British Euro 2008 Commentating Antics

Despite the fact that not a single team in the UK qualified for the Euro 2008 competition (Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England all failed to do so), there are of course a number of reporters covering the tournament, who have travelled to Austria and Switzerland for the next few weeks. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that, except it seems that they’ve decided to not only comment on the soccer, but also on the countries. Which again would be fine, except I can’t help but be irritated by the articles I read. Admittedly I don’t know Austria that well, having only visited Vienna twice, but Switzerland (at least the Suisse Romande part) I know somewhat better, since my father’s family has lived around Geneva for several generations (at least, before me) and I often return to the ‘family home’ (if you can call it that, especially since it’s just my parents who live there now) for vacations.

What irritates me is the typically British attitude to anything non-British. I’m talking about supposedly professional journalists as well, featured by the BBC. Exhibit A. Not only can the guy not be bothered to do enough research to learn how to spell/pronounce Basel, he also includes this little gem:

I have no doubt, though, that as times ticks on, I will eventually start to yearn for the sight and taste of leeks, marrows, potatoes and broad beans [...]

Yes, food in mainland Europe is SO different from the food you find in the UK. Especially things like leeks and potatoes – find them in Switzerland? Of course not! Next, if you look in the comments, people are giving the author suggestions on what to do while he’s in Austria/Switzerland and one topic that comes up frequently is, naturally enough coming from Brits, cheap alcohol. Next complaint from the comments: the ‘heat’. They call this ‘very hot’?? Strange notion of heat… Maybe they should try spending some time in North Africa or somewhere like India (in fact, pretty much anywhere outside of the UK, apart from maybe Siberia and Canada). Then there’s the enlightened gentleman who refers to the language spoken in Basel as ‘Swiss’

Moving on to a second article. This one is less specific, but it’s just the general tone that I dislike. Does he honestly think that every single person in Geneva is rich? I can assure you, I’m no richer than him, in fact as one of the thousands of students in the area I can assure you we are far poorer than he is. He makes it sound like the ideal place to live, but I can assure you that Geneva has its problems, just like any other place.

Also yesterday I was in a supermarket in town waiting at the check-out line, and there were three British kids behind me (in their late teens I’d guess) who were looking at some Euro 2008 memorabilia stuff on a shelf and making remarks like “ooh, our teams are in the Euro, big deal”. Sounds like jealousy to me.

Having typed all of that, there is one thing I can confidently say that the British can claim over the Francophones: an English keyboard is far better laid-out than a French keyboard. Since when does it make sense to have to press shift to type a period??