For me Ireland and Taiwan, how about some others
France might not be one
I frequently hear this stereotype from people who haven’t been to France. I specifically hear that the French are rude to anyone who doesn’t speak French. My experience was that they can be rude to Americans who assume everyone will speak English. I would do my best to have a conversation in French, and the locals would usually take pity on me and switch to English.
I’m not denying there are unfriendly French people, but I would expect anyone to get tired of tourists who don’t make any effort to speak the local language.
Also, I think mainstream Americans expect people to be bouncy and grinning all the time or else they say you have resting bitch face and a case of the Mondays. In a lot of cultures, grinning at a complete stranger is condescending and makes you look foolish.
As a Canadian, I spent eight months living in France a couple years ago. Had nothing but great experiences with people. I had one pharmacist be a little snooty with me. But other than that, they were very helpful regardless and very nice.
What I realized is that they place a lot of value in their native language and it’s very important to them to speak it clearly and properly whenever possible so they won’t usually hesitate to correct you.
The vast majority of people were stoked that we were speaking French at all. It’s really changed my perspective on the French language in my own country for the better, to be honest. I just get it now.
Dude?
Which app are you using?
Voyager [email protected]
I went to see the Vimy memorial, many years ago, and it was delightful. People were so friendly, and very welcoming. I did not see a ‘rude Frenchman’ stereotype throughout the holiday. Very nice cheeses, though you have to be okay with the strength of the aroma of them lol.
Taiwan for sure. What lovely people.
How about China? That’s one country I want to see
I have been yes, and the people were indeed friendly. Same with Vietnam, and others. However, the Taiwanese people were just so, so, genuinely helpful, friendly and kind. I was taken aback.
I very much think so
china is too big to generalize I think, but Taiwan is very nice
I don’t know how to parse this question and it makes me wonder about humanity at large.
Like, what’s “being friendly” when assessing entire countries? How do you measure it? Does it apply just to strangers or is it related to having friends there? Does this require you not finding that unsolicited conversation is borderline assault? Because I’m afraid I can’t do that. Is it an institutional thing? I almost got deported from Canada once, so from that baseline I’m pretty sure I couldn’t agree with a lot of responses below.
Does this require you not finding that unsolicited conversation is borderline assault? Because I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Are you serious?
I am slightly facetious and mildly hyperbolic.
But yes, I absolutely hate strangers forcing conversation on me. I find few things more grating and hostile than landing in a foreign country horrendously jet lagged and having a “friendly” cabbie try to extract my life story from me while telling me about their mortgage payments or whatever.
I once had someone in the US just sit at our bar table unprompted and strike up a conversation and I saw my life flash before my eyes. That’s what psycopaths do. It’s like getting punched right in your social anxiety with spiky brass knuckles.
Now that you explain it I understand and actually agree in some situations like your taxi example.
However, once I’m out doing tourist things I want to meet locals and other travelers and share stories, tips, or local lore. Meeting people in this way has allowed me to discover new places that or perspectives that I would never experience otherwise.
To each their own I suppose.
You can meet people online, I would be very wary as a tourist, most folks will only talk back if they get value from it, like assault, robbery or your blood🦇
You are too paranoid. I have been traveling internationally for the past 3 years and have never experienced any danger. Most of the time I travel alone.
Or maybe we are just different kinds of people and thus get treated differently. Maybe if I was a cishet euro dude I wouldn’t worry about it either.
cishet euro dude
Is that what you have classified me as?
Assume less.
Taiwan. Clerk at the shoe store didn’t have what I wanted in my size. She went to the other shoe stores nearby searching for me without telling us. We found out when we asked why it was taking so long.
Vietnam, Thailand, India, Guatemala, Taiwan is a good call.
in Vietnam, someone literally ran out of their house while I was stopping to adjust my headphones in order to invite me to breakfast at his home.
he had a tiny orchard in his front yard and we shared mango, dragonfruit and pancakes.
I’ve been wanting to visit Vietnam for a while now… I think it was watching Anthony Bourdain there that sold me. Looks like a beautiful nation full of amazing people
The mountains are pretty magical, and every single person was extremely helpful and gracious, either in the city or way out in the tiny mountain villages
How well can one get by as a tourist without speaking Vietnamese? Vietnam has been around the top of my list for places to visit for ages.
Very well.
I spoke nearly no Vietnamese and bikepacked across rural northern Vietnam for 3 months after buying my bicycle in Hanoi.
People in the city can speak some English, but even if they can’t they’re so earnestly helpful that I was able to easily buy clothes, bicycle repair items, get my bicycle repaired, buy food everyday(pho lyfe) be invited to tea and then a family feast, take shelter from a rainstorm, the stories of their generosity go on.
It’s definitely a good country to visit.
Thank you for sharing. The language barrier is mostly the thing that has held me back. I know some vocabulary related to food, but that’s about it.
absolutely, you’ll be good.
I could barely count to ten and knew how to say pho, and still enjoyed my entire trip and made friends, so you’ll be fine.
Thanks again! Glad you had such a good experience and I’m looking forward to going there myself.
What a nice man.
the coolest.
i was on a bike, so i guess he felt like he had to hustle.
Oman
I live in the US and have been to Canada, Mexico, Ireland and Germany.
Only one of these places have I ever been randomly called a removed from a moving vehicle while just minding my own business on more than one occasion, and it wasn’t any of the countries I don’t live in.
Honestly surprised it wasn’t Germany, as a German
Mexico, but we were in a touristy area so kinda expected. But naturally nice was St. Thomas. Virgin Island people in general except Jamaica. I haven’t experienced a “rude boy” sorta speak, but has friends in Florida from there that warned me to be wary of any Jamaican outside of the tourist spots.
Mongolia.
Every single people I met were nice and friendly. Even when they don’t speak english, they will try anything to help you, or find someone that speak english.
Iceland and nowhere even comes close. I heard newfoundland will beat it though, one day I’ll visit.
French Polynesia. Genuinely the kindest and most down to earth people on the planet. My husband and I had the most amazing and hospitable experience there staying in a detached room (treehouse style) with a local family. The locals are so friendly - we were given food, helped with getting a rental car (they even gave us a ride there and spoke with the guy behind the counter), told of all the best places to explore, taken to the farmer’s market, and so much more. We were treated like visiting relatives.
south africa, really just a great group of people. hell, even when i got robbed, they were super nice about it.
Friendliest country I’ve ever been to was Cuba. Everyone was incredibly nice and helpful with anything we could want. Malaysia was a close second.
Least friendliest was Belgium, but I went as part of a school exchange trip, so I was pretty much always in a large group of mostly teenage Americans with a few teachers. Understandable why people might not have been as friendly.
I found the people in Jordan were incredibly friendly.
Same. I did a summer study abroad program in Amman when I was in college, and everyone I interacted with was very nice.
Ireland is probably the friendliest I’ve been too. The Irish are great people.
Rome (I know, not a country, but I can’t comment on the rest of Italy) is probably the least friendly place I’ve been to. Romans are assholes. It’s a very cool city, but the people, especially outside of tourist traps suck.
The Japanese are very polite, respectful, and helpful (almost to a fault) but I’m not sure if I’d generally describe them as friendly.
Romans are assholes.
First time I’ve heard this. People in Rome are like people in NYC: busy with their own lives, unwilling to take any BS, but generally helpful if you really need it.
My experience is they’re roughly as polite as Parisians
