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Comment by averagewall | Hacker News Reader

This is a bit of a nitpick but saying a country has nice people bothers me. It sounds like an empty platitude when they don't have much else to be proud of. Do you really mean Indonesians are nicer than people from somewhere else? What countries don't have nice people?

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I have travelled there for four years and for Indonesians good social relations are more important then to many other modern societies I have seen. So people are generally friendly, welcoming, smiling and easygoing - more then in other countries I have been to including my own.

Of course in a country of almost 300 million people there is huge bias in my observation.

There are nice people everywhere but if you travel a lot you'll soon learn that some places are a lot less welcoming than others.

Can you be more specific? What places are a lot less welcoming in your many travels?

By my own experience (19 countries, all continents) the poorer the society the closer relationships can get, and friendlier, in a heartbeat, as if social sympathy and being dependable is more important than being up on your own, because someday you may need some sort of help/assistance and cooperation pays off in the long term. In richer areas (even inside "poor" countries) this is exactly the opposite; people seem generally more independent in all regards so they come across as not that nice or as friendly as they could be.

I think it's a shorthand way of saying, "I travelled there, I had nice experience. I would recommend it." People tend to use various phrases they hear over and over again, becoming automatic and it loses some of its literal meaning. For example, "Good morning", should not be taken literally. In the US, I also get tired of people saying, "Hi. How are you?" It doesn't mean they want to know your true feelings, just something they say. But, I just have to ignore it, or at least not tell people how much I hate it.

I know people say it without thinking. But I for one really do not mind it if people tell me how they are actually doing. Beat down. Bored. Optimistic. I'm okay with all of these answers.

That's impressive. What happens when they go into a long speech about their problems? Do you work in the psychology field?

"What countries don't have nice people?"

What countries don't have nice people you run into on the street? Who would be rude or surly to foreign visitors? I can think of several large western cities with stereotypes along these lines.

Especially since Indonesia had a massive genocide (0.5 - 3 million communists and ethnic Chinese) in the 60s and these people are still in power.

Madagascar. Least nice people I've ever encountered

Any stories?

This sits rather oddly with the fact that the Malagasy are basically a bunch of Indonesians who landed on an island off the coast of Africa.

North Sentinel island. And New York. :-)

But I take your point. It even seems a little patronising.

Try asking directions in accented English in Paris.

I did and got help numerous times, more so than most other places I have been. The person I travelled with was also groped by a male shop keeper under the Eiffel Tower while a female staff member watched, but that’s a separate issue.

New Yorkers?

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