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Congratulations, my fellow Americans. According to a recent survey, not only is the U.S. not the rudest place on earth, but we're not even in the top five.

France is the rudest place in world to visit with nearly one-fifth of votes, based on travel website Skyscanner.com's ranking. ?This seems to be a fairly common stereotype, albeit not one which is necessarily true,? Sam Baldwin, Skyscanner's travel editor told the International Business Times.

Russia, the U.K. and Germany rounded out the top four most unfriendly countries to visit. The U.S. was ranked seventh after "Other" and China, and apparently play better hosts than tourists. Americans recently topped another poll as the world's worst tourists, but the majority of the respondents in that survey were ironically American.

This most recent poll generated more than 1,200 user responses--60% of the respondents from the U.K. and Ireland, according to the International Business Times.

Brazil, The Caribbean, Philippines and Thailand were ranked the least rude countries for travelers.

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Germany? Really? They're abrasive, but I wouldn't say rude. I had hella fun

over there.

As tourists, though... I have to agree. For all our talk about respecting other

cultures, you wouldn't believe it watching how Americans treat foreigners

in the homeland.

Point of evidence: Americans get ****ed when they visit a foreign

restaurant, for example, and no-one there speaks English. :)

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I worked in a position where I dealt with people from England, France and Germany and never found them to be lacking in civility and hospitality in any way. I had a standing invite from a man in France to come stay with his family in Paris should we ever get over there.

Germans can SEEM abrasive sometimes, but they aren't really; when they are working, they are serious about their work. They think you should have expectations of them and they have them of you...

Don't know many Russians... I know a couple of people from Poland and they are always a pleasure to talk with...

I think people are people. I think we have preconceived ideas and then subconsciously apply them.

Point of evidence: Americans get ****ed when they visit a foreign

restaurant, for example, and no-one there speaks English. :)

You know, the only not-so-good experience I had in another country was in the French District of Montreal at a restaurant... I know, like, 2 words in French... She started talking to me in French and I responded in English and woah baby all hell broke loose! :) She gave me the RIOT act (in French, thankfully, so I didn't REALLY know what she was saying, except I know she was furious)... my French-speaking friend who was with me saved me with "Noooo noooooo nooooooooooooooo, AMERICAN!"

Apparently the French vs. English thing is pretty heated in Quebec.

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You know, the only not-so-good experience I had in another country was in the French District of Montreal at a restaurant... I know, like, 2 words in French... She started talking to me in French and I responded in English and woah baby all hell broke loose! :) She gave me the RIOT act (in French, thankfully, so I didn't REALLY know what she was saying, except I know she was furious)... my French-speaking friend who was with me saved me with "Noooo noooooo nooooooooooooooo, AMERICAN!"

Apparently the French vs. English thing is pretty heated in Quebec.

Knowing my friend that can speak french (how I envy him) he'd probably be agreeeing with the woman, and the whole 'noo', part would simply be thrown in to make me think he was siding with me, lol

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Apparently the French vs. English thing is pretty heated in Quebec.

french hate the english -____- almost as much as we hate them .... its a horrible place... though I dont blame people for putting the UK within the top 5 we are nice bunch of people over here .... bad sadly we have a lots of crap floating around (kids and good for nothings) which ironically are the ones who think they have the most right as to what goes on over here.... I dont see the problem with germany though ?

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France is the rudest place in world to visit with nearly one-fifth of votes, based on travel website Skyscanner.com's ranking. ?This seems to be a fairly common stereotype, albeit not one which is necessarily true,? Sam Baldwin, Skyscanner's travel editor told the International Business Times.

It's not really a stereotype. We had a French team at work and man... They were some of the worst people to work with. There were one or two that were fine but definitely the minority.

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My aunt told me about her experience when she went to france, no one would help her as a tourist unless she spoke french. She had a english to french dictionary and struggled to get certain stuff done but they still would not help her.

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As long as you make an effort to speak French there is absolutely nothing wrong with France :p They are a bit too 'proud' of their own language from time to time, but they are just ridiculously bad at learning other (especially Germanic, like English) languages.

Language is always an issue. When you don't understand people/people don't understand you it pretty much always comes over as rude.

I think everyone would enjoy Belgium. In general around here (at least in Flanders) everyone speaks Dutch, French and English pretty good, and some speak German too. In the Southern part of Belgium you'll have to rely on French or English if you're in luck.

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Weird, I was in Montreal recently and every conversation went:

French accent: "Bonjour!"

Me: "Hello!"

Plain English accent: "Oh, you speak English." :laugh:

It didn't seem to phase anyone, although I will say this hold less true the closer you get to Quebec City.

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I've been to France several times and found the experience to be very enjoyable, though I stuck to the more touristy parts. I can imagine the rural villages being a very different affair. Still, I found Belgium and Italy to be much more friendly countries. As for the UK, while I wouldn't say it's inhospitable to tourists I can understand why it could be perceived as such given the Brits unwillingness to speak or attempt other languages.

