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For me (been to many asian countries, haven't been to Bhutan, Tibet, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh, so those are excluded from my statement, just a short stay in the Philippines, so can't say much about it).
Most friendly: Korea
Least friendly: China
BUT its very difficult to tell without agreeing on a definition of friendlyness.
For me, a huge amount of friendlyness is "public honesty", meaning that people dont try to get money out of you as a "White ATM", making you overpay for hotel, taxi, food, clothes, whatever. Especially in Southern Asian countries I do not like the attidude, that I have to negotiate, complain and argue all the time not to be ripped off. ..taxi driver here, strange "tour operators" there, people trying to get you in a restaurant there. Even though people may be "friendly" on the first view, for me cheating is ALWAYS unfriendly.
Of course the staff in some hotel in poor countries is "friendly", cause they want to earn tips. I don't think thats bad, but its not real "friendlyness", its just a facade.
Another thing is politeness... I made the experience that in China, you always have to be careful, taxidrivers shouting and yelling at you and people spitting on the floor, people pushing you in the metro train instead of letting you exit. WTF? People shout and spit and smoke everywhere. I understand that its kind of way to survive as an individual in a 1.3 billion people country, but overall its absolutely not my thing. Hongkong is much better though.
I am a bit surprised about so many negative comments on Korean. It really depends on where you come from. I heared that towards southern Asian, some often are a bit strange and xenophobic. From my experience, Koreans are very polite and you are never ripped off by anyone. They are hard working and just not interested in cheating on anyone. Nobody wants tips, and still service is excellent and friendly. Crime is extra-ordinary low in South Korea, you can often see people just leave their laptop or tablet in a cafe and then go to lunch outside. If you lose something or forget something somewhere, nobody would EVER even think of taking it and keeping it, they would rather run behind you to give it back to you. Koreans are ofte a bit shy to talk in english, but once you broke the ice, its a very good country to live in as a foreigner. Not even mentioning the supercute girls.
Not going to be friendly when a Japanese goto China or a Chinese goto Japan.
Yes, but you're only half right.
Many numbers of Chinese flock to Japan as tourists, and Japan, like many other nations, is also grappling with rising numbers of illegal immigration, particularly from China.
If it's so unfriendly, then why these contradictory numbers?
Many places are unfriendly to Chinese or Mainland Chinese. Honestly Japan, HK and Taiwan are in the list. Unfriendly does not stop Chinese from going to other places. It's the same reason Mexicans keep going to the US while most Americans do not welcome them. Or Southeast Asians going to Taiwan and they know well discrimination exist there. Some people in the UK do not want people from other parts of the EU to goto the UK, but the people from poorer EU countries still want to goto the UK.
The shopping in Japan, Korea and HK are great, the products are not fake, the medical standard or plastic surgery are better, are the main reasons the Mainland Chinese to visit other places.
Poor Mainland Chinese, on the other hand, goto wealthier countries for the higher income and better social welfare.
Be honest, most people in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, HK, Macau, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore etc feel something very similar with the influx of Mainland Chinese tourists. You can just ask any random local living in those places about what they feel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy
Yes, but you're only half right.
Many numbers of Chinese flock to Japan as tourists, and Japan, like many other nations, is also grappling with rising numbers of illegal immigration, particularly from China.
If it's so unfriendly, then why these contradictory numbers?
I've read a lot about how the Philippines is friendly, but at the same time, that it could be just fake friendliness. I think both is true. There are a lot of friendly people and I think this is proven when Filipinos are still welcoming and friendly towards other Filipinos and not just tourists or foreigners (for the most part -- not saying that everyone is all nice and helpful), but obviously in a store, the foreigner might be prioritized because... they're a foreigner. But as a Filipino I still get good customer service, sometimes a little too good. Employees try to be so friendly and helpful that they literally end up following you around to cater to your every need.
I don't live there anymore but I do go back home to visit a lot. The barangay that my mom is from is very close to each other. Whenever I go home or my mom goes home, the news gets around and the whole town knows. I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid, and yet people avoid me. I asked one of my distant cousins once why this was, and she told me it was because they were afraid of speaking English. I'm still fluent in Tagalog, but since I've lived in the U.S. for a long time now, they just assume that they'd have to speak English with me.
So they're intimidated by me, a Filipino who was born in the Philippines, then they'll surely be intimidated by a white tourist. Even though most people speak English pretty well, quite a few Filipinos still get nervous when talking in English which is why sometimes they seem to avoid foreigners.
And as for Filipinos being friendly and then laughing at you behind your back... don't take offense to it. Because Filipinos are huge gossipers and they do that to everyone, regardless of ethnicity or nationality or even whether you're a stranger or a family member.
I've read a lot about how the Philippines is friendly, but at the same time, that it could be just fake friendliness. I think both is true. There are a lot of friendly people and I think this is proven when Filipinos are still welcoming and friendly towards other Filipinos and not just tourists or foreigners (for the most part -- not saying that everyone is all nice and helpful), but obviously in a store, the foreigner might be prioritized because... they're a foreigner. But as a Filipino I still get good customer service, sometimes a little too good. Employees try to be so friendly and helpful that they literally end up following you around to cater to your every need.
And as for Filipinos being friendly and then laughing at you behind your back... don't take offense to it. Because Filipinos are huge gossipers and they do that to everyone, regardless of ethnicity or nationality or even whether you're a stranger or a family member.
Ive experienced a lot of unfriendly Filipinos that run a business, they are like dog eat dog mentality when it comes to making money.
there is a Filipino Pampagan restaurant in SF and Ive heard the female owner curse and have very poor customer service numerous times, while customers were waiting in line, thats unacceptable behavior and not very professional in my opinion
the last time they had a Asian Heritage Street Festival and the Filipina food vendor could be heard cursing to a helper while customers were present, because one of her workers forgot to bring something.
I found the Japanese to be very friendly, especially to a stupid tourist like me who didn't know what the heck he was doing. They really enjoy helping people out and giving directions if you are confused. There was one elderly gentleman who walked with me for about 20 minutes up to the temple on the hill next to Kyoto because he saw that I had taken a wrong turn. Then there was the hotel owner who saw me walk outside when it was sprinkling and insisted on giving me a rain jacket without me asking. He also gave me a ride to the nearest bus station so that I could visit the nearby attractions.
I hadn't encountered that level of hospitality anywhere before.
The only friction I encountered on that trip was due to some language issues and I had a roller bag with noisy wheels, and some of the locals made comments about it, so I had to get a new bag. Regarding the language barrier, I could tell that a couple of waiters got kind of flustered because they couldn't understand what I was saying. In both cases, they got someone younger to help me out.
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fake friendliness from filipinos
