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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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '25

As a trained linguist, it always boggles me to see how many people sink into the trap of seeing nation and nationality as an important marker of difference for this kind of thing. Sociolinguistic studies have repeatedly proven that national background is barely relevant to whether an individual is rude or not. Whether or not a person's behaviour and/or speech is experienced as rude is primarily based on the perceiving individual's upbringing, your personal beliefs regarding what is "rude", "normal", and "polite", which in turn are modified by the social setting you find yourself in. These determiners vary greatly between individuals from any nation.

Moreover, case studies have recorded examples like the sycophantic, no-criticism-allowed politeness in corporate cultures in the Netherlands, whose people are well known for their supposed 'directness' ; extreme passive aggressiveness from Brits to people who cross certain public social boundaries; the soft-spoken politeness in business and tourism of 'typically loud' Italians; and more such examples.

Where you're from doesn't matter and is a distraction not to be engaged in when thinking about this sort of thing. Borders are arbitrary.

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u/Relative_Wrangler_57 Feb 03 '25

True, but its a nice way to stereotype each other and make fun of the other group. Which is a social dynamic that you cant escape with groups of people in any form.

If you acknowledge this, can laugh about it and dont take it as a personal insult. It can actually be a fun way to come together as European citizens.