Friday, December 4, 2009

How to alienate a gring@.

Following Abeja's lead, I'm going to make a list of a few things that alienate a gring@- of the American variety. I'm sure there are plenty, but here's a small list that came to my mind:

1) Walk slowly on the sidewalks. Gringos always complain about Chileans walking slow and blocking their way. I find it annoying sometimes (when I'm in a hurry), but I'm a pretty slow walker, so I'm probably one of the people who other gringos find annoying ;)

2) Charge gringos "the gring@ price." Especially if they've lived in Chile for a while.

3) Provide HORRIBLE customer service. If the gring@ complains, tell them to go somewhere else to buy what they need. hehehehe

4) Make racist or classist remarks.

5) Be unfriendly.

6) Misunderstand them or make it clear you didn't listen to them when you respond to what they've said. -- Like for example, when a gringa/o lets you know they are vegetarian and that they don't eat red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, or any type of animal cadaver, offer them the vegetarian plate, chicken with rice. ;)

7) Tirales pa' la cola. Make plans with them and then don't arrive. Actually this one alienates lots of punctual Chileans too.

Those are a few ideas that came to my mind offhand. There are plenty more.

5 comments:

Abby said...

hahahaha hilarious. LOVE IT! And so very very true.

Anonymous said...

Oh oh oh!!! Awesome post!!! I want to post on the topic!!! Damn it! Why oh why did the whole blogging community decide to go on a group blogging spree this week when I'm heavy duty into finals and paper writing!!?!?! Ahhh! I officially do not have the time to write another post until after finals but this topic is so awesome that I will have to take a raincheck and write on this item later on.

Eileen said...

oooh! fun! And yes to all of that. Also be sure to tell gringos just how the United States is. En tu país es así, cierto? As thought it were a tiny space and place in time. Uhoh, I feel another blog entry coming on!

Maeskizzle said...

Glad you enjoyed my thoughts.

And yes, that's so true Eileen. Often they do assume things are a certain way. Though the more educated Chileans ask me if things are really as they seem in the movies. Like if weddings are really as "producidos" as they look in the American movies.

I felt like this post was more critical of Chileans than my one on how to alienate a Chilean. This surprised me.

Isabel said...

haha, so true and hilarious. makes me realize how super sensitive we are. i'm going to follow suit...