[QUOTE=Nojacketrequired;5146698]
Speaking of rude…If someone was being rude and speaking loudly throughout dressage rounds, thereby interfering in your enjoyment of the class, why not just turn around anbd politely ask them to keep their comments for inbetween tests?
It’s always worked for me.
Why sit and suffer when perhaps they just need a kind reminder of manners?
NJR[/QUOTE]
who said we didn’t? Just didn’t work for us.
I was in the barns for a week, helped unload about 400 horses and did lots of other things.
I was really impressed at
A) how friendly most people were
B) what good English almost everyone spoke (this was embarrassing to me as a person who only has one language)
C) how patient people were with getting snafu’s worked out.
I had a great experience dealing with all kinds of people from all areas of the world.
I think this rates close to the top on the list of oddest threads I’ve come across. lol It was interesting to see how almost immediately - post number 4- the insults to us innocent bystanders started flying, though.
People are people the world around - for good or for bad - lol, but the horses, there are some really cool horses out there.
Bad dressers - really - most Europeans are more chic than the average American at these outdoorsy, all weather occasions. My - you should have seen me and my friend at the Kentucky Derby this year, hanging over the rail in our green rain ponchos like two little green turtles in cyclonic rains…'cept I’m from Canada.
A thread bound to stir up a few! Not exactly PC you know.
[QUOTE=NRB;5146919]
who said we didn’t? Just didn’t work for us.[/QUOTE]
Oh. It always works for me.
Maybe I’m just really scary? :mad:
NJR
Rude is everywhere!Yes,
and to be quite frank, Yea, and to be quite frank, rude is all over the place. I live on the east coast and in a rather large city known by its “stats”. I like it here, but you can’t be stupid and LIVE here. 
People yell “f-you” on a regular basis if you look at them sideways - and really, you should mind your own business if you don’t want to become part of the “stats”. But, to say “Europeans are rude” is just really silly when considering the regular run-ins I have with rudeness in the USA. They kind of cancel one another out in my opinion. —End Quote— rude is all over the place. I live on
just a tip
an American who learns "Hello, how are you?, please, thank you and excuse me in the language of the country they are visiting is “
ahead of the game”, also, sadly:cry:, very unusual!:yes:
Rudeness ?
O.k. I am from Europe and I have been there for the whole first week.
What I found disturbing because different from I am used to:
During the dressage tests people were consistantly blabbing and blabbing (mostly in english - no idea where they came from ?)
Jumping up and down in front of me during the Freestyle during a ride and yelling. Would never do such things - “we” wait with our applause until the ride is over and stop as soon as the next rider enters the stadion.
As far as cheering goes - as soon as an american entered the ring the crouds went ballistic, but a good ride of other nations got applauded by most of the americans around me with a short clap of hand. There a lot of people I know are much more sportsoriented.
What really gave me the shivers and what I never experienced before: The last rider of the freestyle did not even receive her scroe when they had Edward Gal in with the blue ribbon and were already interviewing him for the full stadium to here what his feelings were etc. Man that was rude !!! I never ever had something like that happen before anounce a winner, even before the class was over !
In the XC course I felt very embarrassed by some fellow germans. They had a golf cart with them with the endurance team vet on it as she injured herself and could not walk, but transporting the beer on the cart. They were singing as if in a soccer stadium (urgs).
So you see rudeness everywhere if you want to look out for it.
But all the volunteers already starting at the parking lot wishing you a good day, smiling and loughing. People lining up at the awful foodtend without complaining or shifiting mor trying to elbow to the front. I loved it there and I loved the pretty and huuuuuge area for the games. (And before saying who else has had all 8 disciplines on one ground before - hey in small europe we do not really have a huuge place where no public street goes over and all can be done built in one place).
I experienced a very very nice trip and had loads of fun. And who wants to see pictures can got to my facebook Alexandra Fischer (picture a black pony from behind and me on it). Try to find a picture of Linda (US citizen) also on this forum. She and her 3 friends wanted to cheer with my and my friends flags
P.S. as a funny sidenote: Did you know that the footing you are refering to was done by a german ? Company name is Otto. So you can not be offended by the comments on bad footing
We had a great time and didn’t have any rudeness encounters with foreigners or americans.
So glad we went!
[QUOTE=MILOUTE55;5145749]
“Generally speaking I found many of the Europeans Rude”
Specifically speaking, I find you to be ignorant.[/QUOTE]
Yup.
