Has anyone noticed that the manners of those people really need help? I mean, they were all nice enough, and there were a couple really cool people (this is in New York State btw) but in general people didn't say please or thank you or be generally courteous. Not that they were mean, but these things just seemed to be omitted from everyday life. This one group of 14 year-olds kept coming and bugging us to give them beer. But they never once asked nicely. Being the courteous people we are, we let them split one beer, and then they were DEMANDING more. We told them to fuck off then. Now, I know they were just kids, but it was kinda disturbing to hear all the stereotypical references they were making at such a young age. About Canada mostly, but they seemed to be just generally intolerant of anything that wasn't like them. It was weird cause they seemed to like us, but didn't seem to realize how insulting they were.
Then it's not just me. Yeah man, on behalf of the United States I would like to take this moment to say "Forgive us, we don't know what we're doing". In fact I think this would make a decent national motto. Sometimes I wish they'd close the borders just to save us the embarrasment. I know exactly what you mean; people asking you for favors and being rude to you while they're doing it, and then looking baffled when you tell them to fuck off. WTF. Never mind rude, it's just stupid.
Its like that here in the UK as well, one of the things that shocked me the most when I was in Canada over the summer was how polite people are over there!
umm... ta mere est l'hamster! I'm just kidding about the french. but yunz tend to be rude to yankee tourists. Je ne sais qua les Americans deteste le Francais, C'est trop Republican... But that entire noun-gender thing is just silly.
I never encountered that. I mean look at how cheap their beer is - why would they be pissed off all the time.
While i've been down in NZ..i've found it extremely easy to identify Americans and Canadians from everyone else. We DO say thank you, your welcome..its no problem..god bless you and things like that.
RE: Not that they were mean, but these things just seemed to be omitted from everyday life. Well yeah. New York's a busy place. They don't mean to be rude they just don't have time. You wanna see rude, and this is going to come across as bigoted, but it isn't - at least I'm not - but go to the Pacific North West and check out anyone who just arrived from Asia. They will ignore lines and simply butt in front of you at cash registers, or shove their way past you if they wanna go somewhere and you're standing between where they are and where they want to be. But is this rude, or simply cultural? I would imagine that in a place that's even more densely populated than here it's even more so. I mean, in some parts of Asia they employ people to LITERALLY shove people into trains to cram them in so the doors can close. How much personal space do you get afforded then?
