The title says it all. That is what I read a lot on Expat Blogs about Chile. I always wondered what is wrong with me why do I not see it, perhaps I am lucky? After living in Santiago for 2 years I might still see through pink lenses but I guess I might just see it differently. Chileans in my eyes are pleasant and friendly whilst often shy at first. My wife (who is an expat from Mexico) never complained about Chilenos apart from their unclear pronunciation and being highly organised and “correct” which of course can also be a very good thing So yesterday i asked her. “What do you think of Chilenos”.. She said lots of stuff but not much negative – shy, organised, less self-esteem than people from other nations but generally nice people. So I asked: “rude, nasty….”
The answer was what I had expected and what had been exactly my observations which got me thinking more.
Now the Expat blogs I read are mostly from Norte Americanos or Brits and yes in those countries strangers are constantly asking how you are doing even if the people are not at all interested in hearing the answer and often don’t even wait for the response. In the States a lot worse than in Britain but I remember too well when I was going through a rough time living in Cambridge and every day when I walked in to a shop at before 7 in the morning being asked “how are you” in a very bright happy and positive voice. There are moments I don’t want to hear that. I just want to buy my sandwich and be done with it. Often I thought if she really cared…… – anyway… Different cultures… 
– so I stuck to a fine thanks…
Also the Brits invented the queues and my friends and me where often joking that Brits only come to places where there is a long queue and that without the queue there would be no experience 
Night Clubs made artificial queues even if completely empty inside… The missing queues often a complaint about Chile…
So the real question is: Are Chileans unfriendly & nasty or only the way Americans and British feel about them?
The following poll is meant only for “non US and non British expats” and I would be interested to see the results… Please please if you are from the US or UK don’t take part in the poll – but feel free to leave a comment.
ps: sorry for generalising I know Brits are very different then US Americans – both cultures generally nice, friendly & helpful – oh and I miss the driving in Britain – OMG – amazing even in rush hour in London…
Hey Andre! I don’t think I’ve been here long enough to have an opinion on this, but I just wanted to say that it was nice meeting you the other night.
yes indeed it was really good meeting you – would be good to repeat
I am a Brit so could not vote. Doh.
I was saying to my Chilean wife the other day that Chileans are so nice and friendly because they use up all their negative karma whilst driving. I think thats an apt summary. On the whole Chilean and very polite and nice. I haven’t met a rude or nasty one yet. But and there is always a but. Put a Chilean behind the wheel of a car and this all changes. Of course being Brit I drive at the speed limit. Perhaps I don’t really understand those number signs yet. They are speed limits right?
Laters
hey ian,
thanks for commenting – i was just speaking to matt the other day that there are hardly any male expat bloggers in chile – so great to discover you. You came to Santiago recently?
The traffic drives me crazy.. that just works in britain. everybody is soooo relaxed it is so easy to drive there. i am used to “the british passive driving style now” so i still do it sometimes in santiago but people are so surprised that they even forget to thank me ;0 I am starting to adapt though and am becoming more latin when behind the weel..
the speed limit does not really count here – although there are quite a few carabineros out there measuring the speed but not sure how expensive it is or what the consequences are of driving too fast.
I don’t think that Chileans are rude on an individual level or that they are intentionally or maliciously rude. What I classify as rude – and what has made me become frustrated and generalize on occasion – is stuff like people pushing in front of me in line. It’s not a question of them not telling me to have a good day, and I’ve never heard anyone say that’s what bugs them, it’s the impression I get that as a society, Chileans do not think how their actions affect others, which leads to certain behaviors like cutting in line, littering, being late and making you wait, etc. Those things are, to me, rude.
Emily, you must be English! So am I. We are well known for our queueing, which seems to be unique. It’s certainly not only Chileans who push in front of me in line. I have had this problem with many Europeans.
I was actually trying to recall a time when a Chilean wasn’t nice to me/rude and I had difficulty in thinking of one.
In general I find Chileans friendly except behind the wheel of a car as Ian said.
Hi André!
I’m not an expat (well not in Chile anyway, just an English woman living in Austria), but I came to Chile on holiday last year with your father and we found the Chileans friendly and helpful. I had tried to learn Spanish because I didn’t expect anyone to speak any other language, but was even surprised to find they did. On the Metro and the station several people who saw us looking at the map offered their help in English without being asked.
I do agree about the drivers though and you really can’t beat the Brits for that, although the days of the real English gentlemen seem to be coming to an end too in this cosmopolitan day and age.
I just moved to Chile and many of them can be VERY rude and mean. When I first got to my school they seemed very close, conserved, and quite cold. But later on I got to no them better and they can be very fun… theyre just quiet. Ive never seen a loud Chilean.
In my opinion because I live in australia and I worked with chileneans men and women, they love to stabbed you in the back, they appear nice to you to your face but when you turn your back to them they stick their knife on you.
I worked in a hotel with many chilenean women and all they knew to do was to be going to the office with gossip to the boss about the other women working in the hotel, chileneans they love to make trouble for other people and they are TROUBLE MAKERS and they like to spread malicious gossip about people, they are also very jealous especialy when they work with other south american nationalities and they can see we are different, personaly I dislike chileneans I had many bad experiences with them.
i am chilean and i can tell you we are NOT like that. You have gossip all around the world, no matter the nationality. Im sorry you had that kind of coworkers, guess you just weren’t very lucky…
What in heaven’s name is a Chilenean? I thought this post was about Chileans.
Every single southamerican other than chilean HATES chileans. Chileans are very different to the rest of Southamericans.
Not really Alvaro.
Cubans, Costa Ricans, Paraguayans, Mexicans, El Salvadorians, Equadorians, Brazilians (especially Brazilians), Spaniards (mostly) and Western Argentines seem to get along well with Chileans. Not that they have a infatuation with Chileans but its not ‘hate’ as you put it.
I think the only Latin-American people who ‘Hate’ Chileans are Bolivians, Peruvians, and Coastal/non-Hispanic Argentines. Where the former too are far too Xenophobic and racist towards the Chilean community, and the latter is generally disliked by everyone in Latin-America because of the whole ‘Eurocentrism’ bit. In my honest opinion I think its actually Peru and Bolivians that are very much disliked in the whole of Latin-America. I haven’t been too one country yet where a sizeable population of Peruvians and Bolivians hasn’t been treated with contempt and disdain. There are near 1/2 a million Chileans in Brazil and Argentina and for the most part have integrated very well. Even if there a few bad apples along the way.
Chileans are alot like Spaniards in my opinion, they’re an enclosed community but once you piece the barrier, everyone loves you. Even if you have to put up with crap before you do.
We are very shy, reserved, calm, conservative, generous, classist, etc
Many other South American countries hates us because they are jealous of our economic stability.
jaja, what a excuse. anyway, when the river sounds…
I find Chileans pretentious and xenophobic. They like you when you’re a tourist, but when you actually live there they get a little bit hostile. They seem to feel superior when confronted with a person who speaks Spanish well, but not perfectly, even though most of them are unintelligible at best when trying to speak English. I think they’re used to thinking they’re better than everyone else in Latin America, and it has steeped into their overall subconscious. My worst experience was when asking for help while buying supplies for my child’s school. In one place they were quite helpful, but in several others they were a strange mix of pretentiousness and hostility.
My boyfriend is half Chilean and he recently invited me over for dinner with his family and some acquaintances of his expat Chilean father who has been living in the states since he was 19. The Chileans they invited over were also expats although more newcomers to the U.S. (one of them illegally), and I was very excited to meet them, thinking they would be warm, fun people like people from many other Latin-American cultures (Mexican, Columbian, Argentinean) tend to be. I was instead crushed and annoyed at having to sit throughout the dinner listening to them give themselves airs about their European roots (none of them looked very European), about the intensive etiquette classes that Chilean children take, about their superior Spanish (their accent is hard to understand if you’re a Spanish speaker from another country especially since they swallow the ‘s’ sound and speak very rapidly) and many other condescending remarks they made about just about every other ethnic and non ethnic group in the states that wasn’t Chilean. Their bragging and condescending nature really just led me to believe they have some sort of inferiority complex.
I have been in Chile for 6 1/2 years and can honestly say that the Chileans are rude, ignorant and stubborn! They are totally controlled by the Catholic Church and breeding is their favorite pastime! The country is polluted, and grossly over priced. Anything they sell is two to ten times more than the same article in the US! Their food is awful and they have no great chefs or decent restaurants. I can go on but I am writing a book to dissuade other people from coming to this awful place.
What a horrible comment, Chilean food is delicious. I have no idea what you’re talking about. The vegetables are like nothing I have ever tasted in the US, the seafood…. oh my lord the seafood…it’s like paradise. And I am amazed that you haven’t found a restaurant that you like…. everything is great there… they bring pebre and bread at the beginning… how can you not like that? I lived in Chile for 5 years with my family as a teenager and I must say that I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Chileans are funny and relaxed, and treat you right if you don’t have a superiority complex with them. If you come off as a snobby American who knows everything, you will not be nicely treated. It’s their country not yours… I loved spending my teenage years in Chile, I was free to be young… didn’t have boring suburbia around me…. Parents in Chile allow their kids to do their business, the leash is not tense like here. And for that reason Chilean kids are not doing coke and blowing up their schools… they are not bored out of their minds like kids here. People protest in Chile… there’s music in the streets.. ahhhh.. I love the place… when I finish college I’m going right back…I think you have had a bad experience because you are a self-righteous and maybe bigoted American who instead of submerging yourself in the culture have only aligned yourself with other English-speaking people and have learned nothing about the beauty of Chile. Yes, the Catholic Church overpowers more than it should, but there is slow change happening to keep the church out of the people’s and state’s business. By the way, I have traveled all over the place and big cities like Santiago, Valparaiso, and Concepcion just follow the hygiene of other big cities. Are you gonna tell me that Paris is any better?…. cause it’s not… but who cares…. you are just a smug and snobby traveler that needs to be more involved in the place you are in. Just enjoy it man.. or go back to the world of strip malls and be happy.
Haha you show him Fran!
I am Chilean and I agree with a lot of comments i´ve seen. We are shy people, we don´t like to presume, we are humble. But yes, our society is also very classist. It´s strange to find a Chilean being rude with a foreigner, we are nicer with foreigners than with our own people.
It a bit dissapointing to hear some bad comments about my country, specially when many of us (Chileans) are truly doing an effort to get along well with foreigners.
I work online with americans, australians, chinese and brazilian tech companies. Beside applying the rules of thumb of any global interaction (“please”, “thank you”, respect the other’s time and culture, etc.), I try to be proactive helping foreigners in Santiago -where I live. Every time I spot tourists struggling with a map or directions, I approach them in spanish or english, and politely offer them some help. The relief faces are just the same I saw on chileans in the US, struggling with english to pick up their luggage in some airport.
Sometimes a 30s talk can make all the difference.
Yeah, sometimes we act cold, distant, maybe arrogant, but it’s just plain shyness. All you have to do is to kick the door with some “hola, me puede ayudar?” (Hi, can you help me?), and you’re meeting the best side of these folks.
Great forum, I realize we chileans have a lot of work to do.
Thanks & have a great day!
Hey Gonzalo,
thanks for participating. I particularly like your “Sometimes a 30s talk can make all the difference.” It is so true and I have expirienced this on the helping end as well as on the receiving end.
There are extremely helpful people in most countries but a few people are always nasty / unhelpful.
My take. If someone comes to a foreign country he needs to adapt and not hope for all the people that live there adapt. This is more for when coming to live as for coming as a tourist. If someone lives in a country for many years and is unhappy with the inhabitants my advice is “just get the hell out and stop whining.”
I think Chile is a “stirred but not mixed” society, and that’s about the most confusing thing for foreigners coming here. Get 2 tourists on the same plane back home, put them to talk about their experiences in Chile, even in the same cities, and both will end up wondering if they actually visited the same country.
If you drive across Santiago, in straight line from East to west, comunas (city districts) like Vitacura or Las Condes have an average household income of $60k-$85k/yr, most people have at least 12yrs education, and often postgraduate degrees in US/Europe colleges. They look much like east europeans or Spaniards, and are well educated, some of them probably knowing more about your own country than yourself.
You drive 20 mins down to West, and you’ll find the stereotypical hispanic faces, household income ranging $10-$14k/yr, streets not so clean, beggars, stray dogs, white ladies catcalled, petty crime, etc. Like a ditch landing in SouthAmerica.
