10150 Dont talk to me I am English!

Can understand the sour taste. I had the opposite experience whilst in England. An Italian family on holiday, were eating near us, the young had phones but no texting ... eating. We engaged in conversation....a very happy and talkative lunch was had by all!! They could have eaten better at home but did not criticise a thing.

Angie, unfortunately rude people are to be found anywhere and they do not belong to a particular nation. People who spend all their dinner time with their mobiles have no manners whatsoever and no social skills, so nothing much can be expected from them.
I don´t think that they enjoy life, either.

Perhaps you had a lucky escape?

They could have latched on and expected you to sort out all their holiday/language problems, spent hours asking you fatuous questions like ‘can you buy shampoo in Italy?’ (true, it happened to me) and ruined your evening even more.

With those sorts of people I just think 'ignorant s*ds' and forget about them.

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

So what should you do?

You are in a restaurant having a meal and become aware that there is another English couple/party in the restaurant. Do you ignore them or go over an introduce yourself?

If you ignore them you could be seen as rude and stand-offish but if you go over and say hello you could be seen as rude and invasive, It's a tricky one!

I personally would introduce myself at an opportune moment ie between courses or at the end of the meal, if I thought it appropriate see what the response was, and be prepared either to chat or to wish them ‘buon appetito’ and return to my own meal and leave them in peace.

Thanks for all the comments, actually I had my back to them and they were a few tables away, it was our Italian friend who spotted everything, so it was as we left that I said hello, whoops excuse me!, I hope that I am part of a community here and have never defined myself as an ex-pat actually I dont personally like the expression, but yes I will think twice before I acknowledge a fellow countryman again, sad world, I guess I have become used to our friendly Italians so this was a rebuff.
A

I'm afraid to say I suspect this happens rather a lot, I certainly see signs of it around here. There are English holidaymakers who think they are the only ones to discover a certain corner of Italy, village, restaurant, table; it's theirs and only theirs and heaven help any other English people that appear in the vicinity to ruin the illusion, especially if they're Italian speaking permanent residents! We were in one of our village restaurants a few weeks ago enjoying dinner when an English family came in. Owner speaks some English but he didn't understand what they said and vice versa. So he says, "momento", comes over and asks us if we'll translate. I pop over and ask politely if I can help and - well - if looks could have killed I would be dead. They rudely refused all offers of help so, I'm sure, ended up ordering something they didn't want. They certainly left more on the plate they ate. Something similar happened in the butcher's last year when a young Englishwoman was trying to buy pancetta. Why do the English always scream in English when it's readily apparent the person behind the counter doesn't understand a word? She was screaming and shouting about whether this is the same pancetta as she was used to in England and when I quietly explained it was but that it needed to be sliced, cubed or whatever she practically told me to shut and be quiet.
Never again. Let's these dreadful people stew, go hungry, buy what they don't want. They deserve it!

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

It somehow makes me feel really sad reading all of the above.
pam

[quote=Torchiarolan;94450]...if the other table was close enough that one could maybe be overheard, I would smile and just pass some general remark... if for no other reason than to let them know they could be overheard at our table and that we spoke the same language.[/quote]
Excellent point. While my partner and I are fairly good about never assuming that we can't be understood by those around us, irritation does occasionally make us give in to the temptation: for example, we were discussing in very unflattering terms the inconsiderate idiot ahead of us in the supermarket queue the other day. :bigergrin:

My 0.02€ on Angie and Robert's original post is that I speak only if spoken to by English speakers abroad.

...But then I've always been a bit of a misanthrope and I've never been one for striking up conversations with people in queues, at the next table in restaurants or wherever. The other side of this coin is that I really [B]do not care[/B] what's being discussed by the diners at the next table, so I never bother to eavesdrop and I'd certainly never make any comments on something I might be forced to hear due to volume of voices or proximity.

Having said that, I would respond politely if ever asked in English if I had enjoyed my meal on leaving a restaurant in Italy and I wouldn't read any ulterior motives into the query. Even in my book, it doesn't take much effort to smile and say, "It was very nice, thank you," as I walk past on the way to the door.

Al

[quote=Nielo;94444]So what should you do?

You are in a restaurant having a meal and become aware that there is another English couple/party in the restaurant. Do you ignore them or go over an introduce yourself?

If you ignore them you could be seen as rude and stand-offish but if you go over and say hello you could be seen as rude and invasive, It's a tricky one!

I personally would introduce myself at an opportune moment ie between courses or at the end of the meal, if I thought it appropriate see what the response was, and be prepared either to chat or to wish them ‘buon appetito’ and return to my own meal and leave them in peace.[/quote]

nah,when you go to a restaurant in the uk do you rush to other people's tables to talk to them!! of course not so why should one do it here....if you know them it's a different story....

