Are Argentines too Opinionated and rude?

[Conorworld]

Is there much difference between Portenos and other Argentinos? It can be fair to say our opinion of Argentines is dominated by Buenos Aires. Mentioning New York City there, maybe that aspect is the big city aspect and differs outside Buenos Aires.

 

[Davidglen77]

I totally agree with TomAtAlki, Porteños are A LOT like New York City natives, I am an NYC native and maybe that is why I find so many things here so familiar. One of the things I love the most is all of the Italian culture. It so much reminds me of home, even some of the last names, like Ruggierio, Mecchi, D'Onofrio, and Scarpelli, are some of the same as neighbors back in New York!

 

[nikad]

I think everyone is trying to analyze this too much. Argentines are a lot like Spanish people, it is not that they are too opinionated etc, it is that they talk loud and never let other people finish their points, they interrupt and begin to think if they speak louder and more aggressively that they win. It is cultural, I find they are very nice people and very good people, they just are very loud and also are not good about respecting personal space. Spain is very similar.

It is not just the Spanish influence but the Italian as well, I think anglosaxons would come to the same conclusion in these countries too.

 

[Celia]

This looks like a leading question designed to provoke negative comments about Argentinians.

the reputation of Porteños is of an Opinionated sometimes rude people .

Why bother to include this disparaging description unless to colour people's responses?

 

[jp]

I never understand these questions.

Too rude compared to who? The gold standard of saccharin US customer service staff? The clipped manners of the english landed gentry? Are they rude because they don't follow the same conventions as the Japanese in their treatment of guests?

Ever culture has different customs and conventions. I don't see the point of trying to judge one culture by another culture's standards.

 

[TomAtAlki]

I agree with JP
Nancy

 

[Fernetlovva]

For what it's worth, I've found Portenos to be some of the nicest, warmest, friendliest people I've met in ALL the time that I was traveling around South America.

I was shocked to find that they had a reputation for being arrogant/rude/snide/whatever (and, to be fair, I do believe that they have that reputation).

But yeah, I spent time meeting people from every country in South America, and almost without exception those I encountered from Buenos Aires were the sweetest.

 

[sergio]

I find Porteños similar to Italians. This became very clear to me when I visited Italy last year. They use the same hand gestures, speak in loud voices, will run you over if they have the chance, can be very aggressive (at least in Rome) and are often very rude – the worst were the employees of the Italian railways.

Someone said that Porteños do not trust newcomers. The sad fact is that Porteños don't trust Porteños. The truth is that they are more likely to trust North Americans and Europeans (well, maybe not Italians!) The owner of a prominent real estate agency here once told me that he didn’t worry about foreigners overstaying in temporary rental flats. He said that it just didn’t happen. He admitted that he wound never rent to Argentines, however, without a guarantor. When I bought a flat here some years ago the Argentine owner said that she had had an offer from a Porteño but preferred to accept mine as she didn’t trust Argentines and worried that the transaction could go wrong! A friend recently told me that a writer for one of the local newspapers maintains that Argentina does not have a society, arguing that in a society you need “socios” and there are no socios here - i.e. Argentina (especially BA) lacks a cohesive society in which people not only have trust but also respect for each other.

 

[Moxon]

Someone said that Porteños do not trust newcomers. The sad fact is that Porteños don't trust Porteños. The truth is that they are more likely to trust North Americans and Europeans (well, maybe not Italians!)

I agree.

Can we get over all this there are good and bad people everywhere/why should we judge others with our cultural standards mundanity? These are people's impressions, of course it doesn't mean everyone is awful in BA, and of course we see things through the filter of our own culture and upbringing, but this doesn't make these impressions irrelevant or mean they shouldn't be aired.

I find a lot of what strikes expats as unusual about Argentina are things that could be encountered throughout the majority of the South/Third World/Developing world whatever you want to call it, ie the majority of the world. These aren't unusual things, they are things that have been abandoned only recently after industrialisation and wealth accumulation in the West but this particular brand of rudeness or arrogance is definitely a unique part of the personality of Buenos Aires and so it interests me. I love BA and the people but I don't see why this can't be discussed without the cultural relativism mantra.

 

[iheartargentina]

Thought it might be interesting to hear the other half of the conversation on the Argentine self-perspective and self-criticism. Would this reconcile their noted "opinionated-ness" and "rudeness"?