Yeah, both ends are the same Chile, but there are actually 2 countries, one lagging the other by about 20 yrs. We chileans see this crystal clear, even though it’s a taboo talk, but foreigners are unaware of this.
OMG Gonzalo. Your comment reflects SO WELL everything that is wrong with Chile. Your obtuse view of the of the city you live in, and your limited understanding of the country. Thank you so much for clearing it out for everyone to see. Also, this is hilarious: “some of them probably knowing more about your own country than yourself”.
I agree with you completely! This place is 50 years behind the US and always will be!
Oh noes! That makes us 150 years behind most countries in Europe!
@david spillers,
it baffles me to see that you comment from a chilean movistar IP address.
My advice. Go home in to your hyper developed and perfect country should you believe your current host country is so far behind. This is my second country I am an expat in and it annoys me to see so much arrogance from guests. My first country I lived in was UK and there were a lot of lovely and nice Germans there who I hung out with but some of them had so much negativity to spread against their host country. I always ask myself if everything is better in the country you are born in why don’t you just pack your stuff, go home and never come back?
Yes I agree Andre. What on earth is he doing here if he so obviously doesn’t like the country? I love this country, it’s not perfect but where is right?
I was married to a man from Chile for 20 years. He and his family were arrogant, rude, hypocritical, bragging, nasty, gossipy, truly nasty – no matter what you did you couldn’t please them – they have a lot of issues and seem to be full of hate towards the rest of the world. i’m sorry i didn’t do more research into the country and its attitudes before i married him and his overly involved matriarchal mother and sister – it was a true disaster – they live in the usa and yet all they do is put the usa down – they invented a geneology that they were descendents of (get this) wiliam the conquere, eleanor of acquataine, falk the red, clovis, and a zillion other famous people all at the same time – and talked about it all the time – they would toast to the ‘kings of spain’ whom they said they were related to – amazing – and they would talk in spanish about gays, make fun of people, very super critical and unhappy – very very uptight people – it has to do with their school system and classist culture – the mother spoke all the time about all her hired help, about how she imported everything from england and when i met their ‘uncle’ i.e. a cousin four times removed when he was made a cardinal in Rome and was introduced as a young woman from america, the guy blurts out “America – bah! You people never help anyone- we had a flood in chile and the americans did nothing’ – all this while standing in line to meet the Pope under the gilded ceilings of the Vatican from a Cardinal to be who has spent his life within the catholic church – my ex’s sister and mother were the same way – always in church on sunday and the most unchristian nasty people you ever met – very selfish and ugly – it was a horrible experience – i have a feeling that what i experienced is not unusual – it appears to be a really uptight society – they need to get it together – another time I met one of their chilean friends for dinner and mentioned that my sister in law came from brazil – i kid you not, with a straight face this woman said to me ‘why would one ever want to go there?’ I couldn’t believe it – size of brazil vs. size of chile? Not a nice place – very hypocritical – they really hate americans but they all come to live here and are hypocrites. dont’ trust them…move to a nicer country (Brazil)and get on with your life. above all, don’t marry one.
ps they were extremely racist and loved to tell stories about how all the Indian peoples of Chile had been killed off by their ancestors…they loved to talk about how ‘white’ chileans are compared to the rest of south america – if you want to get true insight from a chilean about the country read isabel allende’s book about chile – my in-laws and ex were in hysterics laughing while they read the book, because she is so spot on about them…of course, they thought it was funny. in the meantime, if you marry one or have to live there, it’s a real disaster.
I am chilean and I left the country when I was about 10 years old, i went back just a couple months ago to visit. I always remembered Chile as a beautiful place with a lot of nature to look at etc. I was shocked to see how people are. A lot of them were very rude. Specially in the airport. It had been about 10 years since i flew out there and people were not helpful at all. I was very disappointed and couldnt believe that they would treat others that way. Very stuck up.
I live in Dallas, and many of these things can be said about here. Maybe we all look at places reflected through our own personalities and experiences. I know when I drive mad, I find many more mad people than when I am calm. Now I want to go there and make up my own mind.
