Anyone find the continentals strange?

whisky_galore · 28-03-2019 2:48pm

completedit wrote: »

No wonder Irish people move to other English speaking countries and even then we stick together.

Because we can't be arsed learning another language.

ToddyDoody · 28-03-2019 2:53pm

Anteayer wrote: »

Supposedly according to someone who's never visited Finland I would suspect.

Just from what someone else said.

I don't mean to turn after hours into a dumping ground.

Feisar · 28-03-2019 2:58pm

ToddyDoody wrote: »

Just from what someone else said.

I don't mean to turn after hours into a dumping ground.

I also rate the Dutch as great fun, had some mental nights in a pub called The Flying Dutchman, a lot of people say they are a dour lot, deffo not the case. However I suppose it's down to the circles one moves it.

RobertKK · 28-03-2019 2:59pm

I know a Finnish guy, it is not a party in Finland if there is no sauna involved. Strangers, men and women getting naked together for the sauna is normal he tells me, and yeah you sit still in the sauna, and you make sure not to get excited, that is a big faux pas...

is_that_so · 28-03-2019 3:02pm

Great tyres!

Anteayer · 28-03-2019 3:03pm

Feisar wrote: »

I also rate the Dutch as great fun, had some mental nights in a pub called The Flying Dutchman, a lot of people say they are a dour lot, deffo not the case. However I suppose it's down to the circles one moves it.

+1 on that!
I always found the Netherlands really friendly, vibrant and I like the zany sense of humor. Dour is certainly not a word I would associate with the Netherlands. It’s very, very well organised (probably due high population density and basically being under the sea if they ever forgot to turn on the pumps, maintain the dykes or miscalculate anything) but it’s one of the most fun loving places I’ve been.

Feisar · 28-03-2019 3:05pm

Anteayer wrote: »

+1 on that!
I always found the Netherlands really friendly, vibrant and I like the zany sense of humor. Dour is certainly not a word I would associate with the Netherlands. It’s very, very well organised (probably due high population density and basically being under the sea if they ever forgot to turn on the pumps, maintain the dykes or miscalculate anything) but it’s one of the most fun loving places I’ve been.

I had a flat tyre in a supermarket car park once, about four different people offered to help and I was only a few mins getting it changed.

Your Face · 28-03-2019 3:08pm

Oh get you OP - dinner table.
A right Fancy Dan, where were you having dinner - Versailles?!

a_squirrelman · 28-03-2019 3:09pm

Which country are you in OP?

is_that_so · 28-03-2019 3:10pm

As good or as bad a bunch as the Irish TBH. Interesting when you're the foreigner. Always found good people to support you with problems.

RobertKK · 28-03-2019 3:12pm

I really like our continental cousins.

OneArt · 28-03-2019 3:15pm

completedit wrote: »

Living away surrounded by foreigners, just find their ways so odd. I was sitting around a dinner table and they were having a really earnest conversation about yield curves. I'm probably just an idiot but just find their ways so odd. No wonder Irish people move to other English speaking countries and even then we stick together. Anyone think Irish people in general are just more jovial and better craic than foreigners or is it just what we are used to? Nothing like living away to make you appreciate home &#55357;&#56832;

*Don't want to come across as bad, just my own experiences living away. You'll never beat the Irish.

You know, I felt the exact same way. About the Irish. When I moved to Ireland.

Seanachai · 28-03-2019 3:34pm

I get where you're coming from OP, even though I've met some gems of continental people while abroad and at home, I would find more common ground with a British person.

I've partied hard enough over the years, but I never really went for hanging out with gangs of heads who saw themselves as being mad craic. I'd avoid them like the plague if I was travelling. To me the real craic is just a spark of mischief and openness to have fun with somebody, even if you're sober.

Another poster suggested that the Irish should take life a bit more seriously, in one sense I agree that there is a lot of reckless partying and a a flippant approach to serious things that goes on.

I don't like the culture of working yourself almost to death that has crept in though, swapping booze and missing the odd Monday for coffee, cocaine and working every hour god sends isn't a great way to go.

