Are you local? If not have you fitted in?

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I relocated to South west Wales from Southampton on the south coast.
Generally the people here are brilliant even though its one of the strongest welsh speaking areas in the south.
I get loads of banter at work which is a good laugh, it never goes too far or gets personal.
I love it here its got so much going for it.
I don't really like going home much as all the pubs i used to go in have turned into Tesco extra's or flats and you need to speak polish to order a Macdonalds :LOL: :LOL:
 
South wales peep always seem alright to me....

.....my mate who is welsh through and through and comes from some old family like ap gruffudd or somit and his grandad was some famous welsh botonist, was in a club in north wales and some girl came up and spoke to him in welsh.......well he doesn't speak the lingo as much although his folks do.....but this girl called him an english cnut or something, just because he couldn't answer her in welsh :roll:

I've had some great welsh mates from north wales......but there are bad villages where english not welcome at all..........if your irish or scotish you get a free pass regardless if your a knob or not !

I can trace my family back to the 13th century in Suffolk where i was born, but that doesn't make me want to 'hate people' for it.
 
hamster":2k9kkyoi said:
Lanarkshire: always going on about me being English but 'at least not Catholic' :roll:
Larkhall by any chance?

As for me- only ever lived in Glasgow. Why would anyone want to go anywhere else?

deepfri.jpg
 
I've been in Edinburgh for over 11 years now but if anyone asks I still tell them I'm from Aberdeen. I'd be disappointed with myself if I ever really "fit in" with these Southerners, I tell myself I'm just visiting. I like it here but you going home makes you realise how different the people are.
 
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B77":1cn9pqmc said:
I've lived in....
Norway. Insane alcoholics reserved but after a few drinks......they really don't like anyone non scandinavian apart from the english, they don't get on well with the Lapps.....
Italy. Just one big happy family. Capiche ?

Now living in France, for the last 7 years, I get on ok because my wife is french and we have a shop so are seen to contributing to the town economy etc but when we lived in Normandy I was spat on at work and called a 'white arab'. Depends where you are in France,the north hates the english.

It may seem the some of the above observations include alcohol but tbh the best way to get on in a culture is to go out drinking with it.

It also seems that english men are adored throughout europe, all you have to do is act like a gentleman and open doors, pull out chairs etc and you're in. :D
This isn't sexist, I don't know what it's like to be an englishwoman abroad.

Can relate pretty well to most of this.....

I too lived in Normandy for a year but had plenty of "encounters" before meeting my Ex on a Mission/Wonder Stuff tour of Europe. When I arrived in Denmark, I met my ex within 15 minutes of getting off the train... and my wife before the ex had even moved out... I was, however a lot better looking then than I am now.

In terms of adapting....
Moving from Barnsley to Surrey where I did my degree was an eye-opener. But integration as a student isn't really on the agenda. The locals know you are probably just passing through.
Also lived in Manchester for a couple of years and fitted in well there.
Cherbourg wasn't very welcoming - and neither was Paris.
Copenhagen is OK if you already have a network but fitting in took years. Plenty of my ex-pat friends are finding it a lot harder than I did.
And the middle of nowhere in Central Funen where I now have my own business also took a while - but once I opened the shop and people found out who I was, I now know pretty much the entire town.
 
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brocklanders023":shn0xdwk said:
Isaac_AG":shn0xdwk said:
greenstiles":shn0xdwk said:
I got moved to wales from the east coastwhen i was 5 ...i recently moved back to england aged 43 a couple of years back.......

North wales wasn't so bad but when i moved to mid wales in about 91-2009 it was a different matter...........regardless that i grew up in wales had welsh friends, could speak some welsh....i was not welcome, nor we other english people...........one chap i knew was like me, spent most his life in wales grew up with others, but all through his life he was reminded he was an outsider............when i moved a few miles to a new village, i was imediatly asked'' why have you moved here'' and not in a friendly way...........us and them..........now i'm in england it's kinda a relief after all these years just to be accepted as english..........BUT i know small villages can be very clicky where ever you go !

We moved to a small village, just the one road through it. I'm not sure if that makes a difference here but some of the villagers will say hello when they see us and might comment on the weather a bit but not much more. It's definitely a case of we'll be polite but don't expect any more.

Alison


All comes down to where you live in North Yorks Alison. I've lived in or on the boarder of North Yorks all my life. Skipton's (most of my life here) quite welcoming for the most part and I enjoyed living in Scarborough. I work in Harrogate and work with people from all over the county. Some of the small villages are just plain odd and I've never found the people from 'the middle' (Northallerton area) very warm or friendly, except my work chums.

Could be the old "village mentality" at work? Skipton, Harrogate and York are all places I know well (especially York) and seemed very friendly to me.

David
 
About France, my 8 year old has after school French lessons with one of the parents at the school who happens to be french but all her children were born in England, when ever she has gone back to France and the children have needed medical treatment she has had to pretend they are French through and through as they are considered less of a person and not treated as well if they discover they are British born.

Alison
 
Isaac_AG":2iq0q8ds said:
About France, my 8 year old has after school French lessons with one of the parents at the school who happens to be french but all her children were born in England, when ever she has gone back to France and the children have needed medical treatment she has had to pretend they are French through and through as they are considered less of a person and not treated as well if they discover they are British born.

Alison


Strangley enough Alison, prompted by your thread the other day, I've just come back from the doctors after putting ot off for a long time (thanks for that). Same day appointment no 5 day wait, had me in there for 35 minutes and did every possible check and really sorted me out. I'm quite ambivalent about the french, whilst you can meet some breathtakingly unpolite people and the sheer level of arrogance makes you want to beat them to death with a baguette but the country has an amazing health service, great public transport and job security isn't a dirty word....

Don't you think the french parent just told you that just to make sure you never go to France ? because the french really don't want anyone else here.

Went to wales when I was about 9 played on the beach near a sewerage outfall at Port Merrion got some kind of vomiting fever and kept collapsing, my dad went round the little estate that the holiday place we rented was on asking if anyone had the local doctors number because his kid was very ill, he was told to 'piss off you english wanker' and had doors slammed on him, he eventually found someone who asked him if he had seen the nurse who lived next door to where we were staying, one of the houses that had slammed the door on him.....

Having said that my daughter lives in wales with her batshit mother, always very freindly in the shops and pubs when I go to visit, and have had some great times in Brecfa and around the valleys when we were travelling round there mind you it is south wales, sort of a lot closer to civilisation than the rest of it ;)
 
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