British tourists

[Tanizaki]

I live a few miles from Walt Disney World in Florida. As a consequence, my local grocery store is often frequented by tourists who stock up on food to keep in their hotel room to save on dining out. No problem there.

However, I can only assume that there is no such thing as an express lane in the UK, as about half the time I use the express lane, there is a Brit family in front of me with a laden cart. All I want is to buy some tomatoes for dinner on the way home from work and these people are hoarding supplies for Falkland II.

I hasten to add that the lane is marked with an illuminated sign stating, "10 Items or Less - No Checks". I once asked, "Do they read English in England?" They sure didn't take that humor with a grain of salt.

[Spiffy McMoron]

All I want is to buy some tomatoes for dinner on the way home from work and these people are hoarding supplies for Falkland II.

Actually, it would be kinda stupid for the British to stock up for Falkland II, as the war was over and done with in a short amount of time, and never affected the British Isles, as it took place off of the coast of Argentina

I once asked, "Do they read English in England?" They sure didn't take that humor with a grain of salt.

Britsh humour needs either cross-dressing lumberjacks, Mr. Legiume the laughable mute, or a fat, lamentable woman. Only the first two are actually funny.

[Gopher]

"10 Items or Less - No Checks".

If they ain't gonna check how do they know that they have more than 10 items.......


English humour sans le cross dressing Lumberjacks

[Pagan]

I have yet to figure out why we have so many English tourists here in New Mexico, but we do! The one I encountered was when I was in line at a grocery store, too! They've got two express lanes, but one had to be shut down, there was a mechanical problem. Yes, it was busy, no, they didn't want to shut it down, but didn't really have much of a choice. The rest of us in line had seen this, we understood and we were fine with it. This "lady" (and I use the term loosely) behind me started bitching and moaning in that oh, so annoying English way. She just kept on and on about how they shouldn't have closed the other express lane, blah, blah, blah. I finally turned around and told here, "Ma'am, the register is not working. Now would you just shut up, you bloody sassenach*!" You could have hear her jaw hit the floor! I don't know if she'd ever been called that, but she certainly didn't expect to hear it here! I don't understand it, but they seem to think that we're still colonists, even though this part of the country was never under English rule!

*For those that don't know, "sassenach" is a derogatory Scottish word for the English. I am of Scots descent, so I've got a genetic predisposition for disliking the English. That's not to say that I dislike them all. And I'll get a change to see them in their natural habitat in a little over a month!

[Lace Neil Singer]

American tourists are just as irritating sometimes. I had an American thru my till a few days ago; he spent the entire transaction whining about how they do it better in America. IE, the fact that he had to pack his own shopping and the fact that no-one greeted him when he walked in the store.

I've also had a couple at the country park where I used to work who were New Yorkers... they shouted all the time and gave me and my fellow collegues earache. However, they're forgiven cuz they tipped us all a tenner each.

[LostMyMind]

I always thought sucky people have no nationality. They're sucky because they're the devil spawn

[protege]

American tourists are just as irritating sometimes. I had an American thru my till a few days ago; he spent the entire transaction whining about how they do it better in America.

....so why didn't you tell him to head back here?

[ditchdj]

Interesting that I've read separate articles about how manners are declining and rudeness is getting worse in America, England, and Australia. The American piece blames it on individualism and rap music. The British piece blames it mainly on crass celebrities over there like Gordon Ramsay. The Australian piece caught my attention the most because I have always thought of Australians as laid back and friendly. I guess that got that stereotype from growing up watching Crocodile Dundee and some wrestler from there named "Outback Jack".

[Lace Neil Singer]

....so why didn't you tell him to head back here?

Oh, if only...

[Dips]

I had an American thru my till a few days ago; he spent the entire transaction whining about how they do it better in America.

"So what did you do to get yourself kicked out of America?"

[SongsOfDragons]

When I was working at Woolworths, during the November I had an American blocke come up to my till with a bunch of stuff, and paid with a £10 voucher. He asked me, "How much d'ya reckon that is in Dollars?" I said, "You usually double it. $20." THEN he gonked at the horrible price of petrol in this country (equivilent to $8-11 a gallon).

Then he gave me the voucher, and I looked it over as they train us...it read something like 12/10/2004.
"Sir, this coupon is a month out of date."
"Naaaaaaw, looksie, it's still got some weeks on it."
"But, uh... *O_o* ...you're reading the date in American, not British."
It took some patient explaining before he clicked our dates go day/month/year instead of month/day/year. He looked sufficiently embarrased and fished out the pound notes, verbally wondering why we had such a 'silly date system'. I was tempted to say "Cause it makes so much more sense our way."

He wasn't nasty, just a little bamboozled. He also liked our paper money, apart from the face we have no £1 denomination, and also enjoyed our dual-colour highly-pattered £2 coins.

[Rapscallion]

I believe the US military uses the same format as us for date.

Rapscallion

[Kiwi]

I once had an American who used the word super with everything

That would be SUPER nice of you, thank you

Oh thats just SUPER, wow I love it

she was way too happy!! it was freaky....

gah and I loath and abhore places that use the date,... month/day/year

it makes noooooo sence!!!

[Mixed Bag]

DD-MM-YYYY is charming (when spelled out) but not more sensible, except to the extent it might be easier to convert to YYYYMMDD, which makes it easy to put dated files in order.

I'm sure requesting actions on a certain date from those in other countries with the opposite format has resulted in many inconveniences over the years.

[Broomjockey]

gah and I loath and abhore places that use the date,... month/day/year

it makes noooooo sence!!!

It kinda makes sense. If you write the date out, it becomes August 9, 2006. Short to Aug. 9, 2006, short to 08/09/06.

The problem here in Canada is we're grammatically halfway between the Brits and Americans, so some peope do mm/dd/yy, and some do dd/mm/yy. Drives me crazy.