then later still Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysians, and more recently, Sudanese, Nigerians, and I must not forget the South Africans), it helped even things out quite a bit...

All Tonge-in-cheek of course!!



But on a serious note, I often feel ashamed to see how boisterous fellow Australians are and I do tend to avoid them when traveling (it's a bit hard at home ;-))

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

Of course I'm embarassed by my fellow countrymen - I'm Dutch, that's why...
It's been said before, idiots are not bound by borders. There'll always be a bigger idiot than yourself (I hope).

Just to spread the misery:
have you ever seen an american at a buffet, overfilling his plate, half eating it before going for seconds?
or a russian on vacation, loudmouthed, belligerent and perpetually drunk?
an italian family anywhere abroad, refusing any social etiquette?
an englishman (and his family) all sporting body art, pasty white and overweight, holding a first at 09:00?

and of course the sandal wearing loudmouth dutchman, carrying 20 kgs of cheese and 50 kgs potatoes, slowly puttering along on the péage in his overloaded caravan

and the list goes on...

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Our website: tenhoope.net
Not all those who wander are lost. Usually, however, I am...

We've got some more convicts to send to your poisonous, baked desolate land if that's ok

I tend to avoid places where potential countrymen would embarass me. So no, I am not offended by my fellow Germans. As others have pointed out, every country seems to have it´s share of abnoxiuos people and hey, someplace they have to play. This summer DW and I went camping in Austria, all the people of several nations on the campground were good.

What drives me howling mad are the wealthy holier-than-thou types regardless of their nationality.

Like markharf, it embarasses me to belong to a nation which has brought death and destruction over such a large area of the world, in this case in WWII. I look at the map and ask myself where would these countries be - and where would my own country be - if the atrocities of the Nazi-era would not have happened. But then history cannot be reversed, it just can be learned from.

Such people don't usually want to deal with me, I am glad to say!

One thing that does strike me about the subject of this thread is that there are good and bad people everywhere, irrespective of nationality etc etc etc.
Some are embarrassing and some are not.
Some you don't want anything to do with, some are just OK and there are others who are Ace!

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Dave

It is sad, and the sharp end of the stick (wide end of the wedge?) extends from football hooligans to British soliders attacking NYC police!

Stay away from Prague and Magaloof, and you don't have to worry about the British abroad so much.

But although some of us can be awful...


I don't think there is need for others to be quite so patronising!

I've been mortified and appalled on three different occassions when fellow americans (not in my party) have tried ordering buweiser in a German restaurant and were embarrasingly surprised that the haus did not carry such a fine brew.

I've also seen fellow Soldiers wear the t-shirts loudly proclaiming that they support single mothers with the picture of a stripper swinging from a pole. Nice.

The very worst was the US Soldier in Doha, Qatar wearing a t-shirt announcing, "He was here to kill Arabs". That is not a joke. Fortunately, some of my UK friends saw him, physically removed his shirt and then handed him off to me. Lots of fun.

Havings said that, I've seen Americans all over the world acting responsibly and according themselves as ambassadors of our country in a good light. I count myself amongst them.

We Canadians have no shortage of faults....but I am rarely embarrassed by my fellow countrymen when travelling.