Most polite people in the world? (university, living in, beach)

[Capt. Dan]

Fijians,Eskimos and Native Americans.

[moionfire]

Politeness and friendliness are not the same thing.

Every country has its own standards of "politeness." What is considered polite in france, germany, united states, japan,indonesia,ghanna- are completely different.

So it will be hard to decide who is polite. Which standard are using?

Friendliness simply means you are extroverted, smile, and are chatty.

[lwowl]

Originally Posted by Xpat

But that was exactly my point, the assumption that someone who is polite is automatically considered insincere (while gruff = sincere) I lived nearly 10 years in Germany and this does seem to be the prevailing mindset there. Certainly there will always be some who are insincere but to paint them all with the same brush is quite unfair. Also, someone can be quite gruff while being insincere.

Regardless of how one feels beneath the surface, politeness is the mortar between the bricks of a civil society. If everyone ran around saying exactly what they think to everyone they see, and never yielded to the other person on the road or sidewalk, or bothered to stand in line and wait their turn - you end up with a society where it is everyone for himself - better known as a jungle.

Politeness is the supression of the self gratification of saying and doing what you want to allow for more peaceful interaction between people. It is putting the other person before yourself, even if just for a minute or two. Its a matter of how well you can control your own ego.

And while brutal honesty may seem like something to admire, 99% of the time it is more brutal than honest (and meant to boost the ego of the person saying it). Honesty without brutality should be the goal.

Couldn't agree more with you, Xpat, most of us still have a long way to go. ()

[dorado0359]

Originally Posted by komis

I think Japanese should be on the top of the list.

I am not sure about the Turks.

I certainly do not intend to generalize, but I come in contact with large groups of visiting Japanese toursts almost daily and have not found them to be very friendly or engaging at all. For the most part, they silently keep to themselves, are not friendly and rarely have interaction with anyone ouside of their own group.

In my opinion, Africans and Europeans are much friendler people.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by KTowner33

People in the southeastern portion of the United States are the friendliest in the world, by a long shot.

Originally Posted by dorado0359

I certainly do not intend to generalize, but I come in contact with large groups of visiting Japanese toursts almost daily and have not found them to be very friendly or engaging at all. For the most part, they silently keep to themselves, are not friendly and rarely have interaction with anyone ouside of their own group.

In my opinion, Africans and Europeans are much friendler people.

The thread topic is polite people, not friendly people. They are 2 different things.

[internat]

Originally Posted by moving123456

The thread topic is polite people, not friendly people. They are 2 different things.

Indeed, individuals who are polite can rarely be friendly, as in warm. I use a certain kind of politeness to keep my distance to those I do not yet know well to trust.

[Scotslass]

The Scottish, some Americans, Canadians, Turks and Spanish.

[internat]

Originally Posted by Scotslass

The Scottish, some Americans, Canadians, Turks and Spanish.

Scots might be friendly, not polite like the English. You must have met a whole different kind of Turk than most Europeans.

[Scotslass]

Which part of Scotland did you visit? Did you meet alot of Scots?

Scots that I know are polite. Doesn't matter where your from. Its how your raised. There are polite and not so polite people everywhere.

I'm sure England isn't as speaky clean as you make it out to be either. Been there alot It's very stereotypical to say that they're more polite than us.

[Geography Freak]

I would make a distinction between two types of politeness: the generous type and the selfish type.

I call "generous politeness" the kind you use to make others feel better.

I call "selfish politeness" the kind used by passive agressive people who are terrified of confrontation. They use politeness as a shield to deflect any possible antagonism. Those people are likely to think you're a jerk while they're being perfectly polite to you.

I can usually tell who's being genuinely polite.

As an example of the second type I can tell you my experience at a certain British airport. One plain clothes cop at the security checkpoint pulled me away obviously thinking I looked shifty (can't blame him for that, to be honest). The thing is instead of being straightforward about it and just get on with it I as had come to expect he gave me his best customer service crap and, looking abvuously nervous, he started some totally random small talk about the weather and the financial climate, doing a pretty good Ned Flanders impersonation in the process, I have to say. I was tired after a long day and had no time to chit-chat about the weather with a total stranger, so I just looked at him totally puzzled trying to fight my urge to punch the bugger.

This is a memo to all British police forces: I like my cops grumpy and blunt, so save your amall talk for the gay bar.