What's it like to be a foreigner?

[Nataly 38]

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What annoys me the most is British people have absolutely no respect for time and punctuality. Somebody will say on the phone they will be there at X time. In Asia when you say you are going to be there at X time you are going to be there at X minus 2 minutes.

Jesus... Don't ever move to Africa, then!!!

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[ryoder 1,387]

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I think it has much to do with Fawlty towers the show about the American and the Waldorf Salad.

"...well I think we're just out of Waldorf."

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[tan 0]

Does 3-4 months at each location count? If so, the hardest adaptations were:

Shanghai, China: Had to get used to the fact that Caucasian foreigners are treated better than Chinese foreigners. (Sounds good to everyone else here, doesn't it ) Took me two months to get up to speed on conversational negotiation before they stopped quoting me "Caucasian prices" too; but the service provided was always different.

The Netherlands: The way everything is so incredibly "on time". Shops will always close on time, people will always leave work on the dot too. Work time is strictly work time; I really wasn't used to the idea that I wouldn't be able to find anything after 5/6pm.

The "fat people" quote is close to the mark, but as someone once told me, "commenting about their country is like commenting about their wife. He can say that his wife is ugly, but you can't go to him and say 'your wife is ugly', you know?"

[Nataly 38]

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The Netherlands: The way everything is so incredibly "on time". Shops will always close on time, people will always leave work on the dot too. Work time is strictly work time; I really wasn't used to the idea that I wouldn't be able to find anything after 5/6pm.

My friend worked in the Netherlands, and he said people assumed he was incompetent if he left work late!! As if he wasn't able to finish his job within normal work hours! In the UK, I found that working late was seen as you being dedicated to your job... Where I worked, it was pretty much expected...

That, and he said the dutch were incredibly cheap. We have a dutchman in our ranks at work, and he does cliam for stupid little things like toothpaste and gum when he travels... So the stereotype certainly fits him, anyway...!

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[tan 0]

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In the UK, I found that working late was seen as you being dedicated to your job... Where I worked, it was pretty much expected...

Apparently the Brits imparted more of their culture here than imagined... Certainly took me a while to adapt to "Dutch Time".

"Toothpaste and gum?!" Wow... But FWIW, I've certainly met my fair share of generous Dutch people, and I'm pretty sure that your colleague must really be an outlier!

[adamUK 3]

Hi Nat.

This has been on the 'net for a while but it might be handy.
Adam.

[Stumpy 256]

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In the UK, I found that working late was seen as you being dedicated to your job... Where I worked, it was pretty much expected...

And a key reason behind me leaving. That mentality sucks. I have no problem with working late when I want or need to, but the whole first in last out thing when I was working in London, that got to the point where everyone was holding on simply trying not to be the first to leave was f*&^ing ridiculous.

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[Nataly 38]

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Hi Nat.

This has been on the 'net for a while but it might be handy.
Adam.

What has??

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[adamUK 3]

I'll grow a brain one of these days and learn how to use this website.

[nigel99 144]

Very interesting ;)

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[tan 0]

Lol! I'm actually more interested to know from you all, do the non-native English speakers actually "hear" in the other row??

[Remster 24]

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I'll grow a brain one of these days and learn how to use this website.

Don't forget:

"You're a Star" aka "It's amazing you were able to do this considering your mental retardation"

and

"Oh bless" aka " That was such a lame attempt at whatever you were doing"

Remster

[MikeJD 0]

Hehe. I liked number 4:
'That is a very brave proposal' = 'You are insane'.


Lots of my work involves offshore colleagues these days, mainly in India. And although we are gradually learning each others' ways, that could do with a similar translation table.

[MikeJD 0]

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Don't forget:

"You're a Star" aka "It's amazing you were able to do this considering your mental retardation"

and

"Oh bless" aka " That was such a lame attempt at whatever you were doing"

We do condescension better than any other nation on Earth.

[Jumpdude 0]

It must be pretty good to be a foreigner in America! They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them! Bet they won't learn English in their country to accommodate us!!!!

Refuse to Lose!!!
Failure is NOT an option!
1800skyrideripoff.com
Nashvilleskydiving.org

[MikeJD 0]

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It must be pretty good to be a foreigner in America! They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them! Bet they won't learn English in their country to accommodate us!!!!