Some people just don't have the spark, or else they're not comfortable being that open with a stranger. I'm not the most extroverted person, but I love just chatting to interesting or funny strangers. My nightmare is to be hemmed in at some dinner party in the sticks where I can't sneak out to a bar if I want to.

lainey_d_123 · 28-03-2019 3:59pm

Anteayer wrote: »

It's actually true though the coldest and dampest places I've ever lived have been in Ireland and the UK. The quality of many houses and residental apartments is very low - some of the very recent build has caught up but you've a lot of houses here where the temperature plummets within 10 mins or turning off the heating and things like on demand hot water and central heating were considered ridiculous luxuries by a lot of those from a couple of generations ago while they've been standard in many parts of the continent for probably 100 years.

I think part of it is while Ireland and British weather can be miserable it's not generally cold enough to cause hypothermia so we never bothered with proper insulation.

I lived in a flatshare in a fancy building in the docklands a few years back and you had to put the water heater on for 30-40 minutes every time you wanted a shower. Only one person could shower in the morning before the hot water was gone. Totally ludicrous. 2015, in a fancy new apartment block and no hot water on demand?

The quality of the housing here is awful. Draughts because of gaps in window frames, doors, etc. If you go to Switzerland, there everything is totally sealed.

Tacklebox · 28-03-2019 4:08pm

Working in heritage and tourism, I find the French students quite irritating.

They just run riot and if there's a lonely peacock minding it's own business or a goat wandering around a big lawn. You can guarantee those French will chase it to death.

The Irish students are well behaved in comparison.
Ok they're Messer's but they've respect for animals or fowl.

Electric Sheep · 28-03-2019 4:18pm

mikemac2 wrote: »

The continentals I’ve house shared with must have free oil/gas and electricity where they come from

Heating and immersion on full blast hours each day :eek:

Having lived away from Ireland for many years, I find that Irish people seem to be very stingy with heat and hot water. I'd rather be comfortable in my own home than spend a fortune in the pub "having the craic".

partyguinness · 28-03-2019 4:18pm

OP...that is the joy of experiencing different cultures and people. They are different. Huge amount of emphasis added by me.

Born and raised in Ireland, lived in Boston for 6 mts, living in England for the past 10 years. Traveled all over the world, met all sorts and lived with various different nationalities in my time. In fact now in England I rarely meet a white English person- mostly South Asians. I remember being in a meeting with 5 other people and there were 6 different nationalities in the room. It was like some bad joke.

Danger is not to revert to lazy stereo typing- yes we all do it.

IAMAMORON · 28-03-2019 4:34pm

I certainly couldn't buy into the concept that Scandinavians' are no craic, this could not be further from the truth. Any Swedes, Danes, Fins, Norwegians I have met have been great craic.

I will never forget attending a dinner party with an ex girlfriend in Copenhagen, a good few years ago. I remember how at the start of the night sitting down for a soup starter and thinking this is going to be a really bland affair... Fast forward about 3 hours and the entire party were tobogganing down the main stairs on mattresses, everyone plastered out of it, the clothes were half off and the craic was flowing, it was great stuff.

I have lived in Germany before. They can be anything, and they really can. However when you get a German who is a bit of craic you are into a different league for having the craic. They just have it constantly, side splitting stuff which never ends. They can be mighty.

I don't think being Irish entitles anyone to instantly judge how much fun another culture is. I have met some really bland Irish people in my time, there are plenty of strange ones also.....

chrissb8 · 28-03-2019 5:17pm

completedit wrote: »

Americans are so strange and foreign to me unless they are from California or Deep South or something. I just like the Californians I’ve met mindset. People from the Midwest are the worst, zero divilment, zero charm.

Yeah, hands down, mid western Americans are the weirdest bunch of people around. They all have that weird monotone voice! Devoid of humour and as if acting a bit like a dope is the worst thing. Plus half of them dress like the 90's never ended.

castletownman · 28-03-2019 5:35pm

Tacklebox wrote: »

Working in heritage and tourism, I find the French students quite irritating.

They just run riot and if there's a lonely peacock minding it's own business or a goat wandering around a big lawn. You can guarantee those French will chase it to death.

