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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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 Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| rawiri wrote: |
| VanIslander wrote: |
New Zealand.
The rudest people in the world live there. It's way different than elsewhere. There's a real need for civility.
(If you ever go, you'll know what I mean.) |
Hhhhmmm...no kidding?, well let me just say that i'm biased as i'm from there but your experience of New Zealanders was THAT negative!...wow!, i'm your average kiwi guy i guess, looking back on the interaction
I had with tourists when I was back home, if anything I guess you could say that we were a little over friendly...for example...we met a german couple one summer at a camping ground we were staying at. We had a few drinks one night and got along pretty well... my friends have a nice house down the southern east coast of the south island, which happend to be where this german couple were heading to next. My friends insisted that they stay in their home and also gave them their second car to use as they wished...the german couple stayed for about a week with a meal waiting for them every night when they got back to my buddys house. Suffice to say they (the germans) were pretty blown away at my friends hospitality, and even more so when they tried to pay for their stay but were flatly denied any chance of payment.
This is just one example of the numerous ways i have seen kiwi's go out of their way to accomodate overseas visitors...perhaps you would like to give us some examples of exactly where in your opinion we went wrong...or maybe it's a case of having to take a look in the mirror and think about why you generated such negativity. |
That last sentence was a bit rude,  but I'll excuse it as defensiveness.
| vlcupper wrote: |
I've been to New Zealand, and I loved it!!!!!! It's my favorite country!! The people were super nice to my friends and me. |
I thought my post was obviously tongue in cheek.  The point is that New Zealand is an example of a friendlier than average country, and that the question of which places are rude makes sense. New Zealand is NOT one of them. In fact, my month there has shown me that my fellow Canadians, who I've always considered more polite and kind on average than the places in the U.S. I've visited, are almost rude compared to kiwis.
I am, of course, talking about public mores of conduct and typical social behaviour in an area, not about the habits of every single person come across.
One example: I said to the person behind me in line that I had only five minutes before my ferry was to leave, and suddenly the person in front of me told the person in front of him about it and that person told the ticket seller to hurry up please, and then everyone moved over and I got my ticket quickly. Ferries come every half hour on that route, from Auckland to a suburb on the peninsula across the water, yet the courtesy shown to prevent my delay was TYPICAL of so many encounters I had in New Zealand. In Canada the attitude is USUALLY more "Wait your turn in line" and "tough luck" if you missed a bus or ferry. This is not to say that some haven't gone out of their way to do random acts of kindness. Only, in New Zealand, they were too common to be random. |
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rawiri
Joined: 01 Jun 2003
Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:00 am Post subject: |
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| ok...i officially retract my statement regarding your negativity generating tendecies. Glad you had a good time. |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:01 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| rawiri wrote: |
| VanIslander wrote: |
New Zealand.
The rudest people in the world live there. It's way different than elsewhere. There's a real need for civility.
(If you ever go, you'll know what I mean.) |
Hhhhmmm...no kidding?, well let me just say that i'm biased as i'm from there but your experience of New Zealanders was THAT negative!...wow!, i'm your average kiwi guy i guess, looking back on the interaction
I had with tourists when I was back home, if anything I guess you could say that we were a little over friendly...for example...we met a german couple one summer at a camping ground we were staying at. We had a few drinks one night and got along pretty well... my friends have a nice house down the southern east coast of the south island, which happend to be where this german couple were heading to next. My friends insisted that they stay in their home and also gave them their second car to use as they wished...the german couple stayed for about a week with a meal waiting for them every night when they got back to my buddys house. Suffice to say they (the germans) were pretty blown away at my friends hospitality, and even more so when they tried to pay for their stay but were flatly denied any chance of payment.
This is just one example of the numerous ways i have seen kiwi's go out of their way to accomodate overseas visitors...perhaps you would like to give us some examples of exactly where in your opinion we went wrong...or maybe it's a case of having to take a look in the mirror and think about why you generated such negativity. |
That last sentence was a bit rude, but I'll excuse it as defensiveness.
| vlcupper wrote: |
I've been to New Zealand, and I loved it!!!!!! It's my favorite country!! The people were super nice to my friends and me. |
I thought my post was obviously tongue in cheek. The point is that New Zealand is an example of a friendlier than average country, and that the question of which places are rude makes sense. New Zealand is NOT one of them. In fact, my month there has shown me that my fellow Canadians, who I've always considered more polite and kind on average than the places in the U.S. I've visited, are almost rude compared to kiwis.
I am, of course, talking about public mores of conduct and typical social behaviour in an area, not about the habits of every single person come across.
One example: I said to the person behind me in line that I had only five minutes before my ferry was to leave, and suddenly the person in front of me told the person in front of him about it and that person told the ticket seller to hurry up please, and then everyone moved over and I got my ticket quickly. Ferries come every half hour on that route, from Auckland to a suburb on the peninsula across the water, yet the courtesy shown to prevent my delay was TYPICAL of so many encounters I had in New Zealand. In Canada the attitude is USUALLY more "Wait your turn in line" and "tough luck" if you missed a bus or ferry. This is not to say that some haven't gone out of their way to do random acts of kindness. Only, in New Zealand, they were too common to be random. |
Gee, I'm sorry I wasn't able to read your intent ON THE INTERNET. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:22 am Post subject: |
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Response of a New Zealander:
| rawiri wrote: |
| ok...i officially retract my statement regarding your negativity generating tendecies. Glad you had a good time. |
Response of a NON-kiwi:
| vlcupper wrote: |
| Gee, I'm sorry I wasn't able to read your intent ON THE INTERNET. |
I rest my case.  |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| Kiss my ass. |
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matko
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: in a world of hurt!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:52 am Post subject: |
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Vanislander thinks he's smart.
Unfortunately, he doesn't know where the Mississippi river is. |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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I think this Thread is BS!
we can all say every city in the world is the rudest on any given day!
come on..
What one guy experiences another guy will experience different.
someone said ROMA and MATKO (the Anti Italian agreed)!
well to bad for you guys.. perhaps you just moved in the wrong circles!
I have known people who have lived in NEw York and said its the greatest city on earth.. I have met others who said its the worst!
paris, rome, london, seoul, tokyo, milan, sydney, toronto, blar blar blar
they can all be rude! becuase there rude people everywhere..
even on DAVES!!
it all depends.. some people just seem to attract a certain kind of element
where others attract a better set..
just becuase you met a few waiters, or vendors or someone didnt stop to help you for some reason! doesnt mean its a rude city..
anyway this is BS!!! |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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I can see how Korea would come off as very rude to a tourist. Aside from the usual complaints about pushing etc, I find they often tend to be busybodies with good intentions.
I don't eat at many Korean restaurants because I got sick of well meaning ajumas sneaking meat into my food because they figured it's good for me, even though I specifically asked them not to.
The other night, I had to meet a friend at the train station, and the taxi driver didn't want to take me there, because he said no more trains were leaving that night. It wasn't until I explained to him that I was meeting someone there that he agreed to take me. The whole exchange happened in Korean ( some of it rather broken), and I appreciate that he was trying to look out for me, but you can imagine how it would seem to a non Korean speaking tourist. |
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Gollum
Joined: 04 Sep 2003
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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| desultude wrote: |
One time in Seoul my friend and I could not communicate to the taxi driver where exactly he was to take us. We had instructions written down in Korean, but he didn't know his way around the neighborhood. He stopped every few blocks to ask someone for directions. Finally, as we got nearer to where we were going, a guy told the driver to follow him, and he ran the five blocks to our destination in front of the taxi, and the driver followed him slowly.
The runner did not even wait for us to thank him.
I could never imagine such a thing in the U.S.A. |
You have got to be kidding?
Where did you grow up? |
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sjk1128
Joined: 04 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:17 pm Post subject: Vienna, Austria |
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Vienna:
I went in a restaurant with a friend and we were categorically refused service. The guy wouldn't even seat us. We tried asking in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Portugese, all of which one of us spoke fluently. After a few minutes we just laughed and left. Apparently if it wasn't German, it wasn't good enough.
We also sat on an empty bus and put our backpack (of the small, carrying-things-for-the-day variety, not living-out-of) in an adjacent seat. This old couple got on; and the man actually walked all the way down the aisle, picked up our bag, and threw it at us forcibly. Then he and his wife sat down in a completely different row of seats with disgusted looks on their faces. We laughed some more.
Later, we were riding an escalator and - admittedly - standing on the "wrong" side. This man jogged up the escalator and shoved us over HARD to the right without saying a word (which may not seem so rude in Korea, but Europe?). Okay, this pissed me off but my friend laughed some more. A friend who lived there later explained to us that they always stand on one side and walk on the other.
I don't know.... It was just a general impression from 5 or 6 days there. It was very tidy and organized for a city, but at such a high price!
For this reason, I was surpised to see the posts about Rome. I lived in Italy for 2 years and went there many times. In fact, the above vacation was taken while I was living in Italy, and I couldn't wait to get back. Italians may not usually be in a hurry or very organized as a general rule, but they love to relax and really know how to have fun in my opinion. I think a lot of what seems rude to people who don't stay there for very long is that they rarely let themselves get too upset about anything for very long. If you do the same, you get along very well.
Maybe it was just a streak of bad luck, but it made us swear off the possibility of living in the German-speaking world -- Sapir-Whorf hypthesis, you know? |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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Gollum, your avatar gives me nightmares.  |
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Maas
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Location: T -Dizo - CND
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| Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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| itaewonguy wrote: |
I think this Thread is BS!
we can all say every city in the world is the rudest on any given day!
come on..
What one guy experiences another guy will experience different.
someone said ROMA and MATKO (the Anti Italian agreed)!
well to bad for you guys.. perhaps you just moved in the wrong circles!
I have known people who have lived in NEw York and said its the greatest city on earth.. I have met others who said its the worst!
paris, rome, london, seoul, tokyo, milan, sydney, toronto, blar blar blar
they can all be rude! becuase there rude people everywhere..
even on DAVES!!
it all depends.. some people just seem to attract a certain kind of element
where others attract a better set..
just becuase you met a few waiters, or vendors or someone didnt stop to help you for some reason! doesnt mean its a rude city..
anyway this is BS!!! |
Itaewon guy might have a point here, since many places aren't all that bad... but Moscow is the definite exception. Its a wicked place to check out , but dont expect anyone to help you out. People walk around that city with perma frowns and will certianly not have time for a "tourist". I've traveled quite a bit and never had more trouble then in that city. Almost got robbed there but got out of it thanks to having a (extremely) basic Hap-Ki-Do training & quick thinking. Furthermore the hotel staff was never friendly and neither was the staff of a Hostel I stayed at. Most of the travelers I met along my trip agreed and no one felt a good vibe in that city.
Everywhere else in Russia I went were good times and usually met friendly people who were almost always ready to help or patient with me when there was a language barrier. So yeah Russia is cool sh..t but Moscow is just that; sh..t . |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:23 pm Post subject: Re: Vienna, Austria |
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| sjk1128 wrote: |
Vienna:
I went in a restaurant with a friend and we were categorically refused service. The guy wouldn't even seat us. We tried asking in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Portugese, all of which one of us spoke fluently. After a few minutes we just laughed and left. Apparently if it wasn't German, it wasn't good enough. |
Viennese are some of the lippiest people on earth, to boot. You're fortunate not to have understood the language.
I have never been anywhere where random elderly (especially) feel so free to hand out tongue-lashings. |
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diver
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:00 am Post subject: |
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| desultude wrote: |
One time in Seoul my friend and I could not communicate to the taxi driver where exactly he was to take us. We had instructions written down in Korean, but he didn't know his way around the neighborhood. He stopped every few blocks to ask someone for directions. Finally, as we got nearer to where we were going, a guy told the driver to follow him, and he ran the five blocks to our destination in front of the taxi, and the driver followed him slowly.
The runner did not even wait for us to thank him.
I could never imagine such a thing in the U.S.A. |
Neither can I...because taxi drivers in the US know how to do their jobs, have tests, standards...that sort of thing... |
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diver
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:00 am Post subject: |
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| desultude wrote: |
One time in Seoul my friend and I could not communicate to the taxi driver where exactly he was to take us. We had instructions written down in Korean, but he didn't know his way around the neighborhood. He stopped every few blocks to ask someone for directions. Finally, as we got nearer to where we were going, a guy told the driver to follow him, and he ran the five blocks to our destination in front of the taxi, and the driver followed him slowly.
The runner did not even wait for us to thank him.
I could never imagine such a thing in the U.S.A. |
Neither can I...because taxi drivers in the US know how to do their jobs, have tests, standards...that sort of thing...
Oh yeah...there's one more little thing the US has...an address system that makes sense to everyone, not just the post office. |
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