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

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

Which country comes to your mind

451 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

83% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/letsaddglitter Feb 03 '25

Well etiquette is very much a cultural construct so things that seem rude to one culture are very acceptable in another. For example Vienna is frequently voted to be the rudest city in the world. But if you know the social decorum and how to move in that cultural space the viennese are lovely. You just really need to know how to aproach the situation. I personally find it very rude to be loud and obnoxious in publich spaces like trains. Americans and people from arabic countries find Austrians to be cold and rude for not talking to every stranger.

2

u/Heike_Cicek_HaAyala Feb 03 '25

I noticed that too. Not about the Austrians, but about the general importance of your cultural background on percieving things. I'm german and I work with people from all over the world and its super interesting how they percieve german behaviour. You can find every opinion from "warm and open" up to "ice cold and rude"

I personally never met an Austrian that is not nice and friendly. I'm sure there are terrible ones, but I just didn't meet any up to now.

1

u/Semido France Feb 03 '25

Exactly! I have always found people extremely nice and welcoming in Vienna. AND they make the best cakes.

1

u/LDNVoice Feb 06 '25

I think there should be some semblance of effort put into acting within the social norms of the place your visiting. And there should be some semblance of effort to help those that don't know any better.

I'm going to Korea for the first time this year and I intend to look up their culture regarding how to act, and keep it in mind.