I would prefer not to be judged as a Briton, but have expectations of others based on their nationality. Hypocrisy is wonderful. Sadly as described before I fit a number of national stereotypes, from the 19th century. Leo Tolstoy's 'The British think they know how to run the world' might describe my thoughts, and a description of the eccentricity of the British with regard to the local flora and fauna from the National Gallery in Delhi my interests. I certainly wouldn't agree with a positive association with nationality; I consider national pride dangerous and Nationalism a sickness. But undeniably there are traits, as it appears to outsiders, which are common between the people of a nation. This is proved wonderfully in the case of those who try and deny the importance of nationality. The reply 'what does it matter what country I am from', or 'Europe' is a good clue that you are speaking with a German. Nationality shouldn't matter, but it does, at the very least first language, and in most cases the expectation of fluency in English. Nationality gives an expectation of shared cultural references, it just shouldn't be too closely held with pride. It seems obvious that English people are not all the same, but without any evidence on the overlap between the EDL and Oxfam.
It's impossible not to form stereotypes. So, with all the obvious preconditions, I give you travellers in India, in the vicinity of Goa, in the most unfavourable light possible.
Russians. India is cheap, the Russians are going on holiday. They don't speak English, and don't want to speak English. Everyone should speak Russian. (A painful stereotype to recount given the international reputation of monolingual British tourists). A typical conversation with a Russian may proceed as follows:
Speaker 1 "Hello" Russian Speaker "What you want, no speak English"
Speaker 1 "Hi. Do you know x" Russian Speaker "What you want, ask somebody else"
Once you get past the abrupt language, it is possible to get to know Russians. It's just unfortunate that their culture is a little prickly on the outside, and politeness is not the norm. But on the whole Russians prefer to associate with Russians, and go to businesses with Russian signs, menus and customers. Parts of Goa are dominated by heavy drinking Russian tourists, who manage to make the dangerous Indian roads even more so (India's system of road chaos works providing speeds are kept low, and of course the Russian was never at fault in the accident recounted). Elsewhere Russians prove deserving of their first prize for cultural sensitivity with minimally covered women, hot pants are definitely 'in'.
Israelis. I have made friends with pleasant Israelis, but unfortunately for their international reputation the presence is dominated by obnoxious early 20s hedonists who have just escaped the army. Military service is for both sexes in Israel, and somehow regresses people to an age of about 12-14. Childish, spoiled and almost always in groups. They can speak English perfectly well but will switch to Hebrew as soon as possible, even if half the people present are non-Israeli. The greatest numbers of Israelis is to be found where the best Charas is (Indian hash). Israelis barter hard, sometimes to the point of being offensive (especially if you know the person doing business), but consequently get good prices. On the other hand there is a tendency to complain about the unchangeable. I have watched an Israeli be told repeatedly not to wash clothes in the guest house by the stressed lodge owner (in Ladakh where water really is scarce), and then complain that her friend is in the shower and the water has run out, placing the blame on the lodge owner, within 10 minutes. Israeli's are probably also deserving of an award for dangerous driving, driving too fast through the town. I have seen more than a few limping, sporting broken arms or bits of plaster, all as a result of accidents which also weren't their fault.
British. Sadly, near Goa, the British have a less than ideal reputation. The Scottish and Irish also fit in to this, often worse, and with an accent far less intelligible to any other nationality. Somehow 'Brits abroad' Brits stray out of Goa, and these fine examples of English speakers occasionally manage to say a word which isn't fuck. They can be identified on Gokarna beach (a quiet smokers atmosphere) by their heavy drinking and unpopular and loud music, often described by the word "Chune [sic]". The drug of choice is still ketamine, which isn't entirely popular on the beach due to a history of fires/deaths/k-holed-people. The 'alright lads' Brits are also present, less in your face but also with far less going on upstairs. I spent the last evening listening to one, who kept asserting that London was home to 14 million people. It's not, it's 8.1 million according to google, and 'near 9 million' according to my memory. There is a figure for the number who travel into London each week for work but it seems less than 1 million. There is good news on the horizon however, for when Scotland gets it's independence the heavy drinking guys with the guitar singing Lola will officially belong to a different country.
