Expats
At least, the ones who move out to Spain and claim they left the UK because it was overrun with immigrants who we had to let in because of EU rules. Erm, would those be the same EU rules that allow you to buy a house on the Costa del Sol by any chance? And how much effort have you made to integrate with the locals and speak the language?
(lolwhites, Sun 22 Feb 2009, 8:42, 9 replies)

Expats
Touché! Or should I say Olé!
(Pushka, Sun 22 Feb 2009, 12:40, closed)

My aunt was an expat
But she was one of the decent ones. She moved to Spain for the weather, not to avoid immigrants, and she and her husband took Spanish lessons. So much so did they integrate that, whenever they hosted dinner parties for all of their expat friends (some Dutch, Italians, Germans, and English), the lingua franca around the dinner table was Spanish.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Sun 22 Feb 2009, 13:40, closed)

Real integration
would have been that her dinner guests were Spanish. Not other expats.
(The Apeface Cherub is not a cunty-uber-cunt, Tue 24 Feb 2009, 14:43, closed)

But the Spanish ones weren't expats. They were the locals. Kind of by definition, really.

( flake has nothing against your right leg, Tue 24 Feb 2009, 23:19, closed)

Oh
I meant because you mention "with her expat friends (dutch, german... etc).. You didn't mention Spaniards you cheeky imp.
(The Apeface Cherub is not a cunty-uber-cunt, Wed 25 Feb 2009, 10:24, closed)

I
have a house in France and I have tried to integrate - albeit with some difficulty, as we are what they call the "English Invaders", but I must confess, I quite like the fact that Europeans are here as well.

Makes for an interesting life.
(dchurch bah, Sun 22 Feb 2009, 22:05, closed)

Good for you for trying
I live in Paris and try to integrate, my French, while not perfect, is a lot better than it was three years ago. It's the ones who hang around the mock Oirish pubs and don't even try who get on my tits.
(lolwhites, Mon 23 Feb 2009, 8:32, closed)

expats
I have ranted on this before for another question.
Nothing boils my piss quite like a bunch of Brits sitting around complaining about how UK is going to the dogs, foreign types living in ghettos, scaming the NHS, not paying taxes, not integrating, running their cars on EU plates etc, while they sit on the terrace on some "eastend" style pub in France or Spain, watching Corrie via sky tv, generally not paying local taxes, yet still expecting medical benefits as if the were, usually with their RHD cars parked outside sporting an illegal mixture of local MOT, uk insurance, no road tax etc etc. They then go into a local restraunt and bitch loudly about how pie n chips isnt on the menu and its "all written in foreign innit?"
The sad thing is, they seem to be genuinely surprised that they are so hated by the local community.
I quite clearly remember being behind some chap in my local shop as he tried to buy a full calor gas tank. He was talking to the french shopkeeper as if she were a retarded chimp. "gas, I need gas....GAS...G-A-S, hello? do you understand me? I need a bottle of GAS...GAS DO-YOU-UNDERSTAND?"
Im not sure who was closest to slapping the guy - the shopkeeper or me! Standing outside he was moaning to his wife about how shite the service was in there. Turns out he isnt a holidaymaker, but has owned a house here for 3 years, yet hasnt bothered his arse to pick up even the simplest of phrases!
I can easilly imagine if the roles were reversed and he was working back in UK and someone talked to him loudly and slowly in a foreign language, he would tell them to piss right off.
(dave likes cheese, Mon 23 Feb 2009, 13:43, closed)

Quite right
I live in Spain. I live in the centre of a Spanish city (not in one of those weird bastardised Britain surburbs here on the Costa Blanca). My friends are Spanish: My husband is Spanish. I eat Spanish food. I work for a Spanish firm.

If you want Corrie, chips, ITN news, Jade Goody and Heat magazine and to speak English, fucking stay in Colchester or wherever you come from.

Sometimes, I'm embarrased to be English here.
(The Apeface Cherub is not a cunty-uber-cunt, Tue 24 Feb 2009, 14:46, closed)