The Daily Mail, 28th August 2009

Tourists behaving badly

1. Please match these words/phrases and the meanings on the right:

Snatch terrible

Sunlounger food

Undisputed to steal

Appalling to take something suddenly or quickly

to ensure to increase or rise rapidly

pushy To display ostentatiously; flaunt

doggie bag To expel gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth

grub (slang) a chair-bed for relaxing in near a pool or the sea

to flash (slang) Disagreeably aggressive or forward

to belch A bag for leftover food that a customer of a restaurant may take home after a meal

chav (slang) to aggressively push into someone or into a queue

to barge young urban working class person with vulgar and sometimes violent behaviour

to pinch (slang) generally agreed upon

arrogant Displaying a sense of superiority or self-importance over other people

dodgy (slang) To make sure or certain

to rocket unreliable, of bad quality; untrustworthy

(to be at someone’s) beck and call Ready to accept and complete any wish or command for that person.

2. Please read the newspaper articles and consider the questions at the end:

Russians snatch 'worst tourists' crown from Germans... even hiding sunloungers in their ROOMS

The Daily Mail, 28th August 2009

For years the Germans have been the undisputed champions of holiday rudeness.

But it seems their long reign has at last come to an end.

The Russians are now considered the most unpleasant holidaymakers in the world, a survey revealed yesterday.

They won first place thanks to their appalling taste in fashion, terrible table manners, and – worst of all – habit of hiding sunloungers in their rooms overnight to ensure a spot at the pool.

Russian holidaymakers have been annoying British tourists this summer with 'rude, pushy ' behaviour, which included hiding sunloungers in their hotel rooms

Those who holidayed in Spain, France, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Turkey, Greece and Portugal took a dislike to Russians, claiming they:

• Took hotel sunloungers into their rooms to make sure they get a seat by the pool in the morning
• Ate 'almost everything' at all-inclusive dinners - even taking doggie bags to stock up on grub
• Flashed their money around and ordered hotel staff to be at their beck and call
• Belched and swore in public areas such as hotel swimming pools and bars
• Dressed like ' chav s' - wearing tracksuits and gold bling
• Pushed into queues in bars and shops to be served first

Holiday-maker Geoff Hunt, 43, said his Turkish hotel was 'overrun' with Russian tourists in July.

He said: 'They were known as the 'Rude Ruskis' by everyone - even the Germans.

'They just barged into queues flashing their money and shouting.

'Two of them pinched four hotels loungers from the pool and took them to their room so they were guaranteed one in the morning.

'They swore and belched their way through hotel meals and took as much of the free food back to their rooms as they could.'

Holiday expert Gary Hewitt, who runs Real Holiday Reports website, said a 'flood' of UK holiday-makers had complained about the behaviour of Russian tourists his summer.

'To be honest, when we started the poll we expected the normal complaints about German tourists hogging the sunloungers - the same old stories.

'But to our surprise we've been flooded with complaints about Russians on holiday.

'People have commented that they are rude, flash their cash around and think they own the place.'

Mr Hewitt, who set up the holiday advice website eight years ago, added: 'With many Russians going abroad for the first time since the country started becoming rich, they do not know how to behave and are known as arrogant, rude and greedy.

'Russians are the 'New Germans' only they wear dodgy clothes, especially the men, who always seem to have a wife or girlfriend 20 years younger then them.'

The poll, entitled 'Who do you not get on with on holiday', has had more than 1,000 hits so far - and the Russians are currently top of the leaderboard with more than a third of the votes.

The Germans are not far behind with just over 30 per cent, the Brits themselves make up 15 per cent, the French 10 per cent and the Dutch five per cent.

In the past 10 years the number of Russian tourists leaving the former Soviet Union for a sunshine break has quadrupled - rocketing from around 2m in 1995 to more than 8m this year.

Last year 1.5m Russians visited Turkey - making them easily the highest number of foreign visitors to the country.

Last year 300,000 Russians went on holiday to Spain, 250,000 to Italy, 200,000 to Germany, 180,000 to Greece, 145,000 to France and 110,000 to Cyprus.

