I had to post this now, because I'll burst if I don't vent.
I know I'm going to sound bad, no matter how PC I try to be, so I won't even try it.
As a little background it should be known that in the past fifteen years, over a million Russian Jews have immigrated to Israel. Now, there were only 5 million people in Israel when this started, so the cultural shock this immigration caused was staggering. When there are that many people which build their own communities, they find it redundant to learn the language. Then, when they come to perform a service of some sort (for example, hook up a telephone line to an alarm in our company 10 minutes ago) they have a hell of time trying to express what it is they are looking for. I have a background in telephony, so I help sometimes, and they called me to see if I can help this guy find what he's looking for. The problem was, he could not explain himself. Instead of trying, he started snapping at me, and then dismissed me as no help at all.
See, I was the problem. I was the idiot who couldn't help. I'm always been taught that if I explain something, and the explainee does not understand, it is my problem, not his. But not here. I have over ten years of experience with this stuff, and I'm the friggin' idiot who can't help anyone.
Pisses me off.
I left the room, of course, not saying a word.
It was important enough to me that he will be polite to me, that there was no way I will be impolite to him.
Now, the Israeli are rude and abrasive people. Very Mediterranean. Not that this is an excuse. Those of us who traveled abroad, and saw what it can be like to be a little cultured, weep a little about this behavior here. The Russian immigrants do to. They constantly complain about how impolite the "old" Israelis are. How they don't get the respect they deserve. I've been observing this for many years now, and I've come to a conclusion: They are as impolite, condescending, and brash as the rest of us. They're just not used to anyone talking back to them. You see, and "old" Russia, there was a definite "Class" status. Those who are educated, and those who are not. Those who work in offices, and those who work in factories. If you are a teacher (very respectable in Old Russia) and you walked into a supermarket, everyone had to be polite and kind to you. Politeness and kindness they would not show to any an all customers. If you yelled at a service-giver, he just bowed and agreed away.
Israelis are not like that. They'll talk back.
Oh, yeah, you better believe it.
It's not always good, and not always nice, but sometimes it is very deserving.
So now I have to sit here, feeling bad, and bitching like a moron, about some other moron which doesn't deserver my attention, yet has the full capacity of it.
Not I'm not just annoyed, but I hate myself a little bit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
did u just call me condescending ?!?!
:))
anyway...
there are idiots everywhere, u don't really need to catalog them.. i met someone like that when i had a flat tire, my brother was changing it for me, and this really weird guy came along and just started giving "useful" advice by snapping at us for fixing our car in a non professional manner... i was literally speechless :)
just FYI:
in the "old" russia (we can just call it ussr :))
if u walked into a store (supermarket?? in russia?? are u mad? :))) and asked the "lady-at-the-counter" to help you, she would usually snap at you.
they were veeeerryyy unfriendly. especially the people who were giving some sort of service.
I stand corrected.
Is there a statute of limitation on blog responsibilities?
I think after 3 years I can be forgiven about stuff like this...
Again, my deepest apologies to the offended :)
here we go again..
i'm not offended.. i dont care about ur opinion of a certain illiterate idiot..
it's just kinda funny when people tell how they think things were in russia when they never had been there and all their knowledge is foreign cinema/literature based
anyway, u are at liberty to hate whomever u choose :)
Post a Comment