People from other countries - they’re just better than us, aren’t they?

[PebbleDashedDoor]

I’m on holiday in the Balkans and like everytime I go overseas, it’s difficult not to conclude people from other countries are just better than us.

Immaculately kept, litter free, great service in bars and restaurants by experienced staff, polite well behaved kids eating out in restaurants, not a screen in sight. Everyone generally better looking, better dressed.

Or do I have rose tinted holiday goggles on?

Yes rose tinted glasses a plenty.....

Yep sick of it now.....

Having travelled a lot and studied/worked mostly within Europe, I absolutely agree! The kids generally have their own style and not the same sheep fashion. Varied hairstyles, clothes, lots of scarves, also just seem more mature and dare I say a 'chav' attire and attitude has been extremely rare. When I do school trips the difference is remarkable; our girls in crop tops, all have straight long hair, false eyelashes, gym pants; other countries more natural, bit punky, no grey sweat pants, individual and far less Kardashian.

And yet, the worst and most consistent racism I have ever witnessed is from Italians, the area of Italy my dh comes from is filthy, litter along every road, broken glass on the beaches, and graffiti everywhere. Eating a nice plate of food and drinking lovely wine in the Italian sunshine doesn’t mean Italy has its shit together.

Absolutely. Half my family are from Italy. EVERY SINGLE TIME I read about Italy on MN it is total crap. Italians do not swig wine all day, living la dolce vita, pinching the cheeks of bambini (particularly English bambini) and swan around in Armani. THEY DON’T.

And as for being racist - they are even regionalist ! Had the car spat on once because of the number plate… and one’s surname is dissected to see if it is from an unapproved location. So you can imagine what the general opinion of recent arrivals is…

And as for being racist - they are even regionalist ! Had the car spat on once because of the number plate… and one’s surname is dissected to see if it is from an unapproved location. So you can imagine what the general opinion of recent arrivals

I have an Italian sister in law (from the north of Italy) and when she dyed her hair black as a teen her mother cried because she looked like a Sicilian!

Hardly that surprising, MN is a British forum, as I believe the OP would know as this is a complete wind up of a thread! MN is all the worse for this kind of divisive crap now.

Only they dont do they ?
There has always been alternative fashion in the uk
At a recent family get together my cousins son born and brought up in france who lives and works in paris
Was sporting exactky the same hair do as his yorkshire cousins .

Of course not all don't but in over 40 years of travelling/studying/living and working it's definitely something I've noticed a lot. Are his parents English?

English father , French mother

To be fair to the OP, she never said where she came from. I was going to ask... because 'Britain' if it was the answer, is not a country... but it's the usual goady post of saying something outrageous and then buggering off. So I can't be arsed to engage any further with this thread if people are going to just treat this forum with complete disdain.

How ridiculous! Britain is well known for its fashion heritage and this has always been present at a high end level - Saville Row tailoring and street fashion usually mirroring the British music and creative scenes. I'm not sure where you live or teach but there aren't any hints of the 'American' Kardashians in the wardrobes of the teens around here and it same for my late nineties -00s youth and my Mum's sixties fashion. Your comments are so out there and smack of reading about the UK in some trashy newspaper as only the culturally unaware would not know about the historical link to fashion in the UK!

If anything, I going some European countries have young people who are mostly very conservative in their dress sense or dress like their parents or lots of mountain/hiking clothes i.e. very practical. Are you fashionista teacher then, are you qualified to state this? So you teach fashion?

They are few and far between.

Vocational training (not necessarily 'apprenticeships') is much more woven into the expectations of people elsewhere.

In other words, 'You've been badly hurt. Come back and risk that again.'

The Balkans is the historic name for the region. It has never been that unusual.

I am never attempting to make a joke on MN again.

Well aa you live in the USA ( i think) how would you know?

I quite agree when it comes to where I am from.
I think I know only 2 people of my age where I am from, who have only GCSE level (state mandatory education). Everyone goes further to 3 year NVQ or 4 years Alevels. These also don't concentrate just on the topic. We still continue general education (geography, history, languages, maths, pe, it, citizen education - no idea what it's in english, some have chemistry etc). It's mix of college and practical (usually 1 week in, one week out). It's very much expected to continue education after 15 when we finish basic one and really absolute majority does.
You can do it for any job really. Shopkeeper, baker, chef, waiter, flower shop assistant.
It's still common requirement to have that level of education on job ads, sometimes still a specific one to industry, and with only mandatory education levels you would be really lucky to find a good job. So shop assistant ad will usually say"nvq, alevel education" or even "nvq, alevel shop keeper qualifications".

If all that makes sense.

I know the Czech Republic well and can tell you that Prague is actually SCRUFFIER than the little towns in the middle of nowhere. There is a big graffiti issue on stations issue in Czechia, but otherwise most towns are extremely well kept. They also DO leave bikes unlocked - though I wouldn't try this in Prague.

"The Balkans" is NOT a synonym for former Yugoslavia, which is how it's often used, including here. It refers to places around the Balkan mountains, most of which weren't Yugoslavia. The mountains are in Bulgaria.

What is happening in this thread?

Bingo. And all youngsters are creative, artistic their own way, read books....still read books

I might use it this way myself - for example I hope to make a future trip to Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and i call this "the Balkan trip." But it can cause offence if you include the wrong places (it doe snot mean Yugoslavia, as you clearly know), so in general I would avoid it.

GCSE Maths is seen by a step down by Asian students in international schools.

I hope you put that poster right?