Hello , im Chilean and i think our people isnt that bad , most of us are nice people who doesnt want trouble , but something true is that if we feel that you’re trying to being a jerk or annoying someone , that person will fight back in a kind of way , even puches , but we do that because we dont like to be fooled by other people , i’m not talking about racism or your origins , we are like that even with our own people , BUT thats just the BAD side of the thing
if you dont want be treated bad , dont be bad person , but seiously isn’t really that bad , i mean you know wich kind of things are annoying , we dont have “special treatment” you have only to not do all the things that most of the people in the world hate , you have to know that if there’s something that we think is not fair , we will make you know in some way
in the good side is the fact that we think all the people who comes froms diferents countries are nice people , better than us in some way , and we feel that we have to learn more about that kind of people , so we act like them , or we are more educated people when we are front a tourist or a person who comes from other country , because if you can undestand spanish , then you will notice that we speak like
“hello , faggot , how was you day – mmm it was fucking boring i have a test in the morning but i dont give a fuck , i think that bitch is trying to make me repeat the year”
i know it sounds horrible in english , but in “Chilean” it is not that bad , i mean , most of us dont care if you who are my friend are talking to me like that , BUT if you are a strange and you start talking to me like that i would think you’re very unsophisticated , i know is funny! xD , but it is nice when you are in the correct place to talk like that , and no one will say to you “Oooh how unsophisticated are you” xD because whe dont care , if you come to learn spanish in Chile the first thing you will learn will be “Weon” that mean “Dumb , jerk , stupid ,asshole , etc” , but if you say it in other context it could mean “Buddy , guy , friend”
If you will visit Chile be a nice guy because most of us will start being nice guys to you , avoiding problems and odd situations , asking you things about your country or making jokes about it xD
the chilean is not agressive is very funny and defensive , but if it feels annoyed then it will start being a jerk in a way , then you have to learn some things that you can and can not do in Chile , and i think most of the list would be the same for all the countries , just think ,
what could make me angry? in some way? and dont do it
What could be nice to hear in some way? and do it if you are trying to be friendly
dont expect be ignorated if you are diferent , because we know is odd and we are extremely bad simulating it , but dont think they are being racist they are being curious , how you dress , how tall you are , your skin color , etc , all this not being racist , just extremely bad simulating that we arent doing that xD
Chile is caca and shit and probably the worst country to live in South America, period!People in general of all social classes are rude and have that I Hate Life feeling and will most likely stab you in the back.Funniest thing is they like to call themselves the Most Developed Country in Latin America when 2 of the 3 in the Top 400 Universities in the world are way ahead of Chile(Brazil) and the only University in the list is Universidad Catolica at the back of the list near the 400 ranking.Chile is plagued by poor and uneducated people and dont be surprised to get insulted frequently and people laughing at you in your face for absolutely whatever reason.Chile is one of those countries you learn to hate everyday little by little.If you are looking for a decent standard of life by whatever means, economic and social, you defintely wont find it here.AT least in my experience and by many many others, Brazil is probably the country with the nicest people in South America in general and Argentina are the European Wannabes of South America and Chile is the same shit with different name.The poor Peruvian maids or NANAs speak better spanish than the millionaria quica in Vitacura, hah so eat your own shit you rude and nasty Chileans.You chileans are a shit society and horrible grotesque people which you all deserve to die more than the jews in the holocaust and I would say enjoy your smog and pollution half of Chile, Indios Rotos y Chanchos de racista!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a nice day !