Are you serious? Because in my experience the opposite is true.

Not specific to the US, but I'd say English speakers in general are the most likely to subscribe to the raise-your-voice-and-talk-slowly-in-your-own-language school of communication abroad. We're lucky that so much English is spoken in foreign countries.

[TriGirl 268]

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It must be pretty good to be a foreigner in America! They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them! Bet they won't learn English in their country to accommodate us!!!!

Are you serious? Because in my experience the opposite is true.

Not specific to the US, but I'd say English speakers in general are the most likely to subscribe to the raise-your-voice-and-talk-slowly-in-your-own-language school of communication abroad. We're lucky that so much English is spoken in foreign countries.

Indeed.

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus

Shut Up & Jump!

[TriGirl 268]

From the very first item, I could hear the first two columns being recited in the voice of one of my British colleagues here! He's going to have a good laugh when he reads these.

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus

Shut Up & Jump!

[skymama 35]

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They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them!

Where have you experienced that? There's a lot of foreigners who visit here in Central FL and I've never had anyone get pissed at me because I couldn't understand them. In addition, in the 3 European countries I've traveled to where they speak a different language (France, Germany and Spain) everyone was patient with communication difficulties.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[Squeak 17]

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Don't forget:

"You're a Star" aka "It's amazing you were able to do this considering your mental retardation"

and

"Oh bless" aka " That was such a lame attempt at whatever you were doing"

We do condescension better than any other nation on Earth.

but you got nothing on our Sarcasm

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[Squeak 17]

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It must be pretty good to be a foreigner in America! They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them! Bet they won't learn English in their country to accommodate us!!!!

Careful dude your bigotry is showing, you might wanna tuck that back in .

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[danornan 64]

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It must be pretty good to be a foreigner in America! They come here, and expect us to accommodate them by knowing their language and get pissed off when we can't understand them! Bet they won't learn English in their country to accommodate us!!!!

Not to be rude, but I think you are nuts!

Just about every foreigner who has visited Z-Hills, Deland or just recently, Eloy (when I am there) either speaks English or has an interpreter with them! Many speak English better than some natives. You definitely owe an apology to many...

Dano

[Nataly 38]

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I'll grow a brain one of these days and learn how to use this website.

I've seen it before and it made me laugh again
I read "how to be an alien" a couple of years ago... An absolute MUST if you've ever been a foreigner in the UK! And I would think very funny for brits as well, since they tend to have a very healthy sense of humour about themselves

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[Krip 2]

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About the Brits and language... Hard to come up with just one example... They use English SO differently... Think of the word "nice," for example... In North America, you *can* use that sarcastically, but most of the time nice actually means "pleasant" or "kind" or "good"... In the UK, "nice" is used in about 50 different ways, and hardly ever really means something positive... A lot of words are loaded with tons of meaning, whereas North Americans have more of a tendency toward hyperbole. In the UK, you might just answer "indeed" and that single word packs quite a punch. Sometimes I thought people agreed with me because they went along with what I said - I'd realise later that silence does not mean aquiescence... Nor does "you must be right"!!!

We are getting caught up on the Brit T.V. series Downton Abby. Reading this thread about the way the brits use the english language is so true.
Thanks for the info the series makes a little more sense now, To bad the brit accentis are hard to follow.

Season three starts in Jan can hardly wait.


R.

One Jump Wonder

[Amazon 7]

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About the Brits and language... Hard to come up with just one example... They use English SO differently... Think of the word "nice," for example... In North America, you *can* use that sarcastically, but most of the time nice actually means "pleasant" or "kind" or "good"... In the UK, "nice" is used in about 50 different ways, and hardly ever really means something positive... A lot of words are loaded with tons of meaning, whereas North Americans have more of a tendency toward hyperbole. In the UK, you might just answer "indeed" and that single word packs quite a punch. Sometimes I thought people agreed with me because they went along with what I said - I'd realise later that silence does not mean aquiescence... Nor does "you must be right"!!!

We are getting caught up on the Brit T.V. series Downton Abby. Reading this thread about the way the brits use the english language is so true.
Thanks for the info the series makes a little more sense now, To bad the brit accentis are hard to follow.

Season three starts in Jan can hardly wait.


R.

Moments #4, #6 and #8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVMtffzbAwk