Do you think expats are mean to each other?
Dec 7th 2005, 5:01 pm
#76
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
Originally Posted by cuckoofrommars
One of the things I've noticed about some British people I've met is that they can often be defensive of what they have become in the US. For example, I know a woman in her 20s who lives here. She's originally from Bradford. After a few weeks of knowing her she became really weird and defensive. Then on a night out she broke down in tears and said that she felt bad because I "know what she's really like." What she meant was that her behavior, demeanor and character were really easily definable in a British sense, but in the US she had escaped all of that and become an entirely new person. Back in Britain she's be the loud goth bird who has pigtails and wears different colored Doctor Martin boots - whatever preconceptions you'd have about a person that you would meet like that she was. But only to me - to all of her US friends none of that added up. So she confessed to me that she was afraid I thought she was pretending to be something that she wasn't. It was almost as if she thought all her friends from back home had sent an envoy out to find her out.
Another person (who I'll call Barry because that's his name...) I know here has that "I'm a celebrity because I'm British" thing too. When me and my mate Dan (who is originally from Sunderland) met him at my wife's work christmas bash he was acting like royalty. Lots of aside comments about how Americans don't know this and that, aren't cultured, and are generally inferior to him. My mate Dan called him a "daft twat" and teased him in the way that British people do. It's how we communicate after all. Barry did not seem to like us being there at all. He became very defensive.
What I've concluded about this sort of thing is that peoplee who behave like tossers to other Brits are afraid. They think too highly of themselves for living in a different country to one they were born in. Not only do they think they are better than the Americans they live with, but they feel themselves superior to all those they've left behind. And they've expended an awful lot of time and energy over the years telling people how great their life is now theat they've moved to the US. Unfortunately they know like we all do that life is pretty much identical wherever you live.
Add that they might just be a twat.
Another person (who I'll call Barry because that's his name...) I know here has that "I'm a celebrity because I'm British" thing too. When me and my mate Dan (who is originally from Sunderland) met him at my wife's work christmas bash he was acting like royalty. Lots of aside comments about how Americans don't know this and that, aren't cultured, and are generally inferior to him. My mate Dan called him a "daft twat" and teased him in the way that British people do. It's how we communicate after all. Barry did not seem to like us being there at all. He became very defensive.
What I've concluded about this sort of thing is that peoplee who behave like tossers to other Brits are afraid. They think too highly of themselves for living in a different country to one they were born in. Not only do they think they are better than the Americans they live with, but they feel themselves superior to all those they've left behind. And they've expended an awful lot of time and energy over the years telling people how great their life is now theat they've moved to the US. Unfortunately they know like we all do that life is pretty much identical wherever you live.
Add that they might just be a twat.
Yep! I think you're exactly right!...doesn't matter where we are,or where we go,or how 'hoity-toity' we act,as Brits we all know where we came from,no matter how much better some think they are by being over here,perhaps that really is what frightens some expats....how sad.....Sophia
Dec 7th 2005, 5:19 pm
#77
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Joined: Nov 2003
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
If you're a twat in the UK, you'll be a twat wherever you move to, and that's the simplicity of it.
It takes a very insecure person to think they're better than folk back home because they've moved to another country.....*shrug*
It takes a very insecure person to think they're better than folk back home because they've moved to another country.....*shrug*
Dec 8th 2005, 3:57 am
#78
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
What a sad fact, that some people are like this.
Originally Posted by cuckoofrommars
One of the things I've noticed about some British people I've met is that they can often be defensive of what they have become in the US. For example, I know a woman in her 20s who lives here. She's originally from Bradford. After a few weeks of knowing her she became really weird and defensive. Then on a night out she broke down in tears and said that she felt bad because I "know what she's really like." What she meant was that her behavior, demeanor and character were really easily definable in a British sense, but in the US she had escaped all of that and become an entirely new person. Back in Britain she's be the loud goth bird who has pigtails and wears different colored Doctor Martin boots - whatever preconceptions you'd have about a person that you would meet like that she was. But only to me - to all of her US friends none of that added up. So she confessed to me that she was afraid I thought she was pretending to be something that she wasn't. It was almost as if she thought all her friends from back home had sent an envoy out to find her out.
