People are only as nice as the setting you find them in

The only reason I have the woke Quora delivered to the inbox is that they decided long ago I could not unsubscribe … then I stopped trying to, as the occasional item was interesting … such as this one, by one Robert Hill:

What tourist nationality do you dread seeing in your country the most (arrogant, rude, pretentious, stingy)?

I worked for a summer in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I saw a lot of foreign tourists. The vast majority were delightful people who only had good things to say about our country, even the ones who were expecting to hate it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and almost everyone I met.

Almost. The exceptions were China and Quebec, for totally different reasons.

Chinese tourists would arrive by the busload and swarm over our overpriced trinkets in the gift shop where I worked during the day. Most of them only had the most rudimentary English, if that, and they didn’t speak any of the half dozen or so languages I can speak well enough to negotiate a gift shop transaction. They also had a completely different concept of personal space and conversational distance so I often felt crowded.

I also worked at a bar in the evening. We almost never saw Chinese tourists come in for a drink so I can’t speak on their behavior while drunk. Since we weren’t a major party destination most of the customers would have a drink or two and leave. Sometimes the Europeans and Australians would have one too many and get a little annoying. But the only ones who consistently got on my nerves were the bloody Quebecois. I don’t know why, but they always thought it was fun when they got drunk to pretend they didn’t speak English. Then they’d call me or the other bar patrons rude names in Quebecois slang (which I understand quite well and pretended I didn’t). I tended to cut them off sooner than other customers for this very reason.

The only time I ever called the police after seeing a car drive off had Quebec plates, if that tells you anything. I’m shuddering just thinking about them.

So the worst a generation ago were sober Chinese and drunk French Canadians. I no longer live in a tourist area and I avoid them whenever possible, so I have no idea who’s worst now. I suspect that as the Chinese got more experience traveling they figured out how things work here and we’ve become better at catering to their customs and needs. Quebec has much less of a separatist movement now so maybe they’re not so ready to insult anglophones when drunk.

And all of this pales in comparison to our worst state. I won’t name it here but you can probably guess it already.

California? NYS? We’ll never know. It’s an interesting question and remember it said “tourist”, as in en masse tourists … busloads. Seems to me that it really depends on that word “tourists” and busloads, as in the Costa del Expat in Spain.

My reply to Robert Hill is that it all depends in which form you see them, it really does. Examples from my own past … let’s start with Finland, Helsinki, late evening, about to do that backpacker trick of overnight train to save on hotel or hostel costs. The Americans were loud, think I was with a Finn and I did go up to the Americans but they were in group mode, like football lads with us … though I know quite a few of these and they’re ok one on one or around a table in a bar.

The Finn said there were “two Australians over there”. They were quiet, you’d not have known. On the way back from the north of Finland by train, I was with an educated east coast American. Two Canadian girls went with me, from Madrid, to El Escorial … as quiet as mice. Swedish girls were everywhere, loud after a few drinks. I met a Spanish girl on a train to Italy … nice lass … lingua franca  for us had to be French. In an American small town, I met a southern Brit loudly complaining that their tour guide had not turned up. I was with a Glaswegian myself … why are Scots so violent in manner?

Answer is that they’re not … some are. South African whites on the whole are fairly brusque. I’ve never had issues with southern Brits, Brummies or Geordies. In Russia, most I knew were direct, yes, but friendly and supportive, they could party. At an Ashes match at Headingley, I wandered over to the Aussie yobs and they were obnoxious. In France, as one of a busload of Brits, the French could not abide us. I started talking to two Americans from Santa Monica (retired there) … we went down the street to a cafe and the French reaction was quite different indeed. With my Russian gal, in Cyprus, at the hotel, I started talking to some Russians, in Russian … they were obnoxious. Same with a few Bulgarians who were fine but my gal had warned me about them.

And so on. No need to draw conclusions about people … it really does depend on which form you meet them in I suppose.