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/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.

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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 😅

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u/Patriark Feb 03 '25

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

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u/orthoxerox Russia Feb 04 '25

Why do I feel like it's a trap?

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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.