bricwood

Often people post messages asking to meet expats near them, where I live there are I have discovered 4 English families one family I met when I arrived and they are fine, the others we are avoiding each other I think, when I moved here my estate agent advised me don't mix with expats, mix with Italians, I have stuck to his advice mostly, I have now some good friends here and it helps with the lingo ,one of the other English people here told someone I know he hates English people , I don't go that far but I think I prefer Italians now, a few English people have sought me out and they seem like parasites compared to Italians, they say can I have that? do you need this? can I have cutting?, one man was like a stalker every time I looked outside he was there, eventually he asked for my vacuum cleaner and that was it, I don't remember English people being like this in England although my sister tells me many are nowadays, people looking for expats be warned you don't know what you are starting!!

Lorna at Vicenza

Jesus Bricwood, are you ever going to make a post that is 100% positive and only positive? From your posts it seems like you've met some of world's weirdest people and not many of the truly decent ones.

Plenty of people are going to feel a bit lonely and uncertain when they move here and might gravitate to people they think they have something in common with, be it the language, the food, the culture, whatever. It doesn't mean everybody is out to get something from you.

bricwood

well this particular man one day said can I come to the shops with you, I was going to brico, he put his stuff on the bottom layer of the barrow, I went through and paid when we got to my car I realised he had not paid for his stuff, he was shoplifting with my barrow, I would have been nicked, I have never stolen a thing in my life, never been shoplifting , maybe that makes me boring, English people like to use this ruse, give me some piece of rubbish as a gift then ask for something big in return, I have never gone to someone house and asked for something I see in my life, yes I suppose I am boring, but I have my pride, I like to think I have a good reputation for honesty that's why I gave matey the big E

Lorna at Vicenza

Oh just give over with your big generalisations of who and what English people are. I'm not a liar, a cheat, a thief, a shoplifter or a stalker. I don't beg things from people and neither do my friends.
Yes there are shitty people about, but they're not all English.

linseed oil

i second lornas post .dont tar every body with the same brush

bricwood

I was just talking to my sister on the phone, she is 69, a man two doors up asked her who will sort her stuff out when she dies!, I blame boots sales and ebay, everyone is so hungry for something for nothing, I can be upbeat about Italians though, yesterday I went into the nearest town to pay a bill at the post office, I was trying to see when it opened its was about five to 8 and the man opened up for me, would not happen in UK, my postgirl said "good morning" to me and laughed as she was speaking English, Italians if you give them something try to give you something nice back and always seemed pleased, I have noticed English people think its clever to haggle I don't think Italians here go much on this,(I see them wince) I have never felt comfortable haggling, its not English, I find if you are a regular they treat you well and throw in a few extra plants or oranges or whatever, I just personally don't like scroungers, I don't think Italians do either, I am a generous person I just don't like people who ask for things in my house, if its in my house or garden I must need it otherwise its in the rubbish bin, my motto , man should not be a ponce, maybe I got that from Dickens or Shakespeare ?

Patty

have to agree with Lorna and Linseed.
You simply cant generalise like this. There are some lovely people both here and in the UK . (just as there are some right idiots in both countries)

And that italians dont like to haggle is alot of tosh - they love it !!

jiminalpago

Something I have noticed about these complaints about the behaviour of the English abroad is that they are always from Englishmen, never Scots, Irish or Welsh.
I hope it's not because we are warned at birth about the English!

HADENOUGHPIZZA

Some people are just more comfortable dealing with problem behaviour though national stereotypes . I really hate it when people talk about ' the english ' or ' the italians ' when making sweeping and usually derrogatory statements . I am sick of hearing the term ' extra communitario ' in the same way as if every single north african were a drugs dealer and every single Moldavian girl a prostitute. I've had big arguments with people about this quite recently .Talk about unaccepatble behaviour by all means but lets not make it a national/ sexual / religous characteristic. A rude person is just a rude person where ever they come from, focus on the behaviour not the persons nationality .

Lorna at Vicenza

I also really dislike the word extra-comunitari.

I noticed that Venice airport changed its signs a few years ago. They used to have two queues :
One was for EU and the other was for EXTRA.
How bloody awful is that in an international airport!

Mr Posh

What would you call them...It's not being rude or racist.

I think that all this political correctness is what has ruined our country

HADENOUGHPIZZA

I was objecting to the term being used to make derrogatory statements not to the term itself applied to anyone from outside the EU be it Senegal or Switzerland . I'm not climbing on the PC bandwagon just fed up with hearing observations on ' the English ' , ' the italians ' as if we were clones.

Lorna at Vicenza

I just think that it's easier and more simple to have EU and Non EU.

I don't know how the "extra" came about in Italian. Somembody said that it might have something to do with an old Latin term.

I wasn't trying to be all PC or anti racist or whatever.

That "extra" sign at Venice airport did cause confusion so it's better that that has changed.

Anderson Council

Sorry, Posh, but you're wrong. The term "extra communitario" is both rude and racist. It is used to mean "black" and/or from a poor country. I've heard it applied to a friend of mine who is British, but black (and who is, humiliatingly, asked for her documents every single time there are police on her train, without fail). I have never once heard it applied to a white American.

Sometimes, what some people consider "political correctness" others just call good manners.

Mr Posh

I can not see where it says "black" and/or from a poor country" in the text below..But hay we need do gooders in this world to make things up..

Il termine extracomunitario esprime lo stato della cittadinanza di un soggetto (persona fisica o giuridica) in relazione alle vigenti normative dell'Unione europea in tema di cittadinanza: un soggetto extracomunitario è colui che non possiede cittadinanza di uno degli Stati membri dell'Unione.

(Extracomunitari) Sono così definiti i cittadini dei Paesi non appartenenti all'Unione europea: ad essi è applicato un trattamento giuridico differente da quello in vigore per i cittadini comunitari.