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Insolent tourists: counterattack? | ||
Tags: Travel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| ilperugino Pentaglot Groupie Portugal Joined 5174 days ago 56 posts - 75 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 32 16 February 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have noted that some tourists seem to act not as ambassadors of their own culture, language and identity but as someone in their own living room: speaking outloud about whatever they see and think across the streets, the stores or - in this case - the seats of the train.
What to do when you understand the language spoken by them and feel insulted in your culture, language or identity? This is what happened to me the other day. I conter-atacked. I sat next to some tourists in the same train. They were four and sat all over the train, so they were very much at ease, almost shouting to each other. I was curious about what language was theirs so I listen as discreetly as I could: Italian. I happen to understand some 60%/70% of spoken Italian (and speak at least enough to get by...) and it was rather unpleasant (not to say offensive) when listening to the voice-off anouncement of the next station, one of them started - xxxxxxxx (the station) what? Open your mouth! Always talking with the mouth shut. (imitating) "xxxxxxxx" One can´t understand a bit (laughs). and when another of these tourists started reading outloud a portuguese popular folktale of their guide and laughing at it I - (to them, and in Italian) Next time I go to Italy I´ll do as you do. (to the guy who did the shut mouth remark) We talk with our mouth closed for one reason: education. And you have no education. You are tourists and should pay more attention. Goodbye! (I moved to somewhere else) They were shocked, don´t know if it was the words or the fact I was speaking their language. What do you make of this? What to do? Do you find sometimes people (tourist people) are being rather rude in ways they wouldn´t if knew they are understood by "natives"? Edited by ilperugino on 16 February 2011 at 4:08pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5335 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 2 of 32 16 February 2011 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's probably less rudeness than simple ignorance, but it annoys me to no end when I see tourists hauling their suitcases over a clearly marked cycle path with a clearly marked foodpath running alongside it. In those cases I like to skim by them and send them my best "Get off my territory"-glare to herd them in the right direction.
That's just me being helpful of course. I mean, this is Amsterdam, if you don't pay attention to cyclists you're going to get run over by eight of them in the first four minutes after your arrival. :-) Apart from that little pet peeve, I'm generally polite to tourists. They may be ambassadors of their country, but I am just as much a hostess of mine so I try to give them as positive an impression as possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 3 of 32 16 February 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not just foreign tourists. It happens with tourists from the same country. Especially if they're from an area that doesn't have a huge mix of different cultures and attractions.
Go to San Francisco sometime and watch all the midwesterners stand in line to ride a cable car or trolley, as if it were some sort of carnival ride, complete with them hanging out the window or off the cable car steps. It's like it's another Disney World theme park to them. But that's kind of how the tourism industry is set up, I suppose. We tend to forget that actual people live and work in all these fantastic places. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ilperugino Pentaglot Groupie Portugal Joined 5174 days ago 56 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 32 16 February 2011 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, this is more a kind of linguistic dilema: understanding a foreign tourist language enables you to understand (and communicate about) some rudeness of their part, should you intervene or not? Edited by ilperugino on 16 February 2011 at 7:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 32 16 February 2011 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Personally, I wouldn't have intervened in that particular situation, but that's just me. Rolled my eyes? Sure. But probably nothing more. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| xander.XVII Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5054 days ago 189 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC1 Studies: French | Message 6 of 32 21 February 2011 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unofortunately Italian tourists behaviour is often reason of complaint by native people
of the place where they go. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ilperugino Pentaglot Groupie Portugal Joined 5174 days ago 56 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 32 21 February 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, but I love the language, none the less; è peccatto ma... IlPerugino 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5066 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 32 21 February 2011 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think Italian tourists are the worst.
Just think about all of the annoying American, Aussie and Norwegians out there... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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