There's been a couple of comments made to me (from Slovaks) recently about how they view most British people as arrogant, cold and rather self-serving. This seems to be especially true when said Brits find themselves in a foreign country, so I'm thinking there may be some sort of post-colonial pseudo-Empire complex going on there. Let's face it, us Brits had a pretty big plot of what we could call "land" for a number of years, and there have been many stories about British people travelling the world and how they've been told by the country's native inhabitants in what ways the UK has ruined them, since they are official representatives of ol' Blighty, and may therefore offer an apology on behalf of the Queen, the British Government and the producers of Coronation Street.
But there are some horrible instances which happen right in front of you where you wish that you weren't British at all. Toe-curling situations do happen. We are, unfortunately, the Americans of Europe. We're loud, we don't care, we get drunk, we believe that we're in some sort of Eastern European hellhole where everyone is an idiot, we wear clothing that should need a licence, and we're continually amazed that people don't speak English, even when we yell at them very loudly, clearly and distinctly.
Case in point. There was an instance where myself and Mrs. C had decided to go to the cinema together, for a nice date night. We sat down, then three British girls flounced in, walked past us and sat down on the other end of the row. Basically what they said was:
1st Idiot British Lady: 'Awwwraght. This is totally basically the worst cinema I've ever been in!'
2nd IBL: 'Where are the drink holders, where are the drink hold... they got no drink holders!'
3rd IBL: 'They got drink holders on the end of the seat things.'
1st IBL: 'Arms.'
3rd IBL: 'Yeah, arms.'
*pause*
3rd IBL: 'Stupid country.'
So, after insulting an entire country based on drink holders and a cinema (which was fine), they sat down, the film started shortly after, and then the film had a problem and stopped.
1st, 2nd, 3rd IBL: *sighed all at once very loudly*
Apologetic-Looking Slovak Technician: *in Slovak he says that he's sorry about the delay, and that the film will resume shortly*
1st IBL: 'ENGLISH!!'
My toes gripped the bottom of my shoes so hard I thought they were going to break through and grip the floor like an eagle grasping an enormous vole.
2nd IBL: 'Why doesn't he speak English!?'
I'm not with them. Saving grace, I'm not with them. Mrs. C is suppressing laughter. It's coming out in small, disjointed snorts. She pulls herself into the crook of my arm so that even those are muffled.
Friendly Person Sitting Next to IBLs: *translates what ALST said*
3rd IBL: 'Thankyoooou.'
The film went on, it ended, the girls left, and I still felt embarrassed by being near to them, in like a five-mile radius kind of way.
The island culture is so ingrained into us nowadays, that we show off by saying what countries we've been to, and how much travelling we do. Seriously, guys, when you live in a Central European country you can pretty much go anywhere, and the history is way more interesting in some places. From our house, we can reach Vienna in two hours by car, Budapest in two and a half, and Prague in four. We can reach four capital cities pretty easily, and Slovakia also has mountains only a few hours away as well. It's a whole lot cheaper than Switzerland, that's for sure, and you get the same sort of mountains, like ones that are tall and have snow on them.
But Slovaks, don't get too smug. There may be comparisons drawn between Slavic cultures later down the the line, and it's not in your favour...
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