We were in the restaurant of our hotel in Pisa and looking forward to a very special meal (Michelin star place) before going home next morning. An American couple heard us when ordering and asked the waiter to invite us to join them as they didn't speak a word of Italian. Even though we really didn't want to we thought it would be impolite not to do so. For about 20 mins we had to listen to 'what they had got and how big everything was' but we were extremely pleasant to them. All of a sudden the wife yawned and they said we are off to bed and won't bother with the sweet, after picking at the main course. We were still eating when they went and left to pick up the tab for the wine for all of us!! We said, never again - we don't approach or make ourselves known to anyone who even speaks English!!
Anonomity is the key :yes:

PS and we certainly aren't miserable s.ds

[quote=Violetta;94447]I'm afraid to say I suspect this happens rather a lot, I certainly see signs of it around here. There are English holidaymakers who think they are the only ones to discover a certain corner of Italy, village, restaurant, table; it's theirs and only theirs and heaven help any other English people that appear in the vicinity to ruin the illusion, especially if they're Italian speaking permanent residents! We were in one of our village restaurants a few weeks ago enjoying dinner when an English family came in. Owner speaks some English but he didn't understand what they said and vice versa. So he says, "momento", comes over and asks us if we'll translate. I pop over and ask politely if I can help and - well - if looks could have killed I would be dead. They rudely refused all offers of help so, I'm sure, ended up ordering something they didn't want. They certainly left more on the plate they ate. Something similar happened in the butcher's last year when a young Englishwoman was trying to buy pancetta. Why do the English always scream in English when it's readily apparent the person behind the counter doesn't understand a word? She was screaming and shouting about whether this is the same pancetta as she was used to in England and when I quietly explained it was but that it needed to be sliced, cubed or whatever she practically told me to shut and be quiet.
Never again. Let's these dreadful people stew, go hungry, buy what they don't want. They deserve it![/quote]

Unfortunately there are many English speakers who in any foreign country will be totally put out that the native speaker does not understand them.
Whilst making no attempt to try and speak the local language they blame the person they are talking to for not having learnt English! :eeeek:
It makes me smile sometimes to see those programmes like "Living in the Sun" were people move to Spain for a new life and then a year later complain they can't get any work because 'they bloody say I have to speak Spanish'. :bigergrin:
Even a little knowledge goes a long way.

[quote=tennaval;94478]introducing yourself to every English person in a restaurant could qualify as an new aerobic activity, Polites perhaps?[/quote]

I love it, Polites! Couldn't possibly do it around here though in summer, it would be too exhausting as there are simply too many to talk to. Walked passed a very popular restaurant terrace in Pienza the other day and I doubt there was a single non-English speaker at any of the dozen or so tables.

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

I've never been to the Spanish costas but I can't seriously believe you could compare Southern Tuscany with that particular part of Europe. Some restaurants in some villages may be packed with English speakers but they all - from what I've clearly seen - very much want to eat local food - bean soup, pici, ribollita. Many are obsessed with it, in fact, to an extent that I start to question, what's the big deal about bread soup? Though I can understand their passion for wild boar, truffles, porcini. At a popular place in our village the other evening, English, Dutch, Scandinavian visitors were all eating them as if they were going out of fashion (or had never before been eaten). No, can't fault the culinary taste of English visitors here. And as someone earlier on explains, it is perfectly understandable, I now see, that they want to enjoy their own special corner of this fabulous country for a couple of quiet weeks and regard it purely as their own.

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

The Spanish "Costas" are abominable. The perfect example of what should never happen. If you want to see the real Spain, never go there. Fortunately, Italy seems to be able to keep a better balance and let's hope this continues to be the case.

Another place that seems to be attracting "The Awful Brits" is Mallia in Crete. Police are having considerable difficulty trying to keep control. (Francesco didn't mention them on Wednesday. lol)

[url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk/Crete-police-get-tough-on.4365511.jp]Crete police get tough on drunk Britons - The Scotsman[/url]

Last week we took our 8 year old granddaughter to the swimming pool nearby which although ideal for her is still very nice for us oldies. Except there was a large group (about 12) of Brits (don't want to discriminate by saying where they were from in the UK) who were very loud all the time. They went to the bar to order coffees, saying louder than necessary "well I am going to have one of those Italian coffees, "coffee lingo" or something." Then others said they would have the same, a "cafe lingo". This was not ignorance but trying to be clever. Then they moved, all 12 of them, sprawling across numerous tables being as loud as ever.

We cringed at the thought that these morons were British like us. Others at the pool were staring at them with obvious objection as were we.

