ali south

Today my son returned from school (non uniform day) on the bus wearing an England shirt. A guy approx 25 years old sat next to him and told him how much he hated the English for taking over the country. My articulate 15 son held his own verbally but the situation could have turned out far worst possibly quite violent after the response Jack gave.

Both my teenagers find the anti English attitude difficult.

Have your kids or you experienced this? How do you cope, what do you say to the kids? We know the history so they have a good verbal comeback but how do you help them through this?
Thanks
Tara

steandleigh

Sorry to hear you've experienced this but we've been here 2 years and have never experienced anything like it. All the Aussies we work and study with and have befriended have been really generous with their time and friendship. Infact, to my mind, the Aussies we know love a bit of banter and will only give it out if they know you are up for it and can return it - it's never meant in a malicious way.

Perhaps the England shirt didn't help - I don't mean that in an awful way, as everyone has a right to wear whatever they like but there are some peeps out there who just look for a sitting target to take their probs and anger out on.

LouiseD

There was a similar discussion on here last week - quite a few people found it hard to believe that racism against the English exists.

I've found on the whole that most Aussies are friendly and pleasant but there is a definate minority that hate us. We've had comments about us stealing their jobs etc. some you can laugh off, others you know they mean it. I think it's the same in any country though, you will always get some people who won't accept new immigrants. Personally I don't think all this crap about Australia being the best at everything helps matters - it breeds a superiority attitude. Freindly rivalry is good but some take it far too seriously.

Good on your son for holding his own.

Lord Pom Percy

If an Aussie in the Uk goes around wearing a shirt with an Aussie flag or a boxing kangaroo or some Aussie symbol, he would eventually come across someone who does'nt like Aussies and would want to start some argument.

Nomore

Gee yeah!! my kids have it hard at school, especially the 2 eldest 15 and 11.
It is constant " F**k off back to England"...OZ is better then UK stuff. It really distracts them and i find it a no win situation.
Teachers call me at least once a month to say fights have nearly broken out.
It doesn't help them settle into OZ way of life, although my youngest who is 7 loves it here. Teenagers do struggle anyway.
They said they feel they need to stick up for their homeland as obviously it wasn't their decision to leave, so the insults continue.
It's not just my kids anyway, i think the whole school has a divide between the Aussie kids and English.

sassenach

What a load of B*llocks .The issue isnt about how the english deal with aussies its how aussies deal with the english here in aussie .You dont have to scraqtch the surface to far down to find just about everyone of them is a pom hating racist redneck and the more drink they have the worse they are ,the minute the sly jokes and what seems to be good natured banter starts i am out of there as they are a thin skinned and shallow lot who love to have a laugh at others expense but dont like it turned on them .Thats my experience anyway ,i dare say others will havea different experience and just love nodding and creeping up to these redneck ****s.

Tuxtrip

Judging by your comments on how the locals regard the English, I take it that you live in Scotland too?

nicola411

What really winds me up is the way they constantly call us poms on the radio and tv with reference to the ashes. Cant they at least have a little respect. I cant believe they wouldnt even let the english supporters sit together at the first test. Ridiculous and bad sportmanship I say.

BadgeIsBack

A valid point(!) I saw a bloke on the train today wearing an England top. Wear a England top and attract attention!

jad n rich

Got told to go back to england just last night, one of the jobs, the neighbour has blocked the drainage easement , handy as its there to take away flood water. Tried to to have a conversation regarding what hes done, was immediatley told to f off back to f'ing pommie land.

Amusing thing is aussie neighbours on other side have dobbed him in to the council, but to each others faces they are all aussie aussie aussie, barbeing etc. Will tell him when we finish up the job who dobbed him in

sassenach

My lads wear brazil top because they like the colour ,they dont get any grief then but the minute they wear an england top its a different story .The fact is the aussies dont like it and i would bet my house on it that brits get it a lot worse in ausssie than aussies get it in the uk .

sassenach

Typical ,For a nation that prides it self on mateship bollocks they are the first to dob in to who ever the necessary authority is .

iamthecreaturefromuranus

You can bank on that... I used to wear Oz, Kiwi and South African rugby shirts fairly regularly at one time and never once did anybody come up to me and have a go about being Aussie Barsteward

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Anybody else notive the tonkapom adverts in the cricket? Its from Ford believe it or not... Any chance of a Whupthenig**r site when oz play the Windies... somehow I doubt it.

sassenach

yes ,edinburgh
I am well aware of the bigotted claptrap in scotland and the strange thing is a fair amount of the population thinks its ok ,developing a hatred towards anybody because they are different is not healthy for any nation and the white australian has an inbuilt hatred for any new arrivals ,you only have to ask the italians,vietnamese,lebanese,yugoslavs and of course the never ending supply of brits who come here and just because a large percentage of the population think its right to be racist towards these people is in my book no different than the orange and the green crap with all the croppie ,pape ,jokes that go around .As far as i have seen there is only one nation thet is disliked more in australia than the english and thats the australian himself and i mean the true australian and thats the black man.