Do Europeans hate the Brits?

[Floofydawg]

We're in Spain at the minute and have encountered some pretty hostile behaviour. Not so much from the Spanish, as we speak the language, but from other Europeans. We've been coming here many years and I've never before encountered such hostility. It got me thinking, do many Europeans dislike the Brits?

A lot of Germans jokingly refer to Mallorca as the 17th Bundesland, i.e. federal state of Germany.

I’ve lived in Spain for years and haven’t ever experienced anti-English feeling from any other nationalities. There is definitely a rising level of anger amongst some Spaniards, mainly younger ones, against any nationality that comes as a digital nomad and hikes up the rental prices with their foreign salaries - these people do tend to be Americans and Brits. Also with tourists who stay in air bnbs. Which area are you in? There has always been an anti British feeling against the tourists that go to countries and behave badly, but most Europeans who aren’t xenophobic know that this is usually young blokes, and every nation has their fair share of young men in their 20’s behaving like idiots, although we do have slightly more than most doing this abroad.

@LaDamaDeElche Costa del Sol, but in a quiet town.

I agree there's probably a little more affection for the Scottish, northern Irish and Welsh. The English are seen as being more entitled, thinking they still rule the world.
However, many Europeans don't distinguish between the various different types of Brits (some don't even understand the complexities of UK, Great Britain etc).
I remember being in Spain and a Scottish family were in the news there for getting drunk and losing their toddler. A local I knew said "You English behave like animals". Of course I said "They weren't English, they were Scottish!". To which they responded "Oh it's all the same. You're the same people".

Well, we are both British so I guess they were right

No, I wasn’t there but if all he said was what you told us upthread then personally I wouldn’t have been offended. Again - it was likely a bit of humour that you just haven’t taken particularly well. In reality, I don’t think this man could really care less whether you’re English or not.

If it’s not coming from the Spanish could be a bit of snobbery in that other Europeans think they’re a better class of tourist/immigrant. Perhaps I don’t notice it as much as DP is Spanish, so we possibly get treated as Spaniards rather than Brits. I went to Estepona and Marbella in the summer and everyone was really friendly, but again I was with DP and DD who passes as a Spaniard as has lived here since she was tiny. I really don’t agree with that type of behaviour as it is xenophobic. You can’t judge a whole nation on the behaviour of the few. You get people who don’t know how to behave in every nationality. People who are behaving like this towards you are xenephobes.

Well.. Brits are European. Do Brits hate Brits? Possibly!

Seriously I couldn’t care less. If people judge others on their nationality rather than their personality, it’s a Them problem. I’d avoid places if there was any antagonistic feeling or drunk Brits / Germans / Irish.

Bad behaviour often if not always, comes down to people drinking too much. It so happens that certain parts of Europe drink a lot more than others. People hate groups of drunk people, and rightly so. Grim all round.

I imagine a Catalan wouldn't appreciate it if we said well you are all Spanish anyway so not sure why a Spaniard doing it is fine.

I'm English. My husband is Irish. in my experience most people in the rest of the world don't realise there is a difference!

And to answer the OP's question - I haven't experienced any dislike of the English in Europe. Nearly everyone I encounter has either lived in the UK themselves at some point or has family there or has visited and are always happy to share their experiences. I'm sure some people are less keen but they are polite enough to say nothing.

It’s these British, German and Norwegian (saw a sports bar in Rhodes Town) themed food places that are ruining the places. Most are owned by nationalities of the countries of the themed cafes.

If people don’t want to accept the local culture and cuisine, they shouldn’t go abroad on holiday

Thank you lovey, have a nice smug day dear.

I’ve travelled a lot in Europe. Never had any negativity from the locals.
But then, I always try to learn a bit about the local languages and customs, and don’t expect everything to be the same as back in Blighty!

During my time working abroad in tourist resorts I found it can be an accent thing more than anything and can be cultural. What I found is that Dutch and Greeks are crazy friendly if you talk to them and scandinavians are very friendly too, yet just a little more reserved than we are. Italians are friendly if you don't come across like you've got a stick up your arse 😂 Russians sound intimidating but if you're up for a drink and a laugh, they're great with you. German again I think it's more that they like to stick together and are very blunt and to the point and can't which comes across as a bit stand offish.

The funniest thing I encountered was between British countries and Ireland, then it's all about accents and where you're from.
If a property had predominantly Irish guests, Irish reps would be first in line to be placed there. After that it was Scottish, Welsh or North East accent reps. The pattern continued for a property that was predominantly Scottish or Welsh too, although North West. Then it would go down the country as to the most northern available. It was a well known thing that in majority of cases, those guests reacted better to anyone who wasn't from Southern England.
It sounds crazy, but it's what worked for the best.

I think Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Northern English accents all sound a bit friendlier.

Just back from Puerta De La Cruz, Tenerife and no hostility or awkwardness whatsoever.

I think that had a lot to do with it. That all said, I was, and still am, close friends with a woman from Kent. We ended up choosing resorts together and worked together in various places for years. When she started, she was quite timid and angry guests would upset her so I would end up storming in like a raging mackem bull if anyone had been out of order with her. By the end she was an honorary Northerner, was a tough cookie and didn't take any crap and she went down well in the aforementioned properties.

Try listening to the Hull accent. 😂

I’m Scottish and concur with this. I’m afraid it’s the English that Europeans don’t like.

Good to know you speak for the Europeans there. I'm English and I've never come across a European who dislikes me because of where I was born. Maybe it's just you who dislikes the English?

Fascinating to learn that you've been appointed spokesperson for 'Europeans', and also that hundreds of millions of 'Europeans' are a hive mind who all have the exact same opinion on the tens of millions of massively diverse people who constitute 'the English'.

🙄

It sounds prejudiced and small minded!

Yeah right! 😂

All Europeans?

We do have 'tough cookies' in the south you know! My West London school was like going to school with the characters from the comedy, 'People Just Do Nothing'.