I found on my last visit to Beijing that the people there were very friendly and helpful. Came as a surprise. Maybe had something to do with the fact that I could speak Chinese with them, though.
Surprised to see Laos colored “unfriendly” on the map (where is the complete list?). I found the people of Laos among the friendliest ever.
You must have caught them on a sunny day 
. I find many Chinese in the big cities to be rather grumpy and sullen, especially taxi drivers.
Wow - that totally destroys any credibility the list may have. I agree with you: the people I met in Laos were wonderfully friendly.
Told you the vast majority of countries were probably thrown in randomly.
Reality is most people are friendly and most cultures inherently good. It ain’t a big fucking deal that you smile and provide a bit of helpful assistance to an outsider, it is decent and shows a bit of character, but don’t go patting yourself too hard on the back.
Wanna see how nice you are to foreigners, see how they are treated in your legal system, see how they are described in your dialect, see how easy it is for them to get residency, citizenship etc.
In these areas of ‘friendliness’, the tangible ones that matter at the end of the day, Taiwan is a pretty cold, miserable place.
But hey, there’s always a smile for you my fat adohga friend!
RANK COUNTRY/ECONOMY VALUE 1 MEAN: 6.1 7
1 Iceland … 6.8
2 New Zealand … 6.8
3 Morocco … 6.7
4 Macedonia, FYR … 6.7
5 Austria … 6.7
6 Senegal … 6.7
7 Portugal … 6.6
8 Bosnia and Herzegovina … 6.6
9 Ireland … 6.6
10 Burkina Faso … 6.6
11 Barbados … 6.6
12 Canada … 6.6
13 Thailand … 6.6
14 Mali … 6.6
15 United Arab Emirates … 6.6
16 Singapore … 6.6
17 Malta … 6.6
18 Yemen … 6.6
19 Belgium … 6.6
20 Bahrain … 6.6
21 Rwanda … 6.6
22 Lebanon … 6.5
23 Switzerland … 6.5
24 Sweden … 6.5
25 Sri Lanka … 6.5
26 Philippines … 6.5
27 Australia … 6.5
28 Mauritius … 6.5
29 Seychelles … 6.5
30 Tajikistan … 6.5
31 Finland … 6.5
32 Hong Kong SAR … 6.5
33 Georgia … 6.5
34 Zambia … 6.5
35 Oman … 6.5
36 Montenegro … 6.5
37 Greece … 6.5
38 Puerto Rico … 6.4
39 Sierra Leone … 6.4
40 Uganda … 6.4
41 Costa Rica … 6.4
42 South Africa … 6.4
43 Brazil … 6.4
44 Gambia, The … 6.4
45 Mexico … 6.4
46 Ghana … 6.4
47 Netherlands … 6.4
48 Cyprus … 6.4
49 Luxembourg … 6.4
50 Estonia … 6.4
51 Kenya … 6.4
52 Jordan … 6.4
53 Turkey … 6.4
54 Cameroon … 6.4
55 United Kingdom … 6.4
56 Malaysia … 6.3
57 Spain … 6.3
58 Côte d’Ivoire … 6.3
59 Norway … 6.3
60 Kazakhstan … 6.3
61 Egypt … 6.3
62 Dominican Republic … 6.3
63 Burundi … 6.3
64 Guinea … 6.3
65 Croatia … 6.3
66 Czech Republic … 6.3
67 Ethiopia … 6.3
68 Israel … 6.2
69 Swaziland … 6.2
70 Nepal … 6.2
RANK COUNTRY/ECONOMY VALUE 1 MEAN: 6.1 7
71 Cape Verde … 6.2
72 Suriname … 6.2
73 Slovenia … 6.2
74 Japan … 6.2
75 Guyana … 6.2
76 Brunei Darussalam … 6.2
77 Uruguay … 6.2
78 Taiwan, China … 6.2
79 Italy … 6.2
80 France … 6.2
81 Jamaica … 6.2
82 Azerbaijan … 6.2
83 Germany … 6.1
84 Chile … 6.1
85 Namibia … 6.1
86 Bangladesh … 6.1
87 Serbia … 6.1
88 Colombia … 6.1
89 Benin … 6.1
90 El Salvador… 6.1
91 Mozambique … 6.1
92 Nicaragua … 6.1
93 Moldova … 6.1
94 Algeria … 6.1
95 Armenia … 6.0
96 Peru … 6.0
97 Guatemala … 6.0
98 Albania … 6.0
99 Haiti … 6.0
100 Cambodia … 6.0
101 Paraguay … 6.0
102 United States … 6.0
103 Botswana … 5.9
104 India … 5.9
105 Madagascar … 5.9
106 Zimbabwe … 5.9
107 Kyrgyz Republic … 5.9
108 Vietnam … 5.9
109 Qatar … 5.8
110 Nigeria … 5.8
111 Panama … 5.8
112 Lithuania … 5.8
113 Argentina … 5.8
114 Indonesia … 5.8
115 Tanzania … 5.8
116 Hungary … 5.7
117 Denmark … 5.7
118 Poland … 5.7
119 Ecuador … 5.7
120 Lesotho … 5.7
121 Malawi … 5.7
122 Romania … 5.7
123 Mauritania … 5.7
124 Chad … 5.7
125 Honduras … 5.7
126 Trinidad and Tobago … 5.6
127 Ukraine … 5.6
128 Saudi Arabia … 5.5
129 Korea, Rep. … 5.5
130 China … 5.5
131 Mongolia … 5.5
132 Bulgaria … 5.5
133 Slovak Republic … 5.5
134 Pakistan … 5.3
135 Iran, Islamic Rep. … 5.2
136 Latvia … 5.2
137 Kuwait … 5.2
138 Russian Federation … 5.0
139 Venezuela … 4.5
140 Bolivia … 4.1
