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?

What’s being from London got to do with it?!

I'm Scottish, and that's nonsense. There's simply more English than there is Scots, Welsh, and Irish combined but I can assure you we can be ignorant arseholes as well.

This is what I think, why would people from a huge multicultural city be anti - Irish, I've got a married Irish surname, my DH has a mother from another ethnicity and was born and brought up on multicultural Camden, part of my family ame to England from a Scandinavian country in the last century, it is a huge mix we come from, we don't live there now but not far way in another transient city by the sea and all sorts of people live there. No one bats an eyelid, I have school gate Mum friends/acquaintances that are Ghanian, Japanese, Swedish, Chinese, Canadian and Indian, it would be bizarre to be anti - Irish.

Clearly I'm not, I've stated that in my comments and have said people I know from London were tough, but London is like a unique place of it's own compared to the rest of the South. It's you that has a chip on your shoulder, you're thoroughly outraged that Northerners could be preferred by certain groups of people and in general, Northerners are made of tougher stuff than Southerners 😂 get over it.

So how could you possibly know then, what from your interactions with a few Londoners as an adult. Do you mean the southern west as well so nobody is tough in Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bristol 😍😂
I don't give a shit if Northerners are preferred on your holiday camps, I am making the point that you can't extrapolate from that small sample of narrow minded holiday makers.

I'm sure there are some Northerners that are passive and not tough😬

How does the tough gene work so I have Scandinavian heritage do my viking genes not count for anything or are we all southern softies despite having a hugely diverse population!

That said, I'm not tough so maybe you are right if we took a sample of 1 for your southern softie study.

Well considering you're unbelievably triggered that I've said that Tour Operators have a way in resorts abroad (yes I noticed your patronising holiday camp comment) of best catering to what different demographics of guests prefer, from years of experience and tens of thousands of customer feedback , I'd say you're not best placed to be chirping on about toughness 😂

Also as it's a tough going job where you are verbally and physically abused often, I can make my own observations as to the different reactions from people, and come to my own conclusions on who was likely to handle what situations better.

Your outrage is amusing me though, is this you trying to show you're tough?😂

I literally just posted I'm not tough, it is not something I or anyone I know would aspire to- you are not very good at observing are you as you haven't picked up on that. I am the opposite of tough.

I literally said going to the West London comp that I had to go to was full of people that were tough and it was not great. Their toughness believe it or not was not determined by their regional birthplace 🙄

You just sound ridiculous.

Birthplace doesn't matter, it's environments you've been in previously, and as MN loves to say, Northern life, along with Welsh, Scottish and Irish, IS much tougher than the south (london excluded as I've said, London isn't a place that is comparable with anywhere else in the UK) It's how you can handle situations, knowing how to approaxh and talk with certain people and at times, very hard situations and after years of being in the thick of it, yes you do tend to see patterns of who is most likely to deal with something and who isn't. In fact, if I had to choose one place that seemed to have the people the best in incredibly rough situations, it was people from Greater Manchester.

An Australian accent is easier to distinguish though.

I have also experienced the change of attitude immediately after different Europeans realise I am Irish. You see it with my Scottish DH too. It is more English than British.

Well London now is not the same London I grew up in the 80s, 90s and early 00s, where we both (DH and I) came from has completely changed, gentrified and the demographic is nothing like the people I went to school with. However, I know there are still very tough parts of London, I think you don't appreciate that the south has inherited some of these problems now as London has become unaffordable. There was a shooting on my Mother in law's road in the last year and she lives in a very expensive part of the south, it was gang related. Stabbings of youth and county lines stiff regularly, despite being an affluent place on paper the place I live in has a massive drugs problem, I believe one of the worst in the country. I really think you need to live somewhere to cast the assertions that you are but also why do people prefer Northerners because they are tough? I don't get that why is that a likeable attribute?