I HATE CHILE BECAUSE THE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE SO MUCH WHEN THEY REALLY ARE THE RACE OF SHIT AND UGLYNESS.CHILE IS A VERY BORING COUNTRY WITH ONLY A FEW LARGE CITIES.THE PEOPLE TREATED MY FRIEND HERE VERY BAD AND BULLIED HIM NEARLY TO DEATH.THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM HERE IS A JOKE, ANYONE CAN INSULT THE OTHER ON THE STREET AND NOT GET PENALIZED.THE MERCHANDISE IN CHILE IS VERY EXPENSIVE AND THE WAGES ARE VERY LITTLE.THE DEGREES IN THE UNIVERSITYS HERE ARE WORTH NOTHING BECAUSE OF THE EXESSIVE SHIT QUALITY PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES AND UNIVERSITYS THAT ARE BECOMING A PLAGUE IN CHILE.CHILEANS ARE MAJOR BULLIES AND ARE PROBABLY THE MOST UNFRIENDLY RACE IN SOUTH AMERICA.FOR EXAMPLE, IN BRAZIL THERE IS MUCH MORE POVERTY BUT THE PEOPLE ARE MORE FRIENDLY AND WILL START CONVERSATION OUT OF NOTHING.THE OPPOSITE HAPPENS IN CHILE, PEOPLE ARE MORE RESERVED BUT MORE LIKELY TO INSULT YOU OVER WHATEVER REASON.CHILEANS ARE ALSO KNOW TO BE THIEVES AT WORKPLACES.CHILEANS ARE ALSO A DEPRESSIVE SOCIETY, WITH HIGH RATES OF SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION COMMON AMONG ALL AGE RANGES IN CHILE.ALSO, CHILEANS ARE THE TYPE OF PEOPLE THAT TALK BEHIND YOUR BACK AT GATHERINGS AND PARTIES.MY AVICE IS TO VISIT OTHER MORE DIVESE MORE OPEN MINDED COUNTRIES SUCH AS ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL, TAKE MY ADVICE ON IT YOU WONT REGRET IT, THIS IS COMING OF A PERSON WHO HAS LIVED IN CHILE FOR MANY YEARS AND HAS TRAVELED ALL OVER SOUTH AMERICA.IN CONCLUSION, CHILE IS NOT WORTH THE TIME, UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET AN ULCER AND A MIGRANE
Chile sucks big time.People here are extremely rude and arrogant, they will make fun of you over any physical deformity or simply if you are different than them.The average Chilean is resentful and poor in education.Oh dont get me started, this country is just another name for Inferno.Chileans have no manners and the people dont shut their big fat mouths up.I can not tell you how rude a Chilean is, Chile is probable the rudest country on the face of the Earth.Anyone who is coming to Chile to live better prepare to get a stomach ulcer and to see a physcologist cause you are going to need it.Oh boy Chile is an inferno, Phsycological Warfare and Mental Abuse dominates the country.Bullying is common in Chile for every age range.Oh that is only one of the problems, everything is so contaminated in Chile with smog and pollution.The majority of the houses in Chile are 4×4 wooden slums and people are so damn ugly in Chile, out of my decades in living in Chile I have yet to seen just 1 person that is decent looking.So in conclusion think a trillion times before coming to Chile, because coming to Chile is a death sentence, and this is the honest truth, youve been warned.
I’m an Englishman who has lived in Santiago for 8 years. I find most Chileans to be just like children, though I do have some Chilean friends, including a Chilean girlfriend. Emotionally insecure, very dishonest, rude-real screw ups. Trying to do business with them is really difficult, they are vague, unorganized and lazy, they are very poor communicators and suspicious of everyone, a result of not being used to common decency, which is in little supply here, there is however lots of bullshit, which Brits like me can detect a mile away. People in managerial positions do not take on responsibility,’ pasa la pelota’. Place of work relationships are terrible, lots of back stabbing and theft.. I really don’t know where they get the dillusion that they are superior in Latin America! Education here is very poor, they are not very articulate due to their poor grasp of Spanish. There also seems to be a crippling shyness, I’ve thrown parties and they just huddle in groups, not very sociable. They also have awful dress sense, suits just seem to hang off men. In a nutshell, a pretty fucked up place, the weather is good though, better than the pissing rain in UK. I could also go on about all of the shit in UK, but it would take too long.
Hey Jeff, thanks for commenting.
I work with an Englishman… A day after I read your comment I asked him if he had posted it as his comments are equal. He laughed when I read it to him and asked me why I just don’t see it. I only work with open minded Chileans that have lived abroad and never worked in a Chilean company so I am lacking exerience for a proper judgment.
However there are a load of honest Chileans in Santiago. Let me give you a few examples. I bought some Ray Ban sunglasses and left them in the restaurant (Open Alto Las Condes), I found out I had left them a day later, called them and they were still there. The waitress had saved them. In Metro Escuela Militar I left a bag with my laptop. Before I had noticed that I left my bag I got a call asking if I had forgotten something. My details were in there on some immigration papers. Lost my mobile phone which got returned to me. I know, yes I am pretty awful with stuff – but this just always surprises the hell out of me. So still after more then 5 years here I am still sane and still like the Chileans that said I never worked with them….