I'm from the US. I lived in Germany for a year and traveled to Belgium, Austria, Slovenia and France. I can't agree more. The only friends I had during my year abroad were the other international students and a few Germans. It is incredibly hard to make friends in Europe. Like you said, people keep to themselves and would look at you funny if you tried talking to them like you would in the US. I found another American or Canadian on my train rides only a handful of times and we would always start talking(usually for the rest of the trip - an hour or more). The other passengers were mortified. Hehe. But overall, I loved living in Europe, but really missed and then appreciated the social culture back home. I hope you come to visit again soon!
EDIT: Wanted to add that I do speak German. I studied the language for 8-9 years prior to my trip. I spoke German the entire year minus the time around other Americans/Canadians/Australians/Brits/Scots...etc. This issue wasn't due to a language barrier, but a cultural difference. I think "It is incredibly hard to make friends in non UK Europe." would be a better statement. Don't get me wrong, europeans are helpful - I'm a petite girl and if I appeared to be struggling with my bags someone would go out of their way to help me, but this is an entirely different issue.
Zerraphina636 karma
I'm from the US. I lived in Germany for a year and traveled to Belgium, Austria, Slovenia and France. I can't agree more. The only friends I had during my year abroad were the other international students and a few Germans. It is incredibly hard to make friends in Europe. Like you said, people keep to themselves and would look at you funny if you tried talking to them like you would in the US. I found another American or Canadian on my train rides only a handful of times and we would always start talking(usually for the rest of the trip - an hour or more). The other passengers were mortified. Hehe. But overall, I loved living in Europe, but really missed and then appreciated the social culture back home. I hope you come to visit again soon!
EDIT: Wanted to add that I do speak German. I studied the language for 8-9 years prior to my trip. I spoke German the entire year minus the time around other Americans/Canadians/Australians/Brits/Scots...etc. This issue wasn't due to a language barrier, but a cultural difference. I think "It is incredibly hard to make friends in non UK Europe." would be a better statement. Don't get me wrong, europeans are helpful - I'm a petite girl and if I appeared to be struggling with my bags someone would go out of their way to help me, but this is an entirely different issue.
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