It's not the toughness that people preferred, it's attitude and how you speak to people, types of humour and general demeanour. Being tough and have skin like a ryno was absolutely needed and it did tend to be needed more so when dealing with certain demographics. I just don't think you've worked closely with a wide range of people from all over, while simultaneously dealing with clientele with the same level of diversity. Nor do you understand what the job entailed but you're arguing with me about what happened within an industry you said yourself you don't know.
Isn't that what's ridiculous?

Oh I have and do work with a very diverse set of people but they were international in the past not just from the UK. No, I've never worked in that type of role but I would imagine you have not worked in the roles I have done and do now.

In fact, it went the other way too, the people more likely to be placed with "nicer" clientele clientele prestige hotels within a resort, were Southern or another European nationality as that was what was deemed as being the most likely to provide the customer service satisfaction for that demographic. In general, they preferred speaking to people who didn't have certain accents so it worked both ways. I don't know why you're so worked up over it.

I've also had some temporary jobs working on a factory where people decided to fire air rifles at their colleagues for a laugh at lunchtime and was a barperson for a long time and had to deal with a few fights when left on my own in the graveyard shift. This was actually in Cornwall were tough people exist.

I genuinely can’t tell whether you’re having a laugh or not anymore 🤣🤣

No this is not a joke it's not funny to be shot at just for liking Shakespeare plays (summer job so they took the piss out of my friend and I studying English lit).

The men fighting were tough but maybe I have a different perception of that as I am not.

It’s not funny, but giving examples of how tough you are to try and prove your point on MN is absolutely hilarious. Thanks for the entertainment!

Never said I did though, and I'm not lecturing you about whether what you said about the in and outs of your industry is correct.
When I moved from Offshore Banking in the CI dealing with very wealthy people, to suddenly dealing with properties in the "budget" range of that TO's holiday packages, it was an extreme contrast. That was how I understood how some people just couldn't mentally handle it, especially when you're on 80 hours a week, in an active job, overworked and sleep deprived and still have to be mentally present for whatever is thrown at you, which could include violence, DV, death, drug issues, rape, SA, injury, hospital visits, missing people, big H&S issues at any time. So if you're in a place you are going to have a huge amount of issues and complaints daily that include being harassed and shouted at, and you need to resolve these issues while someone else is in your ear shouting at you, you do need to be tough. If you know you're walking into a meeting of 300 new arrivals on one property and it's going to be a bear pit cos everyone is waiting to shout at you and you need to have a Jeep Safari Driver and a magician to stand behind you in case it escalates, yes you do need to be tough.

I think this has gone a bit too far. Europeans do not hate English people. Some Europeans have a slightly negative attitude towards English people, a bit like some Europeans(English included)are a bit sneery about Americans. But it's unlikely they are going to be rude to them. Irish, Scottish etc are generally perceived a bit more favourably in Europe. Many Europeans probably don't care or know the difference.
In certain places affected by overtourism (parts of Spain) the people don't differentiate over where the tourists are from so all tourists are lumped together in their eyes.

Plus like it or not, if you have a load of screaming people, and they hear a broad northern accent. It tends to take people back a little and you do find they back off a little. It's clearly psychological that it happens, but it does happen. Just like when someone hears an accent they don't have bad preconceptions about, it changes the whole interaction, hence the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Northern English thing. If you don't like it, take it up with people's psyches.

Which one is it though- northern accent reminds people of toughness and people do as told as a bit fearful or very fearful, surely that isn't a good preconception?

Glad you found it amusing.

On that line of thinking I had a very tough NI Physics teacher, he would literally shout on our faces and his accent was so strong that the impact was very scary. I also had two Glaswegian teachers one at primary school and one at secondary and the one at primary school was constantly making you stand having the wall for minor misdemeanors and the one at secondary made me stand in the snow for the whole lesson as I was giggling with a friend, it doesn't have entirely warming connotations for me. That said, I have a lovely Glaswegian friend at work and she is really kind but doesn't suffer fools.