why i hate being classed as an ex pat.

[twisted_trinity]

i've lived out here now for 2 years. i've never taken up a place in a spanish school, i have private medical insurance, i don't think i have really taken anything out of the spanish economy.

but there are so many people who come out here, without knowing any spanish, no wish to intergrate. yet more thousands come here every summer to get rat arsed, and end up in hospital.

more and more people are coming every year, and unlike the skandinavians, and the dutch, and germans, they don't seem to want to intergrate.

taken from another post i worte: people are draining their resource, taking their places in local schools, driving people out of there own villages, complaing of noise when they are practicing flamenco, disliking the food. and making a general nusance of themselves. take take take and no giving back.

i hate it. i really really do. and people just give people like me and my mother who runs 2 businesses that give something back to the community, and take an active part in the community.

[Fiend_85]

I think it is the Height of disrespect and bad manners (more of a plateau really, room for lots of things up there) to move to another country without any desire to learn the language. Going there without knowing any is one thing, but refusing to learn is another.

Though on the issue of tourism, really, it's part of it, and with an E111 nothing is taken from the spanish authorities anyway.

[xmizzcattyx]

my grandad and his evil wife live in spain for half of the year each year and they don't speak a single word of the language. i think its very bad taste

[girl with sharp teeth]

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[twisted_trinity]

Originally posted by Fiend_85

Though on the issue of tourism, really, it's part of it, and with an E111 nothing is taken from the spanish authorities anyway.

exsept valuable time in a&e (urgencias here), which could be used on saving someones life, rather than helping some sunburnt pratt thats drunk too much.

[twisted_trinity]

Originally posted by girl with sharp teeth

Do you think there are any solutions to this problem Trinity? And is the situation getting worse or better?



personaly, i think it is starting to get better. last summer loads of people moved over here thinking they could live the easy life off their savings and not bother with the language and stuff. worked illegaly if they did work and so many people have now gone bakc because the money has run out.

i speak quite a bit of spanish, enough to have a good convo with someone and stuff, but it awful the fact that some english resturants in fuengirola don't have the menu in spanish, and the council had to lay it down as a new by law.

[girl with sharp teeth]

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[twisted_trinity]

Originally posted by girl with sharp teeth
Just to twist this slightly - in Bradford there are plenty of signs in Urdu, but you have to really search to find the corresponding english version (I'm thinking of Shipley train station in particular here). Is this any different? Is it any better or worse?

i don't often find it to that exent, but then again i'm sure that would be the problem if the spanish alphabet was much more different

[MrG]

Originally posted by twisted_trinity
exsept valuable time in a&e (urgencias here), which could be used on saving someones life, rather than helping some sunburnt pratt thats drunk too much.

yeh you dont realise that doctors are not supposed to get into political arguments like this, they treat the patients that come in the door, the problem would be with the hippocratic oath not the drunken sun burnt fools, and do you really think that they are going to deal with someone that has sunburn, buy using a highly skilled doctor who does live saving things in a particular area

[Namaste]

I know it's a bit on a tangent... but is English very widespread throughout Spain?

[Olive]

Originally posted by twisted_trinity
exsept valuable time in a&e (urgencias here), which could be used on saving someones life, rather than helping some sunburnt pratt thats drunk too much.

we have the same thing here. it's quite sad.

anyone who's been (sober) to a+e late at night will know what i mean. 80% of the people there have either just drunk too much, drunk too much and got into a fight, or drunk too much and fallen over in a pile of bottles.

but i'd say we have a similar immigration problem here. i'm a third generation immigrant, and my grandparents came here with nothing at all. and they worked their asses off to get the things that they had. and they learned the language, and they respected the law/culture. so it kind of pisses me off when immigrants (and it's only a minority) come here and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate, while having little or no respect for the way we live.

i guess it's the same story everywhere.

[Disillusioned]

The Brits who live in Spain and don’t speak a word of Spanish are a little rude but lets remember that if they all just left it would massively hurt the Spanish economy.

[Maladjusted]

Originally posted by kaffrin

but i'd say we have a similar immigration problem here. i'm a third generation immigrant, and my grandparents came here with nothing at all. and they worked their asses off to get the things that they had. and they learned the language, and they respected the law/culture. so it kind of pisses me off when immigrants (and it's only a minority) come here and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate, while having little or no respect for the way we live.

i guess it's the same story everywhere.

Agreed totally, same thing with me and my family.

[Aladdin]

I used to get incensed at the English 'ghettos' you come across some places in Spain... be short-term holiday resorts like Magaluf or complexes of apartments and houses for long-term residents with not a Spanish word seen in print (or spoken), horrendously tacky 'British pubs' called Britannia or something like that, supermarkets selling ‘British branded goods’ (cos’ they couldn’t possibly eat the local funny dago food could they) and "restaurants" offering hot dogs, fish and chips and fry-ups.

But then my family and friends tell me they are actually quite pleased with such arrangements... that way the low-brow, uncultured masses who behave like louts and/or refuse to respect and learn about the local culture stay in one spot, leaving the rest of the land uncontaminated. ;)

And the conscious, caring, respectful British residents, such as twisted_trinity seems to be, can also live in peace amongst the Spanish, and away from the low-brow lot.

[girl with sharp teeth]

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