12.02 Attitude of population toward foreign visitors
How welcome are foreign visitors in your country? [1 = very unwelcome; 7 = very welcome] | 2011–2012 weighted average
Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey
The “Taiwan, China” is kind of an eyesore. :raspberry:
Hong Kong… friendly? Maybe it’s cause I’m not white, but seriously?
Reality is most people are friendly and most cultures inherently good. It ain’t a big fucking deal that you smile and provide a bit of helpful assistance to an outsider, it is decent and shows a bit of character, but don’t go patting yourself too hard on the back.
Wanna see how nice you are to foreigners, see how they are treated in your legal system, see how they are described in your dialect, see how easy it is for them to get residency, citizenship etc.
In these areas of ‘friendliness’, the tangible ones that matter at the end of the day, Taiwan is a pretty cold, miserable place.
But hey, there’s always a smile for you my fat adohga friend![/quote]
If you want to rate it like that, just about every country is a cold miserable place. No country in the world treats foreigners fairly in their legal system nor do they make it easy to get residency.
Reality is most people are friendly and most cultures inherently good. It ain’t a big fucking deal that you smile and provide a bit of helpful assistance to an outsider, it is decent and shows a bit of character, but don’t go patting yourself too hard on the back.
Wanna see how nice you are to foreigners, see how they are treated in your legal system, see how they are described in your dialect, see how easy it is for them to get residency, citizenship etc.
In these areas of ‘friendliness’, the tangible ones that matter at the end of the day, Taiwan is a pretty cold, miserable place.
But hey, there’s always a smile for you my fat adohga friend![/quote]
If you want to rate it like that, just about every country is a cold miserable place. No country in the world treats foreigners fairly in their legal system nor do they make it easy to get residency.[/quote]
I can’t vouch for other countries, but the U.S. is pretty damn easy going on foreigners. You can show up pregnant and give birth to a child that instantly becomes a citizen, which will allow you to become a citizen too and bring over other family memebers. You can be there illegally and receive payments from the IRS for dependents after you file with a tax id that doesn’t require proof of citizenship to obtain. A couple of states still allow illegals to get driver licenses. You can have access to subsidized medical treatment and education. I’m sure I’m missing a lot of other perks available to those in the country illegally, not to mention naturalized citizens
Oh man, the US is not a good place to an illegal immigrant and actually has a harsh and slow legal immigration system. There are much better places to be a foreigner, legal or not, such as in most of Europe.
Being illegal is one thing, but it is damn near impossible to immigrate to the US legally, expect wait times of several decades and officials that just wants to deport you. It isn’t easy to immigrate to most European countries legally because they all have strict requirements for that, but they aren’t as condemning as American immigration system either.
Firstly, the US is a good place to be an illegal immigrant because in a very short time many of them will have their status changed to legal (there will be an amnesty). Also there is no shortage of work opportunities for illegals, and US airports leave the back door open so you are free to fuck off hassle free.
Europe??? :roflmao: :roflmao: Are you fucking kidding me? Oh yeah, those ultra tolerant countries like Italy, Greece, Spain and Germany are a grand fucking place for someone fleeing Africa. They treat their immigrants like utter dog shit, hell they even treat their sports heroes of color like dog shit, except on the nice days when they only throw bananas at them. Sometimes I think you post just to rabble rouse. 
