Why are Americans so nice?

I've also found the grass to be greener in Canada despite struggling to get a job (I'm fairly sorted now). Don't get me wrong. Everywhere has its bad points and places. On the whole though I'm bloody happy I moved to Canada.

Edit: I'll list a few of my negatives for Canada:

  • IMO healthcare doesn't seem to be as good as the NHS. Drugs are prohibitively expensive as everybody uses private plans
  • I've had initial problems getting a job, for two reasons. A 12%+ unemployment rate in London Ontario and people do like to network here rather than recruit. As a newcomer its set me back a little
  • Two weeks’ vacation per year for the first 2 - 3 years sucks ass. This will go up eventually
 
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Grass is greener here too, but again there are some negatives

* Driving here sucks
* TV & Media is horrid
* House prices are insane (average house price in Perth is £250k)
 
Mr_T said:
Grass is greener here too, but again there are some negatives

* Driving here sucks
* TV & Media is horrid
* House prices are insane (average house price in Perth is £250k)
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Why is the driving so bad?

It doesn't matter where you are in the world. If you live in a city you are going to pay a lot for property.

The same would apply to Toronto Canada, property is soo expensive compared to other smaller cities.
 
Forgot to say that our first trip to the states was with my parents when I was i think 11-12 or something. Drove around California and only met nice people everywhere. As we were doing the touring thing we stayed different places every night and after bumping into some people at a trail point in one of the national parks (Seqoia, or Kings iirc, ) they offered for us to stay the night at theres when we were in Sacremento. Now the only thing is they were an Irish couple who had moved to the states, but they said their attitude had changed so much since being in the states, everyone around them being friendly made them more friendly.

We ended up going out for a meal, staying in their guesthouse and they had to leave for work early and left us to lock up.

Been around Colorado/Arizona, Utah aswell and while we didn't stay at anyone else's house, it was just the same welcoming nature we had from everyone we met.

I would say the thing Scuzi said, yes theres more risk of being murdered/shot in the states in the ghetto, but its very easy to just stay clear of the ghetto and drastically reduce the chances of anything bad happening.

I've wanted to move over to the states for a long time, but need to find a better job/experience so I could get a job over there. Maybe a job here with someone who has offices over there and work towards a transfer as I know quite a few people end up moving there like that.

More than anything, having crappy knee's which get incredibly bad in bad weather, so for like 5 months of the year here at least, I'd absolutely kill to live somewhere like California, Arizona with awesome weather as it would practically illiminate knee pain for me which would be great.
 
Stolly said:
I work for an American company, we constantly have people coming backwards and forwards from both sides. All the ones that come over here, sometimes for months on end, love it and think the people are fantastic.

Some even have applied for permanent roles here and have come to stay.

So i'd reject the sentiment that America is "better" and that Americans are "better"

I'd say that both countries are pretty much equal on the whole having worked in both.
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Its one of those things that going to be very subjective, most people are relating their holiday experiences where as most of the American's to here situations are more work oriented. AFAIK work is more rigid over there, with less holiday, but maybe nicer people. Here you're a bit more relaxed at work with more holiday and it entirely depends on the area of business you work in but theres tonnes of reasons why it can be better to work in one place than another.

Outside of work though the impression I get is the USA is a more friendly place. In work might be another story, which if you plan to move somewhere could well be the more important side as you work more than you do anything else.

I think one of the other things I loved while traveling around America was, well the space. Town's are small and cramped, everywhere feels so open and clean and nice. I much prefer the suburb style American towns than the cramped up houses we have in London. But thats the thing America has a heck of a lot of, space, and with so much being newly built towns/cities are just so much more cleanly built/designed.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Its one of those things that going to be very subjective, most people are relating their holiday experiences where as most of the American's to here situations are more work oriented. AFAIK work is more rigid over there, with less holiday, but maybe nicer people. Here you're a bit more relaxed at work with more holiday and it entirely depends on the area of business you work in but theres tonnes of reasons why it can be better to work in one place than another.
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Just to go against the grain and to prove how subjective this is. I've found work in Canada more relaxed and generally a little less stressful. Ok, I don't get half as much holiday and my job has changed a little bit but on the whole it's not bad.
 