As for the poll about bad tourists, I would have to agree with the US topping it. I've been to numerous other countries and I find it incredibly rude and grating how loudly Americans speak, as it's quite disrespectful. Walking around Pisa and Firenze you can't escape overly loud American tourists making banal comments.

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Here's the key to visiting Quebec:

"Bonjour! Je parle un petit peu de francais. Est-ce que tu parle anglais?"

In other words, don't go up to a French person and say "do you speak English?" Make an effort to ask them something in their language and they will be likely to respond in yours if they understand it.

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I agree with the notion the Germany is becoming a much more rude place than in the past. My mother is full German and even she says things are just not the same. There is a lot of racial tension building over there which in turn leads to cultural tension. I know that tensions between the German population and the Turkish immigrants is growing in cities like Mannheim where my grandparents are from.

That being said, if you stick to tourist areas, you don't experience the problems. It's the equivilant of going to L.A. as a tourist and accidently and unknowingly going into some of the rougher neighborhoods. Don't expect people to be nice to you in places you shouldn't wonder into.

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Here's the key to visiting Quebec:

"Bonjour! Je parle un petit peu de francais. Est-ce que tu parle anglais?"

In other words, don't go up to a French person and say "do you speak English?" Make an effort to ask them something in their language and they will be likely to respond in yours if they understand it.

We tried doing this in Montreal, and before we could finish the line we had one server laugh and say, "don't worry, we all speak English here."

In general though, yes, people appreciate it if you give it a shot. Sometimes they don't even mind if it's a similar Romance language.

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My aunt told me about her experience when she went to france, no one would help her as a tourist unless she spoke french. She had a english to french dictionary and struggled to get certain stuff done but they still would not help her.

And how would that work in the US? random French person comes up to random United Station and asks for help in French?

If they even said anything at all, they wouldn't help, they might just keep walking.

It's hard to calculate this stuff though, as someone from say traveling from Portugal to France would probably have a completely different expereience

Than a person from the US to France, likely the main problems are a language barrier making them seem rude, they just don't have time to stand

there and try it figure out what this random person is saying in another language.

So I guess the moral of the story is, learn the basics of a language first before traveling.

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I've never had any problems speaking English in Paris (in fact I've had Parisians ask me to speak English so they can practice theirs) and I rarely find French people who don''t speak English rude. I know most people will claim the opposite but I often wonder if that's because they go to France expecting to be treated rudely and then look for reasons to hate the place. In general, like most people anywhere, the Frrench are warm and welcoming.

I've never had any problems in Germany either but I don't take offence easily, enjoy cultural differences and I'm aware of the fact that my failure to speak the local language is my problem.

English-speakers are too quick to assume that everyone else should speak their language and are just lucky that it's currently the international language. We're not generally that welcoming of people who don't speak English and I'm sure we'd have the same reputation as the French if the tables were turned.

I agree that American tourists talk too loudly but the Dutch have the same problem :laugh:

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I wonder where all those France tourists went?

Now I've never been to France, but if they've been to Paris, according to all the people I have spoken to, they (the respondents to the survey) have NOT been in France. ;)

Also angry greetings from Germany...

You folks get your asses of my lawn and don't come back! GRRR! :angry: :rofl:

Glassed Silver:mac

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The difference is Germans simply don't realize they're being rude, whereas France go out of their way to do it.

Germans know they are rude.

Most Germans complain how rude the others are.

There are some parts in Germany that are more worthy of going to if you need friendly people around you such as Cologne or the Ruhr area...

Love that part of Germany and I wouldn't mind living there.

Cologne is especially good if you're a little more quirky and not really fit usual expectations. :)

Glassed Silver:mac

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This most recent poll generated more than 1,200 user responses--60% of the respondents from the U.K. and Ireland, according to the International Business Times.

Ask Americans who are the worst tourists and they'll say Americans, ask Brits and they'll say Brits etc. people always believe there nations tourists are the rudest.

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I would believe this. In the USA, we're a lot more used to people from all over. I see people from all over the world every day. In other countries I don't think they have as many "outsiders".

Unless of course you're any kind of middle eastern at all, then I'd caution you about some areas of the US. While most people here are very accepting of people from all over, sometimes ignorance overwhelms some people and we have a tendency to show deep hatred to generalized groups of people just because some people that look like them did something to us, middle easterners being the most recent target. Look back at WW2 at how the country treated Japanese Americans. For the most part though, people are used to seeing people from all over the world.

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Germans know they are rude.

Most Germans complain how rude the others are.

There are some parts in Germany that are more worthy of going to if you need friendly people around you such as Cologne or the Ruhr area...

Love that part of Germany and I wouldn't mind living there.

Cologne is especially good if you're a little more quirky and not really fit usual expectations. :)

Glassed Silver:mac

Yes if they're going out of their way to be rude, but stereotypically Germans being their "normal" can feel a little cold and rude to outsiders.

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