[Culturechat] European/American attitudes changing

[Peter Haggart]

Sorry to take so long to respond to this CultureChat Message -----------

We have not noticed this feeling in Europe during our UnTours. In fact, we
found the local people in Switzerland, France, Austria (Vienna), and Italy
(Tuscany and Rome) to be very kind and accepting of us.

We had been taught be the UnTour contact people in each area to always try
to greet people in their native language - to show that you cared enough to
at least try to learn a bit of their language and also to break the barrier
of expecting everyone to speak English. People are rightly proud of their
own language. Sure we got strange looks and laughter at our attempts, but it
did break the ice and people spoke to us in English if they could after that
opening round.

We had been warned about the French and their "attitude" - but found none of
that attitude at all. People went out of their way to help us.

Pete and Maggie

**********************************************************
Peter Haggart, Faculty Secretary
University of Idaho
Moscow, ID 83844-1106
208-885-6151
Office email: haggart@uidaho.edu
Office home pages: http://www.its.uidaho.edu/facultysecretary
                                http://www.its.uidaho.edu/facultycouncil
Personal email: haggart@moscow.com
Personal home page: http://users.moscow.com/haggart
**********************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: <Bobj244@aol.com>
To: <culturechat@untours.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 7:10 AM
Subject: [Culturechat] European/American attitudes changing


> An article in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine began, "To
> European elites, the United States has become a poster child for bad
behavior
> at home and hegemonic hubris abroad."  This morning the Electronic
Telegraph
> web site stated, "ANTI-AMERICANISM is rising at such an alarming rate in
> Europe that it threatens to strike at the heart of the transatlantic
> relationship, Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, has warned."
>
> Has anyone picked up this attitude one their travels?  Or, is this just a
> high level intellectual debate?
>
> Bob
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