About 70,000 came to the UK on holiday.

Japan acts to avert growing crisis in manners

City hires etiquette squad to shame commuters guilty of bad manners.

Justin McCurry in Tokyo, The Guardian, Tuesday March 25 2008

A young woman applies her makeup, pouting into a handheld mirror as she adds the finishing touches to her lips. In the next seat, a young businessman bellows into his mobile phone, and across the aisle a middle-aged "salaryman" does his physical exercises, blissfully unaware that his overcoat is brushing the legs of the woman seated in front of him.

A montage of life on a Tokyo commuter train this week - and proof that the Japanese, supposedly the most courteous people on Earth, are forgetting their manners. Decrying the decline in standards of public behaviour is a favourite pastime the world over, but in Japan the handwringing is not confined to stuffy social commentators.

A new survey by the Asahi Shimbun daily found that nine out of 10 Japanese believe manners have deteriorated to critical levels - a trend that in recent times has prompted requests for MPs to refrain from texting during debates, and for newspaper readers to fold them on rush-hour trains.

As they witness a rising incidence of "carriage rage" and other displays of un-Japanese conduct, many Japanese are wondering what has become of a society in which just about every social interaction was governed by a time-honoured code of conduct.

Japan is, after all, a place where business cards are exchanged with both hands and accompanied by a bow of appropriate depth; where a simple "Excuse me" can be delivered using one of several expressions; where blowing one's nose at the table is near-unforgivable; and where people over a certain age conclude phone calls with a respectful bow to their unseen call-partner.

Not surprisingly, the worst culprits seem to be concentrated among the millions who squeeze daily into packed commuter trains. Another recent survey found that more than 75% of people said their patience had been tested while using public transport.

Topping the list of offences was talking loudly in groups, followed by mobile phone chatter, unruly children accompanied by nonchalant parents, and "leaky headphones". Other breaches include taking up more than one seat, rushing on to trains before other people have stepped off, applying makeup and reading pornographic manga, or comics.

In Yokohama, a port city south of the capital, transport authorities have had enough. From next week a crack squad of "etiquette police" will patrol subway carriages and - politely - ask passengers to give up their seats to elderly, pregnant or disabled passengers.

Members of the Smile-Manner Squadron, most of whom are well over 60, hope to embarrass young miscreants into vacating their seats rather than allow them to nap or, more commonly, to pretend to be asleep, while those in greater need of a rest are left standing.

The 11 enforcers - officially known as "manner upgraders" - will wear bright green uniforms so that they can be easily spotted by offenders. Each will be paid about £7 a day and accompanied by a younger bodyguard in case a snoozing salaryman takes exception.

"Even though everyone talks about manners, you'd be surprised how tough it was to come up with definitions of what exactly is meant by proper behaviour on trains," a spokesman for Yokohama's transport bureau told the Weekly Yomiuri magazine.

"We're going to keep looking into this, but for the time being we're just going to issue gentle warnings to anyone who is clearly out of line."

Taizo Kato, a psychologist at Waseda University, told the magazine the Yokohama crackdown "symbolises the collapse of the Japanese mentality and shows that we have reached a point where citizens are not aware of basic human manners".

The manner malaise is spreading beyond trains and platforms. Among the other offenders cited in the Asahi poll are neighbours who fail to separate their rubbish into burnable and non-burnable items, and smokers who puff while walking along crowded city streets.

Many of the vices would barely raise an eyebrow in Britain. In a past attempt to stamp out inconsiderate behaviour on public transport, the Tokyo government's list of etiquette crimes included carrying large bags and wearing strong-smelling perfume.

1. Is the first article fair?

2. Are Russian tourists better behaved than other tourists?

3. Why has the first article been written? Who do you think usually reads this newspaper?

4. Is Russian behaviour abroad getting better or worse?

5. Which foreign tourists are Russians usually unhappy with?

6. Are Japanese people too well mannered?

7. Would the Japanese Manner Squadron be successful in Russia?

8. How can any problems be solved for the future?

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