noemon wrote:You find friendly people in Britain as well, helpful and kind and available for help especially as you move to the North.
I'm sorry to say this to you but my experience with Latin Americans has not been the best either. I have worked with Mexicans, Colombians and Peruvians. Not much with other Latin Americans. I have never worked with Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Carribeans, Argentinians and Chileans. I have always been fascinated by modern Argentina and of course the old Meso American cultures that I really crave to explore. I have had extremely limited exposure to Brazilians.
Together with the local English I find them to be the most lazy, most entitled and most callous people around. I stopped hiring Colombians and Mexicans because they were untrustworthy, vindictive and quite aggressive people. Nothing ever ends well, no matter how hard one tries because they try to make the most out of any situation and if they realise they do not need you for work anymore they will try to fuck you and extract maximum gains, they are unafraid to threaten and blackmail you in open view just to extract some crazy concession.
The best people to work with in my experience are the Eastern Europeans, Polish, Hungarians, Baltics, the people from the Balkans, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs & the Albanians specifically are the finest actually. They have the best work ethic, loyalty and highest code of honour when you treat them well. They also speak fluent Greek and have lived in Greece for the entire or large chunks of their lives making them very approachable. They are largely anti-Greek but once you overcome the hurdle of history by granting them basic historical respect, it's a done deal. So I may be a bit biased with them but the truth is I have never seen anyone working better than an Albanian both in Greece and England. Then the non-Muslim Hindus. Followed by the Italians and Spanish who are largely the same as the Greeks & Turks when it comes to work. Reliable even if usually mediocre. Honorable mentions are the Nigerians, Ethiopians and Black North Africans(not the Arabs). Americans are good too and Black or mixed Americans even better. They respect their work and want to be recognized for it.
The Arabs sit in the same category as the aforementioned Latin Americans and English. Below minimum effort for maximum gain, entitled and callous. They do not care about their work or being recognised for it. They see the days as day in, day out, figuring out creative ways to make their day as easy as possible, everything else and everyone be damned.
This from my limited experiences with people at least.
Apologies for any offense.
I think Potemkin may be exaggerating a bit, engaging in stereotypes or extrapolating from his current personal circumstances. People in the north are extremely friendly and sociable. Mancunians and Brummies are good people as are the Welsh. Fact is, it's extremely cold and wet in Scotland for outdoor social life to become a thing, but you will find very warm and kind people in the pubs.
Well, Noemon your experiences are yours. And mine are mine eh? You are a Greek man but you are Noemon first. All my experiences with Greek people have been overwhelmingly positive. Shop owners and restaurant owners. Later on academics and artists all Greeks. They treated me extremely well and I fell in love with the food and the people and the families. Plus, my mother loved Greek philosophers and Greek history and Greek mythology. It is part of my earliest memories.
Also my mother's first serious boyfriend was Greek. From Athens. His parents died in a car accident in 1959 and he left New York City to go and help out his family in Athens.
My mother always told me that Greek culture was the core of the Mediterranean cultures that dominated what is known as Western Civilization. She insisted on learning about it, and made it an important part of my earliest memories. As a child. I follow that with my son. I read to him about it all. The history and the traditions. He is quite curious. He asks about what it all means. Kids are great that way.
At the same time I talk to him about Mayan civilization. And the great African civilizations. All human civilizations are great places to tell stories.
It is strange @noemon but I have to say almost all my interactions with Greek people and with other people from a very diverse group of cultures has been very positive in my life.
I would laugh with Potemkin there....because the truth is the United Kingdom is a place rarely talked about in my family. Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales never were central to my home life growing up at all. Mexico on the other hand I would visit almost every weekend from the age of 8-14 years old. It was a part of my childhood and later on I visited almost every state of Mexico...Mexico has 32 states. The official name of Mexico is
Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos or The United States of Mexico. If you study the history of Mexico it is full of diverse Indigenous cultures. From the most loose coalition of small tribes with no hiarchical structures to the most elaborate class and status divided empires. It is tremendously fascinating. Mexico also has German Mennonites, Jews, Lebanese immigrants, Arabs, Germans, French and Italian immigrants and everyone in between. The Yucatan has a good number of Koreans. One avenue here is named Republic of Corea....Republic of Korea. It also has Japanese immigrants. Mexico is a lot more diverse than many people realize. One of the liberators for Mexican independence was called Vicente Guerrero. He was a Black Mexican 'father of the nation'. Let me see if I can find a photo? Or a video eh?
People rarely study the nations of Latin America in depth.
I wish they would. It was very interesting.
The Americas are full of racial and cultural mixtures. Most human culture has never been pure Noemon. Not for Greece and not for Europe and not for anyone really. Diversity brings richness and beauty but it is a very human thing to vary. Within Greek society as Sparta was another culture that was not the same at Athens or Crete etc. All varies. As it should.
The UK should enjoy the rich variation of all the opportunities for the other EU nations to come and work in the UK and be part of that larger community.
I do not know what kind of business you do that you have all these people not wanting to work much. Lol. I get bombarded with people who clamor to work with me and for me. I just wish I could hire a lot of people. I got so many who enjoyed working with me in the past here and who say....I do not care what kind of business you will be doing in the future, but I want to be a part of whatever you do. It is great to hear that!
But, the Yucatecans are reliable if you get the right Yucatecan. Lol. There are the lazy too. And the irresponsible. Lol. That is universal. But you get the good ones too. The ones who are responsible and honorable and full of good will.
They vary too.
Brazilians I know well. I like them a whole lot!
- By wat0n
- By Puffer Fish