Germans, Belgians, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swiss: Rather nice people, good English.
North Americans: Friendly, polite, amusingly fit the standard stereotypes.
Italians, misc. Spanish speakers: Fair in their way.
French: Slightly arrogant, will turn up to a fire with an international crowd and sing in French.
Australians. Healthy, tall, young, blond, airheads. For sure.
Myself. Cynical negative energy sucking bastard, work in progress.
It's impossible not to form stereotypes. So, with all the obvious preconditions, I give you travellers in India, in the vicinity of Goa, in the most unfavourable light possible.
Russians. India is cheap, the Russians are going on holiday. They don't speak English, and don't want to speak English. Everyone should speak Russian. (A painful stereotype to recount given the international reputation of monolingual British tourists). A typical conversation with a Russian may proceed as follows:
Speaker 1 "Hello" Russian Speaker "What you want, no speak English"
Speaker 1 "Hi. Do you know x" Russian Speaker "What you want, ask somebody else"
Once you get past the abrupt language, it is possible to get to know Russians. It's just unfortunate that their culture is a little prickly on the outside, and politeness is not the norm. But on the whole Russians prefer to associate with Russians, and go to businesses with Russian signs, menus and customers. Parts of Goa are dominated by heavy drinking Russian tourists, who manage to make the dangerous Indian roads even more so (India's system of road chaos works providing speeds are kept low, and of course the Russian was never at fault in the accident recounted). Elsewhere Russians prove deserving of their first prize for cultural sensitivity with minimally covered women, hot pants are definitely 'in'.
Israelis. I have made friends with pleasant Israelis, but unfortunately for their international reputation the presence is dominated by obnoxious early 20s hedonists who have just escaped the army. Military service is for both sexes in Israel, and somehow regresses people to an age of about 12-14. Childish, spoiled and almost always in groups. They can speak English perfectly well but will switch to Hebrew as soon as possible, even if half the people present are non-Israeli. The greatest numbers of Israelis is to be found where the best Charas is (Indian hash). Israelis barter hard, sometimes to the point of being offensive (especially if you know the person doing business), but consequently get good prices. On the other hand there is a tendency to complain about the unchangeable. I have watched an Israeli be told repeatedly not to wash clothes in the guest house by the stressed lodge owner (in Ladakh where water really is scarce), and then complain that her friend is in the shower and the water has run out, placing the blame on the lodge owner, within 10 minutes. Israeli's are probably also deserving of an award for dangerous driving, driving too fast through the town. I have seen more than a few limping, sporting broken arms or bits of plaster, all as a result of accidents which also weren't their fault.
British. Sadly, near Goa, the British have a less than ideal reputation. The Scottish and Irish also fit in to this, often worse, and with an accent far less intelligible to any other nationality. Somehow 'Brits abroad' Brits stray out of Goa, and these fine examples of English speakers occasionally manage to say a word which isn't fuck. They can be identified on Gokarna beach (a quiet smokers atmosphere) by their heavy drinking and unpopular and loud music, often described by the word "Chune [sic]". The drug of choice is still ketamine, which isn't entirely popular on the beach due to a history of fires/deaths/k-holed-people. The 'alright lads' Brits are also present, less in your face but also with far less going on upstairs. I spent the last evening listening to one, who kept asserting that London was home to 14 million people. It's not, it's 8.1 million according to google, and 'near 9 million' according to my memory. There is a figure for the number who travel into London each week for work but it seems less than 1 million. There is good news on the horizon however, for when Scotland gets it's independence the heavy drinking guys with the guitar singing Lola will officially belong to a different country.
Germans, Belgians, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swiss: Rather nice people, good English.
North Americans: Friendly, polite, amusingly fit the standard stereotypes.
Italians, misc. Spanish speakers: Fair in their way.
French: Slightly arrogant, will turn up to a fire with an international crowd and sing in French.
Australians. Healthy, tall, young, blond, airheads. For sure.
Myself. Cynical negative energy sucking bastard, work in progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment