The Rudest People On Earth
“They are the rudest people on Earth.”
“Customer service doesn’t even exist here.”
“As a whole, they are unfriendly, unhelpful, and will go out of their way to ignore you.”
These quotes are from fellow ex-pats. They’re usually spoken with dripping disdain, eye rolls, and a seething bitterness. The expats are convinced they’ve had the unfortunate luck of moving to the worst country in the world. The catch?
I’ve heard these same phrases repeated regardless of which country I’ve lived in.
I’ve heard the same complaints from Americans about French people, Belgians, the Dutch, Germans, the Spanish, Norwegians, Panamanians and Peruvians.
What’s happening?
The new expats have moved to a new country, full of hope. They feel like a fish out of water, but it’s exciting. Then they’re smacked with the cultural nuances they don’t find exotic or charming. The food is different, the cities are organized in a confusing way, they don’t know where to find anything and everything takes twice as long to accomplish. And while they’re reeling from these unpleasant changes, they take for granted what they know about culture. Some nuances are so subtle they find it hard to accept they’re a cultural difference, and instead think of them as rude.
