3 statements never heard in Arg: "I'm sorry, I was wrong, It won't happen again"

[Driftline]

Do you realize that drawing incorrect inferences from what someone else says is the sign of a cluttered mind? Either that, or you have a poor grasp on the English language.

Ok. You seem to praise Italians (and Argentines, the descendents of Italian immigrants) as being "honest" when they do not say sorry. But then you say Italians are supreme liars. Then you criticize the English for being false? Brilliant. Who has the cluttered mind in this convo. It's the Italian girl in BA, I'd say.

Lastly, I like how you said, "you have a poor grasp of the English language" as a way of insulting me. You're trying to say I'm ignorant because I cannot understand English properly. It's possible English isn't my first nor my second language. In any case, I'd say your comments are quite ignorant.

 

[toongeorges]

This phenomenon is due to the importance of 'face' in the culture. It is very important to 'save face', to never appear to be a failure. This is definitely something that was brought to Argentina by the Italian immigrants. Italian culture is notorious for this phenomenon to the extreme.

I have lived in Italy for a year, I know several Italians and what you describe here is related to how people define honour. In Northern Europe honour rather means to follow your conscience, even if it conflicts with public opinion. In Italy, honour rather means to leave a good impression in the public opinion.

I do not know Argentines good enough to know if they are similar, but Italians tend to have two faces. Not so much average Italians, but Italians who like to think of themselves they are smart and who target influential positions. In your face, they are your best friends, but behind your back they backstab you.

I found the best way to deal with these people is to first make sure that whatever you do is motivated and to be open to critics so that you can argue you never made a mistake on purpose. Then you need to blatantly seek for transparency. I have had people wanted to destroy my character and I was outnumbered, but whenever I asked people to speak out, all the rumours died and they got silent.

I found out Italians might easily backstab, but at the same time they do not persevere as much when they have a conflict. One day you have serious trouble, the following day nothing has happened. Somewhat like the hysterical behaviour of porteñas.

At the core, Italians are nice people like anyone else, they just have an extra layer of distrust. You just need to get through the layer.

 

[toongeorges]

I can't agree more that the customer service in this country is sh*t.

The picture illustrates the customer service at the airport in Mendoza last September ;-)

 

[gusgutier]

Going back to the original thread, which seems to have gone way, way off-topic, NB. that in Argentina there is no direct translation for the word greedy. It took me a while to work out that here, they don't understand the greedy concept. Just try to explain it to someone and watch what happens !!!

greedy = codicioso

greed =codicia
But angurriento is closer to what you want to mean.