Americans are rude

[Ian Gills]

In actual fact you are not rude at all.

But foreigners often think Americans are.

After six years of living here I have come to the conclusion as why.

It's a language issue.

If I am on a crowded train or a bus in England and I need to squeeze past you, I would say something like the following:

"Excuse me, please". "Thank you".

Or,

"Sorry." "Thank you".

In America, the equivalent is:

"Excuse me."

No please. No thank you.

And that is why some people think Americans are rude.

[jimbo]

If you avoid trains and buses, you won't have that problem.

This is why god invented cars and freeways.

[hj]

Other areas of the world, they just push you out of the way, without any conversation at all.

[Ian Gills]

Is a little please and thank you too much to ask?

And why no sorries? You very rarely here anyone say they are sorry here.

[Cookie]

Ha, that is funny, that is what Americans think of people from other countries, touché.

How odd, I was just thinking, and counting myself, and others I know, there isn't anyone I know who would had posted a thread like you just did about us, about another people or country; especially even while living in it. Sometimes thoughts like that is best kept to yourself, if that is what you think, it serves no purpose. That... was rude. But like I said above... that is what Americans think of other people from other countries.

[Jerome2877]

Ian is correct, its a language issue. I used to work with americans on the phone alot, and its the little things like when you say thank you here people reply your welcome, many americans say uh huh, or yep. The intent is there but it can come across as rude to someone not used to this.

[dlarrivee]

I'm from Canada, and I say "thank you" as long as the person in my path isn't American or British...

[Cookie]

I say thank you when the person is deserving.

How funny, I used to teach handicap kids. The needs are great for kids with certain disabilities who cannot communicate, whose skills are slim to none. I would teach signing and fingerspelling. I was more concerned that the kids learned skills to make others aware of their needs, ie, they are in pain, they need a drink, ( if not using a feeding tube) or needed to go to the bathroom, or any other needs in order to make them live easier. It is a very difficult job to teach one sign, and required many many hours of work.

How funny, it was when I found a parent or nurse whose main complaint was that I didn't teach them the monkey signs first, such as, for one, thank you. Here we got a kid or kids who needed so much and they wanted them to make sure they seemed polite. I found it sad and disgusted me, and at times, when I was pressured to teach that one sign first, over... others, so much more important.

I don't listen for that word of thank you from anyone, I look for it in actions instead. It is far more important and far less petty.

[Ian Gills]

The older I get the more I realise that relationships matter.

So spoken pleasantries are important.

Yes, actions speak louder than words but where I live we often just don't have the time.

But if you want to give little bows and curtseys everytime you want to thank someone then please go ahead.

I'll stick to the spoken word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb0rnYNsccc

[Cookie]

Where it concerns special needs kids, a thank you and a bow or curtsey are last on the list of those things to be taught. Most have a tube in their throat to breathe, can't speak, can't drink, and eat from a feeding tube in the tummy, most have yet to be toilet trained at age 8. Especially those born with an opening on their spine which make toilet training difficult, yet, most have normal IQ's but are developmentally slow due to a lack of schooling. This is where I come into play. I forget the so-called monkey signs and teach what they need, not what others want to see, in order to feel they did their duty on teaching them to sign thank you. That can come later. You should read better, I also teach remedial reading at any age. I never said, your thank you's are not important, I said, " other things are more important due to their dire needs.

Wow, Ian, when I incorporate them into your world, our world, their parents world, their smiles and hugs are enough of thank you for me.

No verbal thanks are ever needed here with me.

* A note: The father of one of the little boys I am working with is British. He won't go over the signs I want him to with his son, instead, those which pleases his nurses. A big thank you! But, he still craps in the diaper. But, he does it very politely.

[ballvalve]

Want to see rude and get pushed, go to India or Russia.

[Ian Gills]

I've done some more research.

East Coast Americans seem to be particularly rude. Apparently in the South and West they have better manners.

[Cookie]

I have a chemist friend who lives in Cambridge and he reads here often but won't post. He has a message for me to tell you, but, like I told him, "I can't post that here." lol. and, he was born and bred in England. Let's just politely say, he disagrees with you.

[Cookie]

My question: What made the lesson rude?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fri Feb 18,
Yahoo

Nothing puts a damper on a serene afternoon's kayaking like the sight of a primeval sea monster.

