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?

That’s just bigoted stereotyping, you could go through any country and do this but it’s glib and simplistic.

The one thing that stands out in the U.K. is its tall poppy syndrome/ anti success attitude it’s unique to the U.K. and in my opinion leads to lots of problems.

I always thought this was tied into the class system

Oh do fuck off. Such bullshit snobbery.

I’m not sure where it comes from, but other countries simply don’t have it. It’s unique to the U.K.

Yes. There's definitely a coldness, arrogance and sense of entitlement that you see in many English people that you don't see in other cultures.

Have you ever actually been to Paris? 😆

My Norwegian friend left Norway because she found it a very closed, narrow-minded culture. She much prefers London.

Definitely. When we were in Spain leaving a restaurant through a little gate with my 2 young dcs who were walking nicely, a child shoved past us bolting out into the carpark. A Spanish woman came up behind, and started shouting at us in Spanish and swearing. Apparently it was my responsibility to watch "her" child while simultaneously having eyes in the back if my head!

YABU op, good and bad everywhere.

@MrsHattie I don’t think other countries are as obsessed with class, new money, knowing your place etc.

It's very revealing who has only been to tourist places abroad. I remember another thread where someone was complaining that UK public transport was uniquely smelly. Genuinely funny to me.

Or Brussels. That city is something else.

Possibly, definitely one of the worst aspects of UK culture.

There are other places similar but it's not talked about as much I think. There is a huge class issue in the US and of course Indian caste system is classes on steroids.

@Mithral I still think it’s not quite the same. In the US you aren’t looked down on for flaunting your wealth & doing well.

Maybe it’s an insecurity and the fact our wages are so stagnant

Its a self loathing thing, again, probably got many layers to it. No one wants to do better or be better or have better standards. Its quite strange

Actually it is expected in Spain that people look out for other peoples children and mums get quite cross about it if they think someone hasnt done this. My family are like this and Ive been on the receiving end of this accidentally.

They very much class based but they dont call it that at all, they have different names and systems.

The two big stand out countries who run on a narrative of being equal, Australia and the US do have big class differences and cultures, they just dont admit it.

Italy also springs to mind the way they view southerners and northerners, the poor and the so called rich.

Its a human trait which is seen everywhere, just given different identities.

Great, another thread slagging the English off and 43% of voters agree. It's so boring and depressing.

Bit of a snobby response, I have also travelled other than all -inclusive and lived abroad 7 years, and believe me it’s not just the brits. And my dd wasn’t given a screen while we were also being ‘that sort of family’ on an all-inclusive. Most children there weren’t actually on screens, which is why I noticed it. They were a perfectly normal family in other respects though, and it kept their kids behaving. I think they were norwegian.

On my last skiing holiday it was french/italian older children running around at dinner causing absolute havoc and shouting, ignoring their parents who eventually gave up and let them run wilder. Does that not count either?

Some time ago I lived in a European country for a number of years, enough to get a genuine feel of life, and also peer through the cracks a bit. The country would then have been regarded by most Brits as second-rate.
I had to conclude that people were far happier, led balanced lives, there were no overt alcohol or drugs issues, public violence issues etc, and generally it was just a better place to be. Services were excellent, food was lovely and healthy, etc.
I had reasons for coming back and staying in the UK (though my parents and relatives were/are not British), but I sometimes wonder about relocating back there.

I went to Athens years ago. Loads of stray dogs and women begging with babies on their laps.

This post is racist and been reported.

The old cold English stereotype comes out again.

Who didn't colonise the rest of the world? they don't just speak English across Africa and South America.
Start naming countries, without mentioning WW2, let's see how they hold up re DV, honour killings, women's rights, disability rights, attitudes to SEN. I notice that smoking is hated on here, but ignored when the French and Spanish want to smoke everywhere. No-one on the planet can queue and take turns like the British. Farage? He's moderate compared with the real far right across Europe. Another two words, pick pockets, what European countries do the majority come from again?

Visited Paris recently?

Snobby about who?

European families tend not to go on AI holidays (Im actually talking about Italian/Spanish/French as they are the cultures I have family in so perhaps not 'european' as a whole)

The families from Europe that go on those sorts of holidays tend not to be the ones who would have better standards for their kids. Its not really the norm that the average Spanish child runs riot at dinner or uses screens. There are always anomalies.