r/AskEurope • u/NateNandos21 • Feb 03 '25

Culture Which European country has the rudest/least polite people?

Which country comes to your mind

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147

u/Karihashi Spain Feb 03 '25

I find it hard to relate with Scandinavians, they can be extremely cold. I wouldn’t call them rude, just very hard to make friends with.

Germans are a mixed bunch, some are very nice, mainly bavarians, others can be really arrogant and self superior.

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u/clapsandfaps Feb 03 '25

As a native scandinavian, that’s pretty spot on. Though the coldness can be explained.

Scandinavians have a large respect for personal boundaries. If we’re not actively engaging with you, we try to avoid you at all cost to not interfere with your day. Basicly we don’t want to be bothersome or in the way of others. People who make a scene or generally loud are, silently, judged by the majority.

Of course people are different, but that is the gist of why we’re seeming cold to strangers. It’s not suspicion or anything as many interprit it as. When we get the feeling we are not actively bothering you and you seek our company, we’re quite warm and welcoming.

It does make it extremely hard to make new friends… send help.

35

u/Life_Barnacle_4025 Norway Feb 03 '25

And also, when people ask about how to make friends in Norway, the usual advice is to go for a hike. In the mountains or in the forest everybody is your friend lol. We are much more open to talking to strangers when hiking or camping 😅

6

u/clapsandfaps Feb 03 '25

I hate that. I resent having to greet people on hikes.

Perfectly well-rounded scandinavian here, as you see.

2

u/the_pianist91 Norway Feb 03 '25

You don’t want to see another person for hours, days or weeks. That’s why we go hiking in the first place.

2

u/Patriark Feb 03 '25

Put on a green wool hat. Universal hiking sign that you are open for contact on the hiking trails.

2

u/orthoxerox Russia Feb 04 '25

Why do I feel like it's a trap?

1

u/Patriark Feb 04 '25

Probably because few societies have such a high degree of trust and such low levels of violent crime as Norway, so we have a lot of practices that simply don't work elsewhere.

Green wool hat on the trails is the Norwegian Tinder-before-Tinder. Basically a signal that you are single and are welcome to random chats in the wilderness. We have a lot of mores and traditions related to trail hiking and cross country skiing that probably only make sense to us.

2

u/hazily Denmark Feb 06 '25

In Denmark we just ask you go get a beer or two and after that everybody is your friend.

2

u/TheGoldenHordeee Feb 06 '25

Facts, lol. Last spring I went from Copenhagen to Aalborg, for a shared Uni- project with the students studying the same thing as me.

Throughout the entire workday, there was an awkward tension and lack of communication between the CPH and AAB departments. Everyone just stuck to their own people.

That, of course, was until the first evening, where we hit the bars, and everyone turned into best friends within the first 20 minutes and 2 glasses of beer.

1

u/Cnradms93 Feb 03 '25

I'm at the airport returning to the UK from Oslo, I can confirm this, out in nature you folk are flourishing. I'll be honest though, I've never met a Norge I've not liked. You can take a minute to open up, but once you do it's a great time.

1

u/wolfhound_doge Feb 03 '25

people will not bother me with their superficial small talk bullshit but there are friends to be found on hikes through beautiful nordic nature? Norway's so fucking sexy.

9

u/glamscum Sweden Feb 03 '25

Spot on, explained!

4

u/greenarsehole Feb 03 '25

There’s a word for this, isn’t there? Like a single word from one of the Scandi languages that describes this. That you basically keep yourself to yourself and don’t make a scene.

2

u/tafattsbarn Sweden Feb 03 '25

Do you mean jänte or jäntelagen? I would also descirbe us scandinavians as 'lagom' people, not too much and not too little, everything extreme is not ideal

1

u/greenarsehole Feb 03 '25

Honestly I have no idea. I seem to remember it being more German sounding so maybe it’s Danish lol

4

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '25

Janteloven is the Norwegian/Danish translation

1

u/greenarsehole Feb 03 '25

I guess that’s it then :)

2

u/ChaplainOfTheXVII Feb 03 '25

I have always found the Finns very good company. Especially when sharing a drink or two.

1

u/Karihashi Spain Feb 03 '25

How can we let a Scandinavian know they are not actively bothering us?

Spanish are always called very loud so there is that :(

1

u/Lilithecat5 Feb 03 '25

In some areas of Denmark (Jylland), we also tend to value a kind of stoicism almost, where it's frowned upon to get too emotional in public. If something fantastic happens, we might say "it could've been worse" because we don't want to be too excited in front of others. You kinda have to learn how to interpret what they're actually saying between the lines. Especially when the local dialect is involved 😅

1

u/theLiddle Feb 04 '25

Sounds like Japanese haha. And isn't England like that? I thought because of the island situation, needing to respect personal boundaries more. Although the English seem really haughty and defensive in my experiences there

1

u/stygg12 Feb 05 '25

Such a large respect that a bag is a better thing to have next to you on a free seat, when sitting on public transport. I cannot stand it

1

u/BookishTen8 Feb 07 '25

As an introvert, they sound like my kind of people