Brits reputation abroad..

[Beach Hut]

Ever been in Malta when the Italians arrive tis not nice.

We went their when Junior was a one year old and those Italians would not leave him alone as he had blonde hair.

 

[Gully]

Don't travel much then?

I have travelled a lot (spent roughly nine years living abroad and visited almost 40 countries on my travels) and tend to agree with TCB, the only times I have seen serious disorder and loutish behaviour it has almost always involved Brits...OK, on occasion the whole thing has been started by the locals, but the pissed up Brits can't resist a challenge and have no qualms about rising to one and resorting to a good old bout of fisticuffs!

That said, the only nationality who seem as hellbent on pissing people off as much as we do seem to be the Israelis, most other nationalities seem able to travel around and behave themselves...get drunk, fall over and laugh about it.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

WARNING - GENERALISATION COMING!!

In Australia you can spot the Brit a mile away, managed to get pissed on our piss-weak fizzy lager then lay on a beach trying to relax the hang over off and fall asleep in the sun! Shazam - baked Englishman... Hospitals are full of them....

Iwas quite ashamed to be British on my excursion in Australia. The most important part, in my opinion, is mixing with the 'natives' and leaving the whole 'Englishness' at home. The only trouble was that the East Coast was swarming with Brits and there was not a great opportunity to meet the Australians. Off the beaten path is much better.

However, you don't want to stray too far as I found out on a cycle trip from Byron Bay

I got talking to a couple of bar maids in Bratislava. They hated the English after the water canon nonsense during the football. Bad reputations tend to stick.

 

[clapham_gull]

When I lived in Greece. They would assume we/I was an American. When I told them I was English they would be much happier/friendlier.

I've had a few experiences like that. France is a nice place to visit when the Americans have pissed them off.

I saw a sort of equivalent of Brits abroad with Americans in Costa Rica, not that they get pissed -they just talk to the locals down there like are living in a third world country and should be happy for their money.

Their attitude to the Americans down there is take their dollars and grin and bear them.

If you visit the "non English" tourist areas of Spain, especially South of Cadiz / Jerez they couldn't be friendlier. They seem to have little pre-conception of pissed up English holiday makers.

To bo honest I tend to avoid that kind of place, but have experienced it twice when I've popped over to another resort for a day, usually surrounding a televised England game. Cyprus springs to mind.

Quite why some people feel the need to "sing no surrender" on a Greek Island ?

 

[perth seagull]

I have travelled a lot (spent roughly nine years living abroad and visited almost 40 countries on my travels) and tend to agree with TCB, the only times I have seen serious disorder and loutish behaviour it has almost always involved Brits...OK, on occasion the whole thing has been started by the locals, but the pissed up Brits can't resist a challenge and have no qualms about rising to one and resorting to a good old bout of fisticuffs!

That said, the only nationality who seem as hellbent on pissing people off as much as we do seem to be the Israelis, most other nationalities seem able to travel around and behave themselves...get drunk, fall over and laugh about it.

I agree, although in some locations (like parts of Thailand) there are a lot of Russian tourists now and they put the British to shame when it comes to being jerks. Apart from being loud, they're aggressive, rude, always act "macho" and have this extreme arrogance and misplaced pride in their country.

 

[Cian]

English have a reputation here for getting sick in Temple Bar wearing football shirts, the Welsh doing the same in rugby shirts.



Frutos got sick across the river from Temple Bar wearing an Albion shirt, as it happens.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

English women over here have a reputation for being very easy.

Which is I expect the same reputation as our women have over there.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

When I lived in Italy, I was constantly having to explain why it was that English people murder children.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

My two years living in Crete have revealed two kinds of Brits. The ones you don't notice until they open their mouths, and the others - huge groups of loud and obnoxious drunks - that make you embarrassed to be a Brit yourself. In which case, avoid the resorts nearest to Heraklion, like Hersonissos and Malia.

It's almost as if that kind of Brit has to turn any occasion into turning-out time in Bromley, Croydon... or Churchill Square.

The local Greeks - generally a naturally exuberant bunch needing no artificial stimulants to have a good time - tend to pity and ridicule cretinous tourists whose only route to pleasure lies in necking as much cheap wine or lager as possible.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

we're generally just a massive collection of repulsive disgraces who continue to embarrass the few of us who aren't a complete insult to our species

 

[Johnny Crumplin Football]

We all live next to Buckingham Palace, take tea at the Ritz, are all perfect gentlemen (in a Hugh Grant don't-get-laid-very-often gayer kind of way) wear top hats and Burberry coats and all carry umbrellas, are generally poor at cooking and eat shit food, don't rinse the washing up liquid off our plates, love to debate anything and everything, love dogs, drink too much and are fond of The Beatles and gave the world SuBo.

Did you know SuBo was paid 400,000 pounds to appear on an end-of-year pop music show called Uta Gassen and sing THAT song.

 

[rcf0712]

I've lived here 15 years now and reckon that whilst the "Whinging Pom" perception remains the prevalent one the whole "every Englishman is a drunken yobbo" has dissipated somewhat, especially given how pathetically drunken and loutish the majority of under 30 year old Australian men / boys seem to be nowadays.
However, where I live in WA there are more 2nd generation or more recently immigrated English people than any other category now so we are far from the exception at all. One thing that does crack me up still is how so many Aussie's refer to and pick a "British" accent and lump all the dialects together be they scouse, geordie cockney, brummy or good old Queen's English as spoken in Sussex, when I still can't understand what some of my countrymen from oop North say....

 

[bhaexpress]

Excellent - not heard that one!

I don't, having worked for an Australian company (actually the second worst organisation I have ever worked for) I used to wonder at how the Aussies managed to catch their breathe between complaints. The only thing that made it bearable was that the Kiwis got on with the job and did it better.

I have found that in Canada and especially the US we are very highly regarded apart from those who think they have Irish blood. As far as Europe is concerned my sympathy is muted by the fact that a lot of the people who are complaining are the same people who like to sell gallons of booze to very willing chavs. Mind you I admit that I would never want to go to any European resort anyway.

 

[Amsterdam Albion]

As a generalization in Amsterdam, I have found groups of Brits embarrassing but individuals or pairs are fine. There are of course exceptions and I have been known to be an annoying twat at times.

 

[daveinprague]

Its booze. Brits cant handle it without being aggressive.
Ive seen more fights on a wet wednesday night in Brighton than ive seen in almost 13 years living on mainland Europe.
Theres a different attitude completely.
If im in UK and see a group of drunk men heading towards me, im bracing myself for a fight.
If im on mainland Europe and see a bunch of drunk men heading towards me, im bracing myself to having beer forced on me.

When I lived in Holland, saw a group of British staggers in the distance..one wearing a condom on his head.
Said to my missus, oh look..some Brits...
When we passed them, my missus said....oh, they are British... and one of them said..how did you know?
ER YOU HAVE A CONDOM ON YOUR HEAD !

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

Spend a lot of time in Germany. My German Colleagues think the Brit abroad image is very amusing, and seem hell bent on seeing me turning into stormy puking bastard by feeding me copious amounts of Hellas, unfortunately for them I tend to fall asleep. They like the Brits, don't trust the Italians and loath the French ... which can't be bad.

My Aunt and Uncle (Spanish for the use of), spend a week a year on the Costa Blanca with their old English Friends eating roast beef etc He has a great time. Apparantly the Germans and Russians are just as bad, its just that there aren't as many of them.

 

[Nibble]

I think the Germans find us vaguely annoying and slightly amusing at times. I have been to Berlin and Dusseldorf and was treated very nicely by the Germans. They don't seem to like Americans though, when we were in Berlin one of our group who was acting like a bit of a numpty was hell bent on going to some strip bar but was convinced he was going to get ripped off, against our advice he kept pestering a barmaid about where he could go that would be good and not a rip off, eventually the barmaid said to him "Where are you from"? He replied England and her response was "Well stop acting like a f***ing American then"!

 

[User removed 4]

English women over here have a reputation for being very easy.

Which is I expect the same reputation as our women have over there.

kiwi women have , they go over like an old lady on an icy morning

 

[Tooting Gull]

When I lived in France for a year it was about 20 years ago, and it was almost as if they had two very distinct impressions of what being English was all about, so distinct it was like we had acute schizophrenia and they were talking about two very different countries.

You had the chavvy/yob/football thug behaviour abroad, with no shame, couldn't be arsed to learn other languages, were continually pissed, and talking to the locals like they were scum (locals who, as someone said earlier, seem to put up with it for the money).

But then you had this other image of the English, a fairly sophisticated nation, stood up to the Germans etc, fair-play, well-read, a rich culture in politics, history, science, engineering, sport, films and books, well-travelled, who the French grudgingly respected.

My impression is that over there more and more people now think first of the former image. Obviously this is just France, and they have their own issues anyway, but even their 'yobs' behave a bit better abroad. When they go abroad (which is a lot less than us).