London gets a really bad rep by outsiders for being unfriendly and unwelcoming, I think it’s totally untrue. Just recently I’ve been back at my parents place and cycling loads in the countryside. Going really quite far out and spending hours “in the middle of nowhere”, one thing I’ve noticed is that no one acknowledges you at all. It’s quite strange in a rather eerie and unsettling way when you spend hours not passing anyone and then in the middle of nowhere you meet someone and say hello and they remain completely poker-faced and march past you.
I decided to put it to the test because I was having this chat recently with a friend about how it’s a bit of myth that London is such a unfriendly place - people do believe this to be absolutely true in other parts of the country.
I began to notice this little trend around these parts, so I actively said hello to most people whom I passed, about only 1 in about 30 people returned any acknowledgement of my presence. You may think oh well, what do you expect, it’s not a social gathering? But you seldom see anyone around these places, it’s surprising when you do actually see another person on the road or pathway. For them just to pretend you don’t exist is a bit strange.
Not so long ago I went to Ireland for some hill walking, it was pretty amazing how friendly people were. Even people in cars waved at you in the countryside, its generally done because you don’t really see that many people around in the countryside, so a small pleasantry, nod or wave, is generally the expected behaviour. It’s just strange that round the midlands there’s a kind of rejection of that etiquette.
To summarise, the midlands is the worst place in the world.
I have to agree with you about Ireland, the people there are the friendliest I have ever met anywhere. You could be sitting in a pub (why not) when the weather is dreary outside and complete strangers come up and have a chat about the weather and anything at all to make you feel welcome. The Thai people come close though on the friendliness quotient.
There are plenty of grumpy bastards in the countryside, I agree. I worked a lot on construction projects laying pipelines across famers fields and being the client’s rep and engineer 10 to 20 years ago. I can tell you what a miserable bunch of unreasonable, foulmouthed, lying, deceitful motherfuckers a lot of them were. Not so bad in London is it .
People in Ireland are friendly because 9/10 they’re drunk :w00t:
Having employed a few Europeans recently they commented on how London is very ‘earphones in, head down’ and making eye contact or smiling at a stranger is a sin and could result in you being attacked…
Being a Londoner all-my-life-gor-blimey-governor I have found that Londoners are friendly but sometimes they are busy bods so they don’t have the time, when rushing around, to spend much time chatting.
Unlike out in BoomFook .
Another point - the BoomFook swede-nashers can be friendly at first but if they don’t like your lifestyle or you don’t fit in you’re finished and just ignored.
Whereas Londoners can be slow to warm to you - but they are very accepting
let me see… one family from Ivory Coast, one house is all Italian students, one house is Afgan, one is swedish, one family from Iran, one house is from Trinidad, one are Irish, One from Mexico, One from Poland and three are empty
Get a dog, most people will at least acknowledge you. Then you go out without the dog and no one notices you.
A while ago we stayed with friends in Wellingborough, I took the dog out in the morning, on my return our friends asked if I had seen anyone. I told them about the various people, their reaction was that I had seen and spoken to more people in one morning than they had in 20 years!
People seem friendlier the further north you go past Birmingham, although in France it seems to be the further south. I wonder if its because of the positions of the capital cities, still doesn’t make much sense to me.
Big cities are always unfriendly… You walk into central London and say hello to people, probably get a much worse ratio. But it’s not so much whether they say hello, it’s the faces I see… Most people in london tend to have blinkers on and when I commute on the trains, faces look sad and miserable. I think the reason people say london is unfriendly is because people will barge into you, push you out of their way because they’re in some rush to this very important meeting, which they are late for because they had this other meeting yada yada…
I used to live in Cheltenham and people do have a slower pace of life, common courtesies were aknowledged a bit more.
Ireland is beautiful and I urge anyone that hasnt been, to go. Forty shades of green is right!
You are indeed certain of a warm welcome, (especially if youre spending money) and can guarantee that almost everyone there has as some point “worked in London (kilburn)” and will ask you “do you know…who lives there.”? Lol.
I have found they can be a bit two faced though & will as quickly slag you off as soon as your back is turned.
And thats coming from someone who is part Irish!
I know people with true Irish parents but were born here & having moved back to Ireland to live, are still called “the English ones” after 40 years.
i remember the first time i went up into the fens, i was a bit confused as EVERYONE said hello or good morning or even just acknowledged you:w00t: so wasn’t used to that living in London all my life!
was odd to me but nice, i found in quieter ‘nicer’ parts of London people are a bit more friendly, that said most people if you say hello or morning etc you do get a response, often a nice one, when you’ve grown up in a shithole London estate or even in just London, you learn to be bit defensive i think, and keep ya self to ya self, out in other areas people are more friendly because they haven’t grown up the same way, there’s less need to be defensive where they are from, so they are more open.
Thanks for that input Slacker :blink:
Actually, if youve ever ridden where sheep have free roam (as they do there) they are particularly hazardous. They will often run from the verge into the road.
Id always assumed they just fancied me but I suppose it could just be their stupid “flocking” instict
Having just come back from a short stint living in a Cornish village I can confirm the locals are friendly, nosey and suspicious in equal measure but rarely indifferent.
If you make an effort in London people will respond as they’re so surprised someone is actually talking to them.
Still prefer London. Certainly wouldn’t want to live in a village where everyone knows what you’ve been up to
Lived in a number of places from the south of England to the north of Scotland when I was growing up. I think (real) Londoners are friendly - you know, the normal people. It’s just that there are so many people who are totally up their own asre living in the capital that it’s sometimes hard to see through them to the normal down-to-earth straight-forward ones. Edinburgh - a lot of friendly people but quite a lot of snobbishness from some who think ‘they’re all that’ because they live in ‘the capital’! Similar to London in that respect. Manchester - a real mixed-bag - a lot of really nice decent straight-forward people who are great to socialise with, but also a sizeable minority who think they’re dead hard because they come from Gunchester. Either that or they’re wannabes living in the shadow of Londoners! Glasgow and Liverpool - fcuking rough old sihtholes full of dodgy spivvy used-car salesman type people whose opening line ALWAYS refer to you as ‘alright mate!’. Mate this, mate that, mate three bags full… MATE!!! Friendly until the point where they realise that you’re not going to give them money/a fag/a contribution towards their alcohol, then you’re a southern tosser. Fortunately tend to stick largely to their respective cities as being socially handicapped by their quite horrific accents, they struggle to blend in elsewhere so return to ‘their ain type’. Newcastle/Yorkshire/Lancashire - lovely people with no attitude who just want to enjoy life and have a good time. Birmingham/Coventry/Leicester/Dundee - the people are so anonymous from these cities that they’re rarely memorable. Aberdeen - parochial doesn’t do it justice. One of the unfriendliest cities I’ve come across. Unless your 45th generation and speak like you’re singing, you’ll always be an outsider to be ignored. Aberdonians reserve a particular hatred for Glaswegians and the English… even English people who move there end up wearing a kilt and slagging off the English once they’ve been there for a while!
Give me the unfriendly stinkhole London any day of the week. Best city in the world
(Apologies if I missed anyone out in my sweeping generalisations of the British population)
I was taught big cities appear more unsociable as people’s personal space is constantly breached and as a result they switch off their warning systems ignoring those close to them (e.g. crowd streets, public transport, lifts in buildings). Out of the crowded cities, if you go that close to someone they tend to respond defensively and auto-dislike although a quick response to defuse the situation can result in a “fake” smile or a like.
The Austrailians did some good behavioural videos on this subject, two that spring to mind how to gain more space in a lift and start a conversation with a stranger making them believe they initiated the topic, the rest were probably teasers for a Fosters ad.
