Do your countrymen embarass you?

[moggy 1968]

I used to travel abroad alone a lot for work and stay in hotels often in tourist areas and I never failed to be mortifyingly embarrassed by the British abroad. The behaviour of the drunken British tourist doesn't really help either.

I assumed it was just the British that were this uncouth, illeducated, rude and shamefully embarrassing, until I met my wife who's first language is Russian (she is Belarusian) and she feels just the same way about Russians Abroad.

Do people from other nationalities feel the same way, do your countryfolk embarrass you?

[bigdavesmate]

.

[QUOTE]I assumed it was just the British that were this uncouth, illeducated, rude and shamefully embarrassing, until I met my wife[/QUOTE

[moggy 1968]

don't quote out of context!

[docsherlock]

No, the British do, unfortunately, have a well deserved notoriety for being spectacularly badly behaved when on holiday.

It is shameful & embarrassing to be associated with them, sometimes.

Very sad.

[bobn]

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.

[*Touring Ted*]

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

[moggy 1968]

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

[*Touring Ted*]

Originally Posted by moggy 1968

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

You deserve a medal..

[moggy 1968]

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.

[xfiltrate]

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

[idledriver]

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.

[Keith1954]

Originally Posted by idledriver

.. to be fair MOST nations have their share of embarrassing numbnuts

That's the truth.

Go to Kuta-Legian in southern Bali. It’s a big hangout for Australians who want to [eh-hem] let off a little steam. You’ve never see anything like it. Makes the Club 18-30 Brits around Ibiza and Magaluf look like a Saga gardeners outing in the Cotswolds!

Strewth mate! Aussies know how to knock back the grog .. and PARTY!!
.

[Bennett]

I think we inherited our drinking and party habits from the Brits, but some of us, have perfected them, sometimes to an embarrassing degree.
Ben

[docsherlock]

Originally Posted by Bennett

I think we inherited our drinking and party habits from the Brits, but some of us, have perfected them, sometimes to an embarrassing degree.
Ben

I think the Brits exported the worst (best?) of the drinkers and blaggards to Oz a couple of centuries ago, encouraged the pilgrims to the USA and kept the sheep.....

Kinda reflected in the success of the relevant countries.....seem to have exported all the pioneering spirit and drive. The residual quality people seem to export themselves at some point, often overland by motorbike....

Idiots (the UK government).

[markharf]

My countryfolk do often embarrass me: they're loud, obnoxious and oblivious. Of course, by local standards so am I, on occasion. I do my best.

More embarrassing is the fact that my countryfolk have started, fomented, funded and equipped wars in almost every country I visit. Sometimes they were little brushfire wars with CIA or renegade State Department involvement (c.f., all of Latin America, most of Africa, and most of Asia); sometimes full-blown conflagrations which enveloped and destroyed whole countries, as in Southeast Asia and more recently Iraq and Afghanistan.

For balance, I'd have to add that British, Australian, South African and other Commonwealth travelers have usually been the worst behaved--far worse than Americans or any of the other oft-complained-about nationalities. My first experience of this was a drinking contest--more accurately, a puking contest--in Malawi, but local variants throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia have supported my initial prejudices. I once shared a train through the Ukraine with some British football fans who strained even my jaded credulity while totally appalling the local people--no saints themselves.

I've never known what to make of this, but then neither have I known what to make of my own country's warmongering. I like to imagine that travel cures, or at least lessens, such tendencies, but that might be my own innocence speaking.

Mark