Brits abroad - learn the lingo

[gassafeman]

Having spent the last few weeks in Spain, I have found the british and Irish very friendly tourists. The Spanish (locals only) on the other hand are rude, belligerent and downright unfriendly.

Only when I asked a bar tender (in English) for a gin & tonic and listened to him talk to his fellow bar man in Spanish calling me a drunk englishman, did I raise it with him. The look on his face was priceless!


Paul.

 

[namsag]

Dont blame you for being upset , not very nice thing to be called English

 

[tim west]

should have laughed and said "what, at your prices?"

 

[EddieM]

Everytime we go abroad, we try to speak a little of the local language. My wife speaks fluent Polish, (she was born in England before you start! her parents were wartime refugees) she also speaks a bit of broken Spanish, and I speak a bit of broken French.

It always makes me laugh, when we're trying our best in the Foreign language, and either the other person speaks great English much to our embarrassment or frustration, as they keep saying ask for it in English .... no damn you I am gonna maul your language!! Or alternatively their command of English is pretty ropey, but they still try to talk to us in English, so you have me or the wife spoken a broken foreign lanuage and being replied to in broken English, it's quite something to behold. Still I've not been banged up in jail yet!!

But I did have a similar experience, years ago, when I had a French girlfriend, we were in a restaurant, and one of the staff said something a bit derogatory about the English, the ear bashing they got from a native speaker, as you say their face was a picture, I don't think I've ever seen anyone go so red.