"Faux Pas" or "How easy is it to offend people?"

[snorri]

Just remember that Canadians whose forebears settled there several generations ago do not like to be referred to as natives of that country.

 

[yenrod]

Blow your nose in much of the far east and you'll be looked at with horror.....

But hock up a massive green loogie and hawk it onto the pavement and no one will bat an eyelid.....

Can I have Chips with that please and some side salad if at all possible !

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

The Canadian/American thing is easy, any decent Canadian will have a maple leaf flag stitched onto their rucksack or something...

... and the American will have a Colt .45 or similar stuffed into their rucksack.

 

[simoncc]

Lots of people seem to be setting off on holiday shortly, to various destinations around the globe. It is probably very easy to offend people when you are visiting other countries. There must be things that are easily done, but which cause extreme offence to other cultures.

Is it? I've never been offended by any foreign visitors to this country and I've met many of them.

Just as I'm not offended when a foreigner does something which would be considered not quite the done thing in this country I'm sure the vast majority of foreigners are similarly understanding of Brits in their countries.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

But hock up a massive green loogie

There's no need for an alarm clock in Hong Kong as the ritual to evacuate every body cavity via the throat and project it off into space starts with enough gusto each morning to even waken the dead.

 

[Arch]

... and the American will have a Colt .45 or similar stuffed into their rucksack.

A dig I worked on ran a summer school for US/Canadian students, and one year, one American lad (I think this must have been pre-9/11) brought a 6 or 7 inch long 'hunting' knife with him and was showing it off...(I say 'hunting', because it looked a bit flash to me, not a really useful tool. I suspect it was purely for show.) He was a bit of a dim lad though, all the other American kids were a bit embarrassed by him, he was the archetypal Yank twit...

We never knew how he got it through the airports but I guess they were more lax in those days...

 

[ColinJ]

if caught being drunk on the streets of beijing at 2 in the morning, be sure to quote random monty python soundbites (having established that their english is on a par with your mandarin) and flash your hotel keyring - for some reason this elicits laughter.

And when walking along drunk at 2:00 am with a bunch of mates, one of whom is engaged to a Belgian who just happens to be walking arm-in-arm with her, definitely do not fool yourself into thinking that it would be both appropriate and hilarious to recite the Monty Python Prejudice sketch! That's the trouble with the Belgians - no sense of humour !

 

[PBancroft]

Do not comment on the poor state of anything in the country that you are visiting, even if it is blindingly obvious. Many years ago I went to Poland with friends, and we were given a lift to the campsite by the owner. The road was covered in potholes - for the hour or more drive the minibus jolted up and down.

We sat in the back, singing "bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy" until someone pointed out that the locals in the bus might not be quite so amused.

 

[asterix]

Funny

But they are the PKK, and they have good reason to fight IMO!

Very likely, but those we met certainly didn't like what they came across in the British media. Their English was very good (like many of the Turks we met) and they seemed to know a disturbing amount about the 4 of us, including our precise ages. The resort we were in, Marmaris, was bombed about a year later.

 

[Tony Bell]

When meeting a Greek Cypriot at a family wedding, do not attempt to impress him with your knowledge of his homeland by praising who you think is a Greek Cypriot politician. In my case it was Rauf Denktash, the leader of the Turkish Cypriots. The room went silent and I slunk away.

 

[bonj2]

Get into conversation with the Kurdish Libertion Front. We did but I think we got away with it.. (Although they did blow a few places up later)

so if i take a KLF Cd will they know it's those mad blokes who burn money on scotch islands and make dance music and not some russian shoots with guns trying to stage a coup?

 

[rich p]

Don't ask your Iranian dinner host where they wear their wedding ring if they,ve been convicted of stealing a loaf of bread

Don't ask the vegetarian at the dinner party if she'd ever consider eating a one-eyed trouser snake

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

What's religious about keeping one hand cleaner than the other and using the cleaner one to eat with? I'd call it common sense. If you don't follow it, you'll soon have no cleaner hands to eat with.

Just stick with getting your willy out in newsagents and leave the more cerebral stuff to the rest of us.

 

[John the Monkey]

Should you meet a Liverpudlian, impress them with your local knowledge by asking "Oh, is that the little place near Manchester?"

 

[domtyler]

Is it? I've never been offended by any foreign visitors to this country and I've met many of them.

What about the many visits we had from German Luftewaffe pilots in the early 1940's?