Another person (who I'll call Barry because that's his name...) I know here has that "I'm a celebrity because I'm British" thing too. When me and my mate Dan (who is originally from Sunderland) met him at my wife's work christmas bash he was acting like royalty. Lots of aside comments about how Americans don't know this and that, aren't cultured, and are generally inferior to him. My mate Dan called him a "daft twat" and teased him in the way that British people do. It's how we communicate after all. Barry did not seem to like us being there at all. He became very defensive.
What I've concluded about this sort of thing is that peoplee who behave like tossers to other Brits are afraid. They think too highly of themselves for living in a different country to one they were born in. Not only do they think they are better than the Americans they live with, but they feel themselves superior to all those they've left behind. And they've expended an awful lot of time and energy over the years telling people how great their life is now theat they've moved to the US. Unfortunately they know like we all do that life is pretty much identical wherever you live.
Add that they might just be a twat.
Another person (who I'll call Barry because that's his name...) I know here has that "I'm a celebrity because I'm British" thing too. When me and my mate Dan (who is originally from Sunderland) met him at my wife's work christmas bash he was acting like royalty. Lots of aside comments about how Americans don't know this and that, aren't cultured, and are generally inferior to him. My mate Dan called him a "daft twat" and teased him in the way that British people do. It's how we communicate after all. Barry did not seem to like us being there at all. He became very defensive.
What I've concluded about this sort of thing is that peoplee who behave like tossers to other Brits are afraid. They think too highly of themselves for living in a different country to one they were born in. Not only do they think they are better than the Americans they live with, but they feel themselves superior to all those they've left behind. And they've expended an awful lot of time and energy over the years telling people how great their life is now theat they've moved to the US. Unfortunately they know like we all do that life is pretty much identical wherever you live.
Add that they might just be a twat.
Jul 9th 2006, 4:43 am
#79
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
Good question, I really do not know to be honest.
Originally Posted by cutina
why do you think it's like that? I'm happy to meet brits!
Jul 9th 2006, 4:50 am
#80
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
You dug up a thread thats been dead for 6 months to say:
"Good question, I really do not know to be honest."
"Good question, I really do not know to be honest."
Jul 10th 2006, 7:16 am
#81
Susie..
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,531
Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
Originally Posted by Rompers
You dug up a thread thats been dead for 6 months to say:
"Good question, I really do not know to be honest."
"Good question, I really do not know to be honest."
Apr 30th 2007, 4:32 am
#82
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Apr 30th 2007, 4:43 am
#83
CA to TX to Jamaica
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Apr 30th 2007, 5:13 am
#86
hmmmm...nice
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 27,923
Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
Here in Dubai, it is rumoured that most British expats are losers that couldn't make it back in the UK and now live above themselves over here...
Apr 30th 2007, 8:56 am
#89
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Apr 30th 2007, 9:44 am
#90
In Orange County, CA.
Joined: Apr 2005
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Re: Do you think expats are mean to each other?
I went to a pub quiz last night in Cincinnati, where the host was a british expat woman. The quiz was crap, but that isn't the point here... I was there with my team (4 americans and a canadian), and she had me singled out as british from the start. when she found out I didn't know the answer to a 'British Question' about Sir Isaac Newton, she called me a dumb bitch over the Mic. It was really mean and uncalled for, she wasn't even laughing. We exchanged words and my friends were all really shocked at how nasty she was to me. Did she single me out because I am british?
I know I can be opinionated about things, but i always try to be respectful to people and although I can defend myself when attacked, why would someone do that? It really upset me, and i felt totally embarassed in front of my friends, some of whom happen to be colleages too.
My friends felt like she thought she was some kind of celebrity because she was English... and maybe I stepped on her toes?
I know I can be opinionated about things, but i always try to be respectful to people and although I can defend myself when attacked, why would someone do that? It really upset me, and i felt totally embarassed in front of my friends, some of whom happen to be colleages too.
My friends felt like she thought she was some kind of celebrity because she was English... and maybe I stepped on her toes?