3512 Europeans...

My sister spent a number of years in Spain. She always tried to get me to go over by saying things like "Don't worry, you don't need to eat any of that Spanish s..t, there's loads of English places". How do you tell your own flesh and blood that when I go to Spain, I don't want to end up in a British colony, and that I really like that Spanish s..t:confused:
Did they mention Football? Nothing brings out country pride better:p

I used to work with a man from Venice. Any suggestion that he was Italian, and he would go appoplectic - he was Venetian!! :p

He had an Austrian surname though :rolleyes:

[LEFT][quote=Markcarter]My sister spent a number of years in Spain. She always tried to get me to go over......[/quote]

I'm in exactly the same position with very close relatives who have a place near Alicante. Seen the pictures. Heard the stories. Don't want to go there. But I'm running out of excuses at this stage!! :eek:

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Hmmm maybe that's just mainly a problem with expats in Spain... the 'costa' crowds?? Sad really, but agree it's tricky to tell relatives 'off'...

LOL, MarkCarter... nope he didn't mention footie at all... :D

[FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Now if I'd have posted these comments on Italy I'd have provoked all manner of abuse!!

My sister lives in Vejer de la Frontera in Southern Spain...a little town close to the sea.Although other expats live there I can't see them getting on speaking no Spanish.They'd last about a week.

The Costa's are attracting a certain type of Brit who used to buy in Cornwall.Thankfully they've left us in peace!The stuation in the rest of Spain is certainly not at all similar.

I sometimes feel that people are so infatuated with Italy they need to go around looking for reasons to knock other countries!Exactly what some people seem tothink I do about Puglia (not so!)

Becky[/SIZE][/FONT]

In the words of the arch snob and wit Noel Coward: "Why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?"

In the seventies, it used to be the rich Germans who were buying up all the available property in the Iberian and Italian peninsulars and now it is the British!

The television producers are just having a laugh at the expense of unsophisticated types who don't know any better and don't want any better. Spain for them is what Florida is for so many Americans.

Most of the domestic staff in Florida are most probably Spanish speaking but I wonder how many move to Florida and think I must learn to speak Spanish. They are going there for the sun and to mingle with people of their own kind.

It is patronising in the extreme to villify these people who are after all are spending money in their chosen retreat and thus enriching the locality.

Breaking out all over

This morning the forum appears to have caught the double consonant disease

:) :)

it was used for emphasis! :D

what was used for emmphasis?

I think they should still integrate, though, Sdoj... at least speak the lingo! :)

[LEFT][quote=manopello][FONT=Book Antiqua][SIZE=3]Now if I'd have posted these comments on Italy I'd have provoked all manner of abuse!!

My sister lives in Vejer de la Frontera in Southern Spain...a little town close to the sea.Although other expats live there I can't see them getting on speaking no Spanish.They'd last about a week.

The Costa's are attracting a certain type of Brit who used to buy in Cornwall.Thankfully they've left us in peace!The stuation in the rest of Spain is certainly not at all similar.

I sometimes feel that people are so infatuated with Italy they need to go around looking for reasons to knock other countries!Exactly what some people seem tothink I do about Puglia (not so!)

Becky[/SIZE][/FONT][/quote]

:rolleyes: OMG... ere we go!
No-one is damning Spain in it's entirety. I think the discussion was about certain areas, and their expat inhabitants, in Spain. I think most people are intelligent and well-travelled enough to know that it's not like this throughout Spain.
Anyway, wrong, I know, but hey... as long as these people don't settle in Cornwall eh?
We know you love Puglia Becky!! :)
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Hmmm thought it was actually more about 'Europeans'... lol ;)

Maybe it doesn't just go for Spain. Though Sdoj had a point that all this started some decades ago... I bet those old Germans there didn't learn the language either.

I could imagine similar 'communities' exist in France, Greece and perhaps in Italy too. They're certainly growing in Easter European countries at the moment (cheap properties) and those languages are not easily available to learn here.

PS - I'm not knocking Spain, Becky ... just telling you guys about something on telly. :)

[QUOTE=manopello][FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Now if I'd have posted these comments on Italy I'd have provoked all manner of abuse!!
Becky[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[B]I have no idea what you mean by that![/B] I was going to write that if I am asked, I say European. But I don't really care what I am mistaken for along as it is not Italian:p Mind you..At 2.03m it does not happen so often:D

[QUOTE=Iona]Hmmm thought it was actually more about 'Europeans'... lol ;)

Maybe it doesn't just go for Spain. Though Sdoj had a point that all this started some decades ago... I bet those old Germans there didn't learn the language either.

I)[/QUOTE]

One of my brothers worked as a GP in Majorca and Cost del Sol - he speaks Spanish and Russian too! He was impressed at how the Geramns and Scandinavians were so organised with their own hospitals and clinics.

This doesn't sound like full immersion intergration favoured by some snobbish people at this forum but it probably suits that ageing population better than the local healthcare arrangements.