The only rude people I saw were some of the people driving the golf carts at the driving marathon and they weren’t the ones driven by support teams following their driver, but rather by individuals. I saw one driven by an older woman going way too fast and almost run over a small child. I also saw a car coming out of the course way too fast and almost run over a bicyclist. I saw a lot of couples and individuals with golf carts who looked to be spectators and I just wonder how they were allowed.
[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;5147115]
Bad dressers - really - most Europeans are more chic than the average American at these outdoorsy, all weather occasions. My - you should have seen me and my friend at the Kentucky Derby this year, hanging over the rail in our green rain ponchos like two little green turtles in cyclonic rains…'cept I’m from Canada.
A thread bound to stir up a few! Not exactly PC you know.[/QUOTE]
Good post. We Americans think people who don’t dress like us and who don’t speak “English” as we speak it are not equal. Behavior learned during WWI and WWII but which should have ended years ago. We are no longer the rulers of the universe, we owe more $ to China! Just put us down in another country and we cannot speak any other language. And the c;othing, Americans think natural fibers come from a chem lab.,
I watched WEG on tv, and was blown away by the kindness shown by Pessoa and others to the Saudi rider. of course they were all speaking mutliple languages, and I only have a smattering of French and German, but the behavior of the riders and their support staff was wonderful to see.
Being reserved and reticent is not being rude, but Americans often mistake it.
i dont think there is anything wrong with Americans erupting in cheers for those representing their nation when they enter the arena. Its called national pride. While the germans, Aussies, Belgians, etc all wave flags and dress up in crazy costume… we just enjoy screaming and cheering when our riders enter the arena…even if it meant less clapping for other riders. It doesnt mean we respected them any less or thought they were “worse”…just showing some support for the riders representing our homeland
I do wish i saw more people waving american flags and exhibiting national/team pride.
Um, well, I went to five of the eight disciplines and I would say, quite naturally since we were the host country this year, that the US flag waving and cheering was orders of magnitude louder and bigger than the other countries (but not necessarily less enthusiastic!:)).
Me personally, I cheer hard for everybody. Sure, I want my homeys to win, but I want them to win because they were just that much better than everyone else- not because others made mistakes or had bad luck. I’m proud of every single participant that was there, no matter where from, they worked incredibly hard just to get there, which is a magnificent achievement in and of itself. And I’m just generally thrilled when I see a good performance, I don’t care what country the rider is from!
I really enjoyed it when the Belgian show jumping team (hey I’m Belgian by heritage too so yay us!) jogged over and pitched their bouquets to a small but very vocal and flag waving group of their countrymen before mounting for the victory lap. I also enjoyed it when earlier in that class one of the Australian’s took a bit of a spontaneous victory lap after his very nice round to salute the cheering Aussies. Heck, that sort of thing is part of the fun!
I gotta chime in with all the people who found them NOT rude by any stretch. I had a wonderful time and everyone I talked with was incredibly nice! It was such a special feeling to be there, really felt harmonious. The first thing I noticed was how everyone cheered everybody’s else teammates and horses along-- it was an awesome day!
ps…oooh ladies, the foreign men there were worth seeing too! WOW!
(sadly my camera croaked!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!)
Generalizations…
[QUOTE=Peace;5145859]
Never said American’s are never rude…just pointing out my experience which like I said shocked me.
Europeans have been saying this about American’s for years and now some of them on this board are getting pissy because I pointed out I found them generally rude etc. LOL[/QUOTE]
Perhaps some of those who seem “pissy” to you are European, but perhaps we’re just Americans uncomfortable with your narrow view of the world. Your experience with a couple of folks is sufficient to extrapolate the idea that Europeans at WEG were rude? I guess I’m wondering the relevance of their nationality. Do you honestly think that American jumper fans have never become visibly/audibly excited when another nation’s rider drops a rail? Don’t you think a more accurate statement might have been “I was shocked (even though i think this is an oddly strong reaction) by the behavior of some SJ fans in the arena?” As a teacher of rhetoric, yours is some pretty faulty logic. Your post might have elicited some more thoughtful, less hair-trigger responses if you’d simply focused on fan behavior, not used that behavior to criticizean entire continent. But then, that likely wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying.
Funny, the times I’ve been in Europe, it’s the Americans who stand out like sore thumbs… loud, rude, and obnoxious. Always made me cringe.
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