That was the rude lesson for Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who'd taken their watercraft out on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere, only to encounter what appeared to be "an enormous snake" swimming by.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph," the 24-year-old Pickles told The Telegraph. "Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal—it's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

But what did Pickles and Harrington expect? Didn't they know that Lake Windermere is reputedly the home of the British version of the Loch Ness monster? In the past five years, sojourners on the lake have reported eight sightings of a Nessie-like serpent.

But the kayaking couple rallied from their shock and snapped the clearest photo of the Windermere "monster" since the sightings began. A journalism professor and his wife inaugurated the recent spate of Nessie-esque encounters on the lake back in 2006 reporting they had seen a "giant eel" somewhere between 15-20 feet long.

Ever since then, researchers have set out upon the lake with sonar equipment, in pursuit of "Bow-Nessie," as the creature's British compatriots like to call it. But so far, their efforts haven't borne fruit.

Of course, people in Scotland have reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster since 1933, and even with dramatic advance sonar and video technology, Loch Ness research teams have likewise been unable to turn up any credible scientific evidence of its existence. Even its most noted hunter, Robert Rines, recently gave up his quest to find the beast after trying for nearly 40 years. "Unfortunately, I'm running out of age," the 85 year-old Rines said last year when he announced he was calling it quits.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, told The Sun he thinks the mysterious appartition people are seeing in Lake Windermere is merely a really big catfish. But all of this speculation overlooks the central mystery in the latest sighting: Why on earth would a couple go kayaking on an English lake in the middle of February?

[LLigetfa]

I'm from Canada, and I say "thank you" as long as the person in my path isn't American or British...LOL
I compensate for polite fellow Canadians by being rude. Mind you, I'm an immigrant, albeit a Canadian citizen.

[ballvalve]

NEVER go to a city with a population over 100,000, and you will never find rude people.

Because there are no buses, elevators, trains or subways.

Frankly, I would go down to about 5,000 just to be safe, then you won't even have a drive through fast food cafe killer.

And live in a warm climate, where the clerk didnt spend a half hour torching her car key to get it into the lock.

[LOTW]

My theory is that blatant rudeness in America is now on the decline because of our liberalized carrying of concealed weapons laws. If British citizens valued self defense over appeasement perhaps Ian would agree.

[Ian Gills]

Rudeness may be on the decline but manners are not getting any better.

I blame American parents. They don't know how to raise their kids.

For example, in England if you need to squeeze past someone in a restaurant or on a train you say "Excuse me, please."

In America, you simply get "Excuse me." No please. Very rude.

[BobL43]

Ian, excuse me please, but I think you're full of crap. You haven't been around much here. I'm from NYC. I always say excuse me please, and so do most of the people I've pushed out of my way.

[DonL]

Rudeness may be on the decline but manners are not getting any better.

I blame American parents. They don't know how to raise their kids.

For example, in England if you need to squeeze past someone in a restaurant or on a train you say "Excuse me, please."

In America, you simply get "Excuse me." No please. Very rude.


Around here if you say "Excuse me please" you get a reply "What did you call me ?"

Then they kick your butt down the road.

That's not rude, People here don't like to be called Please.

[Tom Sawyer]

I don't know about the rest of the world, maybe it takes time for them to catch up with us but yes, rudeness, lack of manners, disrespect, arrogance and all those other social graces seem to have gone the way of the Dodo. I blame a lot of it on parents but entertainment, the media and the internet also play a big part here. We are raising a generation of entitled, self important ill mannered and ill behaved people. Sean Hannity's radio show opens with the line " we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way " and he's supposed to be a "great American" So we've had better than 30 years of political correctness shoved down our throats, has anyone seen an improvement?

[BobL43]

Around here if you say "Excuse me please" you get a reply "What did you call me ?"

Then they kick your butt down the road.

That's not rude, People here don't like to be called Please.

or Shirley, as Leslie Nielson said.

[Terry]

I was waiting for an elevator in Manhatten once, there were six there. I heard a voice behind me say

"What's the matter, that one not good enuf for you?

It was someone letting me know that the door behind us was ready.
It sounded pretty gruff, but it got the job done.

I thought the people in Manhatten were in a constant hurry, but they also seemed pretty nice.

I like the drivers in Los Angeles,
The drivers in Seattle swing between being too nice and too agressive.