drunkenmaster said:
I think one of the other things I loved while traveling around America was, well the space. Town's are small and cramped, everywhere feels so open and clean and nice. I much prefer the suburb style American towns than the cramped up houses we have in London. But thats the thing America has a heck of a lot of, space, and with so much being newly built towns/cities are just so much more cleanly built/designed.
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I know what you mean there. Thats one thing i really hate about Britain, how everything is so cramped. The roads in some areas are like they're designed for carts, rather than cars. Terraced houses are really depressing, I hate seeing them and would never be able to live in one. New built housing estates in Britain are much better but still not as good as the ones in the US.

But saying that i would absolutely hate the suburb style American way of life. Everybody trying to keep up with each other etc.
 
It's not that North Americans are nicer, it's just that the British are walled-off, judgemental, stand-offish and introverted.
 
Im currently undecided on this, I've spent about 20 weeks in the US this year. I got back to the UK Thursday and I have my Visa interview at the embassy in the new year.

I am truely conflicted about spending a long term in the US.

On one hand people are freindly much more open and willing to invite you into there lives than english people. (I had 5 invites to thanksgiveing dinner in the US but i still dont know the name of half the people in my block in the UK and ive lived in my flat for 5 years).

On the other hand people are all much more about "network" than freinds. I think a true English freinds is allot closer than a american freind, however you will have 100 more of them in the US.

Maybe allot of that is time based (20 weeks compared to 30 odd years) but i dont think all of it is.

Like everything in america Quantity is easy, quality is hard.
 
House said:
On the other hand people are all much more about "network" than freinds. I think a true English freinds is allot closer than a american freind, however you will have 100 more of them in the US.
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I don't think there's a shred of truth in that statement. If that's your experience then I suspect it has something to do with you.
 
They are much more appreciative of help and genuinely act by the 'treat people how you'd like to be treated' type of moto. The community spirit is always what still amazed me. The amount of people that come out to show support for anything to do with their community is brilliant, especially schools! I coach a High School soccer team, and even though it is their '4th sport' hundreds of people (not just relatives or friends) will come support their school (and pay a few $$ to help). Amazes me!
 
Mark A said:
I know what you mean there. Thats one thing i really hate about Britain, how everything is so cramped. The roads in some areas are like they're designed for carts, rather than cars.
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In many cases they were designed for carts rather than cars. The road surface will have been massively improved, but the road would still be in the same place with the same dimensions.

USA is like an uncompressed UK :)
 
Scubascorpion said:
Because the majority of British people appear to be spiteful, bitter and miserable.
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That has not been my experience.

Random examples from the last week:

The handles broke on my over-filled carrier bag. A stranger who happened to be walking past with double-bagged shopping stopped and offered me their outer bag, with some friendly chat.

I injured an Achilles tendon a couple of days ago. Nothing major thankfully. I can still limp around adequately and the pain is tolerable. All I've had is apparently genuine sympathy and helpfulness from my employer, coworkers, customers and strangers.
 
Telescopi said:
The british are nice enough people when you engage them - but you don't, just like they don't engage you.

You can't really complain about the coldness of british reserve when you are a part of it. What it seems you want is a warm welcoming foriegner to do the hard work for you.
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I'm not going to bother reading the rest of the thread as you've said exactly what I think.

I'm Canadian and have lived in Bristol for 3.5 years now. I do find people friendly and nice here when you engage with them, however, you have to put in the work to try and talk to people. tbh, after 2 years, I just couldn't be bothered anymore as it's not worth the effort.
Whereas back home, it's a lot easier to talk to people as they won't usually give you that 'wtf are you talking to me' look.

The above is under normal everyday situations. I find people here quite easy to talk to in pubs/clubs/bars etc as drunk people are usually up for conversations regardless of what country they're from.
 
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