This is not the kind of environment I imagine myself in ever...but who knows.

:rolleyes:

villification :)

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[LEFT][quote=sdoj]
This doesn't sound like full immersion intergration favoured by some snobbish people at this forum......
:rolleyes:[/quote]

Are you talking about anyone in particular, sdoj? :confused: Can't ever remember seeing posts from anyone with such an extreme view on integration.
Personally, expecting some degree of integration from fellow countrymen has nothing to do with snobbery. It's an expectation that, in various ways, they should at least have an ounce or two of respect for the culture, language and people of their country of choice, while keeping their own culture and identity. Common sense and common courtesy.

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Derek,

One has to face reality - you live in Northern Ireland for heaven's sake - how integrated is it there? Apart from the difficulties between Roman Candles and Prodi Dogs there is the question of how are the Chinese and Pakistanis welcomed in NI?

Look at Belgium the bossom of our United States of Europe - do you know what percentage of Flemish speakers marry French speakers each year - it is lower than across the secterian divide in NI!

Just because some people choose to live amongst their own kind in another country is not sufficient reason for them to be scorned - it is called multi-culturism. What a lot of folk at this forum can't get their heads around is how it works when they are the ones in the minority.

One is not supposed to ape the habits and practices of the Italians - it would look absurd and the only people who would expect it are probably fans of Mussolini.

ha ha Relaxed - looks like it is gated too - keep out all the people over 2 metres or under 2 metres - can't make my mind up which.:D :D

[LEFT][quote=sdoj]
One has to face reality - you live in Northern Ireland for heaven's sake - how integrated is it there? Apart from the difficulties between Roman Candles and Prodi Dogs there is the question of how are the Chinese and Pakistanis welcomed in NI?
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Firstly, though British, I [B]don't[/B] live in Northern Ireland! Where do you see Northern Ireland in my profile? Ireland is Ireland (Republic of) - Free State and all that. The part that [B]doesn't[/B] belong to Britain! Little bit of pre-judgement there, sdoj??
Secondly, I can't subscribe to the integration comparisons between British/Irish expats heading to the sun and economic immigrants coming into Britain. Totally different. And, in any case and in the context of this discussion, it's not about how the Chinese & Pakistanis are welcomed [though very important - and they [B]are[/B] welcomed by anyone with half a brain], it's how they're doing in NI society. And, from my understanding they're doing very, very well!

[quote=sdoj]
Just because some people choose to live amongst their own kind in another country is not sufficient reason for them to be scorned - it is called multi-culturism....
One is not supposed to ape the habits and practices of the Italians - it would look absurd and the only people who would expect it are probably fans of Mussolini.[/quote]

No-one, certainly not me anyway, is scorning anyone for living amongst their own kind and expecting anyone to ape the habits and practices of Italians, or Spanish for that matter, but successful multi-culturalism [which I am fully paid-up supporter of] is about everyone living happily together, maintaining their own cultures and identities but fully accepting and participating in, to some degree, the other cultures around you - whether it's a little bit of the language or sampling the local food. I think your Mussolini analogy is a little strong but, to me, [B]refusing[/B] to do this is..., I wouldn't say right wing, just plain ignorance and arrogance. If all this means I'm a snob, then I'm a snob!

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I must have read Navan as Northern. If you play with different accents you could almost make the link. northan...norvan ...noowvan ...nawvan....navan:D

One other thing I should clarify...I was saying that the only Italians who would expect rigorous adhesion to their ways would be Mussolini supporters.

I don't know how the Pakistanis and Chinese are doing in the island of Ireland these days but I had heard some time ago that there was a lot of prejudice - more than on the other side of the Pale.

Derek, I agree with most everything you have written and perhaps it is just that I don't like the extremes ends of behaviour.

On the one hand the c'mon England brigade running riot on their 18-30 hols and on the other the crowd who want to disavow themselves of any of their cultural heritage.

The people who I would regard as snobs are the ones like the film producers who like to have a laugh at the expense of decent ordinary folk. I imagine that the Brits in Spain playing bowls and bridge are law abiding people who will be polite to strangers but don't particularly want to learn new tricks at their stage of life and not sure about the social niceties of Spanish society.
Am I wrong?

I dont think you are wrong but snobs are senza nobilta.

[LEFT][quote=sdoj]
The people who I would regard as snobs are the ones like the film producers who like to have a laugh at the expense of decent ordinary folk.
[/quote]
But the audience is laughing with them... Me, I just find some of it incredible. Worse, though, the producers are making money out of it.

[quote=sdoj]
I imagine that the Brits in Spain playing bowls and bridge are law abiding people who will be polite to strangers but don't particularly want to learn new tricks at their stage of life and not sure about the social niceties of Spanish society.
Am I wrong?[/quote]

You're absolutely right and it would probably be hard/unfair to criticise those people. However, as mentioned, some of them had been there for 15-18 years! Mmm... I guess I just find it hard to comprehend that kind of mentality.

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