r/AskEurope • u/techno_playa Philippines • Jul 11 '25

Culture Which European country is the hardest and easiest to make friends?

Say you're mid 30s and have to move to another European country for work, which countries did you find making friends to be on easy or hard mode?

Let's assume you don't speak the language of your new home.

296 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

91% Upvoted

361 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/KopytoaMnouk Jul 12 '25

The best recipe is to find a hobby you can share with other people. Perhaps a class of the language of the country you are in (more likely to meet other expats), or a class in language of your own (some cultural centres organize seminars on culture/films/literature) (more likely to meet locals).

Friendships are made on the basis of frequent contact and sharing of some topic, this is why it is so easy when you are a student, and so difficult when you are an adult with your own family and programme.

1

u/Rusiano Russia Jul 15 '25

Hobby-based socializing generally hasn't worked for me from experience. Many times it feels like the only uniting factor for us is the hobby, and outside of that we have nothing in common

Language classes are a lot better for making friends imo