Then, without any great warning the skies opened and we had the biggest downpour of rain imaginable and who got the wettest??? The loudmouths and their coffee lingos!!!!

Devine retribution.!!!
maralyn

As I said before, morons, idiots and rude people exist in every nationality. The problem is that they upset you even more if they belong to your own. You feel more embarrassed.

Maybe Ms Mobile had a fight with Mr Mobile and that's why they behaved like this. Not good but understandable. So dont let it put you off to be polite again :smile:

Maybe they were quite upset at being watched throughout their meal...this would make me very rude too.
Bunch

Read my post Bunch before you comment plse. I had my back to them throughout...and unless I have eyes at the back of my head?.
A

What amuses me is the amount of ‘oneupmanship’ I see.

Two sets of Brits meet, they don’t know each other from Adam and the conversation goes;

[I]Are you on holiday here?[/I]

Oh no we have a house in the village, are you on holiday?

[I]Goodness no! we live here, is your house just a holiday home?[/I]

No we live here permanently, how long have you been here?

[I]Well it’s over a year now, and you?[/I]

Golly lost count, must be three years now. So I suppose you are still struggling with the language?

[I]Well, my wife is fluent, her Grandfather was Italian, If you ever need any translation ask her.[/I]

No need Old Chap my wife is a Doctor of linguistics and her father is Italian. To tell the truth we spend most of our time with Italians.
[I]
Yes nearly all our friends are Italian too. Don’t you just hate how many Brits there are around now?[/I]

Oh its awful!! They think they discovered the place just because they have paid a pittance for some ruin or other!

:laughs::laughs::laughs:

:laughs:
I had to laugh at Nielo's post. We have seen that here in England because a lot of people have holiday homes in this area!
There was a trailer for a new programme last night about the drunken english women as well as men abroad saying how bad it is getting. That's one programme I for one will not be watching!

:no:

That post is spot on Nielo, and an add on is the "do you have a pool?", and the look of pity when you say no!.The bit about preferring to have Italian friends also rings true with you to make the assumption that therefore they are fluent (would that I were) and therefore dont feel the need to speak English. Probably speak Italian at home too.
A

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

Loved the spot on examples. So here's some one upmanship for you...we live close to an Umbrian hilltop village. My husband has been here for 10 years. He is tall, "portly" and bearded. Some years ago a group of villagers came and asked him to be King of our village, just for one day each year at festa time. I am never the Queen but a French woman told me that the village ladies had said "His wife's Italian" No said the French woman... she is English...."eh beh..not that you'd notice" replied the ladies. A far greater compliment to my mind that being Queen for a day. (I am actually half Italian and get more so each day...such a pity about those bloody verbs!)

Best laugh of the day, thanks to all!!
As a non-Brit (so, out of the running in the ex-pat sweepstakes), my favorite is a stop at the Enel office, a quick solution to my problem, and the administrator looking up and saying (in Italian), "Oh no, it's the English couple again, my English is so bad and they don't speak a word of Italian" -- as I exited, I asked if they wanted any help, as this particular administrator is so good, their rather snotty response: "Oh, no, we speak Italian!". I thought to myself, "don't tell HIM". I do wonder if they got their problem solved, but I am leery of offering help to English speakers.

A lot of smug pontificating on this thread.
Let he among us who is without sin cast the first stone.
If some of the people posting on this thread were world leaders we would all have experienced global nuclear conflagration by now. We are all human & have our failings in equal measure.............except me that is.
Please discuss & have your essays in by Friday.
Pilch

Would you prefer the essays in English or Italian? :tongue::winki:

Personally I chose my friends because I like them and have things in common with them and not for their nationality.

As others have commented its difficult to find Italians who appreciate the British sense of humour so its nice to share a joke we all understand but like Neilo the oneupmanship gets to me too, probably as like him we have very little cash for extras like pools etc and often have to economise on car hire etc let alone eating out every night while we're working on the house etc.

It may be that he had me in mind when he quotes people buying old ruins and crowing about it.Don't know.

We may have bought an old ruin but we've put in months of hard graft ourselves trying to repair and restore it and seeing the state of our bank account I certainly wont be doing any crowing!!!!

My daughters sat near a group of Brits on the plane back to Stanstead all boasting about how clever they were 'discovering' Abruzzo , how many Italian friends they had , how they hoped no other Brits moved to 'their' villages etc,etc.It made them feel like never coming back!

Perhaps we could try a bit of humility?

[quote=myabruzzohome;94785]Personally I chose my friends because I like them and have things in common with them and not for their nationality.

As others have commented its difficult to find Italians who appreciate the British sense of humour so its nice to share a joke we all understand but like Neilo the oneupmanship gets to me too, probably as like him we have very little cash for extras like pools etc and often have to economise on car hire etc let alone eating out every night while we're working on the house etc.