The Irish students are well behaved in comparison.
Ok they're Messer's but they've respect for animals or fowl.

Just on this, I was at a seminar for museums before christmas, and one of the lecturers told us to be wary of groups of students from those multitudes of language schools in Dublin.

Like wild animals as soon as they enter a space like a museum

is_that_so · 28-03-2019 5:37pm

castletownman wrote: »

Just on this, I was at a seminar for museums before christmas, and one of the lecturers told us to be wary of groups of students from those multitudes of language schools in Dublin.

Like wild animals as soon as they enter a space like a museum

Possibly the juniors, not the adults. With juniors it's also sheer numbers too. It all depends on who's supervising them.

Maurice Yeltsin · 28-03-2019 5:45pm

I'd wager at least a good third of Germans would qualify for the Irish definition of an oddball.

And tight as a nun's baby cannon.

Well, sort of. They are tight in terms of things like eating out, drinking (I've seen Germans nurse a single free beer in my backpacking days). Yet if you look at any room share pages on FB they think there is noting peculiar about paying upwards of 800 quid for a room in Dublin, even a shared room.

King of Kings · 28-03-2019 5:50pm

Maurice Yeltsin wrote: »

I'd wager at least a good third of Germans would qualify for the Irish definition of an oddball.

And tight as a nun's baby cannon.

I work for a german crowd i find them quite like the irish...they good craic mostly...decent humour.
The efficiency thing is a myth ...no idea where that came from...they can be useless at times.
Nice women too generally...

Worked for swedish place before...Nordics are weird as fcuk...esp swedes who are boring and i cant fathom the reputation swedish women have....give me an irish or german lady any day.

Zorya · 28-03-2019 5:54pm

No. They have very nice food. I like the southern ones a lot, the way they argue loudly and laugh and are artistic and clever. And they have a really lovely thing in the sky, the sun, I think it's called. In fact I'm seriously considering selling up in the next few years and moving to a small cottage somewhere near the Mediterranean. That's continental, isn't it? Well, the coast of the continent.

lainey_d_123 · 28-03-2019 5:59pm

King of Kings wrote: »

I work for a german crowd i find them quite like the irish...they good craic mostly...decent humour.
The efficiency thing is a myth ...no idea where that came from...they can be useless at times.
Nice women too generally...

Worked for swedish place before...Nordics are weird as fcuk...esp swedes who are boring and i cant fathom the reputation swedish women have....give me an irish or german lady any day.

Lived with a Swedish girl once in a flatshare. She was awful. Very pretty but totally devoid of any kind of personality and ridiculously uptight. Literally anything slightly outside of her own little box was called 'weird' or 'stupid'. Zero sense of humour, zero ability to laugh at herself. Couldn't move out fast enough.

Feisar · 28-03-2019 6:36pm

King of Kings wrote: »

I work for a german crowd i find them quite like the irish...they good craic mostly...decent humour.
The efficiency thing is a myth ...no idea where that came from...they can be useless at times.
Nice women too generally...

Worked for swedish place before...Nordics are weird as fcuk...esp swedes who are boring and i cant fathom the reputation swedish women have....give me an irish or german lady any day.

Was in Stockholm once, thought I was entering the land of milk and honeys, I was deffo wrong.

Omackeral · 28-03-2019 6:57pm

These foreign fellas could be telling belting jokes in Spanish or Italian and we wouldn't know. However, Paddy blurts out "Feck" or "Arse" and if the foreigners don't get it, they're dry sh*tes.

GreeBo · 28-03-2019 7:03pm

completedit wrote: »

Living away surrounded by foreigners,

If you are living away then you are the foreigner buddy.

SEPT 23 1989 · 28-03-2019 7:13pm

Speaking Esperanto wearing their espadrilles

Nothing in common with that carry on

King of Kings · 28-03-2019 7:20pm

Feisar wrote: »

Was in Stockholm once, thought I was entering the land of milk and honeys, I was deffo wrong.

Been there a bit not my fav place in the world.

Anyone find the continentals strange?

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