citymike

The English excell themselves

VIETNAM | Friday, 7 April 2006 | Views [306] | Comments [5]

I met an English guy in a bar yesterday. Think of the pretentious English who think they are sophisticates because they have managed to settle in Spain and then multiply it by 20. He avoided my gaze like I was carrying bird flu and then spoke to the bar girls in the bar we were in in Vietnamese. I asked the bar girls if he spoke good Vietnamese, they told me he could count to 5, say hello and goodbye and other very simple phrases but that was it.

Apparently the Anericans can be just as bad, they think there should be special tourist bars and their own bars should be off limits. Sounds good to me. However, I should try and work out why this attitude annoys me.....it's certainly a form of insecurity on their part but why does it bug me? Surely I can just let them be pretentious, it doesn't really affect me unless I have some form of insecurity. I think I just hate snobs because intellectually it's a very stupid thing to be, fancy looking down your nose at someone because they aren't clever or sophisticated or blessed with some other aspect that you consider to be important. Even worse is to be arrogant bcause you consider yourself to be above average as most of the most obnoxious snobs seem to consider themselves.

Was that a rant?

Tags: Culture

Comments

1

I think you misunderstand the English... we just look down our noses at Australians!
;) Oh no! The English look down on other English much more than they do on foreigners. Infact it's rather embarrassing how the English will embrace a foreign culture seeing only good in it and referring to the natives as some wonderful example of community living yet the same people when they are back in England will ignore their neighbours. I find the English with class aspirations to be very sad indeed.

Pete Apr 8, 2006 1:07 PM

2

Don't fret Mike. Its not you that is insecure, its those pretentious gits that are.

You should thank Maggie for creating a huge amount of them.

Once they had purchased their council house they became instant capitalists and often far worse.

Stephen Gallagher Apr 21, 2006 12:11 AM

3

Hark at Mr canapes with the boss who happens to be a diamond geezer!!! Weren't you raised in a council house? Or was it one of those little pit village houses?

doherty1957 Apr 21, 2006 12:19 AM

4

Raised in a council house..and proud of it.

Ok then me Dad did buy it but..he did not become a capitalist and he still hated Magggie with a vengeance..god rest him.

It was a pit town rather than village so they did not really have pit houses.

Not sure about those canopy things..do you get them with half chips half rice

Stephen Gallagher Apr 24, 2006 11:42 PM

5

I think you get them at posh weddings. Me mam bought our council house but I always thought he justified given that we were the victims of a cumpolsory purchas in the late 60s. They demolished perfectly good houses and built slums. You couldn't walk around the area now. I reckon they should make the councillor responsible for housing live there with his family.

doherty1957 Apr 25, 2006 10:22 PM