It may be that he had me in mind when he quotes people buying old ruins and crowing about it.Don't know.

We may have bought an old ruin but we've put in months of hard graft ourselves trying to repair and restore it and seeing the state of our bank account I certainly wont be doing any crowing!!!!

My daughters sat near a group of Brits on the plane back to Stanstead all boasting about how clever they were 'discovering' Abruzzo , how many Italian friends they had , how they hoped no other Brits moved to 'their' villages etc,etc.It made them feel like never coming back!

Perhaps we could try a bit of humility?[/quote]

As far as I am aware we have never met and I certainly did not have you or anyone else in mind when I wrote my post. It was just a bit of wild generalisation for a bit of fun and I don't think I ever mentioned ‘crowing’.

It seems it is not possible to have a bit of a laugh on this forum without someone taking offence, Should I now apologise to everyone who might have a wife who’s grandfather/father was Italian. Everyone who has lived here for 3 years, everyone who is a doctor of languages, everyone who has Italian friends and everyone who bought a ruin?

Or can everyone take your last piece of advice and see my post for what it is?

N You're too sensitive!
I haven't actually taken offence at all so there's no need to apologise or explain.

[quote=pilchard;94780]A lot of smug pontificating on this thread.
Let he among us who is without sin cast the first stone.
If some of the people posting on this thread were world leaders we would all have experienced global nuclear conflagration by now. We are all human & have our failings in equal measure.............except me that is.
Please discuss & have your essays in by Friday.
Pilch[/quote]

Could it possibly be a VIVA, my written Italian would fail every test!

[quote=myabruzzohome;94785]

………….Neilo……………

It may be that he had me in mind when he[B] quotes[/B] people buying old ruins and [B]crowing about it[/B].Don't know.?
[/quote]

Sorry Myabruzzohome, it was seeing you put my name next to a misquote that did it.

Any way I meant no offence.

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

Pilchard I think we all know this and I for one should never be left to mind a nuclear warhead (or maybe I'd be unable to decide between all of my potential 'targets' so I'd never get around to using it? Who knows)

I think this forum is quite 'spikey' which is why so many of us keep coming back to it but none of us are really as confrontational in 'real life' as we are here. [I]Vero? -[/I]the last added to annoy Torchian as I swear that was me and hubby in Auchan (dont forget the vino rosso dear!) he spotted and I feel I should use this forum to admit to it. Sob sob...:winki:

Yes..Lets not take offence. That's not what forums are for. Lets all be jolly decent types. Stiff upper lip & all that. Don't you know. Old bean.
Bunch

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

The only problem with Italy is that it is too close to Britain.

Phil.

[quote=Chaib;94878]The only problem with Italy is that it is too close to Britain.

Phil.[/quote]

Not really Phil, we do have France between us..........no thinking about it.....thats 2 problems ...........:laughs::laughs::laughs::laughs:

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

[quote=Torchiarolan;94892]Love France, but dislike the French[/quote]

When God created the world, he took the best rivers and mountains and put them into France

He then took the most beautiful coastline, and put it around France

Then he gave France the best weather

He also gave the best food and drink to France

And he looked at what he had made and saw it was perfect

Then he looked at the rest of the world, and realised that he wasn't being fair
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So he made the French.....

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Just to take this thread more astray (how do we manage it?) I think that we Brits are very hung up on class still and whether we are aware of it or not we judge people by their speech,dress names etc.look at all the labels we have chavs, yuppies (a bit 60's I know but some people still use it) horray henrys to name only a very limited few.I know the list will get added to!

I know that Italian women shop assistants are very good at summing up their customers potential spending power by 'reading' their clothes; luckily for me they have to give up when confronted with an assortment of charity shop and teenage daughters hand-me-downs!

But are Italians so class obsessed as us and if not is this what makes them generally nicer?

[QUOTE=myabruzzohome;94899]Just to take this thread more astray (how do we manage it?) I think that we Brits are very hung up on class still and whether we are aware of it or not we judge people by their speech,dress names etc.look at all the labels we have chavs, yuppies (a bit 60's I know but some people still use it) horray henrys to name only a very limited few.I know the list will get added to!

QUOTE]

NiMBY not in my bark yard
DINKY duel income no kids yet
DNA National association of Dyslexics

SINBAD Single Income, No Boyfriend, Absolutely Desperate

HOPEFUL Hard-up Old Person Enjoying Full Useful Life

KIPPERS Kids In Parents' Pockets Exhausting Retirement Savings

LOMBARD Lots Of Money But A Real Dickhead

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

SKI Spending kids Inheritance :laughs::laughs: