I don't think I was but was I?

[sobeyondthehills]

I live in a cul de sac which has parking but it is permit only, this was introduced due to living right next door to a major hospital

There is 10 spaces for the 10 houses. If you have an extra car you can park up by the garages but space is tight.

We have all muddled by, sometimes moving a car for someone else to fit sort of thing.

I came home to find a car parked in the bay I usually use, not a problem maybe a visitor (we have visitor parking permits) parked behind them and unloaded the shopping, being nosy I looked at their windshield to check their permit to find they didn't have any.

My immediate reaction was to block them in, but I moved the car. As I was going to get my son from school nearly 3 hours later the car owner was getting into his car this was the conversation

Me: This is permit only you should not be parking here
Guy: No english
Me: You shouldn't be driving around in a country where you don't understand the basic signs of telling you not to park
Guy: You are racist
Me: So you understand me enough to understand what I just said

At that point the traffic warden came over and gave him a warning, I was wishing he came half an hour earlier to give him a bloody ticket.

In the whole not wanting to drip feed, I am manic at the moment but feel really pissed someone gets to park in a parking space myself and the other neighbours are paying for.

From what I gather the OP wasn't attacking his race or the fact he was parked in her usual spot. She challenged him on the fact he had parked for well over three hours in a permit zone without a permit. As others have stated was clearly the 'no English' was to get him out of a conversation or explanation. He was out of order to call you racist. I think people bandy the 'r' about now on order to disarm and deflect.

Or - and this might be a shocker - he understood enough from the OP's tone, attitude and approach what she was really saying. He's most likely encountered plenty of it already.

I speak a little Spanish, French and German. And I don't know the word for 'racist' in any of those languages. Either he speaks English well and was robbing her off or 'racist' is one of his well used essential vocabulary words to get what he wants.

What you said to him was unreasonable, but he was also unreasonable to say 'no English' instead of 'sorry' for parking like a twat.

YANBU, sorry he was, he knew what he was doing, he understood you, and he had his deflection response ready. I doubt he will do it again knowing he traffic wardens are prevalent round there.

In the whole not wanting to drip feed, I am manic at the moment

That's irrelevant, YWNBU in the least. If you see his car again report it and take timed photos.

I live in a cul de sac with very limited permit parking too and it's annoying when this happens.

Attacking someone's ethnicity is never okay - sorry.

Of course it isn't. but as the OP did not do that, I am not sure why you bother mentioning it.

Whether he understood the signage about permit parking or not, he was visiting a resident and it's the resident's job to make sure their visitors don't flout the rules. If the resident didn't have a visitor permit to lend him then they should have told him to park elsewhere.

When I used to live in dh's home country, I had quite a lot of British friends who would pretend not to speak Arabic in order to get off the hook in sticky situations.even though they were fluent in the language! It is certainly not racism to point out to someone that they need to speak some of the language to get by in a country.

You shouldn't be driving in this country if you don't understand the signs!" you'd humbly apologise and toodle off, not offended or embarrassed at all?

I've been embarrassed but held my hands up and agree to my mistake in france. Not tried to pretend I didn't understand and tried to shame someone by accusing them of racism. I genuinely didn't see the sign but I blocked them in and out so serves me right getting it pointed out.

I'm not saying you are racist op, but what you said is exactly the kind of thing a racist would come out with so on that point YAB kind of U.

When I used to live in dh's home country, I had quite a lot of British friends who would pretend not to speak Arabic in order to get off the hook in sticky situations.even though they were fluent in the language

To be fair, the default assumption for Brits abroad is ignorance of the language ...

Anyone remember the poster who got a traffic fine in Hungary, and was angry that the motorway signs weren't in English?

yes
one of the few threads that genuinely made me laugh.

I wish people would stop using the word racist for anything, for things that clearly aren't racist. OP, YANBU

He tried it on but was warned by the warden. The comment about him not driving in a country where his language skills weren't good enough was pointless because if he genuinely hadn't of understood the sign, it's unlikely he would have understood you.

As annoying as he was this was a non event.

Yes Lurking they were using the stereotype of a Brit who can't learn any other language to their own ends. The person dealing with them would usually just roll their eyes and wave them on.

I'm curious, what ethnicity would you say he was from his appearance and accent?

""I don't think you need to speak the language to drive in a country""

There's been campaigns to make the theory test more Learning Difficulty friendly, but it gets a No, every time.

So this is always an interesting argument, to me, a Mum whose Adult child has LDs and who works in the field.

Driving 'rules of the roads' and what's enforced, varies country to country. So coupled with no language skills, then I think that's a valid point, tbh.

However, he's tried to use an excuse and it hasn't worked. He's an arrogant tosser, there's a lot of them about, when it comes to parking rights.

Of course it isn't. but as the OP did not do that, I am not sure why you bother mentioning it.

(Referring to me saying the OP attacked the OP's ethnicity).

I mention it as it seems important to the OP, obviously. He couldn't read the signs, could he? Or used his ethnicity as a shield to pretend he couldn't? This is her whole OP.

I wish people would stop using the word racist for anything, for things that clearly aren't racist.

Actually, I think people do many things that are "casually" racist, that they should be called out for. And instead of just saying, "how dare you call me a racist", they should consider whether what they had done was actually racist.

Being called a racist, unfairly, is not worse that being the victim of actual racism.

I think the OP's comment about reading parking signs may not have been racist, but was pretty uncalled for. But sometimes we say shitty things when we're a bit stressed. No one's perfect.

The "no English" might have been a bit of a get out clause, it's true. Although, I often tell people I don't speak French, even though for the purposes of the conversation, I have enough to muddle through. It's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, which I always then regret, as it means I don't get to practise speaking French.

I wouldn't care about being called a racist for no reason, it just takes power and meaning from the word. If you call everybody racist for everything, they will just dismiss it instead of wondering if they maybe had been racist.

I think the OP answer was very reasonable, and exactly what most people would have said or thought. There was absolutely no racism in her sentence, it was just common sense.

Not racist. He was trying it on.

And I say this as the woman who realised in Italy that "Massimo Caduti" means "a sodding great big rock might roll down that there hill during a storm and hit your parked car" when it did, and took a chunk out of the bonnet of our hire car on holiday.

All foreign roadsigns get run through google translate in our family now.

I have been reprimanded in France a few times along those lines, I didn't feel anyone was attacking my ethnicity. It is not racist or attacking someone's ethnicity to point out a parking violation due to language ignorance/barrier. May have been a bit mean spirited on the off chance he wasn't trying it on, but not racist.

I wish people would stop using the word racist to shut down debate. It's one of the reasons why the UK is in such a mess.

Lots of people on holiday in Spain or Greece etc with little or no understanding of the language, drive around in hire cars.
He was being a twat but what you said would wind a lot of people up.

Thank you all for your replies.

I can see where some of you are coming from regarding it may have been.

To answer a few questions, I am white, he was white.

I mentioned the fact that I am/was manic as I tend to talk a lot faster.

As far as I could tell he wasn't visiting a neighbour as he came from up the road, so could of been to the hospital, or visiting the village