For me Ireland and Taiwan, how about some others
Thailand
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.
I did a short stay in Sri Lanka as a young adult, it was a formidable experience. I remember a different, more considerate sort of kindness in people compared to my home town/country
Iceland and nowhere even comes close. I heard newfoundland will beat it though, one day I’ll visit.
Japan. The cavet? Know some Japanese.
Most people in Japan grow up learning some English. But they almost never use it in their day to day after highschool. So it’s a point of issue, maybe even a little embarrassment, for them to “start” a conversation. I’ve found that the better you are at Japanese, the more willing the Japanese are to want to connect with you.
Unless they’re drunk. In my experience, social drinking some how blows away the shyness barrier. Go to a pub, especially in a rural town, and you will be bombarded with questions. You’re a novelty, maybe? Not sure. But booze does makes things easier it seems.
Keep going back for some reason. Not sure why. :)
Thailand and Vietnam have such kind and welcoming people. I am constantly impressed by the gestures I see.
Just today me and my girlfriend were standing on the side of the road in Thailand waiting to cross. There was no crosswalk nearby but cars saw that we wanted to cross and stopped both lanes for us go. We did not signal in any way or step into the street. They just saw people in need of something that they could help with. Nobody behind them honked or became impatient.
There are so many more examples…
I’m American.
I’m American
I’m so sorry (I’m also American)
I’m American
I’m so sorry (I’m also American)
I’m so sorry (I’m also American)
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
I’ve only met one person from France in my life. It was at a music festival here in the states. I asked him if he knew where a specific stage was and through that thick French accent he said “go fuck yourself” and then walked away.
Obviously a sample size of one doesn’t represent a whole country but yeah.
I feel like it matters what race you are :(
My [white] friend has touted some of the friendliest places, but me being Korean…nope. A large number of places are very cold and passive-aggressive.
That said, not typically violent like America, but still not exactly welcoming.
UK is super nice to white people, Koreans go there and get milk thrown on them.
Philippines super nice to white people, Koreans go there and get yelled at.
Taiwan super nice to white people, Koreans go there and… actually I never went with Koreans. and fwiw there’s so much bad blood between China and Korea that it probably bleeds over into Taiwan
Um, maybe… Japan? Deep irony but that might be the nicest place to Koreans now…
oh, duh, Turkiye
Turks are using up all their hate on the greeks and armenians. No hate left for anyone else.
Türkiye is amazing. Met some awesome people in Istanbul.
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.
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
Finland and Chile, definitely.
They’re also astonishingly similar.
Chileans are like the Scandinavians of South America.I’m a white American.
Most friendly: Portugal. They seem to be a happy bunch in general, and they all seemed excited to have visitors. Lisbon, Cascais, Lagos, and all the little towns in between.
Least friendly: Iceland. They could just be less open and emotionally expressive with strangers, but unless it was a business transaction I was frequently ignored when I said hello and people seemed uninterested in having a conversation.
Least friendly: Iceland. They could just be less open and emotionally expressive with strangers, but unless it was a business transaction I was frequently ignored when I said hello and people seemed uninterested in having a conversation.
Sounds wonderful
Germany is very nice, most people I met were more than happy to help my with practicing my German
Interesting. My experience was the opposite; I couldn’t practice German at all because everybody would switch to English.
Not surprising; it’s far more practical to get information across by switching to a language you both speak fluently. If you ask the other person to help you practice the language, it would change the task from “information” to “training”, and you’d probably have better luck in speaking German if that’s the expressed goal.
Communicate your wants, or you’ll end up with the most efficient route to the end of the interaction. 'Tis the German way.
Both times I went to Germany I was the only one trying to speak German out of a very large group, maybe they were happy to see someone at least try?
Magst noch mehr üben?
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.
Regarding the people, disregarding officials and leadership? Iran. Such lovely, welcoming people.
