What places or countries in Europe have friendly people? (Romanians, Czechs, rich)

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by Sconesforme

Norway is the more friendly country in Europe. Very helpful, speak good English and has good taste. Among the more rude countries I have visit would be France. Very few speak English outside major cities so it can be though time on streets, in shops and restaurants. Not to speak English is not a sign of being rude but when they don’t even try it makes me angry. Sure, French is one of the most sophisticated and beautiful languages in the world but one could hope they learned at least a few words of English. English is not my first language and I’m skilled enough to order food in English.

This must be in the last generation or so in Norway. When I was there, no one spoke English with me, and I was living in a village, but none of the young people spoke English. Unlike Sweden, where some of the young people were eager to speak English, even though I spoke Norwegian. I didn't find Norwegians to be very friendly in general. There were some exceptions. But it was my first trip to Norway, when I couldn't communicate with anyone, and no one was helpful, that I decided to learn the language.

[northsider]

Ireland. (Ask any American that's been here).

[erka]

In general, in my experience (have visited most countries in Europe) the friendliest people in Europe are people from Scotland and Ireland. By far!

[irish_bob]

all of them have friendly people , its just some peoples are more naturally suited to superficial displays of friendliness , irish people are very friendly on the surface but you might not really know the same person after years

[Ruth4Truth]

Most nationalities are friendly if you know the language. That's the key. Sure the Irish and Scots are friendly towards Americans, because they speak the same language! Canadians and Brits (outside of London) are friendly, too. Surprise, surprise. Go to southern Germany speaking German, and you'll find the people are wonderful. Same with France (even Paris ). You name it: Poland, Russia, Romania, Croatia, etc.

How friendly are English-speakers when approached by foreigners who don't speak English? See how that works?

[Marmel]

Yeah but English is spoken pretty much everywhere in Europe, even if as a second language...

[viribusunitis]

Originally Posted by Marmel

Yeah but English is spoken pretty much everywhere in Europe, even if as a second language...

It's true that many people had English lessons in school, but a good portion of Europeans aren't able to have conversations beyond the usual "Where's the library? - The library is..." chitchat. Vocab is limited and people don't know about social customs in the US and Britain.

So it may seem that people are rude abroad when they are just completely overwhelmed by having to deal with a foreigner in a foreign language. The initial confusion may switch to rudeness, though, when tourists start to get angry or impatient/cutty... Something that won't happen in places like Ireland and Scotland.

[Irene-cd]

Originally Posted by joseanto071

What I mean by friendly, I mean like the type where you can say hi or have a chat with a stranger at a Café, restaurant, store, out in the streets, etc. Kind of the type of extroverted, outgoing people. Kind of the type where you know, where I can walk an old cobblestone street with nice old architecture, say go to a bakery, order a bread and have a nice conversation with the baker...

Automatically, what comes to my mind is a small town on the mediterranean...Like a small town in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France...maybe Germany.

Which countries, towns or regions am I most likely to ecounter these type?

spain, sicily (the rest of italy is not that friendly), portugal, belgium, germany, many brits and irish.

the rest are ok but kinda cold.

germans are not as cold as people say, they are actually very nice and interesting.

[WildWestDude]

Spaniards, Scots, Greeks are some of the friendliest that I know.

[Perfect Stranger]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Most nationalities are friendly if you know the language. That's the key. Sure the Irish and Scots are friendly towards Americans, because they speak the same language! Canadians and Brits (outside of London) are friendly, too. Surprise, surprise. Go to southern Germany speaking German, and you'll find the people are wonderful. Same with France (even Paris ). You name it: Poland, Russia, Romania, Croatia, etc.

How friendly are English-speakers when approached by foreigners who don't speak English? See how that works?

The fact that such an obvious thing still needs to be repeated makes me despair. Some people literally can't grasp the concept of people speaking other languages.