People are nice in the stores where I shop, and at sporting events in the city.
My customers are great. I have the best.

[LLigetfa]

What's the matter, that one not good enuf for you?


Whenever someone sits day dreaming at a green light, I ask if they're waiting for a different shade of green.

One time, an irate driver reamed me out for stopping on an amber light. He figured we could have both made it through before it turned red. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I tipped the light too close only to see someone behind me follow through. I had a truck rear end me once when I stopped on an amber.

When my son was around 10, he proclaimed from the back seat that he knew how to drive a car. He had been watching my wife drive and he described in detail the operation of the clutch, brake, and gas pedals. When I challenged his knowledge of road signs, he was spot on too. Then I asked him about street lights to which he said, "oh, that's easy... red is stop, green is go, and yellow is go fast". Obviusly, he learned from his mother.

[LLigetfa]

People here don't like to be called Please.Some in this area have a strange vernacular and refer to me (us) in a plural form of "You" (Yous). There is no such word in the English language, the nearest homonym being "Ewes" (female Sheep), and I certainly dislike being called a female Sheep.

"Hey" (and "Hey Yous") is another common term to which I respond that "hay is for horses".

[DonL]

Some in this area have a strange vernacular and refer to me (us) in a plural form of "You" (Yous). There is no such word in the English language, the nearest homonym being "Ewes" (female Sheep), and I certainly dislike being called a female Sheep.

"Hey" (and "Hey Yous") is another common term to which I respond that "hay is for horses".



Around here if you make fun of someones English you get shot.
Because know one here knows proper English.

[BobL43]

As Danny deVito said in My cousin Vinny, "deese two yutes" are innocent. Yous guys in Canada always call a house a Howsse. As far as somebody waiting to long to move when the light turns green: wadda ya waitin' for, a wtitten invitation?

[LLigetfa]

Yous guys in Canada always call a house a Howsse.Ja, and the plural form is howzzez. And the top is called roof, as in "too" not as in "look". Like y'all would say, "speak proper American".

[DonL]

At least 50% of the Population here pack heat.

So Yall have to be very careful what Yall say.

[jimbo]

Kiss my grits.~!

[Ian Gills]

None of you can speak proper English. Heat packing or not.

I speak the Queen's.

[ballvalve]

Ian, excuse me please, but I think you're full of crap. You haven't been around much here. I'm from NYC. I always say excuse me please, and so do most of the people I've pushed out of my way.

Cuse me pleeze, but in New york, and especially Astoria, auto horns are used constantly, at least 500 to one in California.

It amazed me to watch, and not see a shoot out in NYC. Here, with a gun in evey car, every third driver would have a hole in his palms.

[BobL43]

Cuse me pleeze, but in New york, and especially Astoria, auto horns are used constantly, at least 500 to one in California.

It amazed me to watch, and not see a shoot out in NYC. Here, with a gun in evey car, every third driver would have a hole in his palms.

Yep, NYC is a noisy place. I moved into the suburbs (50 miles out) over 40 years ago. Now traffic here is awful too, but the horn blowing, not bad at all.

[BobL43]

None of you can speak proper English. Heat packing or not.

I speak the Queen's.

That's why you stick out like a sore thumb when you talk. People just hear you speak and assume you are a pompous ass (or as you may say arse) as soon as you say a few words.

[DonL]

You very rarely hear a car horn blowing around here.

But on weekends you hear a lot of gun shots from people practicing for their drive to work on Monday.

[LLigetfa]

You very rarely hear a car horn blowing around here...

I'm not sure if my horn even works. With the airbag, one cannot just go for the centre. By the time I find the right place to push, whatever reason I may have had to sound the horn, will have passed.

[BobL43]

Same here LL

[Terry]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015711094_kentshooting24m.html

At least 11 people were shot at a crowded lowrider car show in Kent on Saturday, creating chaos as cars sped from the scene and frightened spectators ran for the safety of nearby shops.
Patrons and employees in the stores and restaurants locked the doors and crouched in backrooms to escape the gunfire.

[Tom Sawyer]

Washington seems to be in the headlines a lot lately, is there something in the water? I think I would be looking to make a move.

[Ian Gills]

That Washington is, of course, not the real Washington.

I live in the real Washington and I would like to see taxpayers create more jobs here.