Are Americans the friendliest people in the world?

For all the shit that Americans get around the world, we really are the nicest people.

I love living in the US. I don't feel this sense of "home" anywhere else.

Americans are very freindly compared to Europeans, too bad you can be shot dead anytime when you shop or walk in the street.

I will live with unfriendly Europeans if it means I have better chance to stay alive.

For me that's the American paradox.

I've heard Colombians are very friendly, haven't been tho.

Latin Americans rank higher, probably Arabs, too.

I've heard mixed things about Israelis. One of them was that, if you're having a hygienic emergency when you're outside, and you ask some guy or girl you've never met to go to his or her home and use their bathroom... they'll let you. This was said by a Russian immigrant, if I'm not mistaken.

I’d say the Asians in Asia are the friendliest

Which Asians, r5?

We're very friendly, and we won't shoot you.

Sure, R7.

Australians are friendly. To SOME people. Not so much to others.

It really depends what you look like.

As an American I feel more at home in America

That's natural, R9.

What's more significant is that people from pretty much every other country in the world, feels comfortable in the US.

The same cannot be said of other countries.

R5, Japanese and Koreans are polite and respectful, but are rarely ever friendly at the get go. They have to get to know you better before they let you in to their personal life. Filipinos and Thai are generally friendly and hospitable people. They'll invite you to their homes and feed you even if they just met you.

I know a lot of really friendly Swedish people

And it doesn't in the US, R8?

For the most part yes, Americans are friendlier to an extent. The exceptions are DC and Boston, which have more of a coldness. Very very different from the rest of the country.

Subcontinental migrants aren't the friendliest.

Judgemental, arrogant and materialistic.

If you can't offer them something, they're not interested in you. You don't get eye contact from them as they walk down the streets.

I'd say their backward ingrained caste mentality and Hinduism where people aren't seen as equals (unlike other religions) is to blame.

Not really, R13.

In a country of 330,000,000 people - compared to 25,000,000 in Australia, I'd say that Americans are a hell of a lot friendlier - as a whole.

Americans LOVE making small talk alright... about themselves and their country. In my experience, some are surprised there is a world outside the US. They also love making said small talk in an incredibly loud voice, which dominates restaurants, bars and cafes the world over.

I would say all big three countries in North America and friendly -- Canada, US, Mexico. Americans are definitely friendly and open to chatting and making new friends.

Friendliest people in other continents, from my experience:

South America -- Colombia, by far.

Europe -- Portuguese are the friendliest Europeans by far. Italians in second.

Asia -- Filipinos

Africa -- Not enough knowledge. Of the three northern African countries I've been to, Tunisians.

Yes, we are.

Friendlier to outsiders who don't look and talk like them: Iranians, Colombians, Costa Ricans, Portuguese, Canadians, Thais, Turks, Irish, Taiwanese, Kiwis, Scots, South Africans, Senegalese

Americans are nice to their own. No one else.

My experience in Mexico (I'm American) was all the Mexican people I met and interacted with were very nice and friendly....except one. I think I unintentionally offended him by stepping in front of him in a line. It was my fault. All other Mexicans were very friendly. I was in Puerto Vallarta.

Americans are the stupidest people in the world. Collectively stupid. Quite friendly though.

As a European, taking a ride on the LA Metro or the San Francisco BART is a culture shock. It's a culture shock because people come on to you and just talk. That never happens in France or Germany. And your first thought is: he/she might actually clean up nice, but he/she's going to ask you for some money. So the few first times you are very wary and keep to yourself. And then you're confused because he/she did not ask for money at all and was just curious to know where you were from and how you like the city and stuff. It took me about a week to get rid of the typical Parisian aloofness. And then you start to enjoy it.

Another thing that totally disarmed me the first time it happened was in Badlands is San Francisco when that pocket gay came up to me, asked where I was from and the second I told him I was French wanted to hug me. For no other reason at all than me, well, being French. Like WTF? So he hugged me tightly, very tightly. I had never hugged anyone in my whole life beside maybe my lovers or my parents and it crept me out being hugged by a foreigner. It was such a cringe, I was like "am I supposed to hug back? What am I supposed to do with my hands?". Then I got used to it too. But it still is a culture shock the first few times it happens to you.

Only Germans would find Americans the friendliest people. Anyone from any Latin American country would be friendlier than Americans. Are you for real? If you traveled the world as you claim, you'd mention Latin Americans and Arabs at least.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Brazilians, as they are known to be the friendliest people by most of the tourism sector.

