Reply to Why are people in DC (Tenleytown, AU Park, Friendship) so mean and rude

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Why are people in DC (Tenleytown, AU Park, Friendship) so mean and rude"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was transferred away from DC to a couple of years.  In my new town, I was amazed that people like the postal carrier, the bagger at the store would actually presume that I was interested in getting to know them.   People who passed me on the sidewalk made eye contact and said hello, and I'd look behind me to see who the heck they were looking at.   It took a solid year before I got used to this, and found that my life was enriched by knowing the people surrounding me.

But I don't think that people there are fundamentally different from Washingtonians.  The difference is that the work day there ends at 5 or 5:30, and everyone makes their 10 minute commute home.  If that extraordinary pressure of commute, kid pick-up, meal preparations, errands were magically lifted, it's amazing what nice people we'd all suddenly become.

But I wonder what explains the phenomenon of the English?   Doesn't matter how stressed Londoners are, they're just unfailingly courteous (to your face -- we all know what snobs they are in private) and pleasant.    [/quote]

This is so true. British culture is more homogenized--you have Africans, Indians, Arabs, West Indians and they are all very assimilated culturally, they speak with British accents, consider themselves British (even if the whites don't see them that way :?  Everyone strives to be as "typically British" so there is a cultural standard. This completely not the case in America, where most groups are always trying to differentiate. I think a lot more blending of cultural values would be beneficial in our country. My father's family is Swedish and to very great dergree I think, the reason the Nordic cultures seem more successful and harmonious is because they see themselves as culturally homogenous. (Of course they marginalize their small minorities--Eritreans, Ethiopeans, etc., but they are so outnumbered they don't have as much influence.)[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics