20 ridiculous complaints

[Pesky Wesky]

Originally Posted by Caz.I

So when I hear British expats going on about too many foreigners in the UK, it is funny to me too because they are totally unaware of the irony of now being a foreigner in Spain!
(BTW, I was back in London recently (3 weeks ago) for first time in 4 years and didnt see any dramatic changes there!)

Caz. I

Just wanted to explain my frivolous comment above
(Have you been to London lately????????!!!!!! )
as the smilies indicate, it wasn't intended to be taken totally seriously, so I hope it wasn't. However perhaps I should tell of my own experience in London 2 years ago. I hadn't been for 20 years and we went on a totally touristic weekend. We were not attended by native English speakers in almost the entire trip. I remember 1 pub, and a canal boat ride where the people who we spoke to were native speakers. ALL the others were non native speakers, (museums, cafes, hotel, fish and chip shop, Marks and Sparks, etc, etc) and yes, in my naivity I was surprised. Now, that doesn't mean to say that they weren't British citizens, and neither does it mean I am complaining about immigrants. It's a mere observation

[Pesky Wesky]

Originally Posted by mrypg9

Err, yes,actually - about twice a week on average since I left the UK four plus years ago and before that I lived in North London for twelve years. I did not feel threatened by ethnic minorities but I did feel the urge to get away from the yob culture that is now alas common across all classes in the UK.
Caz has neatly put to rest the myth of the 'swamping ' of the UK. But to me the whole subject is a strange and murky one.
First of all: why should anyone object to living with people of other nationalities? Sensible decent people choose their friends on the basis of character not ethnicity, don't they?
Secondly: why do we refer to people of other nationalities who have settled in the UK as immigrants or ethnic minorities when we emigrants to Spain and elsewhere refer to ourselves as expats? As far as I'm concerned, I'm an immigrant here.

This was also written in response to my comment of

Have you been to London lately????????!!!!!!

so please see what I have written to Caz above.

I have always referred to myself as an immigrant because that's what I am , and had never referred to myself as an expat until I started using this site in fact, so perhaps I'll go back to my roots and start using the term immigrant again.
I would just like to say (just in case there was any doubt) that I'm proud to have friends and students (I'm a teacher) from several countries and choose my (their) friends on the basis of character not ethnicity. And I intensly dislike patriotism be it from Spain, USA or the good old UK.

Just wanted to make sure some things were clear there

[Caz.I]

Originally Posted by Pesky Wesky

Just wanted to explain my frivolous comment above
(Have you been to London lately????????!!!!!! )
as the smilies indicate, it wasn't intended to be taken totally seriously, so I hope it wasn't. However perhaps I should tell of my own experience in London 2 years ago. I hadn't been for 20 years and we went on a totally touristic weekend. We were not attended by native English speakers in almost the entire trip. I remember 1 pub, and a canal boat ride where the people who we spoke to were native speakers. ALL the others were non native speakers, (museums, cafes, hotel, fish and chip shop, Marks and Sparks, etc, etc) and yes, in my naivity I was surprised. Now, that doesn't mean to say that they weren't British citizens, and neither does it mean I am complaining about immigrants. It's a mere observation

Hi Pesky,
yes I realized you werent being totally serious. But I am surprised about your experience too, maybe its because in the UK tourist industry, most of the people that can speak more than one language are not native English speakers! (Harking back to the language thread again!)

[jojo]

What was that song called in the 60s/70s about the world needing "a great big melting pot"?? Well its got one!!! in a few generations, everyone will be the same colour and have the same native tongues in all cities all over the world! I think thats sad in a way, not cos I'm racist, because I'm not, but because we're diluting and mixing up colours, cultures and ethnic backgrounds until they no longer exist! However, its all part of evolution and eventually the fear and idea of racism and what it stands for will become obsolete. (I'm sure the human race will find something else to use to discriminate unfortunately!)

My point is that whatever major city you visit is gonna have a wide cross section of nationalities and thats how it is! We're here and they're there, no big deal really!

Jo xxx

[Pesky Wesky]

Originally Posted by jojo

What was that song called in the 60s/70s about the world needing "a great big melting pot"?? Well its got one!!! in a few generations, everyone will be the same colour and have the same native tongues in all cities all over the world! I think thats sad in a way, not cos I'm racist, because I'm not, but because we're diluting and mixing up colours, cultures and ethnic backgrounds until they no longer exist! However, its all part of evolution and eventually the fear and idea of racism and what it stands for will become obsolete. (I'm sure the human race will find something else to use to discriminate unfortunately!)

My point is that whatever major city you visit is gonna have a wide cross section of nationalities and thats how it is! We're here and they're there, no big deal really!

Jo xxx

Exactly!

[mrypg9]

Originally Posted by Pesky Wesky

Just wanted to explain my frivolous comment above
(Have you been to London lately????????!!!!!! )
as the smilies indicate, it wasn't intended to be taken totally seriously, so I hope it wasn't. However perhaps I should tell of my own experience in London 2 years ago. I hadn't been for 20 years and we went on a totally touristic weekend. We were not attended by native English speakers in almost the entire trip. I remember 1 pub, and a canal boat ride where the people who we spoke to were native speakers. ALL the others were non native speakers, (museums, cafes, hotel, fish and chip shop, Marks and Sparks, etc, etc) and yes, in my naivity I was surprised. Now, that doesn't mean to say that they weren't British citizens, and neither does it mean I am complaining about immigrants. It's a mere observation

Yes, I noticed that, not only in London but all over the UK. I stayed in hotels most of the time I was in the UK and 99% of staff were non-British. The majority of front-desk staff were from Poland, Russia, Switzerland, all gaining experience of top-class hotel management whilst working in the UK.
As for waiters, concierges, chambermaids etc ...I don't remember any being British.
But that was in the boom days when there were loads of jobs to go around and our less restrictive employment laws were attractive to employer and employee alike.
I must say I'm rather proud of diverse and mainly prejudice-free Britain. A couple of years ago a Czech friend accompanied me on a flight to London. On arriving at Heathrow passport queue she was amazed to see that the officials manning the desks included headscarf and turban wearers and that at least 50% were non-white.
'And they are ALL British', I proudly informed her. We absorb almost all newcomers eventually whether Irish, Polish, West Indian, Asian, whatever, with very little real hostility and discrimination.

[mrypg9]

Originally Posted by jojo

What was that song called in the 60s/70s about the world needing "a great big melting pot"?? Well its got one!!! in a few generations, everyone will be the same colour and have the same native tongues in all cities all over the world! I think thats sad in a way, not cos I'm racist, because I'm not, but because we're diluting and mixing up colours, cultures and ethnic backgrounds until they no longer exist! However, its all part of evolution and eventually the fear and idea of racism and what it stands for will become obsolete. (I'm sure the human race will find something else to use to discriminate unfortunately!)

My point is that whatever major city you visit is gonna have a wide cross section of nationalities and thats how it is! We're here and they're there, no big deal really!

Jo xxx

The ideal would be to assimilate to the host culture but not to lose your own.
We Brits aren't good at the assimilation part...