I would like to undesrtand you. Would you like to tell me? But if you will only atack, do not answer, ok?

Question

I am brazilian and I like practicing my english here.
But, I have been realising that my questions are not welcomed.
I know the cultural differences between the english and latin people, but I really do not understand why I always get ironic answers, and swear at me.
Is it so difficult just to answer, without feel that I am atacking you?
When I went to england/london last year, I saw the kind and polite people. It was very nice. But when I ask some more personal things, I get only agressive answers, as I was saying absurd things (see my question about drink - Should I specify amount?)
What is the bether way to talk with the english? Never talking about personal things? Taking care with words that seems to generalize people?
Maybe you do not realize this because you are inside your culture. But for me, a person from other country... it is not pleasant.
What I feel is that the polite and the ironic and agression are very close.... Strange.
Maybe I should never appear here again

Answer 1

I read your drink question and think the problem your having is definately that people feel you are generalising. As has been stated, there are plenty of people in England (I one of them), who do not drink too much, so it is difficult to answer your question when your assumtion is not true.
Yes you may have seen a lot of drunk English people, but there are drunken people all over the world. If you go out at night and hang around places which serve alcohol then of course, the people who do drink too much are likely to congrigate there (though this is not to say thet all people who congrigate there drink too much). You would not have seen the vast majority of people sitting quietly in their homes not drinking too much, or even the quiet ones in the pub, because they weren't making a stupid show out of themselves being drunk and disorderly, your attention is drawn to the badly behaved.
Please don't be afraid to post questions here again, it is great that you're practising a foreign language, but note that people don't like being incorrectly generalised about, and so they will get offended.
(btw if you like to read books in english read a book called "Watching the English" by Kate Fox, get it off english amazon, it'll tell you all about english behavior and reasons for it, I've read it as an englishman myself and agree with the vast majority)

Answer 2

Don't take it too personally, for some reason us brits seem to spend our whole lives insulting each other, and I've been told by a lot of people that aren't british they find it hard to understand.
Eg If I see a friend in the street the first thing i'll say is "Oi you ******* cant!" I can understand how that seems to be strange to people who don't get the british sense of humour. Don't take it personally and throw an insult or two back
By the way your english is great, I wish my portugese was half as good

Answer 3

If you have notice that your questions are rubbing people the wrong way, why not evaluate them before you submit them to a question and answer format. It may not be what you are asking but the way you are asking. Everyone is not open to sharing personal info with strangers. also in the future try not to compare the people in one country to the people of another. would you like it if you were told that Mexican, or Panamanian were better than Brazilians? try not to insult.

Answer 4

No no, your english is fine. You see, in Yahoo answers it is just a forum. There are people who don't take it seriously and will attack you. However, the same person wouldn't say the same things if he was in front of you face to face. For some people, it is all entertainment.

I do that sometimes too but for questions like these ones, then i wouldn't.

Answer 5

You make an interesting observation. People answer these questions for various reasons. Maybe they forget that this is an international site or maybe they're in a hurry to rack up points or maybe they are just naturally abrasive. Don't take comments so personally. Just do your best and enjoy it.

Answer 6

Maybe you should realize that alot of people go on yahoo answers just to write wierd, ironic and stupid answers to rile people up. If that isn't the case maybe you are wording things wrong or asking non-Politically Correct questions. People in the US are overly PC.

Answer 7

Look sweetie, some people are just idiots, others may not understand your questions. I have to stand up for the British and I suspect some of the answers you have received are also from our American friends. Don't tar everyone with the same brush, ( good British saying meaning, just because you meet one moron, don't presume everyone else is one!) You are as welcome as everyone else here. Have a happy New Year.x

Answer 8

If you put a question on here, you will get two or three people with reasonable answers, a few with racist propaganda (they are stooges from an unpleasant organisation called the BNP) and a few silly young children who like to use rude words.

Just ignore the rubbish.

Answer 9

Sardonic, sarcastic, ironic and bitter

four words worth investigating to get a basic grip of internet based question answering forums.

Answer 10

Don't feel bad honey the world and yahoo answers is full of as#holes who just want to stir the pot, ask your ques see the answers try not to let the as#holes get to you there are alot of decent people here as well