[quote] . What's more significant is that people from pretty much every other country in the world, feels comfortable in the US.

The same cannot be said of other countries.

You either never left the US or you never leave your hotel bubble when you travel abroad. This is some very delusional shit to say.

A thread in which Americans discuss how awesome they are...

American New Yorker living in London now. Many here tell me ...from Brits to Asians to Easter Europeans, cabbies, etc ... that by far the Americans are the most friendly. I was initially a bit shocked by this ( as there are so many grumpy pants in NYC) but after living here for several years I get it now and have to agree.

Europe has plenty of friendly people. For example, as others have pointed out, I also found the people in Portugal to be amazingly friendly, warm, and helpful.

Even within countries, and small ones at that, there can be huge differences in how friendly people are from region to region. For example, I live in Vienna, Austria, where people are definitely quite cold and reserved. But take a train 30 miles outside the city and the friendliness levels improve exponentially. Or, the difference between an Italian from Rome or Perugia and an Italian from Venice or Milan: their average friendliness levels are words apart.

I lived in the US for many years and I found Americans to be, on the whole, open and warm. In a way, I think Americans in general are closer to Southern Europeans in their manner and openness.

However, just saying a people is "friendly" is a bit limited and simplistic. Do we mean how polite they are, how open to communication immediately upon meeting, how helpful, how open to including strangers on an equal footing in their life on a deeper basis, etc? Some of these can be present without the others. For example, Brazilians are, in my experience, can be very warm and affectionate on meeting, saying they will take you here and there, do this and that for you, and declaring a great friendship in a way that can seem amazing and genuine to Europeans. However, this should almost never be taken at face value.

R23: Not in France or Germany, but yes in Portugal or Spain.

South of europe is way warmer than the north, and not only in the weather

What does "friendly" even mean?

I am from DC. I don't want to talk to you on the metro. I don't need smiled at at the supermarket. If we are strangers to each other, why should we make small talk?

BUT if I need help, Washingtonians of all sorts will step up. That's more important than "friendly".

Americans are definitely the small talk champions.

They will talk to you ANYwhere. On buses, trains, planes, in restaurants, waiting in line, etc.

Europeans cannot be bothered with strangers.

That's why I like Americans.

Also, people confuse boisterousness with friendliness. South Americans/Latins are boisterous and loud. That doesn't necessarily mean friendly.

Depends what you look like. Based on my looks: Ireland, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire, Northern India, Thailand, USA, Cuba, Haiti

If you make the effort to connect and you are even minimally respectful, Europeans are plenty friendly.

Having been born and raised in the American Midwest, I know two-faced, hypocritical, politeness that covers up seething bigotry of all kinds. If you think Americans are the friendliest people in the world, then you're not paying attention as you move about America, or you are making a backhanded condemnation of the rest of the world. Americans are just not that friendly. And take a look around at the news. They are getting less friendly by the day.

Most of the world finds Americans very unfriendly actually.

In my travels, I have found Africans, Indian, SE Asians all incredibly friendly

Americans are 'nice' but not very kind, the rest of the world is more kind, but not always nice.

R35 Well put. Didn't we just have a thread on fake niceness in the US last week?

[quote] South Americans/Latins are boisterous and loud.

Really depends on the country. Colombians and Brazilians are worlds apart from quiet, more stoic-seeming Peruvians and Bolivians, for instance.

What OP calls friendly, I call intrusive and nosy.

R38 = cold-hearted Nordic European.

R39= Gladys Kravitz

There are lots of R38's in Minneapolis.

No surprise there.

[quote]Also, people confuse boisterousness with friendliness. South Americans/Latins are boisterous and loud. That doesn't necessarily mean friendly.

Even if we define friendliness the same way as you do - as willingness to make "small talk" - they're still friendlier than Americans.

And Arabs are more still. Arabs, no matter how poor, will insist on taking you home and serving you dinner even if you've just met them.

Americans, on the other hand, have a culture where "too much" social closeness between two people in little time of acquaintanceship is deemed creepy. If you offer dinner to a person you just met, people will ask aloud "what is wrong with you?"

In America, if a lover saying "I love you" to another, that can be considered needy and dependent. And school districts refuse to let children in debt go to prom even when donors offer to pay out any liabilities.

America has a culture of coldness. The only people who think Americans are friendly are Americans.

In most other countries, people would rather associate Americans with smugness and violence than friendliness.