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As a Brit, everytime I go to the US I experience interesting social differences. Two fun ones I can recall: 1. Americans are so quick to give up their name whe

As a Brit, everytime I go to the US I experience interesting social differences. Two fun ones I can recall: 1. Americans are so quick to give up their name whereas there are people I've "known" (as in, I can have a conversation with them and we know who each other is) here in the UK for years and I do not know their names (e.g. people at the corner store, people at user groups). This is not unusual either. 2. Talking in elevators. This rarely happens in the UK but I'd say 50% of the time I'm in a hotel elevator in the US, people say "hi", "good morning" or even try to start a conversation. While I find this unsettling at first, I usually coming away from it thinking it's cute.

tripzilch 13y ago
Funny! I remember from my visits to Edinburgh that people seemed to be much more likely to strike up a conversation with me than at home (Netherlands). Though maybe I just had this open "happy holidays" vibe coming from me. Actually now that I think about it, it was during the Edinburgh festival weeks, which probably accounts for a lot of the openness. In the Netherlands you're much more likely to chat with a random stranger when it's a national holiday and everyone is out on the streets anyway. My experiences with Danes, however, is a lot more reserved. At some point I noticed one cashier didn't even make eye contact at the checkout, and I'm just going to assume it was all confirmation bias from there :) but at the end of the week I was mildly creeped out :) :)
- petercooper 13y ago
  Actually now that I think about it, it was during the Edinburgh festival weeks, which probably accounts for a lot of the openness. Yeah, that would have a huge impact. The Britons open up a lot during cultural events. The Olympics being a big recent example. I have a sense the further you get from London, the better things get too. I had similar experienced to you in Denmark, although as an introvert I rather liked it. It felt even more pronounced in Norway on a recent trip to Oslo. It was more a friendly silence than an antagonistic one though.

tripzilch 13y ago

Funny! I remember from my visits to Edinburgh that people seemed to be much more likely to strike up a conversation with me than at home (Netherlands). Though maybe I just had this open "happy holidays" vibe coming from me. Actually now that I think about it, it was during the Edinburgh festival weeks, which probably accounts for a lot of the openness. In the Netherlands you're much more likely to chat with a random stranger when it's a national holiday and everyone is out on the streets anyway. My experiences with Danes, however, is a lot more reserved. At some point I noticed one cashier didn't even make eye contact at the checkout, and I'm just going to assume it was all confirmation bias from there :) but at the end of the week I was mildly creeped out :) :)

petercooper 13y ago
Actually now that I think about it, it was during the Edinburgh festival weeks, which probably accounts for a lot of the openness. Yeah, that would have a huge impact. The Britons open up a lot during cultural events. The Olympics being a big recent example. I have a sense the further you get from London, the better things get too. I had similar experienced to you in Denmark, although as an introvert I rather liked it. It felt even more pronounced in Norway on a recent trip to Oslo. It was more a friendly silence than an antagonistic one though.