I didn’t say it was paradise, nor did I say that all immigrants or foreigners are treated the same.
A person from Poland that moves to my country is an immigrant, as is a person from Austria or Czech republic. They are from Europe but they are also foreigners to us. The concept of European is a very new concept although it is growing quite rapidly.
There are questions still but by and large it’s been a successful experiment. Let’s see if they let Turkey in or not!
There are a large number of illegal immigrants from Africa, Pakistan and China etc, while they suffer discrimination, they also tend to find avenues to regularize themselves or they are given amnesties much easier than in the US. Obviously cultures and economic conditions vary enormously across Europe. Open racism is not condoned so much in Northern Europe, but appears more frequently in Southern Europe. However it must be remember that Southern Europe has also had to cope with an influx of millions of illegals, in times of economic depression, this is always going to be source of tension.
The last time the US gave illegal immigrants an amnesty was decades ago. Now illegals cannot get a drivers license and once caught are subjected to harsh punishments and deportations. The same can happen in Europe but to a much lesser degree, in general there is more due process and checks and balances.
The US will give a new amnesty after tightening up borders etc, it’s going to be the last one for a very long time if not forever.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]I didn’t say it was paradise, nor did I say that all immigrants or foreigners are treated the same.
A person from Poland that moves to my country is an immigrant, as is a person from Austria or Czech republic. They are from Europe but they are also foreigners to us. The concept of European is a very new concept although it is growing quite rapidly.
There are questions still but by and large it’s been a successful experiment. Let’s see if they let Turkey in or not!
There are a large number of illegal immigrants from Africa, Pakistan and China etc, while they suffer discrimination, they also tend to find avenues to regularize themselves or they are given amnesties much easier than in the US. Obviously cultures and economic conditions vary enormously across Europe. Open racism is not condoned so much in Northern Europe, but appears more frequently in Southern Europe. However it must be remember that Southern Europe has also had to cope with an influx of millions of illegals, in times of economic depression, this is always going to be source of tension.
The last time the US gave illegal immigrants an amnesty was decades ago. Now illegals cannot get a drivers license and once caught are subjected to harsh punishments and deportations. The same can happen in Europe but to a much lesser degree, in general there is more due process and checks and balances.
The US will give a new amnesty after tightening up borders etc, it’s going to be the last one for a very long time if not forever.[/quote]
Not much to disagree with here.
This being so friendly is quite a superficial thing with a lot of people here. Having said that I have seen some genuinely nice people here who would be nice to you regardless of who you were.
Friendliness, kindness, and warmth, whatever you like to call it, should be an innate quality regardless of external factors. For example, I am only nice to pretty girls that I think I might have a chance with, does that mean I am a nice person? no! It’s just means I am hoping to ingratiate myself with them.
One minute they are mumbling out “Hi”, “Thank You” and “Sorry” to show me ‘respect’ !, the next minute they are trying to kill me on the roads by being so inconsiderate and callous.
And why the need for validation that they are so friendly? Did someone say they are not?
Yes I’m friendly. Thanks. Locals are lucky to have such friendly foreigners to speak to.
I tell my students that Americans are not polite to people, and they’re even less polite if you don’t speak English.
No offense, but that sounds to me like a pretty dumb, inaccurate thing to be telling people
[quote=“ryanx”]This being so friendly is quite a superficial thing with a lot of people here. Having said that I have seen some genuinely nice people here who would be nice to you regardless of who you were.
Friendliness, kindness, and warmth, whatever you like to call it, should be an innate quality regardless of external factors. For example, I am only nice to pretty girls that I think I might have a chance with, does that mean I am a nice person? no! It’s just means I am hoping to ingratiate myself with them.
One minute they are mumbling out “Hi”, “Thank You” and “Sorry” to show me ‘respect’ !, the next minute they are trying to kill me on the roads by being so inconsiderate and callous.
And why the need for validation that they are so friendly? Did someone say they are not?[/quote]
Couldn’t have say it any better. I think the friendliness is more politeness and kindness with some exaggeration, rather than true friendship.
The constant need for validation and proclamations from locals about how friendly they are has a lot to do with insecurity. The problem is it’s so prevalent, from my experience at least, and it is annoying. Many Taiwanese always tend to believe they are so friendly, so nice and so gracious, and everybody else is jealous f them or out to bully them.
Being friendly and being a friend are not the same thing.
You mean the